RPG Monsters Origin Story

Which origin story do you prefer?

  • Origin story #1

    Votes: 15 68.2%

  • Origin story #2

    Votes: 7 31.8%
  • Total voters
    22
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Not open for further replies.
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Calleja said:
Quote him, he tried posting a link... with http://www.halforums.com/forum/t14042-2/ tags even though it's not a .jpg or .gif or whatever. Old men.

But even if you copy and paste the link, you're asked for login information....[/QUOTE]

In that case... yeah.

Dave: "This confabulated combustin' newfangled low jeans lawn-loitering techno-whatzit hunk of junk!"
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Dave

Dave

Staff member
Why did nobody say anything before?!? Instead of hotlinking to their site (which DragonByte said was okay) I would have saved a copy of the graphic and uploaded it!

Instead ya gotta poke the stick at the old guy! Gotta keep poking and poking and poking some more!







You know, that thing I need a blue pill to do?
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Gotcha.

5 basic body types (to start)
5 right arms
5 left arms
5 heads
5 sets of legs (whether multiple legs or a tail or...)

Add in the fact that (last I knew) there were 20 possible colors for each part - or would be eventually - and you have 16 billion unique monster possibilities.

(5*20)*(5*20)*(5*20)*(5*20)*(5*20) to start. That right there is 10 billion. There are plans for 3 more body types, which would make it 16 billion.

DragonByte has said that he's up to 64 billion, but I couldn't say why right now.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
For your enjoyment, here's the unedited version of my introduction. Yes, it's too fucking long for an introduction to a game. I know that. That's why we cut it down to just the parts which are italicized.

It occurred to the Sorcerer that he may have made a mistake. Scratch that. He had most certainly made a mistake. And for that he and possibly the rest of the world would pay the price.


The lone tower rose above the cracked and broken landscape, its shadow twisting among what little vegetation remained. From somewhere a sound echoed - a rasping of stone on stone - then silence. Wind blew mournfully through windows long ago devoid of shutter or glass. Time seemed to pause, moments stretching achingly into eternity; it was as if the world held its breath.

It was into this silence that the Hunter crept, his gait purposeful and his gaze trying to look in all directions at once. His low-brimmed hat kept the sun out of his weathered face, boiled leather guarding the remainder of his aging yet hard body. In his right hand he carried a Molior-Caller; his left an Amulet of Capture. He murmured a quick prayer that the Amulet - his last - would be strong enough.

A whisper of stone was his only warning as the Xolossus he’d been tracking rose up before him. He knew instantly that his Amulet was not up to the task.

The creature towering over him stood at nearly nine feet in height, its stone body bulbous and misshapen, its arms like drills aching to burrow through dirt and rock. The Xolossus lifted its face to the sky and bellowed its hunting call. Boulders sliding down a mountain, thought the Hunter. Then, like the avalanche the sight of it brought to mind, the Monster descended.


It had started - as these things usually do - with the simplest of ideas; create a series of creatures whose sole purpose was to act as guardians for the rich and powerful. But even simple ideas turn out to be more complex than originally thought.

His first experiments failed miserably, with half-formed creatures crying piteously before expiring or even melting back into the components from which they were made. While he was able to briefly capture the life essences necessary, he was never able to animate the creations for more than a minute or two.

This time, he mused, it was going to be different. He’d gone over his calculations again and again, finding minor errors which had to have been the reason for his many failures. With held breath he finished the construct and whispered the final incantation.

The tiny creature stirred briefly, wings expanding out impossibly far as if it were stretching after a long sleep. But the creature failed to relax, it’s limbs vibrating violently as its bones began to stress and break. Frustrated, the sorcerer grabbed the creature, intending to dash it against the stone wall.

Something bit into his palm.

He looked down at the tiny thing in his hand; the figure was smeared with the sorcerer’s blood where the clawed wingtip had punctured him. The creature was looking back.


The Hunter was almost not fast enough to dodge the Xolossus as it bore down on him. But he paid it no more mind than he did the hundreds of other times he’d escaped death by mere inches.

He rolled back to his feet facing the massive creature and triggered his Molior-Caller, slightly altering his wrist at the last second to summon a Ven he’d captured and imprinted recently. It was untested, but the Hunter knew his other Molior would not be able to handle the large stone being.

The summoned Ven appeared in front of the Hunter, it’s seven foot frame solidly draconic and topped with two heads filled with dagger-like teeth. Almost simultaneously the two creatures roared their battle cries and came together with a crash that shook the Hunter to his very core.


The sorcerer discovered early that the creatures did not feed off the blood of the living. He’d sacrificed multiple creatures - rabbits, sheep, the occasional goat - but nothing worked like his blood had that first successful day. Yet the Ven named after venator lacarta - hunter lizard - remained alone; no other creatures had survived regardless of how much of his blood he bathed them.

The tolling of the chapel bells in the small village below brought him from his reverie and gave him an idea. What if, he thought, it was not the blood, but the essence?

Excitedly, he called in his apprentice Jonaleth, pricking the boy’s finger over his latest attempt.The effect was both startling and instant, the creature struggled to its feet and cried a plaintive call. Success!

Once he had discovered that the tiny creatures were created not by blood but by the infusion of life essence the experiments were nearly all productive. Tiny creatures flew, crawled and skittered everywhere. Creatures made of rock, creatures with bodies that resembled humans with heads like pigs ran along side of snakelike creatures. But something was wrong.


The Ven and Xolossus clashed together again and again, thoughts of defense swallowed by bloodlust and the need to dominate. The Hunter could tell that the Ven was getting tired but the rock creature was also slowing, large chunks of stone sloughing off. The sound of their falling masked by the noise of the combat.

He knew if he waited too much longer one or the other of the monsters would succumb. He was here for a catch, not a kill. He darted in with the Amulet of Capture, swinging it wildly on its chain until it connected with the Xolossus.

A flash of light, a roar of defiance. Silence. The Ven stood teetering, hurt but not fatally. The Xolossus was frozen in place, fighting against the magic binding it, trying in vain to gather strength to break free. But the battle had taken too much out of it and it finally bowed to the Hunter, the Amulet still dangling - uselessly now - in his hand. The imprinting would not be complete for days, but the stone giant was now his. He released the Ven and began to train his new creature.



The creatures. They were breeding. Stone monstrosities were mating with lizards and their offspring were mating with doglike creatures and their offspring were mating yet again with the humanoid beings.

They were breeding, and the littler creatures were being dominated by the newer, larger offspring. And the newer creatures? They were not bonded; they would bite and hiss when the Sorcerer tried to pick them up.

The bonded creatures were all gone now, replaced with ever bigger and more aggressive monsters. The Sorcerer had long ago locked himself in his chambers, ignoring the sounds of splintering wood and the short but terrified screams of Jonaleth as he attempted to escape. Now the scraping was outside his own door and he feared it wouldn’t hold long.

The Sorcerer had most certainly made a mistake. And for that he and possibly the rest of the world would pay the price.
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Dave

Dave

Staff member
Okay, here's the chosen story. Idea by DragonByte and written by yours truly.

Jonaleth was bored. As an apprentice to Raziel the Magnificent, he was required to copy these ancient texts although he hardly ever understood what they were talking about.

Raziel. This man who had been the King’s Arch-Sorcerer for nigh on forty years now and owned one of the finest minds on the planet was always the center of much controversy. Undeniably brilliant, he was charged with the crimes of conceit, pride and of being insane. These, of course, were charges leveled by his critics – of which there were many. He’s reckless, they said. Dangerous.

Jonaleth didn’t know about that, but he did know that Raziel was a terrible teacher and to him that’s all that mattered.

“Jonaleth!”

The Master’s voice cut through the silence, the voice shaking him from his half-asleep reverie.

“Y-yes, Master?”

Raziel smiled that peculiar little smile of his and motioned to his apprentice.

“Come! See what I have done!”

Jonaleth’s face burned red as rose from the table. The shamed apprentice was known for an exceedingly sharp mind and a wit that would surely take him far in the magical arts; if only he could do something about his short attention span.

“Behold, apprentice!” Raziel exclaimed loudly. “Behold the future!”

Jonaleth looked at the... thing in front of him. Made of what looked to be living modeling clay, it didn't keep to one shape for long; the shapes it did take were odd, almost monstrous. Faces rose in the form, mouths gaping wide before dissolving once again into the formless mass.

“What... what is it?” asked the confused acolyte.

“What you are looking at is the future.” Raziel began to pace, his bushy eyebrows furrowed. His eyes had that manic glow that his charges always feared. “This will be the resolution of all of the problems of the common man. Imagine if you will a world where cows are as large as elephants! Horses with the strength of bulls and the speed of cats. A world where no man goes hungry and no work goes unfinished.”

“I'm not... I mean... This lump is all of that?” stammered the nervous youngster as he realized his master was awaiting a reply.

Raziel shook his head sadly.

“Jonaleth, do you understand how the Gods created the world? The animals? Do you understand why a lion and a horse cannot mate? Every animal was created with a set of instructions placed there by Odus himself, and these instructions describe everything about the animal. The same can be said about anything; plants, minerals…everything on Xi. Even you and me. All you need to know is how to read these instructions.”

“And... you know how to read the instructions from the Gods?” Jonaleth did not sound convinced.

“Oh heavens no, it would take a billion lifetimes! But I have come close. The being you see in front of you, the Molior, contains the entirety of the language of the gods. Every instruction, for everything ever created, exists within that abomination. It can become any combination of anything which has ever existed on Xi.”

“You mean like the pegasi created by Ellian the Elder?” Jonaleth knew he’d made a mistake as soon as the words left his mouth.

“Ellian? Ellian?” Raziel’s face grimaced with disdain. “Ellian is a pretender! A novice! He managed to modify a line here, fix a line there, but his creations are incomplete and crude! They lose the ability to procreate!”

Seeing his apprentice’s confusion, Raziel continued. “Take the horse and the ass. They can mate, but the offspring is very nearly always sterile. The instructions of the two beasts do not allow for it. But the Molior! The Molior can infuse anything with new instructions. It can procreate! It can create a line of cows so large no man will ever go hungry! A giant, docile sheep with enough wool to clothe entire households! And best of all, they retain the ability to procreate. Imagine it, fields full of these wondrous creatures, and every farmer in the land free to breed more. No more inequality, no more hunger or want. The Molior will change the world as we know it.”

Jonaleth stood, awed and impressed. Yet a thought kept nagging at the back of his mind. If a giant sheep could be created couldn't there also be giant wolves and bears? He dismissed the thought. He was a lowly acolyte and his master was Raziel the Magnificent, who had certainly thought this through and understood the implications far better than he. No, decided Jonaleth, no more stupid questions for today.
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D

DragonByte

Dave said:
Gotcha.

5 basic body types (to start)
5 right arms
5 left arms
5 heads
5 sets of legs (whether multiple legs or a tail or...)

Add in the fact that (last I knew) there were 20 possible colors for each part - or would be eventually - and you have 16 billion unique monster possibilities.

(5*20)*(5*20)*(5*20)*(5*20)*(5*20) to start. That right there is 10 billion. There are plans for 3 more body types, which would make it 16 billion.

DragonByte has said that he's up to 64 billion, but I couldn't say why right now.
Click to expand...
Been changed slightly - now there will be

8 Basic body types.

also, they will be split into two types - bipeds and quadripeds. 4 of each.

You can combine any 2 bipeds with each other to make a new monster, which can use the parts of the two parent monsters - same with the quadripeds.

so you end up with...

6 bipeds, each with (10*14)x(10*14)x(10*14)x(10*14) combinations of limbs, same for the quadripeds, so multiply that by two. which is about 46billion, plus the original 8 x etc etc and you end up with about 64billion =D (Decided we're probably going to go with 14 colours, but that could easily be more)

There will be roughly... 200 individual parts/images before colours.
 
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