10. Borrowing from both Scandinavian and Slavic folklore, botchlings are a composite creature inspired by the myths of the “myling” and “drekavac”
A prominent part of one of the most iconic storylines of The Witcher franchise, a botchling is a grotesque infantile zombie denied the pleasure of death after having been aborted or discarded without being properly buried or given a name. Hunting pregnant women at night, the botchling drains the prospective mother of her strength before violently attacking and killing both her and the fetus. Leaning heavily upon traditional Scandinavian mythology, where, prior to Christianization, the abandonment of children born with deformities was a common cultural practice known as “utburd”, botchlings draw inspiration from the legendary “myling”.
The phantasms of unbaptized infants discarded by their parents, mylings allegedly jump onto the backs of travelers and demand to be taken to a graveyard. Becoming heavier and heavier, should the traveler prove unable to complete their task, the myling murders the unfortunate individual. Similarly, the botchling is influenced by the Slavic “drekavac”, literally translated as “the screamer”. Comparable to the banshee of wider European folklore, among the many sources of a drekavac is believed to be the souls of unbaptized children, rising from the grave to haunt its parents and seeking to persuade people to baptize it.