Can the concept of a succubus work in a modern world?

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Sharad9
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Can the concept of a succubus work in a modern world?

Post by Sharad9 »

A succubus has been summoned from hell to our realm by a fool using an ancient text called "demonic pacts for dummies "(placeholder title don't worry). The ritual goes horribly wrong due to incorrect information and resulted in the summoner''s death. The succubus is now free to roam our realm unsupervised and begins terrorizing the populace by leaving a string of bodies in her wake. A succubus has a number of advantages over a human, including increased strength, speed, resistance to harm, and telepathic powers. It has the ability to hypnotize it's victims, putting them into a deep trance. A pleasant, euphoric haze descends on the victim who is under her spell, making them very open to suggestion. This ability only works on men, and uses a large amount of energy (mana) from a succubus to use. The creature can also use polymorphization to slightly adjust and tweak it's features, changing its appearance as needed, but always in the form of a human woman. It needs to hunt every month or so to recharge it's mana reserves. The longer it goes without food, the less control it has over its faculties. At some point, it will force itself on the closest individual it can find.

The creature feeds by preying on men that it seduces. It absorbs the mana from their souls, leaving them desiccated, dried up husks that are later disposed off. Sex with a succubus is far more enjoyable than with a mortal human, which it uses to release the energy from the victim. After the soul is eaten, the creature gains the memories and abilities of the person. The strength of its abilities continues to grow as it feeds off of more prey. At some point, it can completely "dominate" it's victims, enslaving them to its will. A human under its spell at that point would do anything they are told to do by her, including murder, steal, or die. Hypnotization only works on one person at a time while the succubus is weak. As it grows in strength, it can extend it to multiple victims, but can use up it's mana more quickly.

Citizens are terrified and authorities are in panic. Hundreds of unexplained disappearances become commonplace, with victims later turning up scattered around the city. Dumping grounds have also been discovered in out of the way places, containing some of the missing victims. The bodies resemble dried up corpses similar to raisins being left out in the sun for too long. The succubus enjoys the fear that she is instilling, and is no closer to being found. The body count continues to pile up with no end in sight.

I'm trying to salvage the concept of the succubus without turning it into some kind of hentai. Rather than portray it as the sexy, fetishized interpretation of this creature, such as in the show "lost girl", make it out to be a dangerous predator with the pathology of a serial killer, along the lines of catherine tranell or hannibal. Im thinking that telling it from the creatures point of view would be even more disturbing. It would be a look into the mind of a sociopathic monster that sees human beings only as a food source, killing without conscience and destroying lives for its own amusement. Does a sex related story of a monster like this inevitably devolve into fetishist territory, or can it actually work as horror?

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Zaarin
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Re: Can the concept of a succubus work in a modern world?

Post by Zaarin »

Urban fantasy isn't really my genre, but I think this fits very neatly into that category. Can it be horrific? Frankly I'd find it refreshing if someone would stop romanticizing monsters, so yes, I think it could absolutely be horrific rather than exclusively erotic. Mass Effect 2 actually did a substory along these lines about (um, spoilers ahead, obviously) a mutated strain of asari called Ardat-yakshi who kill anyone they have sex with and get a thrill from doing it; it's definitely portrayed as much more horrific than sexy.
"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

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Re: Can the concept of a succubus work in a modern world?

Post by Axiem »

Isn't one of the vignettes in Neil Gaiman's American Gods basically a modern succubus?

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Re: Can the concept of a succubus work in a modern world?

Post by Vijay »

Zaarin wrote:Mass Effect 2 actually did a substory along these lines about (um, spoilers ahead, obviously) a mutated strain of asari called Ardat-yakshi who kill anyone they have sex with and get a thrill from doing it; it's definitely portrayed as much more horrific than sexy.
They borrowed the concept of yakshis from us?? Well, how about that! :o

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Zaarin
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Re: Can the concept of a succubus work in a modern world?

Post by Zaarin »

Vijay wrote:
Zaarin wrote:Mass Effect 2 actually did a substory along these lines about (um, spoilers ahead, obviously) a mutated strain of asari called Ardat-yakshi who kill anyone they have sex with and get a thrill from doing it; it's definitely portrayed as much more horrific than sexy.
They borrowed the concept of yakshis from us?? Well, how about that! :o
I wasn't familiar with the term before, but a quick Google search suggests that they probably did. It's not really that surprising that they'd mistranslate yakshi as "demon," though--I could write an essay on misused English words in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise. :p
"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

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Re: Can the concept of a succubus work in a modern world?

Post by Vijay »

Zaarin wrote:
Vijay wrote:
Zaarin wrote:Mass Effect 2 actually did a substory along these lines about (um, spoilers ahead, obviously) a mutated strain of asari called Ardat-yakshi who kill anyone they have sex with and get a thrill from doing it; it's definitely portrayed as much more horrific than sexy.
They borrowed the concept of yakshis from us?? Well, how about that! :o
I wasn't familiar with the term before, but a quick Google search suggests that they probably did. It's not really that surprising that they'd mistranslate yakshi as "demon," though--I could write an essay on misused English words in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise. :p
I wouldn't call that a mistranslation of yakshi (pronounced [jəʈˈʃi] in Malayalam). The Wikipedia article doesn't look reliable to me. Yakshis are indeed supposed to be demon(esse)s AFAIK; this is definitely the case in the Malayalee tradition, and I've been told that even North Indian yakshis are the same. They're disguised as extremely beautiful women but are in fact hollow inside. After seducing their victim, they eat every part of him except the hair and nails. However, it is possible to tame a yakshi through a process that involves hammering a nail into her skull (don't we Indians just do lovely things to women?!). Also, if a man places a copy of the Bhagavata Purana underneath his pillow when in bed with a yakshi, she will keep trying to make him take it out, but if he stubbornly refuses no matter what, she will promptly self-destruct.

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Zaarin
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Re: Can the concept of a succubus work in a modern world?

Post by Zaarin »

Vijay wrote:
Zaarin wrote:
Vijay wrote:
Zaarin wrote:Mass Effect 2 actually did a substory along these lines about (um, spoilers ahead, obviously) a mutated strain of asari called Ardat-yakshi who kill anyone they have sex with and get a thrill from doing it; it's definitely portrayed as much more horrific than sexy.
They borrowed the concept of yakshis from us?? Well, how about that! :o
I wasn't familiar with the term before, but a quick Google search suggests that they probably did. It's not really that surprising that they'd mistranslate yakshi as "demon," though--I could write an essay on misused English words in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise. :p
I wouldn't call that a mistranslation of yakshi (pronounced [jəʈˈʃi] in Malayalam). The Wikipedia article doesn't look reliable to me. Yakshis are indeed supposed to be demon(esse)s AFAIK; this is definitely the case in the Malayalee tradition, and I've been told that even North Indian yakshis are the same. They're disguised as extremely beautiful women but are in fact hollow inside. After seducing their victim, they eat every part of him except the hair and nails. However, it is possible to tame a yakshi through a process that involves hammering a nail into her skull (don't we Indians just do lovely things to women?!). Also, if a man places a copy of the Bhagavata Purana underneath his pillow when in bed with a yakshi, she will keep trying to make him take it out, but if he stubbornly refuses no matter what, she will promptly self-destruct.
Ah, in that case BioWare's off the hook for that one; my brief Google search suggested they were fertility goddesses. :p They're still not off the hook for phylactery, apostate, or templar though. :p
"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

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