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#revenge of the atom kaiju contest
quinnred · 5 years
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MOGUL: THE U.F.O. MIMIC
Name: MOGUL Aliases: The Shell, flying saucer , U.F.O. , Holothuria Resplendent , Patera Volans Date Discovered: July 7th, 1956 Place of Origin: Pacific Ocean Notable Stomping Grounds: Pacific Ocean, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Roswell, Akron, Leary Height: 60ft tall (flat) , 80 ft tall (expanded) Width: 100 ft wide (120 ft long when extended) Biology: When the MOGUL was first spotted spinning through the skies of America, it was immediately identified as an alien spacecraft by civilian and military witnesses. The object was too fast to be seen easily or photographed clearly. Jets could barely tail it, and even if they got close the heat of it’s own jet propulsion produced a molten aura that eliminated anything near it. Truly this alien threat seemed unstoppable. It was only through test of chemical traces in the air that hints of it’s true nature were realized. Gases emitting from the creature were similar to the digestive byproduct of large animals... The full truth was revealed when the U.F.O. made land fall in Washington and an Ambassador was sent to attempt communication with potential neighbors from the stars. Instead the MOGUL expanded into a sphere, it’s armor parting to show the soft tissue between. A large tendril like structure emerged, as if to taste the air, and was misunderstood as an alien pilot by the Ambassador who attempted a hand shake, only to be rejected as the “tongue” receded into the sphere and the body rolled over him towards an unknown goal. The MOGUL sphere would stop at a previously undiscovered Yamaneon tunnel and begin to elongate it’s body. This is when observing scientist theorized that MOGUL was a form of Yamaneon evolved Holothurian, aka a sea cucumber. MOGUL’s elopngated body would act as a drill and dig into the Yamaneon deposit’s below, releasing great bouts of radiation. Once it reached the yamaneon, it’s “tongue” began to root and feed on the material, as it’s organs emerged and bloated from the other side of it’s body, filling with both sustenance and digestive gases to likely fuel it’s next flight. The creature was vulnerable at this moment, with it’s delicate organs inflating like air balloons, but radiation made approach dangerous, and it was unknown how large the explosion of such a gaseous creature would be if punctured. It seemed that this creature couldnt be dealt with, that is until a question arised: Why here and not anywhere else? A theory: all known life requires water, and this creature is of an aquatic descent and thus needs water especially. It came for Yammaneon here, likely to avoid competition or predation, and must rely on reserves within it’s body to survive here. Perhaps it chose this spot because of a reservoir around the deposit it’s eating. So if we want it to leave, we must dry it out, and to dry it out we must drain the water. The theory was put into motion, as agents and miners followed the MOGUL’s path and discovered the reservoir. Through demolition it was drained away from the MOGUL, and absorbent materials along with many pounds of sodium to further dry the area. The effort proved worth it, and the MOGUL was successfully evicted from the tunnel and left Washington for another feeding ground were the tactic would be repeated until MOGUL returned to the sea. Was it the only member of it’s species? Unlikely, as U.F.O. sightings still occur, and most of those are likely a MOGUL. In each Yamaneon reservoir touched by MOGUL, reproductive material is found in the water, so it appears there are attempts to at least make more MOGUL. Personality: MOGUL dosent show off much of a personality, as it’s migration is difficult to observe and it’s objectives are rather simple. MOGUL does hate dryness on land, although can resist great heat and cold in it’s flying form as the armor protects it. MOGUL prefer wetter areas for feeding and reproduction. MOGUL often avoids a fight if possible, although it can deliver a hefty ram at full speed flight or roll, but these attacks are more hit and run rather than a full brawl. If caught in a conflict too long or difficult, MOGUL will latch and drop one of it’s tongues on to an opponent and leave it to blind and entangle them, before the tongue it self bloats with excess gas and exploded violently. MOGUL appears generally very unaware of other living things, even each other, although colonies cluster together in the sea tunnels for safety. This kaiju was made for @tyrantisterror ‘s “ Revenge of the ATOM Kaiju Contest “
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tyrantisterror · 5 years
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REVENGE OF THE ATOM CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST: The Semi-Finalists
You rat bastards couldn’t make it easy for me, could you?  You just had to make picking the winners even more difficult this time around than last time - and unlike last time, I couldn’t cave and just do entries for them all.  I mean, I could have tried to do that, but I’m pretty sure my hand would have exploded (or it would have taken a year to make this post - neither a great outcome).  I did end up extending the number of semi-finalists from three to five, but that was mainly because of how I ended up narrowing down the winners.  Since there were so many equally wonderful entries, I decided to narrow my focus by trying to highlight the diversity among the entries, and so divided them into five specific categories to fight against.
It worked in the sense that I was finally, after MUCH deliberation (and at one point a literal roll of a dice) able to narrow it down to five semi-finalists - but let it be known that if I could have, I would have made you all win, because GODDAMN did you all make some wonderful monsters.  You rat bastards.
So, our winners:
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@bugcthulhu‘s Rohobaron!
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@dragonseeker-rex‘s Orothorn!
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@scatha5‘s Rerradon!
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@skarmorysilver‘s Gnomoran!
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@evolutionsvoid‘s Megaria!
Now, which of these five is the Grand Prize Winner?  Well, give me a few days to make the prize and you’ll find out.  But for now, congratulations to everyone!
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virovac · 5 years
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Revenge of the ATOM Contest Entry: Nematerror
Aliases: Nematerror the relentless, Ms. Curious, "The worm that saved the world in an eating contest"
Date discovered: August 1,1957
Place of Origin: Unknown, but likely caused by yamaneon chain reaction stemming from the underground testing around the Nevada National Security Site. 
Notable Stomping/Slithering grounds: Sonoran Desert, The HM Pits Kaiju Sanctuary, Baja California Desert;  The town of San Angelo, California
Height: Generally holds head 100 feet above the ground when rearing up.
Length: 420 feet
Biology
Nematerror combines the kaiju normal kaiju abilities with an adaptable nature that allow it to survive and obtain food almost anywhere its curiosity takes it leading to a list of abilities comprising:
Super strength
An enhanced healing factor
Immunity to radiation
Adaptive molting for new jaw structure
Facultive Amphibiousness
Digestive spray
The gigantic roundworm is a reminder of how even the most seemingly inhospitable places can hold life.
The beast was born from one of the few atomic tests sadly continued by the U.S. for a bit even after the link between tests and kaiju was suspected.
It was assumed if the test was conducted deep enough underground, no organisms capable of undergoing atomic fossilization would be present.
They were wrong. And Nematerror was born.
Unlike the parasitic nematodes the public is generally familiar with, Nematerror was most likely mutated from a free-living nematode living in underground submerged rock. Some speleomicrobiologists have contributed the possibility that it may be a fusion of multiple types of kaijufied nematodes, like some of the stranger Russian Kaiju; but others scoff at the possibility a chimera kaiju's components could work in tandem well enough for the kaiju's molting system to be possible.
Its hide (or cuticle, to be more accurate) is like its smaller brethren, tough yet flexible.
The biggest change is its yamaneon-infused cuticle is better at preventing dehydration than its smaller relatives, allowing it to be active in dry areas, though its instincts do often drive it to moisten itself when given the opportunity,
While its microscopic brethren are transparent, pigments normally consigned to eyespots have been repurposed and spread throughout the body, giving it a burgundy color with splotches of brown and red.  At night, the kaiju has sometimes been seen to glow blue, likely by means of a yamaneon-radiation catalyzed reaction, similar to how a scorpion glows under an ultraviolet lamp.
On "top" of the head are two beady dark lenses, channeling light to eyespots held protectively within the body. However, Nematerror is known to travel upside down almost as often as right side up.
What appears to be segmentation is some places actually vents and slits for sensory organs.
The most well known aspect of the beast by the public nowadays is that it possess the rather unusual ability to enter a hibernative state  from which it can molt with a different jaw structure.
While its most well known usage would be to adapt to different food sources (a generalist mouth when food sources are spread out, a sap-draining stylet when in a forest); during its confinement at the HM Pits, in response to harassment by other kaiju, it developed a retractable spear (something many nematodes have convergently evolved) and jaws similar to a hookworm. Once allowed to move to another body of water in the sanctuary, it went back to its generalist mouth structure.
Nematerror is capable of burrowing but rarely does so unless trying to avoid conflict or it is hungry and senses food below it.
Nematerror's sex is unclear due to the diversity of nematode reproduction strategies, but it is most likely to be female or an androdioecious hermahprodite (though one capable only of fertilizing itself and not others). As such the media has taken to calling it a female when writers wish to give it pronouns.
Personality
Personality is difficult to evaluate when talking about such a simple creature, and honestly leads one to step back and ask "what do we mean by personality?"
Nematerror's instinct as a nematode to avoid light and ultraviolet radiation combined with its new yamaneon based physiology led the creature to be in a state of confusion and indecision for several years. As such it took Nematerror some time to finally pull itself together before it made more than brief trips to the surface and started becoming a threat/nuisance, slowly losing its fear, or at least aversion, of the sun.
Nematerror, though having one of the toughest hides known among kaiju, is generally conflict avoidant, due to lacking much fighting ability in most of the forms she takes and much of her body being covered in sensory organs. This has made the beast somewhat easy to manage but, a wide range of munitions and chemical weapons must be used and carefully cycled through in repelling it, or it will grow used to them and start ignoring what clearly isn't harming it. 
On land, Nematerror will rapidly twist, and tangle her body to orient her vision organs, unintentionally creating an effective threat display. In water she is a more competent battler.
Despite her primitive nervous system, Nematerror posses a need for proper (and preferably novel) stimulation lest she wander off.  Which she did several times from the HM Pits, an early kaiju sanctuary attempt that specialized in East Coast U.S. freshwater kaiju, mostly aquatic insects. The giant "ponds" were bodies of water in yamaneon tunnels exposed to the surface by the Superquake and were a perfect place to dump giant fish or aquatic invertebrates in. Surrounded by desert, kaiju placed there generally decided to stay put. Nematerror was not one of them, hence her numerous breakouts.
In the rare case she was successfully goaded into a fight, she sometimes seemed to "get bored" or forget she was fighting, and abruptly leave unless the other kaiju forced the issue
At the risk of anthropomorphism, Nematerror does appear to have the sort of kaiju competitiveness: not in combat, but in eating. A trait that turned out to be very useful when dealing when dangerous colonies of kaijufied mushrooms appeared in California.
History, thorough description, and inspiration below the cut
The Story
During one of her many breakout wanderings from the HM pits, Nematerror eventually came across a truck carrying samples from a much more concerning problem: rapidly growing colonies of kaijufied fungus in the Baja California desert.
The fungus was like a grim procession of mushroom clouds in slow motion. As it spread underground, it would send up stalks that would emit spores as they continually grew, until they withered ,collapse and fell (thankfully most of the time rotting normally rather than undergoing yamaneon transmutation, as long as they died of "natural causes")
What to do with the fungus became a clear problem. A renewable organic source of yamaneon could be a godsend; on the other hand there was no known way to control its spread. 
As the network of fungus grew, its fruiting bodies started uprooting homes in small towns. 
Not to mention animals kept coming to feed on the fungus risked the creation of new kaiju.
Several kaiju ended up being born just from a lightning strike on a stalk that failed to collapse and underwent crystallization after it was killed with chemical weapons.
Here's where the worm came in: Nematerror showed an obsessive nature in her encounter with the fungus samples, "licking clean" the transport vehicle like a child trying to get every speck of a piece of candy.
This inspired an idea.
Nematerror and several other omnivorous kaiju with digging ability were lured to the various fungal masses.
It worked wonderfully.
At first it was thought Nematoerror would be relatively useless in the efforts given her usual method of feeding was suction. But the nematode monster started by the unconventional (for its smaller brethren) method of squirting gastric juices to soften the fungus up.
Nematerror put in a good effort, but other kaiju soon outpaced it. It was almost like the kaiju were competing over who could eat more. Eventually while the other kaijus' pace started to slow, Nematerror stopped completely and and prepared to molt.
At first, some in the military was worried Nematerror was going to grow even larger and become more of a threat, but researchers familiar with the worm assured them that wasn't the case.
There was a different change coming.
The following night Nematerror burst from its husk with a new jaw structure specialized for absolute consumption
While most diurnal kaiju slept off their meal, nematerror renewed her assault.
She would start by pumping each fungal stalk she came across with using a piercing stylus to start digestion. The beast then proceed to topple, chew, spray and vacuum at the same time, the bell like structure surrounding its mouth creating a pressure gradient like a suction cup. Not a crumb escaped.
Nematerror eventually made her way to the original fungal mass in a never-ending frenzy. The fungus responding by growing downward deeper and deeper into the earth in an attempt to escape. The worm followed, burrowing even past rock so as to not let the quarry go. Both Nematerror and the last of the fungus vanished into the Earth below.
It was one of the more unusual cases of humanity pitting kaiju against each other, and not even really a battle, but the effectiveness could not be denied.
Unknown to humanity, Nematerror eventually made her way to an abandoned Reptodite settlement, happily (if such a word can apply to such a simple creature) exploring every fascinating nook and cranny. Perhaps she will get bored someday, but for now, she is satisfied.
Description
A burgundy color  with splotches of brown and red. Can glow blue at night.
If in a movie would basically be a garden hose covered in well stuffed socks that had holes cut in them. Where "socks" meet and are "stitched" together there ridges poking out from inner tissue to outside world. (the alae, sensory organs)
Its hide is covered with (relatively) small sensory bristles, pits, and pores that likely don't need to be illustrated.
On top of head are two beady dark lenses, channeling light to eyespots held protectively within the body. They face the sky instead of forward, so the kaiju rears up and reorients its head to look at things, or just crawls upside down with the durable lenses facing the ground.
Its hide is covered with (relatively) small sensory bristles, pits, pores, that don't need to be drawn.
Fitting for a monster made from a hose, the head of the monster can be imagined like an old brass nozzle available during the 50s (a visual aid below)
Bear with me: I’m going to talk about the design as if it were a movie monster prop for a bit.
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[Taylor]
As stated elsewhere, the jaw structure of the monster is adaptive. There are two forms important to its story.
One, its generalist omnivorous form which has a mouth similar to a bacteria eating nematodes from the front (see the hellworm picture below for rough idea. ) 
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[Picture from Borgonie]
 but the side profile of the mouth/front of head before the visual sensory organ is the output part of the nozzle (see below)
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As a joke about frugal prop reuse, the "fungi killer"  form is basically the nozzle unscrewed from the hose and placed within the head of the theoretical prop backwards. Covering it is a fleshy bell-like structure looking like the arms of a vampire squid, under which hides chewing jaws, and a stylet (piercing mouth structure like Kumonga's stinger).  (Suggested to not try drawing the jaws. Nematode jaws are weird, that's what the covering is for, to avoid having to look)
Spiral-shaped grooves on sides of head area the are sensory organs akin to nostril. Giving the impression of ears or swirly eyes depending on how someone looks at them. Example below thanks to Holly Bik
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Inspiration Explanation
The fungus came from another entry idea , an organic equivalent of The Monolith Monsters called Atmungous that I didn't feel was strong enough on its own, but worked well as an unnamed threat. San Angelo, California was a fictional town in that movie. (The real life San Angelo is in Texas.)
From there came the idea of an "eating contest", and to combine the ideas of a "children's book journey.' Combining ideas The Hungry Caterpillar, and The Little Engine that Could, all with a kaiju twist. Noticing the story I was developing also had similarities to The Blue Elephant (about an elephant desiring a particular kind of enrichment in their exhibit), that along with the common illustrations of the Little Engine inspired me to give the monster the ability to glow blue at night, which I can easily see being used as a gimmick in a classic B-Movie film.
The "HM Pits" are named on the "Highly Magnified" H. M. Woggle-Bug, T.E. (Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated) from the Oz book series, which was a bug that jumped off a projector screen connected to a microscope in a suitably cartoony fashion. I thought a place to put freshwater kaiju was something that wasn't really in the setting, I figured they'd mostly be aquatic invertebrates given the theme of American kaiju are giant arthropods and retrosaurs.
I had to do so much research on nematode biology for this: it was inspired by nematodes being found deeper down below than anyone expected, as seen in the Live Science article I cited for image used as a reference in the description.Thing is, these species aren't that different from those on the surface or in oceans nearest the caves. They were already pretty much perfectly suited to the conditions after getting washed down there by accident. Which made designing a monster based on one much easier than I feared.
Month and date of discover is when Dune was first published. 1957 is the year Monolith Monsters and the Monster that Challenged the World came out. I like to include multiple references in my monster dates.
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Coloration: Golden Underbelly, bright orange eyes and deep purple armor. The horns and spines that jut from its body are bone white.
TSUNOKING
Scientific Name: Ceratodracos rex  -- “Horned Dragon King”
Date Of Discovery: November, 1958 by Paleontologist Kyohei Shimura. The monster was released from a system of volcanic tunnels beneath Mt. Fuji, went on a brief excursion through Osaka and, after hurting itself in a fight against its own reflection, wandered off into the mountains of Hokkaido.
Stomping Grounds: Fuji Fire Pits, Hokkaido Wilds
Biology: Tsunoking is a Ceratodracos: a Jurassic aged Paleo Tyrant that sports a thick, domed skull, regal hooked horns, dense armor plating covered in spines and osteoderms and a powerful, hammer shaped club. Standing approximately 90 feet tall, Ceratodracos was master of its territory, settling disputes by ramming its challengers with its thick skull, tearing flesh with its savage jaws and wicked claws and by breaking bones with it’s hammer club. It sports no fire venom and relies entirely on its physical might.
Powers -Rapid Regeneration -Immunity to Radioactivity -Extra Durable Armor -A reinforced skull that can reflect some projectile attacks as well as batter opponents
Weaknesses: -Pride. Tsunoking in particular is a prideful animal and does not forgive personal slights easily. It will pursue and attack rivals until its honor is restored. -Speed and Weight: Its thick armor reduces its mobility. It has difficulty fighting fast or flying foes.
Personality: Tsunoking is basically if a samurai were a dinosaur. His quiet demeanor hides a fiery spirit and he has a strong moral code: he does not attack children or nesting parents, he does not kill foes weaker than him, he has a deep respect for life and considers those who can defeat him as rivals and friends. His morals were born from his own suffering as his parents died when he was very young and he was forced to learn to dominate his home on his own. He puts forth an aloof, detached nature, but in truth, he is rather lonely.
Despite this, this warrior does not actively seek out combat. Tsunoking prefers to stick to his own territory and guard it from threats. but willingly meets the few challengers who do cross his path. He gives all he has, for to hold anything back would be an insult to his foe and he expects the same honesty in return.
Tsunoking will not tolerate being insulted. If its pride or honor is mocked it will ceaselessly pursue its foe until it can prove itself superior. Death before dishonor. Similarly, it dislikes being dirty. After combat it will thoroughly clean itself, ensuring its golden belly and purple armor shine vibrantly. He cherishes the mighty weapons given to him by his mother and father.
EXTRA NOTES: -Tsunoking is a cross between Dracorex and Allosaurus, with a splash of Euplocephalus. I don’t think there are any pachycephalosaurs in the ATOM lineup, and while Ceratodracos isn’t exclusively a pachycephalosaur, it’s a step in that direction. -Tsunoking’s name was coined by a reporter traveling with Professor Shimura. Shimura explained the monsters scientific name, which wasn’t quite punchy enough for the pressman. He made a portmanteau of the japanese word “tsuno” for horn, and the english word “King.” -Tsunoking entered Osaka out of pure curiosity. He was very careful to avoid hurting the squeaky little mammals running about his feet. He found them rather cute and detested the thought of harming them. -Tsunoking was repelled from Osaka after mistaking his own reflection in a skyscraper for a challenger. Because the other “monster” only mirrored him and did not follow the correct challenge ritual behavior, he took the challengers action as an insult and rammed the building, causing it to topple on him. He wasn’t fatally wounded, but the incident has made him wary of cities and he prefers to stay away from them.
@tyrantisterror for REVENGE of the ATOM Kaiju Contest
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ATOM: revenge of the kaiju
Name: Iron-Mouth Menace/Munchy/City Muncher
Date discovered: September 1st 1964 by Reina Kawaguchi
Place of origin: Wakabayashi Ward, Sendai Japan
Notable Stomping Grounds: Sendai, it’s outskirts and cave systems, and the Sendai bay
Width: 50 feet
Length: 250 feet
Biology: Silkworm, (Wakabayashi Landrace, which is a local species bred specifically from stock from one area) 
Notable abilities/features:
Mandibles able to chew through concrete and similar materials
Production of massive amounts of silk
Iron-Grip™ Claws/true legs
Increased healing factor
Disastrous appetite
Immunity to radiation
Appearance:
    Munchy resembles the wakabayashi landrace of silkworm caterpillars, if only superficially, with black-tipped spines and a wider, more robust body compared to the average silkworm, as well as having more brightly colored true legs. Munchy’s first pair of prolegs are  much larger, and having multiple segments, allowing a bipedal stance. However, most prominently, Munchy’s head, mandibles, and true legs are a matte-black consisting of some kind of carbon-steel alloy. While the rest of Munchy’s body is covered in large plates, or scales of various materials, some reaching 5 feet in diameter. 
Personality:
    Munchy exhibits little emotion beyond hunger, however, it does have notable quirks, such as preferring not to eat living beings, and stripping entire neighborhoods down to the foundations, sometimes even eating those. Munchy is however seen as an unambiguously good caterpillar, due to being the lesser of evils, so to speak. With its slow, methodical approach to feeding. Munchy has a lesser body count when compared to other Kaiju of its size, and even contributes to tourism, when not destroying precious monuments.
History:
    Munchy, as nicknamed by it’s original caretaker, before being turned over to the Japanese government for development, was a silkworm caterpillar. The original caretaker, Reina Kawaguchi, a Yamaneon-enhanced individual herself, credits her obsession with the mineral and its effects with the development of Munchy. She reports that she had been given silkworms to care for, so decided to fill their tank with stuff she found in a cave, which she visited with her parents the week before. Reina left Munchy and some of its siblings on top of a radiator, and when she woke up the next day, munchy had grown to “maybe three or four times its previous size” and had “eaten everything but the glass” of it’s tank. This growth continued up until Reina had to turn in the silkworms. At which point her teacher contacted the authorities, and munchy was turned over to the government. Reina still has visitation rights over the weekend, though they are limited to no contact. 
The Japanese Government, under the purview of yamaneon researchers, decided to enhance Munchy further for testing. It is unclear what happened after this point, but sources claim that due to improper handling of specimens, Munchy and numerous other proto-kaiju were disposed of improperly. After a quiet period spanning from when the government took over Munchy to 1970, Munchy emerged as a 50 foot long menace to society. Munchy then ate its way into the city proper, slowly following the roads from the cave systems north of Sendai. 
As of present Munchy is making way for new beach front properties by following the coast. It’s hypothesized that somehow Munchy has adapted to consume salt-water, though these cannot be proven until it molts again. Which is the main way of tracking Munchy’s health and diet.
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dragonseeker-rex · 5 years
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My Revenge Of The ATOM Create-A-Kaiju Contest Entry:  Orothorn
Name:  Orothorn
Date Discovered:  May 11, 1958
Place Of Origin:  The Sonoran Desert, near Patagonia, AZ
Notable Stomping Grounds:  Sonoran Desert, Yucca Flat, Hollow Mt.
Height: 79′
Length:  106′
Biology:  Gilded flicker(a type of woodpecker)/saguaro cactus hybird
Orothorn’s power set consists of:
-Super Strength
-An Enhanced Healing Factor
-Immunity to Radiation
-Nigh-impregnable beak used for rapid attacks
-Sonic scream(Used only as a desperation move, as he prefers to use his voice to sing pretty tunes)
Appearance:  While he keeps the typical male gilded flicker’s signature features(gold cap and underwings, red ‘moustache’, black bib), his plumage is mostly the light green of a saguaro cactus, lined with rows of small needles.  These, as well as his beak and talons are gold, thus becoming the basis for his name.  Finally, the base of his tail is gold, while his tail feathers are white, resembling a cactus flower.  Around his neck, he wears a silk scarf colored in gold, commissioned for him by his human friend, Mick Auricson
Personality:  Friendly, cheerful, and inquisitive, Orothorn wishes to emulate the heroics of the singing vigilante cowboy, The Golden Spur.  Whether that entails defending the innocent, or simply delighting others with his beautiful birdsong, his acts throughout the American Southwest and Mexico eventually earn him the title of Arizona’s State Kaiju 
Backstory:  While filming his latest picture, Michael ‘Mick’ Auricson(better known as The Golden Spur) happens upon an injured gilded flicker, naming him Oro.  Oro eventually recovers and Mick releases him back into the wild, though Oro never strays too far, nesting in the Yamaneon-irradiated cacti near Mick’s trailer.  Our feathered friend likes to alight nearby while Mick practices his singing and guitar playing, sometimes singing along, to Mr. Auricson’s great amusement.  He also observes Micks heroic deeds on-set, not understanding that Mick is merely acting.
One fateful evening, an accidental detonation of a large cache of dynamite in front of a mountainside cactus patch causes a rockslide.  While trying to escape, Mick trips and falls face first knocking him for a loop.  The ever-present Oro then swoops into action, gently pecking at Mick’s face until he comes to.  He narrowly escapes, and when the dust settles, he returns to the scene to see if he can find Oro amongst the rubble.  After an hour of unsuccessful searching, Mick sighs and hangs his head, fearing the worst for little Oro.  Suddenly, the gargantuan pile of boulders and destroyed cacti begins to quake and rumble, until one particularly large stone is jackhammered into pebbles, and a kaiju-fied Oro emerges, looking no worse for the wear.
Overjoyed, Mick rushes up to him and exclaims excitedly, “Oro! You’re okay!  I--I can’t thank you enough for saving me!  I would’ve been a goner for sure!”  He pauses momentarily to collect himself, taking in his friend’s new appearance. 
“That’s quite a set of thorns you’ve got there, isn’t it?”
Oro simply cocks his head in response and chirps happily, before instinctively shaking all the dust off himself.  In turn, Mick ducks into his shirt while vainly trying to wave the dust away, coughing and laughing at the same time.
Notes:  I don’t frequent Tumblr nearly as often as I used to, so I didn’t know there was another contest until a few days ago, and I like to think I whipped up something pretty nice and fitting in the interim!  I hope @tyrantisterror likes my ‘singing cowboy kaiju’!  BTW:  This final version is vastly different to my first idea for a cactus character(I love cacti and succulents), who was pretty much just Dex-Starr the Red Lantern
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iamthekaijuking · 5 years
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Name: N’yergolep
Aliases: Nergle
Date Discovered: August 20, 1958
Place of Origin: Miskatonic Valley, Massachusetts
Notable Stomping Grounds: Miskatonic Valley, Boston, Wherever Plumera and her family goes
Height: 80 feet
Biology: N’yergolep, or Nergle for short, is a failed beyonder experiment. Originally an inhabitant of Mars, Nergle was captured when the beyonders invaded the Martian home world. Upon being captured, Nergle was subjected to a lot of the same experiments as Deluxman and Promythigor, which granted them incredibly powerful psychokinetic abilities. However, instead of gaining an extra eye like the previously mentioned Earth Kaiju, his single eye became three lobed; having three irises and pupils in a single eye. Nergle is also a member of the same group of Martian animals as Kemlasulla and Sombarvot, but their anatomy is inversed. Nergle lacks their armor plating (and their skin is actually fairly weak) and Nergle’s legs are small and used for manipulating objects while their tentacles are used mostly for moving around.
Nergle’s psychic abilities grow more powerful as they get more scared and stressed out. At max power Nergle’s psychokinesis is so powerful it can allow them to manipulate and lift entire skyscrapers. However, they don’t have much conscious control over how it interacts with the environment, and things will seemingly start levitating at random.
N’yergolep’s powers set includes
-Super Strength
-An Enhanced Healing Factor
-Immunity to Radiation
-Extreme Stress Fueled Psychokinesis
Personality: Despite N’yergolep’s frighting appearance and extremely powerful abilities, they’re ultimately a nervous wreck. Nergle didn’t leave their containment pod for over a year out of fear. Ready to flea at any moment, Nergle is constantly on edge. They often make high pitched squeaking sounds when startled or surprised, and they need a lot of reassurance to calm down. Despite being afraid of nearly everything, there’s not a shred of hatred or malice in Nergle’s heart. Even when running for their life, they only use their psychic powers as defense against projectiles and physical attacks, and never use them to purposely harm others.
After coming into contact with Plumera and her family and becoming part of it, there has been a significant decrease in anxiety attacks Nergle has experienced. Plumera and her gang of disabled and pacifistic kaiju have made Nergle feel welcomed and have been by their side and have been there to help calm them down during panic attacks, especially Plumera herself. N’yergolep has since remained very close to Plumera at all times.
The Story: Many cities were hit hard during the beyonder invasion, and some more than others. Boston was one of those unlucky cities. Few buildings stood, and recovery efforts had only just begun. When reports of an unopened beyonder containment pod in the nearby abandoned town of Miskatonic Valley reached the citizens of Boston, they were understandingly distressed. They had only just begun rebuilding their city, and to have another kaiju set foot in it would be devastating.
The military decided to send in a small team to investigate the crash site. When they got to Miskatonic Valley they noticed a lot of strange things. At first it was the occasional pebble or bucket floating around, but as they got closer to the containment pod entire houses and near kaiju sized chunks of the earth were defying gravity. Cautiously, they managed to open the containment pod, and were greeted with N’yergolep.
All it took was for a shivering Nergle to look the soldiers in the eye and squeak in terror before everything descended into madness.
The soldiers fired at N’yergolep, grazing their skin. As Nergle shrieked in pain, the ground surrounding the pod cracked and rumbled and the floating debris started swirling around the containment pod. Nergle burst from their containment pod running for their life. The ground split in their wake while the debris followed them. They ran straight through Miskatonic Valley and, unfortunately, in the direction of Boston.
The soldiers called for backup, and radioed the people of Boston to evacuate. News stations on the radio also started reporting that there was other kaiju in the area headed toward Boston as well. Fortunately, reports confirmed that the kaiju were in fact Plumera and her family.
Over the past few years since her appearance, Plumera has gained world wide recognition for traveling to places with human activity with fun and socializing in mind. Her ability to understand the basics in multiple languages had increased and she had shown scientist that she could actually hold basic conversations via writing, and that she was not merely parroting words. While she has been guided to Typhon Island on multiple occasions, she always eventually leaves to seek out humans, which is never really a problem since she has never caused trouble and has in fact de-escalated many situations involving kaiju. Plumera had also created something of a family for herself by befriending disabled and abandoned monsters, most of whom were rejected beyonder monsters like Nergle.
The monsters following her were a giant blind genetically engineered hybrid between plants and tyrannopyrodon dubbed Rose by the press due to roses sprouting from her skin after being under the love and care of Plumera, a pink baby kaiju of a species related to Zillser given the name Bubblor, a member of a species related to Ugugular that resembled Chinese architecture named Shēnghuó tǎ, and a levitating golden beyonder relative capable of telepathy given the name Dhyandogen. Plumera had managed to befriend each of these monsters and teach them to not hurt people, and Boston hoped that she could do the same to the new kaiju as well.
Nergle fled in the direction of Boston with the military hot on their trail, and Plumera trailing a few miles behind as well. She came across Miskatonic Valley and subsequently the containment pod. Dhyandogen and Shēnghuó tǎ immediately recognized the structure as beyonder technology, and judging by how fresh the destruction around it was, it was recently opened. Dhyandogen telepathically alerted Plumera of the situation at hand, and it’s urgency. Plumera picked up Bubblor (who had been trying to climb onto her back) and handed him to Rose, while Dhyandogen told her about the situation at hand. Rose was blind, a little clumsy, and had faulty regenerative abilities. The new kaiju might not be very friendly, and so Rose would have to stay behind with Bubblor for both of their protection.
Plumera, Dhyandogen, and Shēnghuó tǎ made their way to Boston. Plumera hoped she wouldn’t have to fight, since not only was she terrible at fighting, but she absolutely hated it as well. She was thankful to have Shēnghuó tǎ and Dhyandogen by her side. If things were to go south then Shēnghuó tǎ was willing to be a meat shield, and Dhyandogen would easily be able to restrain the new kaiju with his manipulation of gravity. Both options weren’t favorable though, as they could potentially escalate the conflict and stress out both sides.
Upon their arrival to Boston, they were greeted with the sight of the military hammering into a terrified N’yergolep who was using their psychic powers to use buildings and rubble to block as many attacks as they could. Dhyandogen approached and used his telepathy to ask the military to stand down. The military withdrew after seeing the trio of kaiju. They knew their weapons weren’t enough to take Nergle down, and hoped that Plumera and her companions could resolve the conflict.
Plumera was the first to step up. With the military backing off, N’yergolep’s attention was focused solely on the trio in front of them. Plumera continued her approach, and stopped when about a hundred feet was between the two. She then started making cooing noises to try and sound friendly. Nergle eyed her nervously while using their psychic powers to lift up a building and make it float between the two.
And so it stayed that way for awhile. Plumera sitting non-threateningly and trying to look as innocent as possible, while Nergle occasionally peeked over the floating building. Eventually N’yergolep was no longer stressed enough to lift up a building, and put it down, however they were still stressed about the situation. Dhyandogen then moved up beside Plumera, and eventually Shēnghuó tǎ. Dhyandogen made a mental link with Nergle and spoke to them.
“Do not worry. We mean no harm. We know of the pain you have suffered from the small tentacled ones from the stars. I too have suffered because of them, and so has the yellow and red one with many heads beside me. They are no longer here. There are less dangers in this new world, and you must be careful around the stone jungle the small two legged ones. You might hurt them”
At that moment Nergle looked at the ground, and saw a family trying to hide in an alley. They looked at the child the two adults were hugging closely, and saw them crying in fear. N’yergolep never knew they were hurting such small creatures, and they never wanted to hurt anyone. With tears in their eye, they turned back to Dhyandogen.
“Follow us. We will protect you, and help you to not hurt others”.
Nergle carefully emerged from behind the building, slouching a little out of shame. Plumera stepped forward and extended her wing out in friendship. Nergle cautiously extended their own leg and grasped her hand, and squeaked in surprise when she shook it. Plumera, Dhyandogen, and Shēnghuó tǎ turned to leave the city, but before they left they looked back at Nergle expecting them to follow.
And so N’yergolep did.
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So that’s my submission for @tyrantisterror’s atom contest, coupled with a kinda “meh” short story. I always wanted to expand Plumera’s family if there was ever another atom contest. The story is basically how Plumera adopts a new monster into her family. I also wanted Unit 01 from from the last contest (which was probably the saddest and most depressing submission out of the 70 something contest entries) to have a happy ending. So I retconned her death and renamed her to Rose. I had a ton of ideas from the first contest that I decided not to do here. From a swamp kraken that looked like a hamburger to a baby bioluminescent bat that had a hormone imbalance that made him constantly angry. But I also really wanted to do a Martian monster. So I took Kemlasulla (arguably my favorite atom monster) and inverted him both physically and personality wise, but Nergle is also a nod to one of the forms nyarlathotep takes. Martian monsters also aren’t male or female, so I made Nergle non binary. This entry also has a bunch of Cthulhu Mythos references, so see if you can spot them all. This entry is also a treat for me because every one of my previous submissions all make an appearance. So yeah, that’s my submission.
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skarmorydraws · 5 years
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@tyrantisterror Revenge of the ATOM Create-A-Kaiju Contest Entry: GNOMORAN
Date Discovered: ‎December 1, 1956
Aliases: The Beast of Emain Ablach, The Mutant Mole Monster, The Elder Gnome, Sciúirse Talún (”Scourge of Earth” in Irish)
Place of Origin: The Emain Ablach Earth Hollow
Notable Stomping Grounds: The Emain Ablach Earth Hollow; most of the coastal regions of Ireland and northwestern Europe; possible sightings in and around Scandinavia and the European Arctic circle
Height: 50 feet
Length: 75 feet
Description and Biology:
"Unsightly" is a word that describes Gnomoran quite well. Descended from a deviant prehistoric species of talpid mole that found its way to Ireland prior to the last ice age surrounding the island country with seawater, the fossorial creature has changed quite significantly compared to its ancestors, though its overall build - a cylindrical body, powerful burrowing clawed forepaws, velvety fur that doesn't flow in any major direction, sharp insect-catching teeth, and an acute sense of smell - has been retained due to being perfectly suited for its ecological role. However, its limb proportions are quite different from a typical mole, in that they are somewhat longer proportionally, though the back limbs are still shorter than the forelimbs. Likewise, its scaly, rat-like tail has become thicker and longer, more like that of a lizard, and though largely quadrupedal, it can rear up and even walk in a tripodal stance if it needs to either better sense its environment when above-ground or bring its weaponry to bear in combat, though it still looks somewhat hunched when on two legs. The forelimbs are burly and bear-like with hairless, scaly paws and five enormous, sturdy, relatively straight claws almost like those of a ground sloth on each hand, and the enlarged digit-like bone on each wrist has also developed into a curved, bladed spike for use as a weapon. Its plantigrade back feet are also scaly but with much shorter, more curved claws for traction. Most significantly, however, its head barely resembles that of its ancestors from the outside. Its medium-length snout and sharp-toothed jaws seem to have been remain largely unchanged in skeletal structure, and its light red eyes are small and insignificant, but the similarities end there. The front of the forehead bulges upwards and is heavily reinforced, because it serves as the base for a massive, straight, conical horn, spiraled like a narwhal's tusk, that points straight ahead and helps Gnomoran bore through the earth along with its clawed paws; the snout and mouth poke out underneath it like the mouth of a goblin shark. The snout and chin themselves are covered in long hair like a mustache and beard, and on the very end of the snout, the nose itself has about a dozen flexible fleshy feelers like catfish barbels which it uses to sense its environment. It is the top of the head that is most notable: it is entirely hairless, and the base of the horn, the scalp, and the sides of the face are all covered in wart-like tumors and skin eruptions of varying sizes. Its teeth are typical of a mole's, which resemble those of a carnivoran (including canine fangs and carnassials) rather than those of the only distantly related rodents; however, the front-most incisors are elongated to the point where they resemble rodent teeth, and some of its teeth are also missing or even broken from countless fights.
The monster's scraggly, unkempt fur is a uniform shade of pale bluish gray with silvery streaks here and there, along with cream-colored facial hair uncannily resembling the mustache and beard of a garden gnome. Its paws, tail, and the skin and tumors on its face are a pale red, and its claws, wrist spikes, and horn are reinforced by iron and are thus a vivid red-orange in color.
Aside from enhanced brute strength and burrowing capabilities, Gnomoran seems to be an accomplished swimmer, and has been seen paddling through the coastal seas off of northwestern Europe in a breaststroke-like fashion, moving with surprising speed to surprise watercraft and tunneling straight into the ground from the water, though its agility in the water obviously pales in comparison to more dedicated swimmers. Like some other species of mole, it also has venomous saliva which causes temporary paralysis, once used to store prey in "larders" for lean times, but also just as effective in combat. Most critically, however, the tumors on the mole-beast's head, which seem to emerge as often as they are ruptured, contain a grisly byproduct of its radiation-metabolizing biology, a corrosive grease of sorts formed from the juices of its runaway regenerative processes. If an opponent foolishly attacks its face, the fluid released by the punctured pustules will more often than not begin to flow down its horn, making its goring attacks even deadlier. It may even pop its own pustules using its front claws and wrist blades to coat them in these caustic juices, and doesn't care if its skin and fur are also eaten away in the process - it can simply regenerate afterward. In fact, its regenerative ability is especially developed among kaiju of its scale, recovering from injuries in a much shorter span of time than normal and bouncing back from wounds that would kill a more typical kaiju, making it that much more difficult to kill and all the more frustrating for it.
Gnomoran thus adds a few insidious abilities to the standard kaiju set:
Super strength
An extremely enhanced healing factor
Immunity to radiation
Paralytic venomous bite
Caustic Pus
History:
The ancestors of Gnomoran seem to have gone extinct towards the end of the last ice age, when a gradually warming climate and increased humidity deprived them of the drier, cooler soils that they favored, as well as the cold-tolerant invertebrates that made up much of their diet. The last known population seems to have held out on the Isle of Man before fading out some 10,000 years ago, but not before some of them presumably tunneled into a Yamaneon-rich earth hollow beneath the island which wouldn't be discovered until much more recently. The hollow was found by a team of Irish geologists in late 1956 and, accordingly, named after an otherworldly location in Irish myth associated with the Isle of Man among other isles in proximity to the region. The hollow itself was not the only discovery they made that day, however - Gnomoran's instinctive prey drive, largely unchanged despite no longer requiring sustenance, regarded the scientists as prey and incited it to pursue them out of the hollow, killing several of them in the process. Escaping to the outside world, it made its way to the nearest body of land it could find and laid waste to the town of Newcastle, Irleand before military resistance sent it back into the sea. The creature then ventured northwards, attacking any coastal settlements and ships unlucky enough to be in its path, before finally tunneling into the Isle of Arran and disappearing from the public eye.
Several months later, the city of Glasgow, already in economic decline and rapid de-industrialization at the time, was in for a nasty surprise when an enormous red horn burst out of the streets and Gnomoran plunged into the heart of the city, ransacking everything in its way and devouring dozens of homeless, destitute people as it went. It was only thanks to British military aid that the creature was driven away from the better-off parts of the city, but not before a significant portion of the infamous Glasgow slums had been reduced to rubble. Its rampage finally ended when it attempted to escape into the River Clyde only to take a torpedo to the mouth, critically wounding it, whereupon it was promptly captured for transportation to the newly established Siberian Monster Zone. Sometime during its transportation, however, the ship containing it mysteriously sank, with all on board reported dead or missing - Gnomoran itself being among the latter. Eyewitness reports of the creature doing battle with other kaiju across northwestern Europe came up several times throughout the following year, complete with documented evidence of its presence, but no accounts of the creature invading major cities have been recorded since its sacking of Glasgow. Plans upon detainment are to deposit it in the Siberian Monster Zone as originally intended, but actually finding it is another story - the randomness of the mole-beast's meanderings means its current whereabouts are as yet unknown.
Personality:
As a result of Yamaneon exposure and atomic fossilization, Gnomoran's regenerative factor seems to be quite enhanced even by kaiju standards. Combined with its toxic secretions, this makes it an unexpected threat and a daunting foe to face despite its size and seeming fraility, and as has been gleaned from personal accounts by many survivors of its attacks, the mutant talpid seems to be aware of this. It is chaotic and unpredictable, retreating one moment and barreling at opponents horn-first the next, and its ability to strike from unexpected angles and disappear without much fanfare has made for infuriating and often traumatizing experiences for both the various European militaries and enemy kaiju it's encountered. The Pleistocene relic also has a sadistic, vindictive streak, exacting disproportionate retaliation and brutally mauling other life forms on its scale even if they only harmed it by accident, to say nothing of toying with smaller things like humans and vehicles like a child prone to breaking playthings on a whim. It also cares little for self-preservation due to its healing factor and is highly aggressive to beings that upset it as a result, having the audacity to fend off kaiju several times its size. The mole-beast is infamous for picking fights with others without rhyme or reason, attacking even when its remaining instincts aren't informing it that it is hungry.
Reportedly, kaiju who weren't as violent as Gnomoran itself have learned to simply leave rather than engage the creature whenever it drew near since its emergence, presumably having witnessed the bloody aftermath of its fights during their own travels. Many in fact preferred not to draw its attention if possible, lest it decide to chase them down and exercise its self-perceived entitlement to chronic and sustained cruelty. Strangely enough, however, more than half of the sightings of the creature since the Glasgow incident involved the provocation of an even bigger, more powerful beast, with Gnomoran sustaining severe or even mortal injury upon disengaging. Some have speculated that it may even have enjoyed being mangled each time, explaining why it incited such fights so often. The kaiju has even been known to quite happily hurl itself right into dangerous territory such as hazardous environments and obstacles, fights where it is severely outmatched, or even disasters it has bought upon itself, further validating these claims.
Humanity fares even worse against the monster, for obvious reasons, and military efforts have thus far only raised its ire ever more greatly. Vehicles and groups of people attract its predatory instincts, as its brain is hard-wired to view smaller creatures as prey, especially in groups. Whenever it has made landfall, it seems to have made a beeline for coastal villages and suburbs. Its experience in Glasgow seems to have taught it not to venture into major cities, however, which is just as well, since the collateral caused by both it and military actions against it would be too great if it decided to attempt another municipal raid. Although it doesn't even need organic sustenance anymore, it is still compelled to consume large amounts of small prey due to its mentality remaining the same as that of a much smaller creature. This compels it to seek populated regions, forcing military retaliation and fueling its contempt for humanity in a vicious cycle. This is why many north-European coastal nations have since made evacuating rural areas their first priority in the event of its appearance, only employing martial resistance if left with no other choice.
As elusive as the elderly creature is physically, remnants of Gnomoran's presence, typically fur, pus, blood, and even bits of flesh, have been recovered from almost every site where conflict between it and other kaiju has been noted. Recent biological analysis of these remains has revealed that its abnormality and instability seem to extend beyond the tumors on its head - its small size and sadomasochistic aggression have resulted in it sustaining many, many injuries, including numerous internal ones due to how often it has been crushed or its vitals damaged. Its extremely high healing factor fast-tracking the repair of these injuries seems to have resulted in tumors and pustules overcrowding any wound it has received, and the extent of the cycle of damage may go beyond even that.
Many scientific reports related to Gnomoran have turned up one distressing commonality: living cell matter associated with the mole-beast has been known to spontaneously develop into tumors even in containment or otherwise in isolation of the source, and some have speculated that the monster's own inner anatomy constantly experiences the same issue, with every muscle, organ, and neuron growing, eroding, and re-growing at an explosive rate. Combining this with accounts of its cries constantly sounding as though it were severely hurt, along with its habit of intentionally blundering into hazardous situations, a few analysts have even speculated that this aspect of its biology causes the kaiju immense pain on a constant basis, which may explain why the creature is so pugnacious and prone to violence and self-harm: its own runaway growth may be railroading it into waging war with others so that its own constantly growing flesh can be broken, battered, and ripped away from itself before it overtakes its critical anatomy, condemning it to an agonizing fate far worse than death.
In summation, it seems that Gnomoran is a beast that has vastly overstayed its welcome, both on Earth and compared to the expected lifespan of its kind, and the inadvertent prolonging of its mortal coil has thrown some catastrophic side-effects into the mix. While its behavior may be an indicator that it is vaguely aware of this notion, its instincts have sadly locked it into the violent, self-destructive path it has followed for far too long. The mole-beast is indeed a monster - but not an entirely unsympathetic one.
Notes:
Whew! This guy, right here, was a true exercise in flexing my creative muscles, and took a number of attempts design-wise to get right, but I believe I pulled through in the end. :)
One of the gaps I noticed in both ATOM and the real life giant monster filmography worldwide was that Europe seems to have been rather neglected in the atomic age, in spite of having a rich source of mythical creatures that could've been adapted to the era in some fashion (hell, IIRC only Reptilicus borrowed from that, being a medieval dragon and such). There also weren't as many Trogcestor kaiju as there were retrosaurs, so in the wake of how successful one of my last ATOM contest entries was, I needed something both mythical and prehistoric-looking. My original plan was in fact a gigantic monstrous unicorn with a rhinoceros-esque flair and a theme like a jousting knight, but then I remembered that a Behemoth already exists as a kaiju in the ATOM canon, and what with unicorns being closely related to behemoths in the fantasy 'verse ATOM shares its world with, I sadly had to scrap it. Luckily, another concept I had planned fit much better, and that was refined into Gnomoran here.
This bad boy is, in fact, related to the ancestors of TT's dwarves (including gnomes), which are basically weird sapient moles, so I decided to pitch to myself the idea of a freaking lawn gnome as a kaiju - which would be a gloriously ridiculous idea without the context - and see if I could make it work. I ended up with this gigantic monstrous prehistoric "unicorn mole" with a lance-like horn on its head referencing the famous hat, with a touch of The Mole People B-movie mixed in (note: the date of discovery is the same as the real-world release date of The Mole People). The overall design combines said Mole People not only with more accurate anatomy from talpid and star-nosed moles, but also flourishes from Guiron, Gabara, Baragon, and even a touch of Knifehead for the snout, though the facial tumors were entirely my invention. The history meanwhile is more akin to The Giant Behemoth (which was released just over two years after The Mole People, incidentally), the titular beast of which was said to be suffering radiation sickness but didn't have a design indicating as such. I decided to swap out radiation for cancer for thematic reasons, and had Gnomoran live through his ordeal and escape to live and fight another day. His name, by the way, is a portmonteau of "Gnome" and "Formorian", a race of vicious subterranean dwarves from Celtic lore, which also explains his presence in an Irish territory - the Isle of Man is one of the real locations associated with the mythical realm of Emain Ablach, for which Gnomoran's place of birth is named.
So why does he have "everywhere-cancer", you may ask? Well, that ties into the theme I had in mind. I noticed that there were plenty of "good guy" monsters in the world of ATOM, and even a lot of the antagonists redeem themselves to some extent. But has there been anybody designed as a "hate sink" of sorts, someone despicable enough that nobody wants them around? I wanted to come up with one of those since I'd done only one antagonistic kaiju in the previous ATOM contest compared to three relatively decent ones, but I obviously didn't want to violate the ruling that the villain has to have at least one virtuous characteristic, though, so I ended up making him a tragic villain instead, and themed him around the health complications of old age and the perennial issue in fantasy fiction of prolonging one's lifespan through unnatural means. The inspiration for this was the loss of my family's two dogs earlier this year, and in the case of the latter I actually had the misfortune to witness her waste away due to health complications at her age. "Old-ness" is an unavoidable thing that is only comprehensible to those who are already old, and hated by everyone else in some way or another. Who would want to see the loss of their youth and vitality while becoming elderly and senile, after all? There are a lot of things to enjoy about the autumn years of your life, sure, but the sad truth is that when you're old, you're more vulnerable to disease, and cancer in particular. The elder of our dogs lost his life to spleen cancer, in fact, which has weighed heavily on me since then. Thus, I gave Gnomoran a face encrusted by tumors, while also hinting at his entire body from snout to tail also being full to bursting with more of them. Then I realized that a certain merc with a mouth from the X-Men comics has the same issue, and then everything fell into place regarding his personality. Deadpool would, after all, be a completely unlikeable asshole without all that snark! So Gnomoran thus became this crazed, elderly maniac with all of Deadpool's psychotic problems and none of the fourth-wall-breaking comedic charm, thus bringing the issues Gnomoran has to the spotlight: he's old and outdated, constantly and gravely ill, and hurting all over, which has made him totally miserable, but unfortunately, his coping mechanism is not snide meta humor but rather attacking anything that crosses him in the hopes of alleviating the constant overgrowth of his own body. This may have even come about because his first interaction with humanity was violent by necessity, what with him trying to eat people and all. Hence, he's a crotchety old geezer who WILL cut a bitch when given the chance - an opposite to the way more mellow albeit territorial Julkath, if anything - but he at least isn't violent without reason. The fact that many insectivorous small mammals really are almost as aggressive IRL and have stupidly short lifespans because reasons was the icing on the cake. Poor guy outlasted his entire species, no wonder he's mad about it. :P
All in all, I'm happy with this crusty old fart and his overall concept, and hopefully it'll be worthy of its place alongside the other entrants into this second ATOM Create-A-Kaiju Contest. Best of luck to everyone else who's submitted, and of course, may the best monster win! :D
Atomic Time of Monsters universe (c) @tyrantisterror
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My entry to @tyrantisterror 's REVENGE OF ATOM contest
INSECTRA, THE BUG FROM HELL!
Insectra is not, biologically speaking, an insect. Her genetic code is actually closest to the Horseshoe Crab, upon study, leaving one to marvel at her strange life cycle.
Insectra was first discovered in a cave system in the South Pacific, having been raised by a young girl living with her tribe. Insectra was, in fact, very small when she began her life, barely over four feet tall- it wasn't until her home was invaded and her "mother" killed by trigger happy soldiers that her life as a kaiju truly began. Insectra burrowed deep into the earth, taking her mother's body with her, feeding off of Yamenon deposits, her rage growing and morphing into hatred, even as her body morphed into a cocoon of nearly one hundred percent Yamenon, allowing her to emerge within the military base erected by the violent military force that had colonized her village. Now standing nearly 90 feet tall, her tail and four "limbs" allowed her to move rapidly, and even tunnel like an organic drill. The commander of the base was a violent, sadistic, overly patriotic man, and made the utterly idiotic choice to launch a nuclear weapon at the massive shell.
When the dust cleared, there was no sign a nuclear bomb had been dropped. Instead, though, there stood, at 217 feet, Insectra, the Sky Queen! After reclaiming her home, and killing the commander of the base, she lay down and began to weep- for what could the sound she made be but weeping?
The surviving villagers gathered around her, mourning with her. They all lay a hand upon her shell, and began to sing a lament for the spirit of her mother, but as the last voice faded, so too did Insectra's tears. The village was still her home, and these were still her mother's people- her people.
Further military invasions have been repelled by Insectra, as well as Kaiju invasions, and beyond her size and strength, Insectra has razor sharp claws, can fly at Mach 3, and can generate massive EMP blasts capable of rendering even other Kaiju unconscious.
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I'll be really honest, Insectra is basically the Weedle line meets Megaguirus in terms of design, with a little Scyther thrown in for good measure. She's suuuuuuuuuuper last minute, but I wanted her to be the best I could.
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dragonzzilla · 5 years
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Revenge of the ATOM Contest
Name: Najjuk
Aliases: The Horned God, Winter’s Breath
Date Discovered: February 25th, 1956
Place of Origin: Alaskan Yamaneon Tunnels
Notable Stomping Grounds: Arctic Circle
Height: 110 feet (145 feet with horns)
BIOLOGY
Najjuk resembles nothing so much as a caribou bent in the shape of a person. It stands on its hindlegs, which have become thicker and stronger in order to support its body weight, and its powerful shoulder muscles give it a hunchbacked appearance. The toes on its hands have effectively become clawed fingers. Its fur is dark, and it has a prominent dewlap similar to a moose’s. Najjuk has an impressive pair of antlers, which it sheds every year, growing back in a unique shape every time. As a caribou, Najjuk can see light in the ultraviolet range, allowing it to see things that would otherwise blend into the landscape in light visible to humans and other mammals, such as urine or fur, which contrast strongly with the snow. Combined with the sharpened eyesight that most kaiju possess, it is very difficult to sneak up on Najjuk even while camouflaged. Despite its immense bulk, Najjuk is a surprisingly good swimmer, though it is nowhere near as agile as a true aquatic kaiju.
The first thing one is bound to notice about Najjuk is the layer of hoarfrost that clings to its fur. Due to a quirk in its biology (see below for more details), Najjuk expels large quantities of methane gas, which reacts with the oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide and water vapor, the latter of which quickly freezes in Najjuk’s native habitat. Over time, the buildup of condensation forms a thick enough layer of ice to actually offer Najjuk protection—which compounded with the healing factor found in all kaiju, makes Najjuk especially tough.
The monster’s most remarkable quality, however, is something less visible. Ruminants like Najjuk naturally produce methane as a result of fermenting plant matter in their rumen. However, centuries of steady Yamaneon exposure and eating Yamaneon-nurtured plants have mutated the microbes in Najjuk’s gut. The kaiju’s stomach now converts radiation into methane in a bizarre chemical process. In essence, Najjuk produces methane simply by existing, and in vast quantities. Breathing in too much methane can deprive the brain of oxygen—resulting in confusion, disorientation, nausea, and even hallucinations as your brain asphyxiates, potentially leading to death. As a result, even though the kaiju is not malicious, its presence is inimical to organisms that depend on aerobic respiration. Najjuk does not seem affected by this, likely due to another bizarre change in its biology. This does present another danger, though. Because methane is so flammable, just a small spark can cause an explosive backfire that will frighten Najjuk, sending the kaiju into a blind panic. As such, Najjuk loathes fire and will avoid humans or other kaiju that can exploit it.
Due to the life-giving radiation of Yamaneon, Najjuk doesn’t ever need to worry about freezing to death even in the coldest environments on Earth. In fact, it has the opposite problem; as a superfauna built for arctic conditions, it cannot easily dissipate its own body heat. It will try to counteract this by submerging itself in the nearest body of water to cool down. Najjuk rarely ever travels south of the Arctic Circle, especially during the warm season, as the increase in temperature can cause heat stress in the kaiju. While its healing factor can counteract the worst effects and prevent the kaiju from dying, Najjuk nonetheless becomes more irritable and flighty. It may pick fights it would otherwise avoid, reading territorial threats where there are none. It will most commonly seek out large bodies of cool water to counteract this, but the damage it causes in the meantime can be rather substantial for an otherwise peaceful kaiju. Normally these incidents would be few and far between, but rising global temperatures as a result of human industrialization is exacerbating the problem. With previously cold areas becoming uncomfortably warm for the kaiju, the likelihood of Najjuk attacking humans or other kaiju is steadily increasing, much like how any animal affected by habitat loss might behave. To say nothing of the high levels of methane and carbon dioxide trapped in Najjuk’s icy coating, the release of which can further exacerbate the greenhouse effect in a vicious cycle. As a result, kaijuologists who study and monitor Najjuk have been pushing for stricter emission standards, albeit to little success.
Najjuk’s powers include:
Super strength
Enhanced healing factor
Immunity to radiation
Hoarfrost armor
Methane emissions
Ability to see in ultraviolet
BIOGRAPHY
Najjuk was born approximately 11,000 years ago, shortly after the Bering Land Bridge was reclaimed by the sea. Separated from the rest of its herd and pursued by wolves, it fled into a cave leading underground, where it quickly became lost in the vast and meandering tunnels. But following the light, it came upon a central chamber lush with vegetation—and at the heart of this subterranean oasis laid a deposit of Yamaneon, the remains of a long-dead kaiju. Unable to find a way out again, Najjuk took residence in the chamber, feeding on the rich plant-life and sleeping beside the Yamaneon for warmth. Bathed in the Yamaneon’s benign energies, its life was extended, long enough to undergo kaijufication.
Centuries passed unbeknownst to Najjuk, and when it decided it was finally time to reunite with its herd, it dug its way to the surface, erupting in a plume of ice and permafrost. But with no way to tell the passage of time beneath the earth, Najjuk thought only a winter had passed, and when it called out to its herd, the sound was bizarre in its own ears. Puzzled, it began searching the wilderness, soon learning that things had changed—or rather, *it* had changed. Everything was smaller now, and afraid of it. It looked for a long time, but it could not find its herd. When it grew desperate enough to seek the company of other herds, it quickly discovered the harmful effect it had on other creatures. Animals in its vicinity would soon weaken and die. The kaiju tried and tried again to find a herd that would accept it, but it only brought illness and death. Centuries of guilt compounded until Najjuk resigned itself to a life of solitude.
In 1955, Doctor Elijah Sammurtok, an up-and-coming name in the emerging field of kaijuology, received word of a kaiju sighting from his birthplace of Baffin Island, Canada. The remote location, rugged terrain, and small population would all seem very attractive to a kaiju, so Sammurtok assembled a team to investigate; and after 36 hours, they discovered Najjuk hibernating in a hollow situated above a geothermal reservoir.
Over the years, some have advocated to relocate Najjuk to a Kaiju Sanctuary, but it has proven difficult to contain due to its nomadic nature. And while Echidna Island is designed for kaiju with problematic biologies like Najjuk, Sammurtok has fiercely fought any attempts to relocate Najjuk there, as he believes the drastic shift in temperature would be unnecessarily cruel.
PERSONALITY
Najjuk is a lonesome creature. It retains a herd instinct, but due to its nature as a kaiju, it will never find another creature quite like it. It will sometimes call out to its missing herd, despite centuries of experience telling him that it is alone. These seemingly mournful cries are eerie and otherworldly, but beautiful in a way, reminiscent of the acoustic dispersion or “singing” of ice. In fact, Najjuk will sometimes mistake this natural phenomenon as a response call, much to its disappointment when it locates the source of the sound.
The only other creatures that may understand Najjuk are other kaiju, but its constant emission of harmful gases means that few creatures can tolerate its presence for long. While it would take a very long time for a kaiju to die of asphyxiation, they can still experience the negative effects of being denied oxygen—making it unpleasant company to even the most gregarious kaiju; whereas more belligerent kaiju may (correctly) blame it for the sudden onset of nausea and attack. However, this rarely plays out in their favor, since Najjuk’s mere presence is debilitating and it will readily defend itself. As such, it has defeated kaiju far more vicious than itself; but it does not take pride in this. Najjuk would rather be left alone.
Indeed, Najjuk has learned sympathy over its long and lonely life. Its curiosity and need for company drove it to seek out other life at first, but as smaller creatures began to choke and die in its presence, it came to realize the pain and distress that it brought. While it does not understand the nature of its unfortunate quirk, it understands that it is harmful to others. Nonetheless its loneliness compels it to roam as broadly as possible, which sometimes brings it into conflict with mankind or other kaiju. Conscientious though it may be, it doesn’t lack for a fighting spirit, and can actually become quite irritable and quick-tempered under the effects of heat stress.
Najjuk does not possess a “territory” as it were. It roams as widely as it dares in search of its lost herd, and though it has thoroughly searched the Arctic Circle, it cannot travel very far south before the temperature starts to weigh on it and it inevitably retreats back to the cold. It has no permanent home, though there are places that serve as “way-stations” in its ongoing journey, usually rich in geothermal energy. Every few years, Najjuk will bunker down in one of these places and “sleep”, more likely due to vestigial instincts than any need for rest
Notes
This is my entry for @tyrantisterror A.T.O.M. Create-A-Kaiju Contest! I’ve been following for a few months now and I have fallen in love with the kaijuverse he’s set up, so when the chance came to make one of my own in a similar style, I had to take it.
Just as Godzilla embodies the dangers of the times, I wanted to make a kaiju that speaks uniquely to my concerns, namely climate change A few years back, I watched a movie called The Last Winter, which centered around the emission of harmful gases like methane trapped in the Arctic ice, which is now escaping as a result of climate change. Breathing in this stuff can cause hallucinations,  and it's left ambiguous whether the supernatural effects in the movie (most prominent being a Wendigo monster) are magic or mundane. Najjuk is both—a very real monster with very real science explaining its more inexplicable abilities. Najjuk is not a Wendigo, though, nor is it the “reason” ala MonsterVerse behind the too-often-misused legend. Najjuk isn’t supposed to be any one Native American creature. I still wanted to pay respect to the mythology, so I did some research into different monsters and creatures, and decided to home my Kaiju on Baffin Island, a place with fascinating Inuit folklore and gorgeous landscapes.
Najjuk is supposed to embody climate change, but I didn't want to make it a villain. No one wins in climate change, so I decided to give Najjuk a tragic quality—a social animal that kills everything around it. What kind of effect would that have on its personality? So Najjuk ended up becoming this lone god of the north, that monolithic giant deer you sometimes see in fantasy art, seemingly more god than animal. But it's relatable; it just wants to find a family, a place to belong.
I’m pretty satisfied with the monster’s core concept, even if I’ve had a hell of a time putting my ideas onto paper. I've said just about everything I can think of, though I know there’s more I’ve forgotten. But at some point, I gotta call the project done or my procrastination is going to eat me alive like a giant monster.
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quinnred · 5 years
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NAME: MR. PRESIDENT
Aliases:
The Locust, The Dream, The Consumer, Industria, Zagan, Eligos, Dantalion, Gabuthelon
Origin:
“ ...Speculation is all that one has, but the visions started soon after the new age itself started. I dont know were it truly came from, but it’s influence cropped up down [REDACTED] and is making major progress towards Washington. His...”Voters” are those who heard his hum and saw the Locust in their head, appealed to by basal motive and swayed by his musical demand. The Voters can be anywhere and anyone at this point, willing to do just about anything Mr. President wishes, its like a secret club or a cult. What he wants? Seems to be anything we see value in, like food, presents, people, or even movies and music. I think he wants power most of all, he wants... He... He wants me to fly and I, uh, cant say no to the President.” - Interview with Mr. Jack Fin moments before jumping out of a window.
Stomping Grounds:
ț̸̉̂͐͒̂͠a̶̛̙͒̈́̉͘͝͝m̵͙͉͋͋̊̕ ̴̨͉̓̍͋̓͘p̶̧͙̩̠͕̀̀̈́͐̈́́r̴̢̡̡̛̟͎̻͇͓̔̋o̸̙̫̫͔̯͍̣̤̞̤̐͛p̶̨̨̯͚̻̲̫̫͓̒̇̄ͅê̸̪̟̜͍̬̑̍͗̍̄̀͘ ̷̳̭̅́̃͒͂͘͝q̶̢̼̮̻̱̪̯̄͜ư̸̲̩̳̻̖̿͗̌͌͐̉͒͜a̶̡̩̣̬͉͙̒̄m̸̢̡̛̞̺̱͖̺͉̞̗̿̿̎̾̄͠ ̴̧̧̩͎̭̭̹̯̝̋ṕ̶̳̝̓̇̄̔̀̔̌͌͠ȑ̵͍̍̓̂̈́o̸̡̧̗̯̔̐͑̕͘͝c̷̼̱̗̝͕͒́ͅư̵̬̥̼̞̬͇̟̝̻̈ľ̵̠͖̝̘̔͘͜ͅ
Height:
t̴̡̢̟͔̫̘̯̹̑̄́́̃͜ḁ̵͍̙̲̀̅̔̚m̶̨̢̞͇̙͚͖͚̏͛̊́̽͂̇̅ ̶̡́͝v̵̢̢̦͕̟̥͔̿͆͒̕a̴̩̦͍̦̱͋̓͝n̷͇̳̭͉̅̉̄͠͝͝ù̴͕̣͇̦̮͓̈́͌͑̏́͗́̓̚m̵̲̞̩̜̦͈̈́
Length: s̵̬̯͎̍͊̏͆͐̎̌̚i̸̧̟̬͔̼͍̹̼̔̽̈́̍̿͐̓͜͠͠c̷͉̹̻͖͛̃̾̒͌̋͊͜û̷̬̗̜͇̬̱̬̖̈́̈̕͜t̴̗͎̻̦̅̆͛͜ͅ ̷̧̢̣̮̣͠d̸͎̊̎̎̃̎̕e̵͉̒̍̾͝͠͠s̴̻̠̀̀͗́ḯ̵̥̣̖̪̅̈́̍̿̂͂͠͝d̴̤̜̉̐͊͑̊͗͗͆̑͘e̸̫̮̞͗͛͗̏͝r̶̢̲̣̗̳͈̭̯͇͖̐̃͌̎͗͘͝a̷̻͉̫̹͛͂̈́̏̃̅͝v̴̭̯̞͍͉͓͝i̷̺̗̜͐̏t̶̢̲̤̊͂̒͂͛͐ Biology: Possibly incorporeal, or the projection of some distant being. Anyone who is contacted exudes tiny traces of Yamaneon radiation, so there is some sort presence beyond just illusion. May be a gaseous cognitive semblance of Yamaneon. It appears to prefer the image of a Locust in the minds of others and often enlarges this form and abstracts it to drive certain emotions.
Personality:
Mr. President is a thing of demands and commands and only such. It enjoys using terms of it’s various subjects that are particularly “sing songy” or rhyming. It seems to lack any and all moral compass and will commit all sorts despicable actions through it’s subjects to the most shockingly intricate degree. It is speculated that the creature may not comprehend much of it’s own “speech” and simply relies on the tune of the words and reaction to judge and motivate it’s subjects.
Original photo taken by [email protected] @tyrantisterror
#Revenge of the ATOM Kaiju Contest
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tyrantisterror · 5 years
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Revenge of the ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest: ENTRY ROUNDUP!
Twenty three wonderful monsters were submitted by twenty three wonderful people to the second ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest.  Let’s give them all their due before the winners are announced, shall we?  Just as with last time, I went ahead and sketched them all, because I’m a masochist who enjoys hurting his carpal tunnel ridden hand, and because I feel like it gives every monster a fair shake.
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@bugcthulhu starts us off with Rohobaron, a hot-headed retrosaur/crocodile chimera that can superheat his body to ignite the landscape and incinerate enemies with a touch.  Despite the fairly nasty powers, Rohobaron actually has a somewhat sweet personality, being quick to make friends and staunchly loyal to his allies, though his short fuse can also make him drag his friends into danger.
Design-wise, Rohobaron’s got a very solid concept, with those dynamic fuckoff-big arms and horns  being the most obvious selling points, along with little dashes of character like the gharial lump on his nose and the heavily armored plates on his chest.  You wouldn’t confuse him with the other retrosaur kaiju in the series, that’s for sure.  The idea of a monster this burly and gnarly looking being a sweetheart is the kind of “appearances can be decieving” thing that ATOM thrives on, and giving a kaiju powers that reflect its personality (in this case, hot-headedness = heat powers) is always cool.  There are some minor continuity issues with the bio given what’s going to happen in ATOM Vol. 2, but Rohobaron doesn’t lose points for not reading a book that isn’t fully written yet.  All in all, a wonderful submission!
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@akitymh is next with Charlotte, a retrosaur of the herbivorous persuasion.  Exactly what clade of herbivorous retrosaur it belongs to is intentionally unclear, as Charlotte has a thagomizer like an armored goliath, but also shares some quirks with horned goliaths, despite lacking horns itself.  A missing link, perhaps?  She’s also unusually large for an ATOM kaiju, which suggests she’s been around for a long time - reinforced by her calm and sometimes protective nature, as the older kaiju tend to be less fight-focused than the young ones in ATOM.
Charlotte’s design is very interesting, and I like the idea of having some retrosaurs who don’t quite fit into any one given clade - it makes it more like real life taxonomy to have some oddballs here and there.  Her smattering of armor plates gives her and interesting look, and I like how her long hind legs allow her to go bipedal as well as walk on all fours.  Her neutral personality also makes her stand out among the mostly fight-happy monsters of ATOM.  All in all, a solid entry!
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We continue the prehistoric theme with @ariccio50‘s marvelous armored retrosaur, Scolosurtr!  An genetically modified armored goliath, Scolosurtr’s most prominent features, as you have no doubt noticed, are the two massive yet hollow spikes on his back, which are connected to the kaiju’s two massive hearts and occasionally shoot projectiles when he’s pissed (though this is painful for the reptile to do).  Scolosurtr can superheat his blood as a defensive mechanism, which in turn allows him to melt the ice that often clings to his body in the frosty countries he tends to roam.  The armored monster is very easily stressed out, particularly by his fellow kaiju, and will even bite his tail in an attempt to calm down.
Scolotsurtr’s design is rad as hell - I love a giant monster that looks like a mountain, and the mini-volcano shaped shoulder spikes are such a cool pokeon-esque design feature (I say that as high praise).  His icy, antisocial personality is a fun contrast with his fiery look, and the personality tick of biting his own tail to calm down is a very endearing quirk.  Also, can we appreciate how wide this fella is?  Just an absolute unit.  His powerset allows him to stand out from the mostly tooth and claw fighters of ATOM, while still being balanced thanks to the pain it causes him to use it.  A very well rounded entry!
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@scatha5 brings us our fourth entry, the enormous armadillo Rerradon!  Shy but willing to fight when backed into a corner, Rerradon is a formidable enemy when roused, with thick armor keeping him well defended and enough claws and spikes to make other monsters rethink their choice to attack him.
Mammalian kaiju are, as many have noted, very rare, and Rerradon is an excellent contribution to their small but growing ranks.  I’m a sucker for armadillos too, and Rerradon keeps all the traits I love about them while still having a unique and monstrous look to him.  My favorite detail on this fella, though, is one of his alternate names - “Dracula’s Weird Dog.”  Why?  Well, because of the fact it references some obscure monster movie trivia - both in the 30′s when the Bela Lugosi Dracula first came out, and the 50′s when it was prominently re-released, armadillos were not a particularly well known creature, and would have been considered exotic and strange by most Americans.  As a result, the film-makers of Dracula put an armadillo in the vampire’s haunted castle, banking on viewers thinking it was some sort of strange monster.  And, at the time, it works - most people who saw the film had no idea what the strange lizard rat thing was, though I imagine anyone living in the Southwest probably wondered why the hell an armadillo was in Transylvania.  Obscure references to monster movie minutia are exactly ATOM’s jam!
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Our next monster is @quinnred‘s flying saucer mimic, Mogul!  An enormous descendent of the sea cucumber, Mogul needs both Yamaneon radiation and water to survive, and causes a great deal of chaos in the process of feeding until scientists realize dehydration can drive the creature away,  While too simple in nature to exhibit much of a personality, Mogul’s mysterious nature and accidental imitation of interstellar travelers allows it to leave a mark nonetheless.
An incredibly clever design that I wasn’t quite skilled enough to capture in my sketch (you should always check out the links to the originals here, folks), Mogul is tailor made to a great 1950′s style monster story.  You have the initial mystery with an inherent red herring built into it (i.e. everyone thinking the creature is initially a UFO), the startling discovery of what we’re really dealing with, and a creative solution that scientists come upon when studying the monster’s biology.  While Mogul’s simple nature means it might have trouble in a kaiju vs. kaiju story, it’s incredibly well suited to a stand alone tale, the kind that could really flesh out ATOM’s giant monster crisis.
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@cerothenull brings us our first big arthropod, Acanpetax the enormous assassin bug!  A gnarly insect that wears the bones of kaiju its killed as armor, Acanpetax is a cruel and vicious hunter of its fellow monsters, though over time its vicious ways soften.
Kaiju bones turn to Yamaneon when they die, and Yamaneon crystals are shaped in a way that would give them a very coarse, spiky texture (if my muddied memories of Geology 101 are correct, anyway), making the insect’s armor even more evil-looking, which is great for a monster that (initially) plays a Heel role.  This guy has the makings of a great villain monster, and I like that, in ATOM fashion, he still manages to get a heroic turn over time, especially the implication in his bio that it comes from communicating with the spirit of the snake monster whose skull he currently wears as a hat.  It’s delightfully weird!  A big bug with a solid visual to work off of and a great role and character arc baked into his personality, Acanpetax is a strong contender!
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(no seriously you really need to check out the original postings, my sketch here does not do this fella justice)
@evolutionsvoid also shows ATOM’s big bugs some love by bringing the fungus infested Megaria into their ranks!  Originally a larval cicada that was parasitized (and likely to die) by a fungus, Megaria’s sudden transformation into a kaiju brought her into a more balanced symbiosis with her parasite.  Neither an attacker or a protector, Megaria is a spectator of kaiju fights, and will eagerly watch her fellow giants battle without participating herself.  She is a force to be reckoned with when backed into a corner, though, as Megaria’s fungal growths have given her a variety of sound-based abilities, many of which she is not fully in control of.
It hasn’t been touched on in ATOM much yet, but plants and fungi are affected by Yamaneon radiation in a very similar manner as animal life, and Megaria presents a fun opportunity to explore that.  The idea of a parasite and its victim becoming partners post-mutation is really interesting, and Megaria’s design is just as interesting to look at as its concept is to think about.  Her fungal symbiote also gives her a great number of unique powers and abilities to make any fight scenes she’d be in unique, while her personality as a kaiju spectator allows her to stand out (I can see her making cameos in other stories as a background monster).  Another solid contender for the contest!
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@highly-radioactive-nerd takes us back to the past with the helmeted retrosaur Tsunoking!  Technically a paleo tyrant, Tsunoking sports several defensive adaptations that are similar to those sported by many herbivorous retrosaurs as well, though perhaps his most notable adaptation is the crown of horns that gives him his name (see, he’s pointing to it in my sketch!  It’s a nice crown.).  A proud but honorable monster, Tsunoking is a powerful fighter who prefers to fight similarly powerful foes, and is also rather fastidious when it comes to personal hygiene.
I love the chimeric mix of features here - the dragon-y snout, the pachycephalosaurus dome skull, and the ankylosaurus tail club all give Tsunoking a very unique silhouette among the many carnivorous retrosaur kaiju in ATOM, and would no doubt provide some fun speculation for ATOM’s paleontologists.  The vanity gives his heroic personality a fun flaw to work with, and I likewise think his Samurai-esque honor code could be interesting to work with in a story.  A wonderful prehistoric monster to add to the roster!
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@dragonzzilla brings us a very strange and melancholic monster, the bipedal caribou Najjuk!  In addition to its striking humanoid stance, Najjuk emits a great deal of toxic gas as a byproduct of its Ice Age biology, and its inability to cope with warm temperatures results in it becoming incredibly aggressive and dangerous whenever it leaves its arctic environment.
There’s a clear (but not too heavy handed) metaphor for global warming in the threat Najjuk presents, as the warming of the earth leaves it less cool spaces to seek refuge in, and the caribou’s methane emissions actually contribute to the problem that’s destroying its home.  The monster also has a great deal of pathos built into it - a herd animal that is the last of its kind, forced to live in a habitat that’s too inhospitably cold for most other kaiju to tolerate, making it an incredibly lonely monster.  Combine the symbolism and pathos of its plight with a very striking mammalian design and you have an incredibly unique entry into ATOM’s menagerie of monsters!
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@virovac gives us a truly bizarre entry with one of the most clever descriptions I’ve read so far, the low budget monstrosity known as Nematerror!  A mutant roundworm, Nematerror is one of the monsters considered too simple in nature to have a personality, though it still seeks what it needs with enough voraciousness to be considered a threat.
The really ingenious thing about this entry lay in its description, as virovac chose to describe how the creature would look if it were an actual prop in a low budget 50′s monster movie.  Made from a garden hose, stuffed socks, and some other trash, Nematerror is the kind of cornball monster puppet idea that could only be carried out in the atomic era of creature features, the kind that Joel and the bots would have a field day with.  There’s even a description of how its hose nozzle could be turned around to represent a nematode’s malleable mouth parts!  It’s very clever, and definitely the sort of idea that suits ATOM’s love of cheesy monster movies.
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@skarmorysilver brings us the old and crusty mole monster, Gnomoran!  A sadistic curmudgeon, Gnomoran is a deeply unpleasant monster to face in battle.  With venomous spit and caustic pus secreted from its many facial sores, Gnomoran’s natural weapons give it a revolting edge, which is made all the more nasty by its mean-spirited personality.  However, Gnomoran is also in immense pain, as its healing factor has been thrown off kilter, giving it the kaiju equivalent of cancer.
The design of Gnomoran is excellent.  Like many of the previous ATOM CKC entries, it plays on the secret connection between ATOM and my Midgaheim stories, in this case using my mole-derived Gnomes/Dwarves as a starting point, and working back to show their more explicitly rodent-like roots.  The star-faced mole nose, long beard, big ol’ horn, and lumpy tumors all give him a bunch of iconic design details, and his power set of venom and caustic pus is uniquely gross.  He’s a great Heel monster, with a nasty attitude to match his equally nasty looks and power set, all while still having the ability to be sympathetic.  Figuring out how to explain why his healing factor has gotten so out of whack presents a bit of a continuity hurdle - Gnomoran has symptoms of both cancer and old age, which normally aren’t possible in an ATOM-verse kaiju, so that would need a good explanation.  But design and personality wise he’s a damn good fit!
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DA user Lediblock submitted the chicken/retrosaur hybrid Galiente!  Made by splicing DNA from Tyrantis’s blue nemesis, the Terror, with that of a chicken, Galiente is a panicky, defensive monster who is tormented by the knowledge that other kaiju find his flesh ridiculously delicious.
Galiente’s design is a freakish mix of reptile and bird that goes for body horror, with a patchwork mix of scales, feathers, and raw skin, twisted limbs, and, somewhat inexplicably considering the two animals it’s a mix of, velociraptor feet.  The result is a very tortured looking creature, which fits its nervous and tragically aggressive personality - Galiente is a monster that picks fights because it fears it will get hurt if it doesn’t make the first move.  There’s a sadness that goes along with its wretched appearance and attitude that’s very sympathetic.  The monster’s backstory would probably need some tweaks, though - the many ways it is tied to Tyrantis specifically seem a bit unnecessary, with the “people mistake it for Tyrantis” angle being a bit implausible (and somewhat redundant, given Tyrantis already has two enemies that are his twisted doppelgangers as is), and I’m not sure a monster hunting organization would recruit a chicken farmer into their ranks, no matter how good his business savvy is.  Still, a plausible backstory wasn’t one of the contest requirements, and design and personality-wise Galiente is a very solid concept.
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@protagonistprepblog submitted Gentil, an armored monster with a sweet disposition!  Gentil is designed to be something of an earth elemental, with a mix of traits from various creatures associated with that element.  He sports a healing mist/aura, a poison blast from his mouth, venomous claws, and the standard kaiju powers of strength and nigh invulnerability.  He’s also smart enough to join an organization specifically to help people.
Gentil has a very striking design, albeit one that’s (intentionally) hard to place taxonomically.  He would probably be the result of genetic modification in ATOM’s world, though the way his creator described him as the kaiju of the Earth Element makes me think the intention is for something more magical in origin.  The sweet personality suits his name very well, and as far as monsters go he’s very friend-shaped.  Most of Gentil’s information was shared with me by his creator via DMs, and he’s a very thoroughly developed concept, albeit one that seems to fit a story of protagonistprepblog’s creation a bit better than ATOM.  A wonderful submission nonetheless!
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@dinosaurana submits the nuclear gator known far and wide as One-Armed Louie!  Already a menace when he was just a big, one-armed alligator, Louie became a true menace when he survived the explosive failure of a nuclear power plant, resulting in a number of wild mutations that, among other things, allow the massive crocodilian to assume a semi-bipedal stance.  Louie’s aggressive nature and history of getting into mischief ironically make him a pretty good kaiju to have around, as he will more often than not turn those shit-starting instincts on his fellow giants and end up keeping them in line as a result.  Even Jim Madson, a gator hunter turned kaiju wrangler, can’t help but appreciate how the “rat bastard” has become something of a boon to humanity since becoming freakishly large.
One-Armed Louie brings a true crocodilian to ATOM’s cast, which warms my reptile loving heart.  One could argue that the retrosaurs are all just very weird crocodiles, of course, but while that may literally be the case, most of them don’t look like crocodiles - they don’t have that pure crocodile vibe - and Louie makes up for their deficiency by being very much a big ol’ crocodilian.  Big ol’ gators and crocs are a giant monster movie archetype just as much as big ol’ bugs, and Louie gives them their due very well.  He also looks absolutely hardcore, which fits his aggressive “rat bastard” personality to a T.  A very solid entry for the contest!
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@iamthekaijuking submitted the modified martian monster Nyergolep!  Originally from the planet Mars, Nyergolep was kidnapped by the Beyonder Alliance and experimented upon until it developed psychic powers.  Designed to be a sort of anti-Kemlasulla, Nyergolep is a nervous wreck who hates combat and desperately wants to escape the Beyonders.
Nyergolep’s design takes a lot from Kemlasulla’s, albeit with a lot of twists - fitting for the “Anti-Kemlasulla.”  Its tentacles are much more massive than its legs, with the roles of each set of limbs being reversed (i.e. using tentacles for locomotion instead of grasping, using legs for grasping instead of locomotion), and it lacks all of the armor Kemlasulla has, including the bony plates protecting the head and eye.  The result is a very fragile looking martian, the squishy mage to Kemlasulla’s rough and rowdy fighter.  I like the wiggly line of its upper jaw the best - don’t ask me why.  “Nergle’s” design is a little too closely tied to Kemlasulla’s for me to give full marks in that category, though I do love that wiggly mouth.  Its personality is pretty damn good though, fitting with the other shell-shocked war veterans in the Beyonder Kaiju army.
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@dragonseeker-rex submitted the cactus/bird hybrid Orothorn!  In a story that feels like it came from one of the more light-hearted Twilight Zone episodes, Orothorn began as a normal gilded flicker that happened to befriend an cowboy actor named Mick Auricson (specializing in playing cowboys was A Thing in the 1950′s) after Mick nursed the little bird back to health.  An ill-placed dynamite explosion near a hidden Yamaneon deposit not only supersized Orothorn, but fused it with some of the nearby cactus (violent bursts of Yamaneon radiation can do this kind of shit on occasion), creating a massive, thorny-skinned bird monster with a heart of gold and a fondness for humans in general, and Mick Auricson in particular.  The feeling is mutual, as Mick even commissioned a special kaiju-sized scarf for the bird to wear (which I forgot to illustrate, whoops!).
Birds are lacking in ATOM’s roster (we don’t even have any in the core 50 files), and Orothorn is a unique take on the concept, with cactus thorns sticking out from between his feathers.  Him being a kaiju that specifically emulates the heroic behavior of a cowboy (actor) is also adorable and so very in line with ATOM’s sensibilities, it’s genuinely cute and I love it.  It’s a giant bird with cactus thorns that wears a scarf and thinks it’s a cowboy, how can you not love that?
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Dracosaurus Rex submitted the enormous tuatara kaiju Tuatani!  Initially mistaken for being a retrosaur, this three eyed reptile can shoot energy blasts from his third eye and carries a virulent disease in his blood that infects any who encounter it.  A lonesome creature, Tuatani is very placcid during the day but will go on nightly rampages from time to time, apparently in a fit of vengeful despair at being the only one of his kind.
A clear homage to the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Tuatani nevertheless has a lot to set him apart from his inspiration, with a multi-eyed motiff that sports an actual third eye as well as several eyespots.  The loneliness that drives him to lash out is a nice nod to both the film and the short story that inspired it, and his status as a Tuatara descendant would make him the last modern reptile missing from ATOM’s pantheon.  The nature of the disease in his blood would need some elaboration, as the immune systems of ATOM kaiju are very strong (being able to regenerate white blood cells almost instantaneously makes it very easy for them to learn which micro-organisms need to be destroyed), but it’s an interesting power for the monster to have.  A very solid entry!
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@umbercario-sablesable gives us the giant silkworm, Munchy!  A caterpillar whose head, jaws, and true legs are covered in a metal alloy. Munchy lives to eat, and with metal jaws he can eat quite a lot of things!  While the insect will eat any non-living matter it comes across, it prefers not to eat living things, which makes it one of the few monsters who finds buildings more appetizing than the people inside them.  Though Munchy has little desire in this world outside of sating its gluttony, it isn’t a malicious creature, and so long as your house isn’t in its path you have little to fear from the monster.
Silkworms have a short but important role in kaiju history, as Mothra’s larva form is based on a type of silkworm, so making a silkworm kaiju plays into a very grand tradition.  Munchy goes for a more morally neutral route than Mothra, though, taking the voracious appetite of a caterpillar and exaggerating it to a proper kaiju scale.  The simplicity of it actually makes for a rather unique kaiju, as Munchy’s single-minded desire to eat as much non-living matter as possible makes it a very different sort of antagonist than the somewhat more complicated kaiju villains of ATOM.  Add to that the massive variety one can find in silkworms and you have a recipe for a very good monster!
(Apologies at the possible inaccuracy of my illustration - google could not find images of the  wakabayashi landrace species of silkworm that he is specified as being, so I had to just look up silkworms and hope I was somewhere in the correct ballpark - and then I missed the detail about his first pair of false legs being long enough to give him a bipedal stance so uh... well I think he’s still pretty cute, that counts for something?)
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Sir K brings us the lung/ryu kaiju Yokaigon the Incredible!  Mistaken for a retrosaur by its initial discoverer (we certainly have a lot of scientists in ATOM who are very bad at taxonomy), Yokaigon is capable of affecting the weather like some of the few psychic kaiju in ATOM’s setting, suggesting latent psychic powers on the reptile’s part.  He is also able to absorb electricity and may or may not be able to fly.  Introverted and antisocial by nature, Yokaigon isn’t driven to seek out combat like most other kaiju, and prefers to be left alone.
With a backstory inspired by an absolutely terrible dub of Varan the Unbelievable!, Yokaigon is a fun homage that winks at some of the mythic creatures that existed in ATOM’s universe long before the series takes place - a surviving Loong/Ryu, much as Kraydi is a surviving dragon and Gorgolisk a surviving basilisk.  While Loongs aren’t covered in my Midgaheim Bestiary project, I have done sketches of what they would be like before, and it’s fun to see them mixed with a suitamation look here.  I don’t think a sea monster necessarily needs to make storms to still feel appropriately mythical, but the hydrokinetic ability to summon sea storms is plausible enough in ATOM (I’ve got a Yeti who summons blizzards in roughly the same way, so who am I to judge?).  And people always want more dragons.
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@toothlessloveshiccup brings us the prehistoric arthropod Insectra!  Despite appearances, Insectra isn’t actually an insect, but actually a much older arthropod that is more closely related to horseshoe crabs.  Forged in a conflict between natives and an encroaching military force in the South Pacific, Insectra protects the local human civilization of her island home while repelling those who would destroy it.  With EMP blasts in her already powerful arsenal, she is a formidable enemy for anyone, man or kaiju, to face.
Insectra’s design has a great Hanna Barbera bug-monster vibe, the sort of thing you could see going toe to toe with the Herculoids or Space Ghost.  It’s simple in some places, but to the point, with great big spears for hands and wide, stompy feet.  Her motivation as a protector is a great nod to Mothra, while having an even more explicit anti-imperialist bent to it.  A very well rounded entry for the contest!
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Shadyserpent brings us the draconic reptile Karax!  Another mythic creature sneaking into the world of ATOM, Karax is a serpentine beast whose vestigial wings allow it to fly (Yamaneon’s ability to defy gravity doing some of its most implausible work yet).  With terrible venom and a better-than-average healing factor, Karax is a deadly opponent, the dragon-like beast is thankfully more focused on collecting shiny objects than waging war against man or kaiju, though his desire to add to his hoard sometimes causes trouble.
See?  I told you people like dragons!  Karax’s design retains the ATOM-approved level of scientific plausibility, with his wings being fairly simple/under-developed compared to the more fantastical dragons of my Midgaheim stories.  He retains the prehistoric monster vibe that other Midgaheim survivors like Gorgolisk and Kraydi have, towing the line enough to fit in with ATOM’s menagerie while still winking at the mythic side of things.  His fondness for shiny objects is both a nice nod to his draconic nature and a fun character quirk that can get him into  the kind of trouble that stories are made of, and the fact that he’s also got more than a few references to the classic giant monster movie Reptilicus is also a plus!  A very good entry.
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@titleknown brings us Neuro-Idiom, a brain monster who creates psychedelic mass hallucinations!  Formed from a bunch of aliens fusing their minds together, Neuro-Idiom conjurs other creatures out of thin air with its psychic powers, and has pretty much every other psychic power to boot!
Neuro-Idiom’s primary design, that of a big walking brain creature, fills a monster archetype that hasn’t been present in ATOM thus far - i.e. the big, ambulatory, disembodied brain, and yes, that is a SUPER popular archetype for 1950′s/60′s monster fiction.  Its psychic projections also pay homage to various monsters in fiction that were actually just the manifestations of an unsound mind - the Id monster from Forbidden Planet, the crawling brains of Fiend Without a Face, and the Crackler from Godzilla: The Series are examples of this concept.  The backstory of this monster would need to be reworked since it kind of ignores that “kaiju” in ATOM is a word with a very specific meaning (you can’t have a kaiju without Yamaneon involved), and the monster having amplified versions of EVERY psychic power makes it significantly more powerful than anything in ATOM’s canon, so that might have to be toned down a bit as well, but all in all it’s a lovely brain monster!
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@drrockso20 brings us our final entry, the massive bison Chief Wrigley!  With gorilla-like arms and enormous horns, this big bovine has the muscle he needs to protect his herd and territory from any creature that dares to challenge it!  He’s not all brawn, either, as Chief Wrigley is clever enough to use the environment to his advantage, and even makes use of simple tools from time to time.  He can telepathically communicate with others, and can sometimes generate electric blasts from his horns.
With a very unique design, power set, and personality, Chief Wrigley has the makings of an excellent protagonist/hero kaiju, the kind who could headline his own corner of ATOM’s kaiju-verse.  Bison are a really underused basis for a kaiju, too - they have very unique heads, and their bodies are build in a way that’s very good at conveying mass.  With just enough special powers to make combat scenes interesting, but not so many that he feels out of place in ATOM’s world, Chief Wrigley is a strong contender in this contest!
Those are the entries!  Who will be the top three winners, and who will get the grand prize?  You’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out, but for now, let’s appreciate how many wonderful monsters we made here!  In a way, they’re all winners in my book, even if I can’t give prizes to the whole batch!
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virovac · 5 years
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Evaluating the competition so far
Acanpetax : An amazing story is implied here, a ruthless killer haunted by the remains of a great hero they slew. Has an interesting reference to heraldry in the form of an amphitere kaiju playing an important role
Megaria: Cool powers. No idea how that sound absorbtion thing would be filling or more than a crumb energywise, (many engineers have dreamed of using sound as a power source, but its like trying squeeze blood from a stone ) but it could possibly be acting to catalyze some other arcane biological process.  I love her so much, it reminds me of the weird Kaiju I made as a kid after reading about crop circles and being inspired by some of the more out there explanations.
Charlotte: Charming and amazing. Love the reference to the infamous king Kong American version about dinosaur hybrids.Also, she reminds me a lot of Burtanus from the Godzilla Dark Horse comics for some reason.
TSUNOKING : Fills a much needed niche. 
Najjuk : Timely, and uses a mammal as a base for a fitting role
GNOMORAN : Kaiju not aging much at all is a big thing of the setting, but it may be metaphor here. Love this cranky jerk who uses self-harm to fight his out of control regeneration abilities.
Scolosurtr: Why is the woman responsible for this thing not in jail? Did I walk onto the early draft script of Godzilla vs Biollante where a mad scientist was creating monsters to fight Godzilla and oddly nobody really cared? Still they have a lot of personality and are adorable.
MR. PRESIDENT : A category all its own. To fit into canon just needs a slight tweek in technobabble as yamaneon can’t exist in a natural state: a cloud of yamaneon dust would work better. Might be too far removed to count as a “kaiju” though.
ROHOBARON : A wonderful dude! Good combination of powers and personality. But I would have thought Area 51 would have been shut down by that point in the timeline.
My entry Nematerror has got some stiff competetion
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tyrantisterror · 5 years
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REVENGE OF THE ATOM CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST GRAND PRIZE WINNER: RERRADON BY @scatha5!
Well, it took a while, but I finally put the grand prize together.  Congrats to Rerradon for being the winning monster - and a heartfelt tip of the hat to his distinguished competition!  It was a tough call to make, and here’s hoping next year’s contest is even tougher!
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tyrantisterror · 5 years
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REVENGE OF THE A.T.O.M. CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST!
Eons ago, when the earth was young, I held the first A.T.O.M. Create a Kaiju Contest, and creators like YOU populated my activity page with a legion of giant monsters!  Now, years later, in celebration of publishing the first volume of The Atomic Time of Monsters, the contest calls to us once again, and it’s only grown bigger and spikier with age.  If you wish to once more ravage the world with atomic titans of your own design, then please, read on after the cut to discover the rules of this thrilling kaiju role call!
Ok, for clarity’s sake I’ll drop the goofy melodramatic tone.
Like the first A.T.O.M. Create a Kaiju Contest, the aim of this contest is to create kaiju that would fit within the setting of my big kaiju story series, The Atomic Time of Monsters.  Think of it as me letting you into my sandbox to play with my toys for a bit, or like you’re being put in the director’s chair of a new ATOM-verse kaiju movie.  That means your entry does have to fit into ATOM’s world, which in turn means that yes, there are limitations to your creativity here.  But limitations can be good sometimes - they can make us explore options we wouldn’t consider when given completely free rein to do what we want!
THE RULES:
1.  This time around, you are limited to one entry per person.  Last time we produced 60+ kaiju, which was awesome, but this time around I want to narrow the scope a little bit - especially if I end up doing something crazy and end up drawing them all like last time, since my carpal tunnel syndrome afflicted hand just can’t do what it did those years ago.  Work hard and make your entry count!
2.  Your kaiju must have some sort of description of its physical appearance and its personality - you can submit a drawing or a written description (or both!) for the physical appearance depending on what you’re most comfortable with.  Using the ATOM kaiju file template isn’t required, but it was cool when people did it in the last contest, so feel free to do so this time too!
3. The kaiju you create must specifically be created for this contest  - no repurposing characters you made for other, wildly different stories.
4. The kaiju must fit the setting and aesthetics of ATOM.  I’ll explain this in more detail down below.
5. The kaiju should add something meaningful to the world of ATOM. What would be the point of having another fire-breathing t.rex monster?  The more unique and interesting your kaiju is, the more likely you will win the contest.
6. The kaiju must be independent of the main plot of ATOM - not “Tyrantis’s long lost evil brother who’s the strongest kaiju in the world.” These should be to Tyrantis’s story what War of the Gargantuas is to Godzilla’s movies – heroes (well, monsters) of another story in the same world.
THE REWARDS:
I will make pencil sketches of the top 5 entries in the contest.
I will then make fully rendered illustrations (lineart, colors, & shading) of the top three entries.
The winning entry will be made into a model ala the ones I’ve been making for ATOM’s core 50 monsters, which can then be shipped to the person who created it (should they be able to cover the shipping costs).  That’s right, your kaiju could be brought to life in THREE GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR DIMENSIONS!
THE DEADLINE: All entries must be submitted by August 9th, 2019.  You can submit it here on tumblr, via the horror flora e-mail, or any other channel you know how to reach me through.  I’m in a lot of places.
THE GUIDELINES (TO HELP YOUR ENTRY FIT THE RULES AND WIN)
The smartest thing you could do if you want to win this contest is familiarize yourself with the world of ATOM by, y’know, reading all the material I’ve published on the subject.  In addition to the many kaiju files that are free to read on horrorflora.com, the first actual, factual novel in the series was published very recently (and, y’know, is the reason I’m holding this contest), which you can get from amazon in both paperback and/or kindle editions (I’d recommend the former over the latter since I lack the technology to make a really nice ebook, but if money is an object, the kindle version is only $1).
However, since I know reading a bunch of stuff is, y’know, not something everyone is inclined to do, I’ll jot some good bullet points for you in an attempt to outline how ATOM works in a brief, easily digested way:
ATOM is an homage to the monster fiction of the 1950’s and 60’s (i.e. the Atomic Age), and is set in those two decades, albeit an alternate universe version of them where, y’know, monsters and space aliens exist.  If you aren’t familiar with the monster fiction I’m referring to, there will be some reference material provided at the end of this post along with some recommendations for further research.
Kaiju/giant monsters in ATOM work under very specific rules.  There’s a full description of those rules at this link, but here’s the jist:
ATOM Kaiju are created created by the radiation of a mineral called Yamaneon, which naturally converts harmful radiation into its own unique energy.  In natural circumstances, it takes hundreds of years of exposure to Yamaneon radiation for a creature to become fully transform into a kaiju (luckily, Yamaneon radiation slows the aging process while speeding up the healing process).  However, an explosive burst of energy - such as the geothermal and kinetic energy released by an earthquake, or the blast of a nuclear weapon - can speed up the process, turning a normal animal into a kaiju within a matter of seconds.  
All ATOM kaiju can heal grievous wounds within minutes or even seconds, are supernaturally strong and durable, and can convert harmful radiation to harmless energy that they then feed off of.  Kaiju do not have an equivalent of old age, and can theoretically live forever (though their violent lifestyle means that few do).
ATOM Kaiju generally don’t need to eat unless they are severely injured, getting most of the energy they need from solar or geothermal radiation - but many still have instincts that drive them to seek out food from time to time.
Most ATOM kaiju stand roughly 100 feet tall (depending on their body shape), i.e. smaller than the original 1954 Godzilla.  There are exceptions to this rule - younger kaiju can be smaller, while exceedingly old kaiju can be significantly larger, but these are rare.
In general, ATOM kaiju are significantly more intelligent and emotionally complex than people expect animals to be, though most are incapable of speech or complex tool use.  There’s a reason ATOM Kaiju Files have a “personality” section.
Most ATOM Kaiju are tooth and claw fighters - ranged weapons are a rarity in this setting.
While the terrestrial monsters in ATOM look strange, they are intended to fit within the taxonomy of animals in reality - reptiles, mammals, fish, arthropods, molluscs, etc.
ATOM’s mesozoic era was dominated by a fictional clade of crocodile-relatives called retrosaurs, which are based on the outdated paleoart that one would find in the 1950’s/60’s fiction - i.e. when dinosaurs were viewed as trail dragging lizards instead of strange birds.  You can learn more about retrosaurs here.
Kaiju appear on every continent in ATOM, but certain areas tend to be dominated by different types.
North America is mainly besieged by retrosaur kaiju and giant arthropods.
East Asia is technically also mainly plagued by retrosaurs and big arthropods, though they tend to look more fantastical and mythic - and, often, oddly well suited to being portrayed by a person wearing a monster suit.
Russia is beset by prehistoric monsters that seem to come from the Cenozoic, particularly the Ice Age.
Western Europe is plagued by creatures that vaguely resemble creatures from myth, if they were also prehistoric.  Dragon-y lizards, fiery birds, etc.
Towards the mid-way point of ATOM’s timeline, earth is invaded by a coalition of aliens from different solar systems called the Beyonder Alliance, and as a result a bunch of alien monsters can be found on earth.
Mars and Venus both host (or hosted in Mars’s case) animal life.  The surviving Martians colonized Venus, and sent some of their kaiju guardians to earth to help us fend off the Beyonders (who are responsible for the destruction of Mars’s ecosystem).  Martian and Venusian kaiju have specific anatomical quirks, which you can see by looking at these kaiju files:
Venusians:
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/03/atom-kaiju-file-29-karamtor/
Martians:
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-39-kemlasulla/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-40-podritak/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-41-sombarvot/
https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-38-ullawdra/
Giant robots exist in ATOM, but are big, bulky, and incredibly expensive.  Fancy beam weapons also exist, but are similarly clunky - there are no sleek, elegant machines in ATOM.
Since the fiction ATOM takes inspiration from was made at a time when interplanetary travel was only just beginning to be possible, its scope is significantly smaller than modern sci-fi.  Alternate universes/dimensions were pretty uncommon because the idea of alien planets still held a lot of wonder to it.  So, as a general rule, don’t try to go farther than the one galaxy.
ATOM is a setting for stories that are focused on humanity learning to co-exist with monsters, rather than humanity destroying them.  A certain level of sympathy is put into almost every creature of its canon, even the ones that are meant to be villains.
REFERENCE MATERIAL
Here is a playlist of 1950′s monster movie trailers.
Here is some reference material from various monster comics of the 50′s and 60′s.
Video of retrosaurs in action.
Good movies to track down to understand ATOM’s inspiration and tone include Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Them!, The Black Scorpion, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Gamera, The Giant Claw, and The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.
Finally, here’s the page for the original ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest, which has even more reference material for you to peruse.
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tyrantisterror · 5 years
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Revenge of the ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest - Entry List
The full roundup is going to take more time than I anticipated, so to sate you for the time being, here’s a list of every entry I received:
@bugcthulhu‘s Rohobaron: https://tyrantisterror.tumblr.com/post/185434908779/bugcthulhu-my-entry-for-tyrantisterror-s
@akitydoesart‘s Charlotte: https://tyrantisterror.tumblr.com/post/185599140529/akitydoesart-name-charlotte-date-of
@ariccio50‘s Scolosurtur: https://ariccio50.tumblr.com/post/185894052249/this-is-my-entry-for-the-atom-kaiju-contest
@scatha5‘s Rerradon: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p3sTepyoO-gJ-Bn_cEMz8Ezfkm6nQknjgQSRbDBtu8M/edit?usp=sharing
@quinnred‘s Mogul: https://quinnred.tumblr.com/post/186852893727/mogul-the-ufo-mimicmore-name-mogul
@cerothenull‘s Acanpetax: https://cerothenull.tumblr.com/post/186077476021/atom-create-a-kaiju-contest
@evolutionsvoid‘s Megaria: https://evolutionsvoid.tumblr.com/post/186103353474/megaria-aliases-terrestrial-form-the-creeping
@highly-radioactive-nerd‘s Tsunoking: https://highly-radioactive-nerd.tumblr.com/post/186377697415/highly-radioactive-nerd-coloration-golden
@dragonzzilla‘s Najjuk: https://tyrantisterror.tumblr.com/post/186382357289/revenge-of-the-atom-contest
@virovac‘s Nematerror: https://tyrantisterror.tumblr.com/post/186572537109/revenge-of-the-atom-contest-entry-nematerror
@skarmorydraws‘s Gnomoran: https://skarmorydraws.tumblr.com/post/186575425247/tyrantisterror-revenge-of-the-atom-create-a-kaiju
lediblocks’ Galiente: https://www.deviantart.com/lediblock2/art/Revenge-of-the-ATOM-Kaiju-Kontest-Galliente-806413681
@protagonistprepblog‘s Gentil: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W_casZnvwwarC-tMJDHkkBpxSx1QF_rEGwW6HTeAr7M/edit?usp=sharing
@dinosaurana‘s One-Armed Louie: https://dinosaurana.tumblr.com/post/186657277084/revenge-of-the-atom-contest-submission-one-armed
@iamthekaijuking‘s N’yergolep: https://tyrantisterror.tumblr.com/post/186796785599/name-nyergolep-aliases-nergle-date-discovered
@dragonseeker-rex‘s Orothorn: https://dragonseeker-rex.tumblr.com/post/186803850847/my-revenge-of-the-atom-create-a-kaiju-contest
Dracosaurus Rex’s Tuatani: https://www.deviantart.com/dracosaurus-rex/art/Tuatani-806982926
@umbercario-sablesable‘s Iron Mouth Menace: https://umbercario-sablesable.tumblr.com/post/186879331211/atom-revenge-of-the-kaiju
Sir Kaiju’s Yokaigon: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15EUYKCvGsIk2lQqlmDtpec9jiQuOC7XTP7tC9LDpNRY/edit?usp=sharing
@toothlessloveshiccup‘s Insectra: https://toothlessloveshiccup.tumblr.com/post/186896086635/my-entry-to-tyrantisterror-s-revenge-of-atom
Shadyserpent’s Karax: https://www.deviantart.com/shadyserpent269/art/REVENGE-OF-THE-ATOM-Contest-Entry-Karax-809091297?ga_submit_new=10%3A1565402974
@titleknown‘s Neuro-Idiom: https://titleknown.tumblr.com/post/186900955303/shock-horror-multiple-incidents-have-been-cited
@drrockso20‘s Chief Wrigely: https://drrockso20.tumblr.com/post/186903593859/revenge-of-the-atom-create-a-kaiju-contest
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