The Apocrypha of Gaijah
Posted by Meg
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This entry comes from Tristan, who has found a lost text depicting a myriad of long-forgotten demons …
The Apocrypha of Gaijah
Being a treatise of exotic and rare alagai within and beyond the greenlands of Thesa: their habits, protections, weapons, and much more
Rehuiel asu Khenshin am’Joksha am’Usiki,
Dama of Usiki
Preface
In these long nights of Sharak Ka, I, Rehuiel, lowly Dama, have been charged by Kaji; the Shar’Dama Ka, champion and beloved of Everam, blessings be upon him; to define the rarer yet infinitely more dangerous alagai found through the Thesan greenlands.
Fog Alagai
During darker nights with choking fog, some Sharum are known to mysteriously turn against their brothers-in-arms and slaughter whole squadrons before finally collapsing and coughing their lungs out as if they were exposed to greenlander gas weapons.
Is this the work of weak will snapping under stress? No, rather it is the handiwork of what the Thesans call ‘Fog Demons’. They only appear under two circumstances: heavy fog or darker nights where the moon chooses not to appear. They appear almost amorphous, as if a regular alagai somehow couldn’t fully materialize and is trapped in the misty form it uses to travel up from the core. Outside of a fog, one can identify it as being a smaller, fire demon-sized alagai, albeit one that is not fully formed, but within a fog one cannot easily show where the mist ends and the demon begins.
“If this demon is little more than mist, how is it of any danger?” one would ask. Beyond the fact that they are immaterial and thus able to manipulate their forms to try to avoid weaponized wards, they also have a very disturbing way of combating us humans. They use their misty forms to fill the lungs of those they are fighting and suffocate the unfortunate victim. Gruesome as that is, the horror continues as the alagai diffuses its form throughout the now dead human, then controls it like some macabre puppet. One can easily imagine the mindset of an already weary dal’Sharum seeing the comrade he just saw choke to death now seemingly returning from the dead to murder him.
Yet Everam is infinitely merciful, and these monsters have an obvious fatal weakness, otherwise all of Ala would be conquered by these demons alone: bright light, including moonlight, kills them as if it were the sun itself. This is why they only appear in the dark nights, when the moon is too weak to burn them, or in fog, where the mists dilute the light enough for this demon to thrive even during a full moon. Knowing this, one doesn’t even need a warded weapon, just a brightly burning torch.
Rain (or Waif) Alagai
Alagai’ting Ka is cunning. She knows mankind’s weaknesses just as much as her children’s. She know how to manipulate these weaknesses and turn them against us. Nowhere is this more evident than with the rain alagai, or as the Thesans call them, waif demons.
During nights with heavy rains, one might hear the sobbing of a young child. If they follow this haunting sound eventually they will come to a secluded area where a small girl with wet, dark hair, long enough to cover herself like a cloak, sits with her head buried in her arms, weeping. As humans, our response to this is to go to the shivering child to comfort her. We want to put our arms around her, tell her that it’s ok now. But as you hold her close, the crying begins to sound like laughing; not the cheerful sort one hears from children, but a sinister, almost maniacal, cackle. Then, when she turns to face her ‘rescuer’, does the victim realize, far too late, that this isn’t a child at all. It is then that her mouth, unnaturally distended with razor-sharp teeth, beneath a shriveled pug nose and squinting red eyes, tears the throat out from its prey.
In addition to this, the demon has long, wicked nails that can rend through skin and sinew. Also, if discovered to be an alagai before luring in its victim, the demon will let out a blood-curdling scream that disorients the would-be prey long enough for the waif to attack or escape. It should also be noted, disturbingly, that this scream is no different from one a child can make.
In spite of the alagai’s frail appearance, it often proves to be one of the more resilient breeds, as its smooth, scaled skin is even tougher as the knobby bark of a wood demon, it seems. And while this demon isn’t at all that strong, needing to rely on luring prey in, by Everam, is it ever fast! Some cunning Sharum might try and grab the abomination by its long hair to counter its speed, but a tuft snatched will be pulled out like fur from a shedding dog, with no pain to the alagai at all, apparently.
Still, despite all the danger surrounding such a creature, any crafty dal’Sharum will have no trouble killing a rain demon if he keeps his wits about him. Firstly, a warrior should always carry a torch or another illuminating object during rainy nights. That will allow him to identify the demon, as without sufficient light one cannot see the blue-green of the demon’s hide. Secondly, if this alagai is recognized, then the warrior should go along with the demon’s charade, at first, lest it be startled and escape to kill more victims. No, the warrior should approach the monster as if it were the child it pretends to be, with a warded dagger concealed in hand. When the alagai is in his arms, the Sharum must stab it in one if its eyes for a safe and clean kill, as its skin may still turn the warded dagger, and the mouth is full of knife-like teeth.
Volcanic Alagai
This is not only the last breed discussed in this volume, but also the most frightening, as the implications of its existence are … disturbing. During the Sharak Sun, when the Shar’Dama Ka, blessings be upon him, sent scouts over the mountains to the kingdom bordering Thesa, many returned heavily wounded, their squadrons decimated. With them came news, not of the kingdom over, but instead, of mountains with fiery pits and the colossal alagai that guarded them.
Thesan wise folk name these mountains ‘volcanoes’ and their hulking denizens ‘volcanic demons’. Many of the dal’Sharum and Dama call them ‘hellfire alagai’, which, while being as good a name as any, will not be used in this treatise. Rather, I will use the name the greenlanders give them so that all of Everam’s children may receive the knowledge in this manuscript. This is one of the few alagai that I have not seen in person, so all descriptions of it come from the ill-fated scout teams. The volcanics heavily resemble rock demons, with a few major differences. Firstly, the skin of a volcanic alagai is cracked and the crevasses across its hide glow like burning coal. Secondly, they have but one enormous, cyclopean eye that glows red.
Their strength is comparable to two rock demons, and if the reports are to be believed, they spit fireballs like the fire alagai. One report even goes as far to say that they can breathe out torrents of flame if angered.
The volcanic is practically invincible from what dal’Sharum scouts can tell. Warded weapons only pierce the demon’s slag-like armor plates with a direct stab. All slashing wards bounce off, which tells me that they are immune to certain wards … a frightening idea, indeed. Even then, some scouts tried to stab the alagai in the glowing chasms between its armor plates. On the one hand, it was the only report that stated that the demon bellowed in pain, but on the other that blade that slide between the shell-plates melted like it was left in a forge for too long.
The Sharum squadrons were able to discern that the alagai didn’t go beyond a certain point from the volcano … almost as if they were guarding something there. The team decided to wait until morning to investigate what the volcanic was trying to safeguard. What they reported next I would have never believed had other teams not confirmed it: when the team got closer to the volcano, the same demon attacked them again IN BROAD DAYLIGHT! This single fact makes the demon far more dangerous than any other breed encountered, even more so than the changelings or demon princes.
The fact that we are not all slain at the hands of these nigh invincible beings occurs because how they seem to be bound to protect the volcanoes. They never tread too far from the pits, and they only ever leave the volcanoes at all when chasing down those who come too close. Many wise folk from Thesa claim that these pits lead all the way down to the core. I am one to agree with them, for why else would demons protect the volcanoes? However, this only raised further questions. Why would the most powerful alagai (discovered thus far) be protecting volcanoes? And if a volcano really is a direct pathway to the core, what are the implications? Do the alagai hierarchs fear that we would use the volcanoes to assault the core directly? Or will the volcanoes be use for other, apocalyptic means? Perhaps then, that the volcanic demons are protecting their charges until the purpose of the pits come into play. But I feel we will find out the answers to these questions soon over the course of this war.
Thank you to Tristan for sending in this ancient text. Found an old scroll of your own? Discovered new breeds of demons in the ruins of Anoch Sun? Send in your findings today by 11:59pm. Check out the contest guidelines for details and prizes.