D&D Monsters: Salamanders

Salamanders are, of course, real creatures - long-tailed amphibians with a vaguely lizard-like appearance. The Ancient Greeks and Romans attributed a number of magical abilities to them, some of them related to fire, but it's clear that they were describing the real animal when they did so. In the Middle Ages, however, there's more of a split between the amphibian and the fantastic creature, with the latter taking on more exotic forms and powers. This culminates in the 16th century with Paracelsus adopting the name for what he termed "fire elementals" and it's this that's most likely the inspiration for the D&D monster.

---

1E

The salamander in 1E is roughly humanoid from the waist up, with the legs replaced by a single tail that keeps the creature in broadly human proportions. A series of narrow frills extends along the back, and also down each of the arms; these are partially erect, but whether they are buoyed aloft by hot air or are self-animated tendrils isn't something we can determine from the picture. The head has a flattened cranium and a triangular jaw with sharp carnivorous teeth. The ears are significantly elongated, with further frills on them and a pair of branching tendrils project out from either side of the nose, which we might suppose to be sensory. The creature has a partly striped and partly mottled pattern, with the background colouration shading from yellow to red along the length of the body.

D&D Monsters: Efreet

Ifrit are a type of demon in Islamic folklore, associated with the jinn, and in some cases having similar powers (such as the ability to grant wishes), although their exact relationship is nebulous. They are associated with the underworld, fire, and smoke, and are generally hostile. This explains many of the attributes of efreet in D&D, which are specifically described as the fiery counterpart to djinn. (The idea that therefore must be watery and earthen versions of the same thing does not appear in the original Monster Manual, although it was introduced later during the 1E era, with the name "marid" being borrowed from another kind of Islamic demon, and "dao" seemingly being original to the game).

DW Monsters: Primords

While the story Inferno is best remembered for the alternate-history sections, it does also include monsters. Never named on-screen, they are referred to as "Primords" in the credits and are bestial transformed humans, rather than aliens. Beyond their one appearance on TV, their only significant story to feature them is the Third Doctor audio play Primord which is a sort of sequel to Inferno and shows a few exceptional individuals in addition to the regular sort I will be concentrating on here.

Description and Biology

Primords are created when a human comes into skin contact with Stahlman’s Ooze, a viscous green fluid extracted from deep beneath the Earth. (Some of the tie-in novels have tried to explain how it got there, but it’s not relevant for our purposes and isn’t mentioned in either of the two main stories to actually feature the race). The transformation can take a few hours, during which time the victim develops green skin and eventually undergoes the more drastic physical changes to reach the final form.

D&D Monsters: Djinn

The djinn originate in Middle Eastern mythology; they are typically associated with Islamic beliefs today, but pre-date that religion. They were originally human-like beings with magical powers, perhaps associated with a creation preceding that of humans and, at least by Islamic times, were regarded as neither inherently good nor evil. In modern western culture, they are mainly thought of as granting wishes and being trapped in lamps, ideas that come from an 18th-century edition of One Thousand and One Nights, although the specific legend is presumably older - they are not part of the original concept of djinn.

In D&D, djinn are described as powerful inhabitants of the Elemental Plane of Air, since many  (although by no means all) of the magical powers associated with them in myth are linked with the air. In the game, the alternative Anglicised name for the beings, "genie", instead refers to a broader category of being, of which the djinn are merely one of the most common. While the wish-granting, oil lamp dwelling, sort of djinn are stated to exist in the universe they are, at best, extremely rare and not typical representatives of their kind.

D&D Monsters: Golems

The golem is a creature of Jewish myth; a man formed of clay, as Adam was said to have been, and brought to life by a skilled rabbi. This usually involves a holy word, either written on parchment and placed in the golem's mouth or carved directly into its forehead. The resulting golem works as a servitor, and is incapable of speech. In the most famous version of the tale, it eventually goes berserk when its creator forgets to deactivate it on the Sabbath, and it ends up breaking the holy commandment not to work at such times.

In D&D, however, the word is used for a much larger class of creatures, humanoid forms made of pretty well any material and animated to serve their creator. Some of these, too, have a habit of going berserk, although the trigger for doing so is decidedly more random.

---

Clay Golem

The clay golem is, of course, the one that most closely resembles the being in the original myth. In this respect, it's notable that it has to be created by a powerful priest (and, in, 1E, specifically a priest of a benevolent deity), rather than a wizard or necromancer. In 1E, it is shown as a humanoid figure sculpted from clay and apparently wearing a loincloth. For all we can tell from the picture, this might be a part of the moulded clay, just an artistic convention by its creator, but, from 2E onwards, we're told that a leather jockstrap is an essential accoutrement for all clay golems.

DW Monsters: The Ambassadors

Having completed the seven key humanoid aliens of the show (other than the Time Lords themselves), I’m now going to turn to aliens that appeared less frequently, as well as those that are less humanoid in form. One of the ground rules here is that I will still be looking at races, and not at beings that are said to be unique, or that are unusual or “high level” examples of their kind. I’ll also pass over races that aren’t, in terms of basic game statistics, especially notable, most often because they’re physically indistinguishable from humans.

I’m going to approach this by running through the eras of the various TV incarnations of the Doctor. The first batch consists of “monsters” and other aliens that appear during the Third Doctor’s era, of which there are quite a few.

•        Spearhead from Space is the Third Doctor’s debut story, and features the autons.
•         Doctor Who and the Silurians is the debut for the eponymous reptiles.

D&D Monsters: Flesh Golems

The flesh golem, as depicted in D&D, is quite clearly based on Frankenstein's Monster. This, of course, has its origin in Mary Shelley's original story, but it's probably fair to say that most people's perceptions of the creature are more heavily influenced by the take on it in the Universal Pictures horror films of the 1930s. So it is with the flesh golem, which owes rather more to the movie version than to that in the novel, despite attempts to transform its look from 2E onwards.

---

1E

The debt to Frankenstein's Monster is particularly clear in the 1E illustration, which gives the golem the high, almost cylindrical head seen in the 1930s film version. Otherwise, the golem is an animated humanoid apparently stitched together from pieces of human body; it is hairless with a lantern jaw and distinct brow ridges. It is stated to be 7½ feet (230cm) tall which, given that this is obviously taller than the vast majority of humans, implies that either the magical process which creates it enlarges the original body parts or that multiple pieces are grafted together to make the body.