Sand Worm: Difference between revisions

 

 

''"Usul, we have wormsign [[Blasphemous Boast|the likes of which even God has never seen]]."''|Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune]]''}}

 

 

Scaled-up versions of real-life worms, these beasties tunnel through sand and dirt, being halted only by rocky terrain or artificial ground, though often enough they can force their way through that as well. They generally have no eyes or ears, rather detecting vibrations through their bodies. Beyond these basic traits, even the most incidental similarity to real creatures ceases. Sandworms are big, typically ranging between man-sized and resembling something like a moving mountain. They seem to be carnivorous, since they tend to go out of their way to attack and eat anything trudging upon the surface, either leaping without warning to swallow the prey whole or approaching with a [[Worm Sign|telltale furrow of disturbed earth]], depending on whether the writers want to give the target a chance to run away. Arguably, they could just be really, really territorial. Aside from the worm-like shape, these monsters are also recognizable by their mouths: they're always either completely round or trifurcated, lined with rows of teeth, and with long tentacular tongues, the better to grab you by the feet and reel you in.

 

 

* In the original ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Knuckles the Echidna]]'' mini-series, Knuckles encountered a sand worm in the Floating Island's desert, Sandopolis Zone.

** ...which is never encountered in ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic (3) & Knuckles]]'''s version of Sandopolis Zone, unless you count the caterpillar-like enemies.

== Films ==

* ''[[Tremors]]'' reinvented the trope to drastic degrees. Indeed, the Graboids weren't really wormlike at all except in basic principles, and asserted the predatorial habits that have made Sandworms the monster-movie favorite they are now. (actually, there were precursors- a few [[Godzilla]] enemies come to mind- but they had smaller budgets and no [[Kevin Bacon]])

* The ''[[Dune]]'' film by [[David Lynch]] helped codify their typical appearance. They're also a [[Fantastic Cavalry]].

* ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', where the ''Millennium Falcon'' lands ''inside'' one - well, inside of an Asteroid Worm - and barely escapes.

* ''[[Beetlejuice]]'' was taken out by one of another iconic Sandworm species that lived on Saturn. These had white-and-black stripes and one mouth inside another- compare the xenomorphs of the ''[[Alien]]'' movies.

* The Jags from ''[[Vexille]]''. METAL sandworms. Gigantic tubular rotating masses of scrap (bio)metal.

* Subverted in the third book of [[John Varley]]'s [[Gaea Trilogy]]. Yes, there is a giant sand worm; Gaea herself has created and placed it, no doubt directly inspired by Earth fiction. It's miles long, it's probably hungry (it has ''turned'' the original landscape into the desert it is now)...and it moves so slowly that it's basically just a living terrain feature. Some of the passing humans cut graffiti into its skin.

* Diggles in [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Xanth]]'' series are giant worms that could phase through solid rock and literally worked for a song.

** They exist in canon. The skeleton of one can be seen when C3-PO is alone on Tatooine.

 

 

 

== Mythology ==

* Inuit folklore held that the dead mammoths they sometimes found embedded in the permafrost were burrowing creatures that died instantly upon contact with air.

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** The iconic Purple Worm, which looks very much like a sandworm from [[Tremors]], including the mouth parts, but lives underground and tunnels through solid rock, leaving tunnels similar to the Horta from ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|The Devil In The Dark]]''. It hunts by sensing tremors of moving creatures which touch the ground, so flying is advised. Oh, and they're purple, covered in slime, and pictures of them have [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|inspired a lot of eye-rolling]] from gamers. One of the monsters that would go beyond the game's PG-13 rating, if parents didn't pretend they hadn't seen ''it''. In recent editions, the artwork has made more the worm more scaly and less.... suggestive.

*** In the Desert of Desolation series, Purple Worms (as well as a relative called the Thunderherder) could be found in the title desert.

* ''Talislanta'' has giant sand ''eels''. Same idea, different flavor-text.

* ''[[Deadlands]]'' has rattlers. No, [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|not those]]. Mojave rattlers are named for the noise a cowpoke's teeth make as they race toward him. Before taking one on, re-read that part about "varying intelligence" real careful: rattlers in different parts of the country even have different ''personalities'', implying at least the intelligence of a clever hunting animal. {{spoiler|They're [[Cosmic Horror|smarter]] than they seem, too. And they don't eat everyone they catch. [[Body Horror|What do they do with them...?]] }}

** "The Red Terror" was a relative of the Ravener species (snake or worm-like Tyranids) that had the ability to burrow its way onto the battlefield and swallow smaller enemies whole. The Red Terror was later removed from the playable creatures: the Raveners got its burrowing abilities.

** The Trygon is a giant version of the Ravener with all its burrowing abilities. Since Raveners were much too small for a proper Sand Worm, the Imperial Armour books introduced their giant form.

* In Yu-Gi-Oh, the Medusa Worm is a card that, when flip summoned, can destroy an opponents monster. You can then flip it back down so it can eat your opponents monsters again next turn.

* The Graveworm from ''[[GURPS]]: Creatures of the Night'' is an effectively harmless version of this. They're very easy to kill (literally, they have the "Easy To Kill" disadvantage) and have no real attacks but if people that spend to much time around a living one find their intelligence being drained away.

* ''[[Arkham Horror]]'', being [[Cthulhu Mythos]] [[The Board Game]], has dholes and cthonians as per the literature example above. In game terms, dholes are massive and incredibly powerful while cthonians can damage all the investigators by causing earthquakes.

* The CCG Guardians has a card called "The Great Ba'te" and it is one of the largest creatures in the game.

* ''[[Sands of Destruction]]'' has sand''whales''.

* So does [[Serious Sam|Serious Sam: BFE]].

** "[[Memetic Mutation|It's a GIANT WORM! They're sinking]] '''[[Memetic Mutation|cities]]''' [[Memetic Mutation|with a GIANT WORM]]!"

** It's also somewhat [[Handwaved]] as far as biology and physics go. It's supported by a skeleton, and doesn't seem to be carnivorous. Yes, some people get in its path, and are devoured with everything else, but it seems to eat minerals like a real worm.

* Lanmola, Moldorm, Molgera, and Twinmold in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]''.

** ''[[Twilight Princess]]'' sizes down the Sand Worms to a more reasonable size. ''[[The Wind Waker]]'' has both the aforementioned gargantuan Molgera, and its smaller offspring [[Mook Maker|that it likes to summon during the fight.]]

** ''Adventure of Link'' has sandworm-like creatures in desert-based [[Random Encounters]].

* [[Shadow of the Colossus|Dirge the Tenth Colossus]] is a giant sand worm. Except it hits you. At high speeds. [[That One Boss|And it's hard]]. Oh, yeah, it '''[[Giant Flyer|flies]]'''.

** Only metaphorically, of course. Phalanx the 13th Colossus is the giant worm that '''literally''' flies.

* A recurring enemy in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series. Probably the most memorable ones are in ''[[Final Fantasy V|V]]'', where its corpse provides a stable path across the desert, and ''[[Final Fantasy VI|VI]]'', where being eaten by a specific one on a specific island leads to a hidden dungeon and party member.

** A particular area of the overworld in ''[[Final Fantasy V|V]]'' has a winding path of greenery passing through the desert. Simply traveling across the desert is faster, but you run the risk of encountering these things, which will almost certainly kill you at that point of the game.

** The first time you face a Sand Worm in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', it has the most HP of any enemy you've faced thus far (and [[Boss in Mook Clothing|it's only a random encounter]]!). Fortunately, it's not ''too'' deadly, and it's vulnerable to attacks that remove fractions of the enemy's HP, so if you have some Shadow Gems lying around, you can make quick work of one.

** The [[Up to Eleven|Abyssal Worm]] in the [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] can be farmed for the very valuable items that allow you to exceed the 9999 damage cap. Unfortunately, they're located after the [[Point of No Return]].

* The pop culture reference-heavy ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has a quest that involves sandworm riding.

* ''[[Space Quest]]'' 1 used one of these to [[Border Patrol|prevent the player from venturing into the open desert]].

* ''[[Phantasy Star IV]]'' had these infesting the planet Motavia, with an enterprising farmer deciding to open a sandworm ranch. Unfortunately, it gets too big for its britches, and thus becomes one of the first ([[That One Boss|and hardest]]) [[Bonus Boss]] fights in the game at that point. You often fought baby Sandworms in [[Random Encounters]], and at least one variant, if you left a single one alive, would run off and summon [[Mama Bear|Mama]] (another full-sized one like the boss mentioned above). When you get the [[Tank Goodness|Land Rover]], one of the enemies you ran into was a [[Palette Swap]] of the Sandworm, while swaps of both the small and large kind could be found in the planet's oceans.

* The [[Bonus Boss]] of [[Gaia Online|zOMG]] shares its name with this trope's alternate title/humorous variation: Landshark. It is, quite literally, a shark that swims through (and appears to be made of) sand. Other than than its anatomy, it acts almost exactly like a sandworm, burrowing underground and eating unsuspecting Gaians.(It can kill a [[Power Levels|CL 10.0]] Player with multiple armor buffs and a health boost in 3 hits, and unbuffed players in [[One-Hit Kill|less than that]]. It took 3 6-Person Crews of CL 10 players to take it down. Plus the area it spawns in is usually filled with CL ''5'' players. No wonder tourism is hurting so much...)

* Great Wyrms in ''[[Master of Magic]]''.

* ''[[Overlord]]'' features giant sand worms in the later levels.

* The [[Pokémon]] Onix and Steelix may count.

** Also, Dunsparce.

* ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' 2 features Amorbis, a trio of Sand Worms, as the boss of Agon Wastes. [[Rule of Cool|They're both awesome and completely physics-defying]].

* ''[[Mabinogi (video game)|Mabinogi]]'' has two different types of these.

** A second type is called a "lungfish" (and looks vaguely like a real-life lungfish). Although the appearance is actually that of an eel-like fish, it acts like a straight sandworm, and is found in desert sand dunes.

* ''[[Gradius]] Gaiden'' has a snow worm as its first boss.

* ''Armageddon 2'', a map-pack for Skulltag, has a pair of these as bosses in the "Sand Worm Trench" level. They don't swallow people, just breathe fire at them (and are lanky, looking somewhat like snakes).

* ''Runescape'' has the Strykewyrms, which come in Jungle, Desert and Ice varieties. They're normally unagressive and can only be fought as a Slayer task.

* ''[[Darksiders]]'' has these in a desert called the Ashlands, with an even larger one as the boss of the area.

* The Subterranean in ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]: Dinosaur Hunter'' (N64).

* ''[[Time Splitters]]: Future Perfect'' has twenty-foot-long vicious dirt-worms in the backyard of the haunted mansion. The player gets to rescue a scientist who had taken refuge in a tree by defeating the worms with a flamethrower. The scientist also references ''[[Tremors]]'' by name, in keeping with the game being filled with movie [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]].

* The [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Hapurubokka]] from ''[[Monster Hunter]] Portable 3rd'' is a three-way cross between a sandworm, a sand shark and a submarine. It even has the distinctive "burst up vertically from the sand and eat something on the way" move.

* ''[[Bug!]]!'' had a [[That One Boss|really nasty]] swamp worm as the boss of [[Bubblegloop Swamp|Splot]].

* ''[[Heavy Weapon]]'' has the robotic Mechworm boss, fought in [[Shifting Sand Land|Antagonistan]]. It jumps out of the sand and spams missiles and bombs.

* ''[[Panzer Dragoon]]'' has plenty of examples; they make an especially prevalent appearance in the second level of the first game.

* [[EVO Search for Eden]] featured these in one level. Notably, they are the only invincible enemy in the game, fortunately they wouldn't attack you actively, though one might pop out of the ground under or in front of you. A later level featured sand-dwelling dinosaur-like creatures called Mosuchop which would jump out and bite you before retreating under the sand. (Real Moschops, the mammal-like reptile on which it was based, were not known to do this.)

[[Category:Alien Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]