Jawnomicon

Para

Para is a Finnish familiar spirit, often cat- or hare-shaped, fashioned by its owner from stolen scraps and sent out to steal milk, grain, or money from neighbors.

At a glance

Tradition
Finnish folklore
Region
Finland (place of origin)
Trait family
The Waking Things

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Born from inanimate object
    why

    its body is said to begin as an ordinary object rather than as flesh

  • Animated household object
    why

    Published folklore describes the para's making as an act of folk magic: its owner gathers scraps — wool, thread, bits of cloth or wax, sometimes items taken from another's property — and animates the assembled bundle, in some accounts with the maker's own blood, so that it can be sent out to steal butter, milk, grain, or coin from neighboring farms and bring the theft home.

Offensive powers

  • Snatch and carry
    why

    Published folklore describes the para's making as an act of folk magic: its owner gathers scraps — wool, thread, bits of cloth or wax, sometimes items taken from another's property — and animates the assembled bundle, in some accounts with the maker's own blood, so that it can be sent out to steal butter, milk, grain, or coin from neighboring farms and bring the theft home.

Utility powers

  • Phosphorescent glow
    why

    In flight it is sometimes described as a streak of fire or light crossing the night sky, a motif shared widely across Baltic-Finnic wealth-spirit belief.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.