Sheelba of the Eyeless Face

Sheelba of the Eyeless Face is one of two wizards in Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The patron warlock of the Gray Mouser, Sheelba is so named due to his perfectly dark hooded face. Along with Fafhrd's patron warlock, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, Sheelba often sends his hapless minion on ludicrous missions such as to recover the mask of Death himself.[1] In contrast to Ninguable's love of often pointless storytelling, Sheelba is taciturn, choosing his words as if they were valuables to be disbursed parsimoniously. That the stoic Fafhrd is paired with the voluble Ningauble, while the story-loving Mouser with the laconic Sheelba is doubly ironic. Sheelba's sigil is an empty oval (presumably signifying an empty hooded face).

Sheelba's house is a small hut which strides about the swamps not far from Lankhmar on five posts which bend and scuttle not unlike the legs of a great crab or spider.[2] Sheelba's hut is similar in description to the Russian legend of the witch Baba Yaga, which is referenced in other Leiber works such as The Wanderer, where Baba Yaga is the name of a lunar lander.

References

  1. ^ Fritz Leiber, "The Price of Pain-Ease" in Ill Met in Lankhmar, White Wolf Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1565049268, p. 312
  2. ^ Fritz Leiber, "The Circle Curse" in Ill Met in Lankhmar, White Wolf Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1565049268, p. 162–164