Please tell me that someone has made stats for the Krampus... If so, can someone share?
Basic idea would be a Corpus being either aligned to Faerie, Divine or Infernal.
His vis is stored in his Wicker basket-backpack
Has the ability to steal children away, has good melee skills and uses a whip.
Has some strong restrictions (only naughty children).
I love the idea of running an Xmas themed session where the party must hunt down Krampus to free a group of children including a lordling, only to find out, that Krampus was Divine aligned, and that the lordling-child was very naughty and that it would be best for everyone involved for the child to never grow up lest he become another Emich von Flonheim. But then plot twist, there is also a faerie Krampus, which is just spreading mayhem and terror for the sake of it and stole the other children, and the party teams up with the real Krampus to take down a high might winter faerie!
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I think a divine Krampus is kind of stepping all over the whole motif of forgiveness and free will, and would carry some significant theological implications.
Great idea!
I am toying with some ideas around Hermetic magi creating secret portals, so the Krampus shows up in England, due to a TBD reason on the Rhine end. But your plot twist is so nice...
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Faerie Krampus might just be brought along by mainland settlers.Fist some Fleming bring in Zinterklaas, then a chimney sweeper Zeartpiet. Or straight up proto Hansa guys from Westphalia bring Sankt Niklas and Krampus along. As the community grows and their tales spread spread weak faerie might see enough vitality to be gained to be worth inhabiting this role.
Regarding the theological implications of a divine Krampus: if he is buddied up with a divine St Nick, he cannot be truly infernal as a divine being would not put up with that.
The Jansenistes are not in period, but they use biblical arguments to justify pre destination.
Any two realm combo of krampus would work, for example faerie Krampus took the naughty children but will team up with the magi to go fight demonic Krampus who stole a good child, would work and have limited moral complexity.
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a divine saint nick would bear very little resemblance to Santa clause, being more the patron saint of travelers, and likely not paired with Krampus at all. The orrigins of teh Santa Clause story seem to be rooted in stories of Odin leaving gifts at the winter solstice durring teh wild hunt: Santa Claus and the Wild Hunt - Sarah Woodbury
One of the most famous and enduring Wild Hunt mythology strands comes from Germanic folklore from Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, recounting how at Yuletide, Woden or Wotan in the Anglo Saxon tradition or Odin in Scandinavian lands led the Wild Hunt through the heavens. In pre Christian oral traditions it would seem, however, Odin chased wood elves or, sometimes, beautiful maidens at the Midwinter Solstice around December 21, one of the main times the Hunt was seen. Some accounts say he dropped gifts at the foot of his sacred pine for the faithful, possibly one of the origins of Christmas presents. Odin’s eight-legged horse Sleipnir was the source for the legend of the eight reindeer of Santa Claus. Santa himself was the old Holly King/Odin and Saint Nicholas rolled into one
That possibly is doing a lot of lifting right there.
Where I'm from, the very real Hans Trapp or less real Père fouettard fulfills the role of punisher, I only discovered Krampus as an adult.
Ultimately, this is a not the idea for a very serious adventure, but rather for a seasonal one-off.
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I wanted to use it as a standalone adventure that hinted at other, bigger challenges to come...
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I can only say go for it. Feel free to pm me if you want to spitball ideas for it.
Could you please move Krampus to its own thread.
I tried, either I have insufficient admin right, or insufficient sleep to figure out how. Either way, it should be done to avoid high jacking this thread.
I think I agree
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Done. I think.
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It has been done
since it is no longer in danger of hijacking a thread, it seems to me that a krampus has an interesting realm profile: while it does not seem particularly divine the story role it plays fits into a divine narrative (as opposition) and so I would expect it to be considered "invited" into divine realms of cities (where the story has spread) while at the same time having traits that make it seem infernal.
Also makes me wonder if the majority of demons seen within cities are not similarly faeries playing an "acceptable" role.
I absolutely love that idea.
It is particularly brilliant because Krampus does not at all look like what the typical in and out-of-game person expects a divine being to look like.
There is some great potential for a sneak "looks can be deceiving" ... which come to think of it actually fits pretty well with a divine origin for Krampus.
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To me the problem is that punishment is pretty defined to be the role of the Infernal, and Krampus is all about punishing naughty children. Literally who he is fits the definition of an infernal being.