Let's say there's a world where monsters may, at any time, slip through a planar crack and attack...

Let's say there's a world where monsters may, at any time, slip through a planar crack and attack. Let's say the monsters range from the tiniest imp to kaiju, to entire swarms of chittering demons. Let's say this happens with some regularity, usually on a small scale, but the very worst of these events have ended civilizations before.

How likely would the various civilizations be to declare war on each other in such a world, if doing so meant committing the armed forces and destructive magic you might need to fend of Godzilla at a moment's notice?

Monster taming.

I'm not kidding, those monsters may attack at random intervals, but if you capture them and are at least capable enough to hold them in a place, then release them on an enemy nation, you could do some serious damage.

You kiddin' me? Whoever controls that planar crack is the boss. Constant war for who gets to declare it theirs, constant sabotage of whatever they set up around it, etc.

...

It would be extremely unlikely. Or at least they would severely limit the type and amount of weapons used in regional conflicts.

I would imagine that the first to go would be large scale bombardments and airstrikes.

You've mentioned that at least once before these planar cracks have led to the end of civilization, since such an event has never happened on earth I have to suppose you're talking about a world entirely different from our own where such attacks have been occurring for as long as anyone can remember, which means they're used to this kind of shit.

If it were to occur in our world, you can bet your ass war would become a thing of the past. Who gives a fuck which sky daddy you pray to when there are literal demons murdering from out of a hole in space.

But since those people have been dealing with it for a long time the shock would be lost on time. It's likely they have small scale territorial conflicts like anyone else and depending on their technological development you can expect them to defend themselves competently or else have it entirely under control by difference in architectural plans (most cities would have walls, small towns would be heavily guarded, independent buildings would be made out of highly resistant material, etc.)

Yes, exactly.

Quite likely. But their methods of warfare would be limited.

Champion duels, assassination, games. It would be something the Great Game of Russia and England, perhaps the blues versus Red of Constantinople or proxy small wars using disposable mercenaries and assets which wouldn't be useful against monsters.

Contrary to some popular thinking, ordinary warfare requires limits in the aplication of violence. This would be the art of the scapel and the surgeon. Their sagas might glorify whoever won a fight by not fighting or killing only the "tyrant" and his loyal subordinates.

The planar cracks are random. They appear and then vanish after they've deposited their payload. The next one could appear in the mountains, outside town, or in the king's bedchamber.

Interesting answers. I love Veeky Forums.

Bit outside your question, but this sounds like a world where order (people) X chaos (monsters) defines their culture. Like Marduk X Tiamat or Zeus X Typhon.

And I wonder what sort of marvels and fluids one can harness from the carcasses. Extrapolating from what we did with whales.

Monster Hunter lore might have some idea on this? I don't know if they actually have nations there.

Can the monsters live and reproduce in our world or do they just exit the cracks and rampage for a few weeks before dying?

Because a species that can sustain itself on earth would be infinitely less scary than one that can only come through for a short period of time. At the very least people would get used to the idea of such monsters if they establish themselves on earth and breed on earth like any other regular animal.

>At the very least people would get used to the idea of such monsters if they establish themselves on earth and breed on earth like any other regular animal.
Depends on the animal. A seven-horned demon-lion the size of a car that's generally a solitary hunter? Yeah, people will be hanging demon-lion horns over bars and wagons. A swarming parasitic wasp that injects people with a disorienting, memory-destroying venom so the poor dazed bastard can be filled with eggs and wander back to civilization so the larvae emerge among plentiful prey? People aren't getting used to that shit.

if they happen regularly they probably have specific institutions to deal with them that don't bring away manpower from the armies.

warfare would be just a smaller affair, quite the risky one if you intend to gain land as you then would need a larger monster fighting force distributed on a larger area of land on top of either sending your monster fighters or be prepared to fight both the enemy army and the enemy monster fighters.

I assume warfare would mostly limit to quick raids for agricultural resources rather than straight territorial control

What kind of technology level are we talking OP?

>A swarming parasitic wasp that injects people with a disorienting, memory-destroying venom so the poor dazed bastard can be filled with eggs and wander back to civilization so the larvae emerge among plentiful prey?

Some of them can reproduce and thrive on our side of the cracks. But allowing them to do so is a bad idea, as they tend to wreck shit, kill cattle, etc. They tend to be very noticable when they're here, and hunting them down right away means not having to fight an entire brood later on.

Smaller institutions do exist for the handling of trickster demons, small-scale invasions, etc. It's just that IF Ungolianth or the Tarrasque or the gathered hordes of Gehenna come pouring out one bright summer day, you're going to need every soldier, cannon and mage you could possibly muster.

Early renaissance.

This is a very simple concept of humanity's conflicts. There's a lot less in-fighting if you're constantly fighting against a greater enemy. So of course there wouldn't be wars if people were constantly fighting a demon menace. There's an anime that covers this.

>There's an anime that covers this.
Oh boy.

>There's an anime that covers this.

there's a lot of anime with this kind of concept.

SNK for starters but also god eater and habaneros of the iron choo choo train.

Just adding to this, but if this sort of thing happened it would most likely have a culture attached to it not-too-disimilar from nuclear energy in our own world.

In the sense that entire economies could very well spring up or around from taking advantage of the planar cracks/dimensional rifts and harvesting the various monsters or energies that are produced by it.... But that there would be big debates about the "safety" and "reliability" of this harsh or dangerous economy.

Though, if enough time had past; you'll get new civilizations basically saying, "It won't happen to us, we'll do it differently!" while they boldly go and make the same mistakes as people did so in the past.

>habaneros of the iron choo choo train.

Please tell me there is an anime called that.

user is jesting, it's Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress.

There is, however, an anime called Lesbian Bear Storm.

>Lesbian Bear Storm
It's called Yuri Kuma Arashi you dingus

I'd like to see their bare skin rugs.

Guess they are just female baras. Or your typical russian heavyweight athlet or heavy weapon expert.

>There's an anime that covers this.
The Cold War was not an anime.

>The Cold War was not an anime
Then explain this

Says you.

People will never stop fighting each other.
We're too dumb, collectively.