The Bogeyman

[Samloyal23]

Myth, folklore, and pop culture are full of monsters who never really go away. Whether it is Cangyman, Jason, or Raw-Head Rex. Some are truly vile while others are just tricksters. The only thing consistent about them is that no matter how many times you kill them, they come back. Below are two example from Breton folkore I have adapted to my campaign. What I am thinking is that in game terms they are quasi-immortals, that the fearful reputation and superstitious awe people have at the mention of their names is like a form of worship. They are the littlest of gods in terms of power. So they are 0-rank gods. What say you? Any examples of similar creatures from your own campaigns?

Yan-gant-y-tan is the name of a planar spirit who haunts the bogs around Ys. The meaning of his name is 'John with the Fire'. Meeting him is said to be an evil omen. He holds five candles on the five fingers of his right hand and spins them about like a flaming wheel, as a result of which he is unable to turn quickly for fear of extinguishing their light. A sure way to ward off the bad omen of Yan-gant-y-tan is to leave a small bag of gold or of gold chain around a travelers post which Yan-gant-y-tan will steal and leave your house for another day.

He is often depicted as a wiry old troll or hairy wildman, but the only way to distinguish him from other such creatures of course is the 5 candles upon his great hand. In contrast to his nature as a bad omen it is said that should your lantern run out of light, on a whim, he may appear and give five candles to a person who has none, thus lighting the way for a traveller the rest of the night.

Often he is spotted on road sides and in poorly beaten forest paths. A trickster, he enjoys getting people lost and leading them astray as much as helping them find their way home.

Bugul Noz is a protective spirit who haunts the forests near Ys. Terrible to behold, he is a finder of lost sheep and protector of shepherds, who know him as gentle and kind. Humble and a bit ashamed of his fearsome appearance, he hides from others most of the time, but comes out of the woods on Kalan Goanv, on the 31st of October, when people in Ys dress in terrible looking costumes to scare away evil spirits. Bugul Noz protects wanderers in his forest from bandits, wild animals, and evil spirits.

Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?320670-My-Campaign-Notes/page6#ixzz3IkLXfFsN

 

[Celebrim]

I believe the Kargatane published some interesting work on boogey men in one of their arcane collections. But I can't remember off the top of my head which one. Try looking for the Book of Shadows and its kindred if you are interesting.

 

[Samloyal23]

In reference to quasi-deities, some D20 info:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineRanksAndPowers.htm#rank0

[b[Rank 0[/b]
Creatures of this rank are sometimes called quasi-deities or hero deities. Creatures that have a mortal and a deity as parents also fall into this category. These entities cannot grant spells, but are immortal and usually have one or more ability scores that are far above the norm for their species. They may have some worshipers. Ordinary mortals do not have a divine rank of 0. They lack a divine rank altogether.

So, I am thinking a monster that gains this type of ability based on their terrible renown will begin to perform deeds meant to inspire even more terror and try to get people to develop a superstition that will be a constant reminder of the bogeyman's horrific nature, a la Candyman's mirror chanting or Freddy Krueger's insomnia and fear of dreams.

 

[Samloyal23]

Is there any kind of mechanic for an immortal to accumulate power from belief generated from his evil reputation? Hmm...

 

[Umbran]

Is there any kind of mechanic for an immortal to accumulate power from belief generated from his evil reputation? Hmm...

I am sure there are. But the whole, "dominant paradigm determines what is real," thing is so 1990s/WhiteWolf, isn't it? It makes your metaphysics all about the humans/believers. And as soon as anyone in the world realizes this is how the universe works, the jig, as they say, is up for the immortals.

I'm fine with an occasional empathic monster feeding on the fear of a community. But as a regular thing for immortals in general, it has been done to death, IMO.

 

[Samloyal23]

It started in 2E, especially Planescape, and it has an internal logic that generates opportunities for crunch as well as good roleplaying. Any alternatives? I am thinking there are unique monsters who somehow gain immortality and it has something to do with their individual notoriety. Or perhaps they are actually created from the thoughts and feeling associated with a common meme...

 

[Celebrim]

It started in 2E, especially Planescape, and it has an internal logic that generates opportunities for crunch as well as good roleplaying. Any alternatives? I am thinking there are unique monsters who somehow gain immortality and it has something to do with their individual notoriety. Or perhaps they are actually created from the thoughts and feeling associated with a common meme...

I allow the debate over to what extent divine beings need and benefit from worship to be a point of religious contention on my world. However, without spilling a lot of campaign level secrets, I'll say that the dominant paradigm finds the notion that immortals depend on belief to be real to be inconsistent with experience. First, if that was true it would be likely that there would exist some memory of the time before belief created the deities and this memory would be difficult to erase precisely because it itself would create beliefs about reality. Secondly, it would imply that mortals themselves are gods and collectively have even vastly greater power than the gods collectively, something that does not appear to be true (and has within the worlds history been tested). If belief really is that powerful, it would seem like it could do much more than it does.

As for alternative approaches, again, avoiding campaign level secrets, my signature contains information that suggests one that is commonly believed - that it is the memes themselves which first came into existence and give rise to minds - not the other way around. That is, this being a world with real Platonic solids, it is the memes themselves that are the actual progenitors of both gods and men. Since the memes are nearly indestructible, it is hardly surprising that their first order manifestations would be immortal. A boogey man is just an incarnation of a certain sort of fear.