My fantasy series,
Diaries of Darkwana borrows heavily
from Japanese mythology. Today, I’ll discuss a few of the creatures I adopted
from that mythology and their roles in my novels.
Let’s start with tengu.
Mythology often
depicts these “mountain trolls” in possession of either a ridiculously long,
red nose or a bird’s beak. Mythology almost always depicts them with wings.
Tengu in my novel
series, Diaries of Darkwana, appear
as humanoid birds, with large, white wings, fingers and toes
armed with black talons, and orange beaks.
Tengu appear in
various folklores while in possession of a ha-uchiwa, a type of magical fan.
While the tengu in
Diaries do not wield such fans, another
character named Sparrow, who appears in my first novel (Daughters of Darkwana), possesses several . . . let’s say “special”
fans.
Tengu make their
first appearance in the fifth book of Diaries
(entitled Deceivers of Darkwana).
They serve as the former slave owners of a kitsune clan (more on kitsunes later).
The mythological tengu possess the ability to change their shape at
will (often into human or bird form). They do not do this in Diaries.
Many tengu in
mythology possess (control) and torment humans. Such stories tell
of a tormented spirit named Sasaki, who, in his rage, projects a giant image of
a big-nosed, winged demon. Remind anyone of a certain antagonist from the
Japanese manga, Naruto?
Stories exist of a
land called tengudo, which belongs to the tengu. In Diaries, tengudo exists as a range of mountains in which the tengu
take refuge after their kitsune slaves revolted against them.
The slave revolt
serves as old news by the start of the fist book, Daughters of Darkwana.
Many specific
tengu (too many to recount here) earn mention in the old mythologies. Many of
these characters (each afflicted to some degree by my creative license) make
appearances in books five-through-seven of Diaries.
Tanuki (not tengu) exist in the real world as a creature known as raccoon dogs. They also exist in the world of myths. A tanuki, in the
latter, serves as trickster god with a power
set similar to a kitsune’s own.
In Diaries, only a single character, named
Tanuki, appears on behalf of these deities.
In Diaries, Tanuki appears as an
anthropomorphic raccoon giftwrapped in chains and surgical dressings. My Tanuki
serves as an assassin who specializes in summoning creatures via “summoning
strings” (more on those in a future post).
In mythology,
kodama serve as small spirits that live inside trees. In Diaries, they exist as human-sized creatures that appear as if
constructed entirely from different types of plants. We meet the first one in
book four (Duelists of Darkwana).
The kitsune
proves, of all the mythological creatures that make appearances in Diaries, the most important.
A large sum of the
characters in Diaries exist as
kitsunes (you should spell this word the same singular as plural, but I add the
s at the end for multiple kitsunes. Many readers found it confusing if I
didn’t).
I enjoyed such a wide creative license with these creatures that they alone stand as the
subject for next week’s post (Wednesday).
I publish my blogs as follows:
Tuesdays: A look at the politics of
the entertainment world at EntertainmentMicroscope.blogspot.com.
Wednesdays: An inside look at my
novels (such as Daughters of Darkwana, which you can now find on Kindle) at
Darkwana.blogspot.com
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