Dave Robertson's Blog - Posts Tagged "action"

I'm often asked if all the creatures in Strange Hunting are from folklore/legends/mythology or if some are made up. Well guess what, the title character of this chapter, the I Rabas, is entirely made up. You see there is this Malian drum rhythm called Sabari. One time I played it with the drums backwards. In other words, the drums were arranged lowest to highest instead of the other way around. The resulting rhythm conjured, in my head, thoughts of an ancient wind demon, a fearsome elemental called, naturally, I Rabas. I imagined the I Rabas living deep in a remote desert and that a lost tribal people would summon the demon by playing the rhythm. That was long before I started writing the story, just a fragment that i kept stored in my head. While I was writing the first chapter of Strange Hunting, the legend of the I Rabas popped into my head. It was a great continuation of the story and something I could build the second chapter around.

Other creatures, such as the nelapsi, strigoi, draugr, busaw, and many others are from folklore and local beliefs of various countries. These are monsters that the people there have believed in for hundreds of years.