Of Monsters & Nothing

Sorcerers, unlike Wizards, don’t need a fixed object like a wand or staff to channel their magic (see Reyna) but the use of a channel greatly decreases the possibility of backlash (also see Reyna for the consequences) so most use an object either on hand or specifically for this. A Sorcerer’s channel must in some way connect to their type of magic, so using Emil as an example of safe (safer) practices, he usually uses a staff, a piece of wood warped and charred by lightning, but he’s been known to even use coins in a pinch.

People (usually mostly human, people) born with the innate ability to use magic fall under the category of sorcerers, though there are some grey areas with races like Cambion or Soul Collectors where they are by definition half-human but often have the ability to use magic from birth, making them Sorcerers in addition to their race.

Emilius Solomon, Jaxson Matlock, and Reyna Wildes all fall into this category with different schools or focuses to each of their abilities.

Emilius (Wōden Private Investigations) and his family line are descended from the Scholomonar and practice storm magic and Emil, in particular, has a talent for manipulating or conjuring electrical charges resulting in lightning.

Jack (OM&N) being a Cambion has a gift for illusion-based magic that can vary from making objects appear or disappear to creating entirely new spaces within a person’s mind.

The Wechuge are a beast normally found in Athabaskan stories, ranging across most of Western Canada and into Alaska born when a person is possessed or overwhelmed by the power of one of the ancient giant spirit animals as a curse or punishment for becoming “too strong”, though more recent records have found continued cannibalism as the cause similar to their cousin further south, the Wendigo. Some traits vary to some degree depending on which of the spirits took the person over, but they consistently display greying, corpse-like skin patched with frostbite and mange-ridden fur that gets thicker around the shoulders toward the head where the layers are peeled away from a skull that matches the possessing animal. The body itself appears stretched out and perpetually starving with joints almost disjointed and the ice in their veins leads to the odd bone-like protrusions at some joints and old injuries.  The journals have records of a handful of different Wechuge resembling a raven, a wolf, a bear, caribou, elk, or moose, but there never seem to be accounts of more than one beast in each category at any given time with the raven seemingly the oldest.

As Wechuge are born from the continued act of cannibalism, they still prey largely on humans, but with the inescapable cold and hunger that comes with their curse, they will go after pretty much anything with a heartbeat. They hibernate for decades at a time surviving on a stockpile of mostly human corpses, though sometimes the stockpile will include other large mammals as well, such as bears, elk, moose, or caribou. When awake, Wechuge are cunning beasts capable of moving unhindered through trees or across snow and ice virtually soundless and cover long distances in a very short amount of time even dragging two adults at once. They’re ambush predators that mimic the voices of friends and family to lure their victims away from others before snatching them up and disappearing with them. They usually take their victims alive in order to store them away in their stockpile for the next hibernation period, but if needed, they have long claws that can tear through flesh like butter… that saying never made sense to me anyway—they can tear through flesh like pudding or gelatin. Unfortunately, their hunting isn’t deterred by darkness or blizzards as they have near-perfect night vision and magnetoreception allowing them to detect magnetic fields and use them to navigate any terrain. 

The Nimerigar are a race of highly aggressive humanoid creatures predominantly mentioned in Paiute and Shoshone stories, though many cultures across the Americas share similar stories. Often described as dangerous man-eaters and ‘enemies of mankind’, the creatures pretty consistently average a little under a meter tall with an almost lichen hued skin tone, large black eyes, and a wide mouth full of an unreasonable amount of razor-sharp teeth. Reports of the Nimerigar and their cousins are far less common now as their numbers have dwindled since the Westward Expansion in the 19th century, but from what I’ve been able to find, they still live in small tribes where any too sick, old, or injured to continue to contribute are put down with a sharp blow to the head. The camp itself is usually well hidden, but small hunting parties will sometimes venture out at night in search of prey armed with ambush tactics and bows loaded with poisoned arrows, though the type of poison seems to vary from tribe to tribe so you’re better off just not getting shot in the first place. 

Before he was cast from Heaven, Samael stood as one of the first Archangels and was known as the “venom of God”. He was called Malkira: the king of the wicked, messenger of evil, and angel of iniquity, Belkira: Lord of the wall, or Bechira: the elect of evil. He was the accuser, destroyer, and seducer seen as both good and evil as he condoned the sins of man. He was also Lucifer, the light bearer and bringer of Dawn. Legend has it that he once was the commander of two million angels. For his pride, he was cast to the outer rings of Heaven and then from Heaven altogether and tasked with ruling the Judeo-Christian Hell, punishing those sent to him just as he had condemned the sins of man before. He made Azrael, the accidental creation that caused his exile, into his Queen and groomed her into his deadliest weapon. He continued to wage his war on man, building an army of demons of all kinds to fill the empire he built in Hell. Then he died. I don’t know the whole story, but apparently, he went after Azrael, wanted her to come back to Hell with him after she left, but she got tired of running.

Lilith’s first appearance by the name “Lilith” was in the Babylonian Talmud of 3rd and 5th centuries BC, but even before that, she appeared in Mesopotamian Mythology as a non-literal female demon called Lilītu in Cuneiform texts originating from Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia. In the Talmud, she appeared as Adam’s first wife, created at the same time and of the same dust, but she was exiled from Eden when she refused to be subservient to Adam and later had “coupled with” the Archangel Samael. She is considered the mother of many Demonic creatures originating in Mesopotamia known as Lilin, including the Incubus and Succubus.

The Incubus and Succubus are just two names for creatures that appear in cultures all over the world. The Alp in German and Teutonic folklore, the Popo Bawa in Zanzibar, and the Trauco in Chile are all the same Lilin we know so well as Incubi and Succubi. Contrary to popular belief, the species originated in Mesopotamia where they were one of more well known Lilin, hostile night spirits or demons descendant of Lilith.

The story goes that an Incubus will have sex with and sometimes impregnate a woman in order to, according to some older texts, feed off the victim’s life energy similar to the passive genus of Vampires. A Succubus is the female counterpart of an Incubus and will prey on men, sometimes becoming impregnated themselves. Because of this, repeated sexual encounters with an Incubus or a Succubus will cause deterioration of health and later on, death.

A majority of the time, children born of these unholy unions die in birth or are killed by either their demonic or human parent, however, the ones that are allowed to grow into childhood are called Cambion, a specific type of demon/human hybrid.

Lilin are still Demons, and so silver, holy water, pentagrams, and various other protective sigils and symbols will help keep Incubi and Succubi away and burn their skin, however they will not cause the same pain they would to a lower class Demon or force expulsion from a possessed body as, in many cases, they don’t need to rely on possession in order to leave Hell. That I’m aware, there are five ways to overcome or stop attacks all together: exorcism (of the house) and excommunication, sacramental confession, the sign of the cross, recital of the Angelic Salutation, or, you know, moving out.

Most people are familiar with the basic idea behind the Kitsune: a Japanese fox demon with nine tails that can take human form, however, there is far more to them than that. As already mentioned, they’re Japanese in origin and most commonly take the form of a fox with nine tails, but they are not “born” a Kitsune. Simply put, Kitsunes begin life as an ordinary fox and can take anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years to learn to become human, depending on the story. The story goes that once they have lived 100+ years, the fox is granted power beyond normal, including that of shapeshifting, the mark of which is their nine tails. Unlike regular foxes, a kitsunes pelt is usually white or gold and they’re considered wise, powerful, and highly intelligent, while often still being portrayed as tricksters. When it comes to their “power”, they are divided into two groups: Zenko and Yako (good and evil) before being further divided into the 13 different kinds of Kitsune that each have a corresponding element as follows: celestial, void, wind, spirit, and fire. In addition to these abilities, there have also been stories of possession, kitsune-bi or fox-fire, willful manifestation in the dreams of others, flight, invisibility, and the creation of elaborate illusions, though these stories are far less common and harder to verify. Some stories even go as far as to say some kitsunes have the ability to bend time and space or drive people mad, but these particular accusations can often be more accurately attributed to other sources.

Despite being classified as demons, kitsunes are honor bound to keep their promises and strive to repay any favor, though, at the same time, they will often attach themselves to a particular person or household and cause all sorts of mischief. They are also held in high regard as messengers of the goddess Inari or as deities themselves, making a lot of them very prideful creatures despite their generally contradictory or hypocritical existence.

The Aswang is a monster from Filipino mythology that has many variations depending on the cultural source of that particular story. There are, however, a few characteristics that remain the same across the stories. Aswang are shapeshifters, by day they tend to appear as quiet and shy individuals with a dark complexion and a lot of hair, but their eyes will give them away as what they truly are because they’re bloodshot and your reflection in them is inverted. At night they either take the shape of an animal or their true form: an ugly monster with wings they flap loudly when far away and quietly as they get closer. Aswang have to feed every full moon, but it’s what they eat that really warrants their addition to the list of monsters in the world. Aswang will steal and eat corpses, but they aren’t limited to the dead, they like to attack young children as well, replacing them with a likeness made from tree trunks that takes the child’s place for a couple of days before growing suddenly very ill and dying. They prefer to consume the heart and liver, but they aren’t limited to just those nor are they usually very picky.

Spirit Eaters, also called Ghost Eaters in some texts, were a species that quite literally fed on a person’s Spirit, leaving them in a state of wasting that would eventually prove fatal. According to legend, the creatures resided in a state of limbo between this world and what lay beyond the Moira (the “veil”) with no true shape of their own, though there are stories of them taking on the form of animals in pursuit of their prey, an ability called “Spirit Walking”. This paired with their capacity to temporarily take on the traits and abilities of their latest victims made them unpredictable and sometimes quite dangerous. 

There are dozens of different stories as to where the species originated, but no one (known) knows the truth. As False Immortals, Spirit Eaters are perhaps the only subject Soul Collectors and Reapers have agreed on in at least 500 years; once it was learned how to kill one, the two groups combined forces to eradicate the species.

How they managed to kill one of the creatures has, as far as I’ve been able to find, been lost to the ages.

My theory on the wasting state of victims:

Most people today are familiar with the basic concept of a Vampire, but over the years a lot of the lore has become convoluted and confused due both to the vast array of different types of vampire and the media’s portrayal of them.

So a few things to keep in mind before I get into the details:

First, despite what the recent media tells you, there isn’t an inkling of humanity left in Vampires; once they become what they are, humans become food and tools. I will admit that some of the older ones, the ones who choose to contain their appetites, can operate in a grey area of the world, but they are still to be treated the same way you should a wild predator.

Second, and I cannot stress this enough, Vampires shouldn’t be “poked” any more than a grizzly bear should be, not unless it’s your plan to become their next meal.

Lastly, and I can’t believe I even have to say this, Vampires do not sparkle; I almost decked the last person to ask me that.

No one around really knows when or where exactly the first cases of Vampirism began, but by the 1340s with the rise of the black plague, they had become widespread across Europe, making them the perfect scapegoats for the spreading disease. When humans face something they fear, they turn to fantasy, trying to find a way to control something they don’t fully understand; this combined with an inadequate understanding of how a body decomposes let to a series of “Vampire scares” through the centuries coinciding with plague outbreaks. As a body decomposes, the skin shrinks, pulling the gums and other edges back creating the illusion that the teeth and nails have grown, add to this the fact purge fluid created by the internal organs breaking down will sometimes leak from the nose and mouth and it’s not a huge stretch for people of the time to assume the person had risen from the grave to feed on someone. With present day knowledge, such beliefs are almost comedic, but these were much darker times.

Because Vampires have been around for so long they, or rather the Vampire virus, have had the chance to mutate and adapt to different environments across Europe much in the same way any other animal would, a common example being birds on the Galapagos Islands, and just as each culture has their own variation of the Vampire, they each developed their own ways to prevent the Vampire’s rise. Of course, as most of the populations across Europe didn’t fully understand just what a Vampire is, these methods are generally far fetched and ineffective.

In Italy, home to the Strega, plague victims were often buried with bricks in their mouths in an attempt to prevent them from rising again. Germany, where the Nachzehrer generally remained in their graves to chew on their burial shrouds (according to the stories, though actually not quite accurate), they were accused of attacking their surviving relatives through “occult processes” by a Protestant theologian in his tract “On the Chewing Dead” published in 1679. Whether his accusations were founded or not, it led to the exhumation of numerous bodies so that the family could stuff the corpse’s mouth with soil, adding a stone or coin for good measure in an attempt to starve and kill the assumed threat. Though ineffective when it came to warding off attacks by the Nachzehrer, the process did disrupt quite a few trapped spirits causing a sharp rise in poltergeist level activity in the area for a good decade or two after. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a common “anti-vampire” tactic was to remove and burn the heart of the accused vampire, who thankfully was already dead, and mix the ashes into a potion for the afflicted to drink. I doubt it tasted at all okay, but the upside to this practice was that, barring the accidental addition of something that is, in fact, poisonous, the potion likely wasn’t going to kill anyone.

Bram Stoker learned of the story from a friend and scholar and was inspired to pen Dracula, one of the greatest works of fiction involving vampires ever written using a combination of details from the original story and old Irish myths of Vampires and the rest, as they say, is history.

Much of the modern practices when it comes to effectively handling Vampires come from Romania, home to the infamous Vlad Tepes, or Vlad Dracula. Before Vlad Tepes came along though, Romania was home to one of the most brutal and dangerous species of Vampires: the Strigoi. The Strigoi were a big enough threat that Romanian hunters had spent years developing rituals to protect against the Strigoi, but it wasn’t until Vlad Tepes came along that they actually found a way to kill a Vampire. Vlad Tepes ruled Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death and he is highly thought of despite his penchant for putting criminals on stakes, but towards the end of his known life, he contracted the Vampire virus and so began his reign of terror. For centuries, Vlad Tepes hunted the people he had once ruled until Georg Andreas Helwing, a clergyman, physician, and the true life counterpart to Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing, traveled to Romania with the notes from his research on werewolves and vampires, including an anti-vampire technique practiced in Masuria (a region in Prussia that is now a part of Poland) that involved decapitating the corpse’s head and driving a wooden stake through their heart. After a meeting with Helwing, a small band of hunters decided to test the method on Dracula himself, successfully decapitating and staking him to become the first hunters to kill a Vampire. So miraculous was the feat that Dracula’s severed head was paraded through the streets on the end of a pike to show the world that Vampires were not, in fact, immortal as previously thought.

Even though there are a wide variety of different species that all classify as “Vampire”, not all of them drink blood. In broad terms, Vampires feed on the life force of living creatures either via a psychological link or by literally going out and hunting down their prey depending on which species of Vampire they are. Romanian Strigoi and Italian Strega, for example, are both more active feeders while the German Nachzehrer and the first vampires of the colonies are more passive, preferring instead to remain in their nests to feed.

Despite their differences, all Vampires come from the same place; Vampirism is a virus. When someone contracts the virus via the swapping of genetic material like when a Vampire bites someone, it will attack and rewrite the victim’s DNA. This is why Vampires rarely, if ever, feed directly from an open wound, most of them are territorial and prefer not to share their meals or territory with more than a handful of close “family” members and so will not risk turning a stray human. The virus, once in the human’s body, will have an incubation period of one or two months while it prepares the body for the final change, during which time the victim will become hypersensitive to sunlight along with anything that could generally be used to detoxify or purify a person’s system, like garlic, water, cilantro, and certain holy items. After the incubation period, the victim’s body will enter a sort of limbo state during which all body function will appear to cease, though it’d be more accurate to say the body had become like a cocoon for a man eating butterfly. While in this state of limbo, the victim’s body will take on physical changes, for example, the subconscious limits placed on the bodies muscles will be deactivated, essentially granting “superhuman” speed and strength, the canines will become more like a snake’s fangs, hinged and razor sharp, the eye structure will change to better suit nocturnal habits, and most importantly a majority of the bodily systems will shut down entirely. When a vampire feeds, the blood or life force they consume now goes directly into their cardiovascular system. After they wake up a fully fledged Vampire, the person can no longer process any “food” outside of blood and their previous aversion to garlic, holy water, cilantro, etc. will no longer have any effect, though they will continue to avoid sunlight whenever possible.

Very little of what is known of Azrael is still true after the second curse God placed on her. She has many names: Angel of Death, عزرائیل, and Malak al-Maut. She’s believed to command legions of angels and be the one who takes the souls of the dead and returns them to God, watching over the dying so that she may receive them.

In truth, she was the commander of legions of Demons as both the Queen of Hell and Head General of Hell’s armies. She is able to separate a person’s soul from their body as she is one of the only two Soul Eaters in existence, the other being the Horseman of Death.

Azrael is often referred to as the serpent, as in Genesis, due to her untrustworthy ways and the Dragon, as in Revelation, due to her destructive temper.

As she’s very similar to a Seraphim, she possesses three sets of raven wings in addition to a “crown” of horns, but after the fall from Heaven and later the Fall of man and her role in it, God has placed two curses on her that mangled her wings and removed much of her power. In addition, the curses “grounded” her, taking away any possibility for her to fly, planted “madness” in her veins in the form of mercury, and warped the divine cleansing flame she was born with into the devastating Hellfire she contains now.

While in Hell, Azrael was the creator of the original pack of Hellhounds, (seven in all) and was the source of all of the fires of Hell. Remember Dante’s Inferno, the 9th level was ice? Yeah, it’s really like that, her Hellfire will incinerate anything it touches (including souls) and yet it absorbs heat endlessly rather than radiating it.

Some of the other names she’s gone by (that I know of):

Nephthys in ancient Egypt

Hagar: mother of Ishmael and all Soul Collectors

Artemis in ancient Greece

Diana in ancient Rome

Morrigan to the Celts

Mary Magdalene

Kukurihime no Kami

Sandraudiga

Both Mani and Fenris to the Norse (long story, I’m told)

Grace O’Malley

Jane Swanson

Anna Manhattan