The first novel of The Immortal contains many monsters, some familiar under unfamiliar names, others are hopefully new to you. Luckily, at least one is an entirely new creation without mythological influences. Here are four mythological creatures in The Immortal: The War to Begin All Wars and their legendary origins.
The Drop Bear
These deadly creatures hail from Australia and are one of my favorites. These are a creature never meant to be taken seriously and are a joke played on tourists to the delight of Aussies everywhere (and wannabe cryptozoologists such as I). Instead of explaining the legend here, I will let you witness it firsthand:
You can see some of the deviations the book takes as the Drop Bear is an actual monster instead of an adorable koala. It is also a complete perversion of life, being an alchemically created creature of unknown origins instead of a genetic relative of an existing animal. While koalas exists in Australia, they don't in Velmuhra. So what animal did the witch use to create one? In any case, I thought it would be fun to try and take a joke creature and place it into a serious context. Think of what Tom King did to Kite Man in his Batman run.
Cu'sith
These are a creature from pretty much every mythology out there, although they are primarily seen in the U.K. They are familiars (witch's pets), death omens, or heralds of the Wild Hunt which bring souls to the Underworld. It all depends on the region or local legends. If you remember the grim from Harry Potter or the hellhounds from literally anything (although we'll use Supernatural as our example), that's essentially what these things were based on. These are said to be the Devil's hounds who drag souls to Hell. This can be after the unfortunate souls have made a deal with Satan or any demon, as was seen in Supernatural, or it can simply be because the souls would end up going there anyways. You could say the Devil liked to start his torture early. Either way, the hellhounds are what drag the unfortunate lad down. The cu'sith (pronounced coo-shee) variant comes from Celtic mythology, namely Scotland. They are a lot scarier than their British counterparts as they are the size of a cow and have green fur allowing them to blend into the Highlands, while also giving them an almost fairytale appearance. Even with this scary size (picture a Dire Wolf from A Song of Ice and Fire), their bark is far worse than their bite. Hear it once. Run. Hear it twice. Panic. Hear it a third time. You dead.
Obviously, there are a few differences between the cu'sith of legend and as they are seen in The Immortal. Firstly, the cu'sith in The Immortal are smaller and closer to black dogs in appearance. They also don't have a lethal bark (which I'm sure the heroes are thankful for). Their purpose and what they are still remains a mystery. Are they supposed to drag souls to Hell? Are they a death omen? Simple guards of the Northern Lands? Who knows? We might find out as the story progresses. Or the author could just want a mysterious and scary creature from Hell. Some soft magic, if you will. The one thing both the cu'sith of mythology and The Immortal share is they are not of this world. Plus the name.
Vyrkolas
These are basically vampires. I know. Very original. But instead of talking about how the vyrkolas work as we don't know much of this interpretation, we'll look at the particular Greek vampire which inspired the name: The vyrkolakas. These vampires share many legends with their more popular Romanian counterparts, the strigoi (or striga for you Witcher fans). They are created when someone isn't buried properly or dies of disease and famine. They return to feed on the living, eating their flesh and livers as opposed to their blood. Vyrkolakas are also known to knock on doors to request entry. If answered, they will curse the person who answers, making them a vyrkolakas. Thus, wait for the second knock before answering the door. Or just turn the lights off like you do at Halloween. Who needs a vyrkolakas on top of trick-or-treaters?
Shadra
This is the one creature not taken from mythology. It was conceived by the simple thought of: What if there was a monster that was a mix of everything? Bird, mammal, reptile, etc.? What if there was a monster that had every superpower animals have? The flight of a bird (but the finger wings of a bat), the webs of a spider, the beak of a goose (complete with teeth), the expandable jaws of a snake, retractable claws of a cat, tail of a scorpion, literally anything an octopus can do, etc. That'd be pretty awesome. That's pretty much the only reason this creature exists. Twelve-year-old me wanted to make the ultimate hybrid monster. Because no quality images exist of it (yet), I'm looking forward to seeing if any fanart comes close to my mental vision of this monster. First to get me one will probably have it retrograded into this article and definitely make it to my Instagram. #shamelessplug
These are only surface level descriptions of these monsters, so I encourage you to look into their origins on your own. If not, you can wait for their deep dives here, where I discuss them in depth and tell you their origins, stories, cultural significance, and ways to fight them... with sources!
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