The Victorian mind would be confronted with the subliminal sensuality of vampires through the fiction of Dracula, but in ancient lore there were two demons who were not so subtle about the purposes of their nocturnal visits and they may have supported the beliefs about vampires. These "romantic" demons were the incubus and the succubus.

Nightmares, under classic and probably outdated Freudian analysis, may relate to anxiety or sexual repression, so we are told. But in the Middle Ages, visions of demons in the night who visited one's bed chamber were unquestionably the work of the incubus (male) and succubus (female). The incubus/succubus was a demon who attacked a human during sleep. (Could this be an early manifestation of the modern-day belief in "alien abduction" as well?) The night creature paralyzed the victim (read this as sleep paralysis) and engaged in sexual relations with the victim, against the human's will, of course. This belief in romantic night demons is explained away today as a rationalization of sexual repression from the oppression and guilt instilled by organized religion -- at least, that's one view. The vampire legend is not much different from the tale of the incubus/succubus, except the vampire will drink the blood of a victim instead of engaging in relations with the victim. Still, a true Freudian could have a field day with an analysis of this action as well, no doubt.

Some say the female succubus was essentially a gorgeous but demonic shape-shifter who assumed the female form and whose goal it was to mate with a male human to reproduce new little demons. Hence, a vamp... Others say the succubus would turn into an incubus after having relations with a male human, then as a new incubus it would pursue a female human, and so on...

http://www.parascope.com/en/articles/vampires05.htm

A local Folk-tale

Briggers Meg is a creature who haunts the out of the way places, the overlooked and ignored. She is a powerful creature of raw vengence. She is to all purposes a Wraith, A creature held only form the grave by it's need for vengence.

Legend tells of a woman who betrayed the English to the Scottish when they came south. She and her daughters were raped by the scottish. The violece cause dher to miscarry and the fire that the scottish set to her home burned her face hidiously. In her rage and guilt she cursed Northumbria and vowed a terrible vengence.

For nearly 400 years there are tales of women saved from rape or harm by an Ugly hag who with strangled the would-be rapist to death with an umbilical cord.

Not a pleasent folk-tale, but an interesting Dark-one

Neon

Harlin the Hag is something I picked up from a friend.

She died in Childbirth and was so consumed with rage and the child that killed her that in the Dark ages she used to wander the day as an old hag and the nights as her own corpse. SHe used to walk into houses into which her hag perosna had been invited (usually as a midwife) and then Suck the life force form young babies

Neon

The Rusulkies Of Russia.

Spirits of Women Who Drowned, They Appear as beautiful Women, Until you get a close view, their real appearance is that of A Rotting Corpse.
They attract men into the water by singing, and when the man is close enough their illusion crumples revealing their true self, quickly they grab the men and drag them deep into there home and drown them, the mens souls trapped and subservient to the Rusalkie.

Raskallin (Russian/Ukraine)

A creature who lived in the bottom of a small shallow sided pit. When someobody passed they would see inside their worst vice.

If they succumbed to their vice then they went to indulge it and if they started to indulge Raskallin would close is giant clamshell around them. (He was the shallow sidded pit covered in moss)

Neon

In the Southern United States, there's the legend of the Death Train. This is a steam powered train of black iron, with ghost fire lighting it's path. Sometime, when you're walking alone at night, at the first minute of Midnight, you might hear it's whistle from far away, or see it moving etherally in the distance where there are no tracks. If this happens, you should probably make your farewells, because it usually means the person who saw it is going to die within the next three days. Sometimes, it just means someone close to you is going to die. There's a story of a man who was so frightened of dying after seeing the Death Train near his house that he shut himself up in his house, turning off the fire, not eating any meat that might be poisoned, keeping his door locked, etc., making sure there was no way that he could die. He made sure not to leave his house. On the third day, at midnight, there was a train crash nearby, and one of the cars got thrown into his house, killing him.


Not a dark god, but a cool ghost story. This is another one's that's not really ghostly, but people from the South might like. I'm doing this from memory so it might be slightly off.

Once, when General Grant was marching down South (it might've been Sherman, but eh) during the Civil War, his army was camped outside of Arlington (that's in Northern Virginia). Some of his guards found an old man walking around outside of the tent. Obviously harmless, but Grant decided to question him a little just in case, maybe just to give him a hard time. After ten minutes or so, Grant said the man could leave, since he was obviously not a spy. Before the old man left, he said to Grant "Mind if I ask you something, General?" So Grant said sure. The old man asked him where he was planning to take his army. Grant thought a minute, then said "Well, I'lll tell you, I'm going to one of four places. Richmond or Fredericksburg, Heaven or Hell." The old man responded "Well, I'll tell you right now. General Lee's in Richmond, so you ain't getting in there. And General Beauregard's in Fredericksburg, so you ain't getting in there. And General Stonewall Jackson's in Heaven, so you sure as Hell ain't getting in there."

Warning: This joke is not remotely funny if you're not American, and even then probably not. It amuses me though.

I've heard a varient, There is a trian in Spain which runs between seville and El Guadicure. It is said that it is a great portent of death and a perosn who dies beofre the next full moon after hearing it has booked an eternal ticket on that train of the damned.

Neon

He. I try to please. I'm trying to think of some more Southern ghost stories, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. All I can think of is the Wendigo in terms of American ghost stories, aside from the ones everyone knows.

Known as The Dark Elves, They were widely renowned for the Wild Hunt. Which is where they would ride into town and grab the some males and females of the town, and take them back to their home as slaves.
Every so often they would grab one of the Slaves and give him/her the opurtunity for freedom. Which was if he could get to the end of their forest he was free. Riding flying horses, the most often outdistanced their quarry, their dogs leading the trail, some lives were lost to Elfshot, but many more were shot in the leg, or knee and slowly teased that they had a chance until bored with the Game the Elves would let the Dogs Eat their Victims Alive.

I was under the impression that the Sidhe was Gaelic and the Dark Elves were Norse.

actually there are two groupings of fairies...the sidhe and the unseelie court...dark spirits are just energies that have a negative feeling about humanity for what they've done to their environment...but that is a good story necro...

Here, Jordyn, you'll love this. Go to the Horror section on http://www.snopes.com/

some girls get all the luck, but they always leave

[de Vos, 1996, as circulated in Danzig in 1875]
It is said that one of the last Sundays [before Lent] a servant woman went to confession and communion. Despite the reprimands of her mother, an honest laundress, who warned her not to desecrate the day by mundane festivities, she couldn't resist the temptation and was going that same night to dance at The Vineyard [a ballroom situated in an inner suburb of Danzig].

The punishment for her impiety came quickly. Around midnight, she saw a handsomely dressed stranger with black hair and eyes that glistened like onyx, coming towards her to ask her for a dance. She took his arm with pleasure as they began to dance with perfect grace, but faster and faster . . .

One of the musicians watched the dancing people carefully, and one can imagine how he felt when he noticed that the stranger had the cloven hoof of Satan! He drew his comrades' attention to it, and in the very middle of the waltz they were playing, they changed the tune and broke into a religous hymn. The clock struck twelve, the devil pulled his partner close to him and in a frantic whirl crossed with her to the other side of the room and crashed through the window. The girl was found lying on the green grass in the garden covered with broken glass. The devil had disappeared.

here's the story of the man of the woods, no one knows what he is, and there are as many descriptions concerning what he looks at but it's well known what he does...at certain times of the year, usually late spring and early summer girls are advised not to go into the woods alone...one story tells of a young girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen who got into a fight with her boyfriend...angry and hurt she stomped off in the woods wishing for a way to make him pay. As she sat down next to a little creek crying she heard a rustle of steps behind her, thinking it was her boyfriend she turned to tell him to go away...and all that was told of the story is her boyfriend ran in to where he heard her screams and saw nothing but a tattered piece of her satin shirt.

The next morning the authorities had established a search party and they searched the woods...miles away down the stream they found her in a cave, barely able to speak, scratched and battered...some whisper that the boyfriend had something to do with it, but in the years they've had her in an institution her only mutters are of the dark man in the woods...and what he did to her...

this is just a picture...but it's titled conjuring for the dark ones