# The Monument Mythos

The Monument Mythos is a YouTube horror webseries created by Alex Casanas and set in a paranormal alternate history of the world, depicting supposed horrific secrets behind major monuments and landmarks across America and beyond. The episodes use analog horror, found footage, and mockumentary formats to depict the fictional US presidencies of J.D. Rockefeller, James Dean, and Al Gore, alongside various fictional conspiracy theories and inexplicable events. The debut episode, "LibertyLurker" (stylized in all caps), released in September of 2020 and depicted a massive, carnivorous beast contained in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, with further topics including Mount Rushmore or Alcatraz Island as they are affected by alternate realities or Lovecraftian entities. Three seasons were produced, each consisting of 11 episodes. The series ran from August 26, 2020, to April 30, 2023. The storyline had been written in its entirety before the series' release, but in May 2021, the author began to make changes to it. The series' production included original music and voice acting.
A spin-off series titled The Nixonverse, set in a timeline in which former U.S. president Richard Nixon became a god, ran from May 14 to August 13, 2022. A compilation film, The Absolute Nixonverse, which added new sections and removed certain sections from the original series, was released on October 1, 2023, on the Dwight Comics YouTube channel.
A second spin-off series titled The Trinity Desk Project (later renamed The American Anatomy), set in the "Deanverse" of the first two seasons, ran from Aug 29 to Nov 1, 2022. The series focused on the titular fictional offshoot of the Manhattan Project that created the first invisible objects, along with an invisible entity known as the "Other Oppenheimer" or "The Croatoan". Subplots of the series include a "front row" used to incinerate people at NASA launches and entities known as "DOCtors" (Defenders of the Organic Curtain). The series was later complied into an episode of and absorbed into the next spin-off series, The Modern Day.
A third spin-off series titled The Modern Day, set in an alternate timeline in which English actor Robert Pattinson won the 2024 United States presidential election, ran from September 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024, with multiple episodes being released out of order. The series explored political subject matter much more directly than its sister series, including criticism of several political candidates, the political and social division caused by the United States' two-party system, and the dangers of nuclear weaponry. The series was eventually removed from Casanas' YouTube channel for personal reasons.

## Reception

Nestor Kok of F Newsmagazine described the series in positive terms in 2022, writing: "There is nary an analog horror series, let alone a YouTube web series of any genre, that comes close to matching the scope and ambition of "The Monument Mythos"." According to Joe Hoeffner of Collider in 2023, the series was among the most popular entries into the genre, alongside Local 58, Gemini Home Entertainment, and The Mandela Catalogue, all of which have "increasingly elaborate backstories and mythologies, usually parceled out one cryptic piece at a time"; however, he singled out The Monument Mythos as being particularly engaging for its narrative puzzles. At the same time, he commented that the approach risks becoming clichéd. Tilly Lawton of Pocket Tactics classified the series as a type of an alternate reality game, albeit one with a "[narrative] that [doesn't] alter regardless of player participation" (using the novel term "unfiction"). According to the author in 2022, a community of followers was gathering in the series' Discord server, where various thematic events were organized.

## Plot

Most episodes consist of mockumentary material gathered around a particular subject, such as the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Egyptian Pyramids, or Ever Given Suez grounding, and progressively diverge from real history over the course of the narrative. Recurring elements tying episodes together include "Special Trees", extradimensional organisms capable of bridging parallel universes; "Giza Glass", an extremely sharp material capable of beheading or dismembering humans without killing them; Maize, a massive technology monopoly analogous to Apple Inc.; and a sentient and violent Freedom armed with a Giza Glass sword. In-universe sources of information include the independent New Delaware Journal, an online video channel called Doctor Disturbing, and Maize's "TWTTR" social media platform.
President Rockefeller is unintentionally responsible for an alternate World War against Germany after allowing them to use Freedom's victims to power an alternate version of zeppelins. The airfleet is only defeated by a Giza glass-powered energy weapon, which unintentionally vaporizes the attending American soldiers and causes them to later coalesce into a figure nicknamed the "Air Force One Angel". James Dean survives his driving accident and enters politics as an anti-war progressive. He defeats Nixon's reelection campaign in a blowout, apparently able to drive citizens into a frenzy of support at the slightest provocation. America under Dean suffers viscous domestic terrorist attacks by his opponents, who unite under the far-right and Christian fundamentalist Anti-Dean Association. The ADA then reorganizes into the Anti-Device Association with the rise of "TWTTR-Machines", and later into the Advocates for a Divided America after the contiguous States are unified into the Alcatraz, Rushmore, and Washington "Zones" to better contain paranormal phenomena.
Fictional characters include the Arnoldson family of dissidents and amateur investigators, in particular one Virginia Arnoldson who trades places with an alternate universe double after encountering a Special Tree in place of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.
The penultimate episode reveals the Liberty Lurker to an alternate George Washington, who was distorted and mutated into a cosmic being called the Horned Serpent. The finale compiles several segments; A final broadcast by the NDJ's editor, revealed to be Virginia's husband Lennard, who claims that the bacteria-like organism formerly contained in the Alcatraz Zone has consumed all of America overnight, replacing it with a perfect simulacrum on a molecular level. The Angel destroys the ADA after they attempt to weaponize it, leading the US government to goad it into a battle with Freedom. Their encounter instead destroys the Earth and releases the Horned Serpent in the "Great Division" prophesied by the ADA as reality collapses. Surviving humans are either absorbed by the Serpent or transformed into two-dimensional "Cornerfolk" capable of traversing the multiverse.

### Nixonverse

The Great Division grants access to another timeline far closer to real history, with the main exception of humanity encountering a trio of superheroes over the course of the Twentieth century: The D-Day Knight, the Last Son of Alcatraz, and the Queen of the Lunarians. Ed Dwight is selected for the Apollo moon landings, becoming one of the first to encounter the alien Lunarians.
The Last Son intervenes in the Korean War to stop the US, but is defeated and captured in a nuclear bombardment. The government uses a Lunarian eye to brainwash him into believing he is Jesus Christ, and he instead participates in US atrocities in the Vietnam War. After the war he escapes their influence and attempts to build a new, peaceful identity as the House in the Ocean, but is instead attacked by the Lunarians and transformed into a being called the Crescent King to lead their invasion of Earth. The D-Day Knight is brought out of hiding to fight them, and begins remembering his life in what appears to be the Monument Mythos universe. Dwight encounters Nixon on the moon, who confirms he is from the James Dean timeline, having gained godlike powers after separating himself from the Horned Serpent, and that he created the superheroes to test how the Richard Nixon timeline would react to a being of his power. The Queen offers for the D-Day Knight to become the Lunarians' Prince, but he rejects her and uses the last of the "Alcatraz matter" to destroy the Lunarians as Nixon accepts he must then erase both himself and the Crescent King to restore the correct timeline. A final monologue reveals the Nixonverse to be the real world after Nixon rewrites all four superbeings to have been fictional characters, with Dwight remaining on Earth to create his own "monuments" as an artist.