T is for Tsukumogami

My alphabeasts this week: Tsukumogami, what a name!

Something this crazy could only come from Japanese Mythology. Basically a Tsukumogami is an intimate object that has been around for a 100 years and happens to gain sentience. In old Japanese legends it was said that if an object survived for that long it would gain self awareness and turn into a trickster spirit of sorts. Fun little guys and it can be anything! So I naturally chose a clothes dresser, who doesn't love dressers?

I was listening to the Mother 3 sound track when I did this since it seemed so oddly fitting.

S is for Sylvan

My alphabeasts this week: Sylvan

Sylvans are a fun concept. Basically they come from early English mythology and their seen as these wood inhabitants made from elements of the forest themselves. For some reason he came out looking like the main character of some 90's Nintendo platformer but I actually like that. Race on, you crazy little Sylvan.

R is for Redcap

My Alphabeasts this week:Redcap

I cheated a bit this week considering a Red Cap is just a goblin of sorts but it's history is pretty unique, coming from England. It gets the name from it's hat, which it must keep red with the blood of it's victims. If his hat ever dries out, he'll die. Its' kind of like a Kappa clause if you think about it.

Q is for Qliphoth

My alphabeast this week: Qliphoth


The Qliphoth is a fun little husk spirit from Jewish mysticism who is made up of impure forces and evil intentions. Because this is such a broad idea I had a lot of fun liberties with this one. Seems like it'd be a bit of downer to hang out with, not to mention the whole evil thing going on.

P is for Pishacha

My Alphabeasts for this week: Pishacha

Pretty straight forward, they are flesh eating demons from Hindu mythology. They love darkness, possessing people and even have their own language. It is said they can cause many forms of insanity in humans from their possessions and that certain Mantras can drive them out.

It's funny that so many cultures used to believe forms of madness were brought on by possessions from ghost and demons. It'd be nice if things were that simple and a few words could drive out such things. I guess it is nice that most mental illness don't eat your flesh on the flip side of that spectrum.

O is for Ouroboros!

My Alphabeasts for the day: an Ouroboros!

A fun creature to tackle, a snake beasts from ancient Egyptian times. It's described as an odd snake god who ascended from the chaos waters of Egypt and that it would constantly renew itself and die each day. Since then it has become a famous symbol for infinity represented by a snake continually eating it's own tail.

I decided to go with a playful, corpsey kind of feel.

Alphabeast: N if for Nephilim

I decided to start participating in this Alphabeasts project (http://alphabeasts.tumblr.com/) starting with the letter N so I drew a Nephilim:

I thought a Nephilim would be fun to draw because they're very ambiguous in both description and shape. Nephilims are old mythical creatures found in the older testaments of the Bible before the flood. They were supposedly descended from god (Described as "Sons of God") but born by a women so in way they are seen as half angels. Never properly described other than sometimes being giants and sometimes looking human, I thought it be fun to tackle it.

Looking forward to O next week so expect a post for Alpabeasts each Monday.