#anyway this is a nukekubi yokai

[doodlboy]

Day 01 : Pumpkin

[autumnmobile12]

The Vampires in Castlevania

Vlad III Dracula Ţepeș (Impaler) was a real person.  He was a Wallachian voivode who was born sometime between 1429 and 1431, and he died in 1476.  The exact manner of his death has been lost to history, but the common belief is he was beheaded in battle and his head was sent to Sultan Mehmed II in Constantinople as proof of his death.

As for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, some historians are starting to doubt the prince was the actual inspiration for the famous vampire.  One of the reasons for this is Stoker was a very thorough note-taker, but none of his notes for writing Dracula mention Vlad III or any of his lifetime achievements/atrocities.  So it’s possible Stoker only chose the name ‘Dracula’ because he knew it translated as ‘son of the Devil.’  Further reading - Dracula: Sense and Nonsense by Elizabeth Miller.

Carmilla is the name of a lady vampire in the novella Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu, a story that is actually older than Stoker’s novel.  It features a lesbian relationship between Carmilla and the protagonist, Laura, and was written as a criticism of the Victorian view of women, specifically repressed sexuality.

Varney also comes from a book.  Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood was a penny dreadful written by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest.  (I haven’t read this one all the way through, but there is a scene where Varney is struggling to get over a garden wall, and I think that’s hilarious.  Not exactly apex predator material.)

Varney:  You think you have me stymied, don’t you.

Trevor:  No, I think a garden wall has you stymied.

Lenore is the name of a German poem written by Gottfried August Bürger.  It’s about a woman named Lenore who curses God because her beloved did not come back from war, so Death kidnaps her to reunite them, effectively condemning her soul for eternity.  It’s not about a vampire, but the poem has had a hand in influencing vampire literature.

Anyway, does anyone else really want to see Lenore cheering Trevor on in the last battle?  Or stealing the knife and ending Death herself.  Cause I do now.

The closest thing to a vampire in Viking folklore is the draugr, although this creature is more of a restless ghost than what we think of as a vampire.  They haunt the graves of the dead and guard the treasures they acquired in life by driving humans insane, drinking their blood, eating their flesh, and other nasty things.

Side note:  I’m really curious as to what led Godbrand to becoming a vampire.  Immortality didn’t really play a huge factor in Old Norse culture since the Vikings believed a glorious death in battle was the one and only way to go to Valhalla.  Other deaths that were deemed shameful or unworthy landed you in Helheim, which I really need to address further in a separate post.

Japan also doesn’t have an exact vampire equivalent, but they do have some yokai spirits that have vampire-like characteristics, including but not limited to:

Nukekubi:  A flying head that detaches from its human body at night and attacks people to drink their blood.

Rokurokubi:  A similar creature to nukekubi except the head doesn’t detach but rather travels from the body via an elongated neck.

Nure-Onna:  The ‘drenched woman’ is a large serpent with the head of a woman that drinks blood.

Personally, I would have loved to see Cho’s head fly off to attack someone simply to see Sypha, Alucard, and Trevor briefly panic.

[koopa-arts]

MCYT Yōkai AU

Wilbur, Tommy and Tubbo are lost, travelling humans, who unexpectedly find themselves in the spirit world. With the help and guidance from supernatural creatures known as yōkai, they’ve got to find their way back before it’s too late.

[I’ve been working on this au for a few days now, inspired by Spirited Away, Yokai Watch and things like that. It isn’t very detailed right now, and I’ll likely change things along the way, but I like where this story so far :-)

More character info under the ‘Read More’]

[REBLOGS >>> LIKES]

Wilbur, Tommy and Tubbo: Three humans on a journey of self-fulfilment. Wilbur had been traveling for the longest but along the way was trusted with the responsibility to take care of Tubbo and Tommy as he took them on his travels.

Philza: A tengu- humanoid creature with avian features. He took it upon himself to protect Wilbur, Tommy and Tubbo from harm when they entered the spirit world and help them find a way back to the living world.

Technoblade: A bakemono- can transform from a giant boar to a human. A feared and respected swordsman, Dream’s rival. Mostly hangs out with Philza.

Dream: A tsukumogami- a mask who, after 100 years, had obtained a spirit and a humanoid form. Technoblade’s rival and only match when it comes to sword fighting. Isn’t as feared as technoblade is, and is mostly seen as a bit of a celebrity.

Georgenotfound: A noppera-bō- a human-like spirit with no face. Spends most of his time with Sapnap and Dream. Practically inseparable from Dream as he was the owner of the mask before it gained a spirit.

Sapnap: An Onibi- a ghost light. Used to be human a long time ago, but has since died and became a vengeful spirit. Has incredible fire powers but doesn’t use them unless seriously angered.

Badboyhalo: A yurei- a ghost. A headless, shadowy demon who despite the hard life he had endured, is far kinder than he looks. Quite protective of children and enjoys their company.

Fundy: An obake- can transform from a kitsune to a human. Very creative and intelligent. An inventor who enjoys building interesting, random and even useless creations. Despite his talent, he isn’t respected nearly as much as he wishes he was. He is also quite mischievous, and enjoys pulling pranks on humans and yokai alike.

Nihachu: A futakuchi-onna- a woman with a second mouth in the back of her head. Very sweet and caring. She owns a bakery and loves giving people her treats, though much of the food is always eaten by her second mouth.

Eret: A rokurokubi- a human-like creature with a super stretchy neck. A very laidback, friendly individual that gives great advice. Often found in Niki’s bakery, smoking a strange concoction from his pipe.

Quackity: A Kappa- a turtle-like demon. Chaotic and slightly conniving. He offers to help row people across rivers for a negotiable price. Despite being small and relatively weak, is one of the few people who can stand up to Schlatt and isn’t scared of him.

Jschlatt: A dragon spirit. Feared by most and disliked by others. He was an old, powerful emperor who had drowned in a sacred river, causing him to become the spirit of that river. Can transform into a massive dragon to a human. He’s infamous for a terrible natural disaster he had caused on earth as a spirit. Due to his power, he is seen an almost ruler of the spirit world. He is somewhat friendly with Quackity and is fond of Wilbur, having secretly known him before Wilbur even entered the spirit world.

[EDIT: These characters pictured in this post]:

Purpled: A regular human who ended up in the spirit world, just like Wilbur, Tommy and Tubbo. However, he stayed in the spirit world for too long, causing him to forget his past and his identity, and also become a spirit himself, meaning he could no longer return to his life in the living world. He usually sticks around Ponk.

Ponk: A kodama- tree spirit. The spirit of a giant, sacred, lemon-bearing tree that grows in the living world. A number of people living world worship his tree, as whenever they were cut down, he would curse the perpetrator before growing a new one in it’s place. He is an alchemist and a healer, but is also unpredictable and a bit scary.

Awesamdude: An Oni- an ogre. Lives in far off mountains and is known for tinkering and making interesting contraptions. Despite his scary appearance he is very friendly and incredibly resourceful.

Karl: A nukekubi- a human-like creature with the ability to make his head float around. He tends to stay out of conflict and enjoys relaxing in other people’s places or making tiny model buildings. Tends to hang around Eret.

[I also want to include Antfrost andd Skeppy. But I don’t know enough about them to know what else to do with them. 

Anyway, I hope you like what I’ve got so far. I’ll keep developing this AU and maybe do something with it once I’ve created a decent (coherent) story.]

[horrorjapan]

Hello Horror If you know this can you help ? Are Japanese Yokai are made up by folk but they became a part of Shinto and Buddhism ? I read that they are by folk but they became a part of those two religions .. and maybe other religions ? As I read most of them are by the folk while some are from Chinese myths or Buddhism texts but as far as I asked a religious man he said Buddha originally a normal man but his people worshiped him. So is Yokai are made up tales by people ?

There’s a 320 page answer to this question, but I’ll trygive a rough answer anyway! Basically, everything you’ve said is correct. Aswith all folklore, tracking down the origins of various yokai is a prettydifficult task. Many of them come from China; Kitsune, komainu/shisa, etc. Someexplain away things such as condensation (Tenjoname) and other natural occurrences,and others are manifestations of mistreated women (Futakuchi Onna, etc).

Many of them are pulled straight from the imaginationsof various artists. Consider Toriyama Sekien’s GazuHyakki Yagyō. By the time the 4th book came around Sekien was all out ofmythological figures that he knew such as Kodama, Tanuki, etc and began makingthem up. In the Edo period and era of ukiyo-e monsters wereincredibly popular. They were basically popular culture just like monsters arenow. Most artists would draw yokai featured in stories that they had heard and put a face to them. Those images them became integral to the storiesdespite the fact they came later.

You then had images of yokai that had no accompanying tale, and so authorswould write short stories or plays to fit with that yokai. So again, you havesomething of a hodge-podge. Read Rokurokubi in Kwaidan and you’ll be confused fora moment as the story is about a congregation of Nukekubi despite the title.But Nukekubi are Rokurokubi. The latter now just specifically means the femaleyokai with the extended neck, not the one with the detached head.

 Kasa-obake is probably the most iconic yokai that I can thinkof, and even the reasoning behind that is ecclectic. Initially itsdepiction was much more humanoid, but over time began to appear as thediscarded umbrella that we usually think of now. Kasa Obake is a yokaithat was completely made up and then had Buddhist principals applied to itdue to its status as a tsukumogami, making it as valid as anything else. Kasa-Obake despite that is still an artistscreation. Same goes for Nurikabe. When you think of Nurikabe you picturea grey wall slab with eyes and a mouth, but that imagary only came about in the1960s due to Shigeru Mizuki.

What really confuses things is that yokai just meanssomething akin to strange apparition. So to Japan; Dracula, Wolf Man, cyclops,medusa are all yokai. It’s akin to how kaiju to us specifically means large Japanese monster, whereas toJapan, not even daikaiju would refer to the same specific classification we havein mind. Basically, when we’re talking about yokai, we’re sometimes talking about entirely different things. So yokai are folklore, made up, Buddhist,Shinto, and often a little bit of each because the term and history itself is fluid.Pandemonium and Parade by Michael Dylan Foster is probably the best book on this. It isn’t a bestiary on yokai, but it does answer many of your questions on the culture surrounding them. It’s a fantastic book so long as you know what to expect. The negative reviews on amazon being from those that expected a yokai by yokai breakdown and not cultural analysis. So long as you don’t expect that I think it’s worth reading! http://amzn.to/2CEEREI