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Quinn ([personal profile] prof) wrote2016-09-16 04:03 pm
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Minus World Codex: Monsters

Monsters come in four commonly-used classifications: Minions, Commanders, Corruptions, and Aberrations. Minions are the weakest and most common type of monster, but even they can be extremely dangerous - the only reason that Guardians can take on monsters with any amount of safety is because their powers are much stronger in the Minus World, where the laws of physics don't dictate what magic can or can't do as strongly. Fighting in the real world, even minions can be threats too great for a single Guardian. In the Minus World, though, a single Guardian can usually defeat one or even several Minions without backup. Their greatest weapon is their numbers.

Whenever there is an unusually high concentration of Minions, it's likely that there's a Commander present. These monsters are much more powerful than Minions, generally taking a team of Guardians working together to take down - stories of solo Guardians taking on Commanders are rare, and attempts are one of the leading causes of fatalities. In addition to being powerful on their own, Commanders can silently direct the actions of swarms of Minions, leading them to attack less like wild animals and more like invading armies. Furthermore, some of them have the ability to create more Minions to supplement their forces. One of the most common patterns of attack is for a single Commander class monster to break through the barrier, then spend days lurking and building a new army before attacking.

Corruptions are extremely rare, and extremely dangerous. When a Guardian dies in the Minus World, and their body isn't brought back to Nistona, they sometimes come back to life. However, they aren't restored as Guardians - they're restored as monsters. Corruptions are insane, cruel distortions of their former selves, backed with the strength of a monster and the magic of a Guardian. The only thing keeping them from being a greater threat than Commander class monsters is that they're less focused - they seem to attack or wander off at random, sometimes vanishing for years before reappearing again. The advice given to Guardians regarding Corruptions is to retreat and call for backup immediately, never engaging one unless you have ten or more Guardians together to fight it.

And finally, there are Aberrations. This isn't exactly a categorization, it's more of a catch-all title for monsters that don't fit into the other classes. Aberrations are one-of-a-kind occurrences, new kinds of monsters that nobody has ever seen before, and are accordingly dangerous to the extreme. When fighting an Aberration, you need to be prepared for absolutely anything. Nothing is guaranteed, not even survival.

Even within each class, monsters vary widely in nature. Each wave looks completely different from the last, with different capabilities and tactics. Sometimes, they seem to adapt to how the last invasion was repelled with new tactics and weapons designed to render the same strategy ineffective. Wherever the monsters are coming from, whatever's sending them, they seem custom-made to exterminate humanity as effectively as possible.

Historical records show a cycle of monster activity that tends to last about ten to twenty years on average. Over the cycle, monster attacks gradually become more frequent and more dangerous, until they suddenly cut out, giving way to up to a year of total silence. However, it seems that over time, the cycles are gradually getting shorter...

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