Line #53 Main/MageHuntingMonster


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6	->''The sheer size and ferocity of a Cygor is terrifying enough to mortal men, but those who know of their terrible hunger fear them above all. To a mage a Cygor is unutterably fearsome, for he knows that of all the warriors on the battlefield it is him alone that the Cygor wants to catch up in its gnarled and calloused hands, his flesh it wants to tear apart, and his soul it must devour to slake its unending thirst.''
7	-->--''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy 7th Edition: Beastmen''
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9	In fantasy, wizards, witches, and assorted mages are usually some of the most powerful beings around, as their reality-bending arts allow them to easily overwhelm most foes or obstacles. However, threats can exist that will threaten even, or especially, such powerful individuals. One of these is the Mage-Hunting Monster, a creature that specializes in hunting and killing magic-users.
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11	Mage-Hunting Monsters usually have a number of tricks up their metaphorical sleeves in order to subdue their dangerous and wily prey. They are often magical themselves, matching their targets' supernatural powers with their own. They otherwise typically have AntiMagic in some form, either being immune or resistant to magical attacks or having some way to suppress magical powers around themselves.
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13	These creatures are often {{Magic Eater}}s of some sort, hounding their targets due to seeing them as prey. It's also common for them to be {{Bioweapon Beast}}s that were deliberately created to kill mages. In this latter case, the monster's creators can range from {{Muggles}} or an AntiMagicalFaction trying to get a leg up on the mages to magic-users looking for an edge against their rivals.
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15	Compare/Contrast MageKiller, where a normal human is the one going after mages. See also FoodChainOfEvil, for monsters that prey on other monstrous beings; both tropes describe magical predators of beings who are themselves more powerful than ordinary humans. These beings can the bane of a MageSpecies. This is also one possible reason why MagicIsAMonsterMagnet. Overlaps with SupernaturallyDeliciousAndNutritious.
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17	Note that, despite the name, this trope can equally well apply to monsters that hunt people with any kind of supernatural ability, such as psychic powers or superpowers.
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19	Not to be confused with WitchHunt, which refers to paranoid searches for infiltrators or outsiders that may or may not exist.
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21	!!Examples:
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23	[[foldercontrol]]
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25	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
26	* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Hollows absorb the spiritual power of those they eat, and as such are strongly drawn towards attacking people with a lot of spirit energy.
27	* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'': The Unicorn Gundam and its sister units are GiantMecha incorporating the NT-D System (officially "Newtype Drive" but really "Newtype Destroyer"), a SuperMode which activates when it detects the presence of a Newtype pilot on the battlefield. In its "Destroy Mode" the Unicorn exposes additional thrusters and deploys a BrainComputerInterface in order to let its pilot keep up with Newtype reaction speeds for a short time; it is also capable of hijacking funnels ({{Attack Drone}}s which [[ElectronicTelepathy rely on Newtype telepathy to control]]) and making them turn on their owner. Ironically, the NT-D System places so much strain on its pilot that Newtypes are the only ones capable of using it for sustained periods.
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30	[[folder:Fan Works]]
31	* ''Fanfic/{{Mendacity}}'': Bugganes are Fae creatures resembling enormous blind moles. Like all Fae, they need magic to live, but cannot produce any of their own and get instead by hunting down and eating other magical beings. Spells are effectively useless against them, and other Fae fear them immensely.
32	* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/27429/quantum-castaways Quantum Castaways]]'': Twilight Sparkle has to deal with a giant insect that seems to have evolved to hunt unicorns, and has several abilities intended to counteract their innate magic. It has AuraVision so that she can't hide from it and, when she tries to create a forcefield to protect herself, it just walks through it.
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35	[[folder:Literature]]
36	* ''Literature/MotherOfLearning'': The grey hunter is a GiantSpider specifically adapted for hunting magical prey (which includes the majority of really dangerous beasts). It has a highly refined ability to sense and perceive magic around it, its body is highly magic-resistant, and its venom is not directly fatal, but disrupts the victim's ability to shape mana. Zorian tries using a magical floating eyeball to study one in its lair, and it responds by instantly shredding the spell and rocketing out of the cave to hunt for him. As soon as he starts casting a teleport spell to get away, it zeroes in on his location and comes straight at him.
37	* ''Literature/TheScholomance'': Mals are monsters MadeOfMagic, ranging from tiny parasites to titanic {{Blob Monster}}s, that feed on wizards for their {{Mana}} (and/or flesh, and/or {{soul\|Eating}}s). Most are no match for an [[HadToBeSharp adult wizard]], but they're so pervasive that MagicalSociety is built around minimizing the child mortality rate.
38	* ''Franchise/StarWarsTheHighRepublic'': The Nameless are [[AnimalisticAbomination enigmatic creatures]] that prey on Force users, with one particular specimen known as the Great Leveler. Their presence alone is capable of causing fear-inducing hallucinations in Jedi and after feeding on them, reduce them to [[TakenForGranite brittle petrified husks]] with a look of terror on their faces. After Marchion Ro reclaimed the Leveler from a hidden vault, the Nihil weaponized them against the Jedi [[spoiler:and played a key role in the fall of Starlight Beacon]]. 150 years before the Great Disaster, a cult called the [[AntiMagicalFaction Path of the Open Hand]] weaponized them against ''all'' Force users.
39	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Vornskrs, Force-sensitive wolf-like predators from the planet Myrkr introduced in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', react very aggressively to other Force-users, and become hyperfocused on attacking them once they sense their presence. It's theorized that the ysalamiri, sedentary lizard-like creatures that parasitize trees, evolved their ability to produce an AntiMagic field in the Force as a countermeasure to vornskyr predation.
40	** {{Exploited}} in ''Literature/TheLastCommand''. Talon Karrde makes use of this by using his two pet vornskrs to track down the Dark Jedi Joruus C'Baoth.
41	** Also exploited in the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series by the Yuuzhan Vong, who used vornskrs as one of the base organisms for creating voxyn, engineered monsters intended specifically to hunt and kill Jedi. The introduction of the voxyn forces the Jedi Order to mount a SuicideMission against Myrkr in ''Star By Star'' to destroy the voxyn queen, which ends in [[spoiler:Anakin Solo's death and Jacen Solo's capture]].
42	* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': The ''Gholam'' are superficially human monsters that can sense [[MagicByAnyOtherName channeling]] and are [[AntiMagic immune to it]] themselves. They were originally created for the express purpose of assassinating enemy channelers.
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45	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
46	* ''Series/WizardsVsAliens'': The Nekross are an alien race that feast upon all magic, and who have come to Earth because they've consumed literally all other sources of magic in the universe. Naturally, they come into conflict with the wizards living on the planet. They're also immune to it, with only powerful spells affecting them.
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49	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
50	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
51	** Magerippers are a kind of small, swarming creatures that feed on the magic of other living beings. Swarms of magerippers who come across a wizard or a magical being will mob it ''en masse'' and start siphoning away their magical power, leaving them powerless and potentially killing them through physical damage as they try to wrestle it to submission.
52	** {{Golem}}s can fill this role with their immunity to most forms of magic; Psion-killers in particular have an immunity which lacks any holes, combined with the ability to cast an AreaOfEffect DispelMagic once per turn (while created by characters with {{Psychic Powers}} to kill their rivals, they work just fine on other kinds of magic-user as well).
53	** Gremishkas are small, catlike creatures born from unstable magic, and which compulsively hunt mages and consume magical books and objects. They tend to attack in large numbers, and react to magic being cast or near them by redirecting it to produce effects such as firing blasts of force at the caster, healing themselves, or splitting into swarms of smaller gremishkas. A full swarm of gremishka is outright immune to spells of 3rd-level or lower, and can [[AttackReflector reflect spells that miss it against their caster]].
54	* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'': One of Aegis Kai Doru's Relics, the Witch-Candle, is a metal candlestick adorned with carved gargoyles. If a candle is placed within it and lit, any successful uses of magic, whether by witches or supernatural monsters, will cause the gargoyles carvings to come to life, climb off the candle, and single-mindedly attempt to kill the magicians that gave them life.
55	* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': Some entities from the Abyss are drawn into reality to feed on mages' powerful souls:
56	** The most extreme {{Magic Misfire}}s spawn an Abyssal intruder of variable power level. Some attack the mage directly, but others harass them as a [[GripingAboutGremlins gremlin]] or EvilDoppelganger, and the worst might play the long game as a [[TheCorrupter powerful corruptive force]].
57	** The Invisible Codex is a mage-''parasitizing'' monster: it impersonates a SpellBook, [[EmotionControl creates]] obsessive interest in the mage who finds it, and [[DeadlyBook drains its new owner's magic and life away]].
58	* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Witchstalkers are huge wolves native to Eldraine that are instinctively drawn to the smell of magic. They will ignore non-magical beings, even if these should run directly through their dens, but will viciously attack witches, fey, and enchanted beings.
59	* ''TabletopGame/{{Ponyfinder}}'': The flutterponies descend from the flutters, insect-like fey that fed on magic and descended in swarms to devour any source of it that they could find, including living beings.
60	* ''TabletopGame/{{TORG}}'': Both versions have the Mage-Killers, reptilian beasts who are immune to the direct effects of any magic aimed at them. As the name implies, they're usually summoned to assassinate troublesome wizards.
61	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
62	** Psychophages are Tyranid organisms designed to hunt down and devour enemy pyskers, which they quickly metabolize into "psychocorrosive ash" that they project from vents on their backs.
63	** Psychneuein are wasp-like creatures of the Warp that are specialized predators of psykers, in whose minds they lay their eggs. They are drawn to areas of intense and untrained psychic activity, but will barely deign to notice non-psychic individuals.
64	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyBattle'': Cygors are giant minotaurs whose single eye [[MagicalSensoryEffect is blind to everything except magic]]. To them, mages and magic-infused beings such as daemons and the undead blaze brightly and irresistibly, and a cygor who spots one will stop at nothing in its attempts to kill them and consume their soul.
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67	[[folder:Toys]]
68	* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': Marendar is a BioweaponBeast designed by the [[{{Precursors}} Great Beings]] to hunt down and destroy Toa in case they ever posed a threat. It only hunts Toa, not any other beings with ElementalPowers.
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71	[[folder:Video Games]]
72	* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'':
73	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'':
74	*** The in-game bestiary explains that the series-standard Bomb enemies were created as anti-mage weapons in this universe. In gameplay, most variants start passive and only become aggressive if they detect spellcasting nearby.
75	*** In-game, Elementals and Entites operate on this principle. Like Bomb enemies, they're docile until somebody from your group casts magic nearby, which makes them to go ballistic. Not only the elemental magic is mostly useless against them (they can be harmed only by [[ElementalRockPaperScissors counter-element]]), they usually come packing Silencega (can't cast spells) and Fearga (ManaBurn) to quickly incapacitate your mages, then proceed to use high-powered spells.
76	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': Voidsent are ravenous fiends from the void, a world of eternal darkness, who are constantly starved of aether. As such, they continually try to cross the rift between worlds to feed on the denizens of other worlds and possess their bodies. Mages like thaumaturges and conjurers are especially tasty snacks for voidsent, as mages are required to possess more internal aether than other people in order to cast spells. Morno, a powerful succubus and the focus of the thaumaturge questline, immediately begins murdering and feasting upon every thaumaturge she can get her hands on once she's freed from her cage. Her taste for thaumaturges is so profound that [[spoiler:Cocobuki is able to lure her out of Cocobusi's body by allowing her to gorge upon his aether. This gives the Warrior of Light and the other thaumaturge guildmasters time to fight and kill her without harming Cocobusi.]]
77	* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Terentateks are monsters created by the Sith for the express purpose of hunting Jedi. To do this, terentateks were designed to feed primarily on the blood of Force-sensitives, giving them a motivation to hunt them, and were made almost entirely immune to Force effects.
78	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
79	** Felhounds are demonic creatures with no eyes that hunt by sensing magic. They typically come with some kind of ManaBurn ability. Warlocks can also summon a specialized version called a Felhunter, which is their best AntiMagic pet.
80	** Warp stalkers can teleport short distances, the process of which disrupts all spellcasting in the area around where they appear. Although they don't have any natural inclination to hunt magic, they are frequently trained for use as mage hunters. However, for balance reasons, if a Hunter tames a warp stalker it can neither teleport nor disrupt spellcasting.
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83	[[folder:Web Videos]]
84	* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': Aeorian Hunters are biological weapons created by a society of [[NayTheist Nay-Theists]], designed to hunt spellcasters and servants of the gods like celestials and fiends. Absorbers can absorb magic and release it as a deadly attack, Nullifiers can innately cast Counterspell and Antimagic Field, and Reversers can invert the effects of healing magic, causing it to harm instead.
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87	[[folder:Western Animation]]
88	* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'':
89	** Mukhtars are reptilian humanoids who actively hunted and ate genies for centuries. They can sense magic and possess AntiMagic gadgets which allow them to nullify the power of their targets. The one who goes after Genie in "Genie Hunt" was hired by his former master to bring him back into servitude.
90	** "The Citadel": Mozenrath summons a thirdac, a magic-eating creature from another world, which he wants to use as a weapon against other magic users. Because the Thirdac targets everything that is even remotely magical, Mozenrath can't capture it himself, so he ensures that the thirdac sets its eyes on Genie and Carpet, forcing Aladdin to help Mozenrath capture the thirdac with a special collar. At the end of the episode, Aladdin has Iago free the thirdac and sics him onto Mozenrath, forcing the sorcerer to quickly send it back to its home dimension.
91	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': The is how Lord Tirek initially worked. When he first escaped Tartarus and was in a weakened state, he could only drain the magic of unicorns and wasn't a threat to any of the other pony species. As he stole more magic however, he eventually got powerful enough to drain pegasi, earth ponies, and eventually even {{Physical God}}s like alicorns and even ''Discord''.
92	* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': One episode has the magic school menaced by a basilisk -- a shapeshifting, reptilian monster that can suck the magic out of witches, leaving them helpless.
93	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MageHuntingMonster