| Alp-Luachra | |
|---|---|
 ' | |
| Information | |
| Alternate Names/Spellings | Alpluachra, Joint-Eater, Just-Halver |
| Origins | Irish Mythology, Legend and Folklore |
| Alignment | Neutral Evil |
| Element | Air/Wind/Sky, Light, Life/Death/Blood |
| Species | Magical Beast (Fay) |
| Appearance | Invisible, but newt-shaped... |
Origins
The Alp-Luachra is a creature with origins in Irish mythology, legend and folklore.
Appearance
Entirely invisible to even the magical eye, it is said in some circles that only another Alp-Luachra knows what one looks like. And, sadly, they have no means to communicate it.
Behavior
The Alp-Luachra is undoubtedly a member of the unseelie court, due to its mischievous ways. Among the very few existing parasitic fairies, Alp-Luachra are known to feed off the food of others when they fall asleep.
By crawling into the open mouth of a human sleeping by a stream where they live, and crawling down their gullet, an Alp-Luachra can easily feed for up to a week (even longer, if the host is particularly rotund or corpulent).
As such, they are blamed as agents of hunger, hunger pains and starvation in less fortunate parts of Ireland, and other lands they are known to call home.
Though, ironically, the most effective way to get rid of the creature is to sleep in a similar position (by a stream, with mouth open), after eating heavily salted meat. This is supposed to leave the invading creature very thirsty, which will result in it leaving the host to find hydration.
Abilities
It is entirely invisible. Invisible on all spectrums, and involuntarily so. It has no true physical appearance, and as such, stealth is a breeze (a particular boon for its parasitic nature). In addition, it is capable of rendering the mouth and gullet totally numb, so as to make resisting it even harder.
And once it's safely down in one's gut, it can breathe easily, capable of resisting the stomach's acidic fluids with no difficulty or harm to itself. Not to mention, due to its feeding on the greater portion of what its host intakes, it is an excellent agent of weight loss in bigger beings, and or preventing weight gain in smaller beings.