Eyghon the Sleepwalker

Eyghon the Sleepwalker
Name	Eyghon the Sleepwalker
Status	Deceased
Classif.	Demon
Appearances
Appeared in	"The Dark Age"
Portrayed by	Daniel Henry Murray Wendy Way Stuart MacLean Robia LaMorte

“Three down, two to go! Be seeing you.”

―Eyghon

Eyghon the Sleepwalker was an ancient possessing demon known at least since the times of the Etruscan civilization, where Eyghon's initiates tattooed themselves with his Mark in order to summon the demon.

Biography

“You're like a woman, Ripper, you cry at every funeral. You never had the strength for me, you don't deserve me. But guess what, you've got me -- Under your skin!”

―Eyghon

In 1975, Eyghon's existence was discovered by two young warlocks in London: Rupert Giles, also known as "Ripper", and Ethan Rayne, both members of a group of young sorcerers who practiced magics for pleasure and gain. The members of the group: Giles, Rayne, Randall, Thomas Sutcliffe, Deirdre Page and Philip Henry, tattooed themselves with Eyghon's mark and began to summon him. They would put one of them to sleep, and the rest would invoke Eyghon so he could possess the sleeping participant, resulting in a extraordinary high for the one possessed.

File:Eyghon diedre.jpg

Eyghon in Diedre Page's body

At some point, the group lost control of Eyghon and the demon took permanent possession of Randall. The rest tried to exorcise Eyghon but only succeeded in killing Randall. Afterward, the group broke down and each went their own way. However, Eyghon swore to kill the rest for toying with him.

By late 1997, Eyghon had already killed Thomas, and then Diedre, whose corpse he took possession of in order to hunt down Philip. Eyghon chased Philip all the way to Sunnydale High, where Philip had gone in order to find Giles. However, Eyghon killed Philip before the latter could reach Giles. Afterward, Eyghon took possession of Philip's body, which was taken to the morgue.

Eyghon awoke in the morgue and then tracked Ethan to the Sunnydale High library through the tattoo in the latter's forearm. Eyghon, however, was incapacitated by Buffy Summers and locked in the library's book cage. Later the same day, Eyghon managed to break out of the cage as Philip's body was about to collapse. Afterward, he took possession of one unconscious person he could find: Jenny Calendar.

File:Eyghon phillip.jpg

Eyghon possessing the body of Philip Henry

Jenny was taken by Giles to his apartment, where the demon manifested and tried to kill Giles, only to be interrupted by the Slayer. Eyghon, now fully manifested in Jenny's body, escaped.

Eyghon went after Ethan, but did not attack him as Ethan had removed the demon's symbol with acid. Eyghon then turned to Buffy, whom Ethan had tattooed with Eyghon's mark. Eyghon and Buffy fought until interrupted by Giles, who offered himself in place of Buffy.

The demon tried to kill Giles until the vampire Angel intervened and began to choke Eyghon. In danger of dying, Eyghon jumped to the closest "dead" body—that of Angel. However, Eyghon hadn't counted on Angel being a vampire, and had to face the demon within. The two demons fought, and Eyghon was defeated and expelled from Angel's body. Without any obvious alternative host, Eyghon then crumbled to ashes and apparently died for good.

Resurrection

As Angel learned during his time as Twilight, Eyghon had escaped by possessing the body of a dead rat underneath the floorboards, allowing him to escape and possess a homeless man unconscious in the street, which he then used to shape the man into his own body, remaining undercover until he was ready to strike. During his time, he grew in power by exerting his influence over others, although he attempted to focus on bodies that already possessed some degree of magic that would support his attempt to use them as hosts.

When Ethan and Giles were killed, Eyghon reclaimed their bodies using other minions, having taken in their souls after their deaths; although reanimated rather than merely possessed unconscious forms, Ethan and Giles behaved normally but enslaved to Eyghon's will, Ethan needing to wear a hat to conceal the bullet hole that had killed him while Giles's neck was still twisted. Since Eyghon can draw on the inner natural magic of others to create minions he has formed an alliance with other demons- including Whistler- to try and restore magic using accumulated magical artefacts to trigger a magic 'plague', with Whistler agreeing to give Eyghon control of America after magic has been restored to rule as he sees fit.

'Giles' and 'Ethan' since developed a means of 'resurrecting' others to serve as other agents of Eyghon using various magical artefacts as 'batteries' in the absence of magic, although these agents appear to only possess basic versions of the original host's personality based on people's memories of them. Angel and Faith have discovered this plan, Angel realising that Eyghon is focusing his efforts on Slayers due to their own natural supernatural power.

Physiology and Powers

File:Eyghon jenny.jpg

Eyghon in the body of Jenny Calendar

File:Angel and Faith 017-024.jpg

Eyghon's return

Willow: “"Eyghon, also called the Sleepwalker, can only exist in this reality by possessing an unconscious host. Temporary possession imbues the host with an euphoric feeling of power".”

Buffy: “What about not temporary?”

Willow: “"Unless the proper rituals are observed, the possession is permanent, and Eyghon will be born from within the host".”

— Willow Rosenberg and Buffy Summers

Eyghon was a demon that could manifest in our reality only by possessing a human host, either dead or unconscious. In case of dead host bodies, Eyghon's energy would eventually cause them to collapse into a liquid gooey substance. In case of unconscious hosts, Eyghon would take permanent possession, reversible only through the death of the host. In these cases, Eyghon would manifest physically, causing sever deformations in the host body including facial ridges, blue sores on forehead, face and neck, pointy ears, and glowing eyes. This kind of possession would only be reversed by killing the host, or injuring him/her so the demon would believe himself in mortal danger and escape into another host.

File:Eyghon angel.jpg

Eyghon battles the demon spirit within Angel

Eyghon was also capable of establishing a psychic link with the bearers of his mark and in between them, allowing the demon to track them down and cause them to experience vivid, flash-like visions during their sleep.

Finally, Eyghon manifested telekinetic powers.

Appearances

• "The Dark Age"
• "Death and Consequences, Part Two"

See Also

• Mark of Eyghon