SO I WAS TALKING the other day about a possible cat allegory for the Hollow Knight world. It’s based off the real world thing where some species of burrowing tarantulas will keep tiny frogs under their protection because the frogs eat the ants that targets their eggs. So I ran with it, especially since my waifu said she’d be a tarantula tiny frog breeder in this universe.
So like cats, I imagine frogs domesticated themselves. Once bugs got together and started to farm and store food, it would ultimately attract pests looking for an easy meal. Frogs noticed the congregation of prey items and moved into these stone silos and store houses. There they would devastate pests because if you ever owned a frog, you know they will eat until they can barely move. Sapient bugs are much too big to be threatened by these frogs, so they allowed them to stay and do the work for them.
Eventually they started getting into houses and into rooms where larvae and eggs are kept. Feral bugs who usually would prey on these eggs and helpless young would find themselves getting pounced on and eaten before damage could be done. Again, said eggs and larvae are too big for these frogs to prey on. If they are smaller it was learned that by bonding with them, they’ll recognize who is and isn’t food in a short while. They aren’t too smart, but they are smart enough for that at least.
They became companion animals and also started to be professionally bred in a wide array of colors and gill patterns. Some are large, some are bred to fit into tea cups. A lot of these very fancy breeds were lost when Hallownest fell, but the hardier stock closer to their original ancestors fared very well. Many of them became strays and they didn’t realize much of a difference, save for not being pet so much. They still are primarily working animals.
If you want to know what they sound like when startled, here you go. They scream like budgett's frogs which is hilarious.
Design wise I combined them with cave salamanders to give them a more fantasy flair and give them the traits needed for a mostly wet cavern. They can also secrete a mucus that makes them immune to acid if properly fed.
I imagine that Hollow would love these and be a magnet for them and be covered in happy little frogs that scream if you try to remove them.
(BTW my pet frog is named Dio cause he’s a little bastard and he’s a Strawberry Pineapple morph pacman frog. I adore him.)
