I've mentioned before how the original Fiend Folio (as compared to the Monster Manual) seems suited as inspiration for sci-fi creatures. In part, I think that's because the inspiration for so many of them seem to lie outside fantasy fiction or myth and legend. They owe their creation to media that would generally be placed in some other genre.
Here are a few I'm aware of whose origins I think are generally accepted, but I'm sure there are more:
Grimlock
(by Albie Fiore)
Inspired by the morlocks in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (1895), particularly their portrayal in the 1960 film by George Pal.
Meenlock
(by Peter Korabik)
While the name likely has its origins in Wells' morlocks again, their portrayal adapts the demonic entities from the 1973 TV movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark written by Nigel McKeand and remade in 2011 by Guillermo del Toro.
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| Art by David Mattingly |
Quaggoth
(by Andrew Torchia)
Their name was possibly coined by blending Sasquatch and Sagoth, a race of ape-like humanoids (serving the "orc" role) appearing in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar series, first appearing in At The Earth's Core (1914).
(by Andrew Torchia)
Their name was possibly coined by blending Sasquatch and Sagoth, a race of ape-like humanoids (serving the "orc" role) appearing in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar series, first appearing in At The Earth's Core (1914).
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| Art by Frazetta |
Qsquip
(by Brendan Bulger)
Their description matches the ulsio (Barsoomian rat) first described in "City of Mummies" (Amazing Stories, 1941) later fixed up into Llana of Gathol (1948).
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| Art by Wayne Barlowe |
Xill
(by Brian Ashbury)
Inspired by the alien ixtl in "Discord in Scarlet" (Astounding, 1939) by A.E. von Vogt fixed up into Voyage of the Star Beagle (1950).
2 comments:
It's not like FF was the first time D&D tapped "Voyage of the Space Beagle." Displacer beasts are obviously from "The Black Destroyer" short story that makes up the first section of that fix-up novel.
That was the first fix-up book I ever encountered. My grandparents gave me a used copy they owned because we had a pet beagle at the time. To this day I'm not sure they'd even read it before throwing it to me. They tended to buy random stuff at library sales and then never get around to them.
Very true. Sci-fi inspired monsters are hardly unique to the FF, there just seem to me to be a higher percentage of them.
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