Eahe Kiéhïe

Eahe Kiéhïe (pronounced /iːˌɑːheɪkiːˈɛhiː.eɪ/) is a much feared demon that inhabits the skies over the world of Vlastach. The demon is described as having a fat, wormlike body with a spiked tail and four enormous veined wings, somewhat resembling a dragonfly's. The front of its blunt-snouted head is dominated by a huge, toothy mouth, with various tendrils and protuberances extending above and below it. Four eyestalks project above the mouth, and a fifth eye is on the dorsal side of the tail, which, since the demon usually holds its tail curved under its body, generally faces forward. Two short limbs ending in spikes are on each side of the body. Running along its belly are three slits, out of which it can if it wishes extrude tentacles and additional eyestalks.

Eahe Kiéhïe has a wide array of offensive capabilities, both physical and magical. Its plump form notwithstanding, it can move with alarming speed, and while the spikes on its limbs and tail aren't particularly sharp, they are very wide and heavy and can be powerful bludgeons—and the demon can thrust them forward with sufficient force to effectively stab with them despite their bluntness. From its various eyes, it can shoot magical rays that can cause victims to burst into flame, shrink them to a fraction of their former size, or turn them into statues of solid iron. With a touch from the tentacles from its ventral slit, it can cover creatures with a venom that causes agonizing pain, or with a different substance that paralyzes victims for days. Eahe Kiéhïe also can exercise control over the weather around it, commanding the winds and precipitation, and calling lightning to strike at its enemies to devastating effect.

Nevertheless, despite all of these powers, the demon's favorite tactic is to simply swallow victims whole. Given its speed and its size, it seldom has any trouble doing that; its mouth is easily large enough to gulp down a fair-sized ship, let alone a mere human. To possibly make things worse, swallowed creatures are not digested—though the demon may feed slowly off their souls—but are simply trapped inside it indefinitely, unable to leave and incapable of being transported out by any known magics, though it is possible through certain means to communicate with the ingested individuals. It may be that those swallowed are even sustained somehow and prevented from aging, being therefore potentially trapped inside the demon forever, but the evidence for this is conflicting. In any case, if there is any way to rescue those swallowed by Eahe Kiéhïe, it can only be by physically entering the demon and somehow leaving a pathway open and escorting them out. There are stories of this having been accomplished, but most scholars dismiss them as fictions; there is no real proof that anyone has ever successfully delivering a victim from the demon's gut.

Fortunately, for all its deservedly dire reputation, Eahe Kiéhïe is rarely encountered—after all, it haunts the high altitudes, where humans rarely go, and even casami only slightly more often. Reliable reports of encounters with the demon only occur once every few decades at most, and there have now been none in nearly a century. Still, there's no reason to believe that Eahe Kiéhïe isn't yet above Vlastach somewhere, and after all there's no telling how many people may have encountered the demon and not returned to tell the tale. There are some who believe that the infrequent sightings of the demon indicate that Eahe Kiéhïe spends much of its time away from Vlastach, having somehow developed the ability to pass between Vlastach and the Maelstrom at will, but this seems unlikely; the remoteness of the altitude where it wanders, and the difficulty of escaping even if one does encounter the demon, are together more than sufficient to account for the rarity of reports.

While it is certainly intelligent, there is no record of Eahe Kiéhïe ever having initiated or responded to any attempt at communication, verbal, mental, or otherwise. There is little doubt the demon could speak if it wanted to, but apparently it sees no point in bantering with its prey.