Tupilaq, the vengeful spirit

The various Inuit people inhabiting the artic region have their own spirits and monsters. The Tupilaq was one of such creatures, coming straight from the native tribes of Greenland. The Tupilaq was a rather feared beast, they were vengeful spirits casted by someone to punish someone else that had wronged him.

It is said that conjuring (i.e. making) a Tupilaq was extremely easy as anyone, let they follow the instruction properly, could do it. All they need was some animals or human parts, like bones, skin or hair to make a statue. The Tupilaq has no define form other than being animalistic. You can make it have the body of a seal with polar bear forearms and walrus tusks if you want to, as long as you have the proper ingredients it will count as a Tupilaq. Once the sculpture is completed, you must attach to it something that belongs to the targeted person and then place it to the sea. From here your vengeful spirit is set to hunt down its target on its own.

However, calling upon a Tupilaq is notoriously dangerous for the caster. It follows the rule of ‘all in nothing’, that is if the spirit can’t achieve its mission, it will turn on to the one that called him and kill him. If you find yourself to be the target of a Tupilaq there is two ways for you to drive it away. The first and most easy way is to simply expose publicly your wrongdoing. If you are someone well behave finding out the correct wrongdoing to confess might be an easy task since only the one specifically called out by the caster count. However, if you are a person that angered a lot of people then you might be in one serious pickle.

The second, and most difficult but safest way to escape from a Tupilaq, is to cast a protective barrier around yourself that is stronger than the powers of the person that sent the Tupilaq. This of course will save you from the shame of admitting to everyone of your dirty actions, unless the caster was the one being petty about something insignificant. But you also have to gamble on whether or not you are stronger than your opponent.

So, next time that you call on a Tupilaq to avenge an injustice done to you, think twice before creating your monster, because your vengeful agent might come and bit you back in the ass.