General News - The History of Mimics

PCGamer takes a look at the history of mimics in videogames.

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Making a murderer

D&D co-creator Gary Gygax coined the mimics we all know and love (and see in our nightmares) in 1974. Three years later, he gave players a clearer picture of mimics with D&D's Monster Manual, but questions still needed answering. So, in 1983, Ed Greenwood-creator of D&D's Forgotten Realms campaign and many of its monsters-wrote The Ecology of the Mimic, which compiled information from scattered lore into one definitive bestiary. He also made up a lot of new details to fill in gaps in player understanding.

"That was and is the fun in D&D for me, making stuff up," Greenwood tells me over email. "In ways consistent with existing lore, so as to weave new portions of an existing tapestry."

Before the Ecology, mimics were just shapeshifting subterranean creatures that didn't like sunlight. Incredibly flexible hermits, basically. But Greenwood delved into everything from how mimics transform to what potions you can make from their innards (polymorph, obviously). He outlined the two basic types of mimics: big stupid killers and small intelligent fiends. He shared the story of one bold mimic which spent two years as a statue sat square in the middle of town, curiously near a sewer vein "filled to a depth of more than 60 feet with human and animal bones." It's no exaggeration to say he changed the face of mimics forever.

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