WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: The Bog Octopus

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of

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<v Speaker 1>My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and

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<v Speaker 1>this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas,

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<v Speaker 1>and monsters in time. If you listen to enough nineties

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<v Speaker 1>industrial dance music, you'll come across an interesting track by

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<v Speaker 1>the German group by God twenty with vocals by Front

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<v Speaker 1>to forty two's Jean Luc Demayer. It's titled The Bog,

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<v Speaker 1>and within this infectious swamp of synth and drum machine beats,

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<v Speaker 1>the vocalist narrates a tale of a hunter pursuing ducks

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<v Speaker 1>at the edge of the fin quote no presence of foul.

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<v Speaker 1>The Finn is a desert, said a man of poise

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<v Speaker 1>with drawing voice. The grounds are alive and the wind

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<v Speaker 1>has dropped. The thin in is awakened and follows the steps.

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<v Speaker 1>Here we're told something is watching the hunter, and the

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<v Speaker 1>final stretch of the song details the tentacled horrors ravenous

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<v Speaker 1>thoughts as it drags the man down into the Bog.

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<v Speaker 1>The music video is also worth looking up. There aren't

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<v Speaker 1>really any tentacled monsters in it. Per se, but you

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<v Speaker 1>do get to see two brain guy looking men in robes,

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<v Speaker 1>ringing bells and sort of dancing about. I've long wondered

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<v Speaker 1>about this horror about though, where did it come from?

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<v Speaker 1>What inspired it? I haven't found anything in artist interviews

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<v Speaker 1>to suggest a definite direction here. While it might well

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<v Speaker 1>just be pure creative invention on by God twenties part,

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps inspired by weird tales and haunting rural environments, I've

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<v Speaker 1>also considered one I think strong possibility. So The Song

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<v Speaker 1>of the Bog came out in a few years earlier,

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<v Speaker 1>in six the first edition of games Workshops Warhammer Fantasy

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<v Speaker 1>role Play came out, featuring a creature profile for something

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<v Speaker 1>called a bog octopus, described as you guessed it, a

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<v Speaker 1>large octopus that lives in a bog quote. These creatures

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<v Speaker 1>live in the cold and forbidding marshes and bogs of

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<v Speaker 1>the Old World. Their entire lives are spent squelching, menacingly

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<v Speaker 1>around and stinking mud and quagmires, surfacing occasionally to drag

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<v Speaker 1>down and eat some passing creature. Living in such a

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<v Speaker 1>dense medium, they are incredibly strong, and once caught by

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<v Speaker 1>a tentacle, it is very hard for all but the

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<v Speaker 1>strongest creatures to escape, so could at least one of

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<v Speaker 1>the three members in by God twenty have been a

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<v Speaker 1>role playing fan. The creatures profile even includes special rules

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<v Speaker 1>for dragging key creatures into the bog with its tentacles,

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<v Speaker 1>and while the monster doesn't seem to have remained a

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<v Speaker 1>standard in the Warhammer universe, I can imagine how inspiring

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<v Speaker 1>this passage in mind have been. Now in the natural world,

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<v Speaker 1>bogs are full of biodiversity, but they are ultimately freshwater wetlands,

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<v Speaker 1>and the fact is that no freshwater octopuses or freshwater

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<v Speaker 1>cephalopods in general, are known to exist. What's more, they

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<v Speaker 1>likely never did exist either. A cephalopod expert and author

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<v Speaker 1>Mark Norman points out in a interview with Australia's ABC Science,

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<v Speaker 1>cephalopods likely never developed a sodium pump to allow for

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<v Speaker 1>osmotic change in freshwater environments, and even if they had,

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<v Speaker 1>they would have likely lost the ability due to the

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<v Speaker 1>tight economics of evolution. The cephalopod body is finely tuned

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<v Speaker 1>for survival in the marine environment. Of course, this hasn't

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<v Speaker 1>stopped crypto enthusiasts from reporting freshwater octopuses from time to time,

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<v Speaker 1>and it shouldn't stop us from enjoying some purely fictional

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<v Speaker 1>fantasy horror action as well. After are all. Even The

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<v Speaker 1>Lord of the Rings features an encounter with a fresh

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<v Speaker 1>water tentacled horror. The Watcher in the water quote out

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<v Speaker 1>from the water, a long, sinuous tentacle had crawled. It

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<v Speaker 1>was pale, green and luminous and wet. Its fingered end

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<v Speaker 1>had hold of Froto's foot and was dragging him into

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<v Speaker 1>the water. Maybe not quite a bog octopus, but close enough.

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<v Speaker 1>Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week.

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<v Speaker 1>As always, you can email us at contact and Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your

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