Impact of Chaos Sense

Question

Monsters are creatures who lived in a world that was absorbed by the Fracture in Reality ; this exposed these once-normal animals to Chaos Energy that mutated them into fantasy-style monstrosities. For example, monkeys exposed to Chaos Energy generally become Goblins.

Monsters don't have Classes, but their Chaos Energy ("organized chaos") functions much the same, causing them to gain Levels over time. The more Levels a monster has, the more physically developed it is, so faster-Leveling monsters will reach sexual maturity before other members of their species and therefore will outcompete their peers. Or so you'd think.

The trouble is, monsters can sense the Chaos Energy inside other monsters around them. This is because magic in my world is symbolic; this "Chaos Sense" is like recognizing kindred spirits for us humans.

Obviously being able to sense fellow organisms is going to change the predator/prey relationship, and considering monsters hold both beneficial and detrimental (even lethal) Enchantments, it seems monsters will evolve a more precise Chaos Sense, that allows them to not only distinguish friend from foe, but to distinguish beneficial and harmful Enchantments in fellow monsters.

After that, it's not hard to see monsters evolving more and more precise Chaos Sense, allowing them to tell a monster's species, Level, and perhaps even Stats (Strength, Agility, Health, and the like). My question is, therefore, How Will Chaos Sense Impact Monster Ecology?

Clarification: A monster sensing another monster's presence is due to Chaos Energy; as all monsters have this in common, it gives them a certain connection that not only allows them to sense each other but may also allow them to perceive something of the other monster's nature, depending on well the monster's Chaos Sense has been developed through natural selection.

On Levels: "Seeing" another monster's Levels is like you guessing a person's age; by looking at a person's size and so forth, you can get an idea of how old they are. Thus, monsters can get a rough idea of how strong a monster is compared to them, but this aspect of Chaos Sense can be easily fooled.

On Stats: Practically self-explanatory. You can just look at most monsters and immediately see their strongest and weakest stats. An obese but jacked troll, for example, will have incredible Strength and Constitution but horrible Speed.

Given the above on Chaos Sense, it should make sense that monsters can sense the strengths and weaknesses of nearby monsters; sensing a gargoyle as strong and tough but slow and lumbering, for example.

On Enchantments: Once again, given what I've said on Chaos Sense, monsters being able to get an idea of what Enchantment (or Enchantments) another monster holds shouldn't be a huge stretch. It's really not so different from an animal identifying a berry as poisonous; if a Chomper encounters a Plop, it should be able to see with its eyes and Sense that Plop are rubbery creatures, flexible yet firm, and that killing one will make its own body rubbery.

If these examples aren't enough, let me know and I will attempt further clarification.

Answer 1

Some biological mechanisms will change

Your monsters will gain an additional sense to perceive the others, so some mechanisms that rely on fooling senses (e.g. camouflage and Batesian mimicry) will change. They'll

• Become less effective as they are because a mimic that imitates a more powerful (usually poisonous) creature will be perceived as weaker by the Chaos Sense. Or a creature that camouflages to resemble an inanimate object can be perceived as being a monster and not an object via Chaos Sense
• Alternatively, they can evolve to fool Chaos Sense, so a mimic can also send "fake" Chaos Sense signals to imitate a more powerful creature (or to appear more inoffensive if they are an aggressive mimic)

Some will not

Chaos Sense can be seen as an alternative / supplementary form of aposematism, so your monsters will be signaling that is not a good idea to engage in combat with them / eat them. Chaos Sense for levels / stats can also be used by members of the same species of monsters to select the best mates

Additional resources: Signalling Theory in biology

Answer 2

Things wont really be that differant

This 6th sense would function very similar to the Ampullae of Lorenzini you find on many fish like sharks. It allows predators to find prey, even hidden prey, from very far away. But the thing is that most animals don't have this ability, so traditional camouflage is still very useful for aquatic life to have.

That said, fish have evolved to the constant threat of sharks by adding to thier repertoire of defenses the ability to hide in places the shark can't always reach, or reproduce in ways that the sharks can not hunt them into extinction, or swim so fast the shark can't always catch them, so on and so forth. So, just because your chaos sense predators have an advantage does not mean that it can kill its prey with without any challenges to overcome.

As for all the other abilities regarding being able to accurately size up an opponent, many animals already use sight and smell for this... so there is nothing new here either.