Chapter

Night Raven

We had wandered towards the shelter after the hymns of the midnight mass had gone quiet. The village priest of Bällinge claimed to have heard the horrifying shrieks beyond the snow-laden field to the east. But the mutilated bodies were not found until the sun finally dawned after the thick snowfall on Christmas Day, revealing the widow Egleus and her three children in a gruesome sludge of blood and night-black feathers. Landlord Fritjof Egleus, wretched and subdued, is said to have taken his own life to escape his harsh wife. Now, in the undead form of a wicked night bird, it seems he has had his revenge…

— Carl Linnaeus, December 25th 1731

Night ravens are the bitter and damned spirits of suicides and criminals buried in unholy ground, sometimes banished by a church grim who purged the unhallowed dead from the northern part of the graveyard. The night raven is a raven-like creature whose shape seems to shift and transform as it moves. An elusive night-black bird of oily smoke and scruffy feathers with glowing eyes and a beak full of razor-sharp teeth. The spirit flies close to the ground, always at night, supposedly seeking the tomb of Christ. They gather in flocks during major holidays, but during daytime they always seek shelter underground, only to resume their search when darkness falls.

Ritual

The night raven's spirit will not find peace until its original body is buried in holy ground. It can be forced back into said body if it is wrapped in the burial shroud of a saint or bishop at night, and then exposed to the first rays of the morning sun.

Hide ritual

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