The Digital Bestiary: Cu Chulainn

Stephen Reid (Left) - J.C. Leyendecker (Right)

    Cu Chulainn is the most popularly invoked name from the great mythological cycles of Ireland, although popular culture does not extract images from the Irish myths with much frequency except to provide names to weapons in JRPGs or for exceptionally dangerous seeming roller coasters. His training, heroic exploits, and death form the major part of the Ulster Cycle, concentrated primarily in the epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, and he remains one of the principal culture heroes to emerge from the region beside his counterpart in the Fenian cycle, Finn McCool. 

Wild Arms (1996) - A Brief Taxonomy of Demonkind

The Quarter Knights of Wild Arms - Not discussed in this article because they all have names like "Boomerang" and "Zed"

    Wild Arms is less celebrated for its occult themes than for other dominant aesthetic influences. But the influence of the Western is faint in this inaugural entry- it manifests in the periphery, in several tracks adapted from the oeuvre of Enrico Morricone, as a selection of characters in period-attire, or in the presence of native caricatures that forgoe the unfortunate 'beastman' allegory typical of the genre. Wild Arms is certainly of its era in all other facets, deriving the bulk of its narrative and aesthetic conventions from such touchstones as Castle in the Sky, Nadia, Record of Lodoss War, and Future Boy Conan. However, it puts forth one influence to a greater extent than many of its contemporaries: the Western Esoteric tradition.

The Digital Bestiary: Baphomet

Baphomet, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1856)

    Baphomet is an image rich in symbolic import, perhaps uniquely so among the occult figures most commonly invoked in popular culture. Although originating in accounts of pagan worship dating back to the First Crusade, the popular image of Baphomet is the sole work of 19th century occultist Eliphas Levi, who illustrated the "Goat of Mendes" pictured above, appearing in his opus Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. After the fashion of alchemical illustration, Levi's figure is a representation of totality, and so consists of numerous binaries joined in one form: human and beast, man and woman, sun and moon etc. 

The Digital Bestiary: Buer

Buer, Dictionnaire Infernal (1863)

"Buer is a great president, and is seene in this signe; he absolutelie teacheth philosophie morall and naturall, and also logicke, and the vertue of herbes: he giveth the best familiars, he can heale all diseases, speciallie of men, and reigneth over fiftie legions."

Welcome to the inaugural entry of The Digital Bestiary, where I'll be taking some time to trace the depictions of various mythological and supernatural beings as they appear across the infant medium of "videogames". I've chosen Buer as our first subject, being one of the most lovable members of the Ars Goetia, a text that is eternally sourced for representation in popular media (particularly in Japanese media, where it signifies the premier font of occult knowledge).