DEMONS AND MONSTERS

Elemental Demons

Water

Demons are the most misunderstood of the ancient spirits.  When we think Demon, we normally picture an evil, blood-red skinned malformed creature with horns, jowls, and hoofs.  

Thanks to religious and cultural beliefs Demons are considered  malevolent or even evil. In other cultures they are represented as the nature spirits who protect the waters, mountains, and forests.

  

Elemental Demons are demons that each command an element.  

 Madame White

"A possessive, lethal, eerie demon of Taoist lore, appears as a beautiful human woman dressed in white. She is typical described as 'fairy' in appearance with dainty features, a cherry-like mouth, tiny waist and petite feet. She is accompanied always by a demure maid dressed in all blue. This appearance though, for both of them, is an illusion and under stress they will revert to their true forms, a white 
python and a blue fish." 

Wahwee
"A deep water hole amphibian of the Aborigine, with a frog like head, long tail and three legs on each side of it's body. Said to be 30 feet long and with an insatiable appetite. It's supernatural power is to cause, rain, floods and droughts. It is said the creature comes out when people are asleep and swallows it's sleeping victims whole. Favorite foods include; people, kangaroos, wallaby and wombats."
 

Munuane
"A toothless, grey-haired guardian demon with eyes in his knees. Always travels on a simple raft. He carries a bow and a single arrow (he never misses his target). Being very large and somewhat slow-witted, he is none the less equipped with a charismatic power and can lure his victims to him. He is also called "Master of Fish."
The demon is said to be a protector of local residents and as such sees all humans beings as edible and destructive. Targets are most often people who bring more then they need to fish and take more then they need when fishing. It's weakness, if encountered, is it's knees.

Rusalka In Slavic mythology, a rusalka (plural:rusalki) was a female ghost, water nymph, succubus or mermaid-like demon that lived in a waterway. According to most traditions, the Rusalki were fish-women, who lived at the bottom of rivers. In the middle of the night, they would walk out to the bank and dance in meadows. If they saw handsome men, they would fascinate them with songs and dancing, mesmerize them, then lead the person away to the river floor, to live with them. The stories about Rusalki have parallels with the Germanic Nix the Irish Banshee and Scottish Bean Nighe.
 

Mermaid/Merman

A mermaid (from the Middle English mere in the obsolete sense 'sea' (as in maritime, the Latin mare, "sea") + maid(en)) is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish. The male version of a mermaid is called a merman; gender-neutral plurals could be mer-people or mer-folk. Various cultures throughout the world have similar figures. Much like sirens, mermaids would sometimes sing to sailors and enchant them, distracting them from their work and causing them to walk off the deck or cause shipwrecks. Other stories would have them squeeze the life out of drowning men while trying to rescue them.

Tiamat "In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is the sea, personified as a goddess, and a monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos. In the Enûma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, she gives birth to the first generation of gods; she later makes war upon them and is split in two by the storm-god Marduk, who uses her body to form the heavens and the earth. She was known as Thalattē (as variant of thalassa, the Greek word for "sea") in the Hellenistic Babylonian Berossus' first volume of universal history, and some Akkadian copyists of Enûma Elish slipped and substituted the ordinary word for "sea" for Tiamat, so close was the association.

Ponaturi  "In Māori mythology, the Ponaturi are a group of hostile creatures (goblins) who live in a land beneath the sea by day, returning to shore each evening to sleep. They dread daylight, which is fatal to them. These malevolent sea faeries live in the watery deep, their skin a greenish white with an inner phosphorescent radiance and long fingers ending in claw like talons.

 Vodyanoi

A male species residing in freshwater millponds. Favoring the depths this creature's sole purpose is to drown humans, with the exception of the few it befriends (such as millers and fishermen). Described as an old man with greenish hair and beard and covered in muck. Some say he is half man and half fish but he never comes to the water's surface and rarely away from his deep water dwelling. Offerings of bread, salt, vodka and tobacco are said to entice the creature to aid in fishing.

Kelpie AKA Water Horse AKA Each-uisg

 (And sometimes Nightmare) "A male amphibian species that is found near all moving water (most notably Loch Ness) Descriped as a young, sleek, handsome horse black or brown in color who can shapeshift into human form. It is said the creature's skin is like glue and once enticing a rider onto his back they are stuck to be dragged to their water death and eaten."

The Water Horse in other Celtic myths reefers to the creature as
"A beautiful white mare who lures riders unto it's back before runing into the water (sometimes off cliffs) and drowning their riders."
 

Rhiannon, the Welsh goddess of horses, is said to ride a White mare as well which leads some to think of her as a Goddess of death because of the Water Horse story. Some tribes also refer to the "Water Horse" instead of Death who "Rode upon a pale horse."
 

Merrow

Merrow (from Gaelic murúch) or Murrough (Galloway) is the Scottish and Irish Gaelic equivalent of the mermaid and mermen of other cultures. These beings are said to appear as human from the waist up but have the body of a fish from the waist down. They have a gentle, modest, affectionate and benevolent disposition. There are other names pertaining to them in Gaelic: Muir-gheilt, Samhghubha, Muidhuachán, and Suire. They would seem to have been around for millennium because according to the bardic chroniclers, when the Milesians first landed on Irish shores the Suire, or sea-nymphs, played around them on their passage.

The Merrow were capable of attachment to human beings and there are reports of them inter-marrying and living among humans for many years. However, most times they eventually return to their former homes beneath the sea.

Merrow-maidens are reputed to lure young men to follow them beneath the waves where afterwards they live in an enchanted state. Merrows wear a special hat called a cohuleen druith which enables them to dive beneath the waves. If they lose this cap, it is said they have no power to return beneath the water. Sometimes they are said to leave their outer skins behind, to assume others more magical and beautiful. The Merrow has soft white webs between her fingers, she is often seen with a comb parting her long green hair on either side. Merrow music is often heard coming from beneath the waves.

--info-compiled from A Field Guide To Demons, Vampires, Fallen Angels and other subversive spirits and Demonology-Online Encyclopedia.  --More definitions of demons and monsters coming soon.