Ghosts of Tsavo

Near the meeting of the Tsavo and Athi Rivers in western Kenya, there is a site in the Tsavo region the history of which is drenched in blood. Once along the old slave trade pathways, it eventually became the site of British efforts to build a railroad across Africa. In 1898, a pair of man-eating lions attacked and killed over a hundred workers and other victims in the region before they were killed by Col. John Paterson, the Irish engineer tasked with building a bridge for the railroad. Some locals believed these two lions, unmated males who hunted in pairs and often didn’t even bother to eat their kills, were evil spirits or demons. Paterson and his fellow Europeans laughed off these claims. They really should have listened to the legends.
The Tsavo man-eaters were physically lions, but the beasts were spirits driven to madness and murder. They were instilled with a love of endless slaughter by the violence and suffering of the people suffering due to slavery, imperialism, inter-tribal conflicts, and other tragedies. Whether the spirits were once ghosts of mortals, animal, nature spirits, or something else entirely, is unknown. However, by the time they began their reign of terror in 19th century Kenya, they were powerful and relentlessly malevolent ghosts.
When Paterson killed the lions the spirits bound to them were dispersed, but not destroyed. At times over the next century, the spirits returned to possess the living in various places, each time taking over humans whose souls were weakened by madness, greed, sin, or evil. The spirits grow in power with each possession; all the blood they spill on their rampages makes them ever stronger and shortens the time needed before they can once again possess the living. As they’ve become more powerful, they’ve learned to twist, warp, and transform their hosts into a terrifying mix of man and beast. These monsters are now known simply as the Tsavo, which means “slaughter” in the Kamba language. They don’t always appear in Kenya, or even Africa, but they are tied to the place of their “birth,” and it is likely they cannot be truly destroyed unless someone can discover a way to purify the part of the region where they first began their murderous existence.
Note that the renegade shaman and foe of the White Lions of Dakana, Ghostmane, draws his power from these same corrupt spirits. He often seeks to work with the Tsavo’s current physical incarnations, serving as both guide for their blood-crazed hosts and servant to the dark spirits which possess them.