Imagine a backstory for a Final Fantasy monster!

[Dionysos]

You know how some Final Fantasy monster designs are really quite intriguing, but we just suspend disbelief and don't think about them as actually belonging to the world that they inhabit? We rarely think of a crazy monster design outside of the battlefield unless they are bosses...

Now is your chance to explore how we might explain the presence of Final Fantasy monsters!



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I'll start with 'Hell House' from FFVII. I encountered a short piece about this on a tropes page for 'fridge horror' and I've never forgotten it.

Located in the Sector 6 slums of Midgar, this enemy is a mechanical death-machine disguised as a house…

It is a disturbing concept in general, but its location in the slums is most concerning...
So people with no homes, trying their hardest to live comfortably in a ruined neighbourhood... People like that might, on occasion, want a house. When they wander the dangerous streets, what do they find? A house! A place to live!

But... Nope! A-ha! Stab!

The house turns into a mincer and murders them!

Street-wise survivors of this monster will then live in terror, aware that there are monsters nearby taunting them by mimicking the houses that they desperately need in the Midgar slums.

Dark stuff!

I hope this wasn't a failed experiment by Reeve Tuesti (Head of Urban Development for Shinra)... Maybe he planned to have automaton houses to help alleviate the problems of the slumdogs down below by providing housing... But it all went wrong!

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Any ideas about any other monster in any other FF game? What is the hidden story behind it? Let us know your theories!

 

[Dionysos]

Okay here's another.

The Litwor Chicken...

This peculiar serpentine creature with a chicken head stalks the Southern Continent of FFVI.

It clucks about in the forests near the capital of the Gestahlian Empire, Vector, and its territories.

Mayhaps this monstrous cockerel is the result of the Empire’s research on magitek manipulation/infusion, transforming the embryo within the unhatched egg of some local Marandan farmer's common chicken into this elongated wyrm.

Maybe the Empire was attempting to create a Cockatrice. Maybe they got the formula wrong.

Maybe they were embarrassed by their creation and sheepishly abandoned it in the forests, spreading rumours of the 'Litwor Chicken' as some sort of supernatural judgement to keep the population afraid and less likely to rebel.


Whatever it is, it would certainly make any farmer question the eggs laid by their prized hens.

 

[The Welsh Paddy]

Ooh, I got one!

Abomination - FFIX

Deep within the tunnels of Fossil Roo dwell the Abomination. It is said that, many years ago, there was a wicked mage who lured Qu from their marshes with the promise of granting them good looks and the prospect of fitting in with society. Most Qu were fed up of living in swamps and yearned for what they believed to be a better life, living among humans in Lindblum and Alexandria, so the mage's offer was too enticing for them to refuse. However, the wicked mage had other ideas. Instead of granting beauty to the Qu, he transformed them into hideous abominations and, in the process nearly eradicating the Qu, save for a small handful who were content with their life. To what end, remains a mystery. Perhaps he planned on creating an army with the intention of conquering lands of the Outer Continent, or perhaps even the Mist Continent. Whatever the mages intentions were, however, he had been long gone from Fossil Roo and these poor creatures have been left to live in eternal misery.

 

[Dionysos]

Beware the Neck Hunter!

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Neck_Hunter

The Figaro region is known for many things. It is famous for its fortress (which can bury itself in the sand to escape its enemies), its cocky and charismatic young king, or the fact that it appears to have stolen the name of a popular opera character.

But it should really be known for the Neck Hunter.

Mothers and fathers warn their children not to stray from Figaro or the Neck Hunter will get 'em. Some believe he is simply a myth to keep people safe. Those who know rightly that he exists debate if he is a man at all.
Following Kefka’s shifting of the Warring Triad statues, the age known as the World of Ruin began. In the chaos and lawlessness that followed, many prisoners held at Figaro Castle escaped. It is well known that sandworms freed the Crimson Robbers. Mayhaps they also freed the formidable Neck Hunter. Or mayhaps he is some demon set upon the world to punish them for letting things get so bad.

This sickle wielding lunatic has his lair in the cave which connects Figaro Castle to the town of South Figaro. Should you dare to attempt to pass through, the Neck Hunter will be there to slice off and steal your neck as a morbid trophy. Just your neck, mind you. The curious thing about this bandit is that he’ll slice at you twice, once at the base of your skull, and again just above the shoulders. He has so perfected his art that he is able to then steal your bloody neck and bag it as your head falls back onto your shoulders. You’d be dead, of course, and you’d look like a neckless idiot with a surprised look of horror on your face, but at least you’d be identifiable.

Keep away!