Colossals

“	At one point in history, few could have foreseen the formation of Tribal Island. After all, the Colossals and their island hosts were fated to go their separate ways, never to rejoin... were they not?	”
	— In-game News graphic advertising Tribal Island, translated from Monstrous.

Grennitch, the Plant Island Colossal, sleeping.

In-game news graphic advertising Tribal Island, with a message in Monstrous addressing the Colossals.

The Colossals are spirits that inhabit many of the Islands and helped to create the Monster World. They each have a different appearance based on what Island they are, and unique Critters that live on or near them. Each of them corresponds to the main element or types of Monsters that live there. Though most are currently in deep slumber, some can be awoken by activating the Coloss-Eye after completing their associated Colossal Conundra.

The Colossals inhabit most Islands except the Island Skins and the Magical Islands, which are instead inhabited by the Titans. They also do not inhabit Seasonal Shanty, Mythical Island, and Wublin Island, which are instead artificial constructs.

Song

Instruments: Radiator, Synth Bass, and other noises

The Colossals make a low, mechanical drone noise that slowly builds up. This sound only occurs when the Colossal is awake, which can be done by placing and activating the Coloss-Eye.

VSTs

Virtual Studio Technology is an audio plugin software that has libraries of sound effects and synthesized instruments. Within these libraries are SoundFonts, which are the individual effects and instruments themselves. The Monster-Handlers utilize several VSTs to create the sounds of instrumental and sometimes vocal Monsters.

The VST for all of the Colossals from any of the islands has not yet been found.

List of Colossals

Island Name and Colossal name	Image(s)	Placement	Can be awoken/is awake as of yet
Plant Island (Grennitch)	Colossal Asleep Colossal Awake	Continent, Inner Monster World	Yes (as of January 14th, 2023)
Cold Island (Frigil)	Colossal Asleep Colossal Awake	Continent, Inner Monster World	Yes (as of April 8th, 2023)
Air Island (Zeffree)	Colossal Asleep Colossal Awake	Continent, Inner Monster World (in the sky)	Yes (as of June 3rd, 2023)
Water Island (Hyddryd)	Colossal Asleep Colossal Awake	Continent, Inner Monster World (in the Living Ocean)	Yes (as of July 22nd, 2023)
Earth Island (Sollum)	Colossal Asleep Colossal Awake	Continent, Inner Monster World	Yes (as of September 2nd, 2023)
Shugabush Island		The Seam	No
The Colossingum (Lanysta)		The Seam	No
Gold Island		Higher Plane	No
Ethereal Island / Ethereal Workshop (Zarroë)		Pocket Dimension	Likely
		Pocket Dimension (inside Ethereal Island)	Possibly already awake
Fire Haven / Fire Oasis / Amber Island (Dulcettéa)		Continent (in the Living Core, connected to the Caves)	No
		Eastern Monster World (connected to the Caves)	No
		Higher Plane	No
Celestial Island		Starhenge	No
Tribal Island (Ahymnsa)		The Seam (connected to the Caves)	No
Composer Island (Vawldee)	Eyes Closed Eyes Open	The Seam	Partially
Mirror Plant Island (Mirrored Grennitch)		Mirror Timeline, Continent, Inner Monster World	No
Mirror Cold Island (Mirrored Frigil)		Mirror Timeline, Continent, Inner Monster World	No
Mirror Air Island (Mirrored Zeffree)		Mirror Timeline, Continent, Inner Monster World (in the sky)	No
Mirror Water Island (Mirrored Hyddryd)		Mirror Timeline, Continent, Inner Monster World (in the Living Ocean)	No
Mirror Earth Island (Mirrored Sollum)		Mirror Timeline, Continent, Inner Monster World	No

Lore

Way back when, during the Primordial Cosmic Hush, there was nothing, just silence. After some time, the unmistakably deep, sonorous voices of the Colossals were heard. These Colossals, disembodied spirits of creation, were inspired to harness the power of creation, to make the monster world a richer place. The Colossals were amazed by the world that lay before them, specifically the Celestial’s elemental affiliations. There was also something else that they saw, too. The emptiness. A blank- and most importantly, silent- canvas for them to work with, to shape to their liking.

The first task the Colossals faced was to teach the twelve Celestials to sing. Each celestial was taught to perform music in a style unique to them. The celestials thus became the first singing monsters. Next, they built a mysterious piece of clockwork for the Celestials upon which they could gather and sing in harmony with each other. This place, called Starhenge, as well as connecting the Celestials together, connected them to both their stars above, and their elements below. After this success, the Celestials wished to create a world full of harmonious singing monsters, that could be combined of both the influences of nature and music.

To test their abilities of creation, The Colossals went to a Pocket Dimension off of the main dimension of The Monster World.  This place would act as a sandbox for their experimentation of their creative powers. Here, they build the foundation for what would one day become Ethereal Island. In the early days of the pocket dimension, it was closed off to interdimensional travel. Their first experimentation was with the animation of inanimate matter; to turn it into living beings. Several statues made of bubblerite were carved, and installed on the early Ethereal Island (a few statues can still be found to this day in a special place called the Ethereal Meadow). If exposed to the Spark of Life, the statues could turn from bubblerite into living, breathing monsters. The Spark of Life itself was a very powerful tool in the Colossal's arsenal that let inanimate matter become animate; this power was later also found to be in the powerset of the element of electricity. Specific interactions with bubblerite in the Pocket Dimension led some of it to turn into a new material called Krystillium. Once experimentation was complete, the Colossals once again turned their attention to the main dimension of The Monster World, using Krystillium as the base element upon which to do so.

Using what they had learned in the teaching of the Celestials, the Colossals joined together in a Great Song that shaped and powered their creative willpower. Building off of the still-active and potent Living Core of fire, the Colossals drew power and energy directly from the multiversal tree, the Stablo Mjehurića. Taking some of its sap, they infused the Living Core with crystalized amber and musical potential. Harnessing the power of the Stablo Mjehurića, the Colossals established what was to be the crowning jewel of The Monster World: The Continent. This landmass sits in the direct center of the infinitely vast expanse of the living ocean, directly above the living core, and directly underneath Starhenge. It was from the continent that Starhenge too got its power; what allowed it to stay levitating.

During the end of the Dawn of Fire, two Colossals in particular were discussing how to ready the monsters for the imminent doom of the Cataclysm. One suggested training the individual musical ability of a monster, and so decided to imbue its spirit into an arena-like island the monsters had built, forming The Colossingum. Inspired by the actions of its fellow Colossal, the second Colossal decided to make its own island to ready the monsters, but instead of focusing on the individual, it instead focused on the group, on unity. It then made an accompanying prophecy about how monsters being united and singing together would help to bring balance to the monster world, and took upon itself a great monster encased in amber to act as the island’s centerpiece, forming Tribal Island. This tale of two Colossals would later be found carved into some pillars on The Colossingum. These decisions proved to be timely, as something very big was just around the corner...

Then, the Cataclysm came that would destroy The Monster World as we know it. We are still in the dark about what ended the dawn of fire exactly, but what we do know is that something had disrupted the Colossals and made them forget how to sing together in unity and harmony. The great discord amongst the Colossals proved too much, sending a great quake towards the continent. The continent began to break into multiple pieces, with each elemental land becoming its own island. The Colossals decided to sacrifice themselves for their creations, and imbued their spirits into each of these elemental lands, as well as any other lands they could find, trying to save what they could, using their life force to stop the chaos.

The Colossals are now imbued in the Islands, giving them facial features (and perhaps other bodily features if we could see down that far (such as Fire Haven's hands). Most are eternally slumbering and still, never to be awoken again, although there are a unique few. Ethereal Island's Colossal emits bubbles from its head, and also has seven eyes. Composer Island's Colossal wiggles its teeth and even briefly opens its eyes due to its connection to the human world, being placed on the Seam and all. The Fire Islands share one colossal between the two of them, represented by each of them only having one eye, whereas most others have two. And Wubbox, Creation of Galvana, made Wublin Island look scarily accurate to a Colossal.

At the end of the "Living the Dream" trailer, announcing the arrival of Mythical Island and Anniversary Year, Plant Island's Colossal is seen opening its left eye, revealing a yellow iris and round pupil (contrary to Composer Island's Colossal which has snake-like pupils and green irises). This marks a turning point in the current lore, meaning that Colossals can wake up from their "eternal slumber".

The structure gained from the Colossal Conundra, the Coloss-Eye, is the way that the Colossals are awoken, as revealed in the 3.8 update trailer.

As of January 14th, 2023, the Plant Island Colossal Conundra is able to be fully completed, and in turn for the Coloss-Eye to be placed to wake the Plant Island Colossal. It makes a deep, breathing-like noise.

As of April 8th, 2023, the Cold Island Colossal Conundra is able to be fully completed and in turn for the Coloss-Eye to be placed to wake the Cold Island Colossal. It makes a harsh, blizzard-like noise.

As of June 3rd, 2023, the Air Island Colossal Conundra is able to be fully completed and in turn for the Coloss-Eye to be placed to wake the Air Island Colossal. It makes a deep, mechanical-esque noise.

As of July 22nd, 2023, the Water Island Colossal Conundra is able to be fully completed and in turn for the Coloss-Eye to be placed to wake the Water Island Colossal. It makes a deep, river-like noise.

As of September 2nd, 2023, the Earth Island Colossal Conundra is able to be fully completed and in turn for the Coloss-Eye to be placed to wake the Earth Island Colossal. It makes a deep, earthquake-like noise.

Dropping Names

• Plant Island's Dropping Names image
• Cold Island's Dropping Names image
• Air Island's Dropping Names image
• Water Island's Dropping Names image
• Earth Island's Dropping Names image

1/5

Dropping Names, also called Colossal Consensus, was a Community Collab, where the community will help the Monster-Handlers decide the names of the Natural Island Colossals during the 11th Anniversary Month. The polls were held on their YouTube channel every Monday, starting on September 4th, 2023. The outcome of these polls determined the names of the Colossals.

Polls

The polls have happened on September 4th, September 11th, September 18th, September 25th, and October 2nd.

Colossal	Option 1	Option 2	Option 3	Total votes
Plant Island	Grennitch (82%)	Verjer (9%)	Myvin (9%)	99K
Cold Island	Frigil (71%)	Brumalis (6%)	Arktos (24%)	79K
Air Island	Zeffree (73%)	Kazen (16%)	Toreeze (11%)	67K
Water Island	Hyddryd (82%)	Saeweg (11%)	Notka (7%)	52K
Earth Island	Poterro (7%)	Sollum (83%)	Dirtric (10%)	52K

Name Origins

• Plant Island
  • Grennitch is based on Greenwich, a town/district name that means "green harbour/settlement".
    • Greenwich, London is also the town that Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) was centered around.
  • Verjer is based on the word verdure, the green color of lush vegetation.
  • Myvin is based on the word Maven, meaning "one who understands and passes knowledge".
• Cold Island
  • Frigil is based on the word frigid, meaning very cold. It may also contain Nigel, a name of Celtic origin meaning "champion" or "hero", or Virgil, a name of Roman origin with unknown meaning.
  • Brumalis is based on the Latin word brumalis, which means to be connected with winter solstice or during winter.
  • Arktos is based on the Greek word for bear, which is what the word "arctic" derived from.
• Air Island
  • Zeffree is based on the word zephyr, a soft gentle breeze, and possibly the name Jeffrey.
  • Kazen is based on kaze, the Japanese word for wind.
  • Toreeze is a portmanteau of the words tornado and breeze.
• Water Island
  • Hyddryd is based on the word hydro, a prefix that means water.
  • Saeweg could be based on the word sewage, or Seeweg, a word from German meaning "sea lane", a convenient and commonly-used route for ships travelling from one specific place to another.
  • Notka is based on the word nautica, which means to be associated with the sea.
• Earth Island
  • Poterro is a portmanteau of the words pot and terra.
  • Sollum is based on solum, the altered layer of soil above the parent material that includes the A and B horizons.
  • Dirtric derives from the word dirt and the ending "-ric," the latter being from old German and meaning "ruler" or "power."
• Fire Haven/Fire Oasis/Amber Island
  • Dulcettéa is a portmanteau of dulcet and cetea; A dulcet is a sound that is sweet and soothing (Fire Haven's half), While a cetea defines of a huge sea creature (Fire Oasis' half).
• Ethereal Island/Ethereal Workshop
  • Zarroë derives from bizzaro and Zoe. Zoe in Greek origins is a gender-neutral name and means "life", which hones into Zarroë creating life in the Ethereal Workshop.
• The Colossingum
  • Lanysta derives from lanista, one who trains gladiators. Monsters are trained to fight in the Colossingum.
• Tribal Island
  • Ahymnsa derives from hymn, a religious song of praise to a god, and Ahimsa, the ancient Indian principle of nonviolence, since Tribal Island is all about unity and cooperation between both Monsters and players.
• Composer Island
  • Vawldee derives from the composer Antonio Vivaldi.

Notes

• The Colossal spirits were mentioned as early as April 10th, 2015 in this Twitter reply. They were referenced again shortly thereafter (somewhat obliquely) when Monikers were added to the game up through Level 60.
  • The Moniker for level 60 (the highest level at the time) is "Colossal Communer", suggesting that this is the greatest achievement a Handler-Helper could achieve.
• The Colossal for Composer Island is the very first Colossal to show any signs of life. If a player waits long enough, it will open its eyes, look around and close them again. It seems to do this at random intervals.
• All of the Colossals have their eyes closed permanently, except for the Composer Island Colossal, which occasionally opens its eyes.
  • However, as of 3.9.4, the Plant, Cold, Air, Water, and Earth Island Colossals can all be awoken with the Coloss-Eye.
  • Islands that aren't on the list don't appear to be suitable to be awoken, due to not having eyes, being a Titan, or something else.
• Zarroë is the only Colossal to have more than two eyes, having seven in total.
  • Ethereal Workshop has three eyes, but it is technically not a Colossal.
• When the Continent began to break apart, the Colossals bound their spirits to the Lands, forming the Natural Islands, Fire Haven, and Fire Oasis.
• The Mirror Island Colossals have different appearances. They have purple goo and other Ethereal products strewn all around them.
• It is unknown what the bodies of the Colossals look like, as all is seen is their heads (except the Fire Haven Colossal, who has its hands visible as well.)
• Fire Oasis is the only artificially made Colossal.
• According to the Colossingum's hieroglyphics, during the waning days of the Dawn of Fire, it says 2 Colossals had a disagreement on disrupting the monster's peace and stability. This may mean that the Colossals had staged a disruption event at the end of the Dawn of Fire for unknown reasons that resulted in the end of the Fire age and them fusing with the pieces of the Continent. The two disagreeing Colossals were Tribal Island and The Colossingum.
• According to this tweet, the Colossals are spirits of creation, and made the Monster World.
• During Extra-Life 2021, a reading from an ancient text revealed that the Colossals taught the Celestials how to "perform music in a voice or style unique to them", and created Starhenge to give the Celestials a place to sing in harmony.
• The Fire Haven and Fire Oasis Colossals are actually two halves of a single Colossal spirit. This explains the fact that each one has a single eye. The two halves join together in Higher Plane to form Amber Island.
• Despite looking like Colossals, Mythical Island and Wublin Island are actually not Colossals at all. Instead, they are artificial structures, like Seasonal Shanty.
• The Colossal will look at the player's actions. For Steam, the Colossal's eyes will look in the direction of the mouse cursor. For Mobile devices, the Colossal's eyes will only look if the screen has been tapped.
  • Collecting currency on the island will make the Colossal's pupils dilate. Its pupils will grow larger depending on how much coins were collected (this is very noticable with the Collect All Button).
  • A portion of the Colossals' sclera can be seen if they look far enough to one direction, revealing that the colored area of their eyes is no more than the iris. However, due to Ethereal Island colossal Zarroë having compound eyes, this is not the case (As of now, the Coloss-Eye does not yet exist for Ethereal Island, so it is unknown what the front of its eye looks like).
• During the 10th anniversary MSM Live, the Gold Island and Amber Island Colossals are also known as the "King" and "Queen" Colossals respectively, in heavy quotation marks. This is because Gold and Amber Island's designs are based on kings and queens respectively. This doesn't mean these islands are a literal king or queen ruling over the Monster World. They're simply based and designed on these ideas in general.
  • In addition, these islands being in the "higher plane" of the Monster World references royal families in medieval kingdoms. During these times, kingdoms had a royal family with a king and queen in the "highest plane" of their kingdoms, where they rule the land and the people who then serve them. In the Monster World, Gold and Amber Islands can be interpreted as "ruling" the higher plane together, while enlightened monsters "serve" them by singing a resounding song that celebrates monsters and music of all kinds!
• Dulcettéa's glowing pupil on Fire Haven can be seen moving around beneath the closed eyelid. This is explained to be caused by Rare Buzzinga in the Monster's bio, which states that it induces the Colossal to experience "Rare Rapid Eye Movement" sleep, in which the Colossal experiences vivid pleasant dreams.
• Strangely, the Earth Island Colossal reuses the Plant Island Colossal's activation and deactivation sound.
  • Coincidentally, Plant Island's and Earth Island's songs are both in the same key, C Minor, which might be the reason for this.
  • As of now, all the Colossals reuse the Plant Island Colossal's activation and deactivation sound.
• On the “Dropping Names” poll for the Earth Island Colossal, it is mistakenly listed as the Water Island Colossal.
• The Colossals' signature can be seen on Amber Island, as well as on the orange feather of Adult Yelmut's decorative headgear.
• During the My Singing Monsters Live 12th Anniversary Monster-Handler Matt revealed that the name of the Gold Island Colossal is known and will be revealed during a special occasion.