D&D Monsters: Vrocks

The word "demon" comes from Ancient Greek where it was used to describe semi-divine beings and generally lacked the negative connotations of the modern word. Early Christians later co-opted it as a term for "servitors of foreign/hostile deities", from which it rapidly morphed into something more explicitly evil. In that sense, it's a common concept in many real-world religions, a generic term not linked to any one in particular and that therefore fits with the typically polytheistic worldview of D&D.

The vrock specifically has no direct antecedents in mythology or in Christian demonology. It may be partly inspired by the demonic Tash from C.S. Lewis's Narnia books, but the resemblance isn't that strong and could be coincidental. Vultures appear in the myths of both African and American cultures since similar birds live on both continents. (In reality, the "vultures" on either side of the Atlantic are not closely related, despite their physical similarity, but this may not be relevant in a fantasy world).

DW Monsters: Silurians

Following on from the Sontarans, I’m going to look at six other humanoid races that have made regular or semi-regular appearances on the show. I’ll start with the Silurians.

Appearances

The Silurians make their debut in the somewhat oddly titled Third Doctor story Doctor Who and the Silurians. This establishes many of the basics of the race, including the ambiguity about whether they count as ‘evil monsters’ or not. In the later Third Doctor story The Sea Devils, it becomes clear that there are multiple forms of their race, although the Sea Devils themselves are sufficiently different from the baseline Silurians that I’m going to leave them for a later post. The Silurians make a final classic series appearance during the Fifth Doctor’s run in Warriors of the Deep, teaming up with the Sea Devils. In the modern show, they’ve only really appeared as villains once, in the Eleventh Doctor story The Hungry Earth, which partly mirrors the plot of their original story. They have also been mentioned and made brief appearances in other stories, even if we ignore Madame Vastra.