Succubi ; The Kitsune, Valkyrie and Morrigan.

An interesting find whilst browsing various Succubi in history ; Kitsune. A shape shifting fox, able to take on the form of a human, generally attractive females. There are two types of Kitsune, the first is the 'good form' the Zenko, which are benevolent foxes. The other type, the one's I am more interested in are the Nogitsune, whom are Malicious, they often show characteristics relating to Succubi and Vampires by feeding on their life and spirit, often through sexual contact.

Kitsune are generally portrayed as being able to generate fire and lightning from their mouths or tails, manifestations into dreams of others, the ability to fly, invisibilty, and the ability to create illusions. It is said that they are also able to learn to shape shift into other things too.

The Kitsune reminds me of my favourite NPC (non player character) in Dragon Age : Origins, named 'Morrigan' - She has the magical and shape shifting characteristics of the Kitsune.

Morrigan from Dragon Age : Origins.

So naturally I dug deeper into the word 'Morrigan', which means 'Phantom Queen' and is associated with Prophecy, sovereignty, war and death. She appears as a crow, eel, wolf and even a cow. It was here that the Kitsune connection stopped for Kistune's are foxes initially. She is considered a war deity, but often is associated with fertility and wealth due to her cow form. They tend to be a 'triple goddess' which means that there are three of them. I remember watching an episode of a program called 'Sanctuary' wherein there were three magical girls whom walked around together. They were kept in coffins for hundreds of years, and when found they were talking about past times and were confused by the modern city and such. It turned out they were some form of secret weapon in battlefields, and they used to walk through a battlefield together, holding hands, and every soldier there would just drop dead. I'm sure that these characters were based around The Morrigan entirely. (Don't judge me, Sanctuary isn't the best program ever, I was bored, and the chick in it seemed hot.)

This then lead me on to the word 'Valkyrie,' whom are from Norsk Mythology, and are said to be the ones who choose who die in battle. They bring these fallen to the hall of afterlife 'Valhalla,' ruled by Odin. Here they become einherjar ready for the events of Ragnarök.
The einherjar eat their fill daily, and train for the battle of Ragnarök, which was said to be a great battle wherein the great gods (Odin, Thor, Freyr, Heimdall, and the jötunn Loki) would fall, natural disasters would occur, and the world would be flooded by water. After these events the surviving gods would repopulate the world. This isn't unlike many prophecies of modern day. The main one of discussion currently being the 2012 predictions, it seems these have been a common occuring thing for thousands of years.
The Valkyrie are depicted as having the ability to fly via their large wings, and even more so they are shown as being accompanied by Ravens or sometimes Swans. The problem with the Valkyrie is that I can't think of them as evil villainess'. They might be the chosers of who dies in battle, but they make sure those that died get their daily fill of food and live good lives in order to train for the Ragnarok. So I shall move on from here.

An interesting term I found was 'Al Basti' and it refers to the state of paralysis that scientists believe is the real explanation for a lot of demonic experiences that people have. To quote Wikipedia (shudders - please don't hurt me Phil!)
People who have said to experience this trance like episode of deep sleep condition to be very terrifying and traumatising. They report that a sudden weight is pushing them down which is said to cause breathing problems. The person no matter what they try cannot wake up from this condition if it is severe and multiple unofficial reports have said that there have been deaths from this experience[citation needed]. These accounts may be explained by a naturally occurring phenomena called sleep paralysis, specifically the induction of a hypnagogic state.

The reason I put this is because I instantly had cool thoughts of a person entirely paralysed while some form of demonic succubus stalks the shadows. Certainly an area for further thought.

Okay, so a lot of the aforementioned myths are based upon the 'Succubus'. Which I'm sure everyone knows is a beautiful demonic women whom seduces men into sexual intercourse (as well they might). They do this to drain the energy out of the male untill they become so exhausted they die. Of course, I would argue that this would be one of the best ways to die, and I think that says more about the male species than anything else.

As you can see, I am very keen on the Succubus idea, but am trying to dig deeper beyond that to see what else is there.

5 comments:

Tera S said...

*smiles*

Succubi are interesting beings, but please don't confuse them with vampires like sooo many people are doing today...

And really, they do like guys and girls too...

tutorphil said...

Hey - don't get your vampires and succubi confused - you've been told!!! :-)

Well it seems you've had some enriching discoveries, Jonny - ah, the simple joy of research; there was a lot of animal imagery there - which is also good, because all animals have a symbolic universe too - another pocket of research if you will; i do think that to move your character design away from 'Barbie-goes-demonic' territory, you should consider a blend of human and animal anatomy - a shape-shifter;

Check out the work of Daniel Lee...

http://www.daniellee.com/

Crappy website - but some nice hybrids - and pre-Avatar too!

Jon Stewart said...

Hi Tera, thanks for stopping by. I certainly won't confuse the two! :D

Phil - Yes, the shape shifting aspect of the character is something I am keen to delve deeper into. I'll give Daniel Lee's website a visit for sure!

Tera S said...

*huggles*

Watch for an email Jon?


Tera

Jon Stewart said...

Hi, yep I got your email Tera. Thanks for the reply. I have emailed you back :-]

About Me

My photo
I am a video game artist at Dovetail games, working on Train Simulator 2014, 2015 and an unannounced title. I also graduated from the CG Arts course at UCA in 2010 with a First Class. www.jonstewart.co.uk