#taowu

Hundun is often seen seen as a being of primal chaos from which the rest of the universe was created. As I stated previously, 2 gods (named Shu and Hu) felt bad for him and tried to carve him a new face. Shockingly, this had rather painful results and killed our little chonker. The universe supposedly came to be from his corpse, similar to the world egg. This could lead to the interpretation that Hundun is the world egg and that Shu and Hu trying to give him a face is what caused it to crack.

Whatever the case, he doesn't seem to have stayed dead as he's often reported to be among the creatures that live on the myhtical Mt Kunlun. He runs up and headbutts good people (like a cat), and leans on bad people (also like a cat). Basically baby boi is a six-legged, four-winged, headless, tailless chubby cat.

I also said that he was part of a set of creatures along with Taotie that mirror the 4 Guardian Beasts, so let's talk about those guys while we're at it. Together they're called the Sixiong, meaning 4 Fiends or 4 Evils. As far as I can tell they don't directly correlate with specific guardians (i.e. Suzaku, Byakko, Genbu, and Seiryuu), it's more that the group as a whole mirrors the Sixiang.

First up, Taotie. This guy, as previously mentioned, likes to eat so much he just full on ate himself. Yikes. He's described as looking like an ox with human hands and horns coming out of its back like a hedgehog.

Unfortunately, the next 2 don't have adorable minis, so we'll have to make do.

Something between a tiger and a dog with boar tusks and a human face, Taowu is one freaky looking peice of work, just like his friends. He's extremely stubborn and aggressive, willing to pick a fight with anything he comes across. Luckily, he's also very susceptible to reverse psychology as asking him to eat you will make him refuse out of spite.

Last but not least we have Qiongqi, who is supposedly descended from the Yellow Emperor. He's a huge tiger with wings and horns out the everywhere. It hates righteousness, so if it hears two people arguing it'll bite the head off the one who's right and the noses off everyone who agrees. Then he sidles up to the asshole and starts brining them his kills like a house cat. A massive, horned, man-eating house cat.

One thing I noticed is that while the Sixiong are all really monster-y, the Sixiang are a lot more normal in comparison. Suzaku is a big bird and Byakko is a big tiger. Even Seiryuu, the dragon, is part of a recognizable species. The only member who doesn't always follow this rule is Genbu, what with him being part turtle part snake, but even he is a lot less mixed up than any of the members of the 4 Fiends. It should also be noted that he just gets depicted as a big turtle a lot of the time anyways. An interesting point of contrast, I think.