Sluagh

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In Irish and Scottish folklore, the Sluagh (Irish /sɫuə/; Scottish Gaelic /sɫuaɣ/) were the spirits of the restless dead. Sometimes they were seen as sinners, or generally evil people who were welcome in neither heaven nor hell, nor in the Pagan Otherworld, who had also been rejected by the Pagan deities and the earth itself. Whichever the underlying belief, they are almost always depicted as troublesome and destructive. They were seen to fly in groups like flocks of birds, coming from the west, and were known to try to enter the house of a dying person in an effort to carry the soul away with them. West-facing windows were sometimes kept closed to keep them out. Some consider the Sluagh to also carry with them the souls of innocent people who were kidnapped by these destructive spirits.

The Sluagh are considered by some to be an Irish manifestation of the Wild Hunt.

[edit] Sluagh in Modern Culture

In the Legacy of Kain series of video games, the Sluagh are a soul-devouring enemy encountered in the spectral/spirit realm.

The Sluagh appear as characters in the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton.

The Sluagh appear as a playable character race in the roleplaying game Changeling: The Dreaming.