Would modern day monsters be more technology related, as that's our current "demon" - mythological monsters filled in gaps on the map. or were misunderstandings of know creatures.
Would our modern monsters be a sort of digital horror - so a creature that eats your personal data. An then your life starts to reflect that: it steals your bank details and suddenly you have no account ANYWHERE.
Or a monster that sits in the shadows and just ups your anxiety until you die from stress - like a reverse dementor?
The Data Eater is a really good idea. Would it be a physical creature or would it just be a rogue account on a computer and websites? How would you kill it? Make it eat false information? The myths are about the mysteries of all facets of life and technology would be one but not the only one. How about Sick building syndrome? What if it was a creature that took up residence in a buildings walls?
The Data Eater would be some form of natural AI - or a spectre of some sort that "exists" in computers but its effects bleed into the world. To kill it you need to find the server on which it lives - on which the remnants of the data it's "eaten" can be found - like a phylactery of sorts.
I would think it eating "fake" info it thinks is real would be a way of poisoning it, making it vulnerable and distracted - as it can't translate the negativity anywhere.
Shadowrun has a good take on the building horror you have - the Yama Kings. They exist in Hong Kong and basically drain all the positive Chi from a place. Your building horror could be some form of "living building" that is decaying due to negative feedback perhaps? Like the Amityville house but translated to a malevolent skyscraper.
Or a corporation that is actually a hive mind of sorts - you work there it really DOES eat your soul.
A creature that lives in the subway and preys on late night commuters - by replacing one of the carriages with what looks like a full carriage to everyone else, but an empty one to its intended prey. And when they get in, they are yanked away once the train is in a tunnel.
From what I've researched, mythical creatures tend to arise for two reasons. For one, people occasionally stumble onto ancient remains of long-forgotten beasts, or encounter diseased or mutant living critters. For instance, cats with two tails or even wings (skin flaps anyway) are rare, but still a documented fact. It's just that the modern mass communication environment doesn't allow for the creative exaggeration where such grains of truth grow wild as the story is passed on.
The other reason for myths is to explain visible yet barely researched events, even cosmogonic phenomena. Mountains being the remains of stone giants, tides being caused by underwater monsters, and so forth. Again, mass communication and the scientific method tend to deflate any creative efforts, to the point where modern "myths" have to be built on the explicit stance that science is wrong, governments are evil and deceptive etc.
To that effect, modern mythological creatures can be considered the various aliens, ancient or otherwise, evil lizard people controlling the world, maybe indeed self-aware artificial intelligence hiding in the web. The essense of such matters is that what is seen is negligible compared to what is heard, yet the idea itself is still emotionally affecting enough for the possibility to not be discounted entirely.
Being a Robert Howard fan, my own contributions would be strange monsters living in the oceans, caves and jungles of the world, where mysteries still exist for those brave enough to find them. Or foolish enough to disturb them. As Two-Gun Bob himself said, man was not always master of this world... and is he now?
edited 12th Dec '17 9:37:32 AM by indiana404
Brenner's Wolves Fight Again
How about Jurassic Park "dinosaurs?"
Where there's life, there's hope.
Myths are ways of explaining the world that we interact with and struggle with everyday. What would the creatures of today look like? Candyman gives a good example but what about others? I am try to keep the story based in a city but any ideas are welcome. I have a few: The Man-Rat: a conglomerate humanoid being that is simply a mass of rats. As long as it resides in the building you will never be able to be free of rats. As you approach it's lair the rats become more aggressive and organized. You can finally tell how far you are on the final stretch by how much you itch. How do you kill it? I don't have a way just yet. This being could symbolize the ever pervasive presence of rats in modern cities. Drop Ceiling Snatcher: A giant cockroach that ambushes it's prey with large barbed mantis style arms. It likes to hide in dark moist areas. Light drives it off but you might not want to corner it.