[ Sahkil ] [ Impostors | Lurkers | Stalkers | Tormentors ]
[ Baxbak | Borda | Fear Liath | Jidolutz | Lanak | Mayurch | Nakorik | Nenchuuj | Penqual | Qolok | Rabatok | Tumblak | Zohanil ]
Trigger warning — this fiend description contains themes of pyromania and arson, so if you have concerns about content like that, I suggest you give this creature a miss
Mayurch Sahkil
The Feral Flames (CR 4); pyrophobia — fear of fire
Home Planes: Ethereal / Xibalba; Nether
Alignment: Neutral Evil
The mayurch is a dangerous, bestial sahkil which embodies the fearsomely destructive and all-consuming nature of fire. Its body is a grotesque spectacle of luminous flame and charred blackened flesh, partially covered in patches of singed fur. Bones and tissues visibly protrude from its wounds as its skin perpetually sloughs off under intense heat. Its skull-like head is adorned with flaming horns and fangs, while a second, smaller head sprouts from its tail. The air around a mayurch is thick with noxious smoke and the acrid stench of charred flesh and burnt hair. Despite the wounded state of their serpentine bodies, their small forms move with agility. They stalk their prey like seasoned predators, confident that their burning bodies are capable of inflicting searing damage to any who dare strike at them.
Mayurch are found cavorting in forest fires and burning peat bogs, although whether they are attracted to these natural disasters or cause them in the first place is unclear. In the Ethereal Plane, they lair in the ghostly shells of burned-out cities, but they will slip between planes to the Prime to investigate when they sniff the scent of woodsmoke. Preying upon the primal fear of fire that is shared by most mortals, a mayurch will attempt to lure victims into the flames by pretending to be a distressed creature. It then circles back and tries to trap its quarry inside the conflagration, in order to feast from the fear this engenders. If it cannot find a victim, the mayurch will attempt to spread the fire towards the nearest populated area, feeding instead from the fear and despair of farmers whose crops go up in smoke or villagers whose property is damaged. It’s a lesser meal, but still nutritious to the pyromaniacal mayurch.
Mayurch have been known to work with members of the Doomguard, who enjoy the raw destructiveness of these sahkil and are not afraid of fire. The mayurch have learned to tolerate this kind of mortal, although if they are not given sufficient opportunities for destruction, they quickly lose interest and wander off.
Source and Stats: The Creature Codex [PF1e] here
Other Sources: Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: The sahkil are a fabulously horrid type of fiend from Pathfinder lore, who make a great addition to the Ethereal Plane and Planescape lore generally. The Creature Codex has done an awesome job of expanding the number of sahkil massively too, and I’ve included all their creations here. Organising the sahkil into three sub-types based on their hunting style was my idea, because the list was unwieldy and their names are (deliberately) hard to remember, and this splits them up into bite-sized chunks.