I've wanted to ask for a while about the creatures that much haven't shown up in RATC yet. I love the cast we have, but that's a lot of Bokoblins. Kobb, Amber, Starenday, Abacus, Hisstin, Fennel, that one at the stable whose name escapes me at the moment...
Yet there's no Keese, Octoroks, Froxes, Constructs, Talus and Pebblits, Evermeans, we haven't really seen too much of the Guardians, the Satori and Bubbulfrogs, literally all the Stalmonsters... there could be SO MUCH LORE with the Stals. Maybe they're the animate remains of actual fallen monsters as a kind of holdover until the blood moon can properly resurrect them? (That silver that Zayl shot back for revenge? The rest of Kobb's group? AMBERRRR?)
Are there any plans in the works for them?
Sorry for the late reply, was still recovering from surgery and I'm finally at a point where I can sit at my desk for longer than an hour jhalhfkjsd
But the short answer is: there's going to be monsters that won't be getting a major spotlight like the main group, and that's okay.
When going into writing major plot threads I don't ask myself "am I going to incorporate every little piece of the Zelda lore and characters that I possibly can?". Instead I ask "will adding this allow me to create a more compelling narrative without diverting too much from the main story?"
Don't get me wrong, I like lore. But the story I am telling with my characters will always be the #1 priority and also what I consider the most when thinking of what monsters to really include.
Which is why I've focused so heavily on the more anthropomorphic monsters in the first place. A lot of the other ones I've sort of glossed over more feel far more animalistic/instinctual if that makes sense. In how they're presented to us in-game the Bokoblins and Moblins and Lizalfos and Wizzrobes have far more anthropomorphic behavior with their camps and battlements and how they interact with each other and whatnot.
Really, the reason I picked the main four monster species as the focus is because they have a very striking similarity to other fictional fantasy races. Bokoblins and Moblins are very much a sort of stand-in for goblins and orcs, Lizalfos harken back to fantasy lizardfolk like Argonians, Wizzrobes as the sort of magical imp-like creatures, etc.
A big reason there's so many Bokoblin characters is by design. It's meant to challenge the notion of "there's always a FUCK ton of goblins in every fantasy setting and they're all 1HP cannon fodder". It's why I LOVE Starenday's introduction chapter so much because that's when it realizes that its perceived weakness was a literal façade set up by The Calamity to keep them despondent and docile from defection. Because they're forcibly sent back to the Malice upon the slightest injury this narrative of "1HP goblin" is entirely fabricated - just like how often that very same narrative in other traditional fantasies write goblins as these "weaker" creatures that the protags can slaughter by the dozens. I don't think this narrative point would hit as hard if there weren't so many Bokoblin characters that have tangibly PROVEN how unbelievably strong they can be after defecting from the Malice.
And out of all the ToTK enemies, Horriblins I saw as like.......striking gold (literally) as they're designed as a sort of cave-dwelling miner mole-ish monster is also quite common in fantasy and I could find so many juicy narratives to spin off of their major inclusion into the story.
Which is why I devoted so much time to Recksin as I saw a very compelling story I could tell with it, that being this sort of "invisible underclass" that militaristic structures both horribly repress and completely rely on to keep feeding their hunger.
The Stal as is I've felt are a sufficient...darkness lingering in the peripherals given the stakes I've set. They're essentially the logical end-point to The Calamity's cruelty, a deeper layer of torment and hell. It is the ultimate depersonalization, the stripping of the flesh and the skin and the mind to turn a sentient being into one that only exists for war and violence: a perfect soldier.
And as for the other monsters you mentioned, what Ganondorf talks about Moldugas is how I set up the more animal-like of the monsters.
With a hefty slap on the hide, the Molduga came back to its frenzied senses, roared, and took off like an arrow towards the south. The rumbling of the ground quieted as the battered dorsal fin shrank before disappearing with a puff of sand. The rippling of the ground could still be seen - nobody moving a muscle until it disappeared in the infinite desert horizon. Ganondorf turned to Link, his back still firmly planted in a small dune. "We could once tame those," he said in his deep soothing voice, "We could ride them as effortlessly as the seals. Now, the Malice only brings them to rampage. Another piece of our culture lost to my curse - surely out of spite." Slowly, Ganondorf walked over to Link, his eyes still drifting towards the south. "While they were still wild and feral without the Malice, they're victims of Demise all the same. Perhaps give as much pity to them as the others, hmm?"
I do have plans to expand on this somewhat with a few of the monster species you mentioned, but which ones I choose ultimately ends with what I think fits the narrative best.
Like I hate to shoot down any ideas, but I also don't wanna feed the expectation that I'll be covering EVERYTHING lmao
But thanks for asking! 💙💙💙