changing race

[Angrboda]

On another forum, I'm known as rasetsu, which is the Japanese word for what in Hindu and Buddhist mythology is known as a Rakshasa. I'm going to avoid commenting on whether or not there is any factual resemblance there.

Rakshasas are notorious for disturbing sacrifices, desecrating graves, harassing priests, possessing human beings, and so on. Their fingernails are venomous, and they feed on human flesh and spoiled food. They are shapeshifters, illusionists, and magicians.

A Rakshasa, is said to be a mythological humanoid being or unrighteous spirit in Hinduism. Rakshasas are also called man-eaters ("Nri-chakshas", "Kravyads"). A female rakshasa is called a Rakshasi, and a female Rakshasa in human form is a Manushya-Rakshasi. Often Asura [a group of power-seeking deities] and Rakshasa are interchangeably used.

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In the world of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Rakshasas were a populous race of supernatural humanoids. There were both good and evil rakshasas, and as warriors they fought alongside the armies of both good and evil. They were powerful warriors, expert magicians and illusionists. As shape-changers, they could assume various physical forms, and it was not always clear whether they had a true or natural form. As illusionists, they were capable of creating appearances which were real to those who believed in them or who failed to dispel them. Some of the rakshasas were said to be man-eaters, and made their gleeful appearance when the slaughter on the battlefield was at its worst. Occasionally they serve as rank-and-file soldiers in the service of one or the other warlord.

Aside from its treatment of unnamed rank-and-file Rakshasas, the epic tells the stories of certain members of the race who rose to prominence, some of them as heroes, most of them as villains.