Phookas: Evil Faeries at Their Worst

Phookas are evil creatures from the Realms of Fae.

What is a Phooka? Would you know one if you saw one? A Phooka is a very dangerous and often violent shape-shifting trickster from Celtic myth, known for their ability to change into great fearsome black animals so that they can scare humans.

Some Phookas take a liking to humans and just play harmless pranks (like Harvey the rabbit of Jimmy Stewart movie fame) other Phookas are bloodthirsty vampire-like creatures that lure humans to their doom.

Normally harmless and peaceful, these violent tempered creatures are highly vengeful and greatly feared by the other races of Faerie and great care is taken, by other Faeries, to avoid getting a Phooka angry.

They refer to themselves Phookas or Phookas. Humans, however have a great many different names for the Phookas depending upon the region in which they live. Phookas can be found in most countries of the world and are also known as:

Black Dog, Black Shuck, Bogart, Bogeyman, Boggard, Boggart, Boggle, Boggle Boo, Bogie, Bogle, Boo, Bogyman, Bucca, Bucca Dhu, Bucca-Boo, Buckie, Bug-a-Boo, Bugabo, BugBear, Demon, Kelpie, Kelpy, Loki, Nursery Bogie, Pooka, Puc, Puck, Puk, Puka, Pukis, Pukje, Puuk, Pwck, Raven, Shuck, Thunderbird

The most common characteristics of a Phooka include:

1.) In human form they have black shaggy hair and wild black or yellow eyes.

2.) Often they manifest themselves are a shaggy black horse or pony and willingly let humans ride them only to dump them into a river or swamp.

3.) As tricksters, they delight in playing pranks and practical jokes. Their jokes can range from mildly annoying to down right deadly.

4.) In their natural state they are humanoid; however these shape shifters rarely show humans their true form. Common forms they take include: horses, ponies, eagles, vultures, rocs, rooks, wolves, panthers, jaguars, goats, bulls, and most any black bird or animal.

5.) Beware of black animals that appear unusually wild looking, shaggy, are not native to the area, or are abnormally larger than they should be. Chances are they are really a Phooka in disguise.