Monolith and Evolution

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   <default>Monolith and Evolution</default>
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</image> <header>Resources</header> <label>Resources Needed</label> <label>Total Tiers</label> <label>Total Resources Needed</label> <label>Size</label> <group collapse="closed"> <header>Tier Resources</header> <label>Tier 1</label> <label>Tier 2</label> <label>Tier 3</label> <label>Tier 4</label> <label>Tier 5</label> <label>Tier 6</label> <label>Tier 7+</label> </group> <group collapse="closed"> <header>Stats</header> <label>Health</label> <label>Damage</label> <label>Knockback</label> <label>Area Of Effect</label> <label>Targets</label> <label>Burnable</label> <label>Premium</label> </group> </infobox> The Monolith is a pretty cool looking power and building in Worldbox, located within the "Other Various Powers" tab. It was possibly one of the most mysterious things in Worldbox. Game Description "?.?"

Description

It appears as a tall shiny black pillar surrounded by heightened rocks, making it look like it made an impact upon it's surroundings. The rocks closely match the color of bone deposits and the bones in orc buildings.

During the in-game month of Monolith (equivalent of the real-life month of April), it begins an animation where it pulses red. In beta 0.50 it mutates any creature to become sentient, and also has a chance to evolve creatures into the new species. There have been teasers of the possibility of being more uses for the monolith. It currently does nothing in the base game.

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  Red Pulse

Evolution Events

Monolith

When the File:IconMonolith10x.pngEvolution Events world law is enabled (is by default) the monolith has the ability to evolve units within a certain radius of it by changing their subspecies. It does this during the month of Monolith (April). For each creature within it's area of effect it will try to evolve them if they have a subspecies and do not have the confused status. The monolith can only try to evolve up to three creatures at a time. When creatures are affected by the monolith they turn into a new subspecies whether they evolve into a humanoid form or not.

After selecting units to evolve the game will then check if they can be evolved: Cannot if subspecies has the pure trait, Cannot if subspecies has the uplifted and prefrontal cortex traits, Cannot if a zombie

After the checks, the game will see if the creature's species has an evolved form (like File:IconFox scaled 10x.pngfoxes turning into slypaw). If it does then creature has a 50% chance to change into its evolved form. If the creature does not change, they will mutate, possibly replacing multiple traits and genes (the possible severity of mutation is determined by a subspecies Mutation Rate stat). After whichever of these events happen the subspecies will get the Uplifted trait along with the Prefrontal Cortex, Advanced Hippocampus, Amygdala, and Wernicke's Area traits. The phenotype of the subspecies will also change based on the biome the affected unit was in. If you want to give a specific creature another chance to evolve via the monolith, remove its subspecies Prefrontal Cortex trait.

After the basic evolution event has been completed there is a 10% chance for a biome mutation to happen. If the affected unit was in a biome with an evolution trait then that trait will be added to their subspecies (only some biomes have an evolution trait).

Rite of Ascension

Subspecies can also go through the evolution process on their own accord if one of them uses the File:Plot clan ascension.pngRite of Ascension plot. The differences between an evolution event caused by the monolith or by the plot include: Subspecies can have uplifted and prefrontal cortex traits, "Ascentus" will be added to the new subspecies name, and the evolution effects all members of the initiator's clan.

Trivia

• It was added added June 5th, 2023 in version 0.22.0
• For two years the monolith was constantly teased until a function for it was released in the 0.50 beta on April 1st, 2025 (archived Monolith News page)
• It is most likely a reference to the Sci-fi 1968 movie "2001: A Space Odyssey", a highly critically-acclaimed movie. Some have also guessed it could be a reference to Elinson's novel ("I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" ), including a maniacal AI named AM, or the video game with the same title but this is more disputed and not supported based off the monolith's current abilities.
• Some people use the Monolith as a marker for where an important event happened, such as the death of a King/Queen or a favorited unit
• If caused to be alive by the Living Houses power, it will lose it's ability to pulse and mutate units