Rare Monsters

  The pyraustra, also known as the pyrallis was a fiery dragon like insect from Greek and Roman mythology. It is tiny, somewhere between the size of a gnat and a house fly. It had fiery colours, and a glowing bulb on the end of its tail. It also only had four legs in spite of being insect like, but believing insects had only four legs was a pretty common thing in ancient times. Pyraustras are born directly from fire. They must stay within the heat of the fire or die. Within the fire’s range pyraustraus fly about chaotically, mostly moving upward until they are out of range of the fire and then puff out of existence. The pyraustra were primarily found in the copper smelting furnaces of Cyprus. It’s wildly believed today that the legend of the pyraustra was misinterpretations of sparks or embers flying away from the fire. How dragony the pyraustra was has been called into question, as the only reference to it being dragon like comes from a modern source, Inventorum Naturum ...

  Kamikiri is a yokai from the Edo period of Japan. It sits on the edge between legendary creature and cryptid, with newspaper articles about encounters with the creature coming out at the time, yet being treated as folklore now. Although the line between yokai and cryptid isn’t always clear. The kamikiri is a yokai who’s all about cutting off people’s hair. In previous eras in Japan long hair was a symbol of age and status. Both men and women had long hair, men wearing their hair in top knots and women in various styles. There was a much greater need to conform in Japan’s past, people wore hairstyles based on status and role in society, rather than for fashion. So having your hair cut off was far worse for the person that it would be in modern times. The kamikiri would lurk around its victim in secret and wait for a time they were alone to attack. They would then quickly and silently cut off the victim’s hair. Often the kamikiri would never be seen and the victim would only kn...

  Shinchus are good monsters and considered holy. They are protective minor deities and are known as the divine insects. While shinchus look terrifying they only attack demons, especially those which cause disease. Shinchus violently rip these demons apart, leaving a trail of gore and blood. Every day a shinchu will devour six thousand demons, three thousand in the morning and three thousand in the evening. It's said the shinchu's appetite is as big as it is. Shinchus are silk moths the size of elephants or larger. They have bulging eyes, gaping mouths full of sharp teeth and a wasp like stinger. According to the myth, shinchus originated in India in the mythical lands of Jambudvipa. Of the four lands surrounding Mount Meru, Jambudvipa is the only one inhabited by humans and the only one where enlightenment could be achieved in one life time purely through study. Because such things could be achieved only in this one land it was under constant attack from demons who wanted to s...

  The locusts of Abaddon are a type of monster that appears in the book of Revelations. They had the head of a man, the teeth of a lion and the long flowing hair of a woman. They had horse like bodies, wings and scorpion tails. They were also wearing crowns and iron breast plates. No part of the demonic locusts were insect like. The insect shell and wings are my own interpretation, as Revelations doesn't state what kind of wings they have. Referring to these demons as locusts comes from their vast numbers, which is like a locust swarm. The locusts were released from the bottomless pit by Satan after the fifth angel blew their trumpet. The locusts were commanded by the demon Abaddon, also known as Apollyon, his name meaning the destroyer. The locusts were commanded to not harm the natural life of Earth but only attack sinners, or the men who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Even then the locusts were not to kill the sinners, but just torture them relentlessly for fi...

  Back in my introductory post I said I would cover cryptids too, and I've yet to do that. So it's about time I covered something on the forteans side of things. On July 2 nd , 1954 Candian Italian miner, Ennio La Sarza witnessed a strange object in the sky outside Garson Ontario, a small nickel mining town near Sudbury. The incident happened at 5 pm that day, and in the northern latitude of Garson days last long into the evening, so there was still ample daylight at 5 pm. Shortly after the object appeared it hurtled town towards the ground, faster than any jet, La Sarza reported. Yet before it crashed into the ground it slowed down, deployed its landing gear and landed gently. La Sarza described the space craft as being roughly spherical in shape, 25 feet in diameter and having a circle of port hole windows encircling it's middle. Once the space craft had landed a door opened up and lowered down like a ramp. Three creatures emerged. Although only one of them approached ...