Sachracs

There are many monsters and malevolent creatures that haunt the islands and seas of Nawaquivo. One of the more unsettling and cruel is the dundwen. A dundwen appears human at first glance and can appear as both an adult or a child, though several unsettling characteristics betray their otherworldly nature. The most noticeable is that their feet are backwards, with the heel facing forward, as well as their double-jointed legs, with two knees like that of a goat. Most tales of encounters with a dundwen tell how they wear large, oversized ponchos, though some have been known to appear naked, and when they do, they look malnourished with protruding ribcages and sunken bellies. The most disturbing part of a dundwen is that its eyes are on the other side of its head, concealed by its hair. To hide this, dundwens also wear long, drooping straw hats to hide their eyeless faces from their potential victims.
Some dundwens content themselves with simple mischief-making or causing irritating inconveniences around settlements, such as stealing sandals or shoes, releasing livestock or spoiling gardens and vegetable patches. However, most are concerned first and foremost with luring people into the surrounding forest, never to be seen again.
According to folklore, if a dundwen learns a person's name, it is able to perfectly imitate the voice of someone close to them, such as a parent, friend or child. The dundwen uses this devious trick to lure victims away into the wilderness, where some believe the dundwen then abandons them and watches them from hiding as they wander around lost until they eventually die from hunger or exposure. Others still believe that people who die in such a manner rise again as a new dundwen and that this is how dundwen are born.
Children in particular are vulnerable to malicious dundwen, but there is a way for Nawaquivoans to protect themselves and their children from the predations of dundwen; a simple wooden charm called a sachrac. A sachrac is usually little more than a small wooden plate or disk, which can be attached to a strap and worn as a necklace or bracelet, and is carved with the person's name, but mirrored. Nawaquivoans believe that a dundwen who learns a person's name will become confused when it sees their sachrac, causing it to believe that it has misinterpreted the name given its odd, mirrored scripting. This in turn will break its ability to imitate a loved one, allowing the potential victim to see through the dundwen's deception and walk away unharmed.
Dundwen are not particularly common, and some people can go their entire lives without ever encountering one or hearing of one affecting their community. This usually leads to most Nawaquivoans discarding their sachracs about the time of adolescence, and only the superstitious or those who have had a loved one vanish keep their sachrac about them.

Item type

Religious / Ritualistic