Zduhać/Aloviti/Vjedogonja/Wind Chasers/Cloud Chaser/Hail Defender/Fairy Man/Dragon Man

The Zduhać are mythical figures from Slavic myth. They are described as people capable of protecting people, homes, and entire villages from rain and hail. They are often thought of as mythical creatures, like dragons or fairies, but in human form. Sometimes they were seen as prophets and connected to angels and saints. They are generally seen as heroic figures that look entirely human, though often melancholic, thoughtful, strong, resourceful, and resilient. A Zduhać could be detected from birth if they were born with the caul still on their head, and they would also often have an affinity to crows. Some believed however that a Zduhać could only be born on specific Fridays or at specific times. In this interpretation, the caul of the baby must be preserved and given to the child when they grow older. Sometimes people could become a Zduhać through magic, often by selling themselves to the devil and becoming vampires after death. A natural born Zduhać would often combat another Zduhać who gained their powers from evil. They are capable of separating their spirit from their body as they sleep and send this astral projection to confront weather demons. After they return to their bodies, any fatigue or injury from combat carries over to their physical body. In turn if they die in astral projection, their body dies as well. After large battles they would experience shortness of breath, weakness, exhaustion, and lingering fatigue. Someone dying suddenly often indicated they were a Zduhać killed in battle whose body perished when the dying spirit returned. While fighting in their sleep, they are incredibly difficult to wake up. A Zduhać will most often fight at night in February and March, or around the Christmas time. The spirit of a Zduhać could take the form of an eagle, or a bird with white wings, yellow legs, and a red beak. Their bird call sounds like a shepherd’s whistle. They could also take the form of shepherding dogs, oxen, cows, horses, or goats. Sometimes they would fight on mountains while in the shape of bulls. They had many abilities such as foresight, talking with crows, and hearing everything across the world (with the ability to pass this ability to anyone standing on their feet.) Fights with a Zduhać often resulted in strong winds and powerful whirlwinds, with them being able to uproot large trees with a single hand. They use various weapons such as bows with points at both ends, spindles, twigs, straws, splinters of wood, feathers, pinecones, haystacks, water, beech leaves, and large stones. They could also attack with whole dogwood, birch, elm, fir, and oak trees. Any amount of burnt wood was seen as a particularly good weapon.

Citations:

Zlatic, Vladimir. Slavic Mythology: Demons in Serbian Folklore. N.p., Amazon Digital Services LLC – KDP Print US, 2021.