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Description
Entity SEKHMET (AKA DAIGORO)
First Sighting: Libya, 1978
Size: Adult reaches 75 metres in height
Weight: Adult weighs 38 000 tonnes

History: By large, almost all major kaiju activity since the emergence of Godzilla into the late 70s had occurred near or within territories of the Pacific Rim (information about Rodans' initial attack was heavily censored by the Soviet government at this time). As such, what was considered a major issue for countries occupying the region, particularly those of East Asia, was considered a foreign oddity to those that lived in regions far from the area; terrible happenings for sure, but nothing to be concerned about on a personal level. However, this outward public opinion was not shared by those few in the know, those which had thrown their lives towards research of this vast new frontier of biology, Monarch, the AMF, G-Force, and the highest echelons of certain national governments in contact with these organizations. Kaiju were a global threat, and it was not the monsters that dwelt beneath the human world, but mankind who scurried on the surface of a slumbering monster planet, one that was beginning to stir. It was the securing of such earth-shaking knowledge that was something both sides of the Cold War could agree upon, the idea that all of humanity could be snuffed out not only by their own hand, but by a force of nature more ancient and powerful than any atom bomb could not be one that would permeate. But the cost of secrets would be a steep one, and a secret as unfathomably vast as this would find its way into common knowledge over time one way or another.

In mid-1978, archaeologist Lawrence Cohen was in the midst of an extraordinary private expedition involving an ancient temple complex which had been exposed from underground by a recent earthquake. Cohen believed this temple to belong to an extinct Afrasian civilization known as the Kilaak once spread wide across Saharan Africa and parts of the Middle East approximately nineteen-thousand years ago, when the region was still vegetated and fertile, and he believed to be the precursors to the later Egyptian and Sumerian kingdoms, a fringe theory that they were much more than primitive nomads. The Kilaak suddenly fell to ruin approximately thirteen-thousand years ago, leaving behind almost nothing to suggest they existed, and this sunken pyramid superstructure would prove to the archaeological world that they were much more advanced than any previous discoveries ever suggested. History before history was etched across cracked walls stretching into untold depths and wrapped around shattered pillars that once surely towered hundreds of feet high, chronicles of a mythos that had been lost since the last ice age. But there was one which still inhabited this crumbling monument within one of the largest chambers. Discovered huddled upon what once might have been a sacrificial altar was a huge beast awakened from its slumber by the expedition.

However, rather than being immediately hostile, it regarded the humans curiously. Over a period of several weeks, Cohen and his group gradually accumulated the animal to their presence and discovered it was both quite intelligent and exceptionally docile, naming it “Daigoro”. Realizing that he had an extraordinary discovery in form of a living specimen, something which would capture the public’s attention much more easily than any dusty artifact, Cohen and the expedition lured Daigoro out of its lair and onto a transport vessel so he could be exhibited at the World’s Fair that year in Barcelona for Western civilization to marvel upon. The scientific world flock for the opportunity to study a captive kaiju, while the viewing throngs would surely be enthralled by the sight of this mighty creature. The living god-beast of the prehistoric Kilaak Empire!

Getting the twelve-metre beast onto a ship and ferrying the animal across the Mediterranean without arousing suspicion was no easy task, but Daigoro almost seemed to go into a comatose state as he was transported, only occasionally emitting a soft chirping. Sure enough, the animal drew in crowds of countless thousands as word of a “monster captured from the prehistoric wastes” reached the headlines, as well as catching the attention of Monarch, shocked that such an event occurred under their nose. Quickly tracking down Cohen at the World’s Fair, he assured them the animal was tame and that he had captured it peacefully. However, from observation of Daigoro and Cohen’s documentation and photographs of the site, Monarch quickly determined something which had not been considered. The ruins of the Kilaak were ancient, but they clearly worshipped the superspecies millennia ago; however, based on his body proportions and passive behaviour, Daigoro was actually only in infancy. Hasty radiocarbon-dating of one of Daigoro’s scales at a nearby lab indicated the kaiju was perhaps a few decades old at best. Also based on Daigoro’s passive and even clumsy behaviour, it was likely that he was still under the care of his adult parent(s). While these were hasty speculations, Monarch argued the evidence was sufficient for shipping the animal out as soon as possible.

This assumption was unfortunately proven correct the very next evening as Monarch was pensioning to have Daigoro returned to his place of origin, when a colossal horned beast arose from the coast and tore its way in from the city’s port. It didn’t take a team of kaiju biologists to know what it had come for. Thousands trampled over each other in crowds that flooded the streets to get out of the way of the immense beast than the kaiju itself as it made its way in from the shore towards the World’s Fair, paying little regard to the trail of terror it left in its wake. Soon, a wall of fire erupted from the fair as abandoned electrical equipment and unsecured open flames accumulated into a firestorm that would engulf several blocks. If anything, mass hysteria caused far more fatalities than the creature itself did, which did not waste time netting out destruction as with many other kaiju incursions, instead making a rapid beeline straight for its infant. Only as a battalion of fighter jets appeared to kill the two animals, and began blasting at the larger creature did it begin defending itself in extreme aggression. Retaliation was swift and brutal.

The extreme heat from the first and only blast that came out of its mouth nearly vaporized buildings around the animal and blew a column of flame that billowed nearly two-thousand feet high, blasting all of the planes out of the air in a single blow. With a sweep of its head, the adult Daigoro flattened several city blocks around it under a billowing, white-hot inferno, so scalding that buildings further away spontaneously combusted from the superheated air, so forceful that melted vehicles and chunks of molten debris were blasted hundreds of metres up and out by the attack to rain down like meteors. The narrow streets funnelled the waves of heat, torching dozens of buildings, and destroying countless more from the rush of air pressure. With a powerful roar, a dense cloud of steam exploded from its body, rapidly expanding out over two square kilometres. Under the cover of the artificial fog bank, the two Daigoro escaped back into the Mediterranean as reinforcements arrived from air and sea, leaving Barcelona to burn.

News spread quickly of the first public kaiju attack on a Western nation, and within hours, video footage of the massive blackened crater in the middle of downtown Barcelona where the creature had unleashed its flame breath broadcast for weeks on televisions across the globe, and the glow of lingering fires visible for miles; tens of millions of people on all six inhabited continents would know of the event before the day’s end, reigniting international fears of kaiju attack to a level not seen since Godzilla himself levelled Tokyo. As the two kaiju continued to dodge and strafe around a growing fleet of battleships from Spanish, Algerian, French, Portuguese, and Moroccan naval forces to prevent them from making landfall. Activity along the western Mediterranean ground to a halt as the operation was underway, and a roadblock was set up at the Strait of Gibraltar as the ships funnelled the Daigoro towards their extermination. At the same time, Monarch agents, using Cohen's information, retraced his steps to further investigate the Kilaak super-structure for further clues on Daigoro…

Description: Daigoro is generally classified as a “mammaloid” kaiju, a classification which may be polyphyletic. Mammaloid kaiju are usually believed to be highly derived non-mammalian therapsids that mutated into kaiju some time during the Permian, surviving in the subterranean biosphere since then, although an alternative hypothesis suggests they are from a branch descended from pseudo-saurian kaiju (convergently similar to true mammals evolving from reptile-like forms); in the event that the classification is actually polyphyletic, both hypotheses may be true. In any case, Daigoro is clearly an ancient species which had long since adapted to the unique geological conditions of the Hollow Earth. They are bio-terrestrial organisms, with mineralized dermal plates, silica-enriched hair, and metal-infused horns, claws, and teeth which allowed them to survive the hostile conditions, such as competition with other kaiju and burning temperatures. Despite evidence suggesting a relatively peaceful disposition for kaiju, Daigoro are built for battle from a young age and possess both close-range and long-range defences.

Primarily consuming igneous minerals and volcanic geo-flora, specialized enzymes and an incredibly high internal body temperature liquifies and digests this; they can be sustained for months on a single feeding session, but also produce large quantities of pressurized burning gases that are condensed and stored in a gizzard-like organ in concentrated liquidized form. When threatened, Daigoro are able to spew forth this as a burning-hot gas, which instantly expands and combusts in the air to form a billowing, flamethrower-like attack strong enough to melt rock from a hundred metres away and ejected with enough force to pulverize a city block into sand. This is their primarily method of long-range defence and at full strength, Daigoro can spit a stream of white-hot flame for up to a minute at a range of up to six-hundred metres before it runs out of fuel. As a last resort, if they happen to run out of fuel in the middle of a fight, they can regurgitate the molten contents of their stomach as a magma-like spray which has a more limited range and can damage the inner lining of the throat and mouth with repeated use. The kaiju’s rock-like armour plates and silica-enriched hairs protect its own body from the heat of its own fiery attacks, as well as, more obviously, strong physical attacks.

As Daigoro age, they grow long, curved horns, tusk-like teeth, and a large mane which extends from the back of the head and down the back. This mane is used both for intimidation (when threatened, the hair bristles and expands to appear larger) and as part of another type of specialized attack gained in adulthood. Daigoro are able to release excess body heat at once through their mane when it expands, causing significant thermal expansion that converts moisture in the air into steam (somewhat similar to Maguma’s abilities, although a bit more offensively utilized), potentially scalding enemies, providing cover in the dense, artificial cloud, and potentially igniting anything flammable within range. The escaping steam also billows out the kaiju’s mane, making the animal appear much larger and more intimidating than it already was. Young Daigoro lack this ability and appear clumsy with the ability of breathing fire, usually only producing short, brief bursts of flame at best. More often, they produce billowing ash clouds which likely act as camouflage similar to a squid’s ink to disguise their escape from predators, as they are much more vulnerable, with underdeveloped dermal armour and ability to fight back.

Much of their behaviour and ecological status is inferred through examination of Kilaak hieroglyphics and mega-fossils known from the surrounding region; it appears that despite formidable offensive capabilities, Daigoro only occupied a mid-tier rung among the kaiju ecosystem. The fossils of many indicated that their life was violent, and many died prematurely from predation by even more fearsome kaiju. They seem to have been social and once existed in symbiosis with the Kilaaks during their reign in a manner perhaps similar to the Iwi people and Kong and the Cosmos and Mothra, protecting them from less benign forces. Indeed, it seems that despite the aggressive first encounter with an adult Daigoro in modern times (dubbed Daigoro-mater), they are a normally docile kaiju species (relatively speaking), preferring to flee from significant threats if possible (further suggesting their status as a prey species), but defending themselves ferociously. Notes on the behaviour of the young Daigoro (dubbed Daigoro-filius) in captivity also suggest a strong intelligence, with the ability to recognize familiar humans, and with some prompting was able to learn tricks such as puffing out little smoke rings on command; perhaps the Kilaak would bond with Daigoro in youth and this bond would maintain into adulthood. Even long after the extinction of their human kin, Daigoro-mater had continued to dwell upon the site of a once proud civilization.

———

NEXT: The Old Gods

Description
Entity SEKHMET (AKA DAIGORO)
First Sighting: Libya, 1978
Size: Adult reaches 75 metres in height
Weight: Adult weighs 38 000 tonnes

History: By large, almost all major kaiju activity since the emergence of Godzilla into the late 70s had occurred near or within territories of the Pacific Rim (information about Rodans' initial attack was heavily censored by the Soviet government at this time). As such, what was considered a major issue for countries occupying the region, particularly those of East Asia, was considered a foreign oddity to those that lived in regions far from the area; terrible happenings for sure, but nothing to be concerned about on a personal level. However, this outward public opinion was not shared by those few in the know, those which had thrown their lives towards research of this vast new frontier of biology, Monarch, the AMF, G-Force, and the highest echelons of certain national governments in contact with these organizations. Kaiju were a global threat, and it was not the monsters that dwelt beneath the human world, but mankind who scurried on the surface of a slumbering monster planet, one that was beginning to stir. It was the securing of such earth-shaking knowledge that was something both sides of the Cold War could agree upon, the idea that all of humanity could be snuffed out not only by their own hand, but by a force of nature more ancient and powerful than any atom bomb could not be one that would permeate. But the cost of secrets would be a steep one, and a secret as unfathomably vast as this would find its way into common knowledge over time one way or another.

In mid-1978, archaeologist Lawrence Cohen was in the midst of an extraordinary private expedition involving an ancient temple complex which had been exposed from underground by a recent earthquake. Cohen believed this temple to belong to an extinct Afrasian civilization known as the Kilaak once spread wide across Saharan Africa and parts of the Middle East approximately nineteen-thousand years ago, when the region was still vegetated and fertile, and he believed to be the precursors to the later Egyptian and Sumerian kingdoms, a fringe theory that they were much more than primitive nomads. The Kilaak suddenly fell to ruin approximately thirteen-thousand years ago, leaving behind almost nothing to suggest they existed, and this sunken pyramid superstructure would prove to the archaeological world that they were much more advanced than any previous discoveries ever suggested. History before history was etched across cracked walls stretching into untold depths and wrapped around shattered pillars that once surely towered hundreds of feet high, chronicles of a mythos that had been lost since the last ice age. But there was one which still inhabited this crumbling monument within one of the largest chambers. Discovered huddled upon what once might have been a sacrificial altar was a huge beast awakened from its slumber by the expedition.

However, rather than being immediately hostile, it regarded the humans curiously. Over a period of several weeks, Cohen and his group gradually accumulated the animal to their presence and discovered it was both quite intelligent and exceptionally docile, naming it “Daigoro”. Realizing that he had an extraordinary discovery in form of a living specimen, something which would capture the public’s attention much more easily than any dusty artifact, Cohen and the expedition lured Daigoro out of its lair and onto a transport vessel so he could be exhibited at the World’s Fair that year in Barcelona for Western civilization to marvel upon. The scientific world flock for the opportunity to study a captive kaiju, while the viewing throngs would surely be enthralled by the sight of this mighty creature. The living god-beast of the prehistoric Kilaak Empire!

Getting the twelve-metre beast onto a ship and ferrying the animal across the Mediterranean without arousing suspicion was no easy task, but Daigoro almost seemed to go into a comatose state as he was transported, only occasionally emitting a soft chirping. Sure enough, the animal drew in crowds of countless thousands as word of a “monster captured from the prehistoric wastes” reached the headlines, as well as catching the attention of Monarch, shocked that such an event occurred under their nose. Quickly tracking down Cohen at the World’s Fair, he assured them the animal was tame and that he had captured it peacefully. However, from observation of Daigoro and Cohen’s documentation and photographs of the site, Monarch quickly determined something which had not been considered. The ruins of the Kilaak were ancient, but they clearly worshipped the superspecies millennia ago; however, based on his body proportions and passive behaviour, Daigoro was actually only in infancy. Hasty radiocarbon-dating of one of Daigoro’s scales at a nearby lab indicated the kaiju was perhaps a few decades old at best. Also based on Daigoro’s passive and even clumsy behaviour, it was likely that he was still under the care of his adult parent(s). While these were hasty speculations, Monarch argued the evidence was sufficient for shipping the animal out as soon as possible.

This assumption was unfortunately proven correct the very next evening as Monarch was pensioning to have Daigoro returned to his place of origin, when a colossal horned beast arose from the coast and tore its way in from the city’s port. It didn’t take a team of kaiju biologists to know what it had come for. Thousands trampled over each other in crowds that flooded the streets to get out of the way of the immense beast than the kaiju itself as it made its way in from the shore towards the World’s Fair, paying little regard to the trail of terror it left in its wake. Soon, a wall of fire erupted from the fair as abandoned electrical equipment and unsecured open flames accumulated into a firestorm that would engulf several blocks. If anything, mass hysteria caused far more fatalities than the creature itself did, which did not waste time netting out destruction as with many other kaiju incursions, instead making a rapid beeline straight for its infant. Only as a battalion of fighter jets appeared to kill the two animals, and began blasting at the larger creature did it begin defending itself in extreme aggression. Retaliation was swift and brutal.

The extreme heat from the first and only blast that came out of its mouth nearly vaporized buildings around the animal and blew a column of flame that billowed nearly two-thousand feet high, blasting all of the planes out of the air in a single blow. With a sweep of its head, the adult Daigoro flattened several city blocks around it under a billowing, white-hot inferno, so scalding that buildings further away spontaneously combusted from the superheated air, so forceful that melted vehicles and chunks of molten debris were blasted hundreds of metres up and out by the attack to rain down like meteors. The narrow streets funnelled the waves of heat, torching dozens of buildings, and destroying countless more from the rush of air pressure. With a powerful roar, a dense cloud of steam exploded from its body, rapidly expanding out over two square kilometres. Under the cover of the artificial fog bank, the two Daigoro escaped back into the Mediterranean as reinforcements arrived from air and sea, leaving Barcelona to burn.

News spread quickly of the first public kaiju attack on a Western nation, and within hours, video footage of the massive blackened crater in the middle of downtown Barcelona where the creature had unleashed its flame breath broadcast for weeks on televisions across the globe, and the glow of lingering fires visible for miles; tens of millions of people on all six inhabited continents would know of the event before the day’s end, reigniting international fears of kaiju attack to a level not seen since Godzilla himself levelled Tokyo. As the two kaiju continued to dodge and strafe around a growing fleet of battleships from Spanish, Algerian, French, Portuguese, and Moroccan naval forces to prevent them from making landfall. Activity along the western Mediterranean ground to a halt as the operation was underway, and a roadblock was set up at the Strait of Gibraltar as the ships funnelled the Daigoro towards their extermination. At the same time, Monarch agents, using Cohen's information, retraced his steps to further investigate the Kilaak super-structure for further clues on Daigoro…

Description: Daigoro is generally classified as a “mammaloid” kaiju, a classification which may be polyphyletic. Mammaloid kaiju are usually believed to be highly derived non-mammalian therapsids that mutated into kaiju some time during the Permian, surviving in the subterranean biosphere since then, although an alternative hypothesis suggests they are from a branch descended from pseudo-saurian kaiju (convergently similar to true mammals evolving from reptile-like forms); in the event that the classification is actually polyphyletic, both hypotheses may be true. In any case, Daigoro is clearly an ancient species which had long since adapted to the unique geological conditions of the Hollow Earth. They are bio-terrestrial organisms, with mineralized dermal plates, silica-enriched hair, and metal-infused horns, claws, and teeth which allowed them to survive the hostile conditions, such as competition with other kaiju and burning temperatures. Despite evidence suggesting a relatively peaceful disposition for kaiju, Daigoro are built for battle from a young age and possess both close-range and long-range defences.

Primarily consuming igneous minerals and volcanic geo-flora, specialized enzymes and an incredibly high internal body temperature liquifies and digests this; they can be sustained for months on a single feeding session, but also produce large quantities of pressurized burning gases that are condensed and stored in a gizzard-like organ in concentrated liquidized form. When threatened, Daigoro are able to spew forth this as a burning-hot gas, which instantly expands and combusts in the air to form a billowing, flamethrower-like attack strong enough to melt rock from a hundred metres away and ejected with enough force to pulverize a city block into sand. This is their primarily method of long-range defence and at full strength, Daigoro can spit a stream of white-hot flame for up to a minute at a range of up to six-hundred metres before it runs out of fuel. As a last resort, if they happen to run out of fuel in the middle of a fight, they can regurgitate the molten contents of their stomach as a magma-like spray which has a more limited range and can damage the inner lining of the throat and mouth with repeated use. The kaiju’s rock-like armour plates and silica-enriched hairs protect its own body from the heat of its own fiery attacks, as well as, more obviously, strong physical attacks.

As Daigoro age, they grow long, curved horns, tusk-like teeth, and a large mane which extends from the back of the head and down the back. This mane is used both for intimidation (when threatened, the hair bristles and expands to appear larger) and as part of another type of specialized attack gained in adulthood. Daigoro are able to release excess body heat at once through their mane when it expands, causing significant thermal expansion that converts moisture in the air into steam (somewhat similar to Maguma’s abilities, although a bit more offensively utilized), potentially scalding enemies, providing cover in the dense, artificial cloud, and potentially igniting anything flammable within range. The escaping steam also billows out the kaiju’s mane, making the animal appear much larger and more intimidating than it already was. Young Daigoro lack this ability and appear clumsy with the ability of breathing fire, usually only producing short, brief bursts of flame at best. More often, they produce billowing ash clouds which likely act as camouflage similar to a squid’s ink to disguise their escape from predators, as they are much more vulnerable, with underdeveloped dermal armour and ability to fight back.

Much of their behaviour and ecological status is inferred through examination of Kilaak hieroglyphics and mega-fossils known from the surrounding region; it appears that despite formidable offensive capabilities, Daigoro only occupied a mid-tier rung among the kaiju ecosystem. The fossils of many indicated that their life was violent, and many died prematurely from predation by even more fearsome kaiju. They seem to have been social and once existed in symbiosis with the Kilaaks during their reign in a manner perhaps similar to the Iwi people and Kong and the Cosmos and Mothra, protecting them from less benign forces. Indeed, it seems that despite the aggressive first encounter with an adult Daigoro in modern times (dubbed Daigoro-mater), they are a normally docile kaiju species (relatively speaking), preferring to flee from significant threats if possible (further suggesting their status as a prey species), but defending themselves ferociously. Notes on the behaviour of the young Daigoro (dubbed Daigoro-filius) in captivity also suggest a strong intelligence, with the ability to recognize familiar humans, and with some prompting was able to learn tricks such as puffing out little smoke rings on command; perhaps the Kilaak would bond with Daigoro in youth and this bond would maintain into adulthood. Even long after the extinction of their human kin, Daigoro-mater had continued to dwell upon the site of a once proud civilization.

———

NEXT: The Old Gods