Today’s A to Z writing challenge is the letter “M” for monster. This author gets his creativity from his love of monsters. My love for monsters started early in my life. I’d watch campy horror movies with characters like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc. I read the stories of Greek mythology and the monsters that the heroes had to battle. Nothing will make an audience or reader cheer when a hero defeats a monster against all odds.
In my trilogy, “The Chosen One of Allivar”, I had to create my own monsters. Now this is the most fun I have had since I drew monsters on paper and cut them out to play with. I was probably younger than 10 when I did this. I built plastic models of monsters and had posters of monsters on my wall. Fast forward to 2000 and “The Lord of the Rings – Fellowship of the Ring” was announced to be shown in 2001. As I waited for the movie release, I reread the trilogy and began jotting down ideas for my own mythology, my own trilogy and the monsters in it. I did not want to copy other authors; I wanted my very own monsters. However, I had to consider the origin of my monsters. Nothing frustrates me more as a reader if a story does not explain the origin of a fantasy world, its people, and its monsters. So I had two issues to consider when developing my monsters.
First, there are monsters that are created solely by the influence of evil. Call it genetic interference by taking various traits of other creatures and turning them into a vile creature that will instill fear into the subjects evil wants to control. Fear is why we read or watch monster books and movies. For me, “Alien” is the most frightening movie I have ever watched with regards to a monster. But where did it come from, what is its origin? We may discover the answer with 2012’s release of “Prometheus.” It will be interesting to see how this is accomplished. It appears genetic interference may be the explanation. So in my stories, the monsters that evil wants to control are a result of genetic interference.
Second, there are monsters created by the damning of the creator. In my trilogy so vile are the acts of rebellion and destruction by his own creation, the Charafuse, that the Unseen damns their souls and external appearance so that others will fear the retribution for their actions. These Charamorgs (fallen and damned angelic immortals) will have many visual characteristics of a bat. Bats are amazing creatures, but their appearance alone instills fear in our subconscious. The Unseen also creates monsters to prevent mortals from engaging in actions that will harm themselves. The Gregoron of the forbidden lands were created to ward off peoples lust and greed for gold. Of course, evils intent is to corrupt anything created by the Unseen and the Gregoron become even more monstrous.
Although I spent little time describing their origin in my trilogy, the “Chronicles of Allivar” will go into much more detail of their origin. Arimar-the hero, his captains and the company of followers will all have to deal with monsters. Monsters add the necessary elements for an exciting and epic tale.
