Monster Girl Encyclopedia world


 * This article describes the geography and history of the MGE world. For the site frontpage, see Monster Girl Encyclopedia. For the original book, see Monster Girl Encyclopedia I.



The world of the Monster Girl Encyclopedia is one of varied locations and a storied history. Gods and monsters mingle with ordinary humans, elves and dwarves in a land of swords, sorcery, and, most of all, sex. Although the monsters are categorized extensively, much of the broader detail of the world is only hazily defined.

For the vast majority of its history, the world wasn't sex-crazed at all; but succubus ascendency is something new. Now, medieval peasants, knights, wizards and even deities struggle to adapt in a new world order where lust reigns supreme, and axe-wounds defeat far more armies than sword-wounds.

Physical geography

 * Refer to: Zipangu, Dragonia, Mist Continent, and Monsters of the Sea

As the world is a construction of the gods rather than nature, even its shape isn't known for certain. It could be a flat earth; it could be a geocentric universe; or it could be a familiar planet in a solar system. In any case, many fantastic and varied lands are described in the world by Wandering Scholar and especially Saphirette Spherica, although details on where they all are in relation to each other is very sparse. The Scholar started his journey in Order lands, which occupy a continental landmass and contain the vast majority of the world's human population. The Order is a religion and a culture rather than a single nation; former territories since lost to the monsters include Lescatie and possibly Polove, once a sickly, resource-free land of no strategic geographical value whatsoever. Also outside the Order's control are the few monster-friendly human nations, plus the forest territories of the elves and the underground nations of the dwarves (one of which is named as East Giyamante, known for its intricate glassware ).

Far to the east of this continent lies an "extremely small" archipelago country called Zipangu, which means "Kingdom of Fire" in the native language. It is a land of kimonos, shrine maidens, ninjas, and sake. Some of this island nation constitutes bright green Mamono Realm, where monsters and uncorrupted humans live close by; if not quite in harmony, then at least not in the daily pitched crusader battles and frenzied mass-rape blitzkriegs which characterise relationships on the Order's frontier. The Wandering Scholar reports that a nation from his continent has attempted to invade Zipangu at least once before, but the effort was defeated by a combination of human-monster military co-operation, and kunoichi espionage raping the enemy leadership into submission.

Described as lying "to the north of Zipangu", the Mist Continent is a candidate for that invader nation. Populated by panda-girls and kung-fu mice, it's an exotic place that the Wandering Scholar is eager to visit. Elsewhere, the Desert region is a hot waste of sand and pyramids, the graveyard of a once-great civilization - although new rulers and old ones may be trying to rebuild lost glories. Also described in some detail is not another land but the sea itself; now offering more than a cold, wet death after Poseidon gained a succubus' appreciation for living humans. Sea Bishops travel the waves granting men the power to breathe underwater, and once down in the ethereal glow of the mid-layer, you can sex up an eager mermaid or sea slime. Just don't swim too deep; there are ancient secrets lurking in the abyssal night.

Magical geography

 * Refer to: Mamono Realm Handbook

A monster's mamono mana doesn't just twist mortal creatures; it corrupts the land itself. The soil turns jet-black; the air becomes heavy and stagnant; and a dark, oppressive gloom hangs over everything. Day and night switch place as heavy clouds block out the sun, yet the light of the moon is enhanced to a surreal, crimson glow. Devilish flora supplants the greenery that humans are used to: crooked black trees with blue leaves, hypnotic glowing flowers, herbs that make you go mute, and immediately deadly fungi. Ominous and evil-looking to humans, it's the familiar sight of home to monsters: a Dark Mamono Realm.



The darkest of all Mamono Realms is Royal Makai, an immense land that is the main stronghold of the monsters. The Mamono Lord's castle lies at the center of Succubus Castle Town, the largest city in the world. Here the spirit corruption is so intense that not even veteran heroes can stand it; conversely, for monsters, it's party central, and the metropolis is a bustling entrepôt of sex tourism and erotic commerce. At the other end of the scale, bright green mamono realms are barely distinguishable from human realms. With blue sky, green grass, and water that doesn't turn into pink goo, one could mistake it for Order territory if not for all the weresheep and holstaurs grazing the fields.

While Mamono Realms are lands which have been magically transmogrified, other lands are magically created. Often having only ephemeral contact with the material realm, these alternate dimensions are usually the private fiefs of god-like beings. Heaven is for the celestial angels and Pandemonium is for the Fallen ones, while Wonderland and the Fairy Kingdom occupy the demented, off-kilter middle ground. The Cat Kingdom is a strange realm of maze-like alleyways and Western architecture ruled over by Bastet.

History

 * Refer to: The Utopia that the Mamono Lord Dreams of

The past
The world followed an eternal cycle of rise and fall, man against monster, for countless aeons... until close to the present day. Legendary events from former ages include the war against the monsters of chaos and the destruction of the Pharaohs' original desert kingdoms. The previous Mamono Lord presided over the usual bloodthirsty horde of murderous terrors; and was slain in the usual manner. But afterwards, something new happened. A succubus - a lewd, lustful monster that gains power through sex with human men - married a hero, and came up with a plan to break the circle of history. Somehow securing the co-operation of many other monsters, the succubus became the next Mamono Lord. Exploiting the magical connection between the Mamono Lord and all the other monsters, she then poured her own succubus mamono mana into all the devilish creatures under her dominion. The end result was the monsters we know today: their bodies transformed to be as sultry as the succubi, and their taste for human blood changed to an altogether different bodily fluid.

However, this wasn't all of what the Mamono Lord had intended. The metaphysical rules of the world were stronger than she expected, and the new "monster girls" could only bear daughters. This means the monsters have to keep attacking humanity in order to find breeding partners (and to satisfy their new, succubus-inspired lusts). But by this point, the Mamono Lord had raised the ire of the (newly-invested) Chief God, who descended personally to do battle. Inexperienced and hasty, the Chief God was driven back by the combined power of the Mamono Lord and her husband. Retreating to Heaven, she fell back on the tactic of ages past: empowering heroes from her human followers to try and destroy the foe.

The present and the future


This is the contemporary state of the world: the Chief God and her Order pitted in war against the Mamono Lord and her monsters. Although the monsters have superhuman strength, supernatural sex appeal, and the inexorable creep of spirit corruption on their side, they have great difficulty in pressing any of their advantages, because most of the time they just want to keep having sex for days on end, rather than go out and defeat the Order. Also, world conquest alone won't achieve the Mamono Lord's objectives. Unless she can muster enough magical power to overwrite the metaphysical rules of the world and enable monster girls to bear incubus sons, eventually there will be no males left and both humans and monster girls will go extinct. For this reason, the Mamono Lord and her husband spend the vast majority of their time locked away having sex, trying to gain enough power to perform this great sorcery.

In more immediate, recent history, Poseidon, God of the Sea, has willingly gone over to the Mamono Lord's side and become a monster, thereby making naval travel and trade extremely hazardous for the Order. Some of the Mamono Lord's supposed allies, the Fallen God and the Queen of Hearts, have created their own mini-worlds rather than focus on conquering this one. Druella the lilim has monsterized the Order nation of Lescatie, turning it into a Mamono Realm, while the Elementalist Association has done the same to Polove. And in the midst of all this, the Wandering Scholar flees execution for blasphemy to far-off lands, documenting all the sexy demons he comes across.

The nature of the world

 * Refer to: The Order of God and the Structure of the World

In the beginning, there were only the Gods. The original Chief God subdued the other deities, and created the material world and the humans within it. The Order claims that the Mamono Lord and the monsters later "emerged from the darkness" to despoil creation; but after interviewing the present Mamono Lord, Wandering Scholar reports that the truth about monsters is that they have always been a part of the world. Monsters were originally bloodthirsty killers in the usual definition of "monster"; but despite (or perhaps because of) that, they formed the other side of a yin-yang balance with humanity. When "humans increase too much in number", a Mamono Lord rises to power and the monsters lay waste to mankind; and when the monsters' numbers are too high, heroes are born to slay the Mamono Lord and plunge the monsters into internecine conflict. The struggle between man and monster is not simply a case of food chains, historical enmity, or territorial ambition; it is a law of nature, fixed by the Gods into the very fundament of creation.

Magical abilities

 * Refer to: Essence and Mamono Mana

Both humans and monsters have their own magical energies they can call upon: two different sides of the same yin-yang relationship, Essence and Mamono Mana. In practice, these energies function similarly and can produce the same sorts of spells, so many people make no distinction and just call it "magic". Although spirit or mamono mana runs through the soul of every living thing in the world, not all of them can control it to cast spells; some monsters are said to be too dumb, or simply incapable as a species, of magic use at all. Exactly how this works with humans is never spelled out; mage skill may be something that anyone can learn, or it may be predetermined at birth. There are certainly prodigies who advance faster than others, and other species such as elves are just naturally more magically adept than humans.

Whether a spellcaster or not, everyone uses their essence: physical exertion uses it up as well, and spirit leaves the body in sweat. Low essence means exhaustion, whether from spell-casting or heavy lifting; food and rest replenishes it. The bodily fluid with by far the most essence in it is semen; and so, for succubus-monsters which eat essence, a bellyful of the white stuff is their most delicious treat. Male mages replenish their spirit from rest more rapidly than female mages, though women make up for it by being able to absorb spirit from the "background radiation" of other living things.

Elemental powers may constitute a third class of magic: the powers of earth, air, fire, and water, which course through the inanimate natural world and are not normally available for mortal use. Only by forming a covenant with an elemental can these powers be vicariously accessed.

Documentation
Most of the information on the world comes from Wandering Scholar. The in-universe author of Monster Girl Encyclopedia I, Monster Girl Encyclopedia World Guide I: Fallen Maidens, and other books, he is a travelling encyclopaedist out to document the varieties of supposedly evil, all-female "mamono", or monsters, that threaten and prey on the other races of the world - especially the men. The Wandering Scholar is neither omniscient nor (necessarily) impartial, and as a character in his own frame story he often admits that there is information he doesn't know or must leave to his readers to decide.

Wandering Scholar is occasionally helped (or hindered) in his documentary efforts by co-authors of dubious motivation, including Druella and Saphirette Spherica. His "travelling companion", a leanan sidhe, also provides assistance to the chirographic process.

The Monster Girl Encyclopedia Stories like Baphomet Complex and Fallen Brides provide further insight into the world, although they too are first-person accounts from the characters involved (and generally a lot more emotionally involved than Wandering Scholar), so might too be subject to a degree of unreliable narration.