Doyen

The Doyen is the Bengali form of the Dayan — a living woman who has acquired supernatural powers through a pact with dark forces. The Bengali tradition adds a specific and visceral detail: the Doyen must periodically steal and consume a person's liver to maintain her powers. The victim does not die immediately but wastes away over weeks as the stolen organ's energy depletes.

Doyen belief in Bengal is ancient, extensively documented, and continues to drive real-world violence. The Bengal-Jharkhand border region sees the highest concentration of witch-hunting incidents in India, most targeting widows and elderly women.

The Doyen looks like an ordinary woman. The supernatural signs are behavioural: she is seen at crossroads at night, her shadow does not match her movement, and she is observed speaking to her spirit-animal (typically an owl or cat).

In her operating form she is described as able to become invisible or to travel as a fireball, entering houses through the keyhole.

The Doyen's signature power in Bengali tradition is the liver theft: she enters a sleeping victim's room and extracts the liver without waking them, using supernatural means. The victim develops progressive weakness and pain in the upper abdomen, dying over weeks or months.

She can also cause wasting illness in children, poison stored food, and prevent medicines from working in people she has cursed.