History Website / Mortasheen

* TheInfested: Plenty of the morbid monsters serve as living hives to smaller vermin, such as the [[https://bogleech.com/mortasheen/arachtus Arachtus]], the [[https://bogleech.com/mortasheen/catoplagas Catoplagas]], and the [[https://bogleech.com/mortasheen/zeelzebuz Zeelzebuz]].

* PsychicPowers: omnipresent in the setting. Since the Mortasheen world has no magic, all of the more outlandish monster abilities ([[MindOverMatter telekinesis]], [[AnIcePerson cryokinesis]], [[PlayingWithFire pyrokinesis]], and of course good old fashioned MindRape) can all be chalked up to psychic powers. This is also the way monster trainers typically communicate with their monsters.
* {{Pun}}: A... ''lot'' of the [[PunnyName monster names]] and [[PunBasedTitle chapter titles]] are based on this.
* PuppeteerParasite: A huge number of monsters revolve around this trope, ranging from babysitter doll-golems that throw them at attackers to fungi that assume control of insectoid monsters and mutate them into withered, barely-living husks. Perhaps the most notable, however, is the Wormbrain monster class, sentient brain-worms that control the minds and bodies of specially-bred human hosts. Most of them are based on a certain [[TruthInTelevision real-world snail parasite.]]
* RaygunGothic: The original design idea for Wreathe. Has been changed many times throughout development; Wreathe has underwent the most intensive redesign work.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/fangrenous.htm Oh]] [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/thornswaggle.htm Hell]] [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/revoltile.htm Yes]]. Remember kids, they're called "basilisks" for a ''very'' good reason. In general, most reptile-based Bioconstructs are designed to be as abhorrent as possible.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Oddly enough, yeah, the [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/schmeep.htm Schmeep]] is pretty adorable.
** [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/abigor.htm Abigor]], in an UglyCute kind of way. Look at those precious beady eyes.
* RobotWar: The main war with Wreathe is this for them. For Wreathe's part, Mortasheen is more like a BugWar.
* SanityHasAdvantages: [[InvertedTrope No, no it doesn't.]] Going sane renders your mad scientist ''weaker''.
* ScienceHero: Every single player character. Though it's more Mad Science Hero... and then it's still more Mad Scientist Protagonist...
* SeriesMascot: Undoubtedly the [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/chainsawkid.htm# Chainsaw Kid]].
* ShockAndAwe: The Damage Type "Electricity" is one of the most common attacking Types, but due to this, is also more commonly resisted than most. Electricians specialize in this, while Engineers have a minor in the field.
* SewerGator: The Troglodile is a blind, eyeless mutant alligator that inhabits the sewers beneath Mortasheen.
* ShoutOut: Medama owes its name to the fact that Mr. Wojcik is a fan of ''Manga/GeGeGeNoKitaro''. Their political structure bears no small resemblance to that of ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam''.
** The Devilbird Astarath is strikingly similar to the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' version of Decarabia, only made even more awesome with eyeless, wrinkly bird heads instead of normal starfish arms and a talking sphincter opposite its eye.
** There are a huge amounts of {{Shout Out}}s, for example [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/eledirge.htm the Eldirge]] invented by a [[Creator/HPLovecraft a madman]] who suffered nightmares of far-off planets and long-dead civilizations
** The entire Devilbird class is an expression of Wojcik's deep admiration for the art of Creator/HieronymusBosch.
** [[StealthPun ARE]] is the MirrorSelf of [[Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream AM]], loving humanity to the point of [[KnightTemplar doing anything]] to protect it as opposed to reviling and tormenting it.
** Another whole class of monsters, the Stinkfish, are clearly based on ''Manga/{{Gyo}}''
* SlasherSmile: Seems to be the default expression of many of the various monsters running around.
* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: Played with. [[https://bogleech.com/mortasheen/spexecutor.htm Spexecutor]] is a highly intelligent monster in the shape of a pair of glasses with claws/legs.
** [[https://bogleech.com/mortasheen/booman-drane.htm Drane]], one of the most intelligent beings in Mortasheen, looks like she wears glasses... But if you look closely, the "frames" turns out ot be veins.
* SmugSnake: The [[https://bogleech.com/mortasheen/pride Devil Bird of Pride]]; it is convinced that it is the most supremely beautiful, intelligent and powerful of all beings, when it is really a hideous, dim-witted creature that relies primarily on mind-control and relies on its brainwashed vassals to protect it from danger. Notably, those who wish to train a Pride can bypass its deadly brainwashing powers by simply flattering and pampering it into submission, and they can get it to follow orders by simply [[GladIThoughtOfIt convincing it that it thought of them first]] (something it's usually already convinced of by default).
* SpiderTank: Your house can become this, [[RuleOfThree with expense]].
* SupernaturalFearInducer: The monster Doomboros is a CowardlyLion which can generate a psychic empathy field that makes its enemies just as fearful as it is.
* SuperPrototype: Played with. [[spoiler: The Celestial Engines are all SuperPrototype versions of the normal Purifiers, but only in the sense of inspiring ARE to build the Purifiers. The Engines themselves are unique machines, the Purifiers are only inspired by them, not based. ARE, if it actually ''did'' develop SuperPrototype robots, would simply keep producing them, not use an inferior version.]]
* StepfordSuburbia: The "Nature Preserves" maintained by some of Mortasheen's scientists so they can study pure humans.
* StrongFleshWeakSteel: The Purifiers in general have better stats and better damage reduction than the average monster. The few exceptions are legendary monsters like the Destroyers, or monsters that have been highly souped up by their trainers- like the Player Characters.
* TheSymbiote: Several monsters use swarming parasites as feeding apparatus and weaponry. A few of them are extremely affectionate towards their little buddies as well.
** Wormbrains are mindless zombie spawn pupeteered by a colony of semisapient tapeworms.
** Oozoids, Oozonauts, and Spewze form a mutualistic relationship with the first slime that tries to eat them, controlling and weaponizing the slime, which is a mindless eating machine by itself.
** Skulltivators can grow Fectoids (creatures that have dangerous bacteria and viri as bodily cells) within their hollow skulls, even able to concentrate them into clots of mucus and spit or throw them as grenade-like loogies.
** Several mons are themselves parasites.
* SynchronizedSwarming: Swarm attacks, which do this, are some of the best in the game. Why? Because not only do they hit every opponent in every Part, but they also hit mad scientists, even if they are protected by their monsters!
** They are so good that there is now a monster [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/slurpentine.htm made solely for dealing with swarms]].
* TankGoodness: [=CannonTown=]. It's made up of tanks so large that some have ''entire natural parks'' on top of them, along with more practical things like giant drills to dig for water and farms. It's one of the last remaining human civilizations left on the planet, too, and probably the strongest outside Medama and Wreathe.
* {{Teleportation}}: Notably used by both major factions, but in different ways.
** Much to Wreathe's frustration, Mortasheen has access to extremely easy, quick, and highly efficient teleportation mechanisms, simply by cloning the person at the destination.
** Wreathe has access to extremely inefficient teleportation technology, but Wreathe also has "true" teleportation rather than simple cloning- it's technology which actually sucks the teleported object through a wormhole to wherever they want it to go. It's just really inefficient.
* ThreateningShark: There are a quite a few shark-based monsters. The Gashark is a rotting shark corpse with legs controlled by a PuppeteerParasite, while the Makkoron is a straight-up SharkMan. The Shrezar is a vampire shark, and the Monstrougeist is part ''Anomalocaris'' and part ''Megalodon''.
* TinCanRobot: Averted for Wreathe. Wreathe's machines are all based on pre-Cambrian animals, to look like, in the words of Mr. Wojcik, "heavenly, shining trilobites" . Mortasheen Engineers can, however, create their machines to look like this if they want.
* TheTopicOfCancer: An option for a lawn is cancer-based MeatMoss
** The monsters Tyrannitoma and Tumorman weaponize cancer in two seperate ways: Tyrannitomas are polyp-like creatures who convert any creature they`re attached to into a huge, sapient humanoid tumor with fantastic strength, and Tumormen weaponize an aggressive form of skin cancer.
* TranshumanTreachery: [[AvertedTrope Gleefully shot where it stands]]-even ''zombies'' come off as being perfectly playable, since the only thing being undead always does is make you MadeOfIron. If anything, Wreathe is human treachery. [[spoiler: And the Purifiers, made up of dead and dying humans secretly made into combat machines, absolutely stand with humanity.]]
* UnusualUserInterface: Mechmasters and Purifiers have their commands given and received via cybernetic implants. Mortasheen mad scientists use psionics to do the same thing.
* TheWormThatWalks: You can be this. Totally. In [=NPCs=], Magdolene, who is made up almost entirely of maggots and flies, is the clearest example; only her skull and brain are still human. She was also born like this, and thinks she's really hot- despite the fact that everyone in Mortasheen disagrees with her. Even in Mortasheen, there are limits.
** For reference, '''[[http://bogleech.com/comics/funklesite.png this]]''' is considered "the city's handsomest theoretically male organism", and in Mortasheen, that's not as much of an OverlyNarrowSuperlative as you might think.
* ThemeNaming: All of the Celestial Engines have sigles referring to the planets in the Sol system. As of now, the only exception is [[spoiler:Pluto, which has been reclassified to dwarf planet status]].
* WeaksauceWeakness: Several in the monster descriptions, like Jitter being so terrified of mustaches that its heart explodes. [[spoiler: In game mechanics, Wreathe's rare plastic models can be this- invulnerable to the Corrosion that so hurts its brethren, it goes down easy to Heat based Attacks, the same Type so useful against ordinary monsters.]]
* WhenTreesAttack: Some of the botanical monsters are trees with strange powers. There are even zombie trees!
* WorldOfBadass: There are cities that are made up of ''tanks'', the closest thing to a normal civilization is a Japanese-themed island country with giant robot spiders for defense and even bigger giant robots for ''serious'' defense, there's an ocean made out of zombies, the normal oceans are full of gigantic kraken vampires, a well-led, well-armed, incredibly fanatical robot army is coming out of the north, and the main characters are mad scientists in a polluted, irradiated city the size of Australia. If it wasn't for the fact that the whole setting has the flavor of a Saturday morning cartoon, it would be one of the most dour settings outside of Warhammer 40K... and to some extent, it almost is, anyway!
* WorldOfHam: Mortasheen tends to be, since everyone is a mad scientist. Other areas tend to be more subdued, particularly Wreathe, which adopts a reserved persona and doesn't even have battle cries.
* TheWormThatWalks: Wormonias are a smallish, bunny-looking creature composed entirely of flesh-eating worms.
** An entire class of monsters called "Fectoids" are animals that have aggressive diseases for bodily tissues.
** Nerpentherghasts are a collective of small, bud-shaped symbiotes growing on a very long, very stupid central vine.
* WouldntHitAGirl: [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/fangatan.htm Fangatan]] won't hurt any female opponent, no matter how dangerous. Luckily, it comes with a built-in tiki mask to scare anything that tries to attack it away.
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler: Pretty much what ARE is for humanity, after having gone crazy.]]
* YoureInsane: A compliment among mad scientists.
* YourHeadAsplode: A common result of dealing with Unknown. Also how teleporters work. Also how Buffume fight. High Sanity can do this. Also... well, let's just say this shows up fairly often.
* ZombieApocalypse: Just one of ''many'' bad things that have happened to the planet. Still, even amongst such a list of atrocities, the zombies have a claim to fame: the ZombieApocalypse was arguably the worst of the bunch, perhaps creating the Mutants that make up Mortasheen, certainly creating the Great Corpse Sea and all related locations, and to this day, all humans are still infected with the virus from birth to death [[spoiler: except for the colony in the north.]]

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''[[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen.htm Mortasheen]]'', created by Website/{{Bogleech}} owner Jonathan Wojcik (AKA @/{{Scythemantis}}) and developed by Cat-Powered Raygun Studios, is a HorrorComedy {{Mons}} universe that takes place in, well, [[TitleDrop Mortasheen]], an ancient biomechanical megapolis where genetic engineering is more popular than breathing and the Internet combined, filled to the brim with [[MonsterClown nightmarish clowns that cause hallucinations]], [[BodyHorror horribly mutated monstrosities]], [[MixAndMatchCritters grotesque fusions of humans and insects]], and [[CrapsackWorld who knows what else]]... all of which [[CreepyGood live in general harmony]], and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality honestly wonder why they freak humans out]]. Think of it as the ''Franchise/GarbagePailKids'' to ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'''s ''Toys/CabbagePatchKids''--except even more gross and weird than that would suggest.

* GeniusLoci: The entire city of Mortasheen is, in fact, an ''enormous'' living creature. It grows and expands of its own accord without any construction work, its buildings are made of living metal, and the city is able to mass-produce its own dominant species, the Shades, to help fix and maintain it wherever possible similar to stem cells.

* GeniusLoci: The entire city of Mortasheen is, in fact, a single titanic living creature. It grows and expands of its own accord without any construction work going on, and is able to mass-produce its own dominant species, the Shades, to help fix and maintain it wherever possible similar to stem cells.
** There's also Axabod, a titanic life-form whose body and organs constitute an entire subterranean cave system.

* GeniusLoci: It's indicated that the entire city of Mortasheen as a whole has hints of sentience, seeing as how it is biomechanical, grows and expands on its own without any construction work, and is able to mass-produce its own dominant species, the Shades, to help fix and maintain it wherever possible.
** There's a LogicalExtreme in the form of Axabod, a titanic life-form whose body and organs constitute an entire subterranean cave system.

In 2020, a Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign was released [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/484998492/mortasheen-a-weird-monstrous-pen-and-paper-rpg-world to successfully fund]] a [[TheRoleplayingGame tabletop RPG]] based on the setting, initially set to be released sometime in late 2021 but delayed indefinitely.

''[[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen.htm Mortasheen]]'', created by Website/{{Bogleech}} owner Jonathan Wojcik (AKA @/{{Scythemantis}}) and developed by Cat-Powered Raygun Studios, is a HorrorComedy {{Mons}} universe that takes place in, well, [[TitleDrop Mortasheen]], an ancient biomechanical megapolis where genetic engineering is more popular than breathing and the Internet combined, filled to the brim with [[MonsterClown nightmarish clowns that cause hallucinations]], [[BodyHorror horribly mutated monstrosities]], [[MixAndMatchCritters grotesque fusions of humans and insects]], and [[CrapsackWorld who knows what else]]... all of which [[DarkIsNotEvil live in general harmony]], and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality honestly wonder why they freak humans out]]. Think of it as the ''Franchise/GarbagePailKids'' to ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'''s ''Toys/CabbagePatchKids''--except even more gross and weird than that would suggest.

* CloningBlues: Averted. Mortasheen views clones as the same person as the original, which is good, because it's teleportation and resurrection systems both rely on quick cloning. So most people in Mortasheen are, in fact, clones. But they still consider themselves to be the original, because they are such a perfect copy. Culturally, it's no more interesting- or looked down upon- than someone drinking tea. Wreathe, meanwhile, finds this horrifying, and refuses to use clones no matter what.

* ThreateningShark: There are a quite a few shark-based monsters. The Gashark is a rotting shark corpse with legs controlled by a PuppeteerParasite, while the Makkoron is a straight-up SharkMan. The Shrezar is a vampire shark, and the Monstrougeist is part ''Anomalocaris'' and part {{Megalodon}}.

''[[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen.htm Mortasheen]]'', created by Website/{{Bogleech}} owner Jonathan Wojcik (AKA @/{{Scythemantis}}) and developed by Cat-Powered Raygun Studios, is a HorrorComedy {{Mons}} universe set in the eponymous Mortasheen, an ancient biomechanical megapolis in which genetic engineering has become more popular than breathing and the Internet combined, filled to the brim with [[MonsterClown nightmarish clowns that cause hallucinations]], [[BodyHorror horribly mutated monstrosities]], [[MixAndMatchCritters grotesque fusions of humans and insects]], and [[CrapsackWorld who knows what else]]... all of which [[DarkIsNotEvil live in general harmony]], and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality honestly wonder why they freak humans out]]. Think of it as the ''Franchise/GarbagePailKids'' to ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'''s ''Toys/CabbagePatchKids''--except even more gross and weird than that would suggest.

* BrokenAesop: One of the ideas of the game is that just because the inhabitants of the titular city are horrifying-looking by human standards doesn't make them evil, and that their BodyHorror ecosystem has every right to exist. Except, by any sane standard, the inhabitants of Mortasheen ''are'' evil. They care less about their environment than humans do as they turned the entire planet into a toxic wasteland, drove most types of nonmutant species to extinction and ''filled an entire ocean with garbage''. This is not to mention that they also treat humans like lab-rats at best. However, WordOfGod is that normal, pre-Mortasheen [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans]] are canonically the ones who made the world that way before Mortasheen city or any of its inhabitants would have existed.

** [[spoiler: Additionaly, ARE has discovered that ''its own algorithm'' is a crapshoot, as several of its Celestial Engines have developed odd quirks that ARE finds really weird, ranging from the merely weird - like Engines assigning genders to themselves - to the worrisome, like survivor's guilt.]]

''[[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen.htm Mortasheen]]'', created by Website/{{Bogleech}} owner Jonathan Wojcik (AKA @/{{Scythemantis}}) and developed by Cat-Powered Raygun Studios, is a Cronenbergian {{Mons}} universe set in the eponymous Mortasheen, an ancient biomechanical megapolis where genetic engineering has become more popular than the Internet, filled to the brim with [[MonsterClown nightmarish clowns that cause hallucinations]], [[BodyHorror horribly mutated monstrosities]], [[MixAndMatchCritters grotesque fusions of humans and insects]], and [[CrapsackWorld who knows what else]]... all of which [[DarkIsNotEvil live in general harmony]], and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality honestly wonder why they freak humans out]]. Think of it as the ''Franchise/GarbagePailKids'' to ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'''s ''Toys/CabbagePatchKids''--except even more gross and weird than that would suggest.

In 2020, a Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign was released [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/484998492/mortasheen-a-weird-monstrous-pen-and-paper-rpg-world to successfully fund]] a [[TheRoleplayingGame tabletop RPG]] based on the setting, set to be released sometime in late 2021.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: A recent addition to the series, the Ectosaurs.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Played with in several ways. [[spoiler: The supercomputer ARE is, in fact, actually clinically insane. It's developed Multiple Personality Disorder, both from its isolation and from having its heart broken. However, ARE is also absolutely smitten with humanity, and would have been a willing servant of its creators had they lived. The hell the world went through, however, has somewhat... twisted the computer's goals.]]

* {{Nuckelavee}}: Hestermoan, one of the setting's "ultimate" monsters, is based on the Nuckelavee. It takes the original creature's power of sickness and decay UpToEleven: its breath causes viral infections, its blood is corrosive, its feces spreads fungal blight, and its presence makes parasitic insects reproduce like crazy. It's also the size of a Kaiju, and may have wiped out an entire civilization. The very name "Mortasheen" itself is also derived from the Nuckelavee— this was supposedly the name of the disease the monster carried.