| “ | It told me the origin of the Beast, which had come from the red comet, and belonged to a race of stellar devils that had not visited the Earth since the foundering of Atlantis; and it told me the attributes of the Beast, which, in its own proper form, was invisible and intangible to men, and could manifest itself only in a fashion supremely abominable. | „ | |
| ~ Le Chaudronnier (CIRCLE: "The Beast of Averoigne") |
The Beast of Averoigne is a fictional monster created by Clark Ashton Smith for his eponymous short story.
Background[]
The Beast is an extraterrestrial creature, whose arrival coincided with the sight of a mysterious red comet in the year 1369, on the French province of Averoigne. The comet remained visible in the sky for several weeks, during which time the Beast ran loose each night, brutally tearing apart people and animals to feed on their spinal marrow. It is estimated to have killed over forty people: men, women and children, in addition to stags, wolves, horses and oxes.
As an alien life form, the Beast couldn't interact with anything on Earth in its natural form, which was described as "impalpable and powerless". To be able to feed, it made itself tangible by inhabiting the body of a human host: the Abbot Theophile, who was himself unaware of the possession. Every night, the Beast assumed control of the Abbot and transformed him into a black reptilian creature with an elongated body, undulating limbs, a sinuous neck and flat serpentine head, small lidless red eyes, and serrated teeth, and surrounded by a luminous color-changing aura. Despite being as large as a man, the Beast's reptilian form moved swiftly and silently, and was capable of running on vertical surfaces like a spider.
The Beast was killed by a fiery demon released from the ring of Eibon by the wizard le Chaudronnier. (CIRCLE: "The Beast of Averoigne")
In the Demonbane series[]
In the novel Zanma Taisen Demonbane, the Beast of Averoigne (also known as the Beast of Gévaudan, or La Bête d'Averoigne in French) appears as a techno-organic demon beast, under the name Demonbane Diabolos. Hailing from the stellar world, this giant robotic beast is piloted by the Bewitching King Phantom of Opera, one of the Five Werewolf Kings and the strongest Werewolf. Its control system is the Ālaya-vijñāna System, neurally linked with the spinal cord of the pilot, and since the system itself puts a massive strain on the operator, normal humans cannot pilot the Beast or they will immediately die. Only Werewolves with powerful vitality can withstand the burden, and that is none other than Phantom himself.
Diabolos is summoned via the Ring of Eibon, made from an ancient super metal. Additionally, the ring can function as the grimoire known as the Book of Eibon, with Phantom chosen to be its pilot. Both Diabolos and Phantom are planned to be the final bosses of the Auseil city arc in Zanma Taisen Demonbane.
Diabolos' design is based on the mecha from the Zoids franchise and Zinogre from the Monster Hunter series.