Theder

A theder (pronounced /ˈθiːdɚ/) is a member of a collection of life forms that shares some of the following characteristics:

• There are many disparate varieties (breeds), often with different powers
• Once captured or subdued, they are bound to service for their captor, or master (either by magical thelxis or simply by training)
• Captured theders can be somehow held in storage in reduced and portable form (sometimes, though not necessarily, in suspended animation)
• They grant powers even while in "stored" form (usually by enchantment of the storage item)
• They have the ability to advance into more powerful forms
• Interfertility exists between all (or most) breeds, regardless of size or form; or at least exists between large categories of otherwise dissimilar breeds

The first two criteria are common to all theders; the other criteria hold for many theders, but are not universal, and many theder strains follow some but not all of these criteria in varying combinations.

Different strains of theder are not necessarily related to each other; the term "theder" refers to a collection of traits that seem to have arisen independently on many worlds and planes. There are some entities in fact that may meet the first two criteria—and possibly the third and fourth—not due to any inherent property, but due to talismans, enchantments, or technology current on particular worlds, such that these creatures may qualify as theders on those worlds, but not on other worlds. Such creatures are sometimes referred to "circumstantial theders", or "extrinsic theders", as opposed to "intrinsic theders" which innately have these properties and thus could be considered theders on any world where they occur.

In any case, though, beings are not generally considered theders unless they are one of a large class of such beings, of which a given master may have a select assortment. Thus dogs or cats would not be considered theders, since they're each only one species (and the various breeds of dogs and cats are insufficiently different to make up different theder breeds). Nor would domestic animals collectively be considered theders, because aside from the fact that they've been domesticated they have little or nothing in common to warrant grouping them as a single strain. Even so, there is some subjectivity in the definition of the theder, particularly for extrinsic theders that only satisfy the first two criteria—entities that satisfy more criteria are more likely to be unambiguously considered theders.

It is commonly believed that the word "theder" derives from the word "thede", as the former is seen as a broader analogue of the latter—or, conversely, that "thede" originated as a an apocopation of "theder" for corresponding reasons. In fact, both these derivations are merely folk etymologies; while both terms come from Old English, they are otherwise unconnected etymologically. "Theder" comes from the Old English ðēowdēor, meaning roughly "servant beast", whereas "thede" comes from the unrelated ðēod, and the similarity of the two words is entirely coincidental.

Breeds

Each strain of theder comes in many different breeds. These breeds may or may not bear any cladistic relation to each other; some theder strains comprise a single common clade, but others encompass life forms from many different clades and perhaps from entirely different taxonomic universes, linked only by magical definition. Generally, each breed represents a distinct species, though there are cases in which multiple similar species are considered to compose a single breed, or, conversely, sufficient differences within a species may lead to its being divided into separate breeds. This may be the case, for instance, for species with a high level of sexual dimorphism; the divergent males and females may be considered different breeds. This is not, however, the only possible difference that could lead to multiple breeds within a species.

For some theder strains (or for some specific breeds within other strains), all individuals of a particular breed are aliters of each other, duplicates of a single individual. More commonly, however, each specimen is a unique individual, as similar and as dissimilar to others of its breed as are different members of any typical species to each other.

Singletons

There exist some unique theders that are sufficiently different from any other theders of their strain to be considered distinct breeds of their own, sometimes known as singletons. A few theder strains may, indeed, be composed entirely of such singleton breeds. More commonly, a few such breeds exist among many more numerous theder breeds. Singletons tend to be significantly more powerful than other theder breeds, although this isn't always the case.

Advancement

In many theder strains, theders may advance to more powerful forms under certain circumstances, drastically altering their shapes and abilities. For some strains (sometimes called linear strains), each breed follows a set advancement path, with no more than one other form it can advance into, and no more than one possible form that can advance into it. Often, however, a breed can advance into more than one form depending on the circumstances; the determining factor could be the means of advancement, the location, the time, or one of myriad other possibilities. Strains for which this is true are called ramal strains; such strains probably compose the majority of theder strains. Less often, there may also be more than one other breed that can advance to a given breed as well, leading to a chart of possible advancements that would resemble a web more than a set of lines or trees. A strain for which this is the case is called a retial strain.

What triggers the theder's advancement may vary by strain, and perhaps by breed within a strain. Sometimes the advancement simply happens after the theder has matured sufficiently, which may occur after a set amount of time or may depend on the theder's environment or experiences. Often advancement is triggered by victories in combat, especially against other theders, though the mechanism varies; it may be that the theder draws some sort of substance or stimulus from defeated opponents that it must accumulate to advance, or it may simply be that such triumphs release hormones in the winning theder that help fuel the advancement. Advancement may be triggered by special talismans, by certain enchanted locations, or by contact with particular other theders or otherwise innocuous objects. There are also henotic theders that advance not individually, but by uniting sets of individual theders of the same or different breeds into a single, more powerful new individual.

Whatever the triggering conditions may be for advancement, just because they have been met doesn't necessarily mean the theder will advance. There may also be inhibiting factors that impede advancement, in the presence of which the theder will not advance regardless of other conditions. For some strains, it's also possible for the theder to consciously resist advancement—or be prevented from advancing by its master.

For most strains, advancement goes one way; however difficult the advancement, once it has occurred it is irreversible. In some cases, however, it may be possible for advanced theders to revert to prior forms in the presence of certain stimuli, or if they fail to meet certain conditions. For instance, it may be that while the victor of a fight gains some substance that helps it toward advancement, its defeated opponent loses that substance, and if it loses enough will regress to its previous stage.

A theder breed that has no previous form it can advance from is called a germinal breed; one that cannot advance further is called a terminal breed. A breed that is both germinal and terminal, in a strain that includes other breeds that do advance, is called a monic breed. (Most singletons are monic.) It often happens that a breed formerly thought to be terminal turns out to be able to advance after all through previously unknown means. Less often, it also sometimes turns out that a breed previously thought to be germinal can in fact arise from the advancement of a previously unknown breed.

Binding

Though some kinds of circumstantial theder may be bound to service by no more than training, more often the bond between a theder and its master relies on something more supernatural. Often the means of binding also provides a means of calling on the bound theders without having them always physically accompanying their master, at least in their full form. Bound theders may be called from elsewhere, either from some shelter at their master's lair or perhaps from some erogative plane; in some cases the theder's location might be irrelevant, it being possible to summon them from wherever they might happen to be at the time.

In other cases, the theders may be bound into small, portable objects that their master can carry with them. These objects, called derlocks, can take many forms; they may be simple geometric shapes like spheres or cubes; they may resemble everyday objects like books or pins; they may have unusual forms like no other familiar objects. Some derlocks simply trap the theders physically within them in shrunken form; in other cases the theder is transformed to some less tangible state of existence to be held within the derlock. Sometimes the theder is the derlock, reduced to a portable statuette or some other altered form.

How theders are bound depends on the strain—and, again, perhaps on the breed. Sometimes it is sufficient to touch the theder with the derlock, or even to point the derlock at it from a distance, although the theder may be able to resist captivity, in which case it may be necessary to weaken it before capture. In other cases, binding the derlock may require much more time and training. Some strains of theder may only be bindable through complex spells or paracarminical magics; in these cases, rather than masters generally binding theders on their own, there may be some mages that specialize in binding theders, and who sell those bound theders to others. For some strains, some characteristic of the master determines what theders he can bind (or some other factor of his relationship with the theders). It could be that only certain races are able to bind certain breeds of theder, or it may depend on astrological factors of the master's birth, or on the master's abilities or personality.

Service

Masters may have their theders serve them in many ways, depending on the master's proclivities, the theder's abilities, and perhaps some details of the binding. Many theders serve primarily as combatants, protecting their masters and fighting their enemies. Others may serve as manual labor, still others as simple pets or companions. Some theders with special faculties, however, may serve in more esoteric ways. Theders with pyrodamatic abilities may serve to heat the master's residence or cook his food; some rhypophagous theders may be useful to keep things clean.

Habitat

Some strains of theder—or theders on some worlds—may exist only in captivity, or in artificial environments. In other cases, however, theders can be found in the wild, filling roles similar to that of nontheders on other worlds. Theders may fill any typical ecological role: autotrophs, herbivores, predators, detrivores.

There are some worlds, in fact, where all, or nearly all, the fauna (and possibly a good chunk of the flora) consists of theders, either because they replaced the native life, because all the native life was turned into theders, or, because they're all the wildlife that ever existed there, having perhaps been created or imported to fill a formerly empty world, or having found their way into such a world themselves. Humans or other ellogous species may be the only non-theders among the fauna of such a thedry world—though it's not impossible that the world contains literally no life but theders, and that ellogous life is either nonexistent or composed of theders itself.

Society

How theders and their masters are regarded by society varies widely by world. On some worlds, particularly those in which theders are common, the binding and mastery of theders may be considered an everyday part of life; in extreme cases, almost everyone may be expected to have a few theders of his own. In other cases, theders may not play much of a part in mainstream society, but those who deal with them may compose a thriving subculture. Sometimes, particularly where theders are rarer, masters of theders are looked upon with respect and awe.

Attitudes toward theders and their masters are not always so positive, however. On some worlds, theders may be seen as demonic, and those who bind and command them as depraved and evil. On others, while not necessarily thought of as quite so thoroughly malevolent, they may be feared and shunned. And on some worlds, they may be simply unknown, their binders and masters keeping their activities and the theders' very existence a secret.

Reproduction

Many theders reproduce the same as any regular organism, procreating and producing young normally. Generally, in the case of amonic breeds, the young will belong to the (or a) germinal breed of their lines, though this isn't always the case. As with other organisms, some theder breeds may reproduce parthenogenetically or through budding or other means.

Not all theders are capable of reproduction through these methods, however, and even some that are are also capable of reproduction through other means. In some cases, the derlocks can be used to create new theders by various means. In others, theders may arise through spontaneous generation, perhaps due to some rhegus on a certain area. In still other cases, there may be methods of transforming other life forms into theders. There have even been rare accounts of ellogous beings being transformed into theders and pressed into service of masters.

In fiction

Theders are much more common in video games than in other media. By far the best known fictional strain of theders is Pokémon, from the eponymous game franchise, followed by the Digimon franchise at a distant second. In fact, so closely associated are these two franchises with the concept that Terran fans often refer to theders in general as "mons" (/mɒn/), after the shared suffix (which itself is short for "monster"... "Pokémon" and "Digimon" are short for "pocket monster" and "digital monster", respectively). While Pokémon did slightly predate Digimon (the first Pokémon game was released in 1996, the first Digimon "digital pet" in 1997), the earlier CRPG Shin Megami Tensei (released in October 1992) had a monster-collecting mechanic that somewhat prefigured it, as did the even (slightly) earlier Dragon Quest V (released in September 1992). Still, Pokémon was the first game franchise to be centered around the concept from the start, and in any case, according to Pokémon's creator Satoshi Tajiri, it wasn't a monster-collecting mechanism in earlier games that inspired Pokémon, but rather Tajiri's hobby of insect collecting, so any resemblance to the implementation in these earlier games seems to have been merely paranoematic.

Many later games borrowed the monster-collection idea, such as Monster Rancher, Medabots, and Robopon. Theders also appeared in some non-video games, such as the collectible card game Magi-Nation Duel and the card and toy game Bakugan (actually developed in conjunction with an anime, but released prior to the anime's debut). The "virtual pets" of many virtual pet sites such as Neopets and Moshi Monsters may also be considered theders.

Despite their current prevalence in games, theders rarely if ever appeared in literature or film, not counting literature and films based on said games. Some examples of fictional theder strains that originated in media other than video games are Fighting Foodons (which began as a manga series later made into an anime), Duel Masters (which began as a manga and later gave rise to a collectible card game and anime), and Yu-Gi-Oh! (which also began as a manga but later spawned several animes and video games and a collectible card game). Independent of any company, some amateurs have invented their own strains of theders just for fun, often starting out by creating "Fakemon" (fan-created Pokémon) but later deciding to come up with their own whole systems. Among the most ambitious of these fan projects is Mortasheen, a fictive world created by Jonathon "Bogleech" Wojcik populated by a myriad of intentionally grotesque and disturbing monsters that "Keepers" can collect and use. (Wojcik originally thought of Mortasheen as a concept for a video game, but had no firm plans for getting such a game actually made.)