Baron Samedi.
| “ | I'm just a friend on the other side. There's no real reason to... you know, be afraid of me. If the dead want to stay a while in the land of the living, they come to me. It's what I do. | „ |
| ~ Baron Samedi. |
Baron Samedi of the Guédé is one of the Loa of Haitian Voodoo religion. Samedi is one of three true Barons of the Dead, the other two being Baron Cimitère (the Baron of Burial Grounds) and Baron La Croix (the Baron of Tombs).
Description[]
Being a Loa he has no physical form but he is usually depicted with a top hat, black tailcoat, dark glasses, and cotton plugs in the nostrils, as if to resemble a corpse dressed and prepared for burial in the Haitian style and he has a nasally voice which he uses to speak through those whom he possesses.
Being a Loa, Samedi is not a god or deity but closer to being an angel or demon who represents and controls aspects of the natural world. It is even possible that Samedi was once a mortal-man as some of his fellow Guédé, namely Baron Kriminel (the first murderer) and Nebo (the first murder victim) are in fact souls who became Loa post-mortem. Of all the Loa, Samedi is the most malevolent and feared due to his power and chaotic nature.
Overview[]
Baron Samedi spends most of his time in the invisible realm of the Loa. He is notorious for his outrageous behavior, swearing continuously and making filthy jokes to the other spirits. He is married to another powerful death spirit known as Maman Brigitte, but he often chases after mortal women. He loves smoking and drinking and when in mortal-form is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth or a glass of rum in his bony fingers.
Samedi's purpose is to serve as the baron of tombs, corpses, zombies, decomposition and resurrection and in the latter capacity he is often called upon for healing by those near or approaching death, often bringing him into conflict with his more benevolent and lawful counterpart Papa Legba who controls the gateways between life and death. As he is a more malicious and dark individual he often makes bargains and pacts with Bokors and other dark voodoo-practitioners, often in exchange for being able to take control of their bodies as he lacks a physical form of his own. His more traditional bargains often being prolonged lives, better health, healed wounds, giving magic powers, or the ability to resurrect the corpses as enslaved mindless zombies, typically introducing himself as being a "friend on the other side".