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Mekton Zeta Plus Extra
Algolian Beastery
By Various Members
[ Rob Knotts, Sir Luckio, ]
Sources for Monsters:
"According to Mekton Z, the dangerous prehistoric life
of Algol is the reason the people "cluster" into large fortified cities.
However, the monsters described were a little lackluster(they remind me of one-shot
monsters you might see in an odd Dunbine episode). I wanted to see what sources everybody
could come up for the monsters of Algol." – Rob Knotts
- Any Kaiju (King Gidorah, Godzilla, Gamera, shrunk to 1:1 scale
and redesigned to conform better with physics).
- The new Godzilla cartoon.
- Some of the Angels from Evangelion.
- The bugs from Nausicaa (especially the "King Omu").
- As far as Aggendi go, sources are easy:Dunbine, Zoanoids from
Guyver, "Alien" movies, Jurassic Park, and the best actors in Starship
Troopers:the Bugs.
- Blue Seed, all those gods preying on the "sacrifice"
has got to be a great resource.
- Palladium Rifts has some cool and dangerous creatures.
- Any of Japan's Tentacle Anime/Manga/Games sources.
- El Hazard! Has lots of bugs.
Test of Life [Algolian Ecology]:
"These critters have to have a full food chain. As nasty
as they are they and their prey have to be viable enough to survive to reproduction in
large enough numbers that the populations continue. Something a lot of settings
forget." – Rook
"Right. That, and there's usually some sort of
(vague) evolutional pattern. What is the dominant species (the Humani/Elomani
Algolians are not native, so don't count them)? How do they classify? If
they're prehistoric, are they like our prehistoric creatures? If so from what era --
Mesozoic, early Cenozoic (I'm foregoing Paleozoic and Precambrian)? If we go the
Mesozoic route, there'd be only small mammals and loads of saurians (again depending on
period).
Also, I have a thing against building creatures
as mektons, so I'd like to go the route of Bł (and maybe add to its lack-luster list of
abilities).
Mind you, a lot of this is nit-picking, but it
does help add flavor and give a general picture of what Algol might look." – Kyn
MacGowan
"In an average food chain, herbivores tend to be larger
than the predators, so even if there are small numbers of both, the chain would still
continue. There are some really exotic life-cycle ideas we can throw in:
Hibernation: Some really
large creatures could go through long periods of hibernation lasting years or even
decades.
Evolution Cycle: This is
the idea that throughout thier lifespan, creatures of a given species evolve through
various forms (such as the larvae/chysalis cycle). A good option, particularly for
herbivores & omnivores is the infant/breeder/protector cycle, where adults that
survive past the age of reproduction evolve into more violent forms to protect thier
offspring and/or the territory in which they live (Larry Niven devised this for his
"Pak").
Mutation: Maybe the Evolution
Cycle relies on a mutagen in the environment like radioactives. There also always the
possibility of the Aggendi to bad things to the unprotected gene-pool of Algolian
wildlife.
Degeneration ( WARNING: GOOFY ):
Maybe the wildlife of Algol is so preternaturally violent because thier descended from
alien creatures who came to Algol (aliens settling on Algol? whoda thunk?). It's
(remotely) possible that powerful alien creature emigrated to Algol and settled there,
gradually devolving in the comfortable environment." – Rob Knotts
"This is a topic I've found Algol to be highly lacking.
Referances on Algol talks a lot about the dangerous animal life on Algol, so much so that
these creatures forced the weak Algolians to build arcology communities and were one of
the responsible reason for spreading the survivors after the Aggendi destroy the small
community of the first colony.
Sir Luckio Analysis: All that can be determined about the Argol creatures is:
1.) Overall dangerous
to Algolians. Algolians where not the top of the food chain since the First Colony
to when the first Mektons came online.
2.) Proabably very
large creatures exist. Though there is no direct quote, the impression to conveyed
to me about Algol creatures, is they are Mekton size on average.
>Hibernation: This
spawns some ideas, but the periods would proably not be decade longs or their would have
been mention about that. Hybernation creatures that come in and out of an ecology
would have to be common enough not be a big impact and these creatures role in a ecology
cyble would be to keep other species in line.
>Mutation:
If you accept the Sub-race hybrids of the Aggendi/Algolian, then mutation or
artificial evolved creatures is entirely acceptable.
>Degeneration ( WARNING: GOOFY
): Yes, it's a little silly, but we could have Alien life being introduced
to the Algolian enviorment. Be it by the original colonists or the Aggendi. Such
creatures like, rats (or their equivalent), pets, domestic animals, or specimens.
>If they're
prehistoric, are they like our prehistoric creatures? If so from what era --
Mesozoic, early Cenozoic (I'm foregoing Paleozoic and Precambrian)? I don't
recall the periods, but if Algolia has always made me feel that it is in-between the era
of the Saurians (65 million era) and the first Ice age era to our Earth. I rather
like the idea of late Algolian Saurians roaming with Early Mammals." – Sir
Luckio
Algolian Creatures:
Larithons [by Sir Luckio]:
An insect-type creature which are the size of one's hand when
fully grown and as adults are not Algolian threatning as they are herbivore creatures; If
it were not for their egg laying policy.
Life Cycle: Larithons
lay their microscopic eggs through the pours of their skin; which to the naked eye looks
like a slime-type of secretion. This egg secretion is easily brushed on passing animals or
animals that prey on the Larithons. The microscopic eggs of the Larithons once
intoduced to a host organism burrow into the skin or digestive system if eaten to hatch
into larvae. It is in there Larvae stage that the Larithons are the most threatning
as the grow by ingesting/converting cells of their host. Larvae of Larithons would
look like a cancergrowth on their hosts which will eventually kill the host when the
Larvae grow large enough and hatch into adults by tearing away from their host.
Home Enviornment:
Tropics, The Archipelargo of Algol. These creatures are part of Archipelargo ecology
system.
Algolian Use: It is said that
it was an Ettaran named Larithon who finally taimed the beast in ~1000 AY as a source of
food for their diets. The story goes that Larithon had lost his entire family to the
Larithons; gone insane for revenge of his loss he found a way to eat Larithons without the
fatallity by keeping Larithons in seperate pens.
Whatever the story, Larithons adults are quite
tasty and is considered a great export to Kargan and Elaran governments for the
techno-gypsies. Larithons are harmless to the algolian diet as long as they are kept
seperate from each other so they can not breed; since the creatures are hermaphroditic by
touch of to their own spieces.
Kargans have used Larithons as form of corporal
punishment to murderers in some of it's northern coastal communities.
Furlong Mammoths [by Sir Luckio]:
These creatures are a mesh of the Tattoein Banthas, Earth
Mammoths, and Earth Warhogs.
Large Herbivores, Furlong mammoths roam the
Elaran northlands. Furlong mammoths are twice as large as Earth's Mammoths ever
where with long fur, warhog-like tusks, and scaly skin around there heads. These
creatures are dangerous due to there size mostly, and there protectiveness of their young.
Anything not half their size are not considered dangerous, as long
as there is not too many of them. The creatures are proto-saurians, and are
considered to be a Saurian/Mammalian hybrids. Why they are hybrids is not known yet.
Algolian Use: Ancient Elarans
did hunt the Furlong Mammoths for food, but in modern times thanks to overhunting in the
past and especially for the recent wars, Furlong Mammoths are becoming an extinct race.
Furlong Mammoths are a protected species by the Elaran Federated Kingdoms.
There is an estimate of only 500 Furlong Mammoths left in the wild.
Nick name: Land Whales.
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