05 Of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 2 - Femme Maria Makiling

05 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 2 - Femme Maria Makiling

A major figure in the folk mythology that surrounds Mount Makiling in the central Philippenes, Maria Makiling is what is known as a Diwata, nature spirits roughly analogous to a nymph or fairy. Maria herself has roots that go back to the native cultures that inhabited the islands of the Philippenes before the European invasions, but as far as we can tell, she has always been seen as a protector of the mountain and surrounding areas.

What I find fascinating about Maria Makiling is how little the modern world has changed her. People that live around Mount Makiling still report seeing a dark haired, dark skinned woman in white wandering the wilderness, aiding those who respect and revere nature, and cursing those who despoil it. She’s even said to confuse those who don’t clean up after their campfires and picnics, turning the forest into an inescapable maze until they tidy up after themselves.

As an eternally young woman who is constantly pursued, but who only allows those she deems worthy to find her, Maria Makiling is eminently suited to the Femme family. Her kind nature does make her a bit of an unusual figure in the normally very offensively-focused Femme family; she’s more interested in healing spells and a few status effects than in actually dealing damage.

For more info on as well as links to every demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our extensive Data File, right over (here).

Warning! Fusion error

Warning! Fusion error

Warning! Fusion error

Program was forced to close by a remote observer Source detected 37.2350° N, 115.8111° W Message included: WARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOU

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03 of 05 - ModWARNEDYOUium: KishiWARNEDYOUPart 4 - Enigma JHVH-1

A bizarre paWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUed pseudo-religion known as the Church of the SubGenius, JHVH-1 is inteWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUon of the hierarchical nature of religion. JHVH-1 is known as a cruel and capricious alien god, WARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUunclear. The Church says that JHVH-1 came to Earth and reveaWARNEDYOU J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, who received WARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUom the deity. The fact that Bob Dobbs looks, apparently, exactly like Ward Cleaver should tell you about how WARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUelf takes these stories.

The Church is a mashWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUopular culture, adopting parWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUristianity, UFO religions, conspiracy theories, and even the Cthulhu mythos into a deliberately self-contrWARNEDYOUlogy, resulting in an overarching philosophy that parodies even itself. The Church celebrates “devivals,” urges it WARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUk towards Slack, and believes in an elaborate conspiracy dedicatWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUworld and brainwashin WARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOU none of these ideas are ever fully explained. It’s a little bit like if Monty Python had invented a religion – the nonsense isn’t coveriWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUonsense is the point.

Though fairly old bWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUndards, the Church of the SubGenius has maWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUopularity through the new millenium, and stilWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUfollowing. Between this and the fact that JHVH-1 fits so squarely into the Enigmas that they might as WARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUanother, this deity fits nearly at the top of its family. Though WARNEDYOUWARNEDYOUWARNEDYOU would fit this deranged embodiment of chaos is beyond me.

For more info on this and WARNEDYOUWARNEDYOU the Modern Compendium, have a look at our Data File, right over (here),

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we are watching you

01 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 3 - Deity May Queen

The May Queen is a demon that shows the difference between what the basis of a myth actually is, and what people think it is. In modern times, the May Queen is a young woman elected to preside over May Day celebrations, to walk at the head of the parade and open the holiday dances. Historically, the May Queen is related to ancient tree worship, as this figure is closely connected with Maypoles, and the celebration of the return of spring. She wears a white dress to symbolize purity, and flowers in her hair to celebrate the renewal and rebirth of nature.

However, the May Queen is a myth whose historical fact has been largely overtaken by popular folklore. There is a popular and persistant urban legend that, somewhere in the murky depths of time, the May Queen was actually a sacrifice in waiting. Supposedly the people of English villages would select a young woman, give her all the best that they had to offer, and then, after May Day had passed, sacrifice her to some vicious pagan god. No doubt bloody stone altars and obsidian knives were involved.

However, and this is important to note, there is no evidence that I can find to actually back up the idea that this was ever done. As far as I can tell, someone somewhere just thought it sounded like a neat thing to tack on to the May Queen, and it stuck. Equally important is the fact that this gory and disturbing footnote to May Day is in fact very widely believed. No doubt the horror film The Wicker Man and its atrocious-bordering-on-comical 2006 remake are at least partially to blame, but whatever the cause, society at large has no trouble imagining a vicious start to this May Day tradition.

In any case, it is unfortunate for the May Queen that the version of any myth that matters for any practical purpose is the one that people actually believe in. And so the May Queen that gets into the Modern Compendium is the one with the disturbing backstory. The May Queen actually sits on the lower end of the Deity family, due in part to the dubious nature of belief in this version of her, but also because May Day celebrations aren’t hugely widespread outside of Europe and select parts of North America.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our Data File, right over (here).

03 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Kishin Family, Part 3 - UMA Trunko

A Cryptid first sighted off the coast of South Africa in 1924, Trunko is an enduringly popular critter, despite very few modern sightings. Perhaps its that ugly-cute coat of fur or the sheer bizarre appeal of an underwater polar bear/elephant/whale hybrid, but either way, this creature is regularly near the top of the list of famous Cryptids.

First seen being attacked by a pair of Killer Whales who battered the animal for three whole hours, Trunko later washed up on the shores of Margate Beach, where it drew a crowd. Beach-goers measured it at 14 feet long, but for some reason, no one managed to get an actual sample of the beast. Heck, to this day there exists only four actual photos of the corpse. 

Science, as with so many heavily disfigured Globsters that wash up on shores all over the Earth, is decidedly unimpressed with Trunko. The corpse could easily have been a partially decayed and dismembered whale, especially given the way that tough whale protein “shreds” as it decays, resembling white fur.

Trunko is one of the weaker UMAs, thanks largely to the easy explanations for its appearance and the fact that, despite its popularity, it just doesn’t get seen very much. Its also one of the last UMAs I’ll be designing - there’s only one more to go before this enormous family is done! :o

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our Data File, right over (here).

01 of 05 - Modern Compendium; Kishin Family, Part 4 - Kishin Liberty

First off, I have to apologize; this was supposed to go up on the 4th. I always underestimate how busy the holidays can become. But the rest of the month’ll be full of Mom and Apple Pie, so it’s not a total loss. ^^

Anyway, Liberty! I actually considered doing Uncle Sam, but it turns out that Lady Liberty actually has a long – and I mean long – history behind her. Way back in Roman times, they worshiped a figure called Libertas, a goddess seen as so powerful that she was often equated with Sol Invictus, one of the central gods of the late Roman Empire.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France, where Liberty had come to prominence during the French Revolution. Hell, for a time Notre Dame was actually re-christened as a sort of temple to the “Cult of Reason,” and who did they turn to for a replacement for the Virgin Mary? Liberty.

The figure of the statue itself is actually used as a national personification by both the United States and France, where she is sometimes called Marianne. For a while, Americans knew her as Columbia, too, but that practice mostly fell by the wayside as Uncle Sam came to popularity in the 1930s and 40s.

Liberty is an incredibly popular figure in modern society. She’s appeared on everything from money to postage stamps to little souvenir figurines. And if having your likeness in millions of homes isn’t worship, I don’t know what is. Liberty is incredibly powerful, but she’s actually the second highest level Kishin. And the one demon above her is… Special.

For more information on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our mysterious Data File, right over (here).

04 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 3 - Rumor Attic Bride

A popular and deceptively old urban legend, the story of the Bride in the Attic is one of those stories that gets told around campfires and on Halloween for chills, but not many people actually take it seriously.

The myth itself tells the story of a woman who, after many years of waiting and longing for a husband, fell in love and married the man of her dreams. After a fairy tale wedding, their friends and family treated them to a big house party with all the trimmings. Eventually someone suggested that they play some party games, and they started with Hide and Seek. The bride ran to the attic and hid in an old steamer trunk, and waited for someone to find her.

But no one ever did. The door to the attic had shut behind her, and the trunk had locked as it fell down on top of her. The wedding guests looked and looked, but it wasn’t until years and years later, when her widowed husband finally died, that anyone thought to look in the old trunk in the attic.

The story itself has a huge number of variations. Some versions have the husband as a sinister man who intended the bride to be locked in the attic, but he never gets his hands on her wealth because her vengeful spirit comes back to haunt him. Other versions have the husband himself finding the bride weeks or months later, as she begins to smell. Often a beating heart or spooky thumps on the ceiling are involved. But the most common alteration to the story is the city in which it happens; most people make sure the story takes place “just down the road” or “in a town just like this one” for maximum fireside spookies.

The Attic Bride fits easily into the Rumor family, but because it’s not a story that many people take very seriously, it’s not a particularly powerful demon. She is one of the few Rumors that is weak to Dark, though, so the Bride does have one unique thing to her credit.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our expanding Data File, right over (here.)