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This page contains major spoilers about plot details.

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 an animal, 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, all this 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. Everything about one is too long, as if it's been stretched. Their spine presses through its 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. David discovers that the Emim are actually Rephaim who have succumbed to half-urge.

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[]

Their existence is shrouded in mystery. 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.

Rephaim are vulnerable to a type of necrosis from an Emite wound called the half-urge. Humans are immune to the half-urge. The half-urge causes madness and if left untreated, turns a Rephaite into an Emite. It keeps a Rephaite from being able to feed on aura. Salt staves off the effects of Emim wounds so that a Rephaite can get human blood which cures the half-urge.

Their corpses are burned and their bones might be used for some kind of augury. Emite blood has many properties. The most useful of which is temporarily masking the aura. A small dose will corrupt its appearance so the nature of a clairvoyant's gift can't be determined. Of course, harvesting the blood is dangerous and tasting it is deeply unpleasant. Emite blood also temporarily cuts a clairvoyant or a Rephaite off from the æther. The human body can't tolerate pure Emite blood very often though.

It dislikes 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[]

  1. The Bone Season: Chapter 4
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