Travelers I call upon you now to travel beyond the boundary to where the new faces the old. To a land where the hero may have one shoe but the monster you seek is in fact two. Watch for reflections in the north and remember the great god is dead.

Today I share with you: Monarchs Factory!

Okay okay so, this one has been a long time coming. I just have to start with Monarchs Factory is genuinely my favorite Youtube channel. I’ve been a fan for oh goodness I don’t even know how many years at this point. It’s a lot though. But why you may ask. Favorite is quite the word especially when there is so much cool stuff out there. Well! I shall GLADLY tell you. Just look at the channel. Look at the topics covered. There’s Dungeons and Dragons, there’s mythology, there’s quiz shows, there’s cooking, there’s even horror! By horror I mean the audience watching in horror any time the KNIFE comes out.

I’ve always been fascinated by myths and legends. Who would have guessed? In middle school they’d occasionally give us time to go online and do research. I would immediately start trying to look up myths and legends. I wasn’t very good at finding information at the time so I mostly ended up reading variations of the same three or four. It was still fun though. More fun than my normal assignment. But while I do love to read, these stories truly shine when being told. After all, what’s a good story without an even better storyteller? Okay so the story would still be good and cool. But Dael genuinely makes listening to them even more fun. It just feels like she is genuinely excited about the story and having a good time sharing it with others and that just makes it so much more compelling. There’s charm, there’s personality, it’s just a great time. I can and have listened to these videos for hours on end.

All right so I’m sure many of you were hooked when I said Dungeons and Dragons right? But there’s so much in that topic, what niche does Dael tackle? Well Dael is notorious and beloved for her homebrewed creations. From fantastic rules for getting animal companions, to puzzle monsters (bring your special glasses everyone), and reminding us all that magics like necromancy can be for the heroes too. In true Monarch’s fan fashion have I used any of her creations directly? Nope. But they’ve inspired me to make my own. To delve into whatever niche little thoughts I wanted to include in my game and to write it down and try and use it in my games. I 100% blame and thank Dael for turning me into someone who is constantly tweaking monsters because I think they could be even cooler.

Could I keep going on? Talk about her guest appearances on things like MCDM and Winterstales? The infamous Halloween videos? And more?! Yes. Absolutely. But I think I’ll end this with the most important fact. Dael is one of the people that directly inspired me to start this blog. So if you’ve enjoyed any of my posts and in the crazy event you look forward to more, you can thank Dael for this existing at all.

As always we will see you next time.

Onwards to adventure!

• CozyPandaDragon