View source for The Karakoncolos

[[Category:Player Created Fiction]]

"Karakoncolos" was a malevolent demigod from [[Ni-Kunni]] folklore, particularly among the nomadic tribes.  He has been likened by modern historians to the Gallente bogeyman; usually merely troublesome and mischievous, but sometimes truly evil.  He has been described as a tall, thin, featureless man with charcoal grey skin.  The etymology of his name has been lost to antiquity.

==In Ni-Kunni Folklore==

According to a surviving Ni-Kunni myth, Karakoncolos would appear near traveling caravans during Zimri, or 'the terrible heat', the driest period of the year on [[Mishi IV]].  He would only ever appear at night, disguised as a lone traveller or shaman, wearing a long cloak and wielding a manjur (a cloth rattle filled with the bones of a steppe skink).  Using sorcery, Karakoncolos would lure unsuspecting Ni-Kunni away from the caravan by shaking his manjur and claiming to have discovered a nearby source of water.  Once a safe distance away, he would devour his victims, cursing their spirits to wander the dust plains for all eternity.

It is speculated that the Karakoncolos legend was originally fabricated to account for Ni-Kunni who would disappear at night due to a variety of heat-related illnesses.  Confusion and disorientation, for example, are a common symptom of heat stroke, which could presumably lead someone to wander off once everyone else had gone to sleep.  Large predatory lizards have also been postulated to be the source of the phenomenon.

Although primarily used by adults as a story to frighten children into compliant behavior, Karakoncolos is referenced in a wide variety of Ni-Kunni superstitions pre-dating [[Amarr]] contact.  In surviving fragments of ''The Shamar of Sutan'', for example, characters will sometimes utter the curse "May the grey man take you".  

==In Modern Ni-Kunni Culture==

Kukeri (meaning 'Dance of Madness') is the name of a Ni-Kunni custom, the original purpose of which was to scare away Karakoncolos and avoid contact with him.  Although the earliest reasons for the custom have largely been forgotten, the dance is still sometimes performed at birthing celebrations, in order to give luck to the newborn and keep them safe from harm.