I’ve been working with random generation (courtesy of Gammadyne’s Random Word Generator) for almost three years now, and have to say it’s a nifty tool for generating both imaginary languages and imaginary names for people, places, and things. But now there’s another way to generate the latter: neural networks.
A neural network, basically, is a self-learning computing system, by which definition it also can be called an AI (artificial intelligence.) It operates by utilizing a series of algorithms that recognize relationships throughout a set of given data. In this way, it mimics the way the human mind itself learns, by considering examples. By reading a chapter of The Hobbit, for example, the network gradually “learns” that hobbits are small, have hairy feet, and like to eat; when asked to write a sentence containing the word hobbit, it is then likely to generate these characteristics. Of course, there are other data sets, like pictures, stock information, and the like; but for my purposes, I’m going to stick to text, specifically fiction.
Janelle Shane of Aiweirdness.com is an experimenter of this new system of learning and creation, generating things likely, unlikely, and hilarious, as in Fruit Fly Types and Recipes . In an eerie synchronicity, she’s also created apple types and candles as I have. (The tiny cartoons accompanying the blog are hilarious too.)
There are more than a few online neural networks that will finish a line of text for you, or a list, so it is to Adam Daniel King’s Talktotransformer that I turned to see what would happen when I fed it a list of some of my legendary creatures, etc. This is a distillation of what popped up, edited for readability.
Mythic Creatures, remixed via talktotransformer.com
Foxflower: An enormous, cloud-like figure whose whole body is made of a myriad of small flowers. It can use this flower to create a portal.
Falician: A fair-skinned duck with a four-foot wingspan. It lives underwater and looks for weaklings who have lost a bet. Pronk: A bird with three pairs of large wings and a quill bill. Its flight is excellent even if it’s not supposed to be able to have a cheerful, enthusiastic personality. Wozzah: An enormous cyan bird with five wings and the head of a mole. It can absorb other animals’ magic to form barriers and bring them under its protection. This phrase was thrown out randomly by the network: Hetto: A black-winged serpent with arms and horns, possessing a cunning and evil personality. He teaches mortals to keep secrets in order to regain the power of fighting the Uryuom Tribe, a warlike monster tribe. Asciolach: A tiny alligator with a detachable shell. It was said to be so cute that it would bring children back from the dead. Loxonta: A nearly-mammal-sized alligator with tentacles instead of feet. Its name means “imperceptible legs.” Vulpan: A crocodile that prowls in South America. Bacook: A giant sauropod-like dinosaur. It has a horn on its head. Blitzen: An armadillo that comes out of its shell. It only exists in the Nightmare Frontier. Razaryss: A purple nymph with golden scales that looks to be drinking wine. Vlad: An evil vampire with the appearance of an old man with a moustache. He wields two vampire bats on each hand, and is always winking at the player while being able to use Telekinesis and Darkness. Welthuzad: A white baby dragon who will fly around and land on the player. He is immune to teleportation. Gremlin: A little person who appears from time to time. Crazed Creepy Squirrel: This animal is always ready for a fight and generally evil. Its tail has a sharp spike that can puncture a two-inch steel helmet. To fight the creeper, stand in front of it and fight it with your fists, or whatever your favorite weapon might be. Although crazy in nature, it has a good heart. Ancient Crab: A huge giant crab from the ancient past. It uses its claws to fight off intruders. Interestingly, the clawed claw is one of the many bizarre man-made appendages in the Kajariki. Elukstee: A giant spider that bites many times before dying. A remnant from a time when the lands were hot. Smanlire: A pink fairy woman with a mallet for a right arm. She says things like “Hurry up and die!” Blightheart: A monster with an iron heart. This phrase was thrown out randomly by the network: Yuna: A witch with a magical lamp to make a person or thing bright, on which it often smiles. Mito: A fairy with magical powers of gathering (the) spirits of trees. Buan: A winged monkey that rides on the back of a white gazelle and can grow to the size of a car. Charlie: A monkey who is able to breathe fire and double as a smite attacker. Bolorix: He is an overgrown starfish with four arms whose jaw has become ragged and toothless. He boasts long, sharp teeth that may have once been used to tear flesh from bone, and a pointed tongue with a pink stem and two rough barbels. (Bolorix is) usually playful and can’t be reasoned with, so make sure you have a good reason to calm him down before taming him. Flame Ball: They are small, easy-going, and don’t eat. Giant Tortoise: This giant tortoise is a very large form that can now be found everywhere in the wild. They’re smaller than Thunder lizards, but can still rival most other large reptiles. Garorniel the Pugilist: An intelligent bird known for its unusual species of bird meat called pugilises. The neural network generated this list of three related creatures. The Elderlings: Forest Booger: A small goblin king that follows an animal spirit of trees. Sea Booger: A large and fat bird that often lands on the ground and rests on its belly, which it eats. Snowball Booger: A small, withered, round cap mushroom that is generally pinkish with brown-tinted, anthracian markings which differ from each other with the oocytes, a gray to red mucilaginous type of cellular debris, and a reddish texture. It has many lobes and has a rough surface. It has no spines and resembles a luscious, tender, pink-capped, round-cap (limbumeum or trumpetfruiting.) Bugbear Larvae: A dark brown-skinned horde of greenish-black insects. Bites: A type of maggot found on infected corpses, resembling a tree-creeper. Blob: The growth of a mussel-like creature that appears as an irregular pile of about one hundred creamy-white spongy masses. Bloaters: Tiny grey-green blood-like fluids, possessed of high toxicity. Some mercenaries carry them. On a later visit it seemed to create some blurbs for a MUD. Find the nest of Xerxes! Azurian Codex: The Book of Death. Azur is a series of Aesculapian-crazed cities. Verdend: A frightening, demonic creature that dwells in the Western Highlands. It also speaks in riddles that are meant to terrify. Veldin: A powerful and skillful pariah among the Giant Snakes of Eldrich Keep. Vergelith: A blue, smoke-bellied serpent. Plankton: A sort of leech-like corruption of the sea that sometimes can be found in various levels of Lake Idria. Monsoon Pod (Iridium larva) Every once in a while it threw out a related item like this one. Hecate’s Hall: The place where the old gods used to live. The orbs have not been recovered yet, so don’t come looking for them. |