A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
UBELLURI - (Hittite) A giant who carries the heavens and the earth on his shoulders, much like the Greek Titan Atlas.
UKOBACH - (Judeo-Christian) The demon who invented fireworks and the art of frying foods. Beelzebub gave him the task of keeping oil in the infernal cauldrons.
UMAYADO-NO-OUJI - (historical) Born as a son of Emperor Yomei in 574, Umayado-no-Ouji, who was also known as Shoutoku-taishi, was the main politician of Asuka era. He based his policies on Buddhism when he became the regent for the Empress Suiko. In the year 604, he legislated the Constitution, the oldest written law of Japan. In 607 he sent a Japanese delegation to China. His portrait appeared on the old 10,000 yen and 5,000 yen notes.
URD - (Norse) One of the three Norns (Fates). She stands for "that which was" - the past.
URVASHI - (Hindu) The most beautiful Apsara (celestial nymph and dancer).
USHAS - (Hindu) The Hindu goddess of the dawn.
VAIROCANA - (Buddhist) (was: Virocana) One of the forms of Buddha is Vairocana, the "far-shining," who is practically the only god worshipped in Java. In Japan, he is known as Biroshana, and he is worshipped by the Shingon sect.
VALKYRIE - (Norse) The Valkyries ("choosers of the dead") are warrior maidens that follow the Norse god Odin. They have various powers, such as shapeshifting and flight, but their primary job is to carry messages for Odin and accompany him in battle, and select which of the fallen warriors should go to Odin's warrior heaven, Valhalla. They are usually depicted as women dressed in chain mail, or women wearing a cape of swan's feathers to help them fly. Many sagas say that if you steal their swan-feather clothes, they're trapped on earth.
VARUNA - (Hindu) the Vedic god of the waters. He has a magical jewelled umbrella.
VASUKI - (Hindu) the king of the Nagas (snake-people) in Hindu mythology. He is either a snake from the waist down, or takes the form of a many-headed cobra. He has a gem on his hood called the Nagamani, and it can cure any illness. When the gods and demons were churning the ocean of milk to gain the elixir of immortality from its depths, they used the giant Mount Meru as the churn, and Vasuki himself acted as the rope. However, when the churning got too vigorous, Vasuki spit out his poison in pain, threatening to poison the entire world. Siva, the Lord of Destruction, had to swallow all the poison and hold it in his throat to save the world.
VENUS - (Roman) The Roman goddess of love and beauty, she seems to have a slightly more reputable status than the Greek Aphrodite. She was the mother of Prince Aeneas, who left Troy when it fell and then traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Roman people (read Virgil's Aeneid if you're interested). Doves were sacred to her, and she had a son known as Cupid. But, just like her Greek counterpart, she could be vengeful and irrational when someone challenged her beauty.
VERDANDI - (Norse) One of the three Norns, the Norse Fates. Verdandi means "that which is" - the present.
VESTA - (Roman) The Roman equivalent of Hestia, the Greek goddess of the hearth and home. Vesta was worshipped in big temples with an eternal flame, and this flame was tended by a special group of young women known as the Vestal Virgins. Most of these girls left the group and got married as they grew older, but some remained part of it for life.
VETALA - (Hindu) The vetala is a kind of ghost in Hindu mythology that haunts graveyards and burning-grounds. It lives upside down at the top of the tamarind trees in the graveyards, and can possess unwary people who stand underneath them at night. Vetala, however, have a lot of knowledge about magic and life and death, so sorcerers like to capture them to use them as familiars. One famous story about a vetala involved King Vikramaditya, who was asked to capture a particular Vetala by a sorcerer. The trick to catching a Vetala was to corner it when it was away from its tree, and not speak to it, no matter what it said. But this clever Vetala would tell the king a riddling story, and ask for the solution to the puzzle at the end. The king would be unable to refrain from answering, and the Vetala would escape and run back to the top of its tree. The Vetala told hundreds of stories as the king kept trying to catch it, and you can probably find the collected stories in a good library. I personally loved these stories when I was little.
VIDOFNER - (Norse) The rooster sitting at the top of Yggdrassil, the great World Tree of Norse Mythology. It only crows at the time of Ragnarok, the downfall of the gods.
VISHNU - (Hindu) Vishnu was the Hindu god that protected the universe and destroyed all threats to the world. He often accomplished this by taking various forms - avatara - or tricking demons into doing themselves in. In his off-time, Vishnu sleeps on a giant thousand-headed cobra, Adisesha, that lies coiled on top of an ocean of milk. He is accompanied by his wife, Lakshmi, most of the time. In his four arms he carries a mace, a conch-shell war trumpet, a lotus, and a razor-edged discus.
VIVIAN - (Arthurian) Vivian was the lady of a castle near a large, mysterious lake. Vivian, living so close to the waters, took on their strange powers to become the fabled Lady of the Lake. It was she who gave Arthur his legendary sword, Excalibur. She also raised a knight from the waters, Lancelot du Lac (of the Lake). He was raised as her foster-son. Later on, the famous magician Merlin visited the lake and fell in love with the Lady of the Lake. Merlin ended up staying with Vivian - out of free choice, or because she trapped him there.
VERETHRAGNA - (Zoroastrian) The Persian god of victory, fire, and the personification of aggressive triumph. He appears in many shapes, usually a bear or bird of prey.
VRITRA - (Hindu) I've heard two stories about this demon. The first one was that he was the son of the Brahmin Tvashtri, and he was an extremely powerful demon. Indra, the king of the gods, became afraid that Vritra would depose him, so he went to the god Vishnu for advice. Vishnu advised him to make peace, so Indra offered to be friends with Vritra. Vritra agreed to a truce on the conditions that they would not attack each other with weapons made of metal, wood, or stone, neither wet nor dry, neither by day nor by night. Indra agreed and they became friends, Indra watching Vritra closely for weak points. One evening they were walking on the beach at dusk, and Indra's attention was drawn to the sea foam thrown up on the sand by the waves. It was dusk, neither day nor night - and foam is neither wet nor dry, nor made of metal, wood, or stone. So Indra took a chance and flung the foam at Vritra, and the power of Vishnu entered the foam and killed Vritra. But now Indra had committed the sin of killing a Brahmin (IIRC, it's called Aryaputra; it's one of the gravest sins you can commit in those times) so he had to renounce his throne until his penance for that sin was complete. Well, that's the story I'd always heard. But another story is that Vritra was a giant snake of drought, that drank all the water in the world, and Indra, the god of the rainstorm, had to slay him with a thunderbolt. Well, whatever.
VUCUB CAQUIX - (Mayan) In Mayan mythology, Vucub Caquix, Seven Macaw, was a large bird that dwelled on the surface of the world after the flood. He was very vain and proclaimed himself the ruler of the world. The hero twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, were angered by this and decided to slay the monster.
In order to accomplish this, the twins hid under the bird's favorite tree. When the macaw returned, Hunahpu shot him in the face with a blowgun. Vucub Caquix tore off Hunahpu's arm and escaped. The twins then convinced an old couple to pose as healers and visit the bird, offering to cure his eyes and teeth. The old couple replaced the bird's teeth and eyes with kernels of corn, and this killed him.
VULCANUS - (Roman) The Roman god of the forge, and blacksmith to the gods. His forges were in the many volcanos of Italy and Sicily, and the sparks were from his work. (Volcanos are named after this god.)
WANG LONG - (Chinese) The Long Wang are the Twelve Dragon Kings of Chinese/Taoist mythology who preside over funerals and rain.
WANYUDOU - (Japanese) A supernatural being that appears at night in the middle of a flaming cart wheel, stealing the souls of anyone that sees it.
WATCHER - (Judeo-Christian) this is a slightly obscure bit of Old Testament angel mythology, from the apocryphal Book of Enoch (and parts of Genesis, maybe?). The first set of angels sent down to earth by the Jewish god were meant to observe humanity and not interfere - hence the name "watchers." ("angel" means "messenger," anyways.) Some watchers, however, taught humanity all sorts of things, like metalwork and medicine, and took human wives and husbands. So they got sent to hell, and are now demons of a sort. So there are some Watchers in heaven, and some in hell. The offspring of Watchers and human women were beings known as Nephilim, often mistranslated as "giants" - the Greek 'gegenes' (born of earth) got translated into Latin 'gigantes' (giants). Some of these Nephilim were great heroes in the early history of humanity, according to this story.
WHATELEY (WILBUR) - (Lovecraft) The stories of H.P. Lovecraft give us Wilbur Whateley, a strange man who wasn't quite human, was born under suspicious circumstances, and had a brother in his basement that most definitely was not human. He was obsessed with the Necronomicon, and when he was killed, his body - well, it didn't even look like it was from this earth anymore.
WOLVH MANAHU (VOHU MANAH) - (Zoroastrian) 'Good Mind' or 'Good Thought', who personifies wisdom, kindness, and mercy. He takes souls of the worthy to paradise. He is associated with both herd animals and is a psychopomp, so he can be compared with Hermes in Greek mythology and Cernunnos in Gaulish mythology.
WRAITH - (Scottish) A type of ghost that is a premonition of death and misfortune. It is often depicted as a hooded cloak with glowing red eyes.
WYVERN - (European) A type of dragon with no forelegs and a needle-like tail that was often used in heraldic imagery.
XAPHAN - (Judeo-Christian) (was: Guzfan) The demon that fans the flames of hell with his hands and mouth. His symbol is the bellows. During the rebellion in heaven, he was the one who suggested setting all of heaven on fire.
XIUHTECUHTLI - (Aztec) Xiuhtecuhtli, also called Huehueteotl ("old god"), is the god of light and fire, and the oldest god in the Aztec pantheon. Every 52 years, there would be a number of feasts and human sacrifices dedicated to the gods, and Xiuhtecuhtli in particular, so that the gods would not forsake their people. (52 years was the Aztec century...think of it as Y2K jitters, in a sense.) The victims were drugged, had their hearts taken out of their bodies, and were placed on burning coals as a sacrifice to Xiuhtecuhtli.
YAKA - (Sri Lankan) Demons that cause disease, but can be appeased by burnt offerings. Many of the Sri Lankan demon masks are of these "Sani-Yaka."
YAKSHA - (Hindu) A type of fairy-like supernatural beings that serve Kubera, the Lord of Wealth. They are young and attractive and can grant wishes if they are pleased.
YAKSHINI - (Hindu) A female Yaksha.
YAKUZA - (Japanese) The word yakuza means 8-9-3. This refers to Japan's version of Blackjack, Oicho-Kabu.
In Oicho-Kabu, the cards have to add up to 19 instead of 21 to win. The sum of 8, 9 and 3, is 20, which is a losing combination. Hence the name yakuza, which implies that the members are misfits in society.
YAMA - (Hindu) The god of the Underworld and of Justice. He had red skin, rode a black water buffalo, and carried a noose to carry off the souls of the dead. He lived in the South, the direction of Death. Although he was the god of Death, he was a fair god and not cruel. He was especially respected as the protector of justice, truth, and duty. YAMAOKA - (original) The elderly butler of the Nanjou household, and a father-figure to Nanjou Kei. After his death, the Persona Yamaoka protected the Young Master Nanjou.
YATA-GARASU - (Japanese) The three-legged crow sent by the goddess Amaterasu to guide Emperor Jimmu in battle. It has three legs because three is a number strongly associated with the sun. The Yata-garasu is the symbol of the Japanese Football League due to its associations with victory. YATO NO KAMI - (Japanese) A giant horned snake god that lived in a valley. Those who caught sight of this monster brought a curse down upon their entire family. YOG-SOTHOTH - (Lovecraftian) One of the monsters worshipped by the Mad Arab. It is described as a horrible column of ever-shifting bubbles and spheres. YOMOTSU-SHIKOME - (Japanese) An army of hags and monsters that Izanami sent to chase Izanagi when he saw her rotten body in hell. Izanagi dropped his belongings on the slope up from Hell, Yomotsu Hirasaka, and they turned into food. The Shikome stopped to eat it, and Izanagi esaped.
ZAEBOS - (Judeo-Christian) A grand count of hell, but with a remarkably noble personality, it seems. He takes the form of a warrior riding a crocodile.
ZAP - A zombie with a name that means something like "Kill!" or "Beat!" Zap kills humans with an axe while saying its name.
ZOMBIE DJ - (original) A nightclub DJ who became a zombie after his death.
ZOMBIE-KUN - (original) A young man who was killed by demons and became a zombie afterwards.
ZOMBIE COP - (original) A police officer who was killed by demons and became a zombie afterwards.
ZOMBIE-SAN - (original) An adult who was killed by demons and became a zombie afterwards.
ZOMBIE JUNKIE - (original) The zombie of a person who died of an illegal drug overdose. Even though it is dead, it still suffers from withdrawal symptoms, and stabs at people with a knife held in its shaking hands.
ZOMBIE-CHAN - (original) A young girl who was killed by demons and became a zombie afterwards.
ZOMBIE NURSE - (original) A nurse who was killed by demons and became a zombie afterwards.
ZOMBIE PAINTER - (original) A painter who became a zombie after death, driven by his urge to paint the perfect picture.
ZOMBIE SCHOOLGIRL - (Japanese) A schoolgirl who was trained to defend her area during World War II. Now, after her death, she carries the bamboo spear she had used to fight American soldiers, and now she pounces on the living. >_> <_<
ZOMBIE SOLDIER - (original) A Japanese soldier that became a zombie after death. Its extreme patriotism is probably the reason it became a zombie, so it can continue to fight even after death.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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