Rare Monsters

  The Stratford Lyon is a local legend from New Forest, an area in the southwest of England. It rests somewhere between folklore and cryptid, with people reportedly seeing the beast in modern times, but it’s hard to tell how serious these encounters are. Legend has it that in the early 1500’s a local aristocrat named John Stratford was walking the land he had newly inherited. While travelling his land he spotted some antlers sticking out of the ground. They were magnificent, huge antlers. So John Stratford tried to pull them out of the ground. As he pulled he saw that the antlers were attached to fur, then a lion’s head and finally the whole lion’s body emerged. The lion was furious and lunged at Stratford. He hung onto the antlers for dear life, narrowly dodging the lion’s swipes at him. As the lion struggled Stratford jumped on its back. The lion bucked and fought back but Stratford hung on and refused to be removed. With Stratford on its back, the lion ran around New ...

Tsukumogami are a type of yokai from Japan. These are ordinary objects that have gained souls through some means. Usually this happened because the object was very old. It was believed that after a 100 years an object would receive a soul, making it conscious and giving it the ability to transform into a being who could interact with the world. Usually these objects would continue to behave themselves and not show off these abilities if they continued to be used and cherished by their owners. It was very old objects that were thrown away or abandoned that would start turning into creatures and misbehaving. They could do anything from pulling silly and annoying pranks to being actual threats. When an old object was broken and had to be discarded a small ceremony was held by the household to appease its spirit, and old objects in working order were not thrown away if it could be avoided. Cherishing old objects was part of the concept of mottainai, the desire to not be wasteful. Anoth...

  The bat beast of Kent was a vaguely mothman like cryptid seen in the English county of Kent. The bat beast was seen in 1963, three years before the infamous events that took place in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The incident took place near the Saltwood forest, which are known for paranormal strangeness before the incident. The incident being alternately known as the Saltwood ghost and the Hythe mothman, after the nearby village of Hythe. The bat beast overall resembles mothman, but completely lacks a head, eyes or any facial features. It's body is egg shaped and covered in black fur. The wings emerge from the shoulders in place of arms. Oddly the creature also has webbed feet at the end of human like legs. The creature was approximately five feet tall. On November 16 th , four teens identified as John Flaxton, Mervyn Hutchinson and their girlfriends, who remained unnamed through the follow investigation, were walking home along Sandling Road, from a party. On their journey ...

  The snawfus is a pure white stag with flowering branches for antlers and supernatural abilities. It comes from the folklore of the Ozarks and is found in Arkansas and Missouri. The snawfus is associated with the cool misty winters of the region. It was said to be the origin of the blue haze which shrouded the Ozark mountains in the wintertime by breathing out clouds of blue mist. Legends most often speak of their only being one snawfus, unlike many fearsome critters which are treated like species. Instead the snawfus is more like a spirit, and guardian of the Ozarks' wilderness. The snawfus was much larger than the average buck, being more akin to an elk in size. Yet in spite of this, it was far more swift than any regular deer, to the point it couldn't be captured or shot down by any means. The snawfus was also able to jump up into the canopy of the forest and walk along the branches. In spite of its size the snawfus could perch on the smallest of twigs. Sometimes it just ha...

  The Plat Eye is a ghostly undead monster from America Folklore. It's found along the gulf coast, into Georgia and up into South Carolina. The legend of the plat eye was told primarily among African Americans. The plat eye is a ghostly predatory beast, usually a large cat. Its most distinguishing feature is its single large eye, which glows red. Often all a person will see of the plat eye is its glowing eye staring at them from the darkness. The plat eye's body is pale white or grey, like a lifeless corps. Often its flesh is rotten and its guts are hanging out, furthering the undead appearance.   The plat eye can shape shift into the forms of a headless human, a sickly black calf or a black dog. The plat eye can also appear and disappear at will. Plat eyes haunt bayous and crossroads after midnight, and are never seen in the light of day. They fade out of existence in the sunlight. The plat eye surrounds itself in mist and appears out of the fog. Plat Eyes are the restl...

  The nameless horror of Berkeley Square is the most Lovecraftian thing I've heard of that wasn't written by Lovecraft himself or his circle of writers. The name of the thing even sounds Lovecraftian. Yet these events predate Lovecraft's writing. Most of them happen before he was even born. The nameless horror is intrinsically tied to it's location, 50 Berkeley Square in London England. It is known as one of the most haunted buildings in all of London. The building itself has a long history being built in 1740. Not long after it already was reported to be haunted. The first stories about specific spirits started in 1789. Adeline, a woman who had lived in the house, was found dead outside on the pavement. She had jumped from the upper floors to escape abuse from her uncle. After her untimely death people started seeing her apparition as a ghostly woman in white wandering the hallways, and disconnected crying from an unseen woman. Another early ghost from the 18 th cen...

  Bies, also called Bes and Biesy, was a type of demon from Slavic mythology and paganism. They were known throughout eastern Europe. Bies had no consistent appearance other than it was beast like. Often depicted as either an anthropomorphic or beastial mish-mash of different animals, combining hoofed animals and predators together. It was a primeval nature spirit. Even in paganism it was considered a demon, personifying chaos, evil and everything uncontrolled in nature. Bies demons lived in mountain ranges, untouched forests and swamps, anywhere that human habitation had not encroached on nature. Beis's name means fury or rage, and was used as a euphonious for insanity, as it would cause this condition in it's victims. When a human enters the bies's home it can hypnotize and take control of the human, driving them mad and filling them with panic. If the human some how staves off such attacks and meets the bies face to face the bies will attack with more ferocity than any ...

  Valravn, meaning raven of the slain, is a sort of boogieman from Denmark. Valravns were created when a raven ate the flesh of the fallen in battle who had not been given a proper burial. The valravn was a thoroughly evil creature that sought to bring harm to the surrounding communities. After being transformed the valravn gained human intelligence and various magical abilities that allowed it to spread pestilence and misfortune. It also gained the ability to shape shift into wolves or a half wolf – half raven form. Even with these abilities valravns still sought out more power. The one thing they desired the most was the ability to take on the form of a black knight, which they could only gain by devouring the heart of a child. How they accomplished this was usually left to the imagination. However in one traditional Danish song a valravn offered to protect a maiden on her way to her marriage in return for her first born child, echoing similar trickster deals made with fairies an...

       The kludde was an evil spirit or boogeyman from the low countries, spanning Belgium and the Netherlands. The kludde was always associated with water and inhabited places like swamps, reed beds, ponds and under bridges. While the kludde was capable of travelling over land, it couldn't enter hallowed ground, such as church yards.      The kludde gets its name from the sounds it makes. Although it's known regionally as kleure, klerre, or waterkledde.      The kludde was a dangerous monster, luring anyone who travelled by night into its swamp. There it would kill its victim, either by strangling or drowning. The kludde was capable of causing confusion and fear in its victims just by proximity, even without being seen. The kludde was especially dangerous to children, which it would hunt down even when closer victims were available. Because of this the kludde was used a as boogeyman to scare children into not going outside at night. ...