THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Howard Alan Treesong on June 16, 2008, 05:42:35 PM
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So, getting my Beholder this morning made me do some more research into RPG creatures, and it's an amazingly inbred bunch. Most RPGs steal from D&D, and D&D stole a lot from Tolkien and the rest from just about fucking everything else. Displacer Beasts, for example, were stolen from van Vogt's Voyage of the Space Beagle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeurl).
Anyways, it got me wondering, since we're a totally nerdy bunch here - what fantasy creature (or alien race, we don't discrihate here at EB) do you feel has been criminally underused, and you'd love to see enter the "pantheon" of well known fantasy creatures?
For me, it would be the alzabo, from Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.
The red orbs of the alzabo were something more, neither the intelligence of humankind nor the the innocence of the brutes. So a fiend might look, I thought, when it had at last struggled up from the pit of some dark star.
The alzabo is a bear-like creature that consumes its victims, taking their memories and knowledge into itself. More than that; their personalities: after consuming a victim, the alzabo is able to speak as they would speak, in their voice, to others. It's unclear whether the alzabo is a perfect mimic, or if its victims' personas live on within it, somehow unaware of their horrific fate. They are creepy as all hell!
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that's interesting
i was trying to think, but i couldn't really come up with anything other than the Manticore.
Cuz those fucking rock
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Umber Hulk!!
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terrasques!
i am also fond of dracoliches and, yes, umber hulks
but what we REALLY need are more shoggoths in general
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(http://tinyurl.com/4mpjy5)
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Cosmic Octopi
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I've always thought that the Rakshasa was always just on the cusp of being the Next Big Thing for monsters. Pity it can't seem to get its big break, awesome baddie.
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Cthulhu.
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Those moth dream vampires from Perdido St. Station are deserving of wider exposure, I think.