Bogeyman

Bogeymen are a classification of Others defined for being "loner Others with a penchant for murder and terror"<ref> I guess, if you had to stick a label on this one, I’d say ‘Bogeyman’. Which seems to be a convenient practitioner label for ‘loner Other with a penchant for terror or murder’. - Excerpt from Subordination 6.7”</ref>, typically beings with particularly dramatic ends whose rage drove them to crawl from the Abyss.<ref>“Hot malice drives them, anger. They boil up much as heat rises, and crawl free. Particularly gruesome, iconic ends give them this strength.” - Excerpt from Null 9.3</ref><ref> Bugge can become bogeymen (in which case they tend to operate through the glyphs), haunts, or if any individual is stupid enough to try to usurp the legend of a powerful Bugge (as in the ‘paper bag head case’, an individual crafting a mask and outfit) then the Bugge can become a possessing spirit, and any of these courses can lead to a much more serious case. - Bestiary: Bugge</ref> It is theorized by Barbatorem that all humans will eventually become bogeyman once the age of man ends and all falls into the abyss.<ref>“When all’s said and done, the Abyss will spread, and it will swallow all things. It’s the next step in humanity’s progress. Left untouched, things will advance, progress and change until they tumble over a cliff. That is what waits for humanity as a whole, in the interim. The things you call demons wait beyond even that point.” - Excerpt from Judgment 16.10</ref> Practitioners who focus on gathering bogeymen are known as Scourges.

Common properties

Most Bogeymen have human-like forms that enable them to blend into society with some ease, although to what extent may vary depending on what they have changed into. Some are adapted to air, some are adapted to sea, and some are adapted to abstract travel and realms, like mirrors.

Because Limbo has a hold on them, it will take them back if an opportunity arises, sometimes a weak bogey man can be claimed permanently by the abyss.<ref>“You might be able to summon her again,” she said, ignoring my grip as she tore a section of burning wood off the side of my chest. “Bogeymen go back to the abyss when they die. They can resurface.”

Tiff spoke my thoughts, “That’s not a guarantee, especially for a weaker bogeymen. - Excerpt from Sine Die 14.3</ref> To stave this off, they can draw power by making an impact on the universe by creating fear, murder, or by leaving a strong enough impression so they remain connected to the world rather than being forgotten again. If they are strong enough then, even if their bodies are destroyed, they reform in Limbo and can crawl back up.

Binding a bogeyman typically involved using some form of the natural elements, and things with permanence.<ref>“Negative bindings are the near opposite. We surround the Other with unbroken circles or diagrams composed of things opposed to them. These are the same things that can also take some strength out of the Other if we use them as weapons. [...] For Bogeymen we might use old things in fine condition. - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1</ref> In the former case, it depended based on the type of bogeyman and the place beyond the cracks in reality that they had come from, leaving some particularly vulnerable to weaknesses that may or may not be as simple as a closed door. The other option was old items that had a history and durability to them, antiques.

If a bogeyman kills the one who brought it up, they gain their freedom.^{[citation needed]}

Types

Bogeymen can be loosely divided into two types, based on their lifestyle and ways of remaining on Earth. Those whose power and existence is tied to a certain event, and the predators who prey on human fears for nourishment.<ref>Bogeymen come in two forms, with some being tied to events and others just acting like people. Event bogeymen don't have a lot of power outside of certain times or loops. [...] Other Bogeymen resemble living people, but fall more into the realm of heavy carnivores, dining on fear. Like heavy carnivores, they don't need to eat often. [...] Not all find a rhythm that sustains them, but those who don't tend to get pruned or bound. - Comment by Wildbow on "What do most Others do all day?"</ref>

"Event" bogeymen generally only exist or have power during certain situations - a time of day, an anniversary, a ritual, a person following a rumour, etc. Outside of those situations they might hibernate, or might have no concrete existence at all. During them, however, they are empowered and the odds are tilted against their victims. Situations where the Abyss is closer to reality may make them active outside their normal prerequisites.<ref>Event bogeymen don't have a lot of power outside of certain times or loops. If they're active at night and nobody's looking for them, then they might not exist during the day. The Faceless Woman could well be this sort - she's just not really around or is semi-hibernating at times she's not active. If you go places she's been known to hang around, you might smell the cigarettes, you could follow that smell to her and she'd be there. (She hangs out with the Revenant, so her existence might be reduced to a strong cigarette smell in the other room) - If it's night, she might be wandering around, and if there's someone scared and isolated, it might draw her out. For some it's about rumor or the use of a name, or about dates, times of year, or other prerequisites. These tend to be less of an existence, though, and more of a... kind of a ritual. If you meet the prerequisites or provide the right excuse for a Bogeyman whose existence is this concentrated into key moments, your odds go steeply down, compared other situations. Obviously the nature of what was going on in Jacob's Bell brought the Others out to play on a more consistent, permanent basis. - Comment by Wildbow on "What do most Others do all day?"</ref>

"Predator" bogeymen follow a similar schedule to humans, alive 24-7. Unlike humans, however, they feed on fear (with the fear of humans being much more effective than that of animals), and they don't need to feed very frequently. They generally spend much of their time seeking out and preparing for their victims. Predator bogeymen who settle into a lair generally devote their time, Abyss connection, and fear-energy into corrupting that lair to serve as a better killing ground. Others roam freely, investing their energy back into empowering themself (with the drawback that excessive feeding causes them to mutate) and seeking out opportunities to feed,<ref>Other Bogeymen resemble living people, but fall more into the realm of heavy carnivores, dining on fear. Like heavy carnivores, they don't need to eat often. Finding other things to eat helps fill the space between, so they'll do that a lot, and beyond that they tend to patrol or wander. If the Milkmaid locates herself in the abandoned farmhouse and the surrounding fields, then she might get to know the ins and outs of the property, where the fence is reliable, where the holes in the ground are, and she'd find the things to alter the property. A whole day can be spent on one window, so it's ajar but closes when someone slips through.
[...]
It's not really a Crone Mara style adjustment of territory over decades or centuries - more that obsessive focus, memories of the Abyss, and the influence of the Abyss itself staining reality can help make this work. The places she visits and the things she does serve to taint areas and things. The milking machine is a big one for this particular bogeyman, as are the cows of her barn, which might start to end up more abyssal (mutated, with special properties, potentially with skins that transmit sensation after being sewn on). For Bogeymen of this type who aren't the Milkmaid, it could be something like the house being bigger from the inside, or hallways that look different when you revisit them.

Other Bogeymen are less focused on their own hunting ground and might just wander or keep their eyes, ears, nose, and Other senses out for potential victims or places to lurk. Excess power and fear aren't invested into things or places, but back into the bogeyman. Consider it something like how a human gets fat, but a Bogeyman changes when it consumes in excess.

Not all find a rhythm that sustains them, but those who don't tend to get pruned or bound. - Comment by Wildbow on "What do most Others do all day?"</ref> like war.<ref name="WoG">:Just how many Others were swarming in the trenches? I can assume there were tons of [...] imps, ghouls, boogeymen and goblins in them due to the sheer amount of awfulness, rottenness and corpses present, but just how severe was the issue? Were they in such abundance that practitioners being a Scourge, Goblin King [...] or was there little to no real difference that the practitioner "meta" would change.

Violent and gross others likely thrived in the background in wartime. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

Uses

A Bogeymen's abilities come from their obsessive focus and their time in the Abyss. Usually their abilities are geared towards targeting humans. An example of one would be one that steals the faces of other people and wears them like a mask, enabling it to act as that person with no one the wiser, while another forges inconvenient connections that causes conflicts amongst allies.

Notable Bogeymen

Bristles
Cagerattler (high abyssal)
Defenestration Bogeyman
Diary Girl
Face-Stealing Bogeyman
Faceless Woman
Green Eyes
James Corvidae (misclassified)
Kathryn Thorburn
Killwagon
The Milkmaid
The Nurse
Thorburn Bogeyman
The Twins<ref>```The Roberts are the primary family with holding power on the board of the Churchill Falls's main power plant. Marc and Janie Roberts, born seven months apart, entered the same grade of high school as king and queen bee, immune to all consequences and very willing to test those limits. Their clique quickly became a dangerous force, where they could 'haze' (read: violently abuse) people, trash property, or cause damage, and the sheriff would give them a pass, driving them home, and the news wouldn't report it.

This created a culture of silence that twisted into something else when 15 year old Janie had a midnight tryst with a boy in the water by the foot of the dam, and he drowned. It's unknown whether this drowning was intentional, but Marc helped her hide the body, taking it into a part of the plant where it was placed in a barrel, filled with resin, and put with other debris and rubble.

If the first drowning was accidental, the rest weren't. One body became ten, then twenty, then fifty. Not all drowned, either. Some were brought into the room, where the outsides of barrels had been stripped away and bodies encased in resin were stacked high and arranged around the walls, catching the eerie sub-lights.

The sheriff, once he realized that Marc and Janie were involved, scuttled the investigation. Reporters were discouraged. One intrepid, independent reporter pursued things, helped by a parent of one of the dead kids, and tracked a twenty-four year old Marc and Janie bringing a girl to the room in the basement of the plant for a threesome that, like the others, would see the lights turned on and the decorations at the edges made clear...```

```The confrontation was brutal, the parent and reporter helping the girl to kill the pair, who seemed prenaturally strong and tenacious (touched already by the abyss after near-death experiences at the hands of other potential victims), and drowning them in the resin they kept stored. They went to the Abyss... and a year later, on the anniversary, came back, as they did every year thereafter. Sometimes together, a wretched mass of two siblings hugging, covered in transparent glaze, and sometimes breaking apart, to dangerous effect.``` - Wilbow on Discord</ref>

The Welder

References