Basic Trope: A monster whose defining feature is that it spawned most of the monsters in a setting.
- Straight: An Eldritch Abomination Ich'goa is mother of several monstrous Starfish Aliens as well as several lone monsters.
- Exaggerated: Every living thing on the show is a direct descendant of Ich'goa, including humans, plants, and even Ich'goa herself.
- Downplayed: While still the source of several major foes, Ich'goa only has a few offspring, and they have only minor differences from their mother.
- Justified:
- Ich'goa is an Organic Technology xenoforming device, trying to make a normal biosphere for its creators.
- Ich'goa is immortal, married to another monster, and has lots of time to give birth to monstrous young.
- Inverted:
- The Jackass god Aksos fathered pretty much every demigod in the setting.
- Ich'goa is a Hunter Of Her Own Kind who tries to prevent monsters from reproducing to eventually wipe them out.
- Subverted:
- Ich'goa is not actually related to the creatures that call her mother, the title being a purely metaphorical one for a Physical God.
- Ich'goa's title was mistranslated. Her actual title was "Matriarch of a thousand descendants" and it was actually a Cap on the number of descendants that may live at once, an imposition by the gods to prevent their overwhelming strength from dominating the world. She only had five children herself over a thousand years.
- Double Subverted: However, another similar creature was found that produced Ich’goa, as well as all the monster races.
- Parodied: Ich'goa is the world's most overbearing, interfering harpy. The reason all those monsters are attacking human civilization is to get away from her.
- Zig Zagged: While a number of the foes that the heroes fight are the offspring of Ich'goa, many others are simply allied with Ich'Goa.
- Averted: Everything evolved separately as it normally does.
- Enforced: "How can I ensure that the heros have an endless supply of monsters to fight without just handwaving the problem, and still have all of them be unique...?"
- Lampshaded: "Shub-Niggurath called; she says you'll be hearing from her lawyer."
- Invoked: A race of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens want to make monsters to fight their enemies; instead of cloning a thousand creatures, they create just one mother.
- Exploited: The heroes realize that the only way to end this once and for all is to take out Ich'Goa herself.
- Defied: Ich'Goa creates numerous slightly less fertile and creative daughters and makes efforts to ensure genetic diversity and fertile breeding in their offspring, so that she is only indirectly the source of all monsters.
- Implied: Ich'Goa's lair is crawling with babies, some of which resemble, but are not identical to, infantile versions of monsters the protagonists have encountered.
- Discussed: “Wait, so Ich’Goa gave birth to ALL of the fiendish beasts we fight?... Wow. She Really Gets Around…”
- Conversed: "You know, biologically speaking, the creation of several different species from one specimen is highly unlikely.""Well, maybe she's like a living gene splicing lab or something?"
- Deconstructed: All the monster races birthed by Ich'Goa are related to each other by genetics, and cannot breed without resulting in incestuous, deformed children. As a result, when Ich’Goa dies, entire species start to degenerate to the point of extinction.
- Reconstructed:
- The monsters have the ability to clone themselves to replenish their numbers. Ich'Goa has granted them special protection against disease to help overcome the associated disadvantages.
- The monsters instinctively understand that they'll be replaced by a genetically similar monster after they die, and that there is therefore no urgency to reproduce. While this is a disturbing concept for humans to grasp, the monsters have no problems coming to terms with it.
- Similar to queen bees, the monsters can rear one of her offspring to become a replacement should she die, allowing them to continue multiplying.
- Played For Laughs: Ich’Goa is constantly nagging the monsters she spawned, asking them to clean their lairs, demanding tribute on mother’s day, asking them why they never write, and making them wear jumpers when she's cold...
- Played For Drama:
- Ich’Goa is the keystone of the Evil Overlord’s army. When she falls, so does his entire war machine, and defeating her is the main goal of the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits.
- Ich'Goa is not evil, and has no control over her offspring and whether she has them. The offspring are not Always Chaotic Evil, and in fact are just as often friendly Starfish Aliens as ravening monstrosities. Before she was enslaved by the Evil Overlord she worked with her good offspring to protect the world from her more dangerous children. The heroes are shocked by this revelation, and must decide if killing her is really necessary.
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