Drallmamoth

Mass extinction is truly a monstrous evil of the world. For so many unique species to suddenly vanish... it's almost unthinkable. But with so many worlds out there, just how many times has an asteroid wiped the dinosaurs off the face of the Earth? How many times has the Great Dying pulled life to the very brink of annihilation. Just how many drallmamoths have been birthed by those events, and how many more will be born?

— Patrick Graham, Demonologist

Sometimes within a single mortal world, a tremendous near-incomprehensive level of suffering may occur within a relatively small time frame. Often these moments arrive in the form of an asteroid impact or a massive eruption from a supervolcano, but sometimes such extinction events take hundreds or thousands of years. Regardless such extensive suffering tends to combine into a single coagulated mass which sinks down into the world of the demonic. Once it has arrived, it will either spread out into many smaller demons that wander out into the wastes or collapse into itself and form into a dreaded drallmamoth.

The drallmamoth, often nicknamed the continent devourer, is the largest lesser demon in Creation. Born in the wake of a mass extinction event, the drallmamoth is a gargantuan mixture of turtle and human anatomical features. While in motion, these demons take on the appearance of an anthropomorphic snapping turtle dragging its belly on the ground. It is very fortunate for everything else that these beasts tend to be quite slovenly and prefer to spend extended periods of time laying dormant.

The primary reason the drallmamoth exhibits both of these comical behaviors is the fact that it cannot lift its own body mass above the ground. Though this makes it appear pathetic from a distance, such limited movement causes it to drag itself across the ground, crushing and grinding anything unfortunate enough to get in its way down to dust. This has earned the demon a reputation in folklore across mortal worlds as gluttonous migrating mountains.

Bottomless Stomach

With the size and mass of a mountain, the drallmamoth possesses a deep and insatiable hunger beyond that of any other demon. The primary reason these hulking behemoths move at all is to find more material to snap up in their city-sized jaws. As they belly-crawl along a drallmamoth may drag its lower jaws on the ground like a reptilian pelican pulling fish from the sea, stuffing an entire countryside into its maw while searching for another countryside to devour. Regardless of how much this species eats, the hunger of the drallmamoth will never cease.

Along with this absurd hunger, the drallmamoth sports an impossible interior. The only known organ system within the demon's body is its digestive tract which takes the form of a winding labyrinthine flesh maze. The stomach of the drallmamoth is yet another mystery of the demonic and several theories have been proposed regarding the nature of such a vast space. One suggests every member of the drallmamoth species shares a single pocket dimension as a collective stomach where all consumed material goes. Another theory argues that the stomach utilizes warped reality to extend the dimensions and create the infamous hunger. A third proposal suggests the drallmamoth doesn't possess any organs at all and that things the demon consumes are transported to an uncharted area of the demon world. This theory also argues this pocket space may possess some level of awareness and is commanding the demons to seek out material to add to its mass.

Unfortunately, it is near-impossible to properly explore the guts of these demons as anything that enters the space enters a state of rapid degeneration due to a mix of an increase in entropy and corrosive acids. This deadly property takes effect the moment an object enters the pocket space and takes very little time to fully obliterate most objects.

A similar oddity exhibited by the drallmamoth is its tendency to seek out areas with high concentrations of mortal creatures. Many have been recorded dragging themselves across barren wastes, though they do continue to feast as they travel, to reach a large city with a high population or a dense forest populated by several thousand species of mortal flora and fauna. This obsession with maximizing violence and pain is the primary reason the drallmamoth has been deemed a lesser demon.

A Living Biome

Upon the back of the drallmamoth lies a collection of craggy mountainsides, wide deep canyons, and frozen peaks. Though one would presume the thick chunks of stone on the backs of these demons would be lifeless, as not even other demons are safe from the voracious drallmamoth, the back of one of these demons serves as the foundation for vast demonic ecosystems.

Most of the demons that occupy the backside of a continent devourer are mindless beasts simply looking for a powerful creature to shield them from other small demons. However, many more intelligent demons also utilize the vast space on a drallmamoths gigantic shell to take away the work in travelling. Swarms of pests may utilize a starving drallmamoth to migrate to areas with more to consume, zealots make temporary outposts in the caverns and canyons on occasion, more sophisticated demons place bases or outposts in between the mountains and some high-ranking demons will hide away from their enemies.

Moving away from the drallmamoth's shell presents another angle of bizarre ecology. One thing a majority of demonic beings understand is to evade the face of the most voracious creature in all of existence. The barren wastes left behind by one of these colossal wanderers is worthless for most things, but other lesser demons consider it ideal land to colonize. Lowly creatures like the ungroth, pests, and spitters make subpar use of the empty space by existing within it and often fighting one another for an empire of flattened dirt.

Due to the demonic nature of these gargantuan gluttons, any land outside of the demon world they flatten becomes imbued with an impurity which warps the flora and fauna that attempt to reclaim the land. Anomalous plants and mutated beasts are common leftovers of a drallmamoth passing by, a repugnant gift given unto mortals by the giants.

A Living WMD

For more powerful demons, maintaining control of conquered worlds beyond the demon realm is a top priority. These colonized worlds maximize suffering and thus properly sustain such powerful forms. Unfortunately, mortal creatures don't tend to blindly agree to occupation by the manifestations of pain and misery in the world. Living things are bound to revolt against the demonic hordes.

These high-ranking demons have discovered, in large part due to the drallmamoth, that fear is an ideal element to establish and maintain control. When a mortal world puts up a fight against encroaching or already present demonic forces, more moody demonic elites will rustle up a drallmamoth and send it into the offending world. It does not take very long for the demon to make its presence well known as it earns its infamous nickname yet again and banishes entire civilizations to its stomach. If one of these behemoths fails to shut up the offending mortals, another may be sent in to wreak further mass destruction.

The use of a drallmamoth is both a swift and cruel means to an end and a show of force by a demonic overlord. Several cities may be squashed by one of these demons as it is sent into the world just to show the rest of the world the strength the demon hordes possess. They also serve as a bleak reminder that the demonic occupation of the world can and, following a string of uprisings, will get far more cruel as time passes.

The best way to prevent an encounter with a drallmamoth is to shut up and behave as the marquis demands.

A Mountainous Entertainer

When not being used to quash rebellions in the mortal realms above, the drallmamoth is seen as a species of entertainment for demonic elites. The juxtaposition of the great and terrible power the species possesses and the comically pathetic way they present themselves makes the drallmamoth a star attraction in the demon world. Many powerful demons consider the destruction caused by a drallmamoth, either within their realm or in a mortal world, to be a spectacle of an eternal lifetime. High-ranking demons will often gather to watch one of these monsters obliterate entire landscapes in the same way one might watch birds in the park.

For the upper end of the demonic hierarchy, a drallmamoth may be captured and led to a specialized arena where it will be forced to battle full-scale armies of lesser demons collected by the hosts. The subsequent battle is often drawn out for weeks, if not months, and only further extended as other demons are drawn into the arena by the symphony of slaughter. The event comes to a finish once the trapped drallmamoth is slain by the imprisoned army, to which the arena will be demolished along with any stragglers or survivors.

Events such as these are rather rare, however, and the demonic aristocracy will gather en masse when one occurs. This tends to lead to some of the guests getting cocky and attempting to join the fray to little success. Of course, this adds entertainment value to anyone not yet stupid enough to challenge a creature nicknamed the "continent devourer" and further complicates the event for the (often imprisoned) warriors fighting the beast.