#eoduksini

[briefbestiary]

While they are known for causing fear, eoduksini are not typically considered dangerous.

[blushybadboi]

I should have closed my eyes and turned away, but It was too warm to ignore.

[elliepassmore]

The God and the Gumiho review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: fantasy, mythology, Korean mythology, multiple POVs, enemies to lovers, mystery

Big thanks to Netgalley, Del Rey, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was definitely one of my favorite reads of February! It's got the perfect blend of magic, shenanigans, scheming, enemies-to-lovers, and humor. I was definitely on the edge of my seat as Hani and Seokga searched for the eoduksini, and while they got closer to one another with Hani still hiding her identity.

I definitely thought the worldbuilding was interesting. Most of the time is spent on a world where humans and immortals exist side-by-side, with the former completely unaware. So the characters have normal, everyday things like coffee, cars, and cellphones, but also have more magical items like swords and charms, and come across humans and magical creatures alike. I also liked the details about items the magical community could by from the store, particularly the non-human-liver alternatives the gumiho eat since Hani's Scarlet Fox spree resulted in the banning of eating human livers and souls. It's a small part of the book, but I thought it was a nice touch.

I absolutely love Hani. Her hidden past as the Scarlet Fox means she's notorious in immortal circles and not only is responsible for the ban on gumiho eating human livers and souls, but is also the gumiho with the highest kill count. Despite this, she's actually pretty normal and down to earth. She's also pretty funny, both intentionally and unintentionally, and I liked her blasé attitude about eating livers (and thus killing people). Hani clearly cares deeply and while she's dedicated to misguiding Seokga in regards to his Scarlet Fox investigation, she earnestly wants to help find and defeat the eoduksini. She also strives to help her friend Somi throughout the book and feels responsible over the younger gumiho.

Seokga, on the other hand, is a complete and utter asshole. But he grows on you. The trickster god is still bitter about being thrown out of the godly world and having his own realm of darkness locked up after his attempted coup. It's unclear how much of his personality is residual from that and how much is just him naturally, but Seokga really does not seem to care about anyone, nor very many things (other than coffee, man is particular about his coffee) prior to the events of the book. That being said, it becomes clear that Seokga does have deeper ties to his exiled life than it seems, and even he comes to the realization that there are some people that he cares about. It's easy to forget that Seokga was a trickster god because he's fairly serious and dedicated to his investigation(s), but it shows up in odd moments, such as when he cheats at rock, paper, scissors. Despite the fact that he's an asshole, Seokga does have a certain charm about him, even before he begins being a more...tolerable person.

The romance is, obviously, between Hani and Seokga. They balance each other out pretty well once they get past their barista-customer annoyance. Seokga is able to play 'bad cop' with ease while Hani is a much more soothing figure and the type who can calm crying witnesses enough to give a cohesive statement. I liked seeing the quirks they brought out in each other and am glad they get their chance at a happy ending.

The whole Scarlet Fox thing really is a mess. Hani was just enacting a kind of vigilante justice when she got the bright idea to take their livers as a treat for a friend. Unfortunately, the killings align too much with her 1888 spree and whaddya know suddenly there's a hunt on for the Scarlet Fox. Hani definitely does not want to get caught, and she definitely doesn't want another gumiho taking the fall in her place, she'd rather the whole thing just fizzle out and get written off as a fluke, and she's willing to attach herself to the investigation, and thus her least favorite customer Seokga, in order to achieve that. While there were some tense moments when I was worried about her getting caught, it was humorous to read about Hani doing her best to thwart Seogka's investigation and coming up with absurdities to get it done.

The eoduksini is the more serious of the two, particularly since the eoduksini has the potential to create a dark world in the realm shared by humans and immortals, something no one wants happening. There are a lot of twists and turns in this part of the investigation and I was definitely trying to work it out myself as the characters were. At times I felt confident I knew who it was, and then something new would happen and I would second-guess myself or Seokga and Hani. I was very invested in finding out who the eoduksini was and seeing how things would play out there.

Overall I greatly enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it to fantasy lovers. Seokga and Hani are pretty different but each bring humor to the novel and the two of them fit well together. I thought the worldbuilding was pretty interesting and I enjoyed getting to know the world and the magic within it.

[myth-lord]

When your imagination and fantasy turns against you!

Meet a new group in my project! The creatures of your imagination, the  Tulpa, imagination and phobia made flesh. This group is very chaotic, very different creatures from very different cultures and myths, but I like that!

Tulpa (Tibetan) – Tulpa / Spirit / Parasite (Medium)

ART@: D&D’s SOLAR ANGEL

First stop is the real Tulpa, the imaginary friend that follows you around since you were a child and finally came into being when you needed it’s help the most. This ghostly humanoid sometimes appears during battles as a gentle opponent which helps you until you strike it, then it will disappear, this is different than most other good/neutral creatures which will actually attack you back when you by accident (or not) strike at them, but the Tulpa will just fade away from the battle. This is not very wise to do as the Tulpa may give extra experience when it survives with you through the battle. Tulpa are also known as Guardian Angels, they mostly look like beautiful angels with white wings and bright shining skins. I really wish my English was better, I have so much to tell, but so little words to make it sound good :-(

- Eoduksini (Korean) – Tulpa / Shifter / Parasite (Medium / Colossal)

https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/334392341058392657/

Next is the Eoduksini, a Tulpa which grows in size when you doubt yourself or when you are scared, the more fear this Tulpa absorbs, the bigger it will become.  Eoduksini are Tulpa made flesh after a person doubts himself very much, extreme depression or despair can give birth to these horrible monsters, most creatures have an Eoduksini following them in the world of Mythika, but only a few creatures give in to the amount of depression or despair needed to create a new Eoduksini in the flesh, most Eoduksini will never gain enough depression to gain a real body. These tulpas (like most other evil Tulpa) don’t limit themselves only to one person but haunt as many creatures as they like, but only when they gained fleshy forms.   In the game these creatures start out small, but they grow a size-category every time a character is under the fear-status, and these vile tulpas can cast the fear spell themselves, they can’t grow larger than Huge, but at that point, they are pretty lethal and dangerous in battle.

- Ewah (Native American) – Tulpa / Parasite (Large)

ART@ = D&D’s Phthisic

The Ewah is an old monster I already use for as long as I have a Tumblr account. It is one of the most dangerous and vile Tulpa in the world of Mythika. Ewan's feed on insanity and only extreme sick, violent or mad minds can spawn a new Ewah into the world. Unlike most other Tulpa, the Ewah actually grows from inside the body of the creature that spawns it, much like a brain tumor, slowly taking over the flesh of the host, first starting as an monstrous face on the back of the victims head, and eventually growing into a horrifying monster, the only parts that are left of the host are its face, arms, and legs which stick out of the back of the Ewah, screaming in terror forever, adding to the horror this creature spreads. Once in control, the Ewah spreads more madness and insanity by torturing the minds and bodies of everything intelligent it finds, hoping to create more of its kind.

- Grendel (Literature) – Tulpa (Large)  

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gdKge

I hear you think, Myth Lord? Why is Grendel a Tulpa? Well, Grendel is actually a boss Tulpa, a single entity that was created through the fear and imagination of an entire town, they imagined there was a monster haunting their neighboring swamps, but they actually spawned what they feared so much with their mutual imagination and fear, this fear was so powerful that the Grendel was born in a swampy cave close to the town. The monster is extremely horrifying, spawning parts of all the worst nightmares of the villagers combined into one horrifying humanoid horror, fangs of all sizes decorate its oversized maw, its strength is legendary, and everything that views this creature is shocked or paralyzed out of sheer horror.

- Jarjacha (Peru) – Tulpa (Large)

http://oxlackinvestigaciones.com/2016/02/7-seres-mitologicos-andinos-la-leyendas-que-trascienden-a-traves-del-tiempo/

A creature spawned by perverts and dirty individuals which imagine incest or having fantasies of rape or worse, the Jarjacha takes the form of a Llama with the monstrous face of a human.   Once this Tulpa takes a fleshy form they start to assault the purest of heart with their vile spit, which burns their souls and which turns their imagination unclean and filthy so they eventually spawn a new Jarjacha themselves. These creatures rarely miss their target and they have multiple spit-attacks they can use. These cruel and vile creatures love to sow discord and sick imaginations around them and are highly feared by the denizens of Mythika.

- Keukegen (Japanese) – Tulpa (Small)

A very cute looking Tulpa, but extremely dangerous. Spawn from the minds of hypochondriacs, people which imagine they are always sick, eventually their imagined sickness will find a way to their house in the form of a cute and fluffy ball of fur. Unlike other Tulpas, there are always multiple Keukegens created from one person’s imagination, at the least three are spawned, at most ten. While they look cuddly their hairs carry all types of diseases, the most terrible is a skin-disease which make the victims skin crawl with terrible itching feelings, so bad this itch gets that victims often crawl their own skin clean off.

- Scarbo (French) – Tulpa (Small)

http://bug.images3.org/picture/1176-super-bug-warrior-in-armor-by-arvalis/

The most numerous of the Tulpas, these small gnome-like insect humanoids spawn from the imagination (and paintings, they live inside paintings) of the very creative and imaginative people, with a rich sense of fantasy. Writers, poets, painters and such artists are often plagued by Scarbo. When these vile creatures manifest they will haunt the hosts sleep by keeping him/her awake so they lose sleep and their imagination starts to fade over time, if that fails, however, the Scarbo starts to ruin the paintings, poetry, and books of their hosts during their sleep, changing words in the books with their magical abilities, making spelling errors in beautiful lyrics which are already finished or giving a beautiful woman in a painting a very ugly nose for example. Scarbo love to turn imaginative people insane, and Scarbo’s are seen as a bane for having a good imagination and a lot of fantasy.

- Siguanaba (Mexican) – Tulpa (Medium)

https://javilaparra.deviantart.com/art/La-Siguanaba-511764379

Spawn by cheating men which imagine being with another woman while sleeping with their wives. Once in their fleshy forms, these horrifying female Tulpa literally scare and terrorize their male victims/hosts to death. After their host is dead they turn their attention to other unfaithful people. They appear as beautiful women from the back at least as their face is actually the skull of a horse, they always wear this beautiful wedding-like dress to taunt their victims with. While these monsters mostly attack unfaithful and cheating people, any humanoid is their prey, and so they are also encountered by the heroes in the game.

- Sewer Alligator (Modern Cryptid) – Tulpa (Large)

https://pyro-helfier.deviantart.com/art/Sewer-Gators-644200066

 A terrifying Tulpa appearing like an albino crocodile with monstrous red eyes and sickly white flesh. These creatures spontaneously spawned from the imagination of the humans which live above their sewers. Fear and imagination for monsters in the sewers is as old as humans started to live in cities and towns, and after a while this habit started to spread and so Sewer Alligators are pretty common in the sewer systems of most towns, they are now seen as a pest, but children keep spawning them with their thoughts and fears.  

[briefbestiary]

A creature quite similar to eoduskini, operating under similar rules as monsters in and of the dark. The primary difference is that while eoduksini appear in the corners of ones eye in the dark, a geuseundae will hide under the veil of a distraught child's appearance to lure in passersby.

[elliepassmore]

The God and the Gumiho release!

Kim Hani, also known as the Scarlet Fox, has retired from a life of devouring souls. She is, simply put, too full. Now she spends her days laying low in a coffee shop and annoying a particularly irritating trickster god.

That god is Seokga the Fallen. He was thrown out of his heavenly kingdom centuries ago for staging an utterly pathetic attempt at a coup against his brother, the emperor. But when a powerful demon escapes from the underworld and threatens to end all of humanity, the emperor offers Seokga an enticing deal: Kill this rogue demon, as well as the legendary and elusive gumiho called the Scarlet Fox. In return, he will be reinstated as a god.

There’s only one problem: Kim Hani has no intention of being caught. Seokga might be a trickster god, but Hani has a trick up her sleeve that Seokga will never see coming—teaming up. As Seokga’s assistant, she’ll undermine him at every turn, sabotaging his investigation right under his overly pointy nose. Sure, she’ll fight the demon, but she can’t allow Seokga to uncover her secret identity. Before long, though, the tension between the bickering couple boils over, and the god and the gumiho find themselves inextricably drawn to each other. But will the unlikely duo stand together to prevent the apocalypse, or will they let their secrets tear them—and the mortal world—apart?

Waterstones

Barnes & Noble

This is such a fun, action- and magic-packed book for the summer! I really loved Hani and found her to be funny in a casual sort of way. Seokga is the kind of character who's 100% an asshole but somehow still likeable. Hani and Seokga are pretty different from each other, which leads to them clashing before they're even paired together on a case, but it also means once they can work together they're able to leverage different skills to remarkable effect.

The powerful demon is the main mystery/plot of the book, and I definitely went back and forth on who I thought was the culprit. I definitely enjoyed the chase. I also think the more intense eoduksini mystery pairs well with Hani's more humorous attempts at derailing Seokga's investigation into the Scarlet Fox (i.e., her). The two mysteries intertwine in interesting ways and there are definitely a few nail-biting moments in both.

Interested in hearing more about the book? Check out my full-length review!