Gloom Demon
Posted by Meg
Here we have another unique entry coming all the way from Italy! Read on.
Hello there! My name is Nick and I’m a medical student (22 years old), but also a true fan of the Demon Cycle. (I bought from Amazon the original versions of TWM and TDS, to keep my English keen). This contest is a wonderful way to test my knowledge of English and Demon Cycle lore! I managed to create a short tale which could give the same feel of the books, and I had great fun doing it. I’m a poor design artist, but I’ll attach to this mail my creations anyway. Even the chance to be read by Peter would be an amazing accomplishment!
So, I hope you like it!
Greetings from Italy, homeland of Otzi, the original Warded Man!
Nick a.k.a. Nicolò
Year 333 AR, Winter.
Excerpt from the notes of Tender Obert, daemonologist and archivist in the Great Libray of Miln.
Among the unholy abominations spawned from the Core, one of the most dreadful and deadly is the one known as the Silent Reaper or Gloom Demon. The existence of this demon breed was believed to be a myth up to this very year, for no sightings have ever been reported after the Return.
However, the last happenings have shown how much mankind has forgotten, and how much old histories and scrolls, which we should carefully keep on studying, still hold precious truths. The first mention of this breed of demon can be found in the most ancient texts kept in the Holy Library of Miln, penned millennia ago, during the Age of the Deliverer.
This is the original description:
The gloom demon is indeeed a creature born out of the darkness for no other beast is so fit to blend with the utter blackness of the moonless night sky.
Lidless sidelong eyes, casting a pale glow, grant this hovering horror an unrivalled sight. Its pitch-black body resembles the shape of a cone, constantly twirling and trembling like a cloak, made of a substance akin to the wind demons’ wing membranes.
The monster can float silently in the air and strike its prey with blinding speed, using the tentacles on the side of its body. These appendages can dart istantaneously, tearing and piercing flesh with their sharp spear-like tips, instantly killing animals, men and even smaller corelings. This demon does not possess mouths or rows of teeths, just a single long probscis, used to suck dry their victims, feeding just on body fluids, leaving bones and skin to scavengers. The Silent Reaper hunts alone, following the scent of its prey, shunning the company of its own kind and sometimes killing weaker demons. With its ruthless temper and cunning mind, it must never be understimated, for it can float silently over a circle of protection searching for weaknesses in the net and strike from above without emitting a sound.
Messengers recently reported mysterious attacks beyond the Dividing and in the whole duchy, all with the same pattern of events.
During the darkest hours of the night, all the corelings testing the wards fled, apparently for no reason, leaving the messengers’ campsites undisturbed; the night strangely rumorless.
Suddenly, a flurry of blows coming from above activated the wardnet, lighting all the surroundings, and the men spotted a patch of blackness up above in the sky where there seemed to be two dim lights, like a pair of alien eyes gazing coldly below. They could not determine the demon’s size, for it seemed to gorge and deflate alternatilvely, but its diameter was estimated close to six feet.
About the “natural habitat” of this innatural creature, evidence show it hunts far from the forest, favoring tundra and wide open spaces where its floating abilities are not hindered. Creator grant they will never be sighted next to the city walls.
Many scholars worked on a theory concerning the way this kind of demon can fly: its decievingly fragile body may contain a gas bladder which the creature uses to keep floating without need of flapping wings, as wind demons have to do.
Anyone trying to harm gloom demons should therefore aim with a bow straight to the chest of the demon and fire a warded arrow in the hope of piercing this bladder to pull down the beast, but never leaving succour because if unprotected by wards, the would-be-hunter might not live long enough to see the morning sun.
The wards keyed to wind demons seem to be reasonably safe when tested by gloom demons, however, increasing the diameter of the circle seems to weaken the forbiddance effect, as reported by travelers who witnessed the wardnets fail. If the wards recently acquired, thanks to His Grace’s dealings with the so-called Warded Man, will prove effective, all the Milnese warders will be tasked to add the new symbols to the wardposts of the city to prevent future attacks.
Unfourtunately, at the moment, there is shortage of volounteers to test those wards in the wild.
Gloom Demon Ward
Thank you to Nick from Italy for sending in his entry on gloom demons, a particularly spooky creation. Want your own demon featured on Peat’s blog? Then don’t forget to submit to the Create Your Own Coreling Contest by 11:59pm on May 18, 2012. For more details, check out the rules here.