D&D 5E Giant Snails in Medieval Manuscripts.

[Shades of Eternity]

Why Were Medieval Knights Always Fighting Snails?

It's a common scene in medieval marginalia. But what does it mean?

www.smithsonianmag.com

Okay, I'm asking,

In medieval manuscripts, we have a surprising number of knights fighting giant snails.

How did this great pestilence come to being in your dnd game? Were they a symbol of another creature, or was there really that many giant snails terrorizing the countryside?

Was there an era that was the rise of the Flail snails?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, megafauna tend not to have died out in dnd worlds, so I’d just assume that there are snails that big!

But I also don’t tend to imagine my dnd worlds as analogous at all to medieval Europe.

 

[Ulfgeir]

You also have lots of hares that are fighting knights in those manuscript (and the knights are often losing), and lots of other weirdness.

Wonder if those hares were the inspirations for Rubbits in the original version of the Swedish game Mutant...

 

[Tonguez]

do you know how destructive those armoured terrors are? Obviously knights had a sworn duty to protect the cabbages from the rasping pillage and slimey plunder

 

[Len]

More info on this important topic:

 

[Undrave]

I think you're right that this was the inspiration for the Flail Snail! Did you see the 4e incarnation? Stale Trail Flail Snail?

do you know how destructive those armoured terrors are? Obviously knights had a sworn duty to protect the cabbages from the rasping pillage and slimey plunder

MY CABBAGES!!!

 

[Weiley31]

I now want a Paladin with a War Snail mount.

 

[Eltab]

I now want a Paladin with a War Snail mount.

It may take you a while to arrive wherever the action is. And heaven help you* if the villain runs away.

*Not sure if this is a pun, is ironic, is both, or is neither.

 

[Seramus]

Snails are usually part of a greater spiral infestation.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

I am now officially in love with the idea that the devil is a giant snail that is based on japanese horror comics.