Hello.! This is Yeonbaek.

In this post, to mark Biodiversity Day, I wanted to spend some time considering

what it might look like to create a Maple creature encyclopedia

using the monsters found in MapleLand.

This past May 22 was ‘Biodiversity Day.’

International Day for Biological Diversity traces its origins to the announcement of the convention in 1994,

and it is a day for understanding the existence of diverse species and raising awareness about preserving them.

As more and more living things are being pushed toward extinction

for reasons such as environmental pollution and habitat destruction,

it is also a day that invites us to reflect on environmental conservation.

- Biodiversity and extinction in MapleStory?

MapleStory, too, is home to a remarkably wide variety of monsters.

They may be similar at a glance, but each has its own distinct traits,

and by giving players different monsters to encounter, hunt, and collect items from,

they become an essential part of the experience.

Fortunately,

monsters in games spawn endlessly, so they are rarely ever in danger of extinction, but

there are still some monsters, such as Lupin, Zombie Lupin, and Clang, that have occasionally lost their habitats due to revamps and similar changes

and disappeared from MapleStory (the main game).

In an odd way, that feels strangely close to reality.

Anyway, putting that aside..

- If I were to make my own creature encyclopedia?

If I were setting the criteria for my own creature encyclopedia,

I would basically classify things by species,

but I think I would place even more emphasis on organizing them by region.

So let’s try putting together a simple encyclopedia

and talk through it.

- 🍄Mushroom types

It would feel incomplete to leave out mushrooms, the monsters most commonly found across Victoria Island.

In Henesys, you can often encounter the familiar mushroom form,

Orange Mushroom, but..

— Ellinia

Once you move on to Ellinia, a forest region dense with towering growth,

you can also encounter Green Mushroom, whose poison is potent enough to make it immune to poison attacks.

It feels as though it evolved to suit Ellinia’s distinctive environment,

a comfortable setting where poisonous mushrooms and many other plants can flourish.

— Sleepywood

From there, if you continue on to Sleepywood, where deep caves stretch out without even a trace of light,

you can encounter Horny Mushroom, an evolved form of Green Mushroom.

Because it lives in the Ant Tunnel, where no light reaches,

it seems to have lost much of its poisonous nature after going so long without sunlight,

while the horns growing from its cap give it a far more menacing appearance.

— New Leaf City

This time, if we move to the somewhat less familiar region of New Leaf City,

we can find City Mushroom, with its striking purple cap.

It is hard to say what environmental influence led it to develop a purple cap,

but it is especially interesting to see it as a form that evolved to suit New Leaf City,

with its cutting-edge technology and modern buildings.

— Japan

Lastly, there is Blue Mushmom, which evolved in a distinctive way in the Japan region.

It looks quite similar to Mushmom, the king of mushrooms,

but with its cap changed to sky blue and its evolution into a much stronger boss monster,

it feels like the sort of monster that would be treated as a rare entry in a creature encyclopedia.

- 🐷 Pig types

We also cannot leave out the pig types commonly found around Henesys.

They are monsters that can look threatening, scraping their hooves against the ground as if preparing to charge,

but they are also tame enough for NPCs to domesticate

and mild enough to serve as prey for beginners.

Yet among these pigs, the especially strong ones

even boast of their high rank by wearing a ribbon around their bodies.

At first glance, it might seem as though they are simply wearing a ribbon,

but since they become monsters far stronger than ordinary pigs,

it makes me think the mysterious power of that ribbon could be worth examining more closely.

— Perion

But some pigs, angered by the distinction between ordinary pigs and Ribbon Pigs,

make their way into the barren region of Perion.

The environment is completely different from Henesys,

but in order to adapt and survive somehow even there,

they relentlessly train themselves, eventually evolving into the monster Wild Boar.

Unlike ordinary pigs, they develop sharp fangs, much keener eyes,

and even a mane rising from the top of the head,

which makes it especially striking that they become one of Perion’s signature powerful monsters (Lv.7 → Lv. 24).

And they do not stop there.

By learning how to handle Perion’s scorching heat, they can even evolve into Fire Boar.

Rather than simply adapting perfectly to Perion’s environment, they go a step further and actively make use of it,

developing themselves through the ordeal of setting their own bodies ablaze,

and in that sense, they become both a fine example for Perion’s residents and a barbecue party.

It is remarkable that they managed to survive in such extreme conditions.

— 🐲 Drake types

Lastly, let us look at the powerful monster that players in the Lv. 50 range have probably hunted at least once,

the Drake.

These dragon-type monsters live far beyond the Ant Tunnel, deep in the dungeon,

and although they look a little foolish, they are still dangerous monsters that cannot simply be taken lightly.

— Perion

Among these Drake monsters,

there are also some Drakes that were cast out because they could not adapt to dungeon life (or were simply weak).

There is only a slight difference in their somewhat brownish tint,

but compared to ordinary Drakes, they feel much weaker, as though they never fully evolved.

However..

through another form of adaptation to the scorching heat and barren environment,

they can also evolve into Red Drake, tinged red and capable of firing fireballs.

They may have been driven out of the place where they originally lived,

but the fact that they became another powerful force here through evolution, turning into one of Perion’s threatening monsters,

gives the impression of a natural result born from environmental pressures and the instinct to survive.

— Dungeon

Ordinary Drakes, too, do not seem to be idle,

as they adapt to the cold of the deep places untouched by light and become Ice Drake, practically made of ice,

or undergo a dark evolution under the evil influence of the cursed temple and become Dark Drake

monsters that we can encounter as well.

Even while living in the same region,

it is striking to see how they adapted to outside influences and became entirely new species.

So, in this way, I have completed a small creature encyclopedia of my own.

There are many other fascinating monsters and evolved traits beyond these,

but what stands out most is how, depending on the environment of the region where they live and various other factors,

they evolved or changed form

and became entirely new monsters.

Which monsters stood out most to you?