As an appendix to The Darkness Preys, this special chapter is dedicated to all the lore used in the story. You may think of it as an index documenting all the supernatural appearances and related symbols.
The Five Poisons
The Five Poisons of Chinese origin refer to the five poisonous beasts. The belief dates back to ancient times. When the lunar calendar hits the fifth day of the fifth month, it is said that evil spirits appear along with infectious illness and misfortune. This is due to the fact that it is midsummer and a tendency to see a rise of insect appearances is quite common. The five poisonous beasts differ from historical accounts. The five I happen to choose were the toad for Kyo, newt/lizard for Die, snake for Shinya, centipede for Toshiya, and scorpion for Kaoru. I reserved snake specifically for Shinya due to his fear of snakes.
Gu/Kodoku
If you remember from the chapter, Kaoru had explained the origin of Chinese gu. Gu has always been associated with Chinese black magic and has long been associated with evil practices. Gu has almost always began its form as a worm known as “jincan” or golden silkworm. The story goes that jincan can produce gold for its owner just as long as a human sacrifice is made regularly. Otherwise, the owner themselves will suffer and end up dying. Thus it is typically sent to one’s enemies in the disguise of a gift in hopes that the new owner will die slowly in excruciating pain.
The Chinese character for gu (蛊，蠱) is made up of the words vessel (皿) and insect (虫，蟲). This also refers to the common iconography of gu being cultivated using insects. A method commonly used is to have multiple poisonous insects consume each other until only one is left. The survivor is the most venomous of all and becomes the gu itself. Gu also can refer to sorcery for cursing as a whole, a seduction or a temptation, a haunting of a ghost, or a type of poisoning found abdominally. The definitions vary, but in the end, it is still evil. The various myths in Chinese history shaped the multiple definitions. Due to the tangible meaning of gu, I had great liberties of extracting and molding it into the story.
Talisman
The talismans I described in the stories are Chinese fu and Japanese ofuda. You see them liberally used in stories of exorcism. Both involves consecration and writing done on paper. Chinese fu stems from esoteric Taoism. As there are two different sects of Taoism, the use of talismans, spells, and rituals are considered “Tao of the Left”, not to be confused with “The Left Hand Path” commonly grouped with Satanists and Luciferians. They may share some similar ideas in some aspects, but are not quite in the same ballpark in terms of belief.
Japanese ofuda originated from Chinese fu in that Japanese Onmyoudou incorporates Chinese Taoist beliefs. In the chapter, I See You, the charm that Shinya uses to expel the hospital ghost was an ofuda. I took the inspiration from onmyouji stories where they use consecrated parchment to banish evil spirits. The fu found on the body of the newt in Die’s apartment in is a spell to change properties. Think of it like a shape-shifting spell commonly used by wizards to disguise the true nature of objects.
Evil Spirits
Evil spirits come in many forms and the lore differs from culture to culture. I used the more common belief of having skeletal remains conjure up an unwanted spirit as seen in Trapped in the Dreambox. Evil spirits can haunt you in several different ways. They can manifest themselves physically like in The Apparition and Merciless and cause supernatural phenomena such as moving objects without touching them. In the very few stories I have heard, evil spirits can enter dreams. I incorporated this idea into the story because if benign spirits can enter one’s dream to pass a message, why wouldn’t a malevolent one do the same? Hauntings are very similar to paranoia and hallucination so with the case of Shinya, he was in a great state of distress where he couldn’t really tell reality and illusion.
Spirits in General
While some occultists may disagree, I used the idea of spirits being balls of energy. The reason why lights flicker is because of the presence of more energy. At least that’s the theory I use. Energy comes in many forms such as waves and particles, it would make sense that spirits can transverse through technology such as phones and televisions.
Hex Bags
This one I’ll admit to taking from Supernatural, but the belief of pagan witches created spells came from ages ago. There’s a spell for all sorts of uses and you can see by browsing the web, it will yield you billions of results.
Rasetsu
Rasetsu is the Japanese pronunciation of Rakshasa. They appear in Hindu and Buddhist mythology as flesh eaters. Rakshasa are often depicted as ugly with claws and carry an insatiable appetite for human flesh. In Vedic tradition, rakshasa were created from Brahma’s breath, but they were so filled with violent bloodlust that they began to eat Brahma alive. In Buddhist stories when the rakshasa were subdued, they became guardians of the Buddhist faith.
Since rakshasa are such violent creatures, I named it the final boss of the story as a cultivation of all the evil that occurred in the past chapters. Rasetsu Kyo is not a true Kyo, therefore he is void of emotion and memory. He essentially is the jincan, the result of Mavros’ gu.
Trees
Tree worship is prevalent in a lot of cultures where the belief is that spiritual entities reside in plants and nature itself. In parts of Asia, you may see that offerings are made to old trees. Particularly large trees in Shinto shrines have holy rope on them to note their special status.
Dragons
Eastern dragons are often regarded as good as opposed to their Western counterparts. They are bringers of rain and gods that rule over the lands. I took liberties in naming one as a mountain god.
Mugwort
Mugwort is used in traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese medicine for its healing properties. Because of its usefulness in ancient times for being able to relieve many ailments, the properties of ridding evil has been attributed to the plant. In Chinese and Japanese tradition, people hang dried mugwort in the house as a means of purification and barring of evil spirits entering.
The primary use for mugwort is moxibustion where you apply mugwort on acupunctural points and burn it. It is briefly described in Death Trap when Kaoru burns mugwort on the scorpion bite.
