What do I want my grendels to be?

What can be said about the grendels?

So far, grendels have been designed as and developed to be nuisances for the player and antagonists for norns and ettins. The trolls and dragons where the nornir would be mankind. Despite players seeking to develop them into something worthwhile to breed, they have remained mostly that.

They are generally considered to be hardier and somewhat more capable to remain alive than the norn, considering their home in the jungle terrarium/volcano, and the vast amount of disease they are commonly burdened with. Often their ability and willingness to fight is also considered an important part and use to them.

These things are known, as are their lizard like and somewhat monstrous looks. Not enough per se to answer my question.

So lets find their place in the lore. Their earliest iteration was “titanium spiders” in the creatures design mythos. They had no pleasant disposition towards norns, so little differed besides their looks. 

No real origin is given in the games, besides “failed” experiments. Grendels are born from a grendel mother at first though, and even less is said about this being. One theory I have heard about it is that the grendel mother is an experiment that eventually resulted in the egg layer machines and muco, producing a viable egg from genes. Presumably the grendel mother bungled the genes and produces a disfigured creature rather then the norns it was meant to make.

Very reasonable and credible, but only one theory. Another then, were they at all created by the shee? If the mythos guide is anything to go by, the shee were simply just an old race content with tinkering, not the mythical gods of creation. Grendels have a predatory physiology, despite their actual diet. Did they simply evolve in the jungles and marshes?

This might have been from an ancestor they have in common with the nornir, shee and ettins, considering how many genes they seem to share. If they are the result of natural selection they at a time must have been predatory, though this is no longer the case. Perhaps the shee modified them in an effort of preservation of both their own safety and the grendels themselves.

Anyway, it seems both in lore and gameplay the grendel is an antagonist, living for little more than to pose a threat to nornir. Even in the light of evolution it seems a predator is necessary, otherwise creatures have no need to fight or flight. Or perhaps even to move, doing so only to reach food.

Allright, there seems to be no doubt to me what they are and what use they have. But what do I want from them? I would like them to pose a broader threat, not only threatening creatures but also dispersing connected gadgets of the player, also temporarely disabling vendors and machines by hitting them. Dispersing eggs of course, and eating far beyond their need to deprive others.

In my preceding story, the grendels are unknowing psychics, their evil thoughts combining into a sort of combined entity, increasing in power as the number of grendels does.

Perhaps more bully behavior is possible, and specialised breeds could exist that would only overeat, or steal eggs and slay hatchlings?

What do you think? Do you have more theories on the grendels origin, or more evil acts to attribute to them? Let me know in the comments! Thank you for reading and have a good day!

-Gobbo