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The Emim are the purported enemies of the Rephaim and humans.
Physical Description[]
Nashira Sargas describes the Emim as "a parasitic race. They are mindless, bestial creatures with a taste for human flesh."[1] But they will eat any kind of flesh, fresh or rotted. She claims that if it weren't for the Rephaim, the Emim would have come to Earth from beyond the ethereal threshold and eradicated humanity. The Emim make a buzzing sound, similar to flies, thus they are often nicknamed Buzzers.
They have a humanoid head, arms, and legs. They move like animals, but with impossible speed. When one shakes its head, it moves so fast it blurs. They're fast, aggressive, muscled, and grotesque. They stink like a cesspit. An Emite looks like a giant, bloated thing. When David Fitton grabs one, wet dead skin comes away in his hands. Their skin has a shiny, bloated look. When stabbed, they bleed a syrupy, foul-smelling liquid. They have a blunt head and fingers. Their dimensions seem too long, as if they've been stretched. Their spine presses through their skin like a knife edge. Their eyes are pure white orbs, slightly luminous, like moons. Paige Mahoney is able to see one up close in the hydraulic tunnel in Sheol II. It has papery gray sarx, like when a Rephaim has necrosis, lidless white eyes, and a corrupted aura. When they stretch their neck out, they make wet clicking sounds. They have an abyssal throat. Its scream doesn't just sound like one scream, but a thousand tortured cries, moans, and sobs.
When David faces one in Sheol I for his second test, he can't see an aura around it and it makes the æther seem like it is collapsing, as if there is a black hole around its dreamscape. They generate their own darkness. When Paige fights one, it has a dark, cavernous dreamscape. When she tries to enter the Emite's dreamscape, she experiences severe pain. It turns the æther to a dense, congealed mass, incapable of supporting spirits. Within the æther, clots surround it, like blobs of oil in the water. When Paige does manage to enter an Emite's dreamscape, she can feel a force festering in it, and breaking through into its hadal zone feels like a fiery quagmire. An Emite's hadal zone is excruciatingly dark. It looks like a rotten mass of dead tissue with blood bubbling through a slick of melted flesh.
Description[]
The Emim originated in the Netherworld, coming into creation shortly after the Netherworld began to decay. Rather than a wave of new Rephs being created, the Netherworld created a wave of Emim. The most understood thing about the Emim is that they are attracted to ethereal activity. Thus, places like Sheol I act as a beacon to the Emim, and draw them away from the rest of the corporeal world. The Emim enter the earthly realm through portals to æther called cold spots which are opened with the blood of Rephaim. When the Emim breach the ethereal threshold, red-jackets are summoned to destroy them. It is almost impossible to create a spool in the presence of an Emite, as spirits flee from them. The best way to track an Emite is to use the æther.
While Paige Mahoney is in the L’Hôtel Garuche, she speaks with Cade and Kornephoros Sheratan and learns that the Emim are actually Rephaim who have been corrupted. While Rephs are immune to all human pathogens, they are vulnerable to being infected by the Emim, a type of necrosis called the half-urge. To pass on the corruption, all an Emite has to do is bite or claw a Reph hard enough to break their sarx. Once that happens, the Reph starts to run out of time. Once the corruption starts to spread, Rephs quickly lose the ability to feed on aura. Salt sustains or restores that ability, buying them time to find a voyant to feed on.
Humans are immune to the half-urge.
Emite blood, known as alysoplasm, can be ingested by clairvoyants in order to temporarily mask or hide their aura. Harvesting alysoplasm is very dangerous and tasting it is deeply unpleasant.
The other way a Reph can be turned into an Emite is by consuming too much alysoplasm. Rephs can tolerate a few drops without becoming corrupted, but the dose has to be measured with care or diluted.
The Emim dislike salt. When its skin comes into contact with it, it makes a sizzling burst of smoke that sounds like a firecracker. Scratches from an Emite look similar to poltergeist wounds. If a human gets bitten or scratched by an Emite, all they need to do is to bathe the wounds in saline and stitch them up. Sleep and warmth are all they need to fully recover. However, if Paige risks possessing an Emite, it could trap her dream-form and devour her spirit. Clairvoyants can go into spirit shock if they are too close to one for too long. It shortens voyants's link with the æther.
Other Names[]
- Emite (singular form of Emim)
- Buzzers
- "The Dreaded Ones"
Etymology[]
Emim in Hebrew means "horrors" or "the terrible." The Ammonites called them "Zamzummin" which translates into "Buzzers."
Trivia[]
- The Emim attack a lot more in winter.
References[]
- ↑ The Bone Season: Chapter 4