Worldbuilding with GIANT MONSTERS

CAMPFIRE ➤ bit.ly/TF3-22
Campfire’s such a fabulous, accommodating tool. Honestly, if you’re intimidated by writing and worldbuilding, it’s just a relief to have something like this that breaks it all down and makes it super simple for you! Go give it a try!
-
There’s a feeling you get when you stand in the shadow of a creature so much larger than you, it hardly knows you exist. A complex feeling. Something deep enough to change your entire outlook on the world.
Which, unsurprisingly, makes it quiet good for Worldbuilding, too. Let’s talk about it!
▬▬▬▬ Credit/Attributions ▬▬▬▬
For a complete list of all sources used in all videos, please visit our Comprehensive Content Sources document:
docs.google.co...
Additional Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com
▬▬▬▬ What is Tale Foundry? ▬▬▬▬
If fiction were a material, we would be its manufacturing plant. We make:
➤ Tale Foundry Episodes - Where we take apart stories to see what makes them tick, then recycle what we find to create our own. bit.ly/TaleFoundry
➤ Tale Bits - Where we pluck interesting ideas from stories and try to draw inspiration from them. bit.ly/TaleTips
➤ Writing Group - Where we run a weekly writing group stream on Twitch where we read stories from all of you, the community! We post the highlights here on the main channel once a month. bit.ly/TFWGHigh...
➤ TF Discord - Come join our community! thetalefoundry....
▬▬▬▬ Support Us▬▬▬▬
/ talefoundry
▬▬▬▬ Tale Foundry Team ▬▬▬▬
• Talebot - the talent
• The Taleoids - the talent's helpers
• Benjamin Cook - writer/voice
• Abbie Norton - visual artist (abbienortonart...)
• Alexander Cuenin - Animator & Editor (www.alextheanim...)
• Bazz Bartlett - audio engineer (www.bartlettau...)
• Sylvan Whatcott - research assistant
• Austin Gaines - research assistant
• Rachel Doud - Packaging & Asset Artist ( / jae.sketch )

[@TheTaleFoundry]

CAMPFIRE ➤ bit.ly/TF_Mobile Campfire’s such a fabulous, accommodating tool. Honestly, if you’re intimidated by writing and worldbuilding, it’s just a relief to have something like this that breaks it all down and makes it super simple for you! Go give it a try!

[@pyeitme508]

Cool 😎

[@zionleach3001]

Could you do a video on how to write a action story without it being "dumb." Like a action story with actual plot, character development, and doesn't slow down to a crawl to just tell a story. Thank you.

[@GameTimeWhy]

I agree about those massive striders in Morrowind. When I first saw them when I was little was awe inspiring. They were just the fast travel creatures but I had so many ideas about what they were and how they came to do the job they do.

[@gryphonrage3712]

Please cover “Godmeat” by Martin Cahill ❤

[@Daniel-se3zm]

Campfire is great for world building!

[@Jonathon_Hennessey]

A recurring theme in the monsterverse is that creatures like Godzilla, King Kong, Mothra and Rodan ruled the earth before humans did and if we aren't careful, these titans will take their world back by force.

[@davidegaruti2582]

yeah , it's like the ice ages , we are currently living in the glacial minimum , a period between ice ages , all of human civilization does , and well godzilla is the same : they merely whent in slumber while chemically powered creatures like us did their hown things , they are ready to come back up again and treat the whole world with it's concrete buildings , it's steel bridges like papermachet

[@MrKaiju-sr8wu]

Heck, they nearly did when Ghidorah was awakened, although he would’ve turned it into a world after his own desire, not benefitting the planet

[@joshdasmif]

Tbh, I honestly think that humans should go extinct because we are slowly killing the planet

[@Broomer52]

@@davidegaruti2582 I always loved the concept of “mankind tries to solve an environmental problem and the solution creates a new problem. Like in Stray where they made a bacteria to eat the litter humanity has made, the Bacteria rapidly grows and mutates and becomes a nearly world ending disaster that nonetheless resulted in humanity dying. Then theirs the classic “solve global warming and accidentally create an Ice Age” mankind in its hubris looked for ways to clean up its mess with the destructive efficiency in which the mess itself was created.

[@Cthultystka]

It seems like the creators were fans of HP Lovecraft.

[@fukase__3745]

Depending on the situation, I kind of like feeling small. It feels safer sometimes, when you're a little kid, everything is big, the people who protect you, are big. The walls around you that protect you from harsh weather and temperature are big, and I just wanna be a small creature hiding peacefully with the larger things around me.

[@alexanderglass2057]

The feeling you get when you're around the gentle giants, like blue whales and whale sharks. I kinda think that we are lacking in stories that explore what it is like to be protected by something bigger and stronger.

[@theastroguy6710]

What it feels like to be lil spoon ^^

[@ShannonLikesALotOfStuff]

One thing I love about giant monsters is that even though you can see what they’re like on the outside, you can never quite tell what they’re like on the inside. Do they have human emotions like us? Do they behave more like a dog or a lion? Or do they simply hide their personalities altogether. As someone who has written a lot of monster characters, mostly dragons, it is something I think about a lot.

[@umbrechan]

You made me think about another thing. Isn't it funny that we ask ourselves those questions *only* when we see a big creature? I mean,, I fear bugs, but they are small, I could k1ll them easily, I don't ask myself those questions, but I do when I'm before an animal bigger than myself.

[@sarahluchies1076]

I have a world where I explore some of these things. At a time long in the past the humans and dragons cooperated with each other and the other sentient races. But that all fell apart, and now the dragons squabble among themselves while aggressively keeping anyone else out of their territories. In steps my protagonist, a girl with more ambition than sense. What will happen?

[@ShannonLikesALotOfStuff]

@@sarahluchies1076 sounds like a great story!

[@Jenna_Talia]

I like how varied dragons are in this respect. You have giant lumbering beasts, tiny little rats, dragons that are akin to dogs/cats/horses, dragons that are sapient and can either speak English to you or speak through telepathy, and dragons that are so much smarter and experienced than humans that they just don't care about us and would rather we weren't taking coins from their gold pile. Dragons are easily the most flexible creatures, they've been used everywhere in history in so many different ways.

[@yourtimetraveleralara]

Yeah me too

[@geoffreyprecht2410]

These concepts directly relate to the worldbuilding concept I've been working on as an experiment with scale! I'm trying to make a world where the reader gets simultaneously invested in the lives of creatures of wildly different sizes who all exist in the same world, often not even aware of each other's existence. It's so much fun to use perspective as a tool like that to tell such unique stories!

[@THExRISER]

This sounds so interesting, are you uploading your work anywhere? I would love to read about it.

[@LucianCanad]

So... Zootopia? (I'm joking, that sounds really interesting.)

[@spyro2002]

Oh that sounds really cool. I'm imagining like some baby of the big race playing with a ball which is actually the planet of the small race and from their perspective this is like an earthquake or something

[@geoffreyprecht2410]

@@THExRISER Currently in the early planning stages, but hoping to make it into a low-budget KZbin series eventually. I'll do a lot of worldbuilding with short stories in the meantime, but I haven't yet decided where to upload them.

[@ieatcheese361]

@@geoffreyprecht2410 oh hell yeah, ill watch the living frick out of it mz good sir

[@quincykunz3481]

Here's a weird thought: an anti-leviathan story. An encounter with creatures much smaller than humans, who encounter us by chance, and through terrifying levels of ingenuity and resourcefulness, gain an upper hand, and now debate whether to harness us for their own ends, or maintain a respectful harmony, as we try to cope with our new reversed place in nature.

[@intergalactic92]

Sounds a lot like the Lilliputs from Gulliver's Travels.

[@thatguysanimation]

That would be terrifying

[@nise6699]

Damn I wish I was smaller

[@squishy1899]

Basically a monster hunter like story but from the monsters perspective

[@zero1188]

Sounds like sausage feast

[@mudshrooze]

I see moose every day here in the kenai peninsula. Their massive. Bears dont even usually ever wanna mess with them unless their the young ones

[@Broomer52]

A rule to live by for most people “a moose is always bigger than you think it is”

[@mudshrooze]

@@Broomer52 always

[@alexanderglass2057]

@@mudshrooze my question is if I rode one would we fit through the in and out drive through?

[@Veelofar]

My setting named Waori is built on this concept. There are no static cities or towns, everyone lives inside creatures so large that the people inside are able to move through tubes alongside blood vessels. They live in hollow sections near organs, and they create machines that help the biological functions to be more efficient. Basically, the people are to these creatures what the microbes in our body are to us. The merfolk developed suits to be able to swim through the digestive tract of their creatures and keep them clean, some people have machines to help clean the blood, and all of them fight off invaders that would be far too small for the creature to even see. The people within these creatures are a part of them, in a very real way.

[@hitfran4644]

are you making a story about it, because it sounds like a vert neat idea

[@Veelofar]

@@hitfran4644 I am! No title, yet, but I’m writing a book

[@hitfran4644]

@@Veelofar i hope it goes well for you

[@AssistantCoreAQI]

Vore. Anyways Neat Concept!

[@themostdiabolicalhater5986]

@@Veelofar “no title yet but I’m writing a novel,” said every “writer” with zero pages written

[@BionicleFreek99]

OH MY GOD DUDE, i read the leviathan books in school growing up and forgot what they where called and i've been searching for them forever now, thanks!

[@toppersundquist]

My daughter loved those and made me read them. :D

[@gracequach6769]

ME TOOO The illustrations are so pretty, I'd love to have those on my shelf someday

[@rohan68842]

I love the way Monster Hunter does this. Ignoring the ludonarrative dissonance of being able to hunt an infinite number of monsters, I really like the way the world presents humans as just another cog in the machine of nature, human machinery and weapons just another attribute like a dragon's fire breath or their powerful claws. If one side throws nature off-balance, the other responds to keep it in check.

[@34t3r8]

Canonically, your hunter only does each quest once. MH does a lot to balance out gameplay and lore, however I wish more was done to make it obvious.

[@carmineknight9123]

I've been obsessing over Wings of Fire lately and was really happy to see it pop up here. The series continues to do really interesting things with the dichotomy in the current state of its world between dragons and humans. The most interesting part to me is how sparingly the "scavengers" _are_ used most of the time, which makes the flashes of them we see feel special and interesting to come from the opposite perspective as your typical fantasy conflicts. The cherry on top for this, to me, is how dragons sometimes accuse each other of "anthropomorphising" the scavengers, since they're seen as insignificant animals like raccoons or something without sapience. And ultimately, the series does bring in elements of the two learning about each other again, and most dragons are horrified at the thought of being violent to humans once they learn how similar they are mentally.

[@crimsondragon2677]

To be fair, a scavenger did cause a 20 year long, continent-wide war. And Winter was finally right for a change.

[@kajamaja7148]

So scavengers ARE humans. I just started reading the first book and i had no idea humans exist in Wings of fire. I was wondering if the creatures they talk about are humans or not. I can't wait to become a fan. I just now got to buy the first book and it looks good so far :D

[@mudshrooze]

By the way, sir, I know you knowthis, your voice is super cool and nice to listen to. I love this channel have for years. I hope you never leave permanently. Even if you take long breaks :) hope this week goes well for you and everyon else involved in this channel

[@piotrlatuszek171]

Im thinking about how voice can mold into what you and people you want to talk to want them to be - obviously tone and manierisms or something can change and doing it partly subconcious could change the overall feel a lot ...?

[@KingOfRayman12]

I love giant monsters that look like an island or like a piece of land, and then when the person walks on it, it reveals itself. I just find that cool.

[@GreenGearStudio]

One of my favourite worlds where men and giant beasts live in harmony, is the world of Monster Hunter. Here there are monsters that shoot lazers, are as big as entire countries or can launch themselves in the air and plumet down with the force of a small comet. But the people aren't just surviving, they are thriving. And it doesn't come at the cost of the monster population, judging how there is always another quest. And with Stories, we know that there are entire civilizations that ride on them. It has so many fascinating implications

[@HeirofAzaran]

I find the giant monster that you revealed at the end to be very interesting. Have I missed a video where you concluded the ongoing story that you had for this series?

[@gallifrox6099]

Are you talking about that giant owl or Terry Pratchett's world turtle?

[@HeirofAzaran]

@@gallifrox6099 I mean the thing that broke out of the cage and the robot went to chase

[@giantmastersword]

... it's just a payoff to that little image in the beginning of the video where it was in the cage. There is no story.

[@HeirofAzaran]

@@giantmastersword no, at the beginning of the tale foundry series I thought that there was something about the robot being in touch with someone outside the Foundry

[@cgRui34]

There's a game called "The Wandering Village" on Steam which delves into this theme of living in a village on the back of a giant travelling creature called an Onbu. It gives you a choice to live harmoniously and protect the Onbu where the village exists, or to exploit it like a parasite to further improve the lives of the villagers.

[@seanmcfadden3712]

An example of a giant being I'd like to point out are the Leviathans from Mass Effect (specifically the Leviathan DLC for Mass Effect 3). Massive, cuttlefish like, with telepathic abilities and the capacity to move through space and the deep sea. The mere concept of being able to handle that much of a range of atmospheric pressures is both fascinating and a bit scary to me.

[@HeirofAzaran]

And interesting example of your last point, where we ourselves are the giant creatures, would be in the borrowers story naturally, but a good version from a video game would be lungfishopolis in psychonauts. In that part of the game you're confronted with the idea that big scary animals are more afraid of you than you are of them. And thus in the mental world of the giant lungfish monster you encounter, you appear as a kaiju. And the whole point of the game is to interact with the mental defenses of the world, which are interpreted as a military force. It turns out that the giant lungfish is being controlled by the main villain who is spreading propaganda about you and mobilizing the military against you. It's a way of showing what a significant threat to the villains plans you are. At the very end you fight a psychic projection of the villain in the lung fish's brain in a battle inspired by tokusatsu films like Ultraman

[@dubuyajay9964]

What about Smurfs? David The Gnome?

[@maxb3248]

Was NOT expecting WoF to be mentioned, still, after years of having been beyond the target audience, I find those books comforting, just something about them that draws me in like nothing else, and makes me feel nice.

[@user-vn1gh4yx2t]

I'm personally using the "giant primordial monster" troupe In the way the SCP universe mostly uses it's elder gods. Where although they are barely mentioned , their existence has ripple effects throughout the whole story and is used to explain what is usually just assumed to be "normal" in fantasy or sci-fi settings.

[@Trevor_NewJerusalem]

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a fantastic take on coexisting with giants and I love it so much.

[@HybrydaArt]

XC1 gave us the biggest boys. mechonis and bionis are so big that you basically fight with their equivalent of white blood cells at some point X"D and so far I like it a bit more than XB2 (but maybe XB2 feels just small now, just after epic ending of XB1)

[@groofay]

I just rewatched End of Evangelion, and I'd be fascinated to see what you make of that, as a sort of intersection of giant horror and cosmic horror.

[@thoughtengine]

13:00 To be fair, the Avanc's illness was first discovered when the citizens dived down to it and found someone had dug huge trenches around its body, which became infected. They weren't actually the ones who did this.

[@Oueenazolatigressgina]

You know, you could make a video on Houseki no Kuni by Haruko Ichikawa which is an extremely depressing manga

[@arcadiaberger9204]

In the first Godzilla movies, the *_kaiju_* were simply giant predators, terrifying creatures which were a great danger to humanity. Over time, a strange mythology developed in which some *_kaiju_* were "good monsters", particularly friends to children, defending humanity from the "bad monsters". I can so easily see a mythology like that developing in a world in which *_kaiju_* exist, with refugee children interpreting the movements and behavior of *_kaiju_* as they happen not to step on the ruined house in which they are sheltering, or to turn their stream of fire aside just before it would have incinerated a column of refugees, when in truth it was just a random turn of events in the course of a battle with another territorial *_kaiju_* or a search for food. Children living in shelters around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina told one another stories about witnessing battles between bands of angels and devils across the city as a way of interpreting the chaotic landscape they were living in. Even Armageddon was preferable in their minds over the reality of mere chaos.

[@androordna3304]

I did not expect to see Wings of Fire mentioned here! Funnily enough Tui is actually (spoilers for the book series) slowly turning the relationship between humans and dragons to go from one of dragon dominance to one of cooperation

[@voldy3565]

I wish she didn't.

[@androordna3304]

@@voldy3565 Same here tbh 💀

[@Mr.Sniffles]

Some of my favorite big monsters are the Titans from Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade 2. Not only does it invoke a lot of things described in this video, but by having humanity live on giants changes how geography works. And that’s just a really neat angle to look at this from

[@MADMarty]

Godzilla and Giant Monsters in general have always been a part of my childhood and imagination, this video was so nice in exploring why I love the concept so much. The scale, the sense of awe. The knowledge that we as people aren't as in control as we think. Godzilla especially exemplifies this, a force of nature, of destruction, of revenge against man's nuclear hubris. So many different interpretations in just one character. But I've always loved this one quote from Godzilla 2014, "The arrogance of man is thinking nature is in our control, and not the other way around."

[@gasmonkey1000]

I always thought that with such creatures the whole balance is changed. Either they remain along certain paths and humanity seek them out, or humanity is forced into a nomadic existence. Shadiversity did a series of videos on how monsters would change a world completely, humanity becoming more militant in the event of monsters like orcs and zombies, while vampires would make humanity more paranoid. Nevermind what dragons do. If there's a bunch of kaiju's mucking about humanity would become more quick moving

[@EksaStelmere]

Can honestly say I don't feel fear of big things. When I was younger I bumped into the belly of a shark. I just thought that it was extremely cool as in swam away. To be fair, it wasn't a whale. Even so, I'm more scared of needles than any giant animal.

[@throwawayemail8450]

what a bout a gaint thing with thousands of tiny needles

[@raph3699]

@@throwawayemail8450 like a very big hedgehog ?

[@briciusd.8478]

For better or for worse, there was a good point of view and phrase to this concept in one of the Jurassic World movies where Henry Wu states "...To a canary, a cat is a monster. We are just used to being the cat." And this seems to place well in this idea of giant monsters as well considering the potential size difference between any given cat species and a canary, and thats before even speaking of the ideas that it can lead to. In Jurassic World of course this was humans being their own undoing by bringing back so many dinosaurs that they threatened the world. But in Pacific Rim, Kaiju became the monster from another reality and the human's view of being top of the world was shattered. Similar in Attack on Titan (spoilers btw) they find that the creation of the titans was the doing of one particular set of humans to keep the world away, and in doing so while they were still a physical threat, they became less of an existential threat that Giant Monsters normally are and it centers the focus back on humans vs humans.

[@fanttomone]

This topic is actually very current for me. I happened to create a world for my homebrew dnd campaing kinda by randomly having to explain things to my players. The world in question was created by divine dragons and by the suffering of their offspring. I like the thought of creation trough suffering, so i had one of the dragons (the mother) be murdered by lesser races. And her rotting corpse gave birth to demons. One of her children buried her by singing the mountains ontop of her, the other cried the oceans in her grief. Inspiration was taken from everywhere on this one.

[@avacornthelastponybender8583]

Holy crap, I was NOT expecting a Wings of Fire shoutout! That just made my day😁

[@BlueBeetle1939]

In the world of Dragonlance there have always been regular size dragons that people ride into battle but then in the later books they get invaded by the three smallest dragons from a reality where they are huge to the point of absurdity and it changes the dynamics of the world they take it over completely and eat all the other dragons and the sheer size of them causes the kender species that had never been capable of fear before to have like a cultural ptsd it was all really interesting stuff and a fun shake up to the setting

[@VentA_7]

Another aspect of the 3 ways tension is created from giant creatures, as highlighted by the How to Train your Dragon example & well as other media like Fang & Spear: the dynamics can shift in the story. You can shift from competition to forming a co-operative bond, that bond or general co-existence can crumble, or humans can let go of a parasitic relationship and allow beasts to co-exist again. It’s a very interesting kind of tension, because depending on the depiction of humans & the giant creatures: it can be volatile & ever changing.

[@TyrniSprocket]

This is one of my favorite subjects and your voice makes learning more about it a delight.

[@WolfShadowmancer]

The feeling I can best use to describe my emotions when faced with things that are vastly larger, far more powerful, and infinitely older than I am, is awe. It is what the ancients called "The fear of God." It is seeing just how fleeting, frail, and limited we are compared to the universe.

[@GarrettBurchell]

You include so much thought and references to many of my favorite fantasies. This channel does so much, and I've been an avid fan. It's amazing how far you have come. Tale Foundry, keep making stuff up!

[@TheFrostedfirefly]

The Bionis and Mechonis from Xenoblade 1 has to be one of the most impactful ways I've seen colossal creatures implemented in media. You're introduced to them at the very beginning of the game. Two titans at the very beginning of time that came into existence, much like how we consider the Big Bang. From there, they started fighting to the death, swingin their blades at each other, cutting off limbs which would fall to the endless ocean and become entire land masses, until eventually, both titans would catch themselves in a stalemate. Both titans now locked in place, their now-lifeless bodies frozen like statues, whilst new life is born on each titan, and a selfsustaining ecosystem begins anew. Your first reminder of this reality is when you finish a scene where two factions are fighting eachother. Homs; the humans that were born from the Bionis and are more or less the "humans" of the world, and Mechon; the cold, heartless machines that appeared to be on the attack from their source of origin: the Mechonis. As the scene finishes up, the camera zooms out, showing the weird scrappy wasteland the factions are fighting on. We're given these amazing, sweeping shots of all sorts of other environments we've never seen before as the camera takes us on a mysterious journey before finally cutting to show the husks of both titans, and you realise that this war was taking place on the very sword that the Mechonis was weilding, wedged deeply into the Bionis itself, and acting as a bridge between the two worlds. Throughout the game, no matter where you are, so long as you can see the sky, you can see the large looming figure of the Mechonis and it's sword thrust above you, into your homeland when you look up. In the day, it's large, black, lifeless figure leaves you in awe that the origin of the worlds are so clearly evident for you to see. And at night, while the body of the Mechonis is harder to make out, it's eyes still glow an ominous red, as brightly as the stars which sprinkle the clouds. There's SO much more to the game, and even more of these moments and ones equal to them, but I highly encourage people to play the game for themselves to find them out for the first time.

[@jackallantern4138]

Just want to say that this is one of my favourite videos from Tale Foundry so far. The stories, the world-building possibilities & the real world connotations are so well done in this video.

[@anonimanonim2710]

2 types of fantasy: 1) Once dragons lived in this land... We can only hope that their wisdom and magic will shine upon us once again... 2) There are too much f*cking dragons!

[@Jarulf4477]

Nice of you to mention the humble silt strider. That game has a special place in my heart.

[@lazulenoc6863]

I feel like the worldbuilding of How to Train Your Dragon is far more interesting in the books because it does show how people ultimately exploit the dragons and said dragons are more blatantly sentient. Almost certianly not the best example but it's a good one.

[@Redlock_youtube]

I greatly appreciate this episode, thank you so much! One of the projects I am working on involves worlds with megafauna in them and how two groups of people interact with those creature. This has been very enlightening

[@theinsanityoftheworld3640]

There is really more to Wings of Fire ( WoF ) in that regard, like humans originally ruled the entire world and the dragons just minded their own business, but humans antagonized them for no reason when they weren’t a threat at all, so first they coexisted, then the humans challenged the dragons and the dragons won. Also, at the end of the series, they end up joining forces, and a law is passed in every kingdom that dragons are not to eat humans, because they’re intelligent creatures who have a language. So then they cooperate.

[@robbieking4070]

I’m glad you showed a clip from Hilda cause I find the Midnight Giant to be one of the most whimsical titans ever. How the giants once dominated the world but as humanity grew and expanded the giants found they couldn’t wander the Earth anymore as they would accidentally step on the human communities causing them to fear and judge the giants as heartless monsters. So they were left with no choice other than to leave the Earth behind in search of a new home except for one who remained behind waiting for to meet with his lover.

[@johncrocker4209]

In my family we have a tradition of white water rafting in the spring. When my youngest asked why. I at 1st thought about the fun & excitement. Then I thought about it from her 7 year old view. I realized we do it to feel small again. To face something greater than we will ever be & come out together, even if you spent the whole time in the water.

[@hstorm123gaming3]

7:15 is that a SCP-1762 reference I see… still brings tears to my eyes every time I think about said scp.

[@savvythedivineyethuggable7493]

3:57 Ahh, Trico. Truly, the best best boi. The Last Guardian is an amazing game.

[@Bofrab]

One of my favorite examples of giant monster stories is from a game called Alvora Tactics. I’ve barely played it so far and don’t know what twists are in the game but the basic idea is that there is this massive flying worm like monster called Alvora that occasionally dives down to the surface to eat whatever is unfortunate to be in its path. However at some point the monster is mysteriously found dead, crashed lifeless on a hill side. Now it’s your job to delve into this monster’s insides and loot any valuables that weren’t digested, and probably figure out what caused Avlora to suddenly die.

[@JtDrake372]

There's also the titans from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Massive creatures are moving countries. They have a whole kingdom living on them and inside them. Mines, towns, and vehicles.

[@DatBoiOrly]

9:28 one you missed under the competing is when the humans ends up becoming the giant monster to even the playing field which IMO is one of the better ones

[@idkimjustherenow]

I love your videos a lot, especially ones about concepts like these. So when I saw the video display a picture of Wings of Fire, my little nerd brain LOST IT because time is one of my favorite things of all time. Same thing when you brought up HTTYD! I love both of these series and I'm starting to think this is the concept that links both of them to why I enjoy them! Keep making your videos, I love them so much!

[@DolusVulpes]

I think there's another interesting concept relating to giant creatures that possibly isn't explored enough in fiction, that being one of the main ways in which real world whales benefit the ecosystem: whale falls. Whales are so big and eat so much that when they die and their corpse falls to the ocean floor, it becomes an entire ecosystem. Its bones, which once supported its massive body, now become porcelain rock formations that provide shelter for the plants and animals of the seafloor, and its flesh, once so thick as to make the creature weigh tons, now becomes equal tons of nutrients that nourish those plants and animals as well as the soil and water. It goes from a single thriving creature to a thriving ecosystem for other creatures, and so its life continues to hold value even after it has ended.

[@_NIKOS9_NIKOS]

SPOILERS For Wings of Fire A point to note is that the dragons of this world do not even know that humans are sapient creatures like them (and vise versa), later in the series when they find out some of them are horrified by how they treated them (especially those who had eaten humans before) to the point it becomes illegal to eat them or keep them as pets. Also its a bit unfair to say that there are not human civilization in that world, it's that that alot of their cities (not all tho) are located underground to avoid dragon attacks

[@princessmaly]

"What is that emotion you're experiencing?" Love.

[@dimensionalchaos8422]

I once created a world where the two continents are split by a titanic creature, which is later found to be a massive robot, that endlessly plows along a single path. It cut the planet's continent into two, and the races of the world often "hitch a ride" on the creature, latching on their ships with hooks.

[@blobdestroyer1792]

Great video my dude! The world I’m building incorporates massive sentient machines that basically have the brains of feral animals, and this really helped me lay out how I wanted them to interact with the people inhabiting the world.

[@elisabethcheesedragon]

In Wings Of Fire,there’s actually some cooperation in the form of dragons keeping pet scavengers.It’s actually a really fun concept,seeing humans being treated like anything from a dog (like Flower) learning tricks and playing fetch and things or a hamster (like Bandit) living in a cage and being referred to as “boring” by their owner.

[@yo5tan]

Even just thinking about the number of possibilities for stories that could be told with giant monstrosities and animals makes my head swim

[@XldemonbloodlX]

Wizards of the Coast actually retconned an important fact about Tarkir. Ugin, the cause of the dragon storms that birthed dragons on the plane, was actually a native of Dominaria. His death/imprisonment on Tarkir spawned all dragons making them, in actuality, an invasive species that came to dominate a complex system of khanates that had learned to coexist with each other (not perfectly) that then had to pivot to fighting off a seemingly endless gigantic new intelligent foe with little respect for lesser beings.

[@ZelphTheWebmancer]

I feel obligated to mention the game Subnautica, the most fear inducing non-horror game ever. Its majestic world full of wonders and things to explore are inhabit by enormous creatures that the game fittingly calls "leviathan class organisms", large sea creatures. What is interesting is that a lot, but not all, are aggressive and although you can "compete" (kill) with them the game doesn't encourage you to do so. You gain no reward to killing anything in the game. Ever. On top of that, your greatest weapon, a survival knife, would take hundreds of blows to kill a single one of this enormous beings. And at first that might seem the best option because they are scary (specially the Ripper Leviathan) but over time as you explore the game and learn how this creatures behave, you slowly start thriving in the planet, and the leviathans stop being scary beasts of impossible power and become large animals that you can ride with the grappling hook of your mecha suit.

[@charliegareginyan9584]

In some ways I think that the feelings evoked by giant creatures is that of a god - beyond your mortal form so that you feel things like awe, but also the feeling of challenge.

[@loo21000]

My favorite story that uses giant monsters is Worm, part of the Parahumans series by JC McCrae on Wordpress. In the story, which is largely a superhero story, the Endbringers represent massive region-spanning threats that, left unchecked, can leave colossal amount of collateral damage. In-universe, Endbringer fights boil down to limiting collateral by keeping it isolated to a specific area, and evacuating civilians. The only characters that can truly go toe-to-toe with the Endbringers are the world-class superheroes with nigh-invulnerability, or a specific power that hard counters the creature's powerset. Not only do the Endbringers threaten the heroes, but the supervillains too. As such, you get these interesting dynamics where heroes and villains are working side-by-side to slow down these monstrosities, and protect their holdings.

[@mayleespann4552]

Ahhh … HTTYD was my childhood and one of the defining factors in my love of dragons and other giant beasties

[@smooches-the-deathmetal-bunny]

im writing a concept album about trees that is presented as a giant monster story im calling it "suburban kaiju"

[@marlutteyestrelt3441]

This triad of dynamics with Giant Monster is the thematical epicenter of my world, DISMALIA. As Demons descend from the Nightmare Above, outer space, essentially, they come in hordes, legions and varied but often massive world altering sizes. They bleed into our reality, they coagulate into carnal forms as a reaction of our gravity, which once within our atmosphere their hellish cosmic radiation alters the physical natural world. They mutate it. But it has been this way, for countless eons. The planet nurtures from the spilled blood and fluids of demons slain by mankind or themselves. Once filtered through the soil. They are life givers, even if that life is twisted and nightmarish. They influences a humanity in every stage of this Triad. Eons ago, in forgotten times, humanity and demons Coexisted semi independedtly. This was followed by a ruthless unification, the rise of a reality bending Empire where demons cooperated with a new humanity. In the present, an Apocalypse severed these communions, and now it is the time of competition. Humanity Butchers demons, harvests their substances and consumes it via their Alchemical purification, making Elixirs that mutate humanity into a diabolic chimera. Mutants and Hybrids are a norm in this world, as Demons, after so many generations bound to our Earth, lose their Divine Cosmic Radiation, their essence fractures into something chaotic and frenzied. Primal and Bestial. Their aggression to humanity is guided by a Hatred internalize to their very bones, but they are so unstable from their lost radiance that they cannot remember why, we are their enemies. These three elements of Coexistence, Cooperation and Competition intertwine in present time narratives with characters that interact with demons differently from the expectation. I am glad the Foundry tackled the deep philosophies of these narratives.

[@arlen7726]

Giant monsters, or even just monsters with Giant-sized power in a more reasonably-sized body, have an interesting possibility to them. Far too many people will just refuse to comprehend that level of scale, but I find one of the ways to yank it into focus is unusual geographical features. What if there’s a massive lake or series of lakes in a spot that doesn’t fully make sense on geological forces alone? A desert or arid badlands abruptly surrounded by landscapes with otherwise lush plant life and fertile soil? Volcanic obsidian spires where no volcanic activity has occurred in at least the last billion years? Creatures whose mere waking movements and presence are akin to a force of nature that we cannot fight, only adapt to. Living natural-disasters are a power that can suddenly and irrevocably change the geography of the very land that characters walk upon, and it’s exactly the sort of thing that can utterly change the worldview of someone who glimpses the distant past or gets sent there somehow.

[@johnhenson4891]

I know it's technically a machine and not a living creature, but what about the giant mobile cities in Mortal Engines? From an outside perspective, the cities seem like colossal metallic beasts devours anything in their paths.

[@meph2473]

The giant monster trope I find is often a vent for the primal fear of nature humans experience. I like thunderstorms. When the bass of thunder hits my bones I feel small and humbled. And there is the certainty that I may well stand on that balcony and watch the lights, but if processes outside of my control decide to strike me down then and there, that's it. It teaches me that there are things I cannot or should not change, to learn to accept it and live my life.

[@hattafan2593]

One of my favorite animated films is "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind". It takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where poisonous plants and giant insects dominate the planet. Nausicaa, the main character, and the people of her village, the Valley of the Wind, have learned to co-exist with these creatures - for the most part, they just leave each other alone. This is done purely out of pragmatism; shooting them doesn't hurt them at all, it just makes them angry and runs the risk of attracting more insects. And it's not impossible to kill them, their sheer size, strength, and numbers would make so you'd only be able to take out a few before they completely decimate you. In fact, it's stated in the film that the insects would get so angry, that they would continue to rampage even after they'd destroyed everything and would only stop when they'd inevitably starve to death. And then more poisonous plants would sprout from their carcasses. In other words, violence actively makes the problem worse.

[@yareulb2269]

In the original book series of How to Train your Dragon, the people originally start with the dragons cooperating with humans, but it does become one-sided, and thats one of the massive part of the story with some of the dragons fighting back in a rebellion

[@ianyoder2537]

For me the biggest problem I always have with giant monsters as a concept is food requirements and the resulting waist.

[@thirdplanet4471]

Maybe they eat giant fruits and other giant monsters

[@lucasfv1357]

Love that closing sentiment

[@A-tip]

goosebumps this video gave me goosebumps thanks so much for this I am trying to code a video game and its gonna be my dream game this really helps with the boss fights.

[@Tyrexthecreaturedesigner]

This has really helped!! I have 4 world building projects including a new kaiju project. This video was really inspiring!

[@goldensunrayspone]

my favorite varieties are the ones where the monsters are simply so large that they *couldn't* even notice you if they tried, so nothing they do could be attributed to malice

[@Koyubi-Official]

I've designed the single most concluded world ive made yet, and I'm using two of your videos to create angels, this one, and your one on writing the unwritable, so thank you!

[@Fokkuso]

Imagine feeling insignificant compared to a tree. Tree can't do a thing to you, and you can knock it over with a stick.

[@donutlovingwerewolf8837]

These kinds of stories and movies make us feel small, insignificant, and fragile. Old Gods, Giant Cosmic turtles, Ancient Dragons, Sentient Mountains, they're all the same... They give us hairless apes a sense of fragility, mortality, and insignificance in comparison to the greater universe. Nothing can stop them, WE can't stop them, its what makes these stories stand out from most fictions where the hero defeats a great evil such as an evil king or wizard. Lovecraft is a great example. Also I'm too dumb to continue typing like this so adiós Foundry!

[@ReeveProductions]

His Majesty’s Dragon is another great example of cooperative relationship.

[@Blackferret66]

In the Outlanders manga series, all the spaceships of the vast Santovasku Empire are genetically modified creatures, mainly aquatic types, from other worlds. Their enormous primary warships, for example, are "sea dragons"", and there are fleets of millions of them. Protagonist Princess Kahm's personal ships include a giant, louse-like insect and a huge bug-eyed fish.

[@JesterOfTheInternet]

with our skyscapers, spaceships, and cities i wonder how often we make animals feel that way

[@LKRBooks]

I miss Guild Wars 2. The game's lore revolved around colossal dragons considered to be equivalent to natural disasters. Their cycle is basically to devour magic from the world, while bringing massive destruction and changes to the inhabitants and land (even tera forming it). When eaten enough, they slumber for many centuries while releasing that magic back into the world, which lets other smaller beings thrive. And this process repeats with the dragons waking once more. Their existence was necessary and gave the players a huge conflict when it came to killing them off.

[@iang257]

I love giant beings. Either due to the unwilling Megalaphobia from monsters, or the love of seeing the walking Titans of Warhammer 40k and their glory. Size matters in terms of adding weight to a world. Either as a natural force which humanity must adjust, or the ability to change the world around them. Which is why I love giants in fiction. Especially Imperetor Titans from Warhammer 40k.

[@lordhades8025]

The feeling of being msall definetly partly comes from the fact that humans are the dominant life on Earth, so for some thing to be that much bigger that us (both literally and metaphorically) shifts our whole view of the world. We live in safe environments. Houses, towns, cities, countries, continents. So when something with the power to wpe that away comes along, it's terrifying.

[@WhiteBread221]

I’m new here but I really liked seeing the Magic references. It’s my favorite game and I love the storytelling

[@gabs736]

There is a doctor who episode in the beginning of season 5 that explores this very well, where humans explore a giants space creature, that actually was very kind... its a beautiful and amazing episode, i recommend

[@williambarnes5023]

The emotion you feel is awe. 14:03 Okay, hold up. That is Arboraze from Pokemon Nephri.

[@cykoticartist8853]

when the curtain on the cage wasn't there for a second so you see the giant monster early lol

[@HeirofAzaran]

A great example of coexistence is in the series dinotopia by James gurney. In this there is a hidden island, like skull Island, but instead of dominated by monstrous scary dinosaurs, they actually coexist. Gurney has figured out ways for humans and dinosaurs to live and work together, in ways that take advantage of the dinosaurs unique biology and skills. Such as over raptors that look after eggs, how homes would accommodate dinosaurs, how streets and transport would work, and background lore for how the dinosaurs survived and how they think, because the dinosaurs are completely sentient. I cannot recommend the series enough.

[@lightarchives5025]

I made a world recently with such behemoths as a major theme. They are certainly looked on in awe. They are hunted sometimes for wealth and prestige. They are worshipped and, to the extent possible, protected. They shape the world around them, as people come up with ways of keeping them out of cities, and as cities are built near their migratory routes. Its not one or the other. It's all of it.

[@gamedevinsiderplays1285]

I really like the points brought up in this video. In the modern age of climate crisis we're very quick to look to these monsters we fight as having human qualities, like being treated like we treat rats, reviled and exterminated. It can be a great reflection of some aspects of humanity and it resonates because it is a part of humanity we struggle to reconcile with. But we should also see ourselves reflected in the benevolent giants. The world turtle reflecting meteors is an excellent example of a parallel to humanity after NASA deflected an asteroid. But even on the small everyday scale, we look after pets and rescue animals in danger. To the animals, we're some mystical, impossible-to-understand entity who protects them for reasons they can't understand. Although we do plenty of harm we do plenty of good too, and we should see aspects of ourselves reflected in all manner of powerful creatures.

[@inquisitorbenediktanders3142]

My preferred example of fiction centered around giant monsters is monster hunter, because while you might think that the humans are in conflict with the big monsters but in truth the people coexist with them. They know how the ecosystem works and most hunts are focussed on removing a monster that is either invading a different ecosystem or there are simply too many if them, so you need to take them out to preserve the balance.

[@marcusreading3783]

My setting has a few giant monsters. One of the desert dwelling races, for example, makes use of house sized scorpions for homes and transportation, but there are also beings large enough that entire CITIES have been built on them. They are functionally the natural gods of the world, so I dont need to worry about silly things like physics, but I want to try and be able to capture the sheer size and awe felt when these things interact with Mortals.

[@isaiahburns9140]

So, watching this, I can’t help but think of one of the most popular manga at the time, Kaiju No. 8. I think Kaiju are an excellent springboard for very interesting stories, which makes sense. That’s why Godzilla and similar Kaiju are still popculture icons

[@johanliebert8544]

Another example of cooperative relationship is between Humans/Elderlings & the Dragons in Robin Hobb's Realm of Elderlings series. The dragons here aren't exactly docile like in HTTYD, but rather haughty & arrogant with their relationship with humans being a kind of symbiotic/transactional one.

[@darioferretti3758]

Because of this video I read the leviathan trilogy, they are now some of my favourite books (the steam/dieselpunk, bioengineering and drawings in the book are all things I really like), so if anyone knows of similar books suggestions would be appreciated

[@SCOP_]

This is why I love AoT

[@cyrilfiggis7978]

Yes Terry Pratchett's Discworld is just so good