Gelatinous cube
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A gelatinous cube is a fictional monster originally created for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It is an ooze of mindless, gelatinous matter in the shape of a cube that slides from one place to another, absorbing everything in its path. Because of its obviously fantastic, non-realistic nature, the gelatinous cube is one of the most well-known monsters created especially for role-playing games. Although it is based upon famous fictional monsters (especially the movie The Blob), it exists primarily as a role-playing game monster, and not a monster taken from outside sources (such as many mythological monsters including the minotaur and dryad) and adapted to a role-playing setting.
Despite its popularity (or perhaps because of it), the gelatinous cube is also widely known as one of the sillier role-playing monsters. It is something of a commentary on the ubiquity of treasure-laden dungeons in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, as the cube is a creature specifically adapted to a dungeon ecosystem. 10 feet to the side, it travels through standard 10-foot by 10-foot dungeon corridors, cleaning up debris and redistributing treasure by excreting indigestible metal items.
Because of the cube's transparency, it may be mistaken for another monster or even not seen at all until it is very close.
At least one website has commented on the odd nature of the gelatinous cube, stating that 'few things are as embarrassing as being consumed by a giant, roaming Knox Blox' (in reference to a popular recipe made from Knox brand gelatin).
It has been widely theorized, but never proven, that the gelatinous cube was created when a dungeon master went to grab a miniature for a wandering monster, and instead grabbed a large six-sided die, before hastily improvising a rationale for it.
Gelatinous cubes in other media
In Castle of the Winds, a monster of this type was called a Gelatinous Glob. It was never described as being cube shaped, but its icon (right) had a distinct, cubic outline.
In the Star Trek original series episode 'The Devil in the Dark', there was a similar, blob-like creature called a Horta which melted paths through solid rock.
The film Wayne's World mentions a similar creature, a video game character known as Xantar, who "eats warriors in a medieval village", particularly susceptible to the fighting prowess of the village chieftan.
Also, in the virtual pet game Psypets, the gelatinous Cube is one of the many Monsters your pet can defeat.
On the Neopets website, jelly blobs were used in the Lost Desert and Altador plots. These were named later as "Gelatinous Non-Cubes".
In one episode of the absurdist comic Bob the Angry Flower the title character's marketing pitch is nearly ruined by a gelatinous cube which repeatedly yells "Cube! " as it attempts to consume him. After this episode the author Stephen Notley received a number of messages from D&D players who had incorporated cubes which yelled "Cube!" into their games. [link]
References
- Greenwood, Ed. "Ecology of the Gelatinous Cube, The" Dragon Magazine #124 (TSR, 1987).
- Notley, S : "Coffee with Sinistar" P. 138 Leftover Books, 1999.
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