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help me develop my monsters

@kittycalyx group forum 14 comments schedule
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@kittycalyx group

hey everybody! i've got a race of monsters in one of my stories, and i have a decent idea of what i'm doing with them, but there are a few details that i can't figure out. i was hoping some of y'all might have some ideas that could help me!!

these bastards are called davonians, and here's a big infodump on them

  • hunt and kill humans but often leave them uneaten
  • weak spot = skull
  • can only be killed by hitting weak spot or, like, dismembering them but that's basically impossible
  • skin can be gray, gray-blue, or white
  • circular black eyes
  • long flat noses, long arms, long fingers
  • they rarely use their arms, typically just hold things with their mouths
  • good sense of smell
  • colorblind
  • excellent at seeing motion (like dogs)
  • FAST
  • jaws can unhinge
  • SHARP teeth
  • usually 8’-9’ tall
  • walk on two legs (humanoid)
  • they lay black eggs
  • red-purple blood

and here are the questions i still can't answer

  • why do they kill people? i'm thinking that maybe they see humans as predators rather than prey (since they're getting killed by human soldiers) and kill out of self-defense, but idk
  • since the weak spot isn't in their chest, i guess they don't have hearts. then how the hell are they alive??
  • if they lay eggs, are they like reptiles or what? how do they mate?? i don't imagine them running around with their genitalia out but maybe i need to rethink that
  • how did they become such a big problem that teenagers have to be drafted into a special army? did they always exist but only recently grew large enough in population, or did they recently evolve into existence? if it's one of those scenarios, then how'd it happen? if it's not one of those, then what is it????
  • HOW 👏 CAN 👏 THEY 👏 BE 👏 DEFEATED 👏 there has to be a relatively easy method for mass-killing them that the soldiers discover and share with everyone else but WHAT WOULD IT BE

i know this is a lot of stuff and these questions are probably stupid, but i'm stupid too, and that's why i'm here. obviously you don't have to figure all of this out for me, but i'd love to hear some second opinions to maybe get inspiration. thanks so much!!!!

@Rover3672

Okay so sorry I don’t have good answers for all of your problems but here are some things:

-I agree with killing people for self defence but maybe if they do kill often it’s because they just like the taste?

  • Maybe so the killing thing I’ve had trouble with as well so we’re on the same boat my guy but this is what I came up with for my demons:
    They have extreme healing abilities but if the head is cut off or the brain is injured then that message from the brain to the rest of the body is non existent. The brain can’t tell the body to heal. They can have a heart but you just can’t kill from that point since it would just heal.

  • Maybe the reproduction thing could be like plants? Or fish? Idk but they could have some kind of glands or another body part that gives them the ability to create eggs and sperm???This could also work is you want them to be genderless or with genders.

-they could become an issue because of the whole eating people thing. Maybe back in the day they only ate humans for self defence but now it’s because humans attacked/hunted them so much (for possible research?Maybe you could elaborate on the healing thing with people being obsessed with the healing and wanting to use it on their soldiers) that they now survive off of them.

Sorry if these don’t work with your story but I hope this helps!!

@Yamatsu

Well, to figure out your weak-spot part, they could have a hole in their skull like babies have near the top of their heads. Shooting or striking really hard in that spot can kill them or at least make them run away. They can totally have hearts, they just have very tough bones and skin that make them otherwise bulletproof. You could totally have them sustain internal injuries like ruptured organs and internal bleeding, and their genitals could also be a weak spot due to obvious reasons.

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@kittycalyx group

your minds are so powerful omg thank you so much

@Yamatsu

Listen, you don't HAVE to mention their genitals every single time. Most of us will assume that they're there (and some might imagine it if you describe the creature itself just right!)

@Rover3672

That’s true, the reader would automatically assume there are genitals unless you specifically mention otherwise. Like if you didn’t want them to have external reproductive organs but other than that I think you’ll be fine

school
@saor_illust school

Hey for the killing thing, they could also kill for fun, as a hobby, ect.

group

Hi! If you need a way to kill them in large groups, you could consider biological warfare. If we assume the weak spot is technically the brain, then by damaging the brain you can kill the creature. humans could use poisonous gas maybe, or create a virus that attacks the brain and spread it through the Davonians.
Also I agree with what someone said, that they could just have armor or really tough skin around everywhere but their heads. I will add however, that this means they'd need some evolutionary reason not to protect their heads. Maybe they have just a chink in their armor near the backs of their heads or something….idk, up to you. Hope that helps! ^^

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@kittycalyx group

i'm putting all of you in the acknowledgments section if i get published itsg

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@Fangirl616 group

If they are sentient, killing could be a way to prove themselves in their society. Or, if you don't want them to be sentient, it could be for practicing hunting, the way house cats catch and kill mice without eating them.

They could become a big problem if they are a predator adapted to humans in particular. Maybe an evil human invented them in a lab as a weapon, and then they got out of their control.

Maybe they reproduce using pheromones. When one reaches a heat (mating cycle) they become reactive to the pheromones and become pregnant. In this form, there would be no need for males or females. All produce the pheromones until they go into heat.

And… you seem to have great advice for everything else. Hope this was helpful!

person_off
Deleted user

so this could be possible seeing as they don't have hearts

They are literally like a virus. Hovering in a state of existence but not exactly alive, And hunting and killing as a way to gather energy in the form of nutrients. And female reproducing because they can.

Actually, you might take inspiration from a certain race of lizards for this one. There is a breed of lizards in which only females exist, all of them are literally clones of each other as the female will copy her DNA and lay an egg, cloning herself.

as for killing, Blunt weapons could be effective, smash their head with a war hammer. Problem solved.

Or if they are like a virus, using biowarfare

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@kittycalyx group

broooo that's sick, what kind of lizard is it? i wanna look into that

person_off
Deleted user

broooo that's sick, what kind of lizard is it? i wanna look into that

The casual name would be the checkered whiptale. I checked and a few males have been identified but the population is mostly female. If you want the scientific name its Cnemidophorus tesselatus

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@AnxietyGremlin group

Humans could have hunted them to the brink of extinction with a type of chemical that they put into the water that Davonians drink, and Davonions could have retaliated by killing off humans in mass numbers, with methods such as invasion, allowing them time to recouperate their numbers, only to have humans respond with a mustard gas like chemical weapon, resulting in a long war, which you could have ongoing throughout the story, or just as a detail in the races history. As for how the chemical weapon would work, humans could have captured a few Davonians for research, and developed a weapon that attack neurons in the Davonians brain, but not the humans. Hope this helps. If not it's okay.