Wicker Man

A wicker man is an enormous, ruinous figure fashioned in the shape of a human and animated by human sacrifice. Molda and Volvaba are the mages seen commanding them, and the constructs draw their strength from souls trapped within and burned alive.

These giants are raised from wood and metal into the crude likeness of a man. Their power comes from the captured soldiers of a mainland kingdom that once assaulted Skellig; those prisoners were sealed inside the frame and torched through ancient magic as an offering. Each construct swings a pair of massive flails cobbled from tree trunks studded with metal spikes, and the charred skulls and lingering spirits of the sacrificed remain lodged within until the fetish is destroyed. In battle a wicker man leans on its bulk, its might, its flames, and those enormous flails, making close combat against one perilous.

When the Black Swordsman Party comes ashore on Skellig, the local mages treat them as trespassers. After the group cuts down the scarecrow and pumpkin guardians of the fields, Molda calls up a wicker man despite protests that summoning one crosses a taboo. Guts fires his cannon arm into its head and then splits the whole thing apart with one swing of the Dragon Slayer. Later, Molda's teacher Volvaba scolds her for the unsanctioned summoning, and several more of the constructs stand idle across Volvaba's grounds while Molda explains their nature to Schierke. The design echoes real-world wicker men, the effigies ancient Celtic druids reportedly filled with victims and set ablaze.