Byakhee - Revision history

Ywhateley: Categorization.

2022-07-10T07:43:03Z

Categorization.

Ywhateley: Categorization.

2022-06-30T21:21:39Z

Categorization.

Ywhateley: Formatting.

2022-06-30T05:33:14Z

Formatting.

Ywhateley: Moving fan theories to "Discussion".

2020-02-09T23:43:45Z

Moving fan theories to "Discussion".

Ywhateley: Added wikilinks.

2018-07-10T04:31:00Z

Added wikilinks.

Ywhateley at 17:02, 29 June 2018

2018-06-29T17:02:20Z

Ywhateley: Formatting.

2017-02-26T17:26:35Z

Formatting.

Ywhateley: Formatting.

2017-02-26T01:36:58Z

Formatting.

Ywhateley: Monster Make-Over

2017-02-26T01:34:12Z

Monster Make-Over

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Ywhateley: Details, typo corrections, and clarifications.

2016-05-30T03:42:05Z

Details, typo corrections, and clarifications.

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 [[Category:Races]]
 [[Category:LovecraftMythos]]
 __NOTOC__

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:21, 30 June 2022
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	[[Category:Races]]		[[Category:Races]]
		+	[[Category:LovecraftMythos]]
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 Origin:  H.P. Lovecraft, "[[The Festival (fiction)]]" might be the first appearance of what the RPG calls a Byakhee, though the name "Byahkee" was actually never used by Lovecraft, instead being an invention of [[August Derleth]] in his book ''Trail of Cthulhu''.
 ==Description==
 [[File:CRE Byakhee-16dbdc8d ful.png|200px|thumb|right|Not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor vampire bats, nor decomposed human beings....]]
 <blockquote>
 "Out of the unimaginable blackness beyond the gangrenous glare of that cold flame, out of the Tartarean leagues through which that oily river rolled uncanny, unheard, and unsuspected, there flopped rhythmically a horde of tame, trained, hybrid winged things that no sound eye could ever wholly grasp, or sound brain ever wholly remember. They were not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor vampire bats, nor decomposed human beings; but something I cannot and must not recall. They flopped limply along, half with their webbed feet and half with their membraneous wings; and as they reached the throng of celebrants the cowled figures seized and mounted them, and rode off one by one along the reaches of that unlighted river, into pits and galleries of panic where poison springs feed frightful and undiscoverable cataracts."
 <br>&mdash; H.P. Lovecraft, "[[The Festival (fiction)]]"
 </blockquote>
 Byakhees appear to be the favored mounts of wizards, witches, and cultists: summoned to carry passengers away into the night sky, traveling through time and space into other worlds in alternate dimensions such as the Dreamlands for the cultists own mysterious and nefarious purposes.
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 * [[Robert E. Howard]] seems to have also referred to nameless bat-winged flying monsters used as mounts in his [[Conan the Barbarian]] stories, though it's not clear whether Howard's creatures are Byakhees, or a different species.
 * An alternative look at Byakhees can apparently be found in:  '[http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_info.php?products_id=139417 Hideous Creatures: Byakhee]'
+* sourcebook:  ''[[Malleus Monstrorum]]''
 [[Category:Races]]

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 ==Heresies and Controversies==
 <!-- Optional.  This is a good place to include non-canon and controversial aspects of the creature's mythos.  Suggested Alternative Theories include:  Derleth's elemental scheme; pseudo-science interpretation; "fanon" interpretations; unofficial humorous or eccentric versions; identification with "Real Life" mythological, religious, folklore, natural, and historical phenomena; rumor and speculation contribute some flexibility and ambiguity to the mythos. -->
-* There are believed by some Mythos scholars to be at least two separate species named Byakhees (or two sub-species of Byakhees) but there is no confirmation of this (Lovecraft's unnamed hybrid monsters, and Derleth's bat/bird-things, which first carried the name "Byahkee"). What differences may exist between the two is also unknown.  (fan speculation)
+* See the Discussion tab for fan theories and suggestions.

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 ** Divination:  Several of the animals listed by Lovecraft are associated with Divination:  they carry messages between the gods, or the spirit world, and humans.  (Are investigators ignoring important messages from cultists, but you're not quite ready to send an avatar to talk some sense into them?  Perhaps you can send a byakhee to have a little chat with them instead....)  Divination also suggests that Byahkees might be privy to many secrets and bits of forbidden knowledge that they might be induced to share with wizards and sorcerers....
 ** Tricksters:  What can you do with Byakhees who like to play little pranks and tricks on people to teach them important lessons or otherwise get them to the destination that's in their best interest whether they want it or not?  I don't know, but it sounds like it could be fun!
-**  Spirits and Spirit Guides:  Psychopomps normally carry or lead spirits between worlds, rather than physical bodies....  They also play the role of "spirit guides" who can lead, teach, instruct, and protect a medium or psychic during astral projection as the medium travels through space and time among the spirits of the dead and demonic spirits in the astral plane....
+**  Spirits and Spirit Guides:  Psychopomps normally carry or lead spirits between worlds, rather than physical bodies....  They also play the role of "spirit guides" who can lead, teach, instruct, and protect a medium or psychic during astral projection as the medium travels through space and time among the spirits of the dead and demonic spirits in the [[Astral Plane]]....
 * Byakhee seem to get a sort of role as hired taxi drivers in the "Cthulhu Mythos" (especially in Derleth's portrayal in ''Trail of Cthulhu''), suggesting a byakhee opening conversation with its passenger by saying "Here, you'll never guess who I had on my back the other day..."  ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])
 *  The Byakhee have been deliberately tampered with or engineered for this purpose... the weird, unlikely juxtaposition of so many disparate comparisons to animals almost suggests the result of a design-by-committee sort of thing you see with basic military equipment:  like a dozen different people tacked on their own ideas for what the creature's features, functions, and specifications should be, with no eye toward a balanced, pleasing form that would appeal to a commercial customer.  Perhaps that's because Byakhees were the equivalent of Jeeps or AK-47s of some bizarre alien war, left battered and abandoned across some weird astral battlefield?  ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])
-* The Byakhee does not literally carry a human body into interstellar space and transport it to another world.  Rather, the Byakhee is a refined biomechanical equivalent of a Mi-Go "brain jar":  the uploads the human intellect into an organic storage drive, disassembles the now-useless body, travels to another destination through hyperspace or some other exotic method of travel, then produces a new body, one designed to live in the environment of the destination world, and then downloads the "passenger" intellect into the new body.  Alternatively, the Byakhee simply uploads the intellect of its "passenger", transports it to the destination, and facilitates a mind swap into an alien body.  In this way, the Byakhee is sort of a "spirit guide" through the "Astral Plane" for "walk in" spirits traveling through space and time.... ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])
+* The Byakhee does not literally carry a human body into interstellar space and transport it to another world.  Rather, the Byakhee is a refined biomechanical equivalent of a Mi-Go "brain jar":  the uploads the human intellect into an organic storage drive, disassembles the now-useless body, travels to another destination through hyperspace or some other exotic method of travel, then produces a new body, one designed to live in the environment of the destination world, and then downloads the "passenger" intellect into the new body.  Alternatively, the Byakhee simply uploads the intellect of its "passenger", transports it to the destination, and facilitates a mind swap into an alien body.  In this way, the Byakhee is sort of a "spirit guide" through the "[[Astral Plane]]" for "walk in" spirits traveling through space and time.... ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])
 * Perhaps we don't summon A Byahkee, we summon OUR VERY OWN Byakhee, which is, perhaps, as much an individual extension of ourselves and our subconscious as our Dreamlands body.  Some people have mild, faithful, brave Byakhees that might defend their human selves with their lives.  Others might have wise, studious Byakhees which might not always take their humans directly where they want to go, but instead drags them off through the "scenic routes" to mysterious libraries on strange worlds or to alien tombs where powerful artifacts lay buried.  Still others are strangely malevolent... perhaps not outright dangerous, but... peculiar, in some vague, threatening way....  ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])
 * A Byakhee as a very subjective thing:  it's not a "real" object in the traditionally human sense, and the minds of different people fill in the blanks they feel should be there in different ways.  Perhaps, the same person sees something different every time he/she looks at the same Byakhee:  it's something slippery, fluid, uncertain... it's reminiscent of a great, leathery bat or vulture when it's in the air, but more reminiscent of a horde of tiny ants when creeping about on the ground, and then you blink, and you're face-to-face with someting more or less humanoid in form when it tries to "speak" to you as if you were its equal....  A bystander might prefer to instead see a shadow, or a ghostly mist that suggests unsettling shapes without ever quite looking like more than just mist, or a dim and purplish flickering light accompanied by a headache....  ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])
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 * deity: [[Hastur]]
 * location:  [[Carcosa]], the Lake of Hali, the Dreamland of [[Aldebaran]]
-* location:  the [[Other Side]] or "Astral Plane"
+* location:  the [[Astral Plane]], [[Other Side]], or [[Dreamlands]]
-* cult:  "hunters", a rogue faction of Byakhee possessed by the displaced intellects of insane Astral travelers lost in the voids between worlds, congregating together in some unspeakable mockery of human community on the [[Other Side|Astral Plane]] until those times that they are able to hear the summons for a Bykahee, and respond in place of a true Byakhee - bloodthirsty, sadistic, deranged by their time in the Astral Plane.  Stories of hunters responding to summons for Byakhee have given rise to legends of violent, dangerous, malevolent demons being summoned by witches and warlocks.
+* cult:  "hunters", a rogue faction of Byakhee possessed by the displaced intellects of insane Astral travelers lost in the voids between worlds, congregating together in some unspeakable mockery of human community on the [[Astral Plane]] until those times that they are able to hear the summons for a Bykahee, and respond in place of a true Byakhee - bloodthirsty, sadistic, deranged by their time in the [[Astral Plane]].  Stories of hunters responding to summons for Byakhee have given rise to legends of violent, dangerous, malevolent demons being summoned by witches and warlocks.
 ==References and Appearances==

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:02, 29 June 2018
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	* Perhaps we don't summon A Byahkee, we summon OUR VERY OWN Byakhee, which is, perhaps, as much an individual extension of ourselves and our subconscious as our Dreamlands body. Some people have mild, faithful, brave Byakhees that might defend their human selves with their lives. Others might have wise, studious Byakhees which might not always take their humans directly where they want to go, but instead drags them off through the "scenic routes" to mysterious libraries on strange worlds or to alien tombs where powerful artifacts lay buried. Still others are strangely malevolent... perhaps not outright dangerous, but... peculiar, in some vague, threatening way.... ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])		* Perhaps we don't summon A Byahkee, we summon OUR VERY OWN Byakhee, which is, perhaps, as much an individual extension of ourselves and our subconscious as our Dreamlands body. Some people have mild, faithful, brave Byakhees that might defend their human selves with their lives. Others might have wise, studious Byakhees which might not always take their humans directly where they want to go, but instead drags them off through the "scenic routes" to mysterious libraries on strange worlds or to alien tombs where powerful artifacts lay buried. Still others are strangely malevolent... perhaps not outright dangerous, but... peculiar, in some vague, threatening way.... ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])
	* A Byakhee as a very subjective thing: it's not a "real" object in the traditionally human sense, and the minds of different people fill in the blanks they feel should be there in different ways. Perhaps, the same person sees something different every time he/she looks at the same Byakhee: it's something slippery, fluid, uncertain... it's reminiscent of a great, leathery bat or vulture when it's in the air, but more reminiscent of a horde of tiny ants when creeping about on the ground, and then you blink, and you're face-to-face with someting more or less humanoid in form when it tries to "speak" to you as if you were its equal.... A bystander might prefer to instead see a shadow, or a ghostly mist that suggests unsettling shapes without ever quite looking like more than just mist, or a dim and purplish flickering light accompanied by a headache.... ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])		* A Byakhee as a very subjective thing: it's not a "real" object in the traditionally human sense, and the minds of different people fill in the blanks they feel should be there in different ways. Perhaps, the same person sees something different every time he/she looks at the same Byakhee: it's something slippery, fluid, uncertain... it's reminiscent of a great, leathery bat or vulture when it's in the air, but more reminiscent of a horde of tiny ants when creeping about on the ground, and then you blink, and you're face-to-face with someting more or less humanoid in form when it tries to "speak" to you as if you were its equal.... A bystander might prefer to instead see a shadow, or a ghostly mist that suggests unsettling shapes without ever quite looking like more than just mist, or a dim and purplish flickering light accompanied by a headache.... ([http://www.yog-sothoth.com/topic/30283-monster-make-over-iii-what-can-you-do-with-the-byahkee/ YSDC Forums])
		+	* A Byakhee might be summoned unconsciously, in a fugue state forgotten consciously by morning, with the creature proving helpful at first, but becoming troublesome, threatening, and even dangerous later on, leaving mysterious bruises, scratches, and other marks upon the summoner to find in the morning.... ([https://www.yog-sothoth.com/forums/topic/32224-doors-of-darkness-ties-that-bind/ YSDC Forums]):
		+	** Traditionally, the Byakhee is summoned to take a character somewhere. Maybe the Byakhee is trying to take the character away somewhere that is supposed to be "safe" - some strange, eldritch other-world far from the troubles of this plane.... The Byakhee's idea of "safe" does not necessarily mean it's a better place to be, and maybe on some level the character realizes it, maybe the character glimpsed this "safe" place while in the first fugue, and does not want to be taken back, while the Byakhee tries subtly to coax or trick or force the character to go....
		+	** The shape-shifting Byakhee is a form of doppelganger: it manifests as a duplicate of its "summoner", at first being helpful, but soon attempting to replace its summoner. Maybe our shape-shifting version of a "Byakhee" started off with a more neutral and less threatening appearance, but now appears as a copy of your player's character, and has been trying to steal her life from her, walking around wearing her face. (For it's true face, refer to the standard book description of a Byakhee....) The Byakhee's problem now is what to do with the original character: there's only room in this world for one of her!
		+	** I can read something of the vampire legend into our character's relationship with her Byakhee... it comes to her at night, pretending to be her friend, and, once given entry into her world, it comforts her for a time, before taking something precious from her - a little bit of her life, her vitality, her reality - and then fleeing and leaving her weak and broken before the dawn.
		+	** Sometimes, I think that Byakhees are incredibly lonely things, which are happy to be summoned into our world to spend time with their summoners... their summoners need something from the Byakhees - travel somewhere usually, but maybe protection in this case - and view them as resources to be exploited... the Byakhees, for their part, really need the company and novelty of their summoners, and are far more dependent on their summoners than their summoners are on them. The Byakhee, summoned to take the character to safety or to act as a bodyguard against further trauma, has served its purpose, but, having never been properly banished and dismissed, now follows the character around like a creepy stalker, desperate - sometimes violently desperate - for your PC's attention....

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 * "A Great Winged Beast from ye void which did sore Crowde my place of Busyness" (CoC, ed 5.6, p.93)
 * "The summoned byakhee will flap down out of the sky, still icy from space...." (CoC, ed 5.6, p.215)
-*  "...Asteroids live and breathe and planets fall in love<br>Bat-beings groan and seethe and fit you like a glove<br>Traverse Orion's leg in the blink of an eye<br>Warm hands at dying suns and boiling midnight skies..."<br>- "Slave Ship" - [[The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets]]<br>
+*  "...Asteroids live and breathe and planets fall in love / Bat-beings groan and seethe and fit you like a glove / Traverse Orion's leg in the blink of an eye / Warm hands at dying suns and boiling midnight skies..."<br>- "Slave Ship" - [[The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets]]<br>
-* "Byakhee, Byakhee, fly me through space<br>take me away, far from this place<br>Byakhee, Byakhee, what must I do<br>to go for a ride with you?<br>Byakhee, Byakhee, now heed my call<br>I've done the spells, I've done them all<br>Out of the Tartarean darkness appear<br>and fly me away from here...<br>Byakhee, Byakhee, I hear your wings<br>I smell - a smell? What are those... things?<br>Byakhee, Byakhee, what have we done?<br>This suddenly isn't fun.<br>I don't know how to describe you;<br>To see you is a mind-blowing thing.<br>Not moles, crows, nor ants are quite like you,<br>nor partially decomposed human beings<br>Byakhee, Byakhee, now that you're here<br>I've changed my mind; I'm filled with fear<br>People who go with you don't reappear<br>So leave me alone, I'll stay at home<br>I will forget we ever met<br>I must not and won't recall."<br>- "Byakhee, Byakhee" - [[The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society]]
+* "Byakhee, Byakhee, fly me through space, take me away, far from this place; Byakhee, Byakhee, what must I do, to go for a ride with you?  Byakhee, Byakhee, now heed my call, I've done the spells, I've done them all; Out of the Tartarean darkness appear, and fly me away from here.  Byakhee, Byakhee, I hear your wings, I smell - a smell? What are those... things?  Byakhee, Byakhee, what have we done? This suddenly isn't fun.  I don't know how to describe you; To see you is a mind-blowing thing.  Not moles, crows, nor ants are quite like you, nor partially decomposed human beings!  Byakhee, Byakhee, now that you're here, I've changed my mind; I'm filled with fear: People who go with you don't reappear, So leave me alone, I'll stay at home, I will forget we ever met - I must not and won't recall."<br>- "Byakhee, Byakhee" - [[The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society]]
 ==Heresies and Controversies==

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 ==Quotes ==
-*  "...Asteroids live and breathe and planets fall in love<br>Bat-beings groan and seethe and fit you like a glove<br>Traverse Orion's leg in the blink of an eye<br>Warm hands at dying suns and boiling midnight skies..."<br>- "Slave Ship" - [[The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets]]<br>
+* "Out of the unimaginable blackness beyond the gangrenous glare of that cold flame, out of the Tartarean leagues through which that oily river rolled uncanny, unheard, and unsuspected, there flopped rhythmically a horde of tame, trained, hybrid winged things that no sound eye could ever wholly grasp, or sound brain ever wholly remember. They were not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor vampire bats, nor decomposed human beings; but something I cannot and must not recall. They flopped limply along, half with their webbed feet and half with their membraneous wings; and as they reached the throng of celebrants the cowled figures seized and mounted them, and rode off one by one along the reaches of that unlighted river, into pits and galleries of panic where poison springs feed frightful and undiscoverable cataracts." - H.P. Lovecraft, "[[The Festival (fiction)]]"
 * "...a great bat-like bird..." and "...monstrous black-winged bat-like creature..." [[August Derleth]], "The House on Curwen Street" and "The Watcher From the Sky" chapter-stories from ''[[The Trail of Cthulhu]]''
 * The Byakhee is described as bat-winged, black-furred, iron-beaked and with "eyes of hell", dwelling upon the "cloudy shores of Lake Hali"; whilst in Carcosa Story About Hali, he mentions nests of the Byakhee on the planet Carcosa.. - Lin Carter, "Litany To Hastur XX! The Unspeakable"
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 * "A Great Winged Beast from ye void which did sore Crowde my place of Busyness" (CoC, ed 5.6, p.93)
 * "The summoned byakhee will flap down out of the sky, still icy from space...." (CoC, ed 5.6, p.215)
 ==Heresies and Controversies==