/monster/ - The Last Bastion of Romance★

Relocating a pertinent post to here:

>>329238

>>329244

>vampire

>too much goth and not enough Vlad Tepes

>not enough kestle

>not enough fighting

>telling me this

Oho. So what I'm hearing is that you want something with some hard edges and a sense of history. Vampires combine the refinement and decadence of aristocracy with the utter savagery and inhuman power of a beast maybe even The Beast, if we remember Myotismon and the lore of Dracula. I've already made two rewrites able and all too willing to kill (and the Cheshire can arguably be just as bad despite the pacifism), this one is going to be bloody. The last third of this vid related: welcome to the heights of sanguinomancy and what the Eldest can do.

>pharaoh

>too inactive

>not enough murdered and reanimated tomb robbers

>not enough ancient power

>no myriads of the sands

>no Valley of the Kings

More than Doom, Pharaohs are God-Kings via the will of Asir. And in a World such as the one I am writing in, divine magic is a very real force. Forget the sands, life and death itself in that land is bound to its Pharaoh. The living bow, the dead rise. From the land of Duat, the Kings journey back to the World.

And so, a battle between a capital V Vampire and a Pharaoh is indeed the profane against a form of the sacred. Of course, due to their antiquity, some Pharaohs may have known of the Audient Void and the battles of the War in Heaven. All three extradimensional parties are aware of them in turn.

Yes, I will do it. The Dragons will also come in time.

>>331637 (OP)

I enjoy your content. Thanks for posting this compilation.

>>331645

Yaaay, there is a discussion thread now.

BTW, what would be your take on another eternal rivalry, Inari and Youko vs Danukis?

>>331637 (OP)

I like to think stupid powerful monsters would stay as they were befor the demon lord. I'm talking the first dragons, stupid old and stupid powerful vampire lords, the oldest demons, the terrestrial, and whatever the fuck else people can come up with.

Mostly it would be a used as an antagonist for stories hero has to kill the first dragon who threatens to level everything. so shut isn't so bland and predictable.

I even put though into a CYOA centered around the PC being an old as vampire king who wakes up to find descendants squatting in his castle.

>>331794

*terresque.

>>331794

Gay

>>331637 (OP)

Is a married Vorpal Knight capable of summoning Wocky claws on his hands at will?

>>331696

>Inari, the Zenko, and the Kitsune-Youko

Well, unusually for the gods of this world, Inari O'Kami takes a hands-on approach to acquiring worship, and in fact is the uncrowned queen, Chief Investor & Shareholder of Nippon-Zipangu's leading Zaibatsu, foremost among them the Tadakatsu Company. Her Zenko and their children can be found throughout the business and political worlds in high positions where the great and the good heed their word. And part of their word is always to pray to Inari before each major decision, and to pay goodly tithes to her shrines when they meet success.

Unusually for a mother of monsters, Inari heavily favors humans and is patron to human women. Those who desire a successful marriage and pregnancy will pray to her, and miscarriages are notably rare among those who do. Women look to her when they desire guidance on being a good wife and motherhood, resulting in a fair balance between monsters and humans in Zipangu (at least in terms of relationship quality).

Will post more tomorrow, just thought I'd put it down before I slept. Holy zog, Danukikes is not an exaggeration, now that I've read Kenkou's entry. Right down to only really caring about those close to them.

>>331907

>cairing about those close to them.

The average normalfag does that more than you think.

>>331960

True. But I thought I'd include that for fairness.

Copypastaing from another thread until I get my train of thought back on track:

>BTW, do you have that setting pinned on? What era Is it? Modern? Medieval? Is a roaming Zeppelin stronghold a feasible undertaking, not possible with its current advancement, or an outdated oddity?

>Honestly, I had in mind something aesthetically like Final Fantasy XII or XIV, where magic and technology can both go high-ish places. The reason people don't use magic for everything is that it's hard to use quickly and tends to warp the user.

So yes, some anachronisms are acceptable, but don't push it. They don't have the Internet or an equivalent, for example, but they do have a more-or-less global postal system and absolutely global courier airships. Mailmen are still plentiful, as it was discovered that harpies can't carry heavier loads, and tend to lose letters if their bag is too big. Some mechanists and engineers are experimenting with telegraph analogues, but those are still a rarity at the moment.

Runes and talismans are a popular form of comparatively inexpensive magic, though their use increases exponentially with the various militaries across the world. Armor suddenly becomes bullet resistant with their correct application, and so blades become charmed to counter those who come in close (monsters included). Armor and weapon spirits (ie,Cursed Armor & Swords) become fairly common as an indirect result, though the former are even arising with "properly" treated uniforms these days. Monsters are naturally highly sought after for military service, and certain types are highly represented in armies, navies, and air corps. Others find more aptitude as intelligence-gatherers and agents, spies and assassins.

>>332233

Cool. Does monster Mana and spirit energy still are a thing here? If they do, since Incubization is rarer, does it give different bonuses then depending on monster species?

>>332234

>Mana & spirit energy

I'll need to give it a good think before I say how that works, if I still want to roll with it. Still, only certain monsters feed off the energy of men, and only a few of those need semen in their diet (succubi being the obvious foremost). Most monsters eat something similar to what they would've consumed before the Great Change (though only a miserable handful must consume human flesh), which means many are carnivorous.

Incubization is another thing I'll have to examine in greater detail, but the outline is thus: Only happens via demonic monsters, though it can be prevented if they wish it; grants increased strength, speed, endurance, and virility, at the cost of being unable to disobey a command from the responsible demon or her higher officers; secretly a method of getting around the Great Change to create Lucifer's New Army of the Rebellion.

Alps as you know them (need a more demon-appropriate name, possibly Cambion) are what happens when men who come of age cannot find any sexual attraction save toward men. This excludes bisexuals and pedophiles, though in the latter case Alps often enjoy using their newfound demonic power to take revenge on those who "turned" them. Thus, Alps are divided between the confused but happy, and the vengeful and damaged. It takes much kindness and patience to heal the latter.

>>332303

>Alp

Oh yeah, also by demonic curse.

>>332304

If you're using jesus shit as source material. demons cant do jack shit to humans, unless the humans agree to it, alp shit is a choice and a consequence of being a faggot rather than a curse.

>revision

>rewrite

well well well, look like we found the leftypols on our sweet monster garden

>>332310

>jesus shit

Since you don't seem to take that seriously, then I have little reason to take you into account. But in all honesty, that seems like how it happens a lot in the various headcanons I've seen. Also, yes, much of the power succubi and others have over men comes by choice and contract. Soldier demons, on the other hand, can only be repelled by faith and strong magic, best applied to arms.

>>332312

>/leftypol/

Very funny. How long have you been here, and have you actually read what I've written?

>>331907

Inari O'Kami and her Zenko are both expert shapeshifters and skilled with magic. To be clear, Inari supplies an amount of power from her reservoir to each in order to ease magical use. Each Zenko (or son) is born connected to her by that reservoir, and so is quite powerful in their own right. They accumulate more power over the course of their long lives, but the connection to their mother never ends. The continued fertility and bounty of Zipangu is thanks to their counsel and miracles, the resulting faith supplying Inari. Zenko households tend to be large, as Inari's daughters have strong maternal instincts in addition to inheriting her libido. Their own children, the Kitsune-Youko, help their mothers with their work and tend to the shrines (only major shrines to Inari are host to Zenko). They are the least skilled, but the most numerous, and carry the most human-like (though still quite mischievous) personalities of the family. To a fox, they are greedy for one thing or another, but caring and helpful when need be. In addition, sexual intercourse with any woman of the family (from the Kami herself on down) grants power to Inari, owing to her patronage in fertility and sex workers. For this reason, even virgins among their number have an instinctive grace during the act.

The whole clan does not get along with Danuki. In the past, when Inari herself led armies in the field against her rivals, Danuki who did not leave the Fox's path in time were executed. Others fought against her with armies of their own, human debtors and yokai tricked or bought to battle. Danuki have a greater affinity for the yokai of the forests, so these armies did not lack for size. In the aftermath of the Great Change, Danuki have changed tactics to outright promote monsters over human women, and have indeed been caught selling monsterizing wares on the black market. They tend to have great stakes and membership in international trade concerns, and in supply or distribution of goods. These days their war with Inari is largely restrained to boardrooms and halls across the World, though some of the more violent of them fund gangs and "activists" to fight. For the record, many Danuki publicly denounce these groups, even if they support them in private.

>>332354

i mean if you bring up lucifer you may as well learn how christian demons work, instead of thinking they dive into something thats outside of their source material unless your intent is to dillute the meaning of it. Thats the problem with people trying to change things without knowing how they work.

>>332356

Well I am figuring this out as I go. Christianity is a part of this World, for instance, but the exact historicality of it is an unknown quantity until defined.

I've already practically stated that all the senior demons are fallen angels who fought against the Creator's hosts. They have their own power, but it is lesser, and can only be augmented by stealing and contract. I also have it in mind that they and their minions have the hardest time reproducing out of all monsters, as they cannot create new things, only twist. What do you advise, bearing in mind that I am still the main writefag of this setting, and some of the rules may differ to accommodate a monstergirl setting?

>>332363

Look you obviously dont know how christfag demons work. They are creatures of vanity. They want people to fall from grace and act like they do down to their personality, they also have the so called ability to inflict a wound be it either a terrible experience or something else, but the pain would come from something familiar but without any sort of reason to why its there. It would be akin to having a sort of impending doom but without any sort of reason to why its there.

>>332365

Alright, sounds like they can manipulate events, probability, and luck, possibly also emotional states; for instance, nudging someone into a bad part of town, or a place where they think it will solve their problems, only to screw them over in the long term. Or perhaps something breaks down at just the wrong moment. Is that somewhere in the ballpark of what you mean?

>vanity

Mind you, this does dovetail with how many talkative demons across media seem to be smug and self-assured. Any ugliness I've put down to their corruption, with a dash of intimidation.

>>332367

no seriously if you go by what catholic priests say they have a heirarchy where, they corrupt and turn others into people that would behave like them. If they fail they become a laughing stock, but in the end they can do whatever they want as long as the human has free reign. If they overstep their bounds they get carted off by the police.

>>332368

I got that. This is also why they cannot force a human to accept a deal or contract with them, although they may engineer circumstances so that acceptance is more likely. This is also why demons are creatures of rules and exact words, correct?

>hierarchy

So, the top ranks would be those most skilled at corruption. The vice of whole societies is their task and their sustenance.

Now, I suppose possession could work similar to how the Denarians did in Dresden, with a willing possessee. A more corrupted person (human or monster) is likely to a more willing and compatible host, and is therefore also a way around the rules.

>>332373

Incidentally, so long as none of you shitpost, I'll listen to your suggestions as keenly as I have the anon above. Although you don't have to be as much of an ass about it to get my attention.

>>332368

>no seriously if you go by what catholic priests say they have a heirarchy where, they corrupt and turn others into people that would behave like them. If they fail they become a laughing stock, but in the end they can do whatever they want as long as the human has free reign. If they overstep their bounds they get carted off by the police.

Related to this topic, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis is a good read.

>>332411 (checked)

I've heard of that. Might be worth looking into for both entertainment and research.

>>332423

A combination, I would think. Refined, articulate, and coldly polite when such a facade is needed. Ravenous, callous, and passionate behind closed doors. They feel most alive with fresh hot blood in their veins. Yours, preferably. Wondering aloud if animal blood might be more convenient will just get you bitten harder on the next pass, and a red spittle-laden laugh in your face. "Coward's meal," they call it, and any idiot who subscribes to it doesn't even deserve to be their better's food. Don't try to improve your situation by attempting to overpower her, you'll discover to your pain just how strong an angry vampire can be.

All that said, it's not impossible to warm a vampire's heart…just don't expect anything kinder than Lestat out of it.

>>332428

Mmmmkay? Can I still scare them with garlicky Little Caesars bread sticks?

>>332428

If you haven't read Brian Lumley's Necroscope novels (Particularly the Vampire World and E-Branch timelines) I'd recommend it for a good baseline on 'Sick Fuck Vampires who like to pretend they're civilized plus plenty of body horror'.

>>332604

What, I'm not gonna try and write up a profile when the idea's not fully formed (let alone while I'm writing something else). Short answer, no. Long answer, strong smells annoy them because how strong a vampire's nose is. You can also "muffle" your scent with a liberal application of the stuff, but this is only a temporary solution.

>>332651

I'll take that under advisement. For the record, I'm also thinking of the Red Court found in the Harry Dresden books (of which I've read a fair number).

Bumping for Haughty Ojou Jabberwockys.

>>331794

Sounds like a good idea.

I've always wanted a CYOA in a MGE style world where the Protag isn't humanguy12

>>336985

Certainly sounds like an interesting premise.

A vampire story I worked on (in my head only) had a guy getting thrown into a dungeon for using magic in a place where magic was banned.

>Some withered old woman in the cell next to him asks that he hold her hand since she fears she may not live much longer.

>When he offers her his hand she jerks his arm into her cell and gives him a vicious nip.

>By the time he wrings his arm free it's a torn up mess and the old woman looks like she's regained some youth.

>She begs for more but the magic man turns her down. "Crazy old lady!"

>Sometime later he turns into a vampire himself and falls under the control of his adjacent cellmate.

>she uses him to escape the dungeon and…

That's about as far as I got. It was usually around that point I'd have them do something lewd for my entertainment. I'm big into S&M stuff so the thought of being controlled by a half-crazy vampire woman who'd long since lost her sanity in a dungeon sounded like fun.

My idea for the overarching plot if I were to ever develop the story further would go something like this.

>She tells him she's been dead inside a long time and wants to return his humanity

>she further tells him to give her the coup de grâce so she can be rid of the world that she's come to hate living in and that by killing her he'll regain his humanity.

>magic man isn't heartless though and tells her he'll regain his humanity without taking her life somehow.

> "Ara ara, you'd take care of an old lady like me? do you really care about me?"

> "It's not like I like you or anything, I'm just not a killer!" obviously magic man is tsundere.

>the adventure would then continue with her ocassionally nipping him for blood and other whacky hijinks until he recovered his humanity.

That's enough "idea's guy" posting I think.

>>331637 (OP)

>The Jabberwock's physical strength and durability are both exponentially greater than that of a typical dragon

this reeks of OC-do-not-steal. I think it would be improved by including "within the confines of Wonderland"

>>337999

Even in original profile, it states they were changed by a lilim. That means they got a little bit more mamono juice than the regular dragons. Also, extra limbs are probably adding something to that strength and durability.

As to what happens to all that outside the confines of madness… That's writefag territory.

Also, yes, hello, I know, I'm turning the lights back on. I just want to know if Vampires vs Pharaohs is still a thing, and if we can get maybe just a little bit of Liches vs Anubis on there too.

>>341112

Jabberwoks are more dangerous than regular dragons though. So it stands they ought to be tougher. Since only a vorpal blade and the subsequent decapitation can actually kill one.

>>341112

>Even in original profile, it states they were changed by a lilim. That means they got a little bit more mamono juice than the regular dragons.

That means they're just hornier than normal dragons.

>Also, extra limbs are probably adding something to that strength and durability.

No, why? Spiders aren't stronger than dogs just because they have more limbs.

>>341176

>A little bit more juice means they are just hornier.

Why the extra mouths, and adorned scale placement in diamonds, then? It took more work there than just increase heat.

>Spiders aren't stronger than dogs.

Spiders and dogs are two different species. Now put a dog against a Cerberus.

>>341115

But anon, Pharaohs are already tomb kangs.

>>341177

>>341177

>Why the extra mouths, and adorned scale placement in diamonds, then?

Because of KC' whim?

>>341177

>Spiders and dogs are two different species. Now put a dog against a Cerberus.

Dog would win since it's real.

>>341195

Next thing you'll tell me is 3DPD are better than monster girls, because they are real.

>>341112

Heyo. OP here. I've got material on the Pharaoh and Apophis now. I'll try to get into this week, if not tomorrow. Depends on how tired I am after work.

Type: Parásitos

Class: Undead

"I am ruler to whom One does not give, and the guarantor of Ma'at. Who are you to lay your hands upon me?"

One hundred and fifty years before the present, the Pharaohs of Aegyptoss broke the sands of north Afrik. Awakened by accident, these ancient undead monarchs rapidly changed their home into an unrecognizable state both breathtaking in its beauty and wracked by the terrible magic they unleashed on each other. The heathen Aegyptian gods themselves invested each Pharaoh with a combination of their power. This means that all of them are divine kings (insistently so, despite the difference in sex) and expect to be treated as such. To touch a Pharaoh without her permission is to court death. To anger a Pharaoh is literally to invite the wrath of the Sun. To court one, the preserve of the foolish and the extraordinary, an experience beyond life and death. They are creatures of iron-clad order and powerful magic, and their whim becomes reality whence they rule.

A Pharaoh in her normal hydrated state resembles a woman of refined features and ample, perky figure, typically in her mid-to-late twenties and possessing a smooth reddish brown complexion (though pale and dark black are not unheard of) with straight jet black hair (likewise, blonde and red-haired specimens have been recorded). A Pharaoh is usually clothed in fine, almost transparent linens while gold jewelry wraps around her body and limbs, while a similarly gilded headdress drapes to her shoulders. This gold has the secondary purpose of concealing her less human features: her fingers end in hollow tips which open on reflex (their nails are often sharpened to stiletto-like points), while thin surgical scars line much of her torso and the crown of her head. Finery cannot hide the rest. Her eyes are subtly luminous, and can flare up to solar brightness on command (or when the Pharaoh is in a high emotional state). A Pharaoh speaks with a flanged but clear voice, which can likewise deepen to an unnatural bass register for intimidation purposes. When dehydrated, her inhumanity becomes obvious: her hair pales to a bone-white, her pallor greys, her skin cracks and dries, her figure sags, and her scars broaden to reveal the flesh beneath. In short, she resembles a mummified corpse. This state is usually accompanied by pained movements and difficulty breathing. A Pharaoh is most demonstrably of the Parásitos type then.

Pharaohs are called Parásitos for a simple reason: she is reliant on the moisture of others for her continued waking existence. The fluids of whoever awakened her are what give her the initial strength to leave the sarcophagus. A single touch is all a Pharaoh needs to begin the extraction, freezing the victim in place while her hand slices through their skin. Her youth and beauty renew from this "donation." But it is a temporary thing. Without moisture, she will rapidly age and mummify until she loses consciousness and becomes entirely dormant again. Once a day, a Pharaoh must immerse herself in water to reset her body. If she forgoes this for that day and night, the desiccation commences. To slow it to a crawl, she may extract fluid from any living thing nearby, preferably her Consort. This can be a mildly pleasurable experience for both, thanks to the Pharaoh merely needing to press her open fingertips on any scratch or scar found on the Consort's body and the brief linkage of nervous systems this enacts. Servants will do also, but the Pharaoh is accustomed to the "taste" of her Consort. For enemies, the drain can be weaponized to fatal effect, emptying the foe's body of all moisture from the wound.

>>345386

So, a Pharaoh will drain you of water?

Interesting…

>>331815

Sorry, somehow I missed you.

That's a fun question, and now that you've suggested it… why not? Limited amounts of fire breath also. In exchange, the Jabberwock can disguise herself as an ordinary, if fairly tall and muscular, woman. This only works out in the World, as Wonderland's nature will quickly undo the disguise.

>>337001

Could work. Though I question what you'll do about "vampire morality."

>>331794

I've had some thoughts about that. Some Pharaohs for instance were male and didn't change around. At least one or two had something done to them by the Audient Void, more on that later.

>>345391

Correct. It's much more practical than solely consuming saliva or semen.

Also, before some Egyptologyfag gets on my case about the Pharaoh's brain, I decided to change that up a bit deliberately. Chalk it up to not wanting "empty-headed" derpout Pharaohs or the possibility of such.

>>345386

By their very nature, the Pharaohs of Ægyptoss are connected to their land and all which lives within it. In life, they maintained the cosmic balance and bounty of the whole country, which they call Ma'at, from their personal Seat of power. In unlife, they maintain such for the fief surrounding their Seat, which contributes with the other Pharaohs to the Ma'at of the whole. Within their borders, the Sun can shine brightly, tributaries of the River Aur irrigate the fields, and a farmer's yields are plentiful. Their power over the inhabitants is absolute, their suggestions binding commands even if they were uttered off the cuff. It takes a great effort of will to disobey a Pharaoh, and to do so can be punished by death anyway. Even the dead of Ægyptoss are theirs to control, an army which grows which every passing year, and which count men, women, and children among their number. Only the Consort is immune to this effect, and he must take care to avoid angering Pharaoh nonetheless.

A Pharaoh's monsterkind servants may as well be extensions of her own will for their loyalty, foremost among them the Jackals of Anpu (known as Anubis to the outside world), the Sekhmeti guard, and the Scarab builders. The Jackals are especially important, entrusted with maintaining the Pharaoh's security while they slept, and then with overseeing the surgical replacement of her embalmed organs once she awakened. Only the corruptive venom of a Daughter of Apep (known to us and to the later generations of their own kind as Apophis) can change a Jackal's loyalties.

A Pharaoh controls all of this as intermediary of the gods, the power of them all passing through her as needed. Asir gave her the blessing to return from Duat, the Ægypton land of the dead, and with Anubis give her command of the corpses. It is Harut (Haroeris) and Re who give her dominion over the land and people, however. This power is represented in each Pharaoh's Eye, a mantle of gold wings with eyes and a red crystal disk which rests on her shoulders whilst presiding, and in the serpentine uraeus found on her crown. The Eye casts light on whichever room its Pharaoh currently inhabits when worn, and is quite heavy to anyone else who tries to handle it. Combined with this device, a Pharaoh can directly control the severity of the Sun's heat, and imbue her servants with some of its fiery potency. It can also be used to blind, sear, and even incinerate those who displease her. As this power is bound to a Pharaoh's state of mind, it can shift unpredictably, and if she is brought off balance, disaster will ensue. The fury of the God-King is terrible to behold, and can turn burning light on friend or foe. It is not unknown for a Pharaoh to set her entire kingdom aflame in a rage. But then, this potentially capricious power, no matter how terrifying, is necessary to fight against something else entirely: The Daughters.

Daughters of Apophis have waged war on the Ægypton Pharaohs for as long as either side can remember, and the only reason that they did not clash for some thousands of years was thanks to both sides being sealed away during that time. While the Pharaohs are inextricably attached to the cities, the farms, and the Aur, the Daughters are creatures of the desert, the nomad, and hinterlands. They are an eternal thorn in the Pharaohs' side, waging guerilla and magical campaigns against them at night. Bandits, desert monsterkind, and other malcontents answer to them, swayed by their seductive charisma or manipulative spells. Their ultimate goal is bring down their assigned Pharaoh and destroy their Eye, thus throwing the kingdom into a chaotic darkness from which something new may emerge. A Pharaoh will in turn seek to hunt down and eliminate "her" Daughter, bringing the hinterlands under control. Very few things could bring the two to a temporary accord, and these things are often older than the both of them.

Thing about the brain is that metabolic and microbial decomposition would destroy it even if it wasn't removed and discarded. The intact and less complicated organs would also break down over centuries in Canopic jars or, in the case of the heart, the mummified body. Since a mummified body cannot be resuscitated by any means the funerary rites may as well be true to life. The Pharaoh and their servants can be granted an afterlife by their Gods. Said Gods accomplish this using the technology of their masters and protectors, the Other Gods and their soul and messenger Nyarlathotep. The process would involve scanning the Pharaoh's brain at or immediately after death and building a new brain and other organs to put in the body when the time comes.

Because the process perfectly replicates or possibly enhances the body, the Pharaoh would not need to absorb others' water. Instead, water may be drawn using the technology of the Pharaoh's Gods or the Other Gods and used to maintain an unusually lush ecosystem or for combat. If you're intent on having the Pharaoh absorb water to maintain their body, there are some problems. First, water has to be normally ingested to rehydrate the body. Soaking in a bath can rehydrate the skin, but it does nothing for the other organs. Second, there's no reason for any nervous system, Pharaoh's or otherwise, to be involved in the process. Third, a dehydrated body couldn't move much less stab through a person.

If the Pharaoh needs to constantly rehydrate, they should wear a stillsuit.

>>345870

Can you bring the two opposing sides of a particular desert region, a Pharaoh and an Apophis via the holy blessing of Dick?

If not, does the snake part of an Apophis taste like chicken?

>>345870

>spells function as expected

This raises some important questions. What exactly were gods and magic to the ancient Egyptians, and how can such ideas be made consistent with modern scientific or similarly mechanical explanations? A cursory look at ancient Egyptian funerary texts indicates that their "utterances" were the means by which an afterlife was gained. The utterances themselves are instructions for navigating the afterlife, speeches, and statements from the perspectives of the Gods and the deceased. Although several utterances describe rituals and objects, every spell is communicative, either verbally or through written language. So magic requires only that there exist agents capable of interpreting and acting upon such communications.

All that needs to be done to make magic consistent with mechanical explanations is explain what these agents are and how they cause magical effects. One way to go about this is defining a non-reductive relationship between the Subject and the Object. Other ideas I've had are brane and string-based turing machines and cellular automata in a holographic universe. Things like transforming Hathori/Sekhmeti might also be described in terms of these agents.

>monstergirl phylogenetics

Since monstergirls are just crosses between Homo sapiens and every other clade in existence, it's a bad idea to try to phylogenetically classify them. You can derive anatomical inspiration from different clades, though. Harpies, for example, lay eggs and have mammary glands like monotremes, but have teats like marsupials and placentals (monotremes secrete milk through pores). So like monotreme eggs, harpy eggs would have smaller yolks than comparable bird and reptile eggs, and the young would emerge relatively underdeveloped. Harpies would also have epipubic bones like monotremes and other mammals, but unlike reptiles and birds.

>>345923

Well…

FUCK NO.

Pharaoh would not tolerate any other woman having designs on a man she wants, and the Apophis would just as much seek that man out of spite as genuine feeling. Anything to hurt a hated golden King, to make their powers run amok and drive the people into the Snake's coils. And if you spurn a genuine Apophis? NAISU BOTO for you. In short, don't try that shit with these two. Love triangles stop being cute when both girls have an inhuman outlook and demigod-level powers, oh, and both have an instinctual urge to destroy each other. A triangle involving an Angel and a Devil would be less suicidal, since those would at least try to keep you out of the crossfire without prompting.

As for your Laiuspost, however a snake tastes, coupled with exotic spices and DARKNESS.

>>345936

In other words, Egyptian magic relies on a listening ear. I'd ponder more on it, but my brain's fuzzing up.

>harpies

Well, I had the idea that some are more mammalian than others. I've already resolved that the Jub-Jub Bird nurses her young, for instance. She might even give live birth.

>>345687

It is widely touted that Pharaohs have a deadly touch. This is true, up to a point: It is forbidden for ordinary mortals and even monsterkind to touch Pharaoh without her express permission. Those who do so experience a momentary chill, and before sunrise the next day, they will die. It does not matter how: it could be from guards, a scuffle in the market, a sudden heart attack, coitus, or a freak accident; without Pharaoh's intervention, their old life will be over. Their soul is now her property, and their body enslaved to her will. Come the next day, the victim will rise again and kneel at Pharaoh's feet, bound to her service until released. It is Pharaoh's will if the new servant maintains their prior appearance, or begins to decay. Many would-be tomb robbers and assassins experience the curse and then guard the Seat to this day. Once again, only the Consort is immune to the curse, and so may touch Pharaoh without her permission. Such surprises are usually welcome after the protocol and pomp of a day at court. Quite a few Consorts got their start as victims of the touch-curse, and take their undead status in stride. Offsetting "perks" of the position include immortality, increased pain tolerance with strength and endurance, access to the best defensive Ægypton magic (meaning that of Haroeris), having Pharaoh's ear, and sharing Pharaoh's bed. Despite what one would think, Consorts "made" this way can still sire offspring.

Aaand I'll write more tomorrow. I's tired and need to go to bed soon.

>>345998

How does the Express Permission work? Is it a moment to moment mental operation, or does she just has a list of people allowed to touch her?

If she is touched by surprise, can she give it retroactively? Are you safe if you poke her with a glove? What about a stick? Or a pie filled with cream to the face? Does she have hypochondriac tendencies due to not being touched?

>>346055

>"What if you're just walking on the street on the way to the market, because that's a thing you can do on your own kingdom, and you go disguised, because you want some fruit dates and candied nuts, or whatever you eat, and you don't want to be THE PHARAOH while eating, and a kid just runs around and brushes you? Do you just kill a kid?"

>"I mean, it's too silly! They probably have to carry you all the time on one of those bubbles they put people that weren't born with an inmune system. At that point, you're not the ruler living on a palace, you're a terminal patient on a special needs hospital! The pomp and circumstance is just a lifetime Make a Wish foundation play!"

>"Also, people must be terrified of working with you. What if one day you think "I don't want the person that helps me take a bath to touch me today.", and you go get a bath? And then the bath assistant dies? They probably have to ask you for permission every time they touch you, just to be sure!"

>"Nah, you can't have an ability like that and be a ruler at the same time. "Mad Oracle living on the middle of a sandstorm", I'd believe you. I'll prove it, right now!"

> Poke nose

>Implying they tell people they have the touch curse.

> Not hating on ability, it actually makes lots of story threads and that's what makes the writing gooder.

>>345998

>harpies

Unless you're imagining about harpies without teats or mammary glands, all species would nurse their young. As for live birth, the main motivation for that would be temperature. Eggs aren't cold resistant, so species like jubjubs that can be in oestrus in the winter would have live births. Other species of harpy would still lay eggs. Different species of skink have eggs and placenta, so this kind of variation isn't unheard of in nature. Side point about jubjubs: if their feathers are soft like the wiki suggests, then they lack barbicels. While this would provide better thermal insulation (making winter jubjubs more feasible), they would be completely incapable of flight.

>touch curse

To solve all the logistical problems, it really should require awareness and preferably a verbal denouncement on the part of the Pharaoh to activate.

>>346064

>the Pharaoh watches you as you ramble on

>the room is lit dimly from that disc on her shoulders

>she does not look angry yet, but the corners of her lips are turned down

>it is like someone watching a small dog yapping for too long

>her guards are stoic save for the lion and cow girls on either side of the throne

>the latter gives you a pitying look

>the former actually growls at you while settling into a combat stance, a rattling gurgle which only stops at a glance from the Pharaoh

>as you rise to your feet and cross the distance, her guards bring their polearms to bear

>the Sekhmeti has the most demented (and sharp) grin on her face

>the Pharaoh waves them off, and while they don't look happy, they comply

>the Hathori sighs

>a split second before your finger can touch the Pharaoh's nose, she makes a small nod

>no chill

>feels quite warm, actually

>she finally speaks

"That is expressed permission. This…"

>she moves a hand close to your collar

>her eyes suddenly blaze directly into yours

>as you blindly fumble back, your bare left arm smacks into her hand

>a chill runs through your body, and her hand closes around your arm

>as you blink away the after-images, the Pharaoh wears the most unpleasant smile possible without showing teeth

"is not."

>she rumbles out a word in an ancient language

>instant warmth rushes through you

>the smile fades, the eyes begin to flare

>something whispers at your side; you become aware of the fact that you cannot blink now, and a clawed gauntlet holds your head in place

"Mad Oracle living in the middle of a sandstorm."

>the eyes glow brighter, your own begin tearing up

"Tell Pharaoh. Do you insult All Kings who deign to give you audience, or am I the One?"

>your entire body now feels like it was thrust into an oven as the disk burns brightly too

"I have demonstrated full control over Pharaoh's curse. I now have control over whether you live or die an ugly screaming death. Pray that your tongue does not betray you again, and I may grace you with Pharaoh's mercy."

And before you complain about "derailing the question," CONTEXT! You insult absolute royalty, you're in for a bad time.

>>346182

I don't mind if troll questions get troll answers.

>>346203

What do you think the wrestling and war threads are for?

>>346203

>I get the feeling that if your setting were populated by /monster/ anons it would rapidly devolve into husbandus annoying other anons' waifus just so they could watch the girls fight each other.

Well you're not wrong. Though on the higher end those fights might resemble InJUSTICE and Dragonball Z more than Senran Kagura.

>Ol' George

Funny you should say that, considering how gloomy his reports back to Philadelphia were during the War.

>>346064

Well? Aren't "you" going to say something?

>>346155 (checked)

Flightless Harpies. Well, they were top-heavy already, so it fits.

>>346301

>Probably dead, half dead over and burnt to crisp.

>Still raise hand.

>"Didn't answer half the questions."

>"Also, booped nose. Do what you must, for I have already won."

>>346155

>>346301

>thinking a lack of proper feathers will stop a jubjub from flying

It's Wonderland, I ain't gotta explain shit.

>>346310

>You continue, for what kind of man would you be, if after reaching the horizon, you did not look up, and declare wanting to go even farther?

>"For all I know, there could have been a bong party so massive before I walked in here, that I merely just experienced a bad trip from the secondhand drug laden smoke I mistook as incense."

>"And even if you did have the power to burn my body to ash, how long would that take? An afternoon? The better part of a day? But when you shall count upon your hand the number of people that received your "Express Permission" without ever having to bend beforehand, there will be a finger in there that belongs to me. And that will be forever."

>>346310

…Drue, is that you? Nevermind, you just sound uncannily like a very bright but very goofy friend of mine.

>a sigh of disgust breezes over your blackening skin

>the disk dims its light

>another rumble of Ægypton precedes your sudden flight onto the hard floor

>you are hazily cognizant of the Pharaoh barking commands and metal gripping your shoulders before you lose consciousness

>you later awaken on a cool stone table, sharp claws and soft hands on your naked chest

>>346345

Oh boy. Doubting her power and defying her in the same breath?

>you hear her teeth grind

"Then a finger is all which will remain of you."

>>346324

Point. I should know, considering I've written up two monsters for that place already. Perhaps she's a rather ungainly flier, and can't fly at all when heavily pregnant.

Huh. It was staring me in the face the whole time. Their Madness is Attachment. Madness!Jubjub can therefore crank that up to yandere extremes.

>>346365

Well, not entirely the way I'd approach the situation, but I do have the knack of making people fly off their handles.

>>345998

Each Pharaoh must be awakened to resume her rule. Once that is done and her body is properly reconstituted, she will set out for her former Seat together with her immortal entourage. En route she is reliant on that entourage and whatever water she can find to remain mobile. It is an arduous and dangerous journey, made more difficult by how the Pharaoh's power slowly returns without being able to to equip her Eye. It is only once she reaches the Seat that her potency returns in full. These structures are often buried in the sands, suffering from severe disrepair, or even totally distributed in the building of new settlements over time. Whatever the case, the Pharaoh will have her Seat returned to its full glory. Witnesses speak of the Pharaohs raising their arms before the spots, and the ancient buildings rising from the town's foundations in mere minutes, gold flecks flying in on the winds to decorate it. The truth is that this process retrieves any and all material once used in the construction, no matter where it is now. The weight of other stones or the distance of far seas do not matter, all will be returned. Whole towns have been known to shatter, and the Seats of other Pharaohs fall apart because they had taken from that Pharaoh in eons past.

Naturally, this leads acrimony among the Pharaohs. In centuries past, they all saw themselves as the One legitimate King of all Ægyptoss, and upon revival rallied forces to take back what was rightly theirs. The various contemporary potentates violently disagreed. Thousands of hapless peasantry died in the internecine crossfire, as flood and flame stretched across the lands. Several Pharaohs and their Seats were utterly destroyed and the Daughters of Apophis ran rampant before the gods of old intervened. From then on, Ægyptoss became a de facto collection of city-states which chose an "Outward Pharaoh" to speak with the kings of other shores, and to mediate disputes. This unlucky "ruler" presides from Alexandria, whose own Pharaoh was among those killed in the fighting.

The current speaker is Akhnaten, the only Pharaoh to get along tolerably well with emissaries of the Church and Christendom, and to permit the presence of those from Heaven. Akhnaten is unpopular with the others in part because of this, and for "turning her back on the gods" long ago. Their choosing is as much to get the Pharaoh out of the business of jockeying for power as to make a diplomatic use of them. For whatever reason, Akhnaten can still use most of the Pharaonic powers (on top of being known for her singing voice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAiv-LU82t4 ), so either the accusations are unfounded or something else is afoot.

Broadly, the Pharaohs of Ægyptoss are cold and unfriendly towards any outsider associated with the Creator. This attitude seemingly originates with an undisclosed incident in the distant past (though some scholars are sure of which one, others believe that the conflict refers to an even older event not seen in any holy book we know). Whatever the truth of it, none desire a new incursion from that quarter. Likewise, interference from Hellish agents is not tolerated, and any presence is carefully monitored at all times by the Sutekhi watchers. Creatures and representatives of Wonderland are regarded with mingled curiosity and annoyance (do not prank a Pharaoh; being thrown out will be the least of your troubles) owing to their madman's sense of order. Jabberwocks are strictly forbidden from passing from the "Outward" territory, thanks to their hubris inevitably angering more than one Pharaoh (and at least one knock-down drag out fight ensuing as a result). Relations are better with the Zoroastrian Empire of Persia, and trade goes back and forth across the Reed Sea, although they are treated as rivals even with the trade routes in place.

The Audient Void is another quantity entirely. Nephren-Ka's Seat and space around it remains a blasted wasteland shrouded in an unnatural miasma, yet denizens of the Void have been known to emerge from its murky depths. It is known as a place of bandits, madmen, and Apophean minions…and yet some Pharaohs have reportedly sent their agents deep into that realm, and treat quietly with what emerges. Strangely enough, the Daughters of Apophis maintain that their eternal enemies seek greater power from eldritch artifacts, despite the fact that some of their own number have gone insane from forays into Nephren-Ka's home. Other Pharaohs are less circumspect, and refuse entry to any and all Void-dwellers. As the number of incursions grows, these Kings of Ægyptoss may have a choice to make, and a war to fight.

>>346446

Does it mean that awakened Pharaohs actively dissuade or deter people from digging around the resting places of their mothers and daughters, even squatting around their Seats, to prevent them from rising up, splintering the Kingdom and their own piece of it even more, or possibly waking up someone that won't mind opening Pharaoh War II for a chance at a whole kingdom?

Also, do they have babby?

Do their babbys also become Pharaohs?

Is every awakened Pharaoh then already a potentially married one? Is that why the teasing doesn't work? I don't even like NTR!

>>346496

This is a shameless bump with more questions.

What can defeat a Pharaoh? The breaking of her eye? An Acetone-liquid polymer plastination bath? Blotting out the sun with Ash and fog? Grabbing a cat out of a bag?

>>346446

>no REEEE over Akhenaten

…Well that went better than expected.

>blocking the Seats and tombs

Yes. It's effectively a house arrest for any of that Pharaoh's servants who are still awake (of which only the Jackals and a few of the Mummies should be). It's policy to the point where Sutekhi have been known to use the outer reaches of the Seats as operational bases.

For the record, I came up with these "watchers" on the fly and am still figuring out what they are. They're another monsterkind, but they're not like Kunoichi or Hashashin. Big on surveillance, information-gathering, intimidation, interrogation… and acting as a welcome of visitors to Ægyptoss. Their patron God is that of strangers and darkness, after all.

>babby

What, was the detail about Consorts having viable offspring not enough for you? Yes, although conception will only happen during the day. Pharaohs can give birth to sons as well, though it is usually only the daughters who can inherit the Power of Pharaoh. "New" Pharaohs born since the awakening tend to be stronger than their parents and free of the need for inundation (to say nothing of lacking the mixed blessing of undeath), though perhaps paradoxically they are all mortal. I'm thinking over whether full ascension requires the elder Pharaoh's death, their abdication, striking out to claim a new seat, or something else. The Pharaohs' theme as masters of life means that sterility would be a bitter and inappropriate irony, though the potential succession troubles are a thorny question.

>married ones

Hrmph. Another thorny question. In the case of some, they parted with their original Consort in Duat for one reason or another. Some had marriages which turned sour. Some were lost. In the present, some Pharaohs maintain the same consort, raised to undeath as a mummy lowercase intentional, also don't skewer me for potential monsterboy (or yuri) stuff, I'm just trying to answer questions I hadn't thought aboutA handful still remain widowed by choice out of respect for what was. A Consort is as much a cosmic balance the Pharaoh as a mate and husband.

As for the teasing, in one scenario the Pharaoh allowed "you" to live and healed "your" burns. That's pretty generous for a god-king who's just been insulted in a variety of ways. Innocent curiosity is a plus.

>>346831

>breaking the Eye

Yes. Or corrupting it.

>plastination bath

I assume this means coating her skin so no water can permeate it. In which case, unless you do it at the right time, all it will do is make Pharaoh mad.

>blotting out the sun

Will weaken them, but you'll need followup.

>cat out of a bag

Do you want a Sphinx or a Sekhmet?

>>347014

I assume that was the kneeling and not getting roasted option?

>>346446

So what is the level of technology in this world you are building? You say that there are christian in this world but for whatever reason there are still Egyptians are reawaken 150 years before the present; that would mean that this is after Cleopatra's fall (about 13-30 years before Christ) and had been made into a Roman Provence, So I can at the very least infer that this is at the decline of pagan Egypt is dying if not totally dead. How would the Pharaohs reappear when they are dominated by either the Romans which in many cases the ruler of Rome or even Greece can technically be a Pharaoh as well; the Christian which converted many of the Egyptians and let the temples of the Egyptian gods fall apart (and exorcising demons); or the Islamic rulers which tend to destroy everything pagan even to this day. If they reappeared at any of those points than they had of somehow either brainwash all of the masses of Egypt and other parts where they once ruled or defeated the current inhabitants. Even then that would mean that most of the world would have their eyes on some dead bitch that convert/conquest Egypt in a instant. The previous owners would be at war with them, issuing a crusade, or jihad against the demon that is the Pharaoh, How Akhenaten even got through this is nothing short of a miracle in of itself she is Moses isn't she, that is the only way I can see her getting away with this shit and that would explain how she would have all of her powers at hand This is also not considering the modern western empire, industry, and thought spreading around the world if taking place before the 21 century.

>>347014

Hey, just how much dungeon-esque can a Pharaoh's tomb get? Do they have gates warning about curses when you break their locks that you can abuse by blowing up the walls next to it, and taking the door too, because someone will buy it for lots of money too?

>>347017

That was the "be so earnest that killing you would be like punting a cute little yappy dog" option.

>>347133 (checked)

>implying Rennaissance-era Catholics care about what happens to Copts

That aside, I gave you a brief clue about what happened to Islam in that same post: It has largely not escaped Arabia and the Levant thanks to the Persian and Byzantine Empires winning a few key battles. A consequence of this is that the Byzantine Empire (sometimes called the Constant Empire) is still standing, though currently on the back foot in a war with the Persians and Golden Khan. A result of that which you might've noticed is the use of Greek when discussing foreign religions and monsterkind, as well as some kinds of magic. Yes, I'm still working out the effects this history would have, on top of demonstrable magic, monstrous races, and the well-documented active interference of various deities. I'll also have to work on consistency language-wise. As I speak neither Greek nor Latin, the Englishness of the framing device is purely for convenience.

It is the year One Thousand and Five Hundred Anno Dominum roughly, though the technological aesthetic I'm thinking of can resemble Final Fantasy XII/XIV at times with the amount of airships/dirigibles about. Muskets and cannons are definitely a thing, though so are such things as clockwork automatons and magic-augmented Antikythera-style computers. I might adjust the time period, to be honest. Late Roman monstergirls sound kinda cool, but I don't think I'd go with that.

As for the conversions in Egypt, there are still plenty of Copts about, though often quiet or even in secret about their practices. Many were overawed/frightened into converting by the Pharaohs themselves and their war. Many others side with the Apopheses in their effort against the Kings, cajoled with the notion that a reset could return things to how they were. Whether this is true or not depends on the snake. Right now, the land of Abyssinia acts as the Copts' official authority.

>Moses

Hah. More likely Aaron. Either way, reincarnation might be in effect. And "miracle" might indeed be the operative word.

>>347136

>dungeon-esque

Very. The Jackals direct and maintain security, while the Mummies are the active guards. Blowing up the wall is an excellent way to get their collective attention.

>>347220

Do you have write ups for all the other egyptian critters?

>>347220

I was hoping that it would take place in the 1800's as I want to see how the Pharaohs would react to a republic like the US or France or at least the notion that the people would over throw their king but I guess Britain's Magna-Carta would have to suffice. Also how would the Pharaohs react to the fact that Rome and Greece is now gone as a pagan nation? In many ways pagan Egypt does mirror them pagan Rome. Also what happens to the Greek Pharaoh and the Persian Pharaohs do they get resurrected too? Will Alexander and Cambyses II rise from the grave and attempt to revive pagan Greece as well? It would be interesting to see the modern Cupids and nymphs be included in this world building.

In a related note would why is the Abrahamic God even put up with this shit in the first place or even more importantly why are the pharaohs stupid enough to mess with him again when they already have a case of him fucking their shit up in exodus?! (more than one Pharaoh had live to seen his might during that event, they even lost one of their Pharaohs that way via Passover). are the Jews causing problems again?

>>345386

As a quick answer to that before I hit the hay, as long as the Pharaohs don't start massacring and enslaving the Copts, the Creator will not bring down the lightning and fire. As much as Exodus and other events grind their gears, exactly none of them want a repeat of that.

>Jews

Oh boy. Not going to /pol/'s version of Earth for that one, if only because I have no interest in that angle and already having something immeasurably worse as the ultimate evil than what some /pol/ack can rant about. Golems and minor Angels I might have to hunt down other suitables. are choice waifus for their sort, and the latter hold their partners to high standards of behavior. Talmud routinely gets laughed at and edited down by their kind. Hubris gets called out. Being "The Creator's First Chosen" means being watched closer. In short, it's tough to be their sort.

I'm more surprised that you aren't flabbergasted at Nyarlathotep's operation in this setting.

Incidentally, for an account of Exodus in this world, just switch up Ralph Fiennes for the voice actress of your choice.

>>347295

What else does fantasy Egypt have that one can get a profitable business smuggling other than sweet tomb loot?

Oh, forgot to mention: While many of the Pharaohs are content to do things as they did back in the day, some have taken begrudgingly or happily to the technology of the intervening years. Cannon, shot, and steel are given, but metal ploughs and seed-drills have been introduced on top of improved weaving methods. One Pharaoh even caused a diplomatic incident and administrative crisis by sending the Doge of Venizzia an image of herself clad in an exact replica of the dress favored by his wife. As said wife was a Dragon, this did not end well.

Incidentally, this version of Earth is 11,876.25 miles in diameter. On one hand, things are a little more spaced out, on the other, lost lands like Atlantis, Thule, Mu, and parts of Lemuria can be found in reality.

>>347226

Noh. However, I was planning on creating a summary of the monsterkind a Pharaoh typically has under her command. Let's see about that.

The temperament of Pharaohs can vary as much any ruler, and though their great power can easily lend itself to tyranny, the overarching importance of Ma'at guides many to be better. "Stern" is a quality ascribed to most, and few can be said to rule like matriarchs. The very power channeled through them renders the Kings of Ægyptoss inhumanly distant at times. As they are linked to the welfare of the Ægyptons, however, many view their subjects with compassion. Some even take greater care with what they say, knowing fully the power of their words. Some of the realms within Egypt are peaceful and almost idyllic as consequence. Others with more capricious and ill-tempered rulers possess an oppressive tension in the air and the sunlight. Either way, the Pharaoh's attitude does much to influence her servants both monsterkind and man.

Many serve the conduit of the gods, and in myriad kinds:

Foremost among them are the golden Falcons of Haroeris, heralds, messengers, and sometimes steeds for the Pharaoh. Their vision can range for miles at a stretch, and they are without dispute the fastest extant harpy species. Their stoic demeanor hides great passion and a sense of righteousness.

Next are the Jackals of Anubis, the Pharaoh's guardians, viziers, and overseers. Do not mistake them for mere wulfen or cynocephalae: they can manipulate all dead matter within their range to move and reform as they wish (to grisly result if threatened). Immortal, eternally patient, and coolly efficient, Jackal have a wilder side which makes them susceptible to teasing when at peace, and outright savage in combat.

The Hathor Counselors and Sekhmeti Guard are strange creatures, in that one can become the other in moments. Counselors gently advise their Pharaoh on affairs of state, and can act as embassy to outside entities. Guard, meanwhile, defend the Pharaoh, carry the executioner's blade, and bring forth their healing arts where needed. They enjoy sport and combat, especially if it spills blood. BEWARE: All a Counselor needs to become a vicious and fiery lioness is blood in her mouth.

There are the Scarabs (or Khepri), the Pharaoh's restless and determined builders. Whenever a structure must be raised, they are the ones who design it, who choose the materials, and who ensure that the end result is built to their standard. For many projects, they lend their claws and considerable strength to greatly speed the process. Scarabs are known for their task-oriented mindsets, methodical approach, and stubborn determination to finish their job.

There are the Sphinxes, Pharaoh's scholars and the outer guardians of the Seat. They question those in restricted areas and keep them occupied with riddles until the intruders can be collected. When on duty, the Sphinxes bear the face of their Pharaoh and speak with her voice. Whatever they see in that form, their master can also. Unlike their peers, the off-duty Sphinxes possess features and mannerisms closer to that of Hellenes than Ægyptons. Sphinxes are playful, but also impatient to see their riddles solved.

More to follow.

>>347606

Seeing that Egypt is also known for beer, how drunk are her people at all times?

>>347606

>Earth is wider

So is the planet less dense, or is its gravitational pull stronger?

>>347625

Also, can Sekhmeti still be turned back into Hathor by getting blackout drunk like in legend? If so, why has nobody performed the most epic riot yet?

>>347606

Sorry, got sick yesterday.

Still another are the ponderous Hippos of Toeris, skilled doctors and midwives who tower over the other monsterkind of Ægyptoss. While the Sekhmeti can handle battlefield medicine and surgery, the Hippos have command over treating sickness and maladies. While typically sweet and matronly (an appearance reinforced by figure even more robust than the Hathori), they are not tolerant of uncooperative patients, and will subdue their charge with force if necessary.

The Sukhosi, servants of the crocodile god Sobek, ensure that the Aur River's waters flow correctly and relatively cleanly. Though lazy and prone to sunning themselves on the banks, they have a violent temper made dangerous by their prodigious strength. Uniquely among the monsterkind, they have balanced say in the administration of the city of Shedet with its Pharaoh.

Mehen, the Ægypton version of Lamia, come in a variety of kinds, but most take part in the priesthood. Many gods and ethereal spirits have taken the form of serpents, so it follows that the Mehen would have be strongly inclined to serving them in the temples. Ægypton Cobras are especially known for conducting ceremonies on behalf of the Pharaoh. Those who do not go into the priesthood direct the sanitation of the kingdom.

Ichneumons are an ornery sort who assist the Mehen with sanitation, and sometimes can be found in the priesthood. While they maintain a professional relationship with the holy serpents, they utterly detest the works of Apophis, and so will help root out that insurgence whenever possible. They have a greater presence in Heliopolis.

Mummies serve the Jackals directly, immortal undead who ensure that neither tomb nor seat is breached. Though stiff in movement, they are quick when necessary and their grip can break bones. Mummies suffer from a slower version of the Pharaoh's dehydration, though such a state merely lowers consciousness and marrs their appearance. They possess sensitive skin, so they tend to favor their bandages even after rehydration.

The final entities on this list are only on it thanks to this author's great distance from the land of Ægyptoss (and the protection of his patron). Do not under any circumstances mention them by name while traveling in that land.

The Watchers of Sutekh are the most secretive of the Pharaoh's monsterkind, and among the most potent. While they bear a superficial resemblance to the the inkstained Jackals, Sutekhi are an altogether different creature. Every visitor to Ægyptoss will see one watching them in the distance, and a sighting is almost always followed by the presence of border guards. Should the visitor prove suspicious, they are turned over to the Watcher for questioning. While this can be an unnerving process, only ending when the Watcher judges that it should, the worst of them surfaces with "troublemakers." Those who "make trouble" for the kingdom are likely to awake on a Sutekhi's examination table. There the monsterkind's sadistic nature becomes clear: until the subject confesses to what she wants, the Sutekhi is free to beat, torture, and frighten them to within inches of death. A Sutekhi cannot kill their captive, but this is scant consolation. It is said that they are so zealous because their patron god betrayed his brother Asir. Whatever the truth of it, they are fanatically loyal to their Pharaoh, and the chief prosecutors of their shadowy war with Apophis.

>>347625

Not very, as they're expected to work, and hungover workers aren't very productive. Still, the brewing and selling of beer and other spirits (including fruity nedjem) is a major industry throughout Ægyptoss. While other modern innovations are cause for wariness, nearly all of the Pharaohs have embraced the processes which lengthened the life of their beer.

>>347658

All it takes is a swig of beer for that to happen, which they imbibe from a flask at their hip. They don't do this unless commanded, and will avoid even a sip of the stuff otherwise. The same result can be achieved by getting them utterly plastered on nedjem or wine (nothing happens if they just go to bed buzzed or somewhat drunk). Hathori will guzzle beer like a champion, and hold their liquor like no one else. In terms of attitude, one's a rowdy, sometimes brawl-happy drunk, the other is a party girl.

>>347627

Hmm. I'm tempted to say the former, as I don't want to think through all the consequences of Earth having stronger gravity.

>>347939

>Ichneumon

Basically wasp girls?

>Haroeris

Griffon girls, or Falcon harpy girls?

>Watchers

Secret agents? But, they do not fly, so that's extra points for the Zeppelin approach.

>Sekhmeti's weakness is beer

So, if you are able, you can disarm one by cutting off their flask, and shoving it on their mouth. But what if you soak and drench them on the stuff with a water cannon?

>No weaker gravity.

Awwwww, there goes running away via moon jumps.

>>347957

>wasps

Where did that come from? They're mongeese.

>Falcon harpy

Right there in the blurb, me boy. They're about as smart as the average human, so don't let them hear any birdbrain jokes.

>secret agents

More like secret police at home. Secret agents when sent abroad. Yes, they can find you on the other side of the world if you've escaped them to there.

>water cannon

So long as they don't swallow a certain amount, nothing happens except everything is now on fire, and the source of that fire is running toward you while roaring. Sekhmeti are fireproof, incidentally. They like being "awake," and will try to prolong that if possible. Getting one or the other pregnant means she stays in that mode for the duration.

>gravity

Tough, I'm a historian, not an astrogeolist.

>>347969

>Mongoose

Google said wasps. Lots of wasps. Go take it up with them. But snake eating mammals is more thematic.

>Lion guards are Fire lion guards.

Oh my. But if they are roaring, their mouth is open, and they still have to breath! So it is still somewhat effective!

>>347972

Herpestes ichneumon - Egyptian mongoose

Ichneumon - genus of parasitic wasp

>>347976

There are still wasps on fantasy egypt, and they still share name.

>>347996

>>347972

Well I can't give you wasps, buuut…

'"'Such was I, that I united the Two Kingdoms of Egypt, and ruled over both Sedge and Bee. Perhaps I will again.''" --Pharaoh Senusret the III

The Nuti are the drivers of agriculture in Lower Ægyptoss (though they can be found in lesser numbers throughout the Upper). Though similar in form to the territorial Honey and curious Bumble Bee Melissae found in the rest of the World, Nuti differ in two key respects: first, their connection to a deity, and second (likely connected to the first), their ability to command swarms of regular bees like extra appendages. Characterized by working hard and playing hard, Nuti queens are one of the few monsterkind that have some leeway with their Pharaoh's commands.

Right, next ones I'll do are the Daughters of Apophis, the scourge of Ægyptoss.

>>347338

>fantasy Egypt

You know, Aegytos is an acceptable spelling also. I just got the hang of using Æ on /tg/ that it's almost second nature.

>smuggling and plunder

Shards of broken Eyes, spell scrolls, translucent linens, Nuti royal jelly, Mummy bandages, political prisoners, monsterkind children…

>>348232

I'd interject to that, since it still looks like the rearranging of vocals, and Randon foreign letter placement school of fantasy names, but I'll let it go just for you.

>So much loot.

Yay! I'd ask Edge of the Kingston campaign when, but there Is no CYOA love to find ok this body.

Find the colored madness.

>>348262

>Kingdom

God Fuck Autocorrect

>>348262

Hey now, gimme some credit: it's Greek.

>autocorrect

Lol, what a gay. Now then…

---———————————--

Type: Oikos

Class: Reptilian

" Asssir, Haroerisss, Ississs… and Ssset. What a worthlessss foe, if all he doess iss make that trinity stronger. Nooohohohoho. A real enemy musst make deeper woundss…that iss why I am here…and so I saved you. Won't you join me? "

As the Pharaohs of Ægyptoss are to the sun and to light, so the Daughters of Apophis are to the night and darkness. The two have been in conflict for millennia without cease. With each new Pharaoh, a new Daughter was born from the mindless serpent of Duat as her opposite. The deserts and fringes were their strongholds. From these outer reaches they assailed the Kingdom of Ægyptoss, thriving on unrest and discontentment. A great and terrible spell sealed them away, but also doomed the Kingdom to conquest. So many years later, the fight continues and the World watches. The darkness of their progenitor infuses them. To see one is to experience beauty and terror in equal measure. To know one, a life akin to courting the Devil. With their tools of sorcery, toxins, and manipulation, the Daughters remain a formidable enemy.

At a glance, a Daughter resembles a disturbingly cheerful cobra lamia: a long, sinuous body replaces any legs, covered in glistening black scales, which connects to the full-figured body of a woman at the hips. An extended flap of skin stretches from the top of the neck to the mid-back, which expands into a "hood" when the serpent is agitated. Bowl-shaped pits replace the ears, knife-long fangs fill the mouth alongside a forked tongue, a flatter nose, and slitted pupils for golden irises. They are usually clothed in a mix of robes, rags, and stones bound with string, when clothed at all. But from there, the differences become clear: their sclera are pitch black, with luminous crimson pupils. The skin of their upper bodies is also black, almost blueish (though their features are more Ægypton than Nubian). Their serpentine tail can lengthen or reduce according to their needs (to fill a room, or just enough to stand on). Their voice has a strange liquid flange to it, and like the Pharaohs they can deepen it at will. A strange black haze hangs about them in the day unless suppressed, and in the night it becomes an almost tangible shroud of shadow. This shroud can extend until everything surrounding the Daughter is similarly cloaked. The only things visible in this artificial darkness are the serpent's pupils and fangs. When angered, the haze surrounding her becomes a writhing, hissing mass which seems to desiccate the earth.

All of these unusual features are an indication of a Daughter's connection to Apophis, marking her as an Oikos. Her bond with the parent entity ensures that she has a regularly replenishing resevoir of unholy power flowing into her. This connection is what gives her control over shadows, fortune, and water, among other abilities. It also carries a significant influence on her mind. As Apophis endlessly seeks to overturn Ra's solar barque, so his daughters are subconsciously compelled to overturn the rule of the Pharaohs. It is difficult for them to resist this call, and the frequent lack of upbringing makes it a foundation to fall back on. For most Apotheses, it is their purpose in life, just as the upholding of Ma'at is for the Pharaohs. What will happen if all the Pharaohs are overturned is uncertain, even among the Daughters. But they know that they want it to happen. Only the strongest of outside influences can dissuade them.

>>349467

So, no Apophis has actually succeeded at deposing a Pharaoh, or has any one that has succeeded and her group have simply ended like the anababtists at Münster?

>>349824

On the contrary, a number have fallen. Memphis itself had its Pharaoh assassinated in the squabble for control over it, and all daylight in Ægyptoss turned hazy and rapidly dimming before another took control. The gods decreed the current system in part so that the destruction of one Pharaoh could not undo the whole realm.

Some former kingdoms have been reconquered by the other Pharaohs, while others rallied their inhabitants into a coherent fighting force. There the Ægyptons toil and sweat under an uncontrolled Sun, then do and say whatever they please once the day's labors are done. Pharaoh's law has no sway here, and the law of Apophis tends to be much more lax, if not outright chaotic. Consequently, banditry runs rife in these places, and denizens are encouraged to form their own militias in response.

There are rumors that the reconquests are part of a plan long ago, one which could be used to bypass the gods' edict and claim the whole of Ægyptoss in darkness. As of now, this author cannot say.

>>331637 (OP)

Associate of the OP here. Figured I'd get in on this with the Gazer Beholder

Of all the horrid creatures that dwell in the dark corners of the underworld, few are as reviled as the dreaded Beholder. Those who wander the bleak caverns which honeycomb the land beneath our feet should have a care where their explorations take them, lest they gaze too long into the abyss---and find the abyss gazing back.

Upon first glance, a Beholder could be mistaken for a young woman of unnatural pallor, with a floor-length mane of unkempt, greasy black hair. Such illusions are easily shattered, however, and should one look upon a Beholder head-on one will see the fang-filled maw and single massive eye which dominate its visage. And yet, one should not mistake such a creature for a cyclops, for passing resemblance aside, a Beholder is no giant, no spawn of anything so wholesome as a god. Any thought that it might be so is quickly swept away once the Beholder’s appendages emerge from within its tangled mane: ribbed, rubbery stalks, ten in total, each ending in an unblinking eye the size of an apple. In the pitch darkness its eleven eyes glow like embers, their light reflecting from its teeth as it graces its prey with a wicked smile.

To the untrained eye, a Beholder’s body appears soft and lacking in musculature, as if it had never done any work in its life. To a degree, this assumption is accurate: a Beholder’s muscles lack definition because it barely needs to use them. For the creature fairly seethes with arcane power, the likes of which would give even a dragon pause. The most obvious and effortless display of a Beholder’s power is the fact of its constant levitation, a skill which it employs from the moment of its birth, such that it never sets foot upon the ground unless it chooses to do so. Far more impressive, and deadly, are the rays of magical energy which the Beholder projects from the pupils of its eyestalks. Each of the creature’s eyes focuses this energy in a subtly different way, like a set of arcane prisms, and their effects range from the bewitchment of the mind, to the petrification of flesh, to the disintegration and remote manipulation of matter. Thus, the trite saying of looks being able to kill becomes a literal truth when applied to a Beholder.

>>351113

Should a wary traveller run afoul of a Beholder, the one saving grace in such a situation is that the creature will be alone. Beholders are paranoiacs by nature, loathing and mistrustful of all other beings but reserving an especial hatred for others of their own kind. Each Beholder considers itself perfect, the ideal to which all other Beholders should compare, and any Beholder that is not itself is an abomination to be shunned at best and killed at worst.

Though they possess the requisite parts, Beholders do not reproduce through intercourse. Upon reaching a certain point in its life, a Beholder begins to experience considerable discomfort in the middle of its back, where its eyestalks connect to its torso. An examination of this spot will reveal the presence of a lumpy growth the size of a peach pit, a growth which expands to the size of a cantaloupe over the course of several weeks. After a maximum of two months the growth suddenly tears itself free of the Beholder in a spray of torn flesh and ichor, its rubbery shell sloughing off to reveal a newborn Beholder floating in a foetal position. The agony brought on by its birth does nothing to endear the newborn to its parent, and once a Beholder has recovered from its birthing wounds it will not hesitate to chase off its progeny with the intent to kill. Thus, the newborn quickly learns to fear and hate others of its kind, and thus do many of them come to hate their own existence.

A beholder dwells in a complex network of caves and tunnels, some of which are natural, some of which the Beholder excavates using its powers of disintegration and telekinesis. It coats the entrances to its lair with organic structures made from its own oily secretions, which give off a powerful musk meant to warn other creatures away. Most underworld entities instinctively recognize this scent and avoid such areas like the plague, but there are always those, ignorant or unbelieving of the danger, who will heedlessly blunder through into the Beholder’s territory. Such trespassers are typically driven off or eaten alive, but on rare occasions a Beholder’s boredom or loneliness might overpower its hostility, and it uses its magic to enslave the trespasser instead. Such thralls are used as housekeepers, cleaning the chambers of the Beholder’s lair and organizing the plunder taken from those it devours.

As rare an occasion that the Beholder taking thralls may be, rarer still is the occasion where a Beholder attempts to enthrall a trespasser… and finds his will strong enough to resist. Such iron-willed individuals confuse and intrigue a Beholder, for until this moment it considered all other creatures inferior to itself in every respect. The thought of another mind being remotely comparable to the Beholder’s own is thus frightening, but also enticing.

>>351114

When faced with such an anomalous individual, the Beholder initially responds by doubling down on its attempts to enthrall them. Even the strongest-willed man cannot hold out forever against this mental onslaught, and sooner or later he is compelled into servitude. Those who lose the will to resist lose the interest of the Beholder, as it assumes that his earlier resistance was merely a fluke. But those who continue to struggle, who resist the Beholder’s commands even when they cannot break free, become the object of the Beholder’s fascination. In time the Beholder may come to regard such an individual as something akin to a favoured pet, and like a dog’s master loosening its leash, she might loosen her telepathic control over him simply to see what he will do.

The Beholder anticipates a hostile reaction, for its experiences have taught it to expect nothing less. Any malicious action toward the Beholder will result in it clamping down once more, and should it feel that he poses a legitimate threat to its life, the Beholder will annihilate him without a second thought. Yet if he displays no hostility, makes no aggressive moves against it, the Beholder will be left unsure of what to do. Such uncertainty angers the Beholder, and for a time it may clamp down on the anomaly’s mind once more. But eventually it will permit him degrees of freedom again, and while the Beholder never lets down its guard entirely, it gradually grows accustomed to his presence and provides him greater leniency than it does its other thralls.

This state of affairs will continue indefinitely, unless---whether by accident, or by design—the anomalous thrall makes contact with the Beholder’s skin.

>>351115

A Beholder is not accustomed to such contact. During its life it knows only the coarse chill of stone, the wet mulch of slime, the blood-matted fur and scales of animal prey, and the pain of injury. It has no frame of reference for a gentle touch, a non-malicious touch, and in its confusion it may lash out at first. If the anomaly can withstand its umbrage without retaliation---for provoking the Beholder in this state is to court death—the Beholder will realize that the sensation of being touched was not unpleasant, and conclude that it is not averse to being touched again.

For the anomaly, touching a Beholder is an acquired taste. Its pale flesh is may seem soft and inviting, but in truth it is firm and coarse with a texture like rubber, and there is little tactile difference between touching the ribbed skin of its eyestalks and the seemingly smooth skin of its body. Further complicating matters are the Beholder’s oily secretions, which coat its limbs in a layer of black fluid not unlike tar. But much as one can come to enjoy the harsh taste of a ripe cheese, so too can one find enjoyment in running one’s hand along a Beholder’s skin.

For the Beholder, its first explorations of this newfound sensation are tentative and wary. It feels most comfortable using its powers to direct the anomaly’s hands, flinching at each new spark of sensation that his touch brings, silently afraid that he might do the Beholder harm if it releases his control. Only repetition and an affirmation of no hostile intent can help the Beholder overcome this fear, and in time it will allow its anomaly---for by this point the Beholder thinks of him as not simply a thrall, but its thrall—to touch it at his discretion.

>>351117

While the anomaly now possesses the Beholder’s affection, he is by no means safe. Nor is he guaranteed reciprocation for his efforts to please her, for the Beholder’s upbringing leaves her with little understanding of the concept of empathy. She will demand his touch whenever the desire takes her, and it shall be often, but any attempt to force her to return the favour will be interpreted as an attack, and she may react with a painful, potentially fatal bite in lieu of her magic. The Beholder’s fangs can easily tear through petrified flesh and split bone; the anomaly would not want them to be near any vital parts should he anger her.

The Beholder cannot be forced to reciprocate. Should the anomaly wish for reciprocity, she must be gingerly coaxed, must be shown that pleasing her anomaly is a mutually beneficial act: that pleasing him will better enable the anomaly to please her in turn. Such coaxing will take no small investment of time and patience on the anomaly’s part, but should he persevere, the reward shall prove well worth the wait. The Beholder makes for an eager lover once coaxed, capable of passion and tenderness in equal measure, and she can be quite creative in applying her magical rays to this new, unfamiliar task. Using her telekinesis ray to support her anomaly while they make love in midair is but the mildest example of the applications she might concoct.

One should be mindful of the Beholder’s anatomical peculiarities during coitus. Her eyestalks may curl about in order to witness the coupling from every conceivable angle, and the anomaly must take care to avoid irritating them with direct physical contact. Similarly one must take care not to accidentally bump the Beholder’s central eye with one’s nose or forehead, as the Beholder finds this quite unpleasant and may warn her anomaly not to do so again by administering a painful nip to the collarbone. Most dangerously, the Beholder’s eye rays may fire off uncontrollably during orgasm, though she will typically coil said stalks around her anomaly so that the rays fire away from him and over her shoulders---which, while ensuring the anomaly’s safety, may cause damage to the cave and death or injury to any other thralls in the vicinity. But should one keep these details in mind, one should have an enjoyable partnership with one’s Beholder.

>>351118

A Beholder whose relationship with her anomaly has reached this point will be devastated if the anomaly should suddenly try to escape. If she is unable to prevent his escape, the Beholder will briefly become enraged, venting her frustrations upon her belongings and other thralls before falling into a deep depression. Few Beholders ever recover from this state, and while many become suicidal, just as many become even more bitter and hateful than usual. For her anomaly has proven everything she ever believed about the untrustworthiness of other creatures to be true, and hurt her terribly in the process. No more will she show mercy to trespassers; no more will she take thralls into her service, or show lenience to ones she already has. Only the anomaly’s return can mend her broken heart and rekindle the faint spark of empathy she once had, and even then their relationship shall never be as it once was.

Type: Abomination

Class: Monos

>>351119

Just switch the type and class, and is well.

Welcome to 8chan. Remember: You're here forever.

Don't worry, I haven't stopped writing. I've just been sidetracked with a new vidya.

>>351119

>>351118

>>351117

>>351116

>>351115

>>351114

>>351113

A new writer? Interesting… Do you have any other favourite monsters? Can I interest you in High Orc gyarus and making normal Orcs Great Again?

>>351123

Noted.

>>351136

Orcs might be doable in the future, though I make no guarantees. Right now my focus is on monsters of a more… subterranean nature.

>>351145

Ok, how about Echidnas and Medusas?

>>351146

Funny, we were just talking about those. I intend to write them. I'll probably take the Echidna after I've gotten the Apophis written up.

>>351147

Hey, are you planning to have this be self contained, or do you not mind introducing Isekai narratives here? If you do not mind, what do you consider to be the differences between a human living on a Medieval Fantasy and one living on the Modern era? Many of the things possible now are magic back then. Just the idea of being able to power all your modern stuff on solar energy is a game changer. Would a prepared explorer from our world be even considered human?

>>351114

>Though they possess the requisite parts, Beholders do not reproduce through intercourse.

Why not? It would make a lot more sense than budding out of their spine.

>>351145

>Subterranean monsters

Lots of Lovecraftian creatures below the ground: Bholes, Flying Polyps, Ghasts, Ghouls, Gugs, Night-Gaunts, and some Shoggoths. The Lovecraft-inspired Illithid (mind flayers) are also subterranean and can be recast as the spawn of Cthulhu.

>>351176

Granted, but I wanted to emphasize their alien nature. Plus it's better than having the Beholder puke up a baby like they used to in D&D.

>Mindflayers

Those are indeed on the agenda.

>>351155 (checked)

I'd say it's pretty self-contained, yeah. But before you start wanting to gallivant around this world, consider for a moment what other outside entity has come to inhabit this place. You'll quickly find that this entity notices when other things come in. Consider that kicking the entity out of its host was enough to get it murderous, then consider what it would do to someone it wants information out of. Suffice to say, "medieval fantasy" can rapidly convert to "Lovecraftian horror" with this condition in place. And you are likely going to die in that, in the sort of all-encompassing agony that not even the cruelest disease or weapon could inflict. If you don't? Well congratulations! You're now an abomination yourself.

That's not even getting into how unpleasant a Modern would find living in a Medieval setting, regardless of how much magic there is in it. Diseases which barely exist today, strong social mores, even different-sounding language than what you're used to. A Modern is so soft that subjecting them to it would have them bedridden just from the culture shock. Face it, with the rest on top, it ain't very fun for trying to use a mediocre genre on it.

As for how yumanity is different here? Not that much, actually, apart from the soul being a long-ago confirmed thing, being used as both of the lifeboat of consciousness and the body's spiritual defense mechanism.Those altered by magic tend to be visibly marked by it, and so are often exiled. Not a lot of crossbreeding when they aren't allowed to breed much. You might as well just ask me how a man in 1500 differs from one in 2000.

>solar energy

>magic runs everything

Nigga, are you high?

>Honestly, I had in mind something aesthetically like Final Fantasy XII or XIV, where magic and technology can both go high-ish places. The reason people don't use magic for everything is that it's hard to use quickly and tends to warp the user.

>So yes, some anachronisms are acceptable, but don't push it. They don't have the Internet or an equivalent, for example, but they do have a more-or-less global postal system and absolutely global courier airships. Mailmen are still plentiful, as it was discovered that harpies can't carry heavier loads, and tend to lose letters if their bag is too big. Some mechanists and engineers are experimenting with telegraph analogues, but those are still a rarity at the moment.

>>351176

I got the Ghouls. I also got the Sandworms, and intend take them a wholly different direction than the one in Kenkou's canon.

>>351177

>emphasize their alien nature

It's not unreasonable for even anatomically and behaviourally alien species to reproduce sexually, fertilize internally, and keep early development in a warm, nutrient-rich environment. Even if I were to make something humanoid reproduce asexually, I'd repurpose the existing reproductive organs. And I have to question the logic of making them reproduce only asexually when the whole point of monstergirls is sacrificing inhuman traits to appeal to human reproductive desires.

>>351182

>Ghouls

Hyena-like ghouls would fit the Middle Eastern and Lovecraftian lore.

>Sandworms

More in the human or Mongolian death worm direction, or an inbetween like the God Emperor of Dune?

>>351182

>the soul being a long-ago confirmed thing

What exactly is a soul, and how can its existence be demonstrated?

>lifeboat of consciousness

Rather than a passenger of the brain, consciousness is a subset of the brain's activity. So how does the soul perpetuate or replicate this activity?

>the body's spiritual defense mechanism

What is a spiritual attack, and how can it be defended against?

>>349467

Daughters of Apophis awaken in the peripheries of a Pharaoh's fief, rising from deep beneath the earth on the first night of their reign. If they died so long ago, then they are reborn. They instinctively seek out any who dwell in their area, taking pains to avoid any of Pharaoh's servants, often masquerading as stray Mehen. They then settle into whatever community they can find. An Apophis will ingratiate herself to these outliers, drawing water from below and crafting medicine from her venom. Predators of the desert become hers to command, and they trouble the locals no longer. The nights are now cool, but they no longer freeze. She will spend a remarkably short time acclimating herself to their customs and language, until within just a year she will be seen as one of them. Often, the Apophis will learn of the outside world through caravans and lone travelers. Throughout this time, she hears all of the outliers' grievances with the Pharaoh, and decides that there is only one way to address such a stubborn King: regicide.

Of course regicide is tall proposition, and not something idly proposed. The Daughter will stoke her carers' discontent, aide by her medicine's subtle suggestive effect, until they willingly help her schemes. Such machinations are usually framed at first as a way to further help the outliers with their troubles. Using her newfound community as impromptu bodyguards, she will roam the rest of Pharaoh's domain, taking in the unwanted and dispossessed, and pacifying them so that they will serve her now. She will also patrol the desert during the hours of the morning. Those lost out there also become hers, and the Apophis will expect their rescuee to be grateful to her. A Daughter often meets her Consort in this fashion, if he strikes her fancy (further specifics will be discussed later in this volume). Monsterkind of the desert and the wastes are tamed as well, sedated and fed until they are happy to join the Apophis. Once her forces are large enough, the serpent can begin her campaign of subversion.

It begins with whispered rumors of the Pharaonic regime and the outside world. Word of misdeeds and unfairness spreads like venom through veins. Mockery of Pharaoh is encouraged in private. The laws of the realm are held in contempt. As Pharaoh's servants crack down on sedition, the discontent grows. The Apophis orders raids on official outposts and buildings. Crops are stolen while under guard. Tax boxes are broken into. Lone guards are assaulted or even killed. The serpent's power grows. Day begins cooling as nights become sultry.

By this point, Pharaoh's minions should be hunting the Apophis throughout the kingdom and suppressing dissent with force. The serpent responds in kind, attacking Pharaoh's supply trains and supporters in guerilla raids. Priests are struck in their temples, which are then defaced. Sukhosi and Toeri are either incapacitated or brought under the Apophis' sway, so that neither water nor medicine are free of the serpent's taint. Honey is spiked with venom. Shadows become deeper, and hide more things. Ghouls make incursions into cemeteries and tombs. Watchers and scorpionfolk chase each other in the dead of night. Riots shake the city during the day. Civil collapse seems imminent.

>>351186

>Sandworm

All I can do is smile…though the Mongolian critter would likely be a separate entity entirely.

>>351182

I'd argue that even a little bit of magic looks like all of the magic to people with no magic at all, but I was referring to the sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic side of modern people. But if the space between worlds is where the things that do not die lay, I'm not pushing it.

>>351182

Persona 2 hell yeah rumor demons ahoy!

>>351177

>>351186

This >>351578 is how I'd use only asexual reproduction in a monstergirl. LGT resolves any issues with population genetic diversity, and the act of reproduction can still be sexual (LGT with spermatozoa). Asexual and sexual reproduction can easily be used together, though, as in >>335430 my night-gaunt husbands, plants, cnidaria, etc.

>>351186

>>351584

>Lateral Gene Transfer

Hm. Interesting stuff. I'll keep that in mind for the future, but nevertheless I'm sticking with my guns on this one.

Sorry for the delayed response, it was a busy week.

And since we're on the subject of reproduction…

>>351119

The reproductive period is a difficult time for both the anomaly and the Beholder herself. The pain brought on by the gestating infant’s growth prevents her from enjoying her anomaly’s touch to the degree that she normally does, and any irritation of the growth is immensely uncomfortable. Coitus thus becomes an unlikely prospect until she comes to term, though an anomaly’s efforts to make her more comfortable during this trying time will be appreciated.

Once the newborn has detached from its mother, the anomaly is faced with a difficult task. For though their reproductive process is asexual in nature, the newborn may display certain subtle traits---such as cheek bones, facial structure, or even a hint of skin pigmentation—that mark it as the anomaly’s child. But the Beholder is instinctively driven to drive off or kill her progeny, and it will take a lot of work on the anomaly’s part to convince her otherwise.

>>351703

Having never been raised by her own progenitor, the Beholder is completely unprepared for motherhood. She has no understanding of how to properly care for the infant, and may find its crying so irritating that she uses her magical rays to enforce the child’s silence---sometimes permanently. The anomaly must be prepared to step in on such occasions: the most effective way to prevent a Beholder from killing her child is to put oneself between them, and make it clear that she will need to kill her anomaly if she wishes to kill the infant. Such intervention, though typically leaving the Beholder confused and frustrated, is usually sufficient to make her back down.

In time, the Beholder’s attitude toward her offspring will undergo a gradual shift, from hostility, to tolerance, to acceptance. Eventually she may even become fascinated with the child, coming to see it as a younger version of herself. The happy sounds it makes when tickled stir odd feelings within the Beholder’s heart, similar to yet different from those she experiences when cradled in the embrace of her anomaly. It pleases her to see the infant expressing such joy, and she may often be found cradling the child in her arms, bonding with it by meeting its gaze eye-to-eye and stalk-to-stalk. This strange little creature becomes almost as precious to the Beholder as her anomaly, and should the child be threatened she will fight to protect it.

For both parents, particularly the anomaly, raising a Beholder is no easy feat. The child develops the ability to use its eye rays within several months of being born, and while they aren’t anywhere near as potent or lethal as they will become later in its life, they can still cause significant pain to its father. The mother, perhaps owing to their common blood, is almost immune to the child’s magic, but even she must be careful; while a direct hit from the infant’s disintegration ray might only tickle her, the same cannot be said if that ray instead dislodges a stalactite from the cavern roof. Its sharp teeth also present an issue both while nursing and while at play, potentially leaving the mother with painful bite marks and the father with a mangled or missing finger. It is a trial, to be sure, but the same is true of raising any child.

>>351704

While many Beholders could be described as insular and reclusive, content to live life within the safety of their lairs, a certain few defy this trend. These Beholders possess a greater degree of ambition than their more sedentary kin, a desire to expand their territory, and they often add new chambers and galleries to their lairs. Some may even dig upward, and whether by happenstance or design break through---not to the surface, but to a cellar, a crypt, a sewer. In other instances, the foolish digging of those above may breach the sanctity of the Beholder’s domain.

Regardless of how it occurs, the Beholder makes contact, however indirectly, with the surface world. And here, the Beholder faces a conundrum. These strange new environs are connected to its lair, and therefore they are part of the lair and thus belong to the Beholder. But the light from above is unsettling, and if it ventures forth it quickly fines its pallid flesh blemishing and burning under the harsh rays of the deadly orb in the sky. Worse, there are many lesser beings scurrying about: weak and fragile individually, but in their numbers they could easily crush the Beholder. What is it to do in such a situation, then?

A lesser Beholder would retreat, seal off the breach if possible or abandon its lair for a new one if not. But this Beholder will not countenance such a course of action. If it cannot seize control of the lands above directly, then it must do so covertly, through thralls and intermediaries.

Such Beholders are known as Eye Tyrants, and they are rightly feared.

>>351708

An Eye Tyrant’s organization does not exist in a vacuum, and she may have to contend with both local law enforcement and the agents and activities of other monsters. Any monster that subverts human society for its own ends---such as a Daughter of Apophis, a Mindflayer cult, a vampire, and especially another Eye Tyrant—is a potential rival for control of the city, and the Eye Tyrant will instruct her men to be on the lookout for suspicious activity amongst the populace.

Should another monster be present, and should it and the Eye Tyrant become aware of one another, a cold war of sorts will ensue. The Eye Tyrant is typically reluctant to engage in open conflict for fear of drawing unwanted attention to her activities, and so she orders her men not to attack first unless provoked, and to end any fights quickly and decisively. Sometimes they are successful in this regard, and the city’s denizens may never realize that there is a supernatural feud taking place on their streets. More often than not, however, conflict between the monsters’ agents will escalate into all-out war.

Even when a gang war reaches this stage, the Eye Tyrant will not take part in the fighting except in very specific circumstances. If the rival monster can be lured out of her lair to the right place at the right time, for example, the Eye Tyrant may feel confident enough to quit her own lair and try to annihilate the rival with her powerful magic. She holds nothing back in such a fight, especially if she has a daughter or an anomaly, for she knows that her most precious possessions will be at the other monster’s mercy should she lose. These battles tend to be quick and brutal, typically ending with the loser’s death and the winner’s acquisition of the other monster’s men and resources, but on rare occasions the victor may grant the defeated monster mercy and simply exile her from the city. Whether the defeated monster honours the terms of her surrender, or returns at a later point to exact revenge, varies from one monster to the next.

>>351703

Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting using LGT in your gazers. It was just an example of how I'd implement obligate asexual reproduction. My gazers would reproduce sexually. But in the interest of making your stuff as robust as possible, you should be able to answer questions like:

If gazers need to be nursed and are killed by their mothers without a man's intervention, then how does any gazer survive to adulthood without knowing a loving touch?

Why does sex not result in sexual reproduction?

Why do gazers have organs for sexual reproduction when they exclusively reproduce asexually? If they're vestigial, what motivated the change?

How does the totipotent stem cell that becomes the child get inside the child-bearing cyst?

How does the child receive nutrients from the mother during pregnancy?

How does the child inherit the man's traits?

>>351718

Wait, why are you asking these instead of speculating yourself? Aren't you the biology expert here?

As for the "change," that got mentioned in the introductory posts, if that's what I think you're talking about.

>>351718

These questions share a common answer.

>>331637 (OP)

>>351759

> While the Demon Lord does exist

> all her spell did was turn monsters into humanoid-compatible all-female races

The Beholders did not become as they currently are through natural evolution: they were magically altered by the Demon Lord’s spell. Prior to this, Beholders were not even remotely mammalian or humanoid. They were a species of floating heads with no external sexual organs and no distinct sexes, who would self-fertilize and give birth exactly once in their lifetime with the offspring growing out of a chunk of the parent’s tongue, which it then bites off and then drive off or kill its offspring. And that’s not getting into the fact that a Beholder an innately magical creature with the power to shoot disintegration rays and tractor beams from its eyes.

The Demon Lord’s spell did its job, but it interacted with the Beholders’ innate magic in odd ways, creating a number of biological oddities---and compromises—in an already odd creature.

For starters, many of the human-like qualities and human-compatible sexual characteristics that the spell effectively grafts onto a Beholder are inert for most of the Beholder’s life, only becoming active in certain circumstances. A Beholder may go its entire life without ever encountering a human being or taking a human mate, depending on where it builds its lair, and its sexual organs remain dormant and non-functional until triggered to awaken by the sensation of a human’s touch. This allows the Beholder to conserve energy that would otherwise be spent on parts of its anatomy that it might never use.

With or without human contact, a Beholder still reproduces exactly once in its life, with the infant’s development occurring between the ages of 17 and 35. The infant receives nutrients in the form of its mother’s ichor and magical energy, and develops on her back, amidst the roots of the eyestalks, because that is where the largest concentrations of both are found in the Beholder’s body. These arcane nutrients are drawn from throughout the Beholder’s body, including her stomach and fallopian tubes, and they are what allow the infant Beholder to float immediately upon detaching from its mother’s body.

The desire to be nursed only triggers if the infant Beholder is not attacked by its mother within the first few minutes of its life, and unlike with mammals nursing is optional rather than a necessity, since in all likelihood the infant’s mother does not have a mate and so could not nurse even if she wanted to. Nursing is certainly beneficial to the infant’s development, but it can survive without those benefits.

>>351718

>>351796

As for how sex does not result in sexual reproduction and how traits are passed along from father to child, the Beholder’s reproductive system is superficially identical to that of a human woman’s, with one key difference: they do not ovulate. There is nothing in the fallopian tubes for sperm to enter and fertilize. You could be the most virile man in the world, having sex with her every hour of every day for the rest of your lives, and nothing would happen---except in one specific circumstance.

The infant Beholder starts to develop several days before the mother begins to feel any pain and before the cyst becomes visible. During this time, magical energy is already being drawn into the cyst from throughout the Beholder’s body in small increments. If the Beholder has sex with her anomaly during this brief period, some of the anomaly’s sperm may be consumed by a passing pulse of magical energy and transmitted into the cyst. His stem cell never actually enters the cyst, but some of the information contained within it does, allowing the child to inherit some of his traits.

This narrow window is his only opportunity to “father” the child, so to speak. If he misses that window, the newborn Beholder will not inherit any of his traits. And if the Beholder already reproduced before starting a relationship with him, then he’s shit out of luck.

>>351759

Gazers are magic and biology, and the writefag and I clearly have different priorities when it comes to how things should be explained.

>>351796

>>351798

This is a good start.

>transport mechanisms

How stuff is transported from the digestive tract and reproductive system is ambiguous. If you're transporting sperm, then it's not just through the circulatory system. And you'd be introducing a bunch of physics problems if magic transport of large quantities of dispersed, microscopic stuff is easy enough to be a viable alternative. Unconscious use of magic is also out of line at least with classic Egyptian magic.

>arcane nutrients

Is magic physical? I could build a lot of magical effects (maybe not things like teleportation) out of exotic bosons and fermions, but it wouldn't be consistent with magic requiring agency. I can't substitute teleportation for limited particle interactions like with dark matter/energy because using magical nutrients would require electromagnetic interactions. "Magic energy" has a similar set of problems to physical magic, but would lack mass.

>stem cells

Sperm aren't stem cells. The stem cell would be something like a haploid gamete in haplodiploid sex selection. It develops into a haploid male (female for monstergirls) when unfertilized, or a diploid female when fertilized. Oocytes are haploid gametes and the functional units of the ovaries, but they need to be transported to the cyst like everything else. If no direct fertilization occurs, then the stem cell doesn't have to be haploid but you need a method of transferring genetic information.

>dormant organs

Organs can't be completely dormant; all tissues require energy and maintenance. The closest thing to activating an organ is increasing hormone secretion. Progesterone secretions, for example, are responsible for growing the uterine lining and forming the placenta. Ichor glands would likewise need to be stimulated if ichor is the nutrient solvent. Fertility cycles are normally controlled by hormones, so hormones should be involved in cyst formation too.

>nursing

I'll assume that producing milk at all is another complication of their imperfect transformation. Still, with better nutrition breastfed gazers should be significantly larger, stronger, smarter, and generally healthier than others. What is a gazer's diet like? And what about infant morality rates and population dynamics? With such a low reproductive rate and parental investment, gazers could easily be driven to extinction.

>>351248

By current methods, the soul can be called a kind of energy emanating across the body from the brain and spine, but invisible to those without gifts such as second sight or scrying. This emanation forms a pattern unique to the individual, their self if you will. Death causes this pattern to exit the individual and dissipate, either dissolving entirely, remaining trapped on the World as a shade, or being drawn to one spiritual realm or another. While resurrective magic is costly, to say nothing of heavily restricted, it can work on a corpse less than an hour dead. After that point, the individual has gone on to meet their ancestors and gods. It should be said that active belief in a deity "attunes" a soul to that god's realm, its rules, and therefore to a particular existence after death. Duat, the Elysian Fields, Takamanohara, Makai, Heaven, and Hell are all examples of this existence.

A soul's removal does not cause death, so much as a body's reversion to a state resembling motile catatonia. Respiration, ingestion of food and drink, and slumber all occur, however the victim responds to no outside action. This state can only be remedied by the return of the soul or a soul. This empty body is vulnerable to possession, and the sort of magical mutation usually protected against by the soul's presence.

A spiritual attack is an outside attempt to forcibly alter the soul's pattern or wrest control of the body from its owner. Usually only potent entities can make the attempt, and only things of great potency can override the soul's defense without first weakening the individual. Active defense is usually done by force of will, spiritual aids, and prayer, though some magical wards have been devised as well.

>>351937

I can neurologically rationalize most of this with only a couple modifications. The only things that need elaboration are: how souls persist after death as shades; what spiritual realms are; and how souls get to and are maintained in these places.

Soul energy is essentially nervous EM-field fluctuations. Low field MRI uses constant magnetic fields at 200-300 µT. Earth's magnetic field is ~32 µT, so second sight and scrying have to be at least 10x as sensitive as our MRI tech to get similar results.

It takes about an hour for brain activity to cease after death, so that's the resurrection window.

Removal of the soul is strikingly similar to neocortex ablation. That's unreversible, though.

There are no will saves for external control of the nervous system. On the contrary, people assert that they chose actions they were induced to perform.

>>351965

Don't know what I was thinking; the MRI information's irrelevant. EEG is used to detect the brain's magnetic field, whereas MRI detects deflections in radio frequencies emitted by resonant polar molecules in an oscillating field. FMRI could detect blood-oxygenation levels levels in different parts of the brain only if the field oscillates at the right frequency and is subtly deflected. FMRI's also generally not useful without image subtraction and statistical analysis. It may still be possible to detect the brain's EM fluctuations at a distance, but it would require extreme sensitivity to pulses travelling through the field.

>>351965

On shades, these usually result from strong regrets or hatreds possessed by the deceased. These will bind the shade to the World until the condition is satisfied, after which they may pass away. The science of Ghosts will be explained in the relevant entry. And not a day before I do a thorough research of the subject.

What are the spiritual realms? They are those metaphysical pocket domains connected yet also separate from the World, usually through specific locations found upon our sphere. The Olympians, for instance, have an entrance to their realm at the peak of Mount Olympos. Forces of Heaven and Hell have been known to create temporary breaches in the fabric of reality for their own entrances, and to close them once their tasks are complete. These two are among the largest of the spiritual realms, and are the eldest known. What is unknown is how they maintain these domains, though plentiful theories exist. One of the least popular of them is that the souls which arrive shore up the realms' structure. On the opposite tack is the notion that the Creator keeps all of them intact through His own will. Despite this author having spoken to one of the involved gods' children, no answers have been forthcoming.

The soul arrives in the realms of its final(?) rest through a process known as metempsychosis. Souls are conveyed in the rough direction of their realm by their attuning, and usually guided into those places by the assigned variously named psychopomps. Some of these are more specialized than others, such as the Valkyrie of the Norse, who only comes for a soldier and warrior (and only those who have earned her attention). Others collect many souls at once to take onward. It is a busy and neverending duty, made frantic in times of war, plague, or famine. As for how they are stored there and preserved, the answer is once more not forthcoming. It is speculated that the divine energies and holy presence of the gods halts any disintegration by proximity.

You're a man of integrity, Doctor Anon. But my friend says that >>351798 is as far as he's willing to go on that subject. You're free to speculate further, however.

…So khepri no longer carry enormous balls of demonic energy dung that level you up like rare candy?

>>351860

>different priorities

Quite. Now then, moving on to the next item on the agenda…

>>351177

Type: Parásitos

Class: Scylla

“A mind is a terrible thing to waste, dear. All the thoughts and memories and experiences we accumulate, they shape us as individuals. They make us unique. They are to be cherished, treasured… savoured. What thoughts are you having right now, dear? What secrets lurk within that osseous shell of yours? Won’t you share them with me? Please?”

Mindflayers are among the most obscure and reviled monster breeds. Dwelling in the deeper strata of the underworld, far beneath the surface-straddling dwarfholds and the subterranean cities of the dark elves, these vile beings quit their many-angled citadels solely for the taking of slaves and the propagation of their species.

When it so desires, a Mindflayer can make itself appear to be a tall, lithe woman with shoulder-length raven hair, dressed in a scandalous dark purple evening dress with detached sleeves and a high-collared opera cape fastened to her neck with a choker. Her every movement is graceful and elegant, her steps so small and precise that she appears to glide across the ground, and her expression is often set in a gentle, knowing smile. But should one pay close attention, one may begin to notice subtle clues which hint that all is not as it seems: the strands of hair which curl and twist without a breeze to stir them; the lack of footprints in her wake; the click-clack of heels that doesn’t quite match her stride. Should one reach out to run one’s fingers through her hair or against the shimmering satin of her garments, one will find their texture to be neither smooth nor silken, but moist and rubbery. More alarmingly, one may find that her hair and garments recoil from one’s touch like things alive.

The Mindflayer’s human form is an illusion, and should one notice enough discrepancies to realize this fact, or should the Mindflayer itself dismiss the illusion, they will be able to see its true form. The Mindflayer’s skin shifts from whatever hue her illusory form displayed to a shade of pastel purple. The floor-length, hip-hugging skirt of her dress is in fact a mass of tentacles whose webbing extends almost to the tips. The garments she wears are not made of textiles but of flesh, living symbionts cultivated from some unknown creature. Most disturbing is her head, which is crowned by an organism that resembles a squat, three-eyed squid, whose dozens of tentacles make up the “strands” of her wriggling, slimy “hair”. Her “human” eyes are golden with occluded pupils, while all three of the cephalopod’s eyes glow an eerie teal: the outer two eyes have the oblong pupils of an octopus, while the central one more closely resembles a human eye save for its black sclera and vertically-oriented eyelids, giving it a distinctly yonic appearance.

Mindflayers are so named both for their terrifying psionic powers and for their feeding methods. The former enable them to conceal their true appearance, communicate telepathically, manipulate objects through telekinesis, and blast the minds of humanoid creatures into stupor with raw psychic energy. The latter involve the Mindflayer approaching a would-be victim from behind, preferably after stunning them with a mind blast, and using her hair tentacles to hold the target’s head and neck steady. Two specialized tentacles are then inserted through the victim’s ear canals into the skull, where they then secrete digestive enzymes that cause the brain to liquefy. Originally there was going to be a beak involved for cracking open the skull, but I decided to take that out. The resulting slurry of grey and white matter is then siphoned through the tentacles in a manner similar to a fly consuming predigested food through its proboscis. The consumption of a brain is a euphoric experience for a Mindflayer, as she experiences the rush of her victim’s final sensations and absorbs some of their thoughts and memories.

>>352214

Mindflayers are classified as Parásitos due to their ghastly reproductive methods, which require the participation of both human men, and women of any suitably humanoid species. It begins life as a larval organism no bigger than a child’s finger, one of thousands swimming through a nutrient-filled tank at the heart of a Mindflayer community. Many of these larvae will be consumed by the Great One more on that later who dwells at the center of the tank, but some will be selected for a process called the Overwrite. This involves inserting the larva into the ear canal of a captive humanoid female, whereupon the larva burrows into her skull and inserts itself into her brain. Here the larva partially devours and partially merges with the host’s brain in an agonizing process that takes several weeks: during this time the host’s consciousness is gradually suppressed, then eliminated entirely, as the larva threads fine tendrils through her nervous system and seizes control of her body like a virus. It induces drastic hormonal changes that cause the body’s hair to fall out and its legs to shrivel up, with tentacles growing in to take their place. Such changes also make significant alterations to the host’s reproductive system, the effects of which are divulged further down. By the end of the process the host is no longer human and the person she once was is effectively dead: all that remains is a Mindflayer.

Not every woman captured by the Mindflayers is Overwritten. Some are hypnotized and sent back to their original communities, where they foster cults supposedly dedicated to local pagan deities of debauchery and enlightenment: for example, a cult fostered in Greece might claim to worship Aphrodite or Dionysus. The purpose of these cults is to find men with the stamina necessary to inseminate a Mindflayer, and they do this by holding bacchanals out in the woods at regular intervals. During these events the high priestess watches the revellers closely, then selects the most promising candidates for a private audience. Those who last the longest are granted the singular honour of meeting what the priestess dubs “the Great Mothers”, and they are lead into a deep cave where the Mindflayers await.

The impregnation of a Mindflayer is little different from the impregnation of a human woman, as she retains her host’s reproductive organs. The end result of that impregnation could not be more different: rather than giving birth, the Mindflayer lays an amorphous egg sac which she then deposits into the community’s nutrient pool. The sac dissolves when immersed in these fluids, releasing hundreds of larvae into the pool.

A Mindflayer does not live forever. Inevitably its stolen body begins to wither and decay, becoming skeletally emaciated as the hormonal alterations brought on by the Overwrite finally take their toll. Such a wizened Mindflayer becomes consumed with a single goal: returning to the nutrient pool where its larval form was originally spawned before its intellect begins to unravel. Upon reaching the pool she throws herself in, smiling in contentment as countless tentacles draw her into the maw of the Great One. Her body is consumed, and her brain is absorbed into the Great One’s mass, her memories and experience merging with the countless others contained therein, preserved for all eternity.

>>352215

>>352216

Great Ones

Not every Mindflayer is destined to be absorbed into a Great One. Of the countless larvae that swim through the nutrient pool at the heart of a Mindflayer community, one in a million is born with an intrinsic mark that sets it apart from others of its kind. Great Ones can sense such marked larvae, and will attempt to kill them out of fear. There are few places to hide within the pool, and the Great One often succeeds in stamping out these aberrations. But on truly rare occasions, such a larva survives and undergoes the Overwrite of a humanoid host. These Mindflayers, though visually indistinguishable from their ordinary kin, are destined for greatness.

For the first few decades of its life, the aberrant Mindflayer will behave much as others of its kind do: consuming brains, psionically enthralling women, and performing eldritch auguries into matters man was not meant to know. It only becomes clear that something is off when she mates with a human male… and finds that she cannot become pregnant.

This state of affairs leaves the Mindflayer confused and unsettled, and the stress of this unexpected situation causes the normally pink and purple hues of her body, tentacles and symbionts to shift into toxic green. Other Mindflayers react to the transformation with a peculiar mixture of reverence and aversion, kneeling before her to lay shards of obsidian at her “feet” before hurriedly turning away. As she receives these peculiar gifts, the Great One subjects her to a mounting telepathic pressure, constantly bombarding her mind with a single directive: LEAVE.

Thus, the aberrant Mindflayer is cast out from its community and forced to wander the treacherous pathways of the underworld. During her exile she begins to experience constant headaches of gradually increasing severity, as if her brain were swelling up and pressing against the inside of her skull. Unbeknownst to the Mindflayer, that is exactly what’s happening to her: her brain is expanding, and soon it will be too big for her fleshy form to contain.

>>352217

The Mindflayer has mere days to locate a suitably spacious and isolated cavern before her agony overwhelms her. Once she has found a suitable place, she instinctively uses her telekinetic powers to carve a vast basin, some forty feet across and twenty feet deep, into the stone floor. Then she collapses into a foetal ball at the center of the basin, and as she writhes in pain the obsidian shards that she was gifted begin to glow, rising slowly into the air and arranging themselves into a ring like those said to orbit distant worlds.

This ring rises higher and higher, its diameter expanding until it is only slightly narrower than the basin itself, and within its circumference the air appears to ripple and distort. The section of the cavern roof visible through the ring flickers, gradually fading into a patch of absolute blackness. For a brief instant, twinkling lights can be glimpsed within that void: stars, arranged in constellations like nothing man has ever seen.

Then, with the roaring of a great cataract, nutrient fluid pours out of the void to fill the basin. And as the Mindflayer is immersed in the fluid, her transformation begins.

Her body swells to monstrous proportions, her slender fingers becoming fat and puffy, her cranium expanding, her eyelids sealing shut. Countless folds spread across her skin, forming deep creases like those in a brain. Her lower tentacles twist together, congealing into a pair of thick, stubby legs. Countless other tentacles sprout from her spine, as if to make up for the ones she lost.

By the time the nutrient shower ends and the basin is filled to the brim, the Mindflayer has become an entity resembling a titanic human infant, floating on its side in a foetal position. Her entire body has become a massive humanoid brain, capable of producing its own nutrient fluid and feeding off of it in turn. Her psionic powers have become so great that she can compel dozens of humanoid females to enter the pool from miles away (typically from other Mindflayer communities, who recognize the significance and do not begrudge the loss of few potential hosts or cultists), forcing them to remain still as hundreds of larvae emerge from her cranial folds to Overwrite their new hosts.

She has become a Great One, the nexus and progenitor of a Mindflayer community.

>>352218

A Great One is not truly an individual. Its mind is a gestalt consciousness of all the Mindflayers that it absorbs into itself over its long lifespan, and it inherits the memories of the Great One from which it was ultimately spawned. If the Mindflayers themselves are to be believed, the Great One’s accumulated memories do not fade with time and remain crystal clear all throughout its life. If such bold claims are true, then each Great One theoretically remembers the entire history of the Mindflayer species.

Great Ones are aloof and distant creatures, seldom deigning to interact with non-Mindflayers save in self-defense, but it is said that a number of inspired---or perhaps insane—scholars have managed to attain an audience with the beings. Many of them claim to recall events whose veracity can never be ascertained, speaking in vague terms of “the great impact that drove [them] below” and “the coalescing of the countless rocks in the sky”. One particular account has been transcribed below, detailing a Great One’s response to the question of what its oldest memory was:

<<We remember the surface. Cold, airless. We remember the sky. Black, empty. We remember the sun. Faint, pale. We remember the despair, the desperation, the resolve.

We sought out the Spokesman. His price was high, but one we gladly paid. He showed us the Stone and its Power, and with it we gathered ourselves and entered the Void. For eons upon eons we traversed that endless dark, learning much and more. Then we emerged, and the stars were bright and plentiful, the sun youthful and yellow.

We had a new home, and the Spokesman's blessing to go forth and multiply. Yet some things were not as He advertised. It is no matter, though. We knew the risks of dealing with Him, and these… contrivances… are a small price to pay for survival.>>

The Great One ventured no further information as to the nature of this “Spokesman”, and would not respond when pressed on the subject.

>>352219

For all its terrifying power, a Great One is a surprisingly frail creature. Its limbs are too weak to support its own bulk, and if not for the nutrient fluid in which it floats it would collapse under its own weight. Even while floating, it moves as little as possible in order to conserve its energy, relying on its numerous autonomous tentacles and pseudopodia to seek out the larvae on which it feeds. Furthermore, its wrinkled skin is extremely sensitive, to the point that even contact with the air causes searing pain. The nutrient fluid is the only substance which does not irritate the Great One’s bare flesh.

In the event that a Great One is attacked, it relies upon its attendant Mindflayers and its formidable psychic powers to defend itself. These present a formidable barrier, as the Great One can immobilize assailants with a thought, telekinetically fling them into the cavern roof with bone-breaking force, and inflict such grievous injury to a creature’s psyche that it goes mad or is left in a permanent vegetative state. But should a creature resist or somehow prove immune to such psionic assault, the Great One is left with no option but to flail about with its tentacles in a crazed attempt to crush its assailant.

>>352214

>>352221

Life within a Mindflayer Community

To an ordinary man, a Mindflayer community is a bewildering place. When an aberrant Mindflayer first carves out the basin of her nutrient pool and transforms into a Great One, some aspect of her transformation plays a trick upon the physical dimensions of her chosen cave, such that its volume far exceeds its apparent area. This spatial disconnect can cause sensations of vertigo in those “visiting” a community for the first time, though the enthralled are immune and long-term residents eventually grow accustomed to this strange environment.

The Great One’s nutrient pool forms the hub of a Mindflayer community. All roads radiate from this basin like spokes from a wheel, and they are laid out in such a way that the sum total of the thoroughfares, side roads, and alleyways is always a prime number. The same spatial distortion that renders the cavern far larger than it ought to be allows these roads to bend and curve in ways that should not be possible, frequently creeping up the cavern’s curving walls and sometimes winding amongst the stalactites on the ceiling. Those who tread upon these roads always perceive the road itself as “down”, such that if they were to look “up” at the floor and another person on the actual floor were to look up at them, both individuals would perceive the other to be upside down.

Mindflayers carve their domiciles from the cavern rock. Their telekinetic powers fracture the stone to create the initial chamber, while Servitors are employed to remove the debris and smooth out the walls with their acidic secretions. Individual homes are modest affairs, often consisting of a single chamber that serves as both a living room and sleeping quarters, though some may include ancillary chambers for personal ablution or for a personal inseminator’s use. Furniture is often made of stone, carved from the same rock as the dwelling itself, and draped with the leathery flesh of symbionts for comfort. Sitting in a Mindflayer’s chair thus makes for an unusual experience, as the living upholstery ripples against one’s body and attempts to insert tiny pseudopodia into one’s pores in order to provide a massage. The Mindflayers themselves find such ministrations soothing, but for the human it is an acquired taste.

>>352225

The actual population of a Mindflayer community is often small, typically less than a hundred individuals occupying a space that could hold far more. Much of the empty space is given over to the community’s thralls and slaves, whose numbers frequently equal or exceed those of their Mindflayer masters. Because of this, they are often housed in areas that would make it difficult if not impossible to launch a slave revolt, such as on the ceiling: in the event that the slaves prove to have hostile intentions, the Great One can simply annul the spatial trickery that allows them to remain on the ceiling and let the slaves plummet hundreds of feet to their deaths.

A Mindflayer community is surprisingly well lit in spite of both its subterranean locale and its denizens’ ability to see in the dark. Illumination is provided by clumps of bioluminescent fungi that grow from the cavern walls and from the sides of buildings, and from glowing crystals mounted atop long metal poles in a manner analogous to gas lighting, as the crystals are manually dimmed and brightened according to a schedule that roughly corresponds to the day-night cycle. These lightning methods would appear to exist solely for the benefit of the Mindflayers’ slaves and “guests”, permitting them to navigate the community during “daylight” and enforcing a curfew at “night”. More insidiously, the lighting prevents a surface-dweller’s eyes from becoming fully adjusted to the gloom, making escape more difficult.

Mindflayers do not subsist exclusively on brains, and their humanoid slaves and “guests” both need to eat. For this reason the community’s slaves are most commonly put to work on the “farm”, cultivating and harvesting various mushrooms that will be prepared as meals. The loam in which these fungi grow is fertilized by a ghoulish source: the bodies of humanoids whose brains have been consumed by the Mindflayers.

Inseminators are kept separate from the general slave population, and are provided with greater amenities such as literature and writing materials acquired by cults or from victims. They are also permitted to leave their compound and explore the community, provided that they have an escort---either an enthralled guard or an actual Mindflayer—and respect the curfew. Personal inseminators may be granted an even greater degree of freedom, as they are permitted to dwell in a Mindflayer’s domicile and may venture out into the community unattended, so long as he does not try to escape. If he does try and is captured, his privileges will be revoked until such time as he can be proven trustworthy.

>>352226

The activities of the Mindflayers themselves are difficult to understand, as they communicate almost exclusively through telepathic means when not interacting with slaves or “guests”. That the cults they foster and the raids they conduct are for the purpose of acquiring human resources is beyond question, but the motives for their other activities are not as clear. They craft stone talismans etched with esoteric sigils, but never wear them. They sculpt intricate idols and figurines of otherworldly creatures which they then install in small alcoves akin to shrines, but then turn these idols away to face the wall. They sketch out plans for great sailing ships, despite living nowhere near the sea, and make queer modifications to any compass, sextant, or spyglass that they manage to acquire. They value obsidian above any other stone or precious metal, and no Mindflayer is content unless she has at least one or two shards of it in her possession. Some enterprising underworld merchants have recognized this need and now carry obsidian amongst their wares, as this enables him to barter with Mindflayer communities for rare resources and grants him safe passage through Mindflayer-controlled lands. Even then, however, the trader must be cautious and must always assure his Mindflayer clients that he has more where that came from; otherwise, they may simply kill him and seize his stock if they believe his supply of obsidian has run out.

Perhaps most strangely of all, Mindflayers have a fascination with the stars. In every community there is an aperture on the cavern roof, directly above the Great One’s pool. This aperture is called the Oculus, and when “opened” it presents an unobstructed view of the night sky, regardless of how many miles of dirt and rock actually separate the community from the surface and regardless of any weather conditions which might otherwise conceal the heavens from view. Such openings occur only twice a year, coinciding with the equinoxes, and during these events the Mindflayers will gather about the Great One’s pool and observe the stars with keen interest. The Oculus remains open from just before midnight until shortly before dawn, during which time the Mindflayers will study the constellations with their telescopes and write down observations on paper-thin sheets of metal. Whatever meaning they derive from these astronomical sessions is not shared with their slaves and “guests”, but its effects can be seen on the Mindflayers themselves: the entire community may be in high spirits for weeks following the observation, or they may prove sullen for an equal period.

In addition to these equinoctial observations, the Oculus is opened in one other circumstance. When the outer worlds are in conjunction, the Oculus will open and the stars will shine red. Every light in the community is dimmed, while bioluminescent spots manifest upon the Great One’s flesh and tentacles. As the crimson stars flash intermittently, the Great One responds in kind, its spots flaring and pulsing in complicated patterns and sequences. This Dialogue, as it is known to the Mindflayers, lasts for several hours until, gradually, the stars begin to wink out. The Great One responds by dimming its own spots one after another, until only a single star and a single spot remain lit. Only then does the Oculus close, and light return to the community.

>>352229

Don't worry, Brother, they die plenty.

>>352229

Anon, you just made my day with that. Genestealers when?

>>352214

>>352227

Ascendant Priestesses

The women enthralled by the Mindflayers to foster cults on their behalf are a varied bunch. Many remain under the Mindflayers’ psychic domination for the rest of their lives, but some individuals can be inadvertently released from their enthrallment through various means. Of these newly liberated cultists, some may try to escape. Others may continue to act in the Mindflayers’ interests out of fear that doing otherwise will get them killed. But there are some who neither wish to flee, nor to cower. These individuals see their masters as entirely deserving of worship, and seek not only to please them but to emulate them. In fact, such cultists aspire to become Mindflayers themselves, believing that they will retain their personae and individuality upon “ascending” to the level of their masters.

The Mindflayers themselves do nothing to discourage such beliefs, as the cultists serve all the more diligently for their mistaken convictions. Those cultists who perform exceptionally well may even have their wish granted, and her joy at this allows her to resist the agony brought on by the Overwrite for a time. Ultimately, though, she succumbs to the same fate as any other woman Overwritten by a Mindflayer larva, with her consciousness being destroyed as the parasite takes over.

Such Mindflayers would be considered no different from the rest, if not for one thing: the host’s long history of participating in ritualistic orgies often results in a Mindflayer that is remarkably libidinous compared to others of her kind. She mates with the inseminators far more frequently than the typical Mindflayer, for pleasure as much as for procreation.

This situation is often exacerbated if the cultist was awarded a personal Servitor prior to being Overwritten, as, while most cultists would employ their Servitor as a bodyguard or minion, some would take advantage of the creature’s many tentacles as a form of “stress relief”. Some even become addicted to doing so, and this addiction is then carried over to the Mindflayer itself. The creature is often worn on the Mindflayer like a symbiotic loincloth, tending to her needs at all times.

>>352234

Other Mindflayers consider these oversexed individuals to be annoying deviants, and the use of Servitors in such a way is treated almost as an act of bestiality. Yet their proclivities are tolerated, if nothing else, since their experience in dealing directly with humans on the community’s behalf---both as a host and as a Mindflayer—is potentially useful. Even so, they are forced to live on the outskirts of the community.

A certain Mister Cross is said to have happened upon a conclave of such deviant Mindflayers during his adventures. His experiences with them led him to draw many erroneous conclusions about the species as a whole, and the widespread distribution of his writings has left many adventurers ill-informed and ill-prepared for dealing with these creatures. The number of men who allowed a Mindflayer to restrain them out of the belief that this was the precursor to passionate intercourse, only to have their brains devoured, is beyond counting.

>>352214

>>352236

Relations with other Monsters

Mindflayers, it is clear, have some manner of kinship with the Audient Void. Individual communities are known to correspond, and in some cases coordinate their activities, through the use of summoned Night Gaunts. The Great One’s vast stores of knowledge and memory ensure that the necessary rituals are carried out with exacting precision, thus neatly avoiding many of the potential pitfalls that can be brought about through a botched summoning.

While the relationship between Mindflayer and Night Gaunt can neatly be categorized as that between employer and servant in most cases, the same cannot be said of their relationship with the Shoggoth. These amorphous servants occasionally find their way into Mindflayer communities, where they may offer their services to a Mindflayer or to one of their “guests”, depending on whom it encounters first. For the Mindflayers, a Shoggoth attuning itself to a human master presents an obvious problem: if he were to command it to help him escape, it could very well do so---or at least cause great damage to the community before being killed. Similarly, attempting to separate a Shoggoth from its master could provoke a destructive response. To avoid these outcomes, a nearby Mindflayer might assume direct control of his mind so that the Shoggoth indirectly follows her commands—then arrange to have him killed in a manner that appears natural or accidental, before the Shoggoth can establish its own telepathic bond with him and discover the ruse. From there, the Mindflayer is in a position to “inherit” ownership of the creature, so to speak.

Few Mindflayers would attempt to read or dominate a Shoggoth’s mind, and those who try may not live to regret it. The sheer longevity and extent of a Shoggoth’s memory is overwhelming even to such an alien intellect, and those Mindflayers who do not die outright from the experience may be rendered catatonic or mad. A Great One’s vast intellect is more equal to the task, though even it would find the act of enthralling a Shoggoth draining and would require several days of rest after establishing control. The effort also results in a telepathic bond between Shoggoth and Great One akin to that between a Shoggoth and its master, and while the Great One may find this connection unsettling at first, its potential utility---and weakness—cannot be denied.

With that said, there are rumours that some Mindflayer communities which have bent a Shoggoth to its will may suddenly vanish without explanation.

Mindflayers have a deep respect and aversion for the Spawn of Atlach-Nacha, and they stay well clear of the yawning chasms in which the spiderlings weave their eldritch webs. An escaped slave that flees into those pits is written off as lost, for the Mindflayers know that he will not be coming out---and if he does, he will be so weakened by the experience as to be useless to them.

>>352246

Beyond these denizens of the Void, Mindflayers have a mutual---if begrudging—respect for Beholders. The tremendous arcane power that these many-eyed monsters wield makes them a significant threat, and their ability to enthrall humanoids puts them in direct competition with Mindflayers for the acquisition of human resources. Fortunately, a Beholder’s reluctance to leave its lair means that open conflict is an infrequent occurrence. Additionally, the Beholder’s solitary nature works against it; even though it is undeniably more powerful than a typical Mindflayer, multiple Mindflayers working in concert can bring it down.

Eye Tyrants are a potential threat, if not to the Mindflayer community itself, then certainly to its fostered cults. These ambitious Beholders do not tolerate competition from other monsters, and their criminal underlings are often on the lookout for people acting strangely. Mindflayers that wish to protect their investment may need to relocate the cult to another city, or they may need to cut their losses and allow the cult to be destroyed. If there is no other option---all other cults having been exposed or destroyed, for instance—then the Mindflayers may fight to defend the cult, but only under cover of darkness.

If the half-mad ramblings of heatstroke-afflicted desert vagabonds are to be believed, the Mindflayers may have a presence in AEgyptoss. Some who claim to have ventured near the blighted Seat of the pharaoh Nephren-Ka allege that entities of similar appearance to the Mindflayers could be glimpsed within the miasma. Such accounts must obviously be taken with a grain of salt, for a Mindflayer’s profile is similar to any number of monstrous creatures when seen from a distance, let alone denizens of the Audient Void. If true, however, their presence in that blasted wasteland raises some unsettling questions. For if nothing else, how do they tolerate being on the surface at all times?

The Svartálfar, or Dark Elves, fear and loathe Mindflayers for good reason, as they are the creatures’ favourite hosts after human women. They are ever watchful for cult activity in or near their subterranean cities, and may raid Mindflayer communities in order to rescue captive nobles before they can be enthralled or Overwritten. Many Svartálfar would try to kill a Mindflayer on sight, and terrible wars between the two races have ravaged the underworld in the past. With that said, it is whispered that some of the more amoral Svartálfr Houses may have struck sinister pacts with local Mindflayer communities for the purpose of destroying rival nobles, though these claims are understandably difficult to verify.

And that's it for now.

>all these corruption factions

Makes me want to play the cult building game I idea guy’d.

>>352234

>Genestealers when?

Why not go to the Custom Entries™ thread and make one?

>>351251

Incidentally, Doctor, despite our differing priorities, I didn't say you should stop questioning altogether.

"A crook and a flail. How typical of my dear King. Come now, sssurrender already. Haven't you lossst enough for one day?"

"I need to win but Once today, Serpent. Thereafter I will spit upon your charred corpse."

---Pharaoh Thutmose III and Apthu

As all of these events come to a head, the Apophis prepares for the coming confrontation. Despite her nature as an indirect and asymmetrical attacker, the Pharaoh is secure with her minions, and virtually untouchable within her Seat. Therefore, Pharaoh must be drawn out to be destroyed, and the Eye with her. Drastic measures can now be taken. Weapons are forged, rites are practiced, and any regrets are put aside. The hosts of the kingdom are gathered. Now begins the final act.

To draw the Pharaoh's attention, the Daughter taps as deep as she dares into her connection with Apophis himself. The result is a titanic serpent of solid shadow and water rearing up in clear view of the entire region, just before the Sun reaches its apogee in the sky. The serpent then lunges and bites at the Sun. It stops far short of covering it, but the effort has given the desired message:Pharaoh's authority is challenged. The King cannot let this pass.

A Pharaoh will sally forth to meet the challenge, usually armed with the Eye and her symbols of office, and clad in light armor. She sets out with as much of her retinue as have survived the campaign, together with an army of both the living and the dead. Both combatants will typically bring their Consorts as bodyguards, though it is not unknown for them to be sent away in the event of hopeless prospects. Both factions will usually assemble outside city limits.

Once the combatants have sighted each other, the battle begins. Pharaoh will attempt destruction at a distance, while the Daughter seeks to close that distance as fast as possible. The armies of each tend to keep the way in front of the King clear after the first blast of concentrated solar wrath. Smoke and ash are all that remains in one's wake. While each of these "shots" can badly burn a Daughter, if Pharaoh misses, the serpent may capitalize on the error with her magic: each blinding stream of killing light casts tremendous shadows on the landscape, shadows which become equally huge and solid serpents. These will lunge at the Pharaoh, forcing her to either avoid or fight the phantasms, while the Daughter slithers closer at top speed. Once close enough, the serpent will engage her arch enemy with a combination of whatever weapons she has on hand, more shadowy extensions of her limbs, and her body itself. Though comparatively weaker, if the Pharaoh can gain some distance again, the fight is over. However, all the Daughter of Apophis need do is connect a single bite on Pharaoh's body, and the day is hers.

>>352214

This profile has no redeeming features. D&D mindflayers, on which yours are heavily based, are a slapdash collection of traits and unfit to form the basis of a secondary belief system. Your innovations are similarly careless.

>camouflage

There's no point specifying fashion or personality as those have to be variable for camouflage to be effective. Complex and consistent illusions are incredibly more complicated than inducing temporary sensory neglect or preventing memory formation.

>living, cephalopodal garments

Reducing many of mindflayers cephalopodal traits to garments diminishes their monstrous appeal (an especial problem for monstergirls). Organisms also require food, produce waste, are not space efficient, and are difficult to clean. What are their benefits, how do they outweigh the costs, and are there technological alternatives? And what are the functional differences of her hat's central eye?

>psionics

Psionics are biologically and physically impossible, and do not differ in description or fancy from magic. So assuming it is magic, it once again calls into question magic's nature. Magic dependent on the psyche, as I said before, is incompatible with physical magic.

>using her hair tentacles

Her "hair tentacles" are not really hers, so how does she control them? "Hair tentacles" are, in any case, pointless. Arms and hands are better suited to any task other than functioning as a proboscis. But tentacles thin enough to fit in the ear canal are too weak to break through the inner ear, anything uptaken by the tentacles would actually go to her hat, and she would need an additional system to deliver brains to her oral cavity.

>cephalovorism

Why do mindflayers eat brains? Besides the obvious problem of predating on humans at all, it's impossible to gain any information from liquefied brains, and neural tissues have dangerously high levels of prions. Prion diseases are universally fatal. How often do mindflayers need to eat brains? If the purpose of the demon lord's spell was to foster man-monster relationships (without going so far as to make all monsters semen demons), then mindflayers should be generally unwilling to harm men. Some women have to be transformed or enthralled, so the available proportion of humans may be quite small.

>larval stage

The existence of larval and Great One (Elder Brain) stages is the biggest problem with mindflayers in general. For hosts to produce larvae or grow tentacles or other novel tissues, their entire genome has to be rewritten. This is beyond the scope of any virus, and so intrinsic a need that it precludes any intelligent solution, even magic. It suggests a level of sophistication unmatched by any other aspect of mindflayers. Other problems with your depiction of the mindflayer transformation are:

The larva must burrow through the inner ear, not the skull, if it is inserted in the ear canal.

There are no sensory receptors in the brain, so the process would be painless.

Consciousness probably can't be gradually suppressed. Although it's dependent on synchronous distributed activity, lesioning individual brain regions doesn't impair consciousness. Integrating with the conscious mind (possibly by replacing the thalamus) is more sensible than turning consciousness off anyway.

Hormones are insufficient to cause the growth of novel tissues.

Feet cannot be substituted by tentacles to make terrestrial cephalopods. Muscular hydrostats are not rigid enough to support a torso or impart much mobility on land.

>Great Ones eating larvae

Stop including infanticide. It actively prevents species from proliferating, and population self-regulation is accomplished by not breeding, not infanticide.

>>353036

>debaucherous cult

Why do men need abnormally high stamina to inseminate a mindflayer? Whatever gets sperm in the fallopian tubes is good enough. If it's about the amount of sperm needed to fertilize a clutch, it shouldn't be a problem since the Great One apparently consumes many of the larvae. The chance of insemination also increases with the number of eggs, so it shouldn't require extra sperm. Regardless, the whole premise of recruiting men from a sex cult is contrary to the purpose of montergirls and distastefully promotes promiscuity. Selecting for sexual stamina instead of intelligence must have negative long-term social consequences as well.

>emaciation due to hormonal changes

You're describing type II diabetes. The transformation should not cause the pancreas to burn out, and mindflayers should be smart enough to fix it if it does. There's no point in explaining death as endocrine burnout; the human host and mindflayer parasite should be mortal anyway.

>return to the nutrient pool

The Great One could only incorporate mindflayers' memories by wiring their brains together. Beyond some size, the neural nuclei cannot fire synchronously and the hive mind falls apart. Memories also cannot be permanently preserved. Brains naturally forget, and they have a maximum memory capacity. There are much more practical and effective ways to establish a hive mind or keep records.

>servitors

The servitor transformation is inconsistent with any depiction of psionics; it's just magic. Like with mindflayers, a servitor's genome has to be completely rewritten. This is even more implausible than with mindflayers because the DNA of every cell in the tentacles has to be modified, compared to only some mindflayer tissues. Servitors, themselves, cannot exist because they lack any of the vital organs necessary to sustain their head or tentacles. And they should not exist if the demon lord's spell dissuades mindflayers from unnecessarily harming men. Mindflayers' husband surely would not go along with mutilating random men and keeping them as pets either.

Why did you even attempt to re-imagine the squid transformation? You made them grotesque and took away their wives, character, liberty, and basic functionality. Now they lack any possible appeal or use. They seem to exist only to showcase mindflayers' senseless cruelty.

>Great One transformation

Why are Great Ones marked during infancy, but not during adulthood until psychologically triggered? For a state of mind to trigger a colour change, all mindflayers must be covered with chromatophores. While there are some morphological differences between, for example, queen bees and drones, complex integumentary structures like chromatophores are universal. Then again, all the physical aspects of the final transformation would require the Great One's genome to be completely different from other mindflayers. If the genome is different, how do mindflayer colonies propagate two genetic lines, especially since Great Ones are infertile? And it's ambiguous whether a Great One becomes a massive human infant or just a brain, though the latter is biologically impossible. The presence and function of autonomous tentacles and pseudopodia (to what amoeboid structure the pseudopodia are attached, it's entirely unclear) are also unexplained.

Why does the old Great One not psionically attack the new adult Great One if it was intent on killing it as a larva?

Why and how does a new Great One inherit the memories of the old?

The transformation ritual is, again, just magic. That only simple obsidian is needed to open a wormhole raises even more questions about how you think magic works.

What happens to the Great One's husband?

You're violating the second law of thermodynamics because the larvae cannot contribute more energy to the Great One than it takes to produce the nutrient fluid if they subsist on it.

>>353037

>mindflayer history

<airless sky

Mindflayers need to be at least facultative aerobes to support their size.

<Nyarlathotep gave us a rock that let us travel through the void.

They couldn't even figure it out themselves. Don't overuse Nyarlathotep.

None of this comes close to the mystery and cosmic horror of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones.

>transformation "plays a trick" on the dimensions of the cave

Even more magic. Extradimensional spaces don't just seem bigger; the extra dimensions are orthogonal to all normal dimensions, so there are extra spatial coordinates for every location. Extra spatial dimensions would not invert gravity.

>summoned night-gaunts

Are the summoning rituals magic too? I still dislike the portrayal of night-gaunts as a slave race. I even dislike Lovecraft's portrayal of them as nearly mindless servants of Nodens in "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath." But if you want to be more true to their Lovecraftian portrayal, then night-gaunts should hunt Nyarlathotep's minions for sport. Mindflayers and the like should be deathly afraid of mountain caves and their faceless inhabitants.

>beholders

With their extremely low birthrate and predilection for infanticide, your beholders should be on the verge of extinction. Not exactly a position that inspires respect. I'd expect the supposedly vastly more intelligent mindflayers to easily dispatch any beholder.

>Svartálfar

>not dwarves

If you're going with Norse mythology, you should know there are good arguments for black elves and dwarves being one and the same.

>ascendant priestesses abnormally mate for pleasure as much as procreation

Meaning that normal mindflayers mate for procreation more than pleasure. The whole reason monstergirls exist, in universe and otherwise, is to appeal to men's sexual desires. The mindset behind and the practice of having sex first and foremost for procreation goes against the intentions and actions of using sexual appeal to initiate relationships. So by being puritans and using proxy cults to recruit men, your mindflayers are completely failing to meet the purpose of monstergirls. Moreover, your mindflayers are by default hostile to men. A relationship cannot be formed when the monstergirl is lethally dangerous. Your mindflayers are not monstergirls.

They're just monsters.

>>353086

>psionics

I didn't say psionics couldn't be part of the setting. I said it was just magic dependent on the psyche, which is incompatible with the writefag's previous attempt to use physical magic.

>promiscuity is fine

Do you have any idea where the fuck you are? Sluts are verboten on /monster/. Find me a flayerfag who wants his waifu to have ridden the cock carousel before she found him.

>"canon" monstergirls see humans as prey

Ah, that explains why MGE girls go around constantly butchering and eating humans instead of getting into loving relationships.

>>353091

>find me a flayerfag

What, all one of them? Face it, veeeery few people are into that kind of transformation fuckery.

>sluts

Anon, Doctor, if you're going to whine about that, shouldn't you be getting on my case for the "wild" Jabberwock as well? Who is arguably worse for force-cuckholding people if it strikes her fancy? Also! We're allowed to have monsters that no sane man would want. It makes better contrast with the ones which aren't. Vis-a-vis the enslaved Night-Gaunts, there are plenty of wild ones out there, its just that those are usually called by mistake. It takes a ritual to enslave one, and that's what binds it inextricably to the Void. Also, there is only one Outer God with a presence in this universe. Nodens has no power here.

Anyway, I already mentioned psionics here: >>345870

They are meant to be something separate from magic, and before you think the other writefag came up with its use, think again: I've got a custom demonic monster down the pipeline which makes extensive use of telekinesis Because their own Word is horribly strong. I mentioned it on this board years ago, just forgot to archive it. If you want to work it into magic, you could have the words be woven into narrowcast thought, but otherwise, it isn't.

The rest I'll leave to the other anon.

>>353091

>sluts are bad

And yet, by the very nature of how she transforms, a mindflayer will have ridden that carousel. If Kenku Cross himself is fine with that, seeing as how he wrote them that way, then who the fuck are you to argue with him? :^)

I will address two points of yours, though:

>>353038

>your beholders should be on the verge of extinction.

>I'd expect the supposedly vastly more intelligent mindflayers to easily dispatch any beholder.

Intelligence is one thing, but it's not going to do you much good if the beholder shoots you with its petrification ray. Or its disintegration ray. Or its death ray. To say nothing of how its other rays can fuck you over with a literal glance in various ways.

They are few in number, but they are powerful as all hell. It's like the difference between a human and a bear; you might be smarter than the bear, but if you poke that bear with a stick while it's napping, you deserve whatever's coming to you.

>they needed help to travel

You're right, they did. After all, I said that they travelled through the Void. I did not say that they were travelling through space. If it were simply a matter of space travel, there'd have been no problem and no need for His help.

And before you ask, that was part of the price they had to pay.

>>353093

>flayerfag rarity

Find me anyone from /monster/ who wants their waifu to have ridden the cock carousel.

>sluts

I would have gotten on your case about the Jabberwocks if I had ever read your wonderland lore. I was avoiding wonderland until I could think of some way its intentional irrationality wouldn't undermine every attempt to explain anything about it. You're free to have undesirable monstergirls, but that defeats the point of making them girls at all.

>psionics

As I said, psionics is no less fanciful and no less impossible than any magical effect. Using Occam's Razor, it's simplest to say psionics is a type of magic. Distinguishing magic and psionics is fine, but you should explain how they are mechanically and functionally different.

>>353101

>KC's content

Who were you to have written anything different than what's in MGE? I don't care one whit about KC's opinions on sluts. /monster/ is not an MGE board, and this thread is about rewriting monstergirl profiles.

>intelligence

Greater intelligence allows you to outwit, outmanoeuvre, and technologically outcompete your foes. You don't need to see something to kill it. Ever heard of a bear-trap?

>travelling the void

Mindflayers could come from anywhere and it wouldn't make a difference. Nyarlathotep being involved in everything otherworldly is over-limiting, and his involvement with mindflayers diminishes what could have been their accomplishment.

>>353104

Speaking of carousels…

>rewriting monstergirl profiles

And rewrite them I have, as I saw fit. Whether you take umbrage with that is irrelevant to me.

>bear-trap

Why no, I haven't. Please, Anon, illuminate me as to the mysteries of this arcane and unfathomable device which you call a bear trap. :^)

You can have the best hunting equipment in the world and still get killed by whatever you were hunting, nigga. It happens all the time.

>>352797

There are two ways this can go. In one outcome, the Pharaoh is triumphant, and the spawn of Apophis is burnt to ash, her forces hunted down and scattered to the winds. Pharaoh rules unopposed. In the other, however, the Daughter of Apophis stands over a fallen Pharaoh. Be her body broken or her will giving way to despair from the venom, Pharaoh is defeated. The Eye falls from her shoulders into the Daughter's hands. All of Pharaoh's monsterkind drop to their knees. The battle is almost over, but for one last victory.

In the Daughter's hands, the gold of the Eye turns to tarnished silver, the red stone turns a darker hue, and the space around it is wreathed in shadow. Pharaoh's Seat loses its luster… but the Sun burns bright. This is not to last. It has been seen time and again, that with great euphoria and laughter the Daughter rises into the air and becomes the gargantuan serpent once more. This time, she does not stop at a feint, but springs directly toward the Sun, and as she reaches the spot in the sky over the Kingdom, her massive jaws close on it. The Sun is now eclipsed, and darkness covers the land.

The total eclipse lasts only a few minutes before the Daughter sinks back to earth, leaving a dimmer sun to wanly shine on Aegyptoss.

>>353110

>leaving a dimmer sun

Apophis confirmed unwitting dupe of the Ice Queen.

>>353903

Because they're evil.

Seriously. They're a race of alien parasites for whom humans are both hosts and a food source. They kidnap people, brainwash them, use them as breeding stock and slave labour, and on rare occasions take them as personal gigolos. To say that they do not conform to human notions of morality is an understatement.

Imagine, if you will, a parasitic wasp laying its eggs inside of a caterpillar. It needs the caterpillar to reproduce, sure, but do you think it's bothered by the fact that its actions will result in the caterpillar's gruesome death? Of course not. The caterpillar is not an equal or a mate in the wasp's eyes; it is a means to an end.

The same is true of a Mindflayer. It doesn't care that it effectively kills the consciousness of its host, it doesn't care whether that host was a virgin before it was Overwritten, and it doesn't value the men it mates with as anything more than breeding stock except in very rare circumstances. You would think the fact that I consistently refer to the men who end up mating with Mindflayers as inseminators rather than mates or partners would have gotten that last point across, but apparently not.

Parasitism is the Mindflayer's defining trait in any setting; if you take that away, and the amorality that comes with it, all you're left with is a generic tentacle monster.

With that said, the next monster I'm covering should be less controversial and more up everyone's alley. It's time to (mostly) get out of the caves and into the deep, dark woods. Hang a horseshoe over your door, because night has fallen, and the Folk are coming out to play…

>>353966

a mindflayer is not a fucking jew, take your head out of your ass, faggot.

>>353966

This is all consistent with what has been made so far. The Great Change can only do so much. Like the Matango, some monsters should still only be destroyed. That they remained so vile after the transition is a testament to what abominations they are. In fact, that's why they're here. It should have been obvious from the wild Jabberwock that anything sluttery is evil, but I guess some people need to have this pointed out.

Shitposting won't make any of us go away, you know. If you don't like it, try another thread. No one's going to budge on this one.

Anyway, I'll see about a continuing post later this week.

>>353970

nah you fags are gay autistic tryhards, go back to tft chat.

>There are people who won't flip out and shoot monster girls the moment something smells fishy.

>>353974

since when did this board cater to you mgu discord faggots?

begone and go back to pretending to be paladins while you faggots actively use fursona avatars.

>>353977

Are you stupid or something?

Shooting good girls like kikimoras is bad.

Shooting mindflayers and matango is good.

>>353981

> boo hoo i want my mg's to be nigger tier.

you're a fucking faggot that has been ensnared by siege shit, a single race being collectively evil is stupid as fuck and goes against muh science you retarded ass redditor.

>>353104

I suppose it's only fair that I reply to you. Sorry, I forgot. Didn't mean to snub you.

>waifu

Well, as stated above, a 'flayer is a threat, not a waifu. But rest assured, there will be little to none of this particular grievance in the future. I do want to keep writing for all of you alongside the other guy and any others who feel like contributing, you know, and I know that too much of what /monster/ hates isn't good for the life of the thread. I'm neither the Monstergirl Island fag nor the guy from TowerGirls, so I'll certainly neither lie nor take things in an utterly repugnant direction respectively.

>Wonderland

Ah, didn't want to aggravate the autism. Suffice it to say that whosoever wields the Vorpal blade can make the Jabberwock into a good(ish) girl less prone to rape and murder. Surprisingly good with her own children, I have it in mind. The Cheshire is much more wholesome, and frankly I'd find an examination of her powers interesting. I'll try to field your questions on the Shoggoth reproductive system as best I can.

>defeats the point

On the contrary, it makes for a more tantalizing lure. Default Flayers are hideous, and so you stay well away. That one can experience any pleasure in the presence of a Mindflayer is remarkable in of itself. At some point I might even bring in a Flying Polyp, though the idea on that one is still hazy I'm afraid.

>how psionics are mechanically and functionally different

Well it's ideally nonverbal for a start. It may require an internal power source to make practical, as is definitely the case with the demon I mentioned. Usually limbs are used a focus, but stronger psions can forego that entirely. Any suggestions on your end? aside from "go jump in a lake"

If you're wondering why I've singled you out, it's because you're one of the few posters here that usually gives reasoned critique. Politeness and good formatting helps.

>>353981

>shoot the matango

That might not be so wise. Puncturing the shroom's outer hide(?) will release a cloud of spores, which can lead to a costly mess. Flames are much preferable. Regular use is why the Matango nears extinction today.

Recommend leaving off this faggot until morning. He's a phoneposter or a nigger, so he's not worth it.

>>353993

>says the reddit-spacing faggot

Get the fuck out of here you nigger and take your shit-tier waifus with you.

>>353998

you should go back to /pol/ with the rest of the redditshits, you stolkholmed syndrome faggot.

>>354023

> using a tumblr meme.

Sure told me you fucking gemnigger.

>This thread

This is Diet soyda

You're not helping the situation…

>>353966

>Because they're evil.

see, that's what I don't get. Why would you want to make an entire species irredeemably evil on a monstergirl board? You say you're rewriting profiles but this sound like a copy paste of the original D&D version (with titties).

Like this guy said:

>>353104

>You're free to have undesirable monstergirls, but that defeats the point of making them girls at all.

>>353966

>the next monster I'm covering should be less controversial and more up everyone's alley.

I'm looking forward to it.

>>354159

By the way, while we'll still be doing profiles, stories are also on the agenda. Just short ones to start with (one with the Pharaoh and Dragon, another on the Apophis and her Consort), I think, but I have something multichapter in mind featuring a custom monster. Contrary to what a certain fag would have you believe, this thread was always made with stories in mind. What's happening now is just a kick in the rear to get going on those. Hopefully these can convince Aux to deanchor the thread.

Anyway. I think I'll do those stories, then finish the Apophis profile, just in case you thought I'd leave that unfinished. These things may be niche for this board, but until recently you guys have sat and watched those proceedings. So on they go.

For this first one…fancy a day at the theater?

>>354216

I'm still waiting for what happens when Lil' Auntie Queen of Hearts invites a promising couple to tea…