his stories always revolved around unlikely protagonists : ghosts of dead cobblers , mercenary guardian angels , swordsmen who tamed wild beasts by way of the magnetic forces generated by their blades ; jungle shaman who , by communicating with wood spirits , could recite the living history of every tree down to the hour and minute ; a society of deposed kings , hailing from many a land , being made to spend their remaining years in exile living together on a far-off island , as they waged petty wars on each other for the small gains achieved only through the swarms of moths which served in their legions and which attacked their political opponents by feeding off the old fabric of their once luxurious gowns ; shadow parasites that passed from host-to-host through the convergence of their shadows , allowing them to feed off of and slay whole villages almost instantaneously ; a carnival freak show attraction composed of a complex of connected whiny green bubbles , known famously to the carnies as the ethereal scapegoat : a despicable and blameworthy being that had the ability to inconvenience anyone and everyone by the necessity of its mere existence .