• GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    So in these stories, a person doesn’t “become” the creature but is instead possessed by it? Does doing cannibalism also in some manner attract or invoke it?

    Also, you are referring to it in the singular. Is there just one or is it sort of an “uncountable” presence or emanation or something?

    • Catfish [she/her]@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      There are lots of ways to attract it like being greedy, performing or talking about cannibalism, or saying or thinking it’s name, probably other stuff. Lot of Native kids grow up horrified of it because it’s basically our version of Bloody Mary. Even if I don’t believe in it, it still scares me.

      I refer to it in the singular yeah, in most stories if it is a spirit there is only one of that kind. I can’t speak on the monstrous version but I assume that there can be multiple of them. It’s important to remember that there are a lot of different versions of these stories.

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        This makes sense, thanks. Yeah, I wasn’t asking about the Stephen King version because that’s basically a werewolf with extra steps.

        In any case, I always assumed that this was still a species of spirit (such that there could be multiple at a time) rather than an individual spirit. I suppose it’s sort of like what another religion might classify as a lesser deity or a specific, named demon like these.