#adze

[adenaringelheimz]

Aislinn Limit Word 𝙸﮳s Avocado Spread.

[porcelain-rob0t]

the character line up for my upcoming comic, Vampire sorority!!! wooo!!!

Lilien - Moroaica (Romanian vampire) house director

Meabh - Dearg Due (Irish vampire) business major

Izumi - Iso-Onna (Japanese sea vampire) environmental science major

Diantha - Chedipe (Hindi vampire witch) English literature major

Shauntae - Adze (Ghanaian firefly vampire) fashion design major

Kanami - Manananggal (Filipino self-segmenting vampire) health studies major

very excited to show more of these characters and work on the story :^D its a horror-comedy slice of life story about college life in the spirit realm

[thesilicontribesman]

Recreating Bronze Age Tools, Oriel Ynys Môn, Llangefni, Anglesey, Wales

[viereck572t]

Date seductive lillian out

[aster-saturn]

Blue Crane

Chapter 0

Prev

FINALLY MORE ASTER LORE!!

Meanwhile…

The grass whispered in the early dawn, bending and parting with the breeze—or so it seemed.

But something else moved beneath it.

A pulse of orange light blinked once in the shadows, then again, drifting low across the weedy outskirts of Norrisville like a stray ember. Small, silent, deliberate. A lone firefly. But not just any firefly. Its glow burned deeper than natural—tinged with red and gold. Its wings, thin and smoky, left faint trails of heat in the cool air. And its flight? Too controlled. Too knowing.

It bobbed through tall grass and past chain-link fences long forgotten by the city, until it reached a cracked, moss-covered storm drain yawning at the earth like a mouth waiting to swallow something whole. The firefly hovered at its edge… then darted inside.

Below, the sewer tunnels pulsed with old, unseen magic. The deeper it flew, the more the air thickened—cool and still, like the world had stopped spinning. The walls, crusted with lichen and grime, bore scars older than the city itself. Symbols etched in stone—twisted, ancient glyphs—glowed faintly at the firefly’s approach.

The insect paused mid-air, hovering in place. And then, without warning, it began to change.

Its glow intensified, erupting into flame before stretching and twisting, smoke curling around its body as it shed the guise of something small. Wings folded into arms, legs unfurled from haze, and the creature stood upright at last—tall, thin, wrapped in flickers of light and ash.

The Adze.

Eyes glowing like coals beneath dark water. A smirk already carved across his sharp face. He raised his hand, and a ring of runes lit around him—old magic, not forgotten but waiting.

A howling tear opened in the air, swirling like an oil-slick whirlpool, edges crackling with sparks and dread. From the portal stepped a figure draped in dusk.

The Sorceress.

She emerged with liquid grace, her long, serpentine form wrapped in robes of black, deep plum, and shifting midnight blue. Her hair flowed as if submerged, floating around a face both regal and wrathful.

Her first words were a snarl. “Who dares drag me from exile?”

But the Adze only chuckled, the sound smoky and smooth.

“My lady,” he said, bowing with a hand to his chest, “I assure you, I’m an ally.”

Her jaw tightened, eyes narrowing. “The Sorcerer- where is he? Where is my love?”

The Adze’s smile widened, cruel and slow.

“Gone. Turned to dust. A smear on the walls of history, thanks to the Ninja.”

The scream she loosed rattled the very bones of the city. Pipes cracked. Stone shivered. The air itself recoiled.

“I will reduce this wretched town to embers!” she howled, magic boiling at her fingertips.

“Or,” the Adze purred, circling her, “you could burn it with purpose.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I’ve seen what’s coming,” he whispered. “The Codex has awakened. The Ninja isn’t alone anymore. Another warrior has awoken—foreign, unpredictable. Not of this land.”

The Sorceress tilted her head. Her fury began to cool, replaced by something far older. Curiosity.

The Adze leaned in, voice low and laced with promise.

“Let me show you how to break them. We poison the Codex’s next bearer—corrupt them from the inside. And then… the Ninja will fall. Not in battle. But by betrayal.”

For a long, loaded moment, only silence lived between them. Then the Sorceress smiled—slow and dark. In the flickering sewer light, their laughter rang out—twined like smoke, steeped in revenge.

[evanescentapocrypha]

Adze 9x12 Watercolor and Colored Pencil on Hot-Pressed Watercolor Paper

"Thought it was a campfire. Thought I'd found people at last after being in this damn forest for so long. But—But the fire moved. The fire stood up."

[orokothe]

OC art, Seshi Osei

Firefly vampire, or otherwise known as Adze is a vampiric entity known to take the form of a firefly that brings misfortune. This is told from Ewe people of Togo and Ghana.

[howhow326]

For black history month, I think we should begin popularizing monsters from the African continent the same way European monsters are overpopularized. To that end, here's a list of some of the most famous folkloric figures from Africa!

Mmoatia

Origin: Ghana (Akan)

Creature it is not: Dwarf

(Singular: Aboatia) Mmoatia are a subclass of abosom (spirits in between Man and Creator) that live in the forests of Ghana. They are short, have curved noses, backwards feet, and a unique language made up of only whistling sounds. Whistling in the forest is a sure way to get their attention. According to legend, they are phenomenal herbalists that will sometimes share their knowledge with humans. When a person gets lost in the woods, they are said to have been taken by Mmoatia. Humans who come back after being taken will become incredible medicine men. In Ghana, Dust Devils are called "Mmoatia Mframa" (Wind of Mmoatia) because they are belived to be a portal to their world similar to how fairyrings are treated in Ireland.

Mmoatia are divided into three tribes: Black, White, and Red. Black Mmoatia are supposedly harmless, while White and Red ones are always up to some kind of mischief.

Adze

Origin: Ghana (Ewe)

Creature it is not: Vampire

In Ewe culture, the Adze is a type of demonic spirit associated with witchcraft. They take the form of a fire fly that, during the night, crawls inside human beings in order to posses them. People possesd by the Adze are said to be witches, who use the spirit to slowly drain the life force of people that they envy (Old witches target the young, Poor witches target the wealthy, enslaved witches target their masters as they should).

When targeting a person, the Adze will leave it's host human during the night and crawl into the house of the victim. When it's close, it will drain blood from the victim like a mosquito.

Werehyena

Origin: Pan-African

Creature it is not: Werewolf

Just like how there are Werewolf stories all over Europe, there are Werehyena stories all over Africa. Compared to werewolves, which are said to be men cursed to be monsters, Werehyenas are actually monsters that disguise themselves as humans only to eat it's friends during the night. The people most likely to be werehyenas are village outsiders and blacksmiths, who are associated with magic.

In Angola, there is a similar (but not the same) creature to the werehyena called the Kishi. It is literally a two-faced demon that has a handsome man's body and face in the front, and a hyena's face in the back. This creature lures unsuspecting women into relationships so that it may eat them. If the Kishi has any male children with it's prey, it teaches them the art of femicide.

Mami Wata

Origin: Pan-African

Creature it is not: Mermaid (ok, it kinda is a mermaid but I need to keep the joke running)

Even more wide-spread than the Werehyena, Mami Wata is a figure so popular that it is common for water spirits in Africa to be retroactively labeld as Mami Wata and take on her iconography.

The most famous picture of Mami Wata is actually a french painting of a black Caribbean snake charmer, who west africans later identified as Her. Mami Wata is worshipped as a powerful, female river spirit that controls the flow of the river, the rate at which fish can be caught, the money that men can make, and several other things important to humanity. She is also said to be a seductress, who sleeps with unsuspecting men only to later kill them for cheating on their wives. Indeed, Mami Wata is a defender of women and a slayer of sinful and abusive men.

In many places, it is common to believe that women who drown or go missing in bodies of water were taken by Mami Wata to be taught magic. The women who return become pristessess to her, while the women who never come back become new Mami Watas.

Impundulu

Origin: South Africa (Zulu)

Creature it is not: Thunderbird (no hate, Thunderbird gets constantly thrown into things where it shouldn't be by people who don't understand it. And those people tend to be not native)

Impundulu, or Lightning Bird (NOT THUNDER BIRD), is a person sized Hamerkop bird that has the power to control the weather and summon lightning. It is also creature of evil magic, allied with witches and it has a never ending hunger for blood. It is said to sometimes take the form of a handsom young men in order to seduce women (why dose that keep happening).

Impundulu are immortal, and the ones that serve as witch familiars are passed down in the family as the old master dies and the child becomes grown. The bird is immune to gunshots, stabbing, drowning, and poison. It's only weakness is fire.