Bagan, Myanmar, is a breathtaking UNESCO World Heritage site with over 2,000 ancient temples. By day, it’s a peaceful sanctuary loved by tourists. But when the sun goes down, the locals refuse to wander these monuments alone. To them, these aren't just ruins—they are spiritual cages.Before pure Buddhism took root in the 11th century, Bagan was ruled by a shadowy, dangerous sect known as the Ahri Priests.They looked like monks but wore dark robes, grew their hair long, and practiced alchemy, necromancy, and blood magic. They held absolute power over everyone, from kings to peasants, by claiming they controlled life and death.The Dark History:Human Sacrifice: Deep in pitch-black caves, horrific rituals were performed. Animals, and allegedly innocent virgins, were sacrificed to appease ancient chthonic earth deities.The Rite of Prima Nocta: Every young bride was forced into the Ahri monasteries on her wedding night to be "blessed" by the priests before her husband could touch her—leaving a legacy of unavenged agony in the soil of Bagan.When King Anawrahta finally overthrew them and burned their secret monasteries, the surviving priests fled. But they left a final curse, sealing their vengeful spirits into the very bricks of the new temples.The Hauntings Today:Even today, near the ruined, nameless temples, locals claim to hear the low, rhythmic chanting of the long-dead Ahri priests.British Colonial Records: In the 19th century, British soldiers camping inside these ruins reported waking up completely paralyzed, choked by unseen heavy forces in the dark. Some lost their sanity after a single night.The Stolen Brick: Recently, a Western tourist took an ancient brick home as a souvenir. His first night back in the US, he woke up to a shadow standing over his bed, choking him. After days of severe hallucinations and illness, he mailed the brick back to Myanmar, begging for forgiveness.Bagan does not forgive those who disrespect its sacred grounds. Would you dare spend a night inside these temples?Bagan does not forgive those who disrespect its sacred grounds. Would you dare spend a night inside these temples? (I've dropped the link to the full cinematic video with real visuals in the comments below!)

They are called Ilwedritsch, Elwedritsch, Elbedritsch, Elwetrittche and more, and they are known from Southwest Germany to Eastern Europe and North America (Pennsylvania) and even South America (Brazil).

But the following focuses specifically on the Ilwedritsch, the version of this mythical creature—or demon—found in Germany's Main-Tauber district, especially in the areas where the Dauwägrindisch dialect is spoken.

According to local folklore, the Ilwedritsch is a strange creature composed of several animals: it has the body and feathers of a woodland bird, the beak of a raven, the claws of a rooster, scales of a fish and the eyes of a nocturnal predator.

Some old tales even claim that older specimens grow small antlers like those of a roe deer.

The creature is said to spend its days hidden deep within the dark forests surrounding the villages or sleeping high in the crowns of willow trees along the Tauber River. It is rarely seen in daylight.

At night it is believed to roam silently through the woods, luring careless wanderers away from the paths with strange calls.

Although seldom described as openly violent, an encounter with an Ilwedritsch was thought to bring misfortune, confusion, or several nights of disturbing dreams.

The origin of the legend may reach back to ancient European beliefs in protective and harmful spirits. Like many mythical beings of rural folklore, the Ilwedritsch may preserve echoes of much older traditions in which unseen creatures inhabited forests, rivers, and the darkness beyond the village.

The traditional way to hunt an Ilwedritsch is, of course, known only to experienced hunters—or so they claim. The hunter enters the forest after sunset carrying a sack while companions wait nearby. The creature is lured by producing a long, high-pitched call from the throat:

"Miiimimimiiiii... Miiiiiiimiii... Mimimimiiiii..."

Legend says that the Ilwedritsch, curious by nature, approaches the sound and can then be caught in the waiting sack.

In reality, however, this "hunt" has long been a harmless local joke. In the Main-Tauber region, people sometimes send particularly "special-smart" visitors or newcomers into the forest to search for an Ilwedritsch, solemnly instructing them to make the peculiar "Miiimimimiiiii..." calls until the creature appears.

More often than not, the only things the would-be hunter catches are a cold and the laughter of those who sent him into the forest.

So obviously this stuff is highly contentious, and I've made several creative decisions that might rub people the wrong way, so let's not take this too seriously. I just made it as a bit of fun, and hopefully some people who're getting into speculative PIE mythology will find this interesting. I won't claim that this is accurate, or that there even is one singular, definitive "Proto-Indo-European mythology," let alone a definitive cosmos.

A few things I'm aware of:

1. The text isn't especially clear.
2. The "birds" are maybe a bit of a random choice, but they're there to symbolize the motif of birds traveling between the heavens or into the underworld via bodies of water, while also representing winged women like Valkyries and some pre-PIE bird goddess cults, like that of the Vinča.
3. The World Mother and the world probably weren't imagined as quite so physically anthropomorphic.
4. The "Wild Hunt" by name is a Germanic concept, but it does seem to have roots in PIE myth and the Kóryos.
5. I only depicted the major gods who I thought would leave a visible presence on the cosmos.
6. The hearth at the center of the world is unlabelled because I couldn't fit text there.
7. I've not depicted the "axis mundi" rivers because I really don't know how I'd do it on an anthropomorphic Earth Mother, but they could still be there, just not visible from the viewer's perspective.
8. The afterlife stuff was especially confusing. Some people say a ferry takes the dead to the underworld, others say a bridge, and many also mention crossing a "river," but with my cosmology it would make sense that that river was the ocean of chaos instead. I've left it ambiguous whether there is a system where common folk go to the underworld and warriors go to the heavens, like in Norse or Classical myth, or if they all go to the underworld.
9. I know some people debate the role of the World Tree, and others would prefer I had a rocky pillar or mountain, or that the tree were upside down.
10. The image of the "night boat" will probably confuse some people. It's meant to be the boat that the sun gets placed in before the Hero Twins carry it through the ocean and the underworld.
11. Minor thing, but the huts in the heavens probably aren't like the temporary dwellings of early PIE people.

Karkotaka, the son of Mother Kadru, is one of the mightiest serpents of Nāgaloka. A divine serpent and the brother of Vāsuki and Ananta Śeṣa, Karkotaka is renown for his wisdom, intelligence, curiosity, and thirst for knowledge. He possessed an extraordinary radiance, with a face that shone brilliantly. Radiant in both appearance and spirit, Karkotaka possesses a majestic and an awe-inspiring presence that even the devtas ( demi-gods / deities) bowed before him with respect. Karkotaka was a being filled with immense power and unmatched splendour.

Yet, despite his greatness, there came a time when this mighty and brilliant serpent lay alone in a forest, helpless, bound, abandoned, and cursed ( shrapit ).

But why was such a powerful serpent trapped in the wilderness under a terrible curse? There is a reason behind it.

One day, the divine sage Nārada Muni was travelling across the three worlds, as he always did. Wherever he went, he spread wisdom and upheld dharma. Holding his sacred vīṇā in his hands, he continuously chanted the name of Lord Narayana. During one of his journeys, he arrived in Nāgaloka and was passing through its paths.

At that moment, Karkotaka's sharp and radiant eyes noticed the great sage. Karkotaka had countless questions in his heart. He was deeply curious and longed to uncover many hidden mysteries. However, he felt it would be difficult to stop Nārada Muni, and simply approaching him might not earn his attention.

So Karkotaka devised a small trick.

He shrank his majestic and radiant form, transforming himself into a tiny, weak, harmless-looking snake, and lay directly in Nārada Muni's path. As Narada Muni continued chanting "Narayana, Narayana," he came across the little snake lying helplessly on the road. He immediately stopped. Compassionate by nature, dev rishi Narada thought, "If this poor creature remains here, someone may accidentally crush it underfoot."

The kind-hearted sage gently picked it up in his palm, intending to place it somewhere safe.

But the moment he did, Karkotaka revealed his true form.

His enormous body towered before the sage. His face gleamed with divine brilliance, his eyes shone with intense radiance, and his powerful form reflected the majesty of one of Nāgaloka's greatest serpents.

Nārada Muni paused. He looked Karkotaka up and down and immediately understood that the serpent had deliberately deceived him.

A grave expression crossed the sage's face.

Looking directly into Karkotaka's eyes, Nārada Muni said, "O great serpent Karkotaka, there was no need for you to deceive me. Deception always leads to bondage. Because of this deliberate trick, I curse you: you shall remain in this very forest, alone, helpless, and unable to move, for many years. Only the compassion of a righteous and kind-hearted human will one day free you from this curse."

The melody of the vīṇā resumed. Nārada Muni once again began chanting, "Narayana, Narayana," and continued on his journey.

And so, the cursed Karkotaka remained trapped in that very spot in the forest for years, waiting for a compassionate soul who could release him from the sage's curse.

He lay there, helpless and bound, until a noble man named Nala finally found and freed him.

But who was Nala? How did he rescue Karkotaka? And what did Karkotaka do afterwards? That is a story we shall explore later.

(Here is an audio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIWrJ-j-QjQ . It was written as scenario seed for a Lovecraftian RPG).

Modern works drawing on Greek mythology usually make Hades (completely wrong) or Kronos (a little more) the Big Bad, but they forget about Zeus’s greatest enemy – Typhon. After defeating the titans and then the gigants, the Olympian gods had to face the main boss on the way to dominating the world – Typhon. Here is an example of its description: It was larger than the largest mountains, its head touched the stars. When he stretched out his hands, one reached the eastern ends of the world and the other reached the western ends. Instead of fingers, he had a hundred dragon heads. From the waist down he had a tangle of vipers (yay, tentacles!) and wings at his shoulders. His eyes were shooting out flames. In other versions of the myth, Typhon was a flying, hundred-headed dragon. In any case – appearance and stature worthy of the Great Old One. Typhon attacked Olympus, and all the gods except Zeus fled in panic. The supreme god took up the fight… and lost it. Only in the second duel did he manage to defeat Typhon, but not kill him – he only imprisoned him, hitting him with a mountain which is known as Etna. And volcanic activity is the result of Typhon’s anger, trying to break free.

Typhon equaled the lord of heaven not only in strength, but in fertility. His wife was Echidna, about whom Hesiod wrote: „She also gave birth to another creature, invincible, huge, unlike neither men nor immortal gods, in a hollow cave – the divine violent Echidna, half a sharp-eyed young girl, with beautiful cheeks, half a huge snake, a great and powerful, spotted, cruel – in the depths of the holy land. This pair spawned many, if not most, of the monsters found in Greek mythology. Their offspring were very diverse and strange, as befits the spawn of enemies of the divine order, including:
– Ladon, the hundred-headed dragon who never slept and guarded the apples that gave immortality,

– Cerberus – we all know the dog guarding the gates of hell… but not all of us know that, according to some accounts, it had not three heads, but as many as 50, it was also covered with scales, and it had a snake for a tail… so what does this have to do with a dog?

– Scylla – this lady inherited the most from the human, beautiful part of Echidna… at least initially, but eventually, as a result of various perturbations, she turned from a beautiful nymph to something like her siblings, becoming a six-headed sea beast, so hideous, according to Homer, that even the gods could not stand sight of her – she dwelt in a cave, from where she opened her mouth to devour the crews of ships,

– Gorgons – I mean, those ladies with snake hair, not monstrous bulls. Medusa was one of them – the story that Athena turned her priestess into a monster as punishment for being raped by Poseidon is an invention of later poets,

– Lernaean Hydra – a multi-headed monster with many reptilian or human heads. In place of each severed head, two others grew, and in addition, the main head was completely immortal – therefore, after chopping off the mortal heads, Heracles had to burn the stumps and bury the immortal, still hissing head underground. Hydra’s breath was poisonous,

– various other creatures, such as the Sphinx, the dog Ortus, the Nemean Lion or the Chimera.
Each of these descendants has the potential to be portrayed as an Eldritch abomination in its own right. To be precise – according to some accounts, the father of these creatures (and Echidna herself) wasn’t Typhon, but a monstrous, ancient (older than Poseidon) sea god, Phorcys.

How to use Typhon? Well, Typhon clearly has the potential to be a Great Old One, imprisoned by… Nodens? Some other Elder God? Weak gods of humanity? Maybe his cult is trying to free him from Etna? What if he succeeds? What might distinguish Typhon from many other Great Old Ones? I would recommend focusing on his monster progenitor aspect – if he manages to reunite with Echidna, they will immediately start spawning various blasphemous beasts in series.

More Lovecraftian inspirations You will find in the free brochure: https://adeptus7.itch.io/lovecraftian-inspirations-from-real-life-and-beliefs

Who Was Rusalka?

In Slavic folklore, a Rusalka was not always a monster.

Some tales speak of young women who died too soon, their spirits bound to rivers, lakes, and moonlit pools. Others describe ancient water beings older than memory itself.

They were said to appear on warm summer nights, emerging from the mist with long hair shining like silver in the moonlight.

A traveler might hear singing across the water.

A glimpse of a pale figure between the reeds.

A voice calling from the darkness.

To follow was dangerous.

For a Rusalka could bless the waters with life and fertility—or lure the unwary beneath the surface, never to return.

If you walked alone beside a still lake at midnight...

Would you answer if she called your name?

Hello everyone!

Here in Reddit I noticed and sensed a substantial prejudice and somewhat ill feeling to AI generated Tarot Decks. And I can accept and appreciate that. There are so many false AI generated decks. But my pointy is that there can be different approach to AI generation.

You can work as c Creator using AI as a smart tool. Some Tarot Deck creators either hire or ask an Artist to draw the images the author has in mind. Here the situation is very similar. But unlike the Artist who you talk to and he understands, AI has his own "vision" that is hard to change. And that needs a human intellect to deal with the artificial.

It someone thinks that I gave a command: "Generate me a Ukrainian Cossack as a King of Swords Rider-Waite", and in a second I have got this image is mistaken. To be able to create this image I envisioned every tiny detail of the composition. I had to know the way Ukrainian Cossack Warriors were dressed at the beginning of the 17th century. I needed to know how those pieces of wardrobe were called that time and translate the term into English as Chat GPT is not fluent in Ukrainian.

Otherwise I would have had either plastic image or a mixture between Russian and Ukrainian Cossack. So please, do not hate the product as soon as you read those two letters. You may find something different and even interesting. Have a great day!

The Donkey And The Sign Of The Cross! (eemorifoundation)

>"The only animal in creation to have a distinct cross emblazoned on its body is the donkey. According to legend, the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem when he made his triumphal entrance on the first Palm Sunday and later followed him to the place called Calvary, a hill near Jerusalem, became the first bearer of the distinctive cross marking. Grief stricken by the sight of Jesus on the cross on that day now known as Good Friday, the donkey turned away but couldn't leave. It was then the shadow of the cross fell upon the shoulders and back of the donkey and there it stayed. Since that fateful day on God's calendar, all donkeys have borne what has come to be known as the cross of Jesus on their backs. The Sign of the Cross indeed!"

"And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross." Philippians 2:8

Mark 11:1-11: Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

"Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; 2 and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. 3 And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.”

4 So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. 5 But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?”

6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. 8 And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

10 “Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve." Mark 11:1-11

Indrajit: named after his feat of one-time managed to imprison Indra, king of heaven, led his army of Asura to attack the army of monkeys led by the human prince, Lakshmana.

Quotes of the following came from Wikipedia, because of I'm too lazy to write it myself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indrajit

>Indrajita used his supreme magical powers, darting across the clouds and skies like a bolt of lightning. He combined his skills of sorcery and illusion warfare, repeatedly vanishing and reappearing behind Lakshmana's back.

>Meghnada (Indrajit) used his most nefarious weapon Nagapasha (a trap made of a million snakes)

Nagapasha have the abililty to manifested as hundreds and thousands of Naga. This weapon, given by the creator of the universe, previously defeated Hanuman years earlier.

The many snakes power froze the monkey army including its general.

Quotes of the following is from a translation of the Valimki Ramayana. https://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga45/yuddha_45_frame.htm

>The bodies of both those warriors, Rama and Lakshmana were densely transfixed with serpentine arrows by the enraged Indrajit.

>Those two princes, in the forefront of battle, bounded by that net work of arrows in the twinkling of an eye, became incapable of even looking up.

> Seeing the two brothers - Rama and Lakshmana lying motionless and breathless on the floor, Indrajit thought they were dead.

>Seeing Rama and Lakshmana riddle with arrows and pierced in every limb and bone of their bodies, a great fear had taken possession of Sugreeva.

Long story short, a Garuda king came to help, chased the dragons away.

Skipped more scenes, Indrajit ended up dead in the sky, shot by Rama. (Before anybody came to say ackshually, it is Lakshmana not Rama, that is the Valimki Ramayana version. This ending of Indrajit came from a different folk version which is adapted to this play of the Khmer Ramakerti).

His head if fallen to the ground, would burned through 16 planes of the Earth, so his half-brother, Angada and Angada's cousin, Hanuman, flew to the sky to carry his head on a pedestal.

Photo taken from a performance from a local Khmer troupe I walked in on. Like many traditional performances, it is free for the public.