Moldogs [’mol-dag] are one of the most common species in The Bismuverse.

History and origin

General description

Moldogs are small, mammalian creatures that burrow in the ground. Their most notable feature is their ability to gather the terrain around them to use as a cloak for both camouflage and defense. No one has ever seen a Moldog outside of their cloak, as they get very agitated if someone tries to force them out of it. Most Moldogs’ cloaks are cubic, except for those from Moonrise, whose cloaks are spherical. Almost all Moldogs’ cloaks have vegetation growing out of them, except for those from The Rose Courts. Since Moldogs are animals inhabiting a mineral-based cloak with vegetation growing out of them, and because all three parts of their body interact together, they are one of the only species with no specific Ancestry.

Moldogs are one of the friendliest species in The Bismuverse. Non-sentient ones are very easy to tame, although they can get territorial if they perceive a threat.

Regional variants

Standard Moldogs appear in Amber Drop and Sunstone Meadow as a small creature hiding behind a patch of grassland. Their dirt cloak is brown and have roots popping out of them. Their grassy patch on top is green and shaggy and have some weeds and sprouts growing out of it.

Rare Goldogs hide in a patch of golden-yellow soil, from which Roses and their leaves grow. The vegetation on their head is darker and bluer compared to their Amberian counterparts. They wear pink-red roses on top, as well as their petals around them like a necklace. They also wear a light green rose vine around them as well. Leaves cover the holes their arms and feet emerge from. They wear rosewood on their feet as shoes, and vines and petals on their hands as rings.

Rosan Moldog Knights hide in a chunk of the floor of Diamond Dungeons. The top of their head is a checkered purple design, cracked and warped from the Moldog being inside. Its body is the floor and ground underneath, with a gradually darkening color, and cracks where its limbs protrude. There are vertical holes where its eye hole normally is. It wears rocky gloves and shoes and holds a makeshift sword made out of rock.

Moonrisian Moldogs are unique in that they are the only variant of Moldog that are spherical instead of cubic. They wear a cloak of sand around them with strips of seaweed going from their top to the bottom.

Traits and abilities

Development

Inspiration and Creation

Moldogs, alongside Sharcus were the first ever creatures and characters that Adam created for Star Guardians and Primitive Kingdom (series). The idea began when he played the computer game Turtix with his brother and noticed that in some areas of each level, there were holes in the ground with glowing eyes. His brother exclaimed that people were spying on them playing, and so Adam took that idea further and designed a creature who would hide in the ground to spy on passersby and jump out when they got close. These early ideas designs of Moldogs were first officially sketched when he was in third grade, in a notebook he kept for designs for characters and "villains" he would create. At this time, the name for these designs was simply "Spy."

As Adam made those designs of the "Spy" and the early designs for Sharcus (then called "Porcu"), he found that these would make great enemies for a platformer game similar to Turtix, the inspiration for these enemies in the first place. He had sketched, designed, and developed various concepts for a game called "P1's Adventure", which later became the precursor for Star Guardians (the installment and the series) and eventually Primitive Kingdom (series). Spies had become a staple of every installment of the P1 series, and versions of them made an appearance as an enemy in each one. When developing P1's Adventure, Adam hung onto the idea of Spies hiding in different terrains, and created a new design for each world of the game. This trend has since been carried over into later installments of P1, Star Guardians, and Primitive Kingdom.

Design

When Adam started designing 'P1 Enemies and Bosses' and Time Shock in 2010, about a year later, he made his first digital drawings of the Spy and its many variations. The design has since evolved but the basic premise had stayed the same: a creature inside a chunk of Earth with its limbs popping out and two interconnected circles as holes for their eyes.

Etymology

Moldogs continued to be called Spies until 2020, when Adam began taking his Star Guardians series more seriously (to the point where it became less of a pipe dream and more of a concept to actually realize). He determined they needed a catchier, more identifiable name, and the name "Moldog" suddenly appeared to him. Since then, Moldogs have been a staple of the Primitive Kingdom (series) series and have become the de facto mascot of Primitive Kingdom and perhaps his whole creative universe itself.

• English: Moldog comes from mole and dog
• French: Tauchin comes from taupe (mole) and chien (dog)

Profiles

Statistics

Primary sources

“Moldogs are dirt-dwelling animals that gather all the terrain that surrounds them to use as a hard, defensive cloak against predators. When any unsuspecting victim approaches their proximity, they sprout out of their hiding spot and take them by surprise. They are very friendly but become extremely agitated if anyone tries to look inside of their dirt cloaks or force them into a bath.”

When Moldogs inhabit more dank underground patches, they develop a harsher mentality than their aboveground counterparts. Not only does the physical environment affect how they act, but the sociocultural environment does so too. Since these Moldogs are exclusive to Fort Rose, they've developed themselves as unofficial knights to guard the dungeons.

Some Moldogs dwell by the beach of the ocean, where they may occasionally pick up random instruments to serenade passersby. Many of these types of Moldog musicians are self-taught and have become quite good at producing mellifluous music.

Gallery

![image.png|Profile (under original name of “Spy”) from Adam's DeviantArt

Trivia

• Moldog Knights are the only Moldog variants that have no vegetation growing out of their cloak, and as such, they are the only Moldog variants not to have an "Other" Ancestry.