Byakhee - The Flight of the Star Steeds

"That's when we heard the powerful sound of wings, a sound unlike anything we've ever heard and considered normal." It was not the sound of a flock of birds, but the vigorous beating of a pair of leather wings. I soon realized that nothing produced that sound. At least, nothing on this planet "

Several Great Old Ones have an association with races of alien creatures. These species, too diverse to be satisfactorily cataloged, act as cultists, as slaves or as servants. There are independent races that face the power of the Gods (or other all powerful entities) and do not submit to them. Some of these races are eventually annihilated by the overwhelming power of Mythos deities, unable to deal with them, they are obliterated, ruined and cast into oblivion.

On the other hand, there are those races that choose for themselves to become faithful servants of the Mythos Entities. So it is with deep-sea creatures, the Deep Ones, who are intimately attached to Cthulhu. The black and amorphus things known as Spawn of Tsathoggua, dedicate their cursed existence to the Sleeping God of N'kai, and owe to him, perpetual obedience. Another example would be the Vampires of Fire, a race of flaming beings dancing around Cthugha, the Primordial Fire, fulfilling its desires.

But among all the Lesser Servant Races, the Byakhee, perhaps have the most unbreakable link.

Loyal Servants of Hastur, the Unspeakable and his many avatars, especially the King in Yellow, the Byakhees are so attached to this entity that when It manifests, is common to have several of them present. When invoked in his temples, Hastur is escorted by entire hosts of Byakhee who fly like a frantic phalanx, spinning around their master. On occasions when the King in Yellow is called upon to take place on his throne, He appears accompanied by byakhees, standing next to the throne as dignitaries, performing the functions of defending and guarding their master. 

Even when acting alone, the Byakhee are somehow associated with Hastur, whether it be descending from heaven to protect a temple from the presence of invaders or to capture sacrifices as part of some ritual.

Many sects dedicated to Hastur consider that the Byakhee are a useful tool that the Great Old One gives the cultists to fulfill His will. A heretical sect, which arose in Palestine early in Christendom, regarded the Byakhee as the equivalent of angels, who served God as their emissaries. This association of the byakhees as angelic figures is not the only one. During Crusades, Byakhee flock were confused with the appearance of angels. In Imperial Russia, a cult founded in St. Petersburg (of which, according to rumors the mad monk Rasputin was part) treated these creatures as divine messengers. Even in the Great War, reports of soldiers on the Western front may have been motivated by sightings of Byakhees

The concept, however, is not shared by all cultists within the circle of worshipers of Hastur. For some sects, the Byakhees are no more than servants, beneath the chief priests and cultists who make up the cult.

In West Africa, a group dedicated to Hastur, practiced a specific ritual in which a single byakhee was specially invoked to be sacrificed. From the skin they made a cloak, the leather of the wings served to create drums, their teeth and claws became ornaments and the bones, whistles, used to call other creatures. The high priests of this cult, active until the middle of the eighteenth century in present-day Cameroon, used these objects with great distinction.

The evil Tcho-Tcho people who worship Hastur and inhabit the Plateau of Tsang in Nepal, also consider the Byakhee as inferiors; useful in their plans, but nothing but simple beasts of burden.

In fact, one of the chief functions of the Byakhee over the ages was to serve as a mount for powerful sorcerers and magicians. Legends say that Eibon, the Hyperborean sorcerer rode on the back of a Byakhee who obeyed his orders. The mad Arab, Abdul Al Hazred, also quoted this function, and possibly it was he who coined the term "stellar mount" to refer to the byakhee. In the Necronomicon he says textually that the Byakhee are the consecrated mount of the great sorcerers and that to ride one of them is the full proof that the wizard has attained his mystical maturity. It may be in the face of this association of the byakhee as a mount that some mystical hermetic orders use the title Knight to name their high ranking members - such as the Knights of Silver Twilight.

But those who think of the Byakhee as mere animals deceive themselves by assuming that they possess inferior intelligence. A byakhee can be as intelligent as a human being, being able to understand languages, to form a line of reasoning and to perform complex tasks that denote cognitive power. It is not uncommon for them also to possess arcane knowledge, and to master the art of witchcraft.

As so often happens in the enigmatic universe of Mythos, there is no consensus about the origin of the Byakhee. 

It is true, however, that they are a interstellar race, and most theoreticians assume that they come from Aldebaran. Some researchers argue that the Byakhee were once the dominant species of a planet conquered by the King in Yellow. Others believe that the race as a whole, struck a pact with Hastur that led to the end of their home world. This destruction made them a homeless species, forced to adopt the worlds claimed by Hastur and the space as their new home. 

There are indications that byakhee are also present in other planets, especially those that revolve around black stars or that are subject to overwhelming gravitational activity.

These alien creatures have an organ, so far as is known, unique to their species, called hune. By activating this appendix, located in their abdomen, the byakhee can affect reality, folding the interstellar distances so fast that for the observer they seem to teleport from one point to the other. The speed of this journey is so mind-boggling that it overcomes the speed of light itself, allowing the Byakhee to take incredible distances in mere seconds.

It is known of sorcerers who have used this method of interstellar travel to reach normally inaccessible points in the cosmos such as Celaeno, Aldebaran, Formalhaut and even the Throne of Azathoth in the center of the Universe. Of course, to undertake such a journey, the sorcerer must make preparations and consume at least one dose of Space Mead. Only by using this numbing substance can the sorcerer accompany the byakhee on his journey in safety. Those who do not know this detail, have their atoms dispersed in space as soon as the mount's hune begins to vibrate.

Metaphysicians have already tried to explore the mysteries of the unique byakhee way of moving through space, but as far as anyone knows, no one has succeeded in explaining how the hune works.

In the early 1950s, rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons (one of the pioneers in aerospace engineering) conjectured that the byakhee could represent a solution to future space exploration, eliminating once and for all any question concerning distance and speed. There are rumors that Parsons has dissected more than one byakhee trying to understand the functioning of the hune, but this may be mere hearsay.

Other rumors have claimed that engineers apart of the Nazi Wunderwaffen Project also showed interest in the Byakhee's unique abilities.

On the other side of the iron curtain, it is believed to have existed an analogous project funded by the Soviets in the 1960s. More recently, the Chinese would have tried the same approach. The current status of these projects is unknown.

To invoke a byakhee, the sorcerer must utter a series of kabbalistic words and the name of Hastur himself. A combination of words used by the Brotherhood of the Yellow Symbol involves the following invocation:

"Iä! Iä! Hastur! Hastur cf'ayak 'vulgtmm, vulgtmm, vulgtmm! Ai! Ai! Hastur!"

If Aldebaran is above the horizon and the Sorcerer used a whistle, especially one made with the bone of the femur of another byakhee, the chances of success are considerably greater. In these positive circumstances, the creature emerges straight out of space, its body half frozen by the cold of the space vacuum through which it traveled. Sometimes the Elder Sign must be used to cause the byakhee to comply with orders. But be warned that not always, this works! Many sorcerers who believed themselves capable of controlling a byakhee were sliced in ribbons by the very creature they conjured.

The physical appearance of the Byakhee is difficult to describe. Many chroniclers tried to describe them, but none succeeded in finding the adjectives that best define them. In the eagerness to try to say what they are, the witnesses try to compare them to animals with which they bear the slightest resemblance. In Greece, the Byakhee were compared to the mythical harpies, and perhaps as more than one scholar has suggested, they are the basis for the legend of these and other winged beings such as Griffin and Manticore. Some arcane tomes state that no Byakhee is equal to another, and that they may have unique characteristics that greatly differentiate members of the same race, to the point of sometimes being difficult to regard two creatures as kin.

The Necronomicon refers to the Byakhee as a monstrous chimera with characteristics that refer to birds, reptiles, mammals and even insects. There are specimens with beaks, horns and scales, coexisting with fur, multifaceted eyes and antennae. Most likely, the characteristics similar to that of animals on our planet are a mere accident, as the Byakhee are undeniably alien. As for color, the Byakhee are usually pale, predominating white, beige and light brown, but there are creatures with yellowish, blueish and even greenish scales. It is not impossible to find a Byakhee totally black, able to merge with the darkness like a shadow. Their flesh and skin is at least three times denser than that of humans, the same value for their bone structure.

One characteristic is present in all specimens: the powerful wings that propel them in their flight. Every Byakhee has at least one pair of wings, usually bat-like, on its back. These wings are vigorous and possess tremendous speed, allowing the creature to launch into the air and immediately gain height. The size of the Byakhee wings varies for each specimen, the largest can easily reach 6 meters spread. The creature's flying speed in our atmosphere has never been determined but it is likely that they can travel more than 200 kilometers per hour..  

The Byakhee usually has upper limbs that resemble arms, with hands endowed with five long toes ending in claws curved like scythes. The same claws are present on the feet, being mainly used for digging and grabbing, but also for attacking enemies. The injury caused by these claws results in a deep and possibly lethal gash. With their intelligence, the Byakhee seem to know enough of the anatomy of other beings to target delicate areas, such as the throat of human targets.

In addition to having a well-developed view, the Byakhee have an accurate scent that allows them to determine the particular smell of each person. When sent by sorcerers on murder missions, a Byakhee is usually supplied with some garment or with blood drawn from his victim so that he may find her and kill her. There are reports of Byakhees traveling long distances to accomplish their missions after being summoned. Creatures are unable to communicate in any human language, but they seem to understand orders and instructions, especially when their interlocutor uses ancient languages as well as esoteric languages.

Another peculiarity of these creatures is their particular taste for blood. A Byakhee apparently does not need to feed, but the pleasure they feel by draining fresh blood from a prey can be described as intoxicating. There are cases of Byakhees that capture their prey and carry them to isolated places. There they cut a vein and hang the prey upside down in order to extract the precious liquid. Others suck directly from the body of their captive, using long, tubular tongues that act like cannulas. A byakhee is able to drain gallons of blood voraciously, leaving a prey the size of a adult human dry within minutes. It is not known if they have other sources of nutrition, if they really exists at all.

There is controversy regarding a separation by gender in these creatures. If such a distinction exists, it is not possible to discern typical characteristics of males and females. Virtually nothing is known about the reproduction of the species, never having been found pups or evidence of mating.

Finally, it must be admitted that although the Byakhee have been known to sorcerers and circles of magic practitioners for millennia, in practice little is known about their nature.

And we may never know all the mysteries of this obscure alien race.