I have not been tracking recent conversations here so this might be old spec, but I believed that someone speculated that the book of Bahd is a book to make vampire like creatures.

Hypothesis if the book of Bahd is vampire related, and Alligia Liberliganus created it. I could see her starting a vampire clan either the pyramid or some other one that has not been mentioned.

She was obsessed with never dying. The statue honoring her and her son has the son's head cut off like you would expect for a vampire in more mainstream media.

Also who make a statue like that except Alligia.

One glaring hole, I would expect Ozzidto go back to serving her after her grand daughter's death rather than going free.

Edit: I just read the last two spec pages. I guess that I am not the only one to think that Allie is still around. I vote that she is a vampire.

I definitely think Allie could still be 'around' and active. I just don't think that Allie - Yffi.
The idea that Allie would be working 'with' the Bug in any way (except possibly as a ruse to keep him bound)is - to me - more of a stretch than the idea that Symachus has 'mellowed' enough to avoid letting the Bug loose, and even possibly working against him more actively.

But the idea that Allie could be a Vampire - even a vampire queen or clan founder? Definitely possible! And it seems more likely that she would still 'look' like Allie in many regards (even if undead) compared to looking like the Lich.

I have agreed that my spec that Yffi = Allie was problematic mostly due to gender. But I do not think that Dunuloa and Bast/Lemuri were introduced in the Quint/Allie story as a throwaway. There is more to these two than meets the eye... When I reread my own spec summary, I recognized the rules that Yffi set with Edda felt a lot like the rules that Quint set with Ally. Moreover, when Ally made her comment about "living forever" it sounded more like a done deal, rather than a revelation to work towards. As if she already knew that her father was undead.

We are not sure what Anise, Basil, and Coriander are, other than they can exist in any form. Knowing their origin would help pinpoint who or what Yffi is. I do not recall Symachus commanding any creatures, but Quint has the precedent of Ozzid. Ozzid was compelled to protect the bloodline - and vampires and other undead, do not contain blood (at least not as we know it). So Ozzid leaving once Siphy is sucked into the Book is not surprising, nor definitive.

If Yffi is Quint, that may suggest that Siphy's "best friend" may also be undead... On the other hand, Symachus was a god - when Khronos stripped him of power, I think he did leave him immortal? On the other hand, if Khronos stripped Symachus of power, how has he become a wizard? And why would he care what happens to Edda?

Dunno. At this point, I can see both possibilities - and I am normally wrong. But if Yffi is Symachus, then the Dunuloa connection to Quint and Allie - along with Allie's "expectation" that she could live forever - would need to be explained.....

My current favourite spec is: Allie gets plague and is dying, she seals herself into the pages of the book of the Bhad to avoid death and leaves behind notes on how to vamp up with the caveat that whoever arranges the ritual releases her from the book to get the missing steps.

Symachus finds the book and realises that becoming a vamp would solve his problems, letting a willful player like Allie out isn't in his best interests, but she does make a good ace up his sleeve to play later on against the bug. Symachus puts together the vamp ritual with the idea that it would be pretty cool to dracul, but because he has filled in the missing steps maybe he gets a patsy to go first. Missing step replacement means the ritual is flawed and creates vampires with weaknesses (to the sun, to silver, got to be invited in, but filled with power and super hard to destroy).

Well I'm cursed to live for a long time and (maybe am now a powerful vampire) I'll drop of the world stage for awhile and let these vampires get along with things while I work out the missing steps.

Take 2: Does the vamp ritual again with the corrections creates the second type of vampire, different weaknesses and powers, still not right.

Take 3: Makes the third type of vampires, again still not right (darn that Allie and her crippled spell)

Take 4?: New type of Vampire just getting started in Alaska (maybe Symachus is how Pierre was able to get away from the Strakoi (rather than just being released as a magically bound spy) Symachus uses Pierre as part of the new ritual to creat perfected vampires who right now are staying off the radar and relatively unopposed by other vampires because the Strakoi can't come to the New World, the Vrykolaka are weakened and the Vorpyr barely exist.

If Allie is in the book she might also make for a heck of a trump card for Gwynn and the gang especially if her domination spell isn't actually over, just not in effect while she is sealed.

Dunuloa and Basphomy (formerly Bast) clearly have a role in the present day of this arc, regardless of what else happened in the past. Not sure what else necessarily needs to be explained about their relationship with Quint and Allie. Quint was a follower of Dunuloa and thar's how he came to possess the scroll i which K'Z'K and Farahn are imprisoned. Hiwever, if my extreme long shot spec about Allie and Bast turns out to be true I'm claiming all the points forever.

I love this, even though the thought of another storyline digression into what Allie was up to all these years scares me.

While book of Bhad is now almost definitely a book to create vampires, it only became so after Yiffi had Edda work on it and use "blood and death magic, intertwined with 'command' spell" - pretty accurate description of vampires.
And Anise refers to Yiffy creating new undead minions that are part human part bird (bat?).

So yup, book of Bhad is now obviously a vampire-creation book, but it WASN'T that when it was created by Allie, or in the times of Siphaniania Lib.

I strongly favour the theory that Yiffy is Symachus, who created the first vampires possibly in his pursuit to defeat/replace K'Z'K or achieve his revenge on the gods.

One more detail that supports Symachus being Yiffi is that he recognises the sword that came from the Never. He was there when K'Z'K "gave" it to Farhan, and would know it by sight, while neither Allie nor her father would know it.

I was thinking it's because the Strakoitrat seem to wear something like beaklike plague masks, but could be bats too.

Actually, your spec might be supported by evidence that there were three people magically bound as books in the book, other than Siphy II and Edda. https://archives.sluggy.com/book.php?chapter=73#2020-11-25

The three hearts point to this being someone that was bound **after** Edda, so it might not be Allie if she bound herself as per your spec. But I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't working against/alongside/at the same time as Yffi (which I am getting more and more convinced is Symmachus) and somehow got outwitted by either Yffi, Farahn or the Bug and got bound in the book.

If that is true, and Allie became a vamp **before** getting bound, her eventual release would probably be a game-changer for the vampire storyline as well. And if she has been trapped all this time, this would explain how she has been out of the game for this long.

Another thought on the Yffi - Riffy - Riff connection: What if Yffi isn't Riff from the future, but the reason Riff has gotten his name in the present? After all if Yffi is Symmachus, that also makes Yffi Riff's ancestor.

I had already been thinking as well that Yffi might be one of the Mokhadun deities, somehow. I was thinking Krohnus or Tempest, but I think you're right, Symachus seems more likely -- when his face is exposed, in particular, there are lines that initially I was thinking were nostrils (in the absence of an actual nose), but might be remnants of his sleazy moustache. His withered form looks like a possible match for Yffi in the recent comics, and the Y shape seems like it could be a "withered" version of his old scales.

Another less-likely possibility might be Macha, who said his eyesight had been taken by Dunuloa. The weird eyepiece thing that Yffi is wearing seems like something that might've been magically rigged up to replace his natural vision, and the band across where his eyes should be somewhat resembles the bandage Macha wore. If you look at the epilogue of part XV, it sounds like Macha may be Symachus' son, and his eyesight was actually taken by Krohnus' curse, not Dunuloa. And Macha's staff appears to be a variant of the symbol of the scales.

Oooo, actually, if you read through that epilogue -- Macha's mother was the first Mokhadun exile to fall to the madness induced by being close to the scroll he was imprisoned in. And in the panel illustrating her trying to summon him under his new name, it looks like Symachus is there, with the staff (which Macha eventually inherited), and wearing a robe somewhat like Yffi's. Oh, and duh, Macha explicitly confirms that Symachus is his dad, and mentions that Symachus can't die due to the curse... So yeah, I think it's pretty likely Yffi = Symachus.

I think it's pretty clear that Yffi created the Strakoi, but not much reason to believe he created any other vampires. In particular, I would say Yffi creating all vampires would be a nail in the coffin to the Allie = Yffi theory. As I've mentioned before, Menelaus and Helen (Vryko vamps) were pretty obviously meant to be the mythological characters from the Trojan War period. That would have taken place several hundred years before Allie was born. Unless Allie is also a time traveler, it's pretty unlikely she's responsible for creating all vampires. Of course, Symachus has been around long enough to have created all vampires. Just not sure if there's any reason to believe that yet.

Also, I'm pretty sure Macha was just scaring kids with that Dunuloa took his eyes story. He should have lost them the same way as Symachus, through the curse.

"That guy always was a piece of crap." Symachus theory looking more and more likely with each passing strip.

Vampires might be big posers when it comes to names though. Those two might have taken up the titles to put on heirs.

I didn't like the Symachus = Yffi theory at first, but it's starting to make more and more sense. The bug assumed that if Yffi had the book, he would immediately free him; Yffi must be someone who unambiguously supported K'z'k in the past. Not sure who can fit that bill outside of (a reformed) Symachus.

Yeah, I'm pretty much convinced at this point myself. I do not think he has reformed at all, however. He is simply manipulating the Bug (and Edda) to attain what he wants, which is ultimately power. He probably wouldn't mind getting his sight and physique back, though, if those were possible.

If Yffi is Symachus, then his eyesight is likely poor, even with the contraption, and requiring a scribe to do his dirty work makes sense. And not just as a distraction for The Bug and Farahn...

That capitulation said, however, there are a few things that remain confusing. When he whisked Edda away from Chaz, the act appeared to be because he cared of her future - Symachus is too narcissistic (though not as much as Farahn) to care about her. Did he fear her? Chaz is the one thing in Sluggyverse that could end his immortality...

He also appeared genuinely surprised when Edda announced that she would not kill for him. I got the impression that he was using Edda to distract the Bug, and that he was aware she would fall under The Book's seduction. Then why would her inference of a request for Death Magic be a surprise to him?

Then there is Allie's focus on creating the trio of Books (Güd, Bhad, and Uhglëe), and her declaration about "living forever". I originally thought that her communication with Dunuloa through Basphomy was the hint there. But perhaps she made a deal with Symachus? Was she aware that the magic that she was gathering together could be used to create an army of the undead (sp. vampires)? What was her ultimate aim and is Yffi (Symachus) going along with it, manipulating it, or being manipulated? Will the quest for immortality eventually lead us to the Oasis/Kusari origin story? If Allie - and her lineage - did not simply die out, what did Dunuloa know about her plot? If Allie is aligning with Symachus, I cannot imagine that Dunuloa would approve......

One other piece of evidence that Yffi = Symachus is the current involvement and cooperation of Wilcott Wilden. I would assume that part of Symachus' narcissism would be to retain his family lineage. Whatever he is brewing right now will likely fail - Pete has left too many dangling plotlines, and I am beginning to suspect that we will know how they ultimately all fit in together before he puts Sluggy to rest. There will be more to this story to tell, and I suspect that only parts will be revealed by the time we get to Wilcott's current mission... ...and what is Basphomy's role in all of this?

Well we know that Wilcott has been part of "the Release", whose symbol is the same Y that appears to connect to Yffi, and thus back to Symachus' scales.

I believe it was Rana who accompanied Symachus away after Kron cursed him. It seems like subsequently she became pretty withdrawn, but it's possible both sisters are more willing to work with Yffi, post-curse, than you would think given how badly he'd behaved.