Names for soul jars

I’m currently on a kick where I think of multiple aliases for a concept such as a monster or magic item. In this post, the phylactery of the lich.

The word “phylactery” has several meanings according to wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/phylactery

Here are some other names for the same concept: soul jar (used by tv tropes), horcrux (coined by J.K. Rowling from random syllables, though that hasn’t stopped fans from inventing their own etymology), animarium (coined by myself from Latin anima and -arium), secret heart (used by Palladium), spirit jar, soul gem, etc.

The basic concept of a soul jar is simple: it contains someone’s soul. Why it does is, of course, highly variable. It might be a funerary object as with the mid-Eastern Han Dynasty. It might be a prison. It might be a means of enslaving the soul’s owner as with Afro-Caribbean zombies. It might be a way to cheat death as with Koschei the Deathless, Voldemort, and the D&D lich.

And that’s basically everything I can think of right now. 

Dark elves and racist coding?

(Note: This post was originally composed in August 2019 and was not posted until February 2021. It may come across as "politically correct." The statements I make here do not necessarily reflect my views as of this writing. I decided to leave it unaltered for archival purposes.)

Dark elves are a bit more difficult. D&D in particular depicts its "drow" as literally dark-skinned in contrast to other elves, and has traditionally linked this to their evil nature by writing backstories where they were cursed with black skin for their wickedness. This is disturbing because the same logic was used to justify the historical enslavement of black Africans in the Americas. Pathfinder tries to soften the blow by claiming that drow were mutated by magical radiation when they refused to evacuate during an apocalypse out of pride, but this doesn't actually solve the underlying issue and in this case specifically the drow are still depicted as being metaphorically punished for some perceived sin. Fantasy gaming depicts light-skinned elves as the original or purity, whereas dark-skinned elves are an aberration or corruption.

For example, EverQuest Next depicts dark elves as being even further mutated by dwelling on the setting's equivalent of the shadowfell, developing unusual skin tones, bone growths like horns and spikes, and increased aggression. (Although during development they had various ideas for other skin tones: here, here, and here.)

Many other fantasy works such as The Elder Scrolls, Warhammer Fantasy and WarCraft try to avoid the negative implications by depicting dark elves as dark-skinned and non-evil or as light-skinned and evil. Although non-evil drow exist in obscure D&D lore, the fandom seems quite resistant to addressing the controversial underpinnings of the drow. I can only imagine why.

Still, even settings in which dark elves are distinguished only by darker skin but are otherwise not stigmatized still have racist sounding terminology. Imagine if human cultures were referred to solely by their skin color: white humans, yellow humans, black humans, brown humans, etc. Does that sound like a nice shorthand to label people? Because that is precisely what a lot of video games, novels, and anime/manga are doing with elves.

Given my distaste for the traditional depiction of drow as being cursed or mutated with black skin as punishment for wickedness or pride, I would prefer to adopt Raging Heroes' "burnt elves" backstory wholesale. How exactly does that make my burnt elves different from the standard drow and their disturbing implications? Firstly, these burnt elves are literally charred in body and soul; whereas the elfish skin tones could be anything, so nobody is named by their skin tone. Secondly, this scarring of the soul is the cause of the burnt elves' subsequent behavior (wicked or otherwise) rather than a result; an inverse of the traditional drow being punished with dark skin for their sins. Thirdly, these burnt elves are the descendants of the victims and instigators of the ethnic violence that scarred them in the first place; thus they serve as a metaphor for the cycles of abuse/violence and its harmful effects on society. They have a theme with critical examination, not just thoughtlessly tossing ideas together without considering the context.

My elves are different?

(Note: This post was originally composed in August 2019 and was not posted until February 2021. It may come across as "politically correct." The statements I make here do not necessarily reflect my views as of this writing. I decided to leave it unaltered for archival purposes.)

For the longest time I have struggled with devising a new, creative take on elves. I am bored of lazy Tolkien clones that do not even understand the underpinnings of Tolkien's own creation. Tolkien went to a crazy amount of effort to detail the origins, mythology, culture, psychology and physiology of his elves. Fantasy gaming mindlessly copied surface-level details while ignoring the complicated explanations of why the elves were like that.

Indeed, one of the most important and basic aspects of Tolkien's cosmology that is forgotten in fantasy gaming is the concept of fëa and hröa (soul and body). Tolkien's elves may reincarnate after death, because their souls are bound the world. However, time in Middle Earth operates on the logic of ages, with each successive age being progressively boring and bland. Since the elves are bound to Middle Earth, they are subject to this deterioration as well. The elves grew resentful of their inevitable fate. Sauron played upon this resentment to convince their master smiths to forge the rings of power specifically to arrest this cycle. Obviously, that didn't work and Middle Earth ultimately deteriorated into the horrible modern Earth.

Earlier editions of D&D payed lip service to the concept of different souls by specifically that elves are not subject to raise dead and resurrection spells but must instead be revived through reincarnation spells. This was discarded around third edition in A.D. 2000 and elves became subject to standard revival effects, presumably because it was really inconvenient for players.

Anyway, my efforts seem fruitless since many other authors already devised creative takes on elves over the last several decades since D&D popularized the surface-level Tolkien clones.

• RuneQuest depicts elves as plant people, not unlike some folkloric imaginings of wood nymphs. 
• Warhammer depicts elves as prone to inhumanly excessive emotions. 
• Magic: The Gathering depicts extremely vicious wood elves in its Lorwyn setting, nothing like the popular hippie stereotype. 
• The Dragon Prince depicts elves with horns and ethnic groups based on their elemental magic affinity, such as "moon", "sky" and "stars." (D&D does this too, but here the magic system gives it weight)
• Warcraft depicts various elf ethnic groups created by magical mutations. (These are far more extreme than the largely cosmetic D&D ethnicity.) There are night elves, high elves, blood elves, void elves, fel-corrupted elves, and more.
• The miniatures company Raging Heroes wrote a backstory for elves in which they were depicted as one soul sharing two bodies, one a tree and the other an animal; dark elves were created during a war that burned their groves, leaving their surviving animal halves horribly burned and their souls permanently shredded.

At this point, probably the best I can do is just mix-and-match elements based on the work of other authors. Pick what bits that I like and stick them together, while making sure the result looks holistic and not lazy patchwork.

There are basically only three flavors of elves: high elves, wood elves, and dark elves. Virtually every depiction in the fantasy genre is a variation on one or more of those three. By keeping myself restricted to detailing those three for the most part, I can save myself a lot of work that would otherwise be wasted on convoluted backstories for the bazillion different elfish ethnic groups. Three ethnic groups are much easier to write as distinct than a bazillion.

Research books on vampires

Since I like to research vampires and related creatures sometimes, I have collected a list of useful research books. Rather than keep it to myself, I have now decided to share it with anyone interested. 

Bane, Theresa. Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology. McFarland, 2010.

Bunson, Matthew. The Vampire Encyclopedia. Random House International, 2001.

Curran, Bob. Encyclopedia of the Undead: a Field Guide to Creatures That Cannot Rest in Peace. New Page Books, 2006.

Guiley, Rosemary. The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters. Checkmark Books, 2005.

Hallab, Mary Y. Vampire God: the Allure of the Undead in Western Culture. SUNY Press, 2009.

Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead. Visible Ink Press, 2010.

Regan, Sally. The Vampire Book. DK Pub., 2009.

Most of these should be available as ebooks on Amazon, Apple, or Google. Isn't technology great?

What I find interesting about these books is that they include references to vampire-like creatures from across world mythology, including creatures you might not ordinarily associate with vampires like the Chinese húlijīng or "fox fairy".

Uses for dragon’s blood and other body parts

Stumbled upon some interesting articles on the use of dragon’s blood and other body parts as ingredients. Hopefully this might inspire anybody who reads this.

• https://www.blackdrago.com/topics/parts.htm
• https://mythenthusiast.wordpress.com/2019/03/05/the-uses-of-dragon-parts-in-mythology-and-folklore/amp/
• https://intothewonder.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/twelve-uses-of-dragons-blood-plus-some-other-useful-dragon-parts/amp/
• http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2014/10/on-what-to-do-with-dragon-corpse.html?m=1

Posted using BlogTouch

The grootslang is not an elephant/snake hybrid

Addendum 9/3/2021: You can read an academic style write-up about the grootslang at A Book of Creatures.

So I learned of another legendary creature, the grootslang from Dahomey. Its name literally translates to "great snake" and it basically behaves like the traditional treasure hoarding dragon. Some things never change, even across continents. Several explorers claimed sightings of it over the centuries.

Of course, the internet misinformation machine had to screw it up. It's commonly depicted as an elephant/snake hybrid in modern art, even though I couldn't find any primary sources describing it as such. There's also a story circulating about its origins as the ancestor of snakes and elephants, which I could not find in any primary source either; in fact, I suspect this story originates from the Pathfinder RPG directly. Some sources claim the grootslang has a red gem or diamond in its forehead, or even that it has such gems for eyes and/or bewitching powers over onlookers. These are similar to some other stories of dragons, particularly the French vouivre I blogged about before.

There's a bunch of other misinformation floating around too that I can't source either. I suspect the artistic depiction of an elephant/snake hybrid originated as a misunderstanding of it being "elephant-sized." Somewhere along the line an artist or writer misunderstood this as "elephant-shaped" and we got our modern elephant-headed snake. Again, I wonder if Pathfinder originated this too, as I can't find any older art on Deviantart.

Funnily enough, Final Fantasy depicts it as a generic giant snake.

Basically, it's a very typical example of the terrifying treasure-guarding dragons. One detail that is often omitted is that grootslang is the Afrikaans name for the creature and may be more description than actual name. Other accounts call it "Kiman."

Sober accounts tell of a great snake called Kiman cruising the remote canyons between Augrabies and the Richtersveld, preying on stock. The colourful ones claim the snake has a diamond embedded in its forehead, that it entices young girls into the water and knocks men down with its breath. (p258. Dicey, William. Borderline. South Africa, Kwela Books, 2004.)

At Groot Derm I first learnt of the Groot Slang, the Big Snake of the Orange River. The Hottentots believed this snake had a diamond in its head which scintillated in the moonlight, and was brilliantly visible for long distances during the day. (p127. SWA Annual: SWA Jaarboek. SWA Jahrbuch. Namibia, South West Africa Publications, Limited, 1973.)

Enticing girls? Yeah, that's obviously omitted by a lot of the elephant hybrid stories. As you might have noticed by the "colourful" appellation, stories of the great snake are subject to embellishment. Learning more about the actual accounts is very difficult because they're in books that aren't freely available on Google Books. Darn copyright laws.

So Kiman is a very typical dragon all things considered: giant snake, lives in water, hoards treasure, hunts livestock, seduces women, terrifies men, beautiful gem in its forehead, etc.

Minotaurs and minotrices

So I was reading Masters and Minions Horde Book 2: Maze of the Minotaur when I came across the nonce word "minotrices," which the book called female minotaurs. I found this rather interesting, since while it looks like a Latin word it isn't real Latin and doesn't follow the standard rules for inventing Latin words.

The Latin word for Minotaur is Minotaurus. This is a masculine proper noun for which no feminine inflection exists because the name is a compound of Minos (the historical king of Crete, whose name itself became a royal title) and taurus (a bull), thus meaning "the bull of Minos" or "the king's bull" (and which could be further shortened in English to kingsbull, by analogy to kingsman). The Latin word for a cow is vacca and so the feminine counterpart would logically be the Minovacca rather than, say, the Minotaura. (Compare with my prior post on incubus/incuba and succubus/succuba.)

Yet the nonce word "minotrices" doesn't follow this pattern. The suffix -trices is the plural form of the Latin suffix -trix. This suffix is the feminine form of -tor, which indicates an agent noun (e.g. executor, executrix). Even stranger: the book writes the singular form as "minotrice," which is ungrammatical as -trice is in the ablative case and not the nominative.

Apparently the author of the book misinterpreted the English word Minotaur as a Latin agent noun based on superficial phonetic similarity and went from there. While this may seem nonsensical, you may perhaps contrive a functional meaning by delving further into the etymology of Minos. While in Cretan it means "king," it may descent from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning "ascetic" (although such a reading is debated). So as an agent noun (albeit redundant, unless one is aiming for wordplay), it would mean one who lives ascetically e.g. in caves or mazes.

Or you could just call a female minotaur by "minotauress," a neologism dating back as far as at least 1916.