Obscure Monster Hunter Lore

(sources further down in this comment) 00:00 - Intro 02:37 - Regional Species 04:30 - Anjanath Cult 07:05 - Fire Nation 09:31 - Frontier 11:55 - Monster Recycling 14:57 - Guild Knights 17:30 - Outro Sources: MH3U Quest Descriptions MHW & MHR Armor Descriptions Hunter's Encyclopedia G, III, IV Monster Hunter Illustrations I, II, III Making of Monster Hunter: World CORRECTION: Guardians are a type of Guild Knight, not the other way around. Among the knights, there are the 12 "true" Guild Knights, which are the ones tasked with hunting poachers.

The fact that there are some people worshipping a pink T-rex makes me love the MH universe even more

Giant Black Dragon that is comparable to an Apocalyptic event. Cultists: Nah Pink fluffy Theropod with a sinus infection Cultists: Real shit

Something about there being a cult for Anjanath of all monsters is really funny to me

I've actually never considered how "normal" people live in the MH world, I thought the vast majority of the world WAS like the hunting villages

Man, Monster hunter lore is so interesting. It would be very cool to have a game, where you play as a guardian or even a guild knight, that can also properly show the world of monster hunter outside of monster hunting

Wow, I didn't know about the Guild Knights being limited to twelve in number. That's probably a good thing, when you consider that they're the only people legally allowed (by Guild law) to kill humans. There's also probably a test of character that prospective knights go through to weed out anyone who would abuse the position.

I know most people couldn't care less about the lore or story in MonHun games, but as a lifelong RPG fan as well, I love these little hidden tidbits and possible story ideas that Capcom could explore or expand upon. The idea of there being a larger civilized world beyond the Frontier where we mainly play the games in is so cool to me. It could be similar to how in Monster Hunter Stories, the Riders and the Hunters are so culturally different in their approach to monsters too.

Currently running a pathfinder MH campaign where most elderdragons have a cult associated with them. So this was nice to watch.

Another interesting bit of MH lore that not many people seem to know is that the monsters Akantor and Ukanlos are named after gods in their world. Back in Freedom 2 Akantor was a never before seen monster and was completely unknown to the Guild. As the Guild were tracking it and trying to corner it in an area of the volcano they were also evacuating the people of nearby settlements. The locals told the Guild members that the monster was likely the "Black God" from their legends. With not much other information to work from the Guild named the new monster after that god from their legend, which is Akantor. The same applied to Ukanlos named after the "White God" when it appeared in Freedom Unite/Portable G 2. All of this is stated in the Hunting Life magazines on the bookshelf in the player's room

Really fun detail, the warrior wyverian riders which oppose you during the story of Stories 2, actually wear that Anjanath armor. That really matches to what you're sharing about the idea of there being an anjanath warrior-cult.

Man, now I just want a Monster Hunter game where Hunter Rank actually influences your rank in the guild at large.

Another fun example of monster recycling are GUs final bosses both Narkarkos and Athal Ka are based on very early designs from the time before mh1 when they hadnt quite figured out the aesthetic and themes of the series, Athal Kas giant mech is an obvious reference to the infamaous "Equal Dragon Weapon" concept art and Narkarkoses first phase where it hides its true body, is based on concept art of a two headed mummie snake...

Monster Hunter Illustrations 1 and 2 are some of my most prized possessions, I ADORE the obscure lore of this series!

I actually love the details about how the games take place in the frontier and how most people's lives are completely different from what we see in the games. I really hope we get to explicitly see this in game

As someone who's relatively new to the Monster Hunter community (I started in World), the amount of lore just hidden away in the games fascinates me. I think Monster Hunter has some of the most interesting worldbuilding I've seen in a game, it's just a shame that a lot of it is hidden away in flavourtext and obscure artbooks, though I guess that makes it all the more special when you discover something interesting about the wider world of Monster Hunter tucked away in a weird place.

For the monster design recycling tidbit, Vaal Hazak is a great example of this! There are old concepts of fungal/rot monsters, and Vaal is the modern completed version of those.

@Oceaniz funfact: in Monster Hunter Stories 2, the evil cult of monster riders all wear Anjanath armour.

I would honestly love to see you cover old monster hunter concepts and scrapped ideas if given the chance. Especially the concepting phase of the original MH. It was planned to be much more darker, violent, and gritty with thing's such as goblins and classes as well. Its actually surprising how the game turned out and is an interesting look into the desgin process behind the team. Not many people talk about it, and if they do, its only the equal dragon weapon. But the equal dragon weapon was just one thing of many tossed around in early concepts

As far as the Anjanath Cult thing goes, there are multiple people in monster hunter stories two that show up as enemies. Look up a few videos of playthroughs, you'll see a little over a dozen of them.