# Mimic - Creature: Monstrosity - Date: 1977 - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/mimic/ > The treasure chest that bites back: a shapeshifting predator that disguises itself as a door, a column or a pile of loot, and taught generations of players never to trust a box. **Why it matters:** The mimic turned the dungeon's reward into a threat. It is a monster made from the conventions of the game itself, and it has spread further than almost any other D&D invention, from Dark Souls to anime. ## Quick answers **Where does the Mimic come from?** Original D&D monster by Gary Gygax, first published in the AD&D Monster Manual (1977) **When did the Mimic first appear?** 1977, in AD&D Monster Manual. **How did the Mimic get into games?** Key appearances: AD&D Monster Manual (1977), Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (AD&D 2nd ed.) (1989), Dark Souls (FromSoftware) (2011) and D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual (2014). **Why is the Mimic significant?** The mimic turned the dungeon's reward into a threat. It is a monster made from the conventions of the game itself, and it has spread further than almost any other D&D invention, from Dark Souls to anime. ## Origins The mimic's name comes from biology. Naturalists had described mimicry for more than a century: harmless insects that look like wasps, and predators that hide among the leaves and stones they resemble. The monster itself, though, belongs to the dungeon. By the mid-1970s every player of [Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/) knew that treasure chests were where the [Loot & loot tables](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/loot/) was, and that the game's referees liked to trap them with needles, gas and falling blocks. [Gary Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/) took the next step. He made the chest itself the monster. The mimic first appeared in the *Monster Manual* of 1977, the first hardcover of [Advanced Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/advanced-dungeons-and-dragons/). Gygax described mimics as "subterranean creatures which cannot stand the light of the sun," able to imitate stone or wood perfectly: a section of wall, a door, a chest. When touched, the mimic sticks to the victim with an adhesive glue and beats it with a pseudopod. There were two kinds. The smaller one was intelligent, spoke several languages, and would tell adventurers what it had seen if they fed it. The larger "killer mimic" had no speech and ate anything nearby. The British designer Don Turnbull, reviewing the book in *[White Dwarf](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/white-dwarf/)* in 1978, joked that his players were not well placed to meet one. ## Into the dungeon The mimic works because it undermines a basic assumption of the [Dungeon crawl](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/dungeon-crawl/): that the scenery is safe. After meeting a mimic, players start prodding every door with a ten-foot pole. The game's writers developed it further. [Ed Greenwood](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/ed-greenwood/)'s "The Ecology of the Mimic" appeared in *Dragon* #75 (July 1983; see [The Strategic Review & Dragon](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/dragon-magazine/)). The [second edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-2nd-edition/) *Monstrous Compendium* (1989) explained mimics as creatures made by wizards to guard their treasure from thieves. [Third edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-3rd-edition/) (2000) classed the mimic as an aberration that speaks Common, and it appeared in each later edition through the [fifth edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-5th-edition/) *Monster Manual* (2014). In video games the mimic may have spread further than any other D&D invention. It appears in the [Baldur's Gate](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate/) series, in [Enix](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/enix/)'s [Dragon Quest](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dragon-quest/) series and in [Square](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/square/)'s [Final Fantasy](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/final-fantasy/), and later in *Terraria*, *Borderlands*, *Torchlight* and *Enter the Gungeon*. [FromSoftware](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/fromsoftware/) gave it a memorable modern form in *[Dark Souls](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dark-souls/)* (2011), where an ordinary-looking chest can open into a long-limbed creature with a mouth full of teeth. Many players learned to strike a chest before opening it. Japanese comics and anime use it the same way: *Delicious in Dungeon* treats the mimic as a creature to be studied and cooked, and in *Frieren* the mage heroine is repeatedly caught by chests she knows may be mimics. In 2023 a mimic appeared on film in *[Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/honor-among-thieves/)*. ## Variations D&D's writers invented variants whenever they needed a new surprise. *Dragon* #101 (September 1985) introduced the metal mimic, which can imitate metal as well as wood and stone. The *Spelljammer* setting added a space mimic that casts illusion spells. *The Ruins of Undermountain II* (1994) added the greater mimic, large enough to fill a room, and the *Monstrous Compendium Annual* of the same year collected the "house hunters" that pass for cottages, first seen in *Dungeon* #19 (1989). [Paizo](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/paizo/)'s [Pathfinder](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pathfinder-rpg/) put the mimic in its first *Bestiary* (2009), and the idea long ago left D&D's rules behind. Any object can hide a mouth. The mimic has relatives among the other monsters built from dungeon logic: the [Gelatinous Cube](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/gelatinous-cube/) that fills the corridor exactly, and the [Rust Monster](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/rust-monster/) that eats a fighter's armor. Of the three, it reached the widest audience. Game makers use a chest with teeth as a shorthand that nearly every player recognizes. ## Migration - 1977: AD&D Monster Manual — Gygax's shapeshifter poses as stonework, doors or chests, glues victims fast and pounds them with a pseudopod; a talkative common mimic and a mute "killer mimic" are described. - 1983: Dragon #75 — Ed Greenwood's "The Ecology of the Mimic" gives the creature a natural history. - 1989: Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (AD&D 2nd ed.) — Mimics are now explained as creations of wizards guarding their treasure from thieves. - 2011: Dark Souls (FromSoftware) — A treasure chest that sprouts legs and a toothy maw becomes one of the most notorious ambushes in modern games. - 2014: D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual — The mimic returns redesigned for the new edition. - 2023: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves — The heroes battle a mimic among the monsters of the High Sun Games. ## Facts - The mimic first appeared in Gary Gygax's Monster Manual (1977), the first hardcover D&D book. - The 1977 text calls mimics "subterranean creatures which cannot stand the light of the sun," able to imitate stone or wood perfectly. - The original mimic came in two kinds: a smaller, intelligent mimic that would trade information for food, and a mute, carnivorous "killer mimic." - Second-edition lore says wizards created mimics to protect their treasure from treasure hunters. - Wayne Reynolds's painting of a mimic appeared in the Royal Mail's stamp set for D&D's 50th anniversary. - Mimics appear in Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Terraria, Borderlands and Enter the Gungeon, and in the manga Delicious in Dungeon and Frieren. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimic_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)) - [Wikipedia — Monster Manual](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Manual) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.