Sahagin

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Sahagins are fantasy creatures popularized by role playing games and video games. They are based on old eastern European legends of hags, also referred to as sea hags. These were creatures similar to the Greek siren which appeared to sailors as beautiful women. However, as the sailors neared them they revealed their true form, that of an ugly old woman, and eventually led them to their doom.

They appeared in Dungeons & Dragons and were subsequently incorporated into many RPG video game series in the late eighties, chief amongst these being their appearance in the Final Fantasy series.

The original Final Fantasy game featured a monster called "SAHAG" ("Sahuagin" in the original Japanese version of the game) that appeared as a sort of fish-man similar in appearance to Hollywood's Creature from the Black Lagoon. It is common in video games to have many variations of the same basic enemy, such as several different types of imps or goblins. A variation of the hag enemy was called the Sand Hag. Because of the success of the Final Fantasy games, many aspects of the games were copied over to other series. By Final Fantasy IV the name had been restored to the original "Sea Hag" and "Sand Hag" but retained their fish-man appearance. However, by this time the Sahag enemy had already appeared in numerous other RPG series. Even in these other games they usually kept the merman-like appearance, staying more true to their Final Fantasy counterparts than the original European legend. Over time the name was lengthened to Sahagin.

In an alternate spelling, Dungeons & Dragons features a creature known as the Sahuagin, which is depicted as a sort of malevolent "mer-folk". This varies slightly from the Sahagin, which is always depicted as an anthropomorphic creature of a more amphibious nature.