More on Hags

Hags make for interesting villains in any story. They look human-ish, and some are indistinguishable from old women. Despite their hateful ways (see this article), hags are sometimes depicted as being almost sympathetic characters.

Take the russian hag Baba Yaga for instance. A cruel eater of men, women, children and anything else she can grasp, this monster was also capable of great kindness towards brave and misused people, sometimes acting on behalf of a misused orphan or other innocent. Was this due to a kind heart under all of that evil? I doubt it.

Rather I suspect that such glimmers of humanity from monsters (for a monster she was), has more to do with the hidden rules that seem to govern magical beings. That-is, they are compelled towards certain responses to the right words, actions or people.

We see aspects of the "hidden rules" that govern magical being thruought folklore and myth. From dealing with gods and dragons, to lesser beings such as fairies and sorcerers. Destiny has a different sort of role for these beings, one that though more potent, is quite restrictive in certain circumstances.

Demons and Devils

There is no being more universally believed in across the world than demons. Even in the modern, industrialized nations there are many who claim the existence of demons as true.

The really interesting thing is that all of these nations and regional versions of demons are very similar. That is, cruel spirit-beings who delight in tormenting mortal creatures. Many times they are seen as monkey-like in built (long arms, stooped posture etc), and often resembling deformed humans. The classic gargoyle is a good example of this design.

From the Hindu Asuras and New Age Flyers to Christian Demons, these monsters are seen as having any number of horrid animal features, such as birds feet, horns, wings, tails and the like. But the most disturbing are the immaterial forms of smoke, of a formless terror in the night.

Some reports of demons say that these monsters literally prey upon mortal creatures. Seeking out men to either kill them directly or to "feed" on blood or less material essences such as breath, dreams, hope or less defined energies. Whether or not this "feeding" gains demons nourishment, or is just part of a depraved need is up for debate.

Demons are reputed to give mortal creatures many kinds of diseases and to "posses" men and women, possibly turning them into werewolves or "just" murderous madmen. Their apparent obsession with these activities appear to be out of an unbridled hatred of men, and in the case of possession, to indulge in fleshly pastimes not allowed to them in their "natural" form.

More on this subject later.

Elements of Fantasy: Water Spirits #1

In our modern world, most people do not realize just how scary water can be. In the industrialized world,we live in tidy homes where water is piped to us, filtered of impurities and running hot and cold. This is a very different thing from what our ancestors, and those in the developing world experience.

Water is dangerous where it runs free. Rivers run swift and cold, rising beyond their banks, seeking to drown and destroy, the sea rages and swamps give forth disease. And these don't even take into account the many, larger dangers of the many dangerous animals that make water their home.

It should come as no surprise that mankind would speak of beings whose home was the waterways, seas and springs of the world. Nor should it come as a surprise that these beings are almost always seen as fickle and often quite cruel.

Modern depictions of creatures such as Mermaids (and their lecherous male counterparts), shy away from the grisly tales of ancient peoples, in which these beings drowned and ate sailors and small children. Ondines are of particular interest to me, water elementals who only rarely pretended to be human.

I will talk more on these creatures in the future.

Above is depicted a "Reservoir Spirit" an angry faerie of an inner city reservoir. Shes a drowner of children, and is pondering taking in the sights of the city she is surrounded by...