Nuckelavee, bringer of drought and disaster

 

Horse riders have many representations in mythologies. They can be heroic knights who save the people or be the carriers of the apocalypse. Today, we will dive into one of the most sinister monsters that ever carried the mantle. Let me present you to the calamity of Orkney, bringer of drought and disaster, the incarnation of evil in northern Scotland, the Nuckelavee. The legacy of the monstrous rider is one of the darkest that exist. The people of Orkney feared nothing more than this grotesque abomination that was the fusion between a human torso and a horse. The beast was skinless, leaving its black blood veins and flesh exposed; its arms were so long that they touched the ground and its mouth so large that it could be compared to a maw. It was anyone's worst nightmare.

And of course, its personality only matched its charming look. When I say it was considered the incarnation of evil, I am not exaggerating. Everything terrible that happened on the Orkney islands was the work of the Nuckelavee. It was a vicious and psychotic creature that only lived to spread death and desolation, and it never took a day off. Drought, plagues, storms, invasions, and any other disaster were its work.

If, by some strange reason, you want to piss of the creature (seriously, you're either a masochist or someone even worse than this monster to want that), the smell of burned kelp would do the trick. Every time the Nuckelavee sensed this particular odour, it would go into a wild rage and cause even more destruction than usual. The Mortasheen disease was known to be the products of such rage; but that's a story for another time!