Ooh, Isn't that one of my newer drawings but with a slightly edited description from 2022?
Slavic people as many others gave soul to everything. There were spirits guarding lakes and rivers, some protected houses, the Leshies on the other hand were the guardians of forests Lles/лec translates to forest, though not in all Slavic languages.
Leshies are more of neutral spirits rather than evil or entirely good ones, they are often accompanied by wolves and bears, have hard as a tree bark skin and hair made out of moss and vines. Their cheecks have a blue-ish tint, due to those spirits' blue blood.
They can take the form of every plant and beast, even change their size, from as tall as a tree, to short as a blade of grass. Even if they can shapeshift into a human, you can spot their disguise, simply because leshies don't cast shadow and their piercing green eyes always remain.
Since people feared the unknown, they also feared forests. It was believed that those spirits tend to lure people deeper into the woods, causing them to get hopelessly lost into the unknown. But for others, a leshy may take the role of a helper.
Leshies also have a sense of humor, they love to laugh and play tricks on unsuspecting humans. Did you know that the best way to get a Leshy to leave you alone is by making him laugh? Just put your clothes on backwards/inside out and wear your shoes on the opposite feet. But can one blame them? Spirits have always been fans of playing with humans.
Btw Leshies may be particularly popular, considering the game characters named after them. So if you are a fan of Cult of The Lamb or Inscryption, now you know. Leshies are often described as chaotic too, so cotl going with making Leshy a God of Chaos makes more sense that we are giving it credit for. As for inscryption, there is this belief that Leshies love playing cards. So, makes sense, makes sense. The fact that Massive Monster managed to do justice to Slavic mythology, where other medias couldn't. Good on them!
A thing I have heard was that birch trees resemble eyes, because Leshies use them as such. But I haven't found a written source that confirms this as a recorded belief. Anyway it's still interesting. Especially considering humanity's fear when it comes to being observed by something unknown.
I did mention people being lost in the forests. But since we humans have a natural tilt, meaning that we can't walk in a completely straight line without making a full circle eventually, does that mean that all of the claims of "Leshy caused me to get lost" originate from humans simply tilting in a circle? How many times has someone gotten lost just to discover that they are just a few meters next to a path?
And yess I wanted to post the old art on which I have placed the description but it was just so old. So the newer one it is. The birch thing was a new "knowledge" for me, so it gets to be included here at least.
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