Stilken

A creature that looks much like a naked woman but her arms are as long as her legs, turned backwards with great claws on them like a praying mantis (hooks) or may have pincers with which it uses to great effect to seize prey. She stands taller than a tall man, generally it takes the shape of a pretty woman though its form is fluid. Its eyes are like piercing silver fire. There is a strong metallic odor of Free Magic in an area around a Stilken that can cause nausea and leave a sour metallic taste. It speaks no coherent language and mostly shrieks and growls. It can shift its body to make it fit through small spaces or elongated it to seem more threatening. Its mouth seems human till it opens it revealing double rows of teeth, narrow and sharp as needles. It can have bright silver or darkest black spined teeth and a grey striped tongue that is striped yellow, like a leech.

A Stilken’s mere presence is enough to erode spells of binding and most other Charter spells making it a terrible foe. It is an elemental of Free Magic (magic not subject to order that corrupts) so cannot be harmed by earthly materials like steel. Nor can human flesh touch it, for the substance of the Stilken is inimical to life. A Stilken cannot be destroyed, except by Free Magic at the hands of a sorcerer more powerful than it. While destruction is only possible by Free Magic a Stilken can be bound by Charter Magic and imprisoned within a vessel or structure of metal or crystal, or even down a dry well covered by a stone. The spell for the binding is a great undertaking and calls upon three master marks and the binder would be better for a spelled sword or a rowan wand.

Nix, Garth. (2001). Lirael: Daughter of the Clayer. HarperCollinsPublishers

Back to Creature_list / The Creature List