By the Gods!
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Dullahan
A creature from Celtic mythology, the Dullahan is terrible to behold. He appears as a headless horseman, charging around tirelessly on a frightful black steed that shoots sparks and fire from its nostrils. The Dullahan carries his severed head under his arm as he rides, grinning and laughing at your understandably soiled trousers. Often this spirit acts as a herald of death, calling out the names of those about to die. Wherever the Dullahan stops his relentless riding is said to be a spot that someone will soon meet their end.
If the thought of a decapitated ghost riding around, placing bets on how soon you will kick the bucket makes you want to bar the door and hide from this equestrian evil, I have bad news for you: all locks and gates open at his approach, and any who stop to watch his ride are rewarded with a Carrie-esque dousing from his bucket of blood––and that’s only if he’s feeling charitable! Otherwise, unfortunate onlookers may lose an eye to his vicious whip (which is a human spine, making your loss of vision even more gross).
But all hope is not lost! The Dullahan fears gold above all else, even in small amounts. Those caught on the road at night would do well to carry a golden trinket to discourage the Dullahan’s wrath. This explains famed Celtic-scholar Flava Flav’s ridiculous teeth.
Doppelgänger
Doppelgängers originate in German folklore and are ghostly duplicates of oneself. The name translates to “double walker,” and they are evil spirits that choose victims at random and are generally thought of as harbingers of bad luck.
Though they have no shadow or reflection, Doppelgängers look exactly like their victim. Here are some steps for spotting a Doppelgänger: if you’re watching yourself talk to your buddy Jim and you aren’t using a mirror, you’ve got yourself a Doppelgänger. If you are whispering murderous nothings into your own ear, you’ve got yourself a Doppelgänger. If your family is confused as to why there are two of you burying your freshly slain buddy, Jim, in your petunia patch, you’ve got yourself a Doppelgänger, as well as some ruined petunias.
Doppelgängers can be seen by those they are Doppelganging, (not a real term) or those whom the Doppelgangee (again, made-up) cares for. A Doppelgänger seen by the victim’s family and friends brings merely confusion, while one seen by the victim brings omens of death and misfortune. A person whose Doppelgänger has been seen is believed to be not long for this world.
Surt and Muspellsheim
In Norse mythology, the first land that existed was known as Muspellsheim. It was a place of fire and heat that existed in the south of the world, and the sparks and fire of this land would eventually mix with other elements to create Ymir, (the frost giant from whose body the world was formed) the sun, the stars, and life as we know it. All that creation was wrought by the work of Odin and the Aesir, and the fire of Muspellsheim was merely the material they used. It was, altogether, seen as an evil place, and horrible things dwelt there.
The worlds of Asgard, Midgard, and other regions the Aesir regularly travel in Germanic myth are located far away from Muspellsheim, and with good reason. Surt, an immensely powerful giant associated with fire and death, is the lord of that place. During the events of Ragnarok (the great battle that will end the world) he will lead the Sons of Muspell (most likely similar fire giants and evil creatures) to Asgard and Midgard, destroying the rainbow bridge, Bifrost, and waging war on the gods. Surt carries an enormous flaming sword, and during Ragnarok will do battle with Frey, (son of Njord and brother of Freyja) and slay him. Frey lost his sword in an earlier story in an effort to get the woman he loved, and this will cost him his life in battle with Surt. Following this, he will cover all the world in a flame of destruction.
Surt and the Sons of Muspellsheim sit and wait until the rage of the captive Loki breaks the bonds that hold their ships trapped among the fire, beginning Ragnarok.
Oni
The Oni are giant horned demons said to have come to Japan from China with the arrival of Buddhism. Buddhist priests perform annual rites in order to expel them, but these evil brutes just keep coming back, it seems. The Oni are cruel and lecherous demons, said to swoop down from the sky to steal the souls of people about to die. They’re like otherworldly vultures, but uglier.
They appear in a variety of colours, and have three fingers, three toes and sometimes three eyes. Their depictions have changed and evolved a great deal over the years, as they are popular subjects for representation in pop culture. Some sources attribute them with the ability to shape-shift. The Oni of the Buddhist hell have the heads of oxen or horses, and hunt down sinners to take them away in their chariot of fire to Emma-O, the ruler of the underworld. Some Oni are held responsible fore illness and disease, and others are said to have been mortal women whose jealousy or grief transformed them into demons.
Lilith in Judaism
In Hebrew mythology Lilith is believed to be a creature that is essentially a succubus, in that she seduces men and eats children. Her origins are scattered and varied, and while her presence in the Hebrew Bible itself is minimal, (perhaps nonexistent) additional writings in Judeo-Christian folklore have credited her with involvement in significant events in the Hebrew Bible.
According to Hebrew legend Lilith was the first woman to be created, at the same time as Adam (according to the Talmud). She may have been his first wife and refused to lay with him, she may have been a woman who left Eden and then became a demon, she may have been a demon in the first place, or she may have been a fallen Cherubim. With all these theories flying about, who really knows? She is charged with tricking Eve into eating the infamous apple, and thus convincing Adam to do the same, so obviously Yahweh isn’t a big fan of her. Her only real mention in the Hebrew Bible, however, comes in Isaiah, a book of prophecy, and refers to a screech owl that some believe to be Lilith, as the owl was her sacred animal. Regardless of what we can actually pin on her, though, she’s definitely a big deal. She originated in Sumerian mythology as a goddess of desolation, and appears in Babylonian, Greek, and Arab myths, and is utilized in modern Luciferian and Wiccan practices.
Rangda, Demon Queen
Rangda is the queen of the Leyaks in Balinese mythology, known best for her struggles with the leader of the benevolent spirits, (the good guys) Barong. Leading an army of Leyaks and evil witches against these forces of good, Rangda is seen as a fearsome personification of evil.
She is depicted as a mostly nude woman with long, unkempt hair, pendulous breasts and long claws. Her face, like the Leyaks, has long fangs and bulging eyes, and a long, protruding tongue. “The better to love you with, my dear!“ I just grossed myself out. Like the Leyaks, again, she has the same appetite for newborn babies. Because it’s hard to get more evil than eating newborn babies.
While most of the time she’s seen as the epitome of evil in Bali, she is invoked for protection (the violent kind of protection) in some parts of the island. Bali being a Hindu island, it is also suggested that Rangda has some close associations with the goddess Kali, patron of destruction, transformation and protection in Hinduism.
Leyak
The Leyak is a horrifying demon in Balinese myth. Steeped in black magic, the Leyak can appear as an ordinary human by day, but by night it takes its true form: a disembodied, menacing head with great fangs and bulging eyes hovering in the air, with the entrails of the body still attached and floating beneath it. Whoa.
They are said to haunt graveyards, feed on corpses, and have some shape-shifting powers. They seek out pregnant women and newborn children to feed on their blood. It is believed that the Leyaks can be summoned by those practicing a form of witchcraft to do harm to others at the bidding of the summoner. Scary stuff. The Leyaks are led by Rangda, the Demon Queen.
Yanluo Wang
In Chinese mythology we find an underworld structured much the same way as the Christian Hell depicted in Dante’s Inferno. There are ten courts of the underworld, each one reserved for a particular brand of punishment for particular crimes committed during life (bearing resemblance to the nine circles of hell). Each court has a king, and Yanluo Wang is the senior king. He investigates the past lives of the dead and sends them on to the other kings for their specific punishments.
Yanluo Wang is portrayed as a large man with a scowling face, bulging eyes and a long beard. He wears traditional robes and a crown, marking himself as the king of kings in the underworld. He’s got three bestest-buds: a judge, who holds a brush and a book listing every soul and the allotted death date for every life, and Ox-Head and Horse-Face, the fearsome guardians of the underworld who bring the dead before Yanluo for judgment. You gotta have a tight crew to run this operation.
Depending on Yanluo’s judgment, a should good be given a quick reincarnation into a privileged life, or millennia of torture, followed by reincarnation as something way-crappy.
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