Gashadokuro

Overview

The anger of a wrongful death is not always borne alone. Soldiers whose bodies rot in the field for a cause they do not know; victims of famine that others, had they known, could have fed without any real sacrifice; youths lost in the wilderness, their path home impossible to find once more. Dying with anger and pain in their hearts, without the proper funerary rites to soothe them, their rage ferments in their bones long after their flesh rots away. If enough gather in one place, such as after a great war or the razing of a town, these raging bones coalesce into a gigantic skeleton driven to inflict the same raging pain it feels.

A gashadokuro is easily one of the most dangerous varieties of undead in Azuma. Despite its size, a gashadokuro can become both invisible and silent, the only warning of one's presence coming from a ringing in the ears of those nearby. In this way, a gashadokuro's rampage is remarkably silent, only distinguished by the screams and blood of those it scoops into the air and crushes like overripe fruit. Its bones resist mundane weaponry, and charms and exorcisms can only slow it, not truly banish it.

by Boris Groh

Indeed, even now there is no known way to kill a gashadokuro, as the few that have appeared have only been sealed away in Yomi with countless other undead. It is theorized that the only way to end a gashadokuro's rampage is to allow it to vent the last of its fury on the world, until every last bit of its malice is spent.

In modern times, the creation of a gashadokuro is fortunately rare, as the events of mass death that would create one have not occurred in years. If those that are sealed in Yomi were freed, however, it would be catastrophic - and who is to say that the slaughter caused by one gashadokuro could not leave more of its own kind in its wake?

Contents

Details

Origin/Ancestry

Conglomerate of angry undead

Lifespan

Immortal

Average Height

70 feet

Geographic Distribution

• Azuma
• Yomi