Frankenstein
The idea of re-animating the
dead has existed for centuries. The most famous legend
regarding this concept was
that of Baron von Frankenstein's Monster, from a story by
Mary Shelley. As the story
goes, Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young doctor, solved
the eternal riddle of life
and creating a being from body parts he scavenged from
corpses. His creation was to
be a superhuman, with great physical prowess and
extreme intelligence, but something
went very wrong. Faced with the reality that he
was unlike anyone else in the
world, Frankenstein's monster demanded a partner be
created for him. When Frankenstein
failed, the monster vowed to haunt his creator as
revenge for the hell that was
his own life.
Witchcraft
Believed to be in league with
Satan and practitioners of the black arts, witches were
often totured and killed for
their alleged crimes. It was widely held that witches could
hex their enemies using a variety
of spells and amulets, causing sickness and injury.
Often what seemed to be a run
of bad luck or a persistent illness was thought to be
the work of witchcraft.
Demon
Demons are said to come in
many shapes and sizes. They fly, change shape, shoot
fire from their mouths, and
generally plague humanity for their own amusement.
Certain mythology traces the
origin of demons back to a time before history, when the
world was not controlled by
mankind. The "Ancient Ones" as they are sometimes
called, ruled the Earth and
all its beings for eons, superpowerful and bloodthirsty.
Banished into the lower realms,
they do everything within their power to corrupt the
world, sometimes managing to
walk the Earth inside human bodies, "possessing"
them. It is said that by knowing
a demons true name and calling it out in ritual, you
can summon it. Protected inside
the magical barrier of a pentagram or five-pointed
star, a strong sorcerer could
force a demon to do his bidding. Underestimating one's
magical ability was, however,
a fatal mistake. If one lost control of a demon after
summoning, one would usually
die and lose one's soul for all eternity. Demon's are
notorious liars and masters
of trickery. Lured into a dialogue with the demon, an
unwary individual could be
fooled into acting as the demon's servant, only to be
sacrificed when the demon grew
bored or found a better follower.