Children of Leng

The Children of Leng are the demons whose world is only accessible through the Black Door. They are reportedly "drawn" through the Black Door when it is opened, but after crossing, require a human host to survive.

History

18th century

The Children of Leng (far left) as depicted in the glass ceiling of Keyhouse.

The demons' first recorded history with humans stretches back to 1775. While hiding in the Drowning Caves, the Minutemen in the American Revolution discovered the Black Door. As the door was open partway, several demons escaped, possessing Harm Timmerman, his brother, and a goat. The demons who did not find a host perished and became Whispering Iron. All the hosts were slain by the Minutemen before more damage could be done. Following the encounter, Benjamin Locke recovered the first piece of Whispering Iron to forge a padlock and its corresponding Omega Key to seal the gateway, and permanently melded it to the Black Door. For generations, the Lockes opened the Black Door to release demons and obtain Whispering Iron from their corpses.

20th century

The Child of Leng with the most prominent influence on Earth was the demon known as Dodge, who infected the soul of Lucas Caravaggio in 1988. Once the Black Door was closed by the Tamers of the Tempest, Dodge posed as Lucas, pretending to be unaffected and take the Omega Key from Rendell and open the door once more. Erin Voss suspected Lucas was not himself prior, and the Tamers caught Dodge in the act. They removed Dodge's memories with the Head Key once they learned Lucas's soul could not be saved, although Dodge later managed to regain them. During the final confrontation with the Tamers, Dodge was crushed to death by rubble in a cave-in.

21st century

In 2010, Dodge was resurrected through Lucas's echo. Dodge plotted to reclaim the Omega Key and unlock the Black Door for the rest of his kind. However, from countless setbacks by the Locke family as a unit, Dodge decided to conquer the world for itself and demons who swore allegiance to him. Once the Omega Key was in his grasp, Dodge unlocked the door to lure multiple demons through, turning them into a cache of Whispering Iron to create more keys. Some of the Locke's own classmates, including Scot Kavanaugh, Jackie Veda and Brinker Martin, were possessed by Dodge's allied siblings. Soon, Tyler Locke, with the power of the Alpha Key, killed the demons possessing his friends, freeing their hosts but killing them as well. Dodge was later killed with the Alpha Key, thereby removing the last known Child of Leng from Earth.

The Whispering Iron from the demons lured by Dodge were then used to forge other keys by the Lockes, beginning with the Keyhouse Key.

Description

In their pure form, the Children of Leng are ornate liquid-metallic beings with black coloration, whilst overall physiology, size, and the number of eyes vary among individuals. One consistent feature they have is yellow eyes with slit pupils. When a Child of Leng possesses a human, the host's eyes often change to a yellow, slit-eye pupil unless hiding.

The demon known as Dodge states that the Children of Leng have "no morals whatsoever", and that their world "is not a nice place". It goes on to imply that their world is a world of pure chaos, with the Children of Leng constantly fighting for dominance and even cannibalizing each other. Dodge goes on to say that its own mother cannibalized half of her own brood the day they were born. She was later eaten by her own mate (Dodge's father), whom in turn was later eaten by Dodge itself.

By stating that it had a "mother" and "father", Dodge has implied that there are male and female Children of Leng, and they are capable of procreating with each other. It's also possible that when the female Child gives birth, it gives birth to multiple demons at once, for Dodge stated that its mother devoured "half of the litter the day we were born". It is currently unknown if the Children carry their young like mammals do, if they lay eggs like avians, reptiles, and fish do, or if they give birth by some other means.

Prospective hosts must look through the gate, and as such can be protected by keeping their eyes closed. The Children of Leng that are unable to find a human host quickly die and turn to Whispering Iron.

The "infection" of a Child of Leng is of the host's soul rather than their mind, and as such can not be removed with the Head Key. When a demon ties itself to a human soul, it is considered "another kind of key". This is most evident in a host's ghost form, where the true form of the demon appears integrated into the host's spine. While being infected, the host feels good, though they often lie to try to convince others that they have rejected the demon. According to Benjamin Locke's diary, the "infection" from a Child of Leng can make pain feel good and hate feel like love. The demon does not simply control the victim, but makes sure that any horrible action they commit while possessed feels good.

After being infected, the only known way to separate the Child of Leng and the human soul is through using the Alpha Key, which "unlocks" the demon from the soul, killing it. Since the demon dies inside the person, it kills the human as well, by turning to Whispering Iron inside the body.

Language

The demons, while they do not appear to be audible in their natural forms, seem to have a rudimentary language. This language is first seen being used by demons that have been turned into Whispering Iron and murmuring faint sentences with symbols that resemble runic versions of the Roman alphabet. The symbols correspond to the letters as follows:

Letters
A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M
N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z

The tendency of the Children of Leng to shout the eulogizing phrase, "Iä! Shub-Niggurath!", upon death marks the language in its spoken form. This specific phrase implies that their language is Aklo, as "iä" is an Akloean word that literally translates to "I hunger". Although, it can be interpreted as "hail" or "praise".

Netflix Adaption

Curiously, the demons are never once identified as the Children of Leng, leaving their proper name permanently unspoken. Furthermore, the realm the demons reside in appears to be a galaxy-like dimension full of blue light and black smoke, while the demons manifest as bullet-like wisps when they enter the material world by the Omega Key.

When possessing a host, typical features exhibited by their human vessel are green flesh, black eyes with pupils vanished, and sharp teeth. On another occasion, Eden exhibited solely sharp teeth. The demons are known to manifest their inhuman features when driven by surprising and unpredictable events to extreme levels of rage. This happened with Dodge when Chamberlin Locke fooled her, when Erin Voss ambushed and assaulted her, and when Kinsey Locke tried pushing her in the threshold. The same happened with Jackie when Tyler Locke evaded her by means of the Matchstick Key. This also happened with Frederick once, when he came upon the Black Door which concealed his world from the world of meat. This never happened with Eden, however, not even when she was enraged at being left stranded at Keyhouse Manor.

To date, Frederick Gideon is the only one who was possessed of his own free will.

Known demonic entities include:

Howe

Frederick Gideon

Lucas Caravaggio

Eden Hawkins

Javi

Daniel Mutuku

Jackie Veda

• Ada Wheeler
• Dorothy Wheeler

Notes

• The Children of Leng share connections to the Cthulhu Mythos; Leng is a fictional cold arid plateau in the Cthulhu Mythos created by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The Children of Leng's tendency to shout "Iä! Shub-Niggurath!" is a reference to the entity from H. P. Lovecraft's mythos., while Aklo is a Lovecraftean language. In an interview, Joe Hill stated that the demons' realm is, in fact, Leng.