/lit/ - Literature

>>23270978
>Does capeshit work in a premodern society or does it need the spectacle of mass communication

I think without 'modernity' capeshit falls back into an almost bronze-age style 'Age of Demigods & Heroes' or something resembling the Chinese Wuxia and Martial artists. Crack open a book about old myths and legends from Ancient Greece, Japan, or in Hindu Scripture, and you'll get stories that read like cape comics - power leveling, larger-than-life characters punching mountains, constant sexual dramas, people dying and being brought back to life because they're too popular to die. A lot of what we view as capeshit is capeshit because it's rooted in modern sensibilities and tropes: brandable outfits, secret identities, antagonism or cooperation with the government, industrial/nuclear mutation, and aliens.

>>23272368
>>23268592

Different Anon with the same problem: I went with the classics, "Bugs, Plants, Slimes, and Rats" for several very good reason.
-All of them start out small, mature quickly, and reproduce frequently. All traits that allow them to easily slip into normally developed or defended areas and have them reasonably colonize places other more immediately threatening monsters/enemies would never have access to. It's kind of the idea that a carnivorous plant spore or seed could waft in, grow undisturbed, and by the time its' 'recognizable' it's already ready to reproduce AND kill.
-They all have the potential to be mindlessly aggressive/antagonistic; dangerous to small livestock, children, and pets, but it'd be within reasonable expectations for a normal healthy adult to be capable of killing several with a garden tool. An ant the size of a beagle is quite intimidating, and certainly dangerous, but if you're brave you could easily bash it with a shovel.
-Grounded ecology. None of these creatures need anything fancy or elaborate to proliferate: Rats will eat the straw in people's houses and their dried goods until they're the size of a dog and aren't afraid to kill your chickens or a sheep. Slimes live off the most rudimentary organic matter: algae, scum, feces, even leather, and turn it into gallons of acidic slime.

They're also all unintelligent and difficult to sympathize or generate stupid moral/ethical dilemmas about (the Rats are a possible exception).