>>41729483
The copper penis owl.
Basically it's a boogie-man who takes away bad children and puts them in a barrel until sunday. Then at sunday he drains their blood, cook the blood, eat it and then the kid.

>>41729652
I hesitate to ask, but why is it called the "copper penis" owl?

>>41729483
What the fuck is that thing?

I'm a pretty big fan of the Raven Mockers and Spearfinger, from Cherokee folklore.

Or the old Roman Strix, despite how little we know about it.

Also Raw Head and Bloody Bones, who seems like the archetypal boogieman.

>>41729681
I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

>>41729685
an image of an empty field at night.

I had to post a picture after all.

>>41729762
>Raven Mockers and Spearfinger,
I've never heard of those...they sound pretty cool
>Roman Strix
or that.
>Raw Head
reading the Dresden Files is the closest I've gotten to that one
>Bloody Bones
sounds familiar, I'll look it up...

>>41729685
Looks like an owl sitting in a tree.

It's probably just watching the people muck about in the field going, "fucking humans, I'm just watching for food, and they come tromping through with their lights. I hope the goatman gets them."

>>41729483
I remember being a big fan of the Tailypo story when I was a kid.

anyone know some good monsters from the central asian and middle eastern regions?

>>41729808
>>41729762
>Rawhead and Bloody Bones
>Wikipedia search
welp, that's me feeling stupid some more today.

what I have yet to read is how you ward off things like a Raven Mocker or Spearfinger

>>41729795
are you sure?

>>41729871
>I hope the goatman gets them
which one I wonder, as Wikipedia claims there are at least three...

>>41730058
>are you sure?
Well a better translation would be 'copper-penised owl' or 'owl with a copper penis'.

>>41730223
okay, but what does a copper penis have to do with exangiunating and eating children?

Aylesbury Black Dog

A big black dog that supposedly attacked people

>>41730243
I'm quessing the owl also just happens to have a copper penis. Because folklore is often weird like that.

>>41730243
Makes you look masculine and frightening while you do it.

We had one in a small mountain community I visited a few times called the cat lady. There was an old abandoned house no one went near, and if you drove past it fast enough, apparently a cat creature, supposedly the owner of the house, would chase you, moving faster than physically possible, and you essentially had to race her to a nearby bridge, which she couldn't cross, or be killed

>>41730243
He drains them through their penis maybe?

Copper= bloody?

>>41730423
Actually it's an euphemism for a doctor who does abortions with a hooked metal claw. The female equivalent is the iron-nosed witch.

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>>41729681
it has a penis made out of copper

>>41730473
and that right there makes everything make a lot more sense in a properly horrifying sort of way.

what area is that slang from?

>>41730243
I have no fucking idea. There aren't that much stories about this creature but none of them mentions why is he had a copper penis. I mean it's in the name but after that no mention of it. Kind of weird but I'm pretty sure it's just either forgotten or pruned out later from books, etc

>>41730058

Raven Mockers you need a shaman to get rid of. They're usually invisible when they're attacking someone, but a shaman can see through their invisibility. If someone sees them while they're supposed to be unseen, a Raven Mocker drops dead after a few days have passed. It fucks up their mojo somehow.

Spearfinger can't be warded away; at best you can spot the tells in her disguises and avoid her. Otherwise you have to kill her, and to do that you need to know her weakness. Which also applies to the other stonecoat monsters like her. They all have their specialties, but they also all have their unique weaknesses.

>>41730058

Depends what you're looking for from the Middle East. If you want a big, destructive monster they have plenty of those; karkadanns, manticores, griffins, ruhks, etc. If you want something more insidious, they're the region that gave us ghouls, and they come in a number of varieties. Then you've got the more sinister djinn types, along with other regional demons like the shedim or the divs.

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>>41729949

>Tailypo...
>Tailypo...
>Tailypo...
>Tailypo...

GIVE ME BACK MY TAILYPO!

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>>41730314

It is. The Underwater Panther, one of the more powerful water-spirits of the Algonquin tribes, often had a copper tail, though he didn't do anything usual with it. Items made from his tail were supposed to have very powerful medicine, though.

>>41730505
From Miercurea Ciuc/Szeklerburg/Csíkszerda (so from Transylvania).

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The Plains tribes near the Rocky Mountains, such as the Arapaho, believed in an entire race of cannibalistic dwarves that lived in the mountains. Supposedly they would raid and war with the Native Americans, until finally, in centuries long past, a massive alliance of the tribes came together to defeat the dwarves for good.

>>41730631

Fucking Eastern Europe, man. They have some fucked up monsters over there.

Speaking of, you guys ever heard of a Slovakian vampire called the nelapsi?

>>41730579
start with the smallest and the subtitlest and work your way up. I like my folklore that way. these little snippets I'm getting in this thread are great. they're the sort of thing I love dropping into games.

>>41730631
The Owl Woman in the OP is from south central Texas.

>>41730537
>stonecoat monsters
sounds like a subcategory of monsters in M;tG aside from the Stone Man in the Wikipedia page, what are some of the others?

>>41730626
maybe it's the fact that copper is one of those metals that isn't the usual pale whitish color.

and I'm stealing the water panther. it looks promising.

>>41730672
>They have some fucked up monsters over there.
they have them everywhere, even Australian aborigines had to find scary shit to populate their nightmares.

>Speaking of, you guys ever heard of a Slovakian vampire called the nelapsi?
I have not.

another funny thing in hungarian mythology is the devil. The devil isn't the same as THE Satan. Also there are a lot of devils, none of them is really named as far as I know, it's just like there are a lot of evil stuff that are called devils.
And in the folklore people meet them more often then not. And of course the common man with their own common sense always beat them.
Like, how a shepherd put a devil in a bag and beat the shit out of him. Imagine how that devil will explain to his boss

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>>41730721
>Imagine how that devil will explain to his boss
I am suddenly reminded of the Screwtape Letters...

>>41730672
Fucking Eastern Europe. I live here.
What's a nelapsi?

>>41730721
Also some folk tales mention the King of the Devils. He's the one to tell the other devils to stop messing with the protagonist because it's embarrassing how the get screwed over every time.

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>>41730711
>stonecoats

They're a type of monster that crops up with a number of tribes in the southern mountains of the US, but the Cherokee have the most developed tradition.

They're all shapeshifters, or at least capable of some sort of glamour, because they can pass for human. Their natural forms are monsters with impenetrable skin made of stone. They also often seem to be cable of controlling stone. Spearfinger could pick up two rocks and slam them together, fusing them, and if she did this enough times she could create stone archways that she could use to get around in the mountains. Stone Man had his staff, which sought out human blood like a hound, and when he threw it into the air it could extend into a massive stone bridge that he could use to cross chasms or ravines.

They each had their tells. Spearfinger sang a quiet, creepy song that translated as "Livers I eat them" over and over, plus even in her human disguise her right hand was always in a fist with one finger extended. Stone Man was always shuffling along, occasionally pointing his staff around until it got the scent.

And they each had their weaknesses. Spearfinger's heart was in her clenched fist, where it was vulnerable to concentrated fire, while Stone Man was rendered catatonic by the sight of menstrual blood.

When Stone Man was captured, the shaman had him tied/pinned to the ground, then built a bonfire on top of him. As he burned Stone Man uttered all kinds of mystical secrets, and though it took forever, the shamans had the warriors just keep adding wood to the fire until Stone Man died. At the end, the shamans found a blood-red stone in the ashes, which was an item of powerful magic and greatly enhanced their shamanic abilities.

>>41730711

The nelapsi is a vampire that attacks people and cattle by bringing the plague. It was known for wiping out entire herds and villages. Plus, it had a sort of basilisk gaze; it could strike you dead just by looking at you. When entering a new town, he'd often climb a tower or tall building, so he could look down on anyone approaching him. Plus, he had two hearts, and thus two souls. If you only destroyed one heart, he could still come back.

To ward him off you had to set up a "need fire" ritual, where one night, all light in the village is extinguished. If any light remains, the ritual will fail. Then, you light two bonfires at the crossroads, one on either side, and everyone walks between them, or leads their cattle through. This grants them protection from vampires, and any hidden vampires that try to pass between the flames will be paralyzed and fall to the ground at the crossroads, where he should be left for the wolves to devour.

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>>41729483
Perchts

Now they arent realy monsters per se. More living folklore things. Less things suspected to live somewhere.

People dress up as perchts in winter. Usually drunk.

They are allowed to beat people, especialy children, with wicker rods.

Basically they are evil Troll demons, this particular tradition exists in Austria since the middle ages but the idea of Perchta is most likley far older, its speculated that the character of Perchta is a christianized version of a pre Germanic godess of Iron.

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how many mythic monsters could this be?

I visited Lebanon last year and in my hotel the wind blew a curtain that pulled my drink over. It was a weird thing so i asked my mother in law if there were djinn in Lebanon. She was confused but my sister in law's husband who still lives there thought it was hilarious and made ghost sounds. Basically "woooOooo." So i assume people there are aware of them, by that name. Their not Muslim, they're druze. Anyway i thought it was kind of neat. ( I was mostly asking as a joke to my husband who plays games. )

>>41731501
>bald
Not many.

>>41731501

That could easily be a wendigo.

>>41730721
Exactly the same as Russian folklore. A devil is called "chort" and Chort ivory a capital C is The Satan

>>41730968
That is fucking cool man, thanks for sharing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_folklore

Here.

Bastard/Foetus/Flamey/Myling - an undead created born from a unwanted child that was birthed, killed and then buried unbaptized into unhallowed ground. The resulting undead would then haunt the living by causing racket and terrorizing travelers until its body would be exhumed and buried into hallowed ground.

Premonition - a spirit that would travel before its host and do things that its host would in. For example if the host was planning to go to visit someone the Premonition would travel ahead of him and enter the house before its host.

Zealman - a type of shaman who would collapse into mindless rage while doing his magics, while in this rage-trance he would be immune to the pain and do things like slash air with weapons and/or scream like an animal.

Dependent snake - a semi-tame snake that would protect cattle and house. If fed and treated well the snake would ensue that its master would prosper, if treated poorly or harmed it would bring ruin and poverty to its master.

A little more modern, but I've always liked that Melonheads. They usually survivors of some asylum being shut down, the inmates having been abandoned. They've got there huge, bulbous skulls from either cannibalism, inbreeding, or being subjected to weird chemicals and medical experiments.

La llarona/10

>>41731501
Reminds me of the Shadow People business I see on /x/ sometimes. Generally speaking, they're black silhouettes of people, what they want varies in interpretation, but some suggest they feed on fear or negative emotions, so things like clutter or places where bad things happen draw them near.

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>>41729871
Since we've brought up the Goatman I guess I'll post the screencap since no one else has.

>>41734053

You know, there is a creepy shadow-man monster in Seminole folklore.

Tahquitz: A witch/shaman that lived/lives on Mt San Jacinto. Legend claims she is the cause of earthquakes,miscarriages, and drought. There is also a "white man" addition to the witch as it is said that a famous surveyor who was mapping the MT. stumbled upon her hut, and thought she was just another "native medicine man". So he paid her in food and asked between what two women he should marry, his childhood sweet heart, or the daughter of his boss. She told him if he married his sweet heart he'd find peace and love, but that she'd die without giving him children, and if he married his bosses daughter he would have many kids and wealth, he thanked her and left. The man thought he could outsmart fate and merry his boss daughter and keep his sweet heart as his mistress. On his wedding day the witch caused an earthquake the leveled the Saboba Indian reservation and split the earth just north of the Hemet cemetery. The quake killed both the women, swearing revenge he and soem friends, and some pissed off Saboba tribesmen matched up the MT to kill the witch, she soundly kicked there asses. She let them go saying that if any of them stay in the valley they will die there, unless they fallow the surveyor out of the pass he takes to leave. Now a "curse" is put on the Hemet/San Jacinto Valley, that if you are born there you will die there unless you take the correct pass out of the valley. (there are 3 now 4, but Lambs canyon is 100% not a pass she was talking about). If the curse is real thankfully out side of home births no ones been born at Hemet Hospital in 15+ years since they closed the maternity ward.

>>41734101
As shitty as goatmen have become over in /x/ this is still a gem.

>>41734333
Oh? Do tell. Do you at least have a name I can use as a frame of reference?

>>41734497

Sorry, my bad, it was Choctaw, not Seminole.

Anyway, it's called Nalusa Falaya/Na Losa Falaya/Impa Shilup, which means "long black being." It is described as a tall, spindly black humanoid with a shriveled face, small eyes, long pointed ears, and a long nose. It lives in the densest woods, near swamps, away from the habitations of men It is said to slither like a snake or melt into the form of a shadow. It lurks in the long shadows around dusk and when a hunter or passerby draws near it will call in a voice resembling that of a man. The person turns around, sees the Nalusa Falaya, and immediately falls unconscious

While the hunter is thus prostrated on the ground, it approaches and sticks a small thorn into his hand or foot, and by so doing bewitches the hunter and transmits to him the power of doing evil to others; but a person never knows when he has been so bewitched by the Nalusa Falaya until his actions make it evident. What exactly this entails is, in all the stories I can find, kept vague.

The Nalusa Falaya have many children which, when quite young, possess a peculiar power. They possess the power of removing their viscera at night, and in this lightened condition they become rather small, luminous bodies that may often be seen, along the borders of marshes. .

>>41734101
Fuck. I like that story but the number of nights they'd continue to stay out there after that bullshit is impossible to believe.

I'm New Zealand Maori, and we have Taniwha. They're water serpents, that are kind of like sphinxes except some are good and some are bad. They might help you or they might eat you.

>>41734979

I always heard Taniwha were shark-like.

Also you guys have some neat fairy-esque myths as I recall, about nature spirits who all have red hair?

>>41735136

Oooh fuck that's really the limits of my knowledge, but I can't imagine any pacific peoples having naturally red hair. I should ask my father, he's kind of an expert on that kind of stuff. Also, you're right about the Taniwha's form. They're also shapeshifters, though I'm not sure that they can appear human. Pretty sure birds are allowed though.

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>>41729483
My favorite ones in my own's country folklore would probably Noonwrights and Rusalka - a kind of a river fairy that might or might not be actually undead.

My all time favorite folklore creature how ever comes from Irish folklore: The (female) Selkie. I'm not even sure what I find so consistently fascinating about they classic romantic stories about selkies that got their coat stolen.

>>41735176

Well, the red hair thing, as I recall, was supposed to be a sign that the spirits were unnatural, precisely because nobody native to the region would have it. Also, they lived under the sea, and their music was liable to entrance people.

>>41735208

Okay, new lore. Everything in Maori mythology has it's own Mauri, which is its own spiritual energy. There's a parallel universe which has total spiritual opposites to everything in our world, called Te Ao Wairua. Spirits like what you said exist in that world, which is probably what you heard.

>implying any pre-tolkien folklore is relevant to /tg/
please delet this thread

>>41730721
>Also there are a lot of devils, none of them is really named as far as I know, it's just like there are a lot of evil stuff that are called devils.
The "Čert/Chort" deal is actually common to all slavic mythologies as far as I know. In our folklore he is frequently used as basically a comical relief character: incompetent, dumb as hell, stinks of sulphur and at times is even good-natured.
In other cases, he may be masquerading as a nice young man, frequently a hunter or a game-keeper, trying to trick people into signing away their soul.

>>41735310
>implying that you should go fuck yourself

We have several here in Vermont but only one has any fame: Champ the lake monster. He's basically an American version of the Loch Ness Monster. We do have some others like Pigmen, Vampire vines, and "The Awful".

The Awful was a favorite of H.P. Lovecraft. It's basically a huge grey gryphon with a very long snake tail and extra large talons.

>>41735586
>The Awful was a favorite of H.P. Lovecraft. It's basically a huge grey gryphon with a very long snake tail and extra large talons.

Please elaborate on that

Maori Anon here, how could I forget to mention we have a death godess who crushed the demi-god and first human with the obsidian teeth in her vagina.

>>41735136

This is what you're looking for http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/patupaiarehe/page-1

>>41729483
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolpertinger

its more a joke-creature you tell kids about ,so they hunt for the thing. in Hesse they have something similar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwetritsch

This is good shit. Anyone got links to where I can find more international folklore or do I just look up by country of orgin?

>>41736207
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe_hunt

ah thats the english term.

>>41736207
it's like snipe-hunting for american Boy-scouts, we don't have those in the region....

>>41736240
i remember sitting in the garden at night with a friend, armed with a bag and a flashlight to catch a elwetritsch.

My mom was a fucking troll and scared us with weird noises so we went back into the house.

>>41736275
ah memories, just like boyscouts...

>>41736148

Yup, that's them. Knew I didn't imagine it.

>>41736225

Quite frankly, your best bet is cracking open some books. The internet is terrible for this sort of stuff. Too many nerds inventing or modifying the lore for their own ends, then passing it off as genuine.

>>41730537
>Spearfinger
NOPE

nearly every country has the legend about a ancient hero who isn't dead but rather asleep to wake up if the nation is in great danger.

See King Arthur, Charlemagne ,Arminius, Barbarossa etc.

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>>41736467

>Uwe la na tsiku. Su sa sai.
>Liver, I eat it. Su sa sai.
>Uwe la na tsiku. Su sa sai

>>41736425

Thanks for the warning. Guess I'll have to hit the library.

>>41736671
Fuck you. Don't invoke suit you asshole.

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Shitty game dev here, what kind of units would you like to see in a "fairy tale/folklore" faction in an RTS? My current system is to group similar units into relative "tiers" of power and then sort the units in those tiers by relative "levels" of power.
Problem is I'm having trouble coming up with enough units (at least 2) that are similar enough to each other to put them in the same tier. So far I only have the "creepy asian lady" group, the tengu group and the "big furry monster" group. Y'all got any ideas to throw out?

>>41738388
Mezoamerican tier
lvl 1: Alux
lvl 2: Chaneque
lvl 3: Bruja (As in: a lady that practices witchcraft to turn into a turkey kind of bird that is on flames and tries to drink the blood of babies to do that they detach their legs)
lvl 4: Nahual
Captain: La Llorona/Xtabay
Cpt. Power. Xibalba / Mictlantecutli (either you go mayan or aztec)

I guess this one shows a nice progression, kinda stumped for the mid tier since the ones i can recall are either too godly or really low tier.

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After playing S.TA.L.K.E.R., I dove a bit into Eastern European and Russian folklore.
Then I remembered about the Baba Yaga.

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>>41740639
Well, where the groups are currently tiered is fairly arbitrary (at least for this faction, every other faction i've made has been far easier), so I'm fine with some godly or trashy units if it just means swapping some tiers around (the tengus feel at least two tiers too low).

Also, awesome ideas there man, wasn't expecting an entire tier to be filled out so you really went all-out. I never got into too much mesoamerican lore so I'm glad to have this.

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>>41738388
>kappa
>tier 0
>sighingfroggirl.avi

>>41729483
Huldra. Erlking. All sorts of fairy-like but dark creatures. I love the Unseelie Fey.

>>41729681

It's a friend to the brass monkey whose balls fall off to signify the start of winter in english folklore.

>>41738388
Do you tier the creatures by culture or by general qualities? Or both? If that is the last option, it's going to be hard.

However, in the Japanese water monsters, besides Kappa, you can could also place Ningyo (man-fish), the Japanese Mermaid, Isonade (the demon shark), Namazu (the giant catfish that causes earthquake) and Bake-Kujira - a skeleton whale.

In the Crone/Baba Yaga set, you could also have Jezinka (small scale wild woman/witch that lives in damp caves and feeds on children), and Noonwright (Polednice), a on old female creature that wanders around fields and roads at noon and strangles passer-by's or steals children.

>>41731501
its the "cultural enricher"

>>41735586
Fellow Vermonter here. There's something near my house that's like a cat spirit the size of an elephant. Doesn't have a special name because it's not widely known, but stories are similar to Irish cat sidhe and Japanese Nekomata/bakeneko.

Went to Northfield to check out the pigman once. Got lost looking for the devil's washbowl. Old man at the gas station pointed me in the right direction. Got the impression from the people who worked there he spent all day hanging out at the gas station telling people about the pigman.

Never heard of vampire vines or the awful before though.

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>>41742972
They're sorted mostly by culture, and sometimes by general qualities. And then tiers are sorted against each other based off of their alleged levels of power. Tier 0 is the "worker" tier, which won't have any upgrades. I felt Kappas deserved more so I moved them to Tier 1: "Generic Youkai". Thanks for helping with the "evil old lady" tier by the way, managed to fill it out now.
This faction is starting to become the most fleshed out of them all, thanks a bunch /tg/

>>41743104
Not him but I actually thought each tier was a different faction and each level was the relative power level of the unit in each faction.

>>41730655
Ma nigga, is that art from The Ancestral Trail?

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Personally always been a fan of the neck(nicor, nixie, what have you) because I live near a very secluded pond that has something almost fantastical about it. It varies greatly by geography, but they're said to be shapeshifters that could either be malevolent or benevolent, varying from place to place. They could play sweet music and sing in such a way as to leave people entranced, regardless of age or gender, only to drown them. Though that again various on the type you're using, as the Fossegrim(pic related) is one who with the proper ritualistic offering could teach you to play just as well as him.

They could also apparently predit drownings by screaming on a spot in the water, though this again varies as they themselves could cause it. A game could very easily contain variations or even entities shifting between the two.

>>41734101
True or not, It's bright daylight over here right now and I'm still super scared.
Gotta ride my bike 7km to a friend today, and the way back during the night. Fuk

That story would make for an actually good horror movie if made right I think.

>>41736207
>Wolpertinger
Something like that is in Red Dead Redemption, isn't it?

>>41729483
I've always loved trolls, good old scandie trolls, not Gygax regenerating trolls. I love them because they're just a bit shit and that's endearing.

>>41744344
The minor research I've of näcken suggests they originally belonged to a wider family of creatures called Rådare or simply Rå. There were other kinds of them associated with mines, forests, mountains and the like rather than ponds and streams, effectively being typical animist place-associated spirits.

Pacific Northwest stories are comfy. The collection by Chief Lelooska is something I recently dug up from my childhood. The narrator on the CD is amazing.

Red Boys/Lost Boys

Kids that wander off to play in the desert get lost in the dunes, grow weak from the heat and lack of water, die in the red dust and their bodies form new dunes, burying them so no one will ever find them. Their spirits wander the desert, sometimes leading kids back to safety or drawing them further out so they can have someone new to play with forever. They leave red hand prints wherever they go.

Scared the fuck out of me as a kid.

>>41744407
I think there's a jackalope in red dead. Kind of an american version of that

bump

>>41729483
Wendigo was always the most goddamn terrifying to me. My first Cthulhu game, the GM had one stalk us for in-game hours.

>>41732849
I reckon black dogs would work well in a gothic horror game

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_%28ghost%29

>>41751395
Reformatting that link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_(ghost)

Also, being born during chime hours would be an idea to use as a character or NPC attribute

The Tomten.

A small bearded gnome that lives on peoples property. It takes care of the animals and makes sure that the servants follow their orders and is generaly a good guy.

During the longest night of the year you leave an offering of rice pudding for it, if it is not happy with the ammount or if you forget it will murder the animals, drive off the servants and burn your home down

>>41752996
It's "the tomte", -(e)n is a "the"-equivalent suffix. I don't recall the linguistical term for it in English.

The word pretty much translates to "estate-ling" in English, and according to some lore they're the restless spirits of the first person to tend the earth on the spot of the farm it belongs to.

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>>41754142

>>41730968
Stolen for my next RPG.

>>41752996
Nisse in swedish

>>41754551
Or tomtenisse since tomte means santa claus now a days in sweden

>>41754551
>>41754578
Stories about Nissar are quite common in Sweden and i thought i saw some when i was younger (probably just my imagination running amok) but anyway there is a song we sing during christmas.(fairly new but it is funny so why not)

The song basicly details the travels of 10/24(demends on version) nissar that decide to go get the porrigde but all find themselves dying in brutal fashion.
10:Gets cut in half by a fox trap
9:Gets impaled on the threshold by an icicle
8:Slips on ice and slips into the porridge bowl outside the door only to drown in scalding hot porridge
7:Gets eaten by the housecat
6:falls off the kitchen table and splatters on floor
5:trips on his beard and falls face first on a knife
4:trips and falls into scalding hot mulled wine (consumed during christmas) and his skin boils off then he shortly dies there after
3:plays around on the christmas tree and gets set on fire by a candle
2:leaps on a cracker and splatter the ceiling,floor and the drapes with his brain matter
1:Gets squished by the house owner

Anyway a Tomte was the first farmer on the land and he gets mad when he is disrespected but helps around the farm if he is treated well.

>>41730382
>moving faster than physically possible
>race her

The Wendigo is probably my favourite. It's raw shit and creepy. I absolutely hate the /x/ wendigo/skinwalker/goatman because it ruins the name. For instance, no one seems to remember that the wendigo grows in size for each person it eats. Imagine a centuries old wendigo, as tall and thin as the trees of the northern forests it stalks. You could be stalked for hours and never knows. Imagine wendigos getting so big and so old, they become mountains, bent over and covered in ice and rock. Imagine Mt Everest, littered in corpses, was the first wendigo.

I'm actually Irish, though, but I'm not fond of our stuff. It's just boring now. Fairies bore the shit out of me, The ghosts are more interesting, especially famine stuff. Singular creatures are more interesting fairies, which get everything blamed on them.

There's Hungry Men (Fear Gorta, pronounced FAR GORE-TA) who are famine ghosts who go door to door for alms. There's also Hungry Grass, a path of land where a famine victim died. If you walk over it, you're stricken with an immediate, vicious hunger you must sate then and there or die.

The Dullahan is the original headless horseman with a whip made of a human spine and comes straight off a heavy metal album cover.

Lastly, there's the Sluagh, huge clouds of sinners' souls flying like a flock of birds which steal into people's windows and take the souls of the dying for their flock.

I worked in an Irish Folklore Museum for a short time, I'd be happy to try an answer any questions about this stuff, to the best of my ability.

>>41745708

>yfw a Bukwu pops out

>>41755800

Ireland has some great solitary fairies, especially the Dullahan. I've always been fascinated by the theorized connections between him and Crom Dubh, though I've had trouble finding literature on the topic; just fleeting references, here and there.

I've never heard of the Hungry Men or the Hungry Grass, though. Please tell me more about Irish ghost-types. I'd be especially interested to hear any tales about the techniques and methods used by ghost-layers; all the lore I know about them is English.

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>>41742785
naval fact: a Brass Monkey is what cannon balls are stored on so that they don't roll all over the place. when the temperatures lowered enough the dimples that held the cannon balls shrank so that the they would no longer fit, and the stacks fell.

>>41729483
tha Klabautermann, aka water kobold, aka Nix.He is a merry and diligent creature, with an expert understanding of most watercraft, and an unsupressable musical talent. He also rescues sailors washed overboard. though you never want to see one. they only reveal themselves when a ship is doomed.

>>41756946
Dullahan is straight up a ghost, a headless horseman, often carrying his head, throws buckets of blood on those who look at him and flicks out eyes with his spinal whip. He was, more than anything, a harbinger of death, like the phantom coach. If he appeared in an area, someone would die, if you saw him, you'd die or someone you knew would die, etc. That kind of thing. It's appearance that makes him stand out, really. As for his associations with Crom Dubh/Cruach, that's new to me. Not much is even really known about Crom Cruach other than possible human sacrifice and an idol that stood on a plain destroyed by St Patrick.

Consequently, the banshee, who is also a death harbinger, ISN'T a ghost. She's a fairy, her name is an Anglicization of Bean Sidhe (BAWN SHEE), Woman of the Fairy Mound.

As for other ghosts, those I mentioned are the most interesting (at least to me). There's also the Púca, or Pooka, which may or not be a ghost or fairy, was a shape-changing creature that took the form of a great black dog (much like the British Black Shuck or hellhound), horse, bird or cloud of smoke. I remember reading somewhere they can be repelled by gold.

The way it works in Ireland is, if isn't a fairy, it's a ghost. That's pretty much all we've got. Everything spooky came from the Otherworld, which existed in another dimension, but also underground at the same time.

>>41757390
Talking about the harbinger of death, Scandinavia has Pesta which was a hag that would visit villages during the black death and if she had a broom some people would survive but if she had a shovel everybody would die.

Pest means plague in Scandinavia.

Vittra were wights in scandinavia that were unseen and kept to themselves unless angered.

Even though it is rare people still today move locations because they believe their house is built on a vitter house or on their trails which is bad luck.

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>>41757774
forgot pic
>Statues in sweden

>>41757390

Dullahans are the ones repelled by gold, not Pookas.

>>41757812
Oh shit, you're right...

I'm starting to think I read the púca-gold thing in a kid's book, now. I'm almost sure of it.

The Wampus Cat
A Cherokee skinchanger woman who turns into a six-legged magical mountain lion and eats men.

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this gross motherfucker. the Akaname, it shows up in bathrooms that aren't properly cleaned and licks up the grime. it's whole shtick is grossing people out it doesn't hurt any one or eat babies or anything, it just eats filth.

>>41758062
Is this part of Japan's series of bullshit monsters like the giant dirty foot that comes into your house if you don't clean it?

>>41758314
yes, same as the thing with an eye in its asshole. or footwear that comes to life if it's neglected.

Bergsrået were basicly mountain kings/queens (creatures of nature/nature spirit), they would live in mountains with their relatives and sometimes surrounded by trolls.
When men would find iron deposits in the mountains the Rå would confuse them so they could never find the way back to it and sometimes they would kidnapp humans (Bergtagen which literally translates to taken by the mountain).

In 1691 a farmer in Sweden called Sven Andersson was senteced to death after gave the story about how he fell asleep in the mountains only to be woken by a beauty in all white that led him into the mountain where she fed him and had sex with him.

>>41734893
Dude that is pretty fucking metal, I love it.

>>41756946
I don't know why so many Gaelic monsters are either killer horses, killer handsome guys, or both, that also love drowning you. Really specific focus

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The only ones around my area that I can think of are the mothman, and the ghosts of the steel mills, like Slag pile Annie.

The Mothman has a lot of creepy stuff that all happened within like 8 months of a huge bridge collapse in West Virginia

And Slag pile Annie appears in the tunnels in the steel mill where they drive the train through to dump the hot slag.

There's also the ghost of Jim Grabowski, who fell into a foundry ladel, and his cries for help echoed through the mill followed by a laugh, until the place was torn down in the 60s.

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>>41734101
>Sucker for spooky crap
>Dark
>Alone
>Late
>I read this anyways
ahahahahaaaaaaahahahah

That aside, is there a way to properly use something like this in a game like D&D where characters have power and are used to solving problems by killing them? Obviously, setting the tone would need dimmed lights and unsettling ambient music/sounds. How can you drop hints without the players either not catching them and ignoring the beastie or immediately quadruple-checking everyone? Obviously it requires some disposable NPCs to be introduced and join the party.

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>Philippines
>Syokoy
Essentially Deep Ones from H.P. Lovecraft
They are said to live in the seas and rivers near the sea. They attack and drown people.
This short wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siyokoy_(Philippine_mythology) sums it up
Back in my home town there have been /x/ tier drownings

>>41765200
Flips have some fucked up monsters.

Am Fear Liath Mór, the Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui is a Scottish ghost/monster that stalks people bearing the peak of Ben MacDhui. It fills hikers with crushing, terrifying dread and is apparently very tall and hairy.

>>41762123
Plenty of killer women, too. The fairies were all gorgeous, except when they were monstrous, like the Merrow who was a straight up Deep One fishman in some legends, and a merman in others. Banshees were beautiful death harbingers, but there were also spooky scary death/phantom coaches.

I suspect the drowning aspect is due to most Gaelic legendry coming from Celts living on islands, like Ireland, Britian, Isle and Man, etc. Bogs a-plenty to lose children in, dangerous cliffsides and Atlantic storms.

>>41730518

So you can tell him apart from the ordinary owls of course.

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Olgoi-khorkhoi, the Mongolian Death Worm, which I think may have been the original sandworm. A giant bright red worm that usually sleeps deep under the Gobi Desert but wakes up during the summer to hunt, traveling underground and displacing sand as it goes. It is intensely poisonous, to the point where just touching it is enough to kill you. It can also corrode things. My favourite bit is its ability to kill at a distance, whether by spewing venom or with some kind of electronic discharge.

>>41767799

It's also only supposed to be a couple feet long,

>>41755778
In a car. But she's running at like 80 mph

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"Witte wieven" are a dutch folklore thing, their name roughly translating to "white women".

They're commonly thought of as banshees/ghosts/witches.
They're also thought of as 'wise women' and linked to mist.

I don't know a lot about them and they're not exactly commonly known in the Netherlands.

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"hush now, go to sleep"
"eyes shut, don't you peep"

"hush now, or he just moans"
"raw head and bloody bones"


in the confederate south, an undead demon thing supposedly hunts children who wake up at night to misbehave

the above is chanted to slave children

>>41771994
He's seen some shit

>>41771994

Raw Head and Bloody Bones is originally British, and has clearly be carried over to the US by immigrants. However, while Raw Head in Britain was a ghastly ogre with a mangled face who hid in basements/attics/closets/etc and ate children, the US version is very different. In the US, he's the slaughtered corpse of a boar, brought back to life by a witch, who has added bits and pieces from other corpses onto himself, creating a semi-humanoid patchwork undead horror.

>>41752996
>The Tomten
It's a gnome.
Also called (a) 'Vätte' or 'Tomte' in Swedish.

Don't know if that one is specific to my country but here goes
In the North of France "la Dame Blanche" (the White Lady or Lady in White) is a ghost that appears on the side of a road where she died. If you pick her up, she'll stay in your car and speak with you as normal until the moment when you pass the place where she died. At that point she'll just scream and disappear.
There are several places where she's frequently reported, even today.

In the South, I think she curses you if you don't stop or something like that.

The name is also shared with our version of Bloody Mary.

>>41775781
That's a Phantom Hitch-hiker. It's a pretty common legend, appears around the world a lot, especially in the US. It usually goes the way you told is, but there's a few small differences in some. In some stories, the backseat where the hitch-hiker sat is left wet, or something is left behind, or after some time, the passenger vanishes suddenly. I've always read it that the ghostly passengers are quiet and non-talkative, it's interesting your ghost talks.

>>41729483
>>41749009
I love the Wendigo, especially if you're playing Pathfinder. With such a high CR for a single creature, you can have the Wendigo haunt to PC's from the get-go, and actually have them bring it down when they get to higher levels.

They catch glimpses of it all the time, they know it's watching them, but they don't know what It is, and it's only a matter of time before they meet it. They ask village elders, rangers and druids, none of whom can give them real insight, some speak of legends, others revert to quivering messes, half speaking in tongues and recalling nightmarish encounters.

The Wendigo is patient.
The Wendigo will wait.
The Wendigo will feast on your dreams.
And you will feast as the Wendigo does.

If you bring one to your game, a Wendigo is also a cheap, and easy cop-out for killing off a PC who's tired of their character, or a good way to let your PC's know they've strayed too far from the path.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JQpE7n6eUk

nuckelavee oh nuckelavee

We got nature spirits, lots and lots of nature spirits but not much else.

I read a story about a tribe of pygmy, milky white indian that hunted during the night and hid in the day because they couldn't stand the sun. They weere cannibal and ate a whole bandeira (an exploration squad), except for one guy, because one of them got the hots for him and hid him in her cave. Day in and day out he'd wait for the opportunity, and when it showed up, he ran the fuck away.

Also, the headless mule, a woman cursed for seducing a priest, who transforms into a lightning fast, headless mule/horse. Out of its neck comes a fierce fire. They say that in order to avoid attacks, you need to hide tooth and nail.

Three-legged horse, a headless, winged horse with only three legs. I don't know much about this one, but it is said that whoever steps on his tracks would be forever unhappy.

Little blackhand, a sort of weird spirit in the form of a (not little) black hand. Sometimes it'd be helpful and help with the hoursework, but angered it would pinch the fuck out of you and fuck up everything.

The werewolves are the first male child after six or seven daughters. In one night, it must run accross seven villages, cemiteries and cross roads in order to go back to being human.

Dry-Body, a man that was so fucking evil that when he died, both satannd god said "Nah, get the fuck out m8", and the earth itself refused to eat his body. Eventually he stood up and went back to wander the earth, an embodiment of evil, bringing misfortune and suffering

hue hue.

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>>41729483
Witte Wieven (White Women), are a kind of spirit that inhabits swamps, cairns and barrows.
They appear like mist-like women clad in flowing white garbs. White Women will kidnap mortal women to dance with them in the mists for all eternity.

But theyre not always described as pure evil. Sometimes they help women in labor. There are also stories describing how they let their victims go under a certain condition. Of course in the stories, fate usually conspires to make the victim fail this condition, after which she's forever a White Woman, forced to dance with her sisters in the mist.

>>41731620
>Druze
My nigga

>>41734893
That's awesome, never heard of that before.

>>41752996
I've heard that in Austrian traditions they would attack people with mining tools and drink blood from the open wounds. This mixed with the Longest night of the year thing, and another tradition in involving a horned king figure asking you questions about the bible, and if you got them wrong he'd beat you with coal, and turned into tomtin drinking your blood after attacking you with cole if you didn't know your bible.

Few hundred years later they're christmas elves.

>>41755778
>>41755778
>Human beings are only limited by the laws of physics as to how fast they can run and not by their own bodies

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Witte Wieven (White/wise women)

They're the spirits of female herbalists and medicine healers, appearing as either a completely white woman or a tendril of thick, white mist.

These spirits resided at dolmen, tumuli and other sacred places. Whenever there was mist on one of these hills, the locals believed they were the spirits of these wise women and offered them sacrifices and gifts

Later, the church started portraying these beings as evil, white witches, dancing on the hills at night and spreading Satan's word. The locals still continued believing in the benevolent women though.

Witte Wieven are also known as pranksters to the extreme, doing things such as changing children at birth.

>>41781739
>>41786721
Oh shit you beat me to it

>>41786732
B-but I beat you both >>41771871
While providing shit for information, so thanks for giving more

>>41786752
This only proves that dutch folklore is the best folklore

VELUWE
E
L
U
W
E

Der Blutsauger is an old favorite of mine. It's a boneless vampire. It uses its lack of bones to creep under locked doors and suck peoples' blood. It might also drag them away and force them to eat dirt from its grave, turning them into another blutsauger.

I use them in my setting as one of the vampure derivatives (there's a fucking ton of them, each culture has some sort of unique one)

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>>41730493
Oh

>>41788653
I like this one. Gonna look it up.

>>41751395
>>41751433
so, does anybody know what the big deal is with black dogs and the british?

is it like, some secret mascot for them or something?

>>41793869
Well there's the Grim, a large black dog that would prowl around cemeteries at night and its howl would be an omen of ill fortune.

Those might stem from that legend or it could be they had large black wolves that became extinct before the modern day.

>>41749009
It's Skinwalkers for me. They're like the monster equivalent of hallucinations (because you can't trust the evidence of your senses) combined with the uncanny valley (it looks human but is most definitely not)

>>41758524
>>41758314
>>41758062
Silly baka gaijin
Everyone knows the best yokai is the Gashadokuro. A 90 foot tall skeleton made of the bones of those who starved to death, whose presence prior to imminent spooking is heralded by a ringing in the ears

>>41729483
Here we have a monster that would be called "Headless Mule" in English.
When a woman had a case with a catholic priest, she would be transformed into a mule which head was replaced by flames every night. It would run seven times per night, especially during full moon.
To break the curse, one would have to make it bleed, even with a needle. Then, the mule would turn into a woman and cry.

>>41729483
You might enjoy these:
>Romani Demons
http://www.bogleech.com/halloween/hall14-ana.html
>Aliens from UFO sightings
http://bogleech.com/realaliens.html
>The Nuckelavee
http://bogleech.com/nuckelavee.html
>Weird vampires
http://www.bogleech.com/blather-sillyvampires.html
http://www.bogleech.com/blather-vampires.html
http://www.bogleech.com/blather-vampires2.html
>A few youkia
http://www.bogleech.com/blather-youkai.html

Personally I'm fond of the various Boogymen creatures, things that parents threaten will kidnap naughty children. Krampus and Uncle Gunnysack in particular.

Us Cree have a lot of spirits and monsters (almost everyone knows the Wendigo), but around Lac La Ronge the Woodland Cree speak of the Memekwesiw, which are creatures that look similar to a toddler, except missing a nose. They are said to live in hollowed out caves along the shore. They are teachers who taught people to be at one with nature, and leave herbs for the sick.


We also have Apiscinis, which are strong and hairy dwarves who will either lead hunters and children into the forest to be lost, or lead lost people out of the forest, depending on their mood.

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I've always been partial to the Cherufe, a Chilean volcano-monster that demands virgin sacrifices, and can only be beaten using swords made of magical ice.

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The source is Skullkickers. Highly recommended.

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>>41800126
Put these in the wrong order I think, but whatever.

>>41734416
I live out in Huntington Beach, quite a few miles from Hemet. Place has some really neat folklore and urban legends. Doesn't help that people dump bodies in the valley all the time.

California and the western US in general has some neat folklore and urban legends.

>>41800954

Care to elaborate on any?

>>41800126
>>41800147
Damn is he toting magic bullets
Also, whoops can't have someone shown shooting a woman, even if she's evil

>>41730968
Fucking fascinating.

Around here (points to whoever knows where that is) we have the Blue People. The thing with the Blue People is there aren't any stories about them. There aren't any legends associated with sightings or any of the other trappings usually attached. There isn't even any more detail beyond them being "the Blue People" We don't talk about them.

It's just that, once in a while, we'll be talking about something, like other region's cryptids, and we'll be all like, "Man, that's cool. All we have is the Blue People." Then we'll all stop talking, realize we don't actually have anything to say about them, then move on to something else.

What we don't do is wonder how we all know about them without having any kind of story to go with them. We don't worry about why we don't remember first hearing about them. And we especially don't talk about what they might actually be.

In conclusion, J-Town is weird, and apparently the rules don't apply to typing.

>>41736510
Most likely because such an entity truly exists.

Also most likely that entity is a personification of the ascendant consciousness that lies dormant in humanity.

>>41801041
This >>41801233 counts.

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How about the Cegua?

>The Sihuanaba, La Siguanaba, Cigua or Cegua is a supernatural character from Central American folklore.

>When encountered, she is a beautiful woman who is either naked or dressed in flimsy white; she usually appears bathing in a public water tank, river, or other water source, although she may also be found washing clothing. She likes to lure lone men out late on dark, moonless nights, without letting them see her face at first. She tempts such men away from their planned routes to lose them in deep canyons.

>In Guatemala, the Siguanaba appears as a beautiful, seductive woman with very long hair. She will not reveal her face until the last moment, when it is revealed as a horse's skull. If her victim (usually an unfaithful man) does not die of fear then he is driven mad by the sight. From afar the Siguanaba can imitate the appearance of a man's girlfriend in order to lead him astray

>Traditional methods are said to ward off the Siguanaba. In the border regions between Guatemala and El Salvador, those who see the Siguanaba make the sign of the cross upon her or bite their machete, while simultaneously banishing both the evil spirit and the fear that grips the victim.

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>>41801934
I dunno, it's a pretty common theme. Reminds me of the Yuki-onna, which in return reminds me of Yoko Ono, and I am forced to assume that the free-association means she's some kind of vampiric ice witch...

My town has always told kids that trolls live under the I-5 bridge. They're really meth-addled drifters that periodically get run off when the latest batch steps too far out of line, but the troll story keeps kids away.

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>>41742997

>>41801071
Actually, he is. It's kind of a spoiler, but he made a pact with a dark entity to get a gun that can kill anything.

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>>41729483
While not terribly original, the Native Americans around here have various stories of a local Skin Walker who's been terrorizing the tribes for centuries. To this day they refuse to speak his name.

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I always liked the Piasa bird. I think its pretty terrifying since its forty feet long and could pick you up quite easily.The native Americans came up with some weird shit

>>41734416
>Mt San Jacinto
I hold the line...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwPRC2xJrE0

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>>41805590

Actually, the Piasa bird was a white man's invention.

The original painting no longer exists. It was destroyed several times and re-painted, and some of the later paintings were done by white settlers, so it's unclear if the later versions really resemble the original. The earliest written description is as follows:

>They are as large As a calf; they have Horns on their heads Like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard Like a tiger's, a face somewhat like a man's, a body Covered with scales, and so Long A tail that it winds all around the Body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a Fish's tail. Green, red, and black are the three Colors composing the Picture.

Note there is no mention of wings. In fact, the description is very similar to art of the Underwater Panther, a major water spirit for the local Algonquin tribes. Pic related is a typical Underwater Panther depiction.

The only known "legend" about the Piasa bird (and where the term "Piasa bird" first shows up) was written by John Russell, who was an Illinois professor of Greek and Latin, with no background in Native American studies. A man who DID study Native American culture, one W. McAdams, said in his book "Records of Ancient Races in the Mississippi Valley" that he had contacted Russell about the legend and Russell had admitted he made it up.

Given the painting's proximity to water, and given it was near the southern border of Algonquin territory, it's likely it was intended as a warning or signpost. Rivers were major highways to the Native Americans back in the day. The Algonquins probably put a picture of one of their most fearsome water spirits up at their border with the meaning of "Now entering Algonquin territory. You have been warned. Anger us, and anger the Underwater Panther."

La calabacita
A ragdoll with a pumpkin head that flies at night on a magical pillow and protects sleeping children from nightmares
Dunno why but it always creeped me out

El guije
Little immortal African kids with skin as dark as the night and dreadlocks that reach their feet. Live in ponds and brew herbal teas with magical properties. Are also huge perverts and kind of assholes.

Cucumi
Taino clay idol that comes to life on sundays and takes people away for 12 hours to different points in the past, however it will try to escape and one can only return if at the end of the 12 hours they are holding onto him as he makes his way back

La Atenea
A mundane bust of Athena that makes anyone who sees it believe that it is worth an invalculable abount of money and fills their heart with greed (works kinda like the one ring)

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>>41730058
>anyone know some good monsters from the central asian and middle eastern regions?

This is greatly delayed, but I can re-post some stuff I once wrote up for an older thread. I'll start with stuff about the djinn.

>The traditional view of djinn as individuals is that they are like humans, but have very poor impulse control. Being made of fire, they’re supposed to be as mercurial, dangerous, and unpredictable as fire is. Consequently they get bored with things very quickly, and sometimes fail to properly think through their actions. There are many stories of djinn falling in love with humans, but failing to realize how destructive their affections can be.

>As for their society, it is more or less like ours. Djinn can be good or bad (though even the good ones can be dangerous and unpredictable). Often in folklore “good” is associated with “has converted to Islam,” but the point stands that they can choose to be good or bad, and even that they can choose their religion. The idea of “good” djinn usually involves them realizing how destructive their nature can be and consciously attempting to practice self control, with varying degrees of success.

>One thing you may have seen is references to different classifications of djinn. In D&D, for example, they are regularly divided amongst the elements, with djinn being associated with air, ifrit with fire, and marids with water. This has little to do with actual folklore. All djinn were thought to be made of “smokeless fire,” while mankind was made from (depending on the source) mud or a blood clot. In the folklore these terms have different meanings. A “marid” is merely an exceptionally strong and powerful djinni. The term for malicious djinn is usually “shaitan,” though “ifrit” is sometimes used in this way as well. Ifrit, however, has other connotations, which I will mention later.

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>>41809052

>What precisely djinn can do is rarely spelled out in the Arabian Nights, but then the stories don’t go into much detail in general. This is because they are folktales, and folktales often are light on details because they are really just the skeletons of a story, a summary provided for the storyteller, who will creatively inject his own details.

>Still, there is contextual evidence for what they can and cannot do, even if this is never enumerated. If you pay attention, they usually display the same powers in their stories: flight, invisibility, great strength, great speed, possession of humans, and shape-shifting. “Wishes” are based less on djinn conjuring something from nothing (a power reserved for god) and more on the idea that they used these aforementioned skills. For example, Islamic tradition has it that King Solomon commanded the djinn and ordered them to build the great temple of Jerusalem. They had to actually assemble it, not just make it appear, but due to their powers they could assemble it very quickly. The djinni in the original version of Aladdin does the same thing when ordered to construct a palace.

>If you order a djinni to do something too complex for him to accomplish, he may call up his family members or friends to assist him. He may also just bully lesser djinn into it. If you order a djinni to make you rich, he may give you some of the vast treasures he has accumulated over his long lifetime (in stories djinn often guarded hidden treasure caches) or he may simply take the riches you desire from somewhere else. The point is, djinn can’t just pluck whatever you want out of the ether. They have to find it and bring it to you. This can lead to complications, especially if the mountain of gold they just gave you came from the local sultan’s treasury.

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>>41809085

>The general concept of ifrit is that they are very similar to djinn, though they tend to be more hostile towards humans and prefer to life in more desolate regions and ruins. However, in a modern Egyptian ethnography, I came across an interesting belief: ifrit are ghosts.

>In Islam, the general interpretation of the theology is that upon death your spirit is immediately judged and taken to paradise or cast into hell. There are, in short, not supposed to be any such thing as ghosts. But the idea that ghosts exist is old as dirt, and it’s one that never seems to quite go away. The result is that the tradition underwent a modification. People still believed in ghosts, but when the local Imam came around asking questions, folks could simply refer to ghosts as a type of malicious djinn.

>As a result, ifrit are often associated with abandoned (haunted) houses, murders, premature death, and the other paraphernalia of ghosts and hauntings. How you would like to use them is up to you; you could stick with the “evil djinn” angle, explore the ghost concept, or perhaps try for some synthesis of the two.

>For a good physical description of an evil djinn version of the ifrit, one is given at length in the Arabian Nights tale “The City of Brass.” The picture here is of the ifrit himself, half-imprisoned in a stone pillar, but the description is:

>“And as they were proceeding, one day, they came to a pillar of black stone, wherein was a person sunk to his arm-pits, and he had two huge wings, and four arms; two of them like those of the sons of Adam, and two like the fore-legs of lions, with claws. He had hair upon his head like the tails of horses, and two eyes like two burning coals, and he had a third eye, in his forehead, like the eye of the lynx, from which there appeared sparks of fire. He was black and tall..."

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>>41809150

>There are two views on where djinn live. They are said to live in hidden or out of the way places, such as ruins, wastelands, pits and holes, etc. They are often associated with filth and unclean places. Indeed, there’s an old tradition that one should not piss into holes because djinn like to live in them, and a djinni you just pissed on is unlikely to be very forgiving. For the most part, djinn move amongst us unseen, and there are many precautions to be taken because of this.

>Djinn living alongside humanity as invisible spirits is the most common view, but there are also stories about their homeland, an otherworld comparable to Europe's Fairyland. In medieval Muslim cosmology the known world was surrounded by the ocean, and the ocean was surround by a vast ring of mountains called the Mountains of Qaf. These mountains were thought to be made of pure emerald or chrysolite, and subterranean passages connected them to all the other mountain ranges on earth. The regions in and around these mountains was known as Jinnistan.

>Whether Jinnistan and the Mountains of Qaf actually existed in the same reality as our world is unclear; there's a hadith in which Ali asks Muhammad this flat out, and Muhammad's answer is cryptic.

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>>41809192

>Jinnistan itself is a wondrous land, full of many different kingdoms and clans of Jinn. According to a Persian story, there is a kingdom of Peri, the fairy-women of Persian folklore, with a province called Shad-u-Kam, which includes cities like Juherabad and Amberabad (Jewel-city and Amber-city). There's also a rival kingdom of divs, Persian demons, whose capital is Ahermanabad. Various other territories and cities are mentioned in other legends and stories, including the vast, twin emerald cities of Jabulqa and Jabulsa.

>Getting to Jinnistan is as difficult as getting to Fairyland. Sailors can sometimes find themselves shipwrecked there, there's the underground tunnels leading there, if you can find them, and supposedly there's a desert shrouded in eternal darkness that takes four months to cross, but if you come out the other side you can reach Jinnistan. Lots of Arabic folktales involve heroes or hapless passersby stumbling into underground vaults that seemingly lead to vast palaces and other worlds underground, usually inhabited by the djinn, and these can be interpreted as portals to Jinnistan.

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>>41809260

>The ghul of Arabian folklore may have given rise to our use of the term for hideous undead monsters, but the original was not undead at all. Middle Eastern folklore is actually fairly light on the shambling corpses. Ghouls were sometimes described as a type of djinn, but in stories they tended to be more physical. The term was usually used to refer to hairy, savage, cannibalistic creatures that lived in the wilderness, more comparable to ogres than anything else. The connection to the undead probably comes from stories of them scavenging graveyards and battlefields for human remains.

>They did sometimes have some magical associations. It was thought they could shape shift, often travelling in the form of a hyena, and female ghulas could take the form of beautiful maidens sitting by campfires near lonely roads at night, waiting to lure in human victims (though of course they always had some sort of tell that gave away the disguise). Striking a ghoul once would kill it, but striking it a second time would return it to life. If you could trick a ghula into nursing a human baby, the child would never have to fear ghoul attacks ever again.

>Ghouls have a fair number of ways they can be used or reinterpreted. They can be a simple physical threat. They could also be a race of savage demihumans shunned by civilization, playing the same role as ogres or orcs would in traditional fantasy. Or maybe they live in warren-like cities under human ones, raiding graveyards and living off humanity’s leavings like rats. You can also toy with their powers. Perhaps they don’t shapeshift, but instead conjure mirage-like illusions.

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>>41809283

>In Persian folklore there is a race of all-female fairy-like beings called peri. Peri are incredibly beautiful, live off of sweet smells and perfumes instead of food, and often live in magical underground caverns. They are sometimes depicted as having brightly colored bird wings. They are strongly associated with water and greenery, with large fountains and gardens being prominent features in their hidden caverns. The water from the fountain of the peri Banu, who was a lover to the hero Prince Ahmed, could magically cure all ills.

>Their precise origins are a bit murky. The oldest tradition they can be traced to is a group of evil hag-like spirits, but before that it’s thought they might have been minor gods of forest and stream. By the time Islam became commonplace the most popular explanation was that they were fallen angels who were seeking redemption, aiding humans in the hope that this would earn them a way back into paradise.

>Despite all being female, peri are sometimes associated with djinn. Peri Banu, for example, had a powerful djinn for a brother. However, they were of older stock then djinn, and are more often associated with Zoroastrian spirits, such as the demonic divs, who would imprison them in iron cages where they would eventually die of sorrow (though it would take a while since peri could live for thousands of years).

>>41729483
Around here we have the usual haunted houses and stuff, and one house is supposed to be haunted by an old lady that watches over/grabs children from the elementary school down the road. Don't know if she has a name, though.

As for ones I like, Australian Aborigine stuff, though I can't say I know a ton about it.

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>>41809303

>Divs were the demons of Persia, monstrous, warlike Zoroastrian spirits who served the evil god Ahriman. They waged a constant war against the Holy Immortals, spirits in service of the good god Ahura Mazda. They came in a multitude of colors, and often displayed a mix of human and animal features, usually sporting horns, shaggy hair, cow/lion tails, and a pattern sort of like leopard spots on their hide.

>Zoroastrianism was a dualistic religion, which sorted the entire world into “good” and “evil” categories. Divs were associated with all the things considered evil in Zoroastrianism, capable of shapeshifting into reptiles, insects, rodents, scavengers, cats, and really anything associated with death or disease. This is not to say they didn’t have other powers. The most famous of the divs was probably the Div-e Sepid, or “White Demon.” He defeated an army by controlling the weather, and then blinded the king. The famous Persian hero Rostam eventually killed him, and used the demon’s blood to cure the king’s blindness.

>>41736425

Got any recommendations on good books?

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>>41809357

>The karkadann (which is Persian for “lord of the desert,” though it is also sometimes called a karg) is an extraordinarily useful monster for a storyteller, because it has multiple variations that can be drawn on. They are the predecessors of the European unicorn, the result of travelers’ tales about rhinos. Such stories were misinterpreted over time, but the original karkadann still has a lot in common with the rhinoceros. It has a single large, curved horn, is quite large and aggressive, and shares the same habitat as elephants (though they also were often described as living in the open desert as well). Due to some translation errors, the karkadann was also sometimes described as being a horned wolf-like creature.

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>>41809465

>Of course, this being myth, things went further. The rhino’s aggressive nature was expanded to include a predatory one; karkadanns sometimes ate the creatures they killed, especially elephants. One common anecdote about their great strength was that they would spear elephants on their horns and then lift them up into the air (the wolf-like version just hunted them in packs). There are quite a variety of other myths. The song of the ringdove would supposedly sooth the savage beast, and they would lie for hours under trees where the birds roosted. When finding water after a long trip through the desert, the karkadann would cry tears of blood that would fall into the water as it drank and turn into red gemstones. Like the unicorn it later inspired, it supposedly was gentle around virgins, and cups made from its horn could stave off poison or disease.

>They provide many options for a storyteller. The heroes may need to slay one, like the legendary Persian warrior Isfandiyar (who killed two). They may attempt to follow one to an oasis, where they can collect the valuable tears of the karkadann. If the story takes you to a caravan, perhaps they carry cages full of ringdoves with them in the hopes of pacifying any marauding karkadanns they might meet in the desert. Or perhaps domesticated rhino-esque karkadanns could be part of the setting as fantastic beasts of burden, or wolf-esque karkadanns could be used as fantastical hunting dogs.

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>>41809484

>The creatures usually translated as “dragon” in Middle Eastern stories are fairly indistinguishable from huge serpents, though art of the time often gave them legs. They were treated as large and dangerous animals, but they did not have wings or breathe fire. They usually weren’t that big, aside from one particular specimen. It was killed by Isfandiyar, who hid in a spike studded carriage that the dragon swallowed whole; it stuck in the creature’s throat, at which point Isfandiyar opened the door and hacked his way out. They did tend to be venomous; the blood from the dragon Isfandiyar killed nearly killed him in turn because it was so toxic.

>The closest thing to a truly gigantic dragon would have been the triple headed demon-monster Azi Dahaka. Dahaka was a div-like demon from Zoroastrian mythology, bigger and more dangerous than any of the others. Descriptions of him are vague, but often suggest both a humanoid and a reptilian nature. He was ultimately defeated by the divine champion Thraetaona, though not without difficulty. Azi Dahaka’s scaly hide was filled with a plague of snakes, toads, scorpions, and other hideous creatures, which would spill forth from any open wound, enough to cover the entire planet if Dahaka died. Thraetaona solved the problem by imprisoning the monster beneath a mountain until the end of time, at which point it would escape and have to be killed for good.

>Older, more titanic dragon myths are common in ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian traditions.

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>>41809517

>Manticore” is derived from Persian “martyaxwar,” Which translates as “man-eater.” It’s widely thought to be based on traveler’s tales from India of the Bengal tiger. It is traditionally depicted as a red lion with the face of a human being and a tail that was either A) like that of a scorpion, B) like a flail, with the tip covered in a clump of venomous quills that could be fired at prey or C) as a great squirrel-like brush of a tail, covered in the same venomous quills. It had a rapacious appetite, shredding the flesh of its prey with three rows of teeth, and in European bestiaries was associated with gluttony and wrath.

>Its most magical quality was its prodigious leaping. The old anecdote went that “no four walls could hold it.” There are stories of manticores easily leaping the walls of great fortresses, and even one of a manticore jumping to the moon and back. This leaping ability is often replaced with bat wings and the power of flight in modern interpretations, which I’ve always found a bit mundane in comparison.

>Manticores are not complicated creatures. They are voracious predators that exist to ruin your day

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>>41809531

>The basilisk is not a native Middle Eastern monster, but it is strongly associated with the area in medieval bestiaries. Plus, it was the old Arabian Muslim empires that first preserved a lot of the old Greek texts, so they'd certainly be familiar with the monster.

>A small serpent, about a yard long, it was the most venomous creature imaginable. Its breath could pollute any lake it drank from. Its gaze could kill or split stone. A single bite was instantly lethal. Even its blood was supernaturally deadly; a mounted warrior who stabbed a basilisk would find its poisonous essence flowing up through his weapon, into his arm, and through him into his horse, killing man and animal. The basilisk was thought to live in deserts, not because it favored the environment, but because its presence created them, reducing the greenest forest to barren earth.

>The word “basilisk” means “little king,” and the snake was widely considered the king of its kind. It naturally preyed on other snakes, and so its coming was announced by an exodus of serpents fleeing its presence. It even kept the front third of its body raised off the ground as it slithered along and had a small crown-like crest on its head. Later version of its legend conflated it with the similar cockatrice, and sometimes made it a more lizard-like monster, which is where the D&D version comes from.

>I’ve always thought the oldschool basilisk could make an interesting weapon. Imagine if one could be handled safely, and its deadly gaze turned on your enemies. Perhaps you could mount one on the walls of your city, where it could strike entire armies dead. Also, mirrors could deflect its gaze in multiple stories. Imagine a trap that is a hall of mirrors, and as you wander through it you step on a switch. Several alcoves begin to open, and each one contains a basilisk, whose death-ray vision will bounce off the cleverly-angled mirrors, killing everything in the room except themselves.

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>>41809577

>The rukh (also called the rokh or roc) is one of the classic Middle Eastern mythical creatures. The rukh was a gigantic eagle, so big that it could hunt whales, elephants, and dragons. In the case of elephants, it would lift them high into the air and drop them back to earth, before settling down to pick at the smashed carcass. They were very wrathful creatures, dropping huge boulders on anyone who attacked them or their eggs. They could also be used for transport, as in the well known Sinbad story where he straps himself to one’s leg using his unwound turban. Eating the flesh of a rukh was supposed to have a rejuvenating effect on a man, restoring a part of his youth.

>You could use rukhs for a number of things. In a more fantastical setting domesticated ones could be used as weapons of war or aerial transport. They could embody the wrath of nature. They would also make a handy stand in for the dragon as a vast flying beast to be overcome. The youth-restoring quality of its meat would certainly be a big lure for attempting to slay the mighty bird, much as a dragon's hoard is in other fantasy settings. Which is convenient, since Middle Eastern dragons don't really hoard; at most they guard sources of fresh water.

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>>41809599

>The simurgh is the Persian phoenix. There is only one at a time, and it usually appearsat times of great import, offering its help to heroes and noble kings. It’s quite intelligent, and even raised the hero Zal after he was abandoned to die in the wilderness. Like the Chinese fenghuang it is often depicted as a sort of “lord of birds,” accompanied by great flocks of loyal subjects wherever it goes. Like the Russian firebird, its feathers had magical properties, and the simurgh would bestow them upon worthy heroes.

>The “si” in “simurgh” has been connected to the modern Persian word “si” which means “thirty.” Often this connection is used to refer to the bird’s multi-colored plumage, or the flocks of birds that accompany it, though apparently in some sufi stories it refers to the bird’s origin. In this case it suggests the simurgh forms out of many birds coalescing together into a sort of avatar of birdkind, when occasion calls for it. This would certainly explain how the bird could keep coming back, as the warrior Isfandiyar once killed it. As you may have noticed, Isfandiyar really liked killing fantastic animals.

>Also, one has to wonder what would happen if a rukh was in the area when a simurgh formed.

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>>41809625

>The griffin is easily the most famous of all Middle Eastern monsters, having appeared in the art of the region for centuries. It has a very fluid nature, sometimes noble, sometimes savage. It may be a protective guardian or a marauding nuisance. It can be about the size of the lion that makes up one of its parts, or it can be eight times as big, such as in the tales of Mandeville, where it could carry off a full grown horse and rider in talons as long as ox horns.

>Griffins have a number of well known traits. Their diet is primarily horseflesh, which the Greeks thought they hunted across the open steppes of Scythia. They are noted as having an extremely aggressive, short-tempered attitude. They are often associated with gold, which they kept in their nests and jealously guarded. In art they are sometimes shown with ears, which originally symbolized great hearing, or antelope horns, which symbolized great speed.

>The griffin’s versatility is a great boon to any writer. They can be huge monsters that take many heroes to bring down, or lion-sized beasts that are only a low-level threat. Their tendency to guard things can lead to them being obstacles or allies. There’s a damn good reason they’re so popular, and this is it.

>>41809652

Okay, that's all I've got for Middle Eastern spirits/monsters right now.

>>41809388

Sure. Rule of thumb with books on mythical creatures/monsters: there are two general types, and they're useful for different things. Type one are big books that talk about mythological creatures as a general subject. They're good for learning about a lot of different stuff you've never heard of, but as a result of covering so many the information provided for each individual creature is usually shallow. Type two are books that focus on a particular subject, such as a single culture or even a single kind of mythical being from that culture. This will provide you with a lot more in-depth information, but aren't as useful for introducing you to new kinds of monsters. I would recommend seeking out the first type of book to learn about things in general, and once something has caught your eye seek out the second type to get a more through knowledge of it.

Anyway, I've got a few books of each type I could recommend. If there's a particular subject or creature you'd like to know about, I might be able to jump straight to that, though.

>>41809728

Well, I know the general stuff. Any in depth book recommendations would be neat - I'm fairly easy as far as cultures go, everywhere seems to have cool monsters.

>>41809858

Okay.

Well, the two best books for general reference are probably the two by "Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns and Goblins: An Encyclopedia" and "Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth." The first one specializes in spirits, the second in monsters. They offer only blurbs and slight descriptions, but are very comprehensive in their range. These two volumes are extremely useful for finding out about new mythical creatures from around the world and then doing further research upon whichever one catches your eye. They also have excellent appendices that group the spirits/monsters group them by theme, culture of origin, associations with different animals or natural forces, and so on. The only downside to these books is the shallowness of some of the entries, and the fact that they're SO comprehensive you'll find some mistakes slipped through the cracks.

I'd also recommend a Time-Life series called "Myth and Mankind." Each book focuses on a specific culture's myths and folklore, and while they're hardly the most thorough or academic books, they're mostly accurate and can give you a good cliff-notes overview of the culture in question. There are quite a few volumes (20+), and they're all out of print, so you'd have to track them down in a used bookstore, library, or on Amazon.

Another good one (also out of print) is "Mythical and Fabulous Creatures: A Sourcebook and Research Guide ." This book consists of twenty essays written by different academics, each about a different mythical creature. Some are better than others (the vampire one is crap), but the good ones give you a nice overview of the history of each creature, both in folklore, art, and literature. Find this one via libraries if possible; it's decent but I wouldn't spend a heap of money on it.

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>>41729483

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>>41811404

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>>41811515

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>>41811528

Man, people will call anything spooky a skinwalker.

bump

Nightmarchers: The spirits of ancient Hawaiian warriors who walk their old warpaths, slaying any in their way. They are usually preceded by the sound of war drums, flickering torches, and a harsh musky smell. The only way to avoid death is to immediately leave their path or strip naked and postrate oneself, hoping you share lineage with one of them.

Bukwus, from the Kwaiutl tribe of the Pacific Northwest.

Ghosts of drowned men who take up residence in an invisible "ghost house" in the woods, and draw the spirits of other drowned people to them. Travelers may stumble across the ghost house, where the Bukwus (appearing as normal humans) will bring them inside and offer them food. Only if the travelers eat the food will they see the true form of a Bukwus; a wild-haired, emaciated corpse. The food is the food of the dead, and anyone who consumes it is now considered a part of the world of the dead, and becomes something like another bukwus.

They also sometimes wander abroad, trying to trick people into eating the food they offer.

>>41729483
Boo Hag.

Don't let her ride ya, anon.

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>>41807160
I never knew this thank you for educating me

NJ fag here, we have an entire magazine/book series devoted to stuff like this. Luckily my area is pretty safe from this stuff. Thoug my town was a superfund site back in the day, so we have fun with radiation instead.

There is also the classic of the Jersey Devil

I go to college in Western NY, near the finger lakes, about an hour from Niagra and an hour from Rochester the town is Alfred if you really want to know and I was wondering if there are any folklore monsters/legends from that area. I haven't heard any monster stuff, which is weird considering we're in the woods in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. There are stories about weird shit being buried on campus, but that's all I've heard.

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>>41809192
>jinnistan

>>41818542

I assure you, it's a thing. The term crops up in Iranian texts going back centuries.

>>41819219

I should add that the Arabic term is "Al-Bilad Al-Jinn"

Both mean the same thing: land of the Jinn.

bump because this thread is interesting this thread is interesting

Good night bump.

ohayo gozaimasu bump

>>41734101
Damn, this story is legitimately unsettling. First time I've come across it.

>>41754255
Same as the Nisse, a usually goodnatured or mischievous little guy that lived on the farm. There is one story about how a farmer's wife put the butter pat in the bottom of the porridge (it's supposed to be on top), and the nisse thought he hadn't got any butter, so he killed their cow. Later he realized his mistake, and brought them a new cow as penance. Either a kind of house sprite or spirit. The 'first farmer' could be a tunkall (farmyard man) helpful spirit of the first man to till the soil. Could also be a haugbu (barrow-dweller) an old farmer buried in a burial mound.

Also other Norwegian/scandi folklore creatures:
The grave sow, a pig with glowing red eyes eating the dead from the cemetery. It had a razor sharp hairs on its back, and could split a man in two by running between his legs. The sow is a woman with an illegitimate child, who after being dead for 100 years, rises again as a terrible creature instead of a human being.
The hellhorse/church horse - a horse minus one leg that was buried on a church building site to ward off evil, it looks like your typical rotting horse, usually a sign of impending doom or bad fortune, you can hear its mismatched steps on a full moon night.
The deildegast - probably taken from the story of Sisyphus, the gast is a spirit or dead man who in life moved border-stones to his advantage (deildestein = border-stone), and has to put the stone back in its original place to finally go to rest. The creature is usually found carrying s borderstone out of a lake or up a hill, and upon reaching its destination, will hold the stone above its head in triumph, only to lose it again, either down the hill or into the water. It will shriek terribly and run off after the stone anew.
Utburd - (the one that was carried out) an illegitimate baby who was 'put out' by its mother, usually in the forest. After it dies, the baby's spirit haunts the place, crying for it's mother. It looks like a baby with black eyes, walks all crooked, and will jump on your back. It can also shapeshift, becoming as large as a house. To get rid of it you have to name it, as the baby was put out before it was christened, and cannot find rest. If it's on your back, you can run into a cemetery, and it will find a propery hallowed grave.
One story goes that three farm girls were passing a rocky outcrop, and an utburd starts shouting for its mother. One of the girls shout back, telling it to shut up, and it shouts back: 'My mother is telling me to shut up!'
>cont.

>>41824928
The other two girls tell this to the authorities, and the woman is later sentenced to death for killing her baby and throwing it into the rocks to hide her crime.
The witch cat/troll cat - a creature conjured up by a witch to steal milk from cows, usually made from hair or nails, or is the witch herself in a shapeshift. You can distract it, and it will carry cowshit back instead of milk.

>>41825033
Others, more well known, are of course the nisse, the nokken, dragons, kraken, lindwyrms, elves, dwarves, mara, werewolves and manbears.

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>>41729483
Kitsune or Kumiho because I want to touch the fluffy tail...

>>41812374
That is something that annoys me personally but its a popular if misused term of a shapeshifter. In actuality its a specific type of native american shapeshifter.

>>41729483
I can't remember specifically what its called but basically from what I remember its a strange humanoid figured garbed in black robe wearing a black hood where the deepest darkness lurks at the entrances. In the hood however you find a pair of baleful red eyes. From the entrances of its clothing exudes an even darker fog like substance that will stand out even during the darkest of nights. It can always be seen carrying some kind of weapon even modern ones. If it isn't carrying one its certain to be nearby.

Now apparently these things like to wander around all kinds and they tend to congregate with others of their kind in landmarks that don't really change much. This can include old buildings and other sites. They actually do so regular but impossible to discern intervals often with a random number of participants.

Now what you had to watch out for when dealing with them is if you see them and even if you blink they will vanish. If its when they are having a 'gathering/meeting'(see more than one) they will sometimes get annoyed and bother you.

Supposedly this can be from anything in regards to giving you a bad nights sleep, fucking with doors/windows(they can come after you), or even outright murder.

Another problem is however running into one whose on a journey. Sometimes they will get bored and decide to bother someone they find along the way. This can be from anywhere to a killing spree to sitting down and having a 'chat' with someone.

Supposedly they are most dangerous when bored or angry. Usually though they'll just vanish or fuck with you a little should they be get annoyed.

One should however NEVER try to take their weapon even if tis resting nearby. As doing so will insure it will kill you. HOWEVER the only way to kill one is to use its own weapon against it...

>>41825455
So if one is coming after you to kill you or someone else the only way you can kill them instead is by taking its weapon to use against it.

Supposedly you can reason with them but to do so requires you to somehow 'entertain'. They will accept it as an offering and will offer something in exchange including your life or someone who love. They will offer all sorts of rewards if you can somehow manage to entertain one. Sadly this only works if they are bored...

They'll only vanish if they notice they get spotted. If you can keep watching them without getting spotted you'll notice they tend to have their weapons put in strange formation and eventually they'll either all get up to depart or a new one will wander in. At this point you can literally see them wander in or off. They'll only vanish if they spot someone watching them.

If you greet one whose is wandering away they will either ignore you, stare at you while leaving(or stopping to do so), greet you in return, or come to bother you. If its the last part chances are its bored and will bother you. If its staring at you chances are it will either kill, fuck with, or curse you.

I have heard of like several tales about these weird things. One was about a guy who noticed a meeting of them at a table in his house(that was considered a very old landmark). Sometimes he'll get spotted and they'll all vanish only to their leave it alone or fuck with him in some regard. This happened repeatedly but a few times he didn't get spotted and noticed it was oddly normal except for the peculiar setup they'll do for their weapons in a specific pattern and or formation.

Another story I heard involved some soldiers who was marching to war way back when. The soldiers were playing a card game when one appeared to have a game with them. Now one soldier fainted with fright forgetting everything, another ran away never to speak of it again, and the last decided to keep playing who would later share this tale.

>>41734101
After living in Huntsville, I dislike this story more and more. You'd have to go pretty far away from Huntsville to hit thickly-wooded hilly areas, and then you would obviously be in some non-Huntsville area.
Also, I would assume its from the writer's Chicago nature, but he writes "Down in Huntsville" when Huntsville is close to the northern border of the state.

>>41825033
>You can distract it, and it will carry cowshit back instead of milk.
>Distract a troll cat
>Stick a note onto it: "The future lies in selling methane from cow dung, far more profitable than cow milk"
>Troll a troll cat

Alternatively
>Witch gets mad dosh selling cow-dung mushrooms as 'alternative drugs'

>>41825598
Now its worth noting that when the being sat down it also put down a bar of gold and silver as the soldiers were betting to cover for it. This is important later as while they talked sometimes it would ask some strange questions as well as offer peculiar information.

One of the questions it asked during the game was this.

"Which is better sacred silver or glittering gold?

The soldier thought about it before replying with "whatever serves one well in both life and death."

The being cackled "So which do you think it is then?"

"It is the either both or neither."

This apparently shut the being up as a it paused before nodded its head in understanding before saying "very good, very very good. Your answer is entirely correct for that-" the being dropped out an additional bar of glittering gold and sacred silver before the soldier.

Eventually after some more chatting the being got ready to leave by thanking the soldier and for the good time offered some last.

"Tonight you will be ambushed by the enemy but you must remember to fight not flee no matter how bad it gets and your fight after that you will must remember to flee the fighting. Also remember to melt down those bars of mystical metal that you are to keep otherwise the consequences will be most dire for they are not of here but of nowhere."

With that the being left and the soldier after scooping up his earnings and tried to warn others only to be ignored for being crazy. So when they all slept during the ambush they tried to run only to get cut down. The soldier however despite how bad it appeared or how clear the opening fought instead of fleeing. For this he lived and was promoted due to his valor.

Later on the next fight despite how advantageous the battle was the soldier fled thereby saving the lives of him and his men as the battle abruptly took a turn for the worst.

Considering the being was right the two previous times the soldier made a decision.

>>41825849
As soon as he returned home he found out his wife had ignored his wishes and decided to sell the metal as is. For this would arise dire consquences as one day the old soldier noticed one of those beings staring at his home...and there it stood with its vigil. Until his wife walked by and it cut her down right before his eyes before wandering off.

That however was not to be the end of it...for later the soldier found out one of his children had made a strange friend who smelled of brimstone. This scent clung onto the boy and he asked his father about the glittering golden bar.

The soldier panicked and asked about how he knew and why smelled like that?

The boy replied that his friend said that the golden bars were taken from hell and they wanted it back.

So the soldier fled to church to find aid from the priests, but from them they had refused to help stating that a angel from god had said to not aid the soldier for his sins were grave and he was guilty for selling sacred items for dirty coin. That no matter what he was to be punished.

At this point the soldier begged and begged but was ignored. Finally he gave up to return home where he found a certain being waiting for him shuffling a deck of cards.

The soldier charged the being angry for killing his wife, but stopped when he was unable to touch it. Eventually he calmed down and spoke.

"Why did you kill my wife?"

"She was to die thereby taking half the blame with her to death."

"Is there someplace safe?"

"Safe yes there is a place but such a place is not meant for one who stinks of iron such as you soldier."

"What about my children?"

"They can go..."

For this the soldier nodded and said "very well but what shall await me?"

"Hell is angry over its missing gold and the Heavens over spilled silver. What awaits you is an eternity in hell...lucky for you however soldier I came here to deliver the second half of your reward from years ago."

"...Second half?"

>>41801445
Nah It's the emperor. The god emperor of man is actually Conan who was mortally wounded by Thulsa Doom at the end of the Hyborian age.

He is nearly done recovering now.

>>41826004
"Yes for the answer well spoken." with that the being handed the soldier a seemingly plain ingot of iron.

"What is this?"

The being stared at him balefully before replying. "An iron ingot." With that it vanished and along with his children.

The soldier confused and angry threw away the iron ingot before storming off. Little did he know that the iron ingot was no ordinary iron...and it was capable of serving him well in death but not in life.

That is how the story ends. Though from what i heard the ending varies a bit saying the iron kept the demons away, didn't get thrown away thereby insuring him being sent to purgatory instead, or even followed him down to hell to help out or something like that.

>>41815042
>Nightmarchers
I thought you were just supposed to not look at them and not whistle...or is that some other Hawaiian thing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebu_gogo

Ebu Gogo. Human-like creatures about a meter tall from the island of Flores, Indonesia. They have a taste for human children and babies.

They found their bones in 2003.

>>41801445
>Also most likely that entity is a personification of the ascendant consciousness that lies dormant in humanity.

I thought I was on /x/ for a second.

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there is always the Hulder, Norse forest lady that is really nice so long as you are polite to it, but will fuck you right up if you are rude. Has a fox or cow's tail and bark or a hollow in it's back.

>>41729483
Unfortunately, here in Italy most folklore is either strongly city-bound or completely replaced by tales of Saints, but i have a couple stories.

the Masca: an evil witch that roams the countryside, generally looks like and hunched old woman dressed in rags (i always figured her as the evil witch from snow white). Whenever she goes, bad luck and sickness follows, she's known for spoiling milk and make cattle sick. Whoever sees one is destined to fall sick. I think there is a way to scare her away without ill effects, but don't remember how. I think it's either a little song or by invoking the help of a certain saint

the Gatto Mammone (mother-loving cat): i have no idea why it's called that, since it has nothing to do with mothers. Basically a giant black cat that roams the countryside. If you see it, you're either cursed with bad luck or sickness. Some stories also say that seeing it will kill you dead.

In the region of Tuscany there is also the tale about Beffardello (loosely traslated as little jester). It is basically a friendly poltergeist that likes to make harmless pranks involving horses. There are stories about him binding together some horse's hair to entangle them, or opening the stables' doors at night and make them run away (making quite sure the horses' owners are well awaken and conscious of what's happening)


then there are some short stories, but they're generally about historical figures or folk heroes, rather than creature. having the churc in you backyard makes bad things to monster tales

>>41828620
Speaking of folklore heroes, i remembered a story from my own hometown.

During the middle ages, the emperor of the holy roman empire frederick barbarossa descended on italy with his army, trying to conquer it.
Eventually, they stumbled upon my home town, and laid siege to it.
The siege lasted long, and both the town and the sieging army were starving to death, the town was one step away from capitulation.

Then a young farner boy, named Gagliaudo decided to take the last wheat leaft in town and feed it to his last cow, which was little more than a skeleton. Of course the other citizen were enraged, but gagliaudo assured them he'd break the siege and ventured off with his cow.

Soon after, soldiers from the barbarossa army captured him and the cow. When they cut open the poor beast to eat it, they were shocked in seeing that there was wheat inside its stomach.

"naturally" said Gagliaudo "back in town we have so much food left that we can give our spare wheat to cattle"

the soldiers, starving to death, were so demoralised by this news that they immediately left the siege, thinking that i would've been impossible to conquer a city that had so much food left.

And that's the tale about how a boy and and a skinny cow cheated an emperor

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>>41767799
>may have been the original sandworm

Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people.

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>>41828620

Well, the Italians also gave us ogres, if somewhat indirectly.

>>41828620
>>the Gatto Mammone (mother-loving cat): i have no idea why it's called that, since it has nothing to do with mothers

"Welp, I saw that motherfucking cat. Guess I'm gonna die."