Folk Lore 13: "Bogey Men"
... if you must travel by night, avoid the gaze of those who lurk within the abyss!
He knew it was too late.
The Mystic's Lantern guided him through the lonely, sepuchral night.
All the while, in his plodding advance through chilly mud, he couldn't ignore the feeling that he was being watched.
Somewhere in this mangrove marsh, he had to find a dry shelter. His mother's voice repeated in his mind the old songs and tales of those lurkers in the dark.
Shuddering, her admonitions echoed in his ears as vapors concealed his passage.
In the Ancient lands of forever frost, Proto-Humans huddled around camp fires and spoke of red-eyed shadow-men. Before the advent of recorded History, they shared their oral traditions in trembling voices, warning of figures that watched from the periphery and stalked those who traveled or slept by the wilds at night.
Early Archivists of the Arcanum preserved these accounts in Ice Cores as panic rippled through generations. Myst & Myth Folk Archivists uncovered connections between these stories and the rise of the Bogey Men; creatures that not only abduct the body of their victims but also their Soul. Their appearances caused hysteria.
Splashing, he leapt at another shadow! Curses! he thought, kicking at the cold marsh. I've entered this lost land and have become a lost man!
As he wandered deeper into the mangroves, the familiar sounds of the marsh vanished with the winter mists. Then, there was the insidious whistling of the wind. Am I going to die here?
Origin & Significance
Theories of the Bogey Men were often explained as "haunts" or minor illusions of the minds; an hallucination of fear, leading to the myths used to caution children and inform their parents of perils unknown. Yet there were often enough strange encounters.
The first mention of Bogey Men was found in Broalagan, once an Ancient lagoon and Early Cultural hub. This reference is the first given to Folk Archivists by a Proto-Human:
The first mention of Bogey Men was found in Broalagan, once an Ancient lagoon and Early Cultural hub. This reference is the first given to Folk Archivists by a Proto-Human:
"Loud sound... all around... the bleeding eye...
Of the Bogey Men... the following eyes will find you... Watching from darkness! Do not sleep nor turn your eye! Travel not at night!"
This encounter became well-known with several variations, giving Archivists vital clues to the Bogey Men mystery. A subtle link between this testimony and Folk Lore would not be revealed until later Eras of the Ice Age.
Fatal Accounts of Bogey Men
Proof of the Bogey Men
After the incident that caused wide-spread panic amongst Early Cultures, for hundreds of years, the term "Bogey Men" came to refer to those who lived in the tidal lowlands, giving rise to Tribes of Proto-Human with the family name, "Bogey", which became associated with trickery, of the mind or darkness. Songs and cultural adaptations kept the phrase alive as strange murmors from the villages persisted. Within centuries, new casualty reports revived the common fear of the lurkers in the night.
Victims of the Bogey Men
Travelers vanished or a family would awaken to find their youngest missing, their bedding undisturbed. Many were found to be descendants of the Proto-Human that first spread the initial panic; those of the Bogey Tribe. The common link between disappearances involved a claim to have witnessed red-eyed shadow men. Inevitably, bodies were found with their eyes violently removed as if in ritual sacrifice. Diviners were asked to commune with the spirits of the deceased, but their spirits were no longer bound to Source, adding to the malevolence and the mystery behind the Bogey Men.
Annihilated husks, the bodies were no longer contained to only Proto-Humans. Aelves and Buniru also made claims of finding cadavers in similar states. New rituals emerged for the purposes of consecrating these corpses as superstitions about their nature gave rise to theories of spirit possessions and reanimation through Necromancy.
Intrepid Archivists and Diviners continued to pursue the mystery of the Bogey Men, leading to new legends and advances in Spell-Craft.
Protection from the Bogey Men
Light Spells, such as Ghostflame, were thought to serve as a protective ward against the Bogey Men. Special talismans and Magical Lanterns were crafted, said to repulse the gaze of the Bogey Men. Travelers armed themselves with weapons when traveling at night; yet for all these advances, victims of the Bogey Men still appeared around the fringes of the marshlands. This distinction led to the research which shined light on the Bogey Men mystery.
He shook his head defiantly. Just the wind! Yet as he ventured deeper into the shadowed mangroves, the whistling grew shrill, unnatural.
He emerged into a moonlit treeline clearing, their branches bowing under some unseen force or weight. Then, he felt it: There is no wind!
Terror twisted his gut as he whirled around, but the whistling became a high-pitched ringing in his ears. From the abyss, something stirred. Eyes, dead and red, blinked to life from the shadows- watching, waiting for him to make his move.
Mythos & Culture
Proto-Humans spread the stories of the Bogey Men to their relatives, describing the haunting shapes that seemed to peer into their nightly dreams. Stories such as these were often suspicious fears that resulted from these recounts, while others who described similar events vanished days or weeks later. Bogey Men appear in the oral traditions and cave paintings of Proto-Humans and other Early Cultures, but it was discovered to have an eeriely similar link to another story held by the Mythos Folk: the Record of Magwal the Kinslayer.
The word "Kinslayer" is known as "Kynreev", and is reserved for brutal criminals. This is due to the atrocious acts committed by the Mythos Folk Clans of the Kynreev. Their patron chief, Magwal Kynreev, was truly known as a ferocious monster who had a hideous and grotesque obsession.
The depraved individual was known as a ruthless manhunter who was put to death in an obscene ritual, scattering his Clan. Yet his foul legacy would continue well beyond his assumed death.
The depraved individual was known as a ruthless manhunter who was put to death in an obscene ritual, scattering his Clan. Yet his foul legacy would continue well beyond his assumed death.
Record of Magwal the Kinslayer
Life & Death of Magwal Kynreev
Though it is slight, Magwal was remarked to have once been loyal to the Mystomythian Empire. It is unclear what had occured to drive him to the brinks of madness, but a theory is that even though he was a keen hunter of enemies to the Mystomythian Expanse, his habit of collecting trophies from his targets was a warning sign of his Discipline as a dread Visceramancer and Binder.
Magwal was known for a brutal tactic he used against his enemies, often attacking and collecting their eyes. If his victims lived, they spent the rest of their lives blinded, unable to fully describe Magwal's horrors. When he was finally captured, he would reveal to have slain and kidnapped over 200 Mystomythians alone, carrying a total of 88 eyes on various fetishes. Magwal was executed by the grieving members of the victims' families, who created this torment for him; they stoned him to death in a ritual known as "Beskatsik".
First, if the guilty has horns, they are broken. The executioner then buries the guilty to their waist and ties them to a pole at an angle facing the sun. With the guilty's head and chest pinned toward the open sky, representatives of the victims and other offended hurl frozen turds and chunks of ice, glass, and stone at the guilty. If the guilty has not died by the time the frozen feces begins to melt, then they are flipped over, stabbed three times, and left to bleed in the muck as those who will urinate over the guilty. The followers of Magwal were buried beneath him in the furious hail or were scattered into the Wilds.
Abandoned, none knew of the disease nor foul enchantments festering within Magwal.
It was the haunting of the intensifying wind and their malevolent eyes that caused him to panic, running through the trees!
Scarlet, pupiless- soulless! Bearing down on him with the weight of their gaze, floating at his peripheral, just out of reach of revealing their true and hideous forms. One foot fell over the other in a his mad beat through the frozen marshes.
The eyes in the dark peered through him with a hunter's precision, waiting for their chance to strike him down. But, it never came.
As his path came to a cliff of snow, he held the Mystic's Lantern above him and his fear-addled mind uttered, as he bellowed like a beast! Two by two, the red eyes scattered at the light's edge.
A moment to catch his breath was all he could muster before a new, burning dread of something evil and malevolent watched him- not from the direction he had came, but from above. Trembling, he dared to gaze skywards.
Legacy & Legends
When Archivists discovered the unsettling connection between the Bogey Men sightings and the account of the Kynreev, Magwal's burial site was investigated.
Archivists arrived to find a desolate pit filled with living darkness. At the approach of their Mystic Lantern's light, the shadows scattered. It is believed that the Bogey Men are the shades of the slain; the red glow from their eye sockets is the malice of their progenitor.
Archivists arrived to find a desolate pit filled with living darkness. At the approach of their Mystic Lantern's light, the shadows scattered. It is believed that the Bogey Men are the shades of the slain; the red glow from their eye sockets is the malice of their progenitor.
Bogey in the Dark
Banished by a young Deity, Magwal was no more; in his place, a new evil rose from beyond the grave to lead the Bogey Men.Myth of the Bogey Men
They prowl the swamps, bogs, and other wetlands. During the day, they are said to join the larger shadow of their master; at night, they hunt the living.
Do not look a Bogey Men in the eyes- it is believed that to look a Bogey Men directly in the eyes will invite their curse. Even slaying the Bogey Men isn't enough; once the curse is active, all Bogey Men will know the victim. Once sighted, the master will never forget, sending his apparitions to claim them.
Do not look a Bogey Men in the eyes- it is believed that to look a Bogey Men directly in the eyes will invite their curse. Even slaying the Bogey Men isn't enough; once the curse is active, all Bogey Men will know the victim. Once sighted, the master will never forget, sending his apparitions to claim them.
Physically, Bogey Men can only travel to the edge of the wetlands. Bogey Men relentlessly pursue, but they only travel past the marsh once they've peered into a victim's eyes. They appear at the foot of a sleeper before dragging them into the night.
Hauntingly, it is believed that the curse of the Bogey Men is a generational curse, affecting their descendants. Night haunts and terrors are still attributed to the Bogey Men, who spread panic for their masters.
Hauntingly, it is believed that the curse of the Bogey Men is a generational curse, affecting their descendants. Night haunts and terrors are still attributed to the Bogey Men, who spread panic for their masters.
Mogval of Ten Calamities
Magwal the Giant
Magwal had contracted Titanothage- a disease that deccelerates aging but accelerates rapid, mutated growth. His burial site had become the disgusting and fetid swamp of a Giant Folk. Yet the wounds that were inflicted upon Magwal left him in terrible agony. Magwal was obsessed with eyes- including his own. One was destroyed in the Beskatsik, driving his anguish as a lamenting Giant. For a few hundred years, wailing could be heard from the lagoons beyond the rivers of Broalagan where he would occasionally venture from his burial grave to hunt.This region beyond Broalagan became known as "Mogval" or "Cursed Land". It was said to have a repulsive odor- even when the wind was still. Even after Divine Intervention.
In the Giant Slayer's Chronicles of the Arcanum, there is a brief reference to Mogval as a destination but also as an adversary.
Brigith the Maiden had come to remove Mogval, but at the threshold of her cleansing ritual, a fell spell of dark slumber was cast upon her. When she awoke, Mogval had vanished, leaving behind the lost souls of those she found within her dreams. Those souls found peace within the nearby trees, offering their flaming fruit as a token of protection against darkness.
~ "Giant Slayer's Chronicle 14: Brigith the Maiden", Folk Lore
Mogval, Titan of Calamities
Brigith the Maiden failed to seal Magwal the Giant due to the intervention of the Eidolon, Vyrnash the Dreaming. A hideous entity who watches over nightmares, Vyrnash stole Magwal and the land from destruction, according to a pact made when Magwal was a Binder. Stuck in a state of superposition, Magwal the Giant died, reborn as Mogval the Titan.
He and his land lingered- neither a part of the living world nor a part of spiritual dimensions. It is believed that the land and beast of Mogval appears in dark, desolate marshes where his appearance releases disease and floods upon the land. Mogval has many servants; of those, the Bogey Men collect lost souls in the marshes to deliver unto Mogval, who grants them to Vyrnash.
Mogval appears as a frightening cyclopean Titan, whose red eyes and teeth are unnaturally sharp. The red-eye rolls around an empty socket that glows with a ghastly red light; these lights come from individual eyes, stolen from Mogval's victims. Corpses lacking eyes still appear in many marsh-related disappearances that are often attributed to either Mogval or his Bogey Men.
Mogval the Titan
He never stopped running from the image burned within his mind- of the evil creature whose eye burned like a red sun on the dark canvas of night. As it descended forwards, the ring of red-eyes glinting at the light's edge blinked as it reached for his eyes with long, twisted talons.
He awoke, drenched in sweat. Another restless night- how many must he endure before he finally found rest from the events of that night?
He had warned everyone of what he had seen, and yet, he didn't feel safe. From beyond, he knew; they watched him, the uneasy, sickening feeling never fleeing from the darkness within his mind.
Content Warning
Watchers at the Thresholds
The Light will Save You
Mythologia
Found in Ice Core
A Relic of Magical Ice that can hold memories captured in ice, light and sound! Learn more at Ice Core!
Origins
Varied
Epoch
Mythic Epoch
Varied
Epoch
Mythic Epoch
Region
Mystomythia
Established
Ice Age
Mystomythia
Established
Ice Age
Conservation
Chronicled
Chronicled
- Discovery
Broalagan, TBD
Legendarium
Classified
Legend
Constructed
Publication
Related MythsLegend
Constructed
Publication
Ghostflame Trees
Distribution
Oral Tradition
Demographic
Folk, Proto
EX- Legends Brigith the Maiden
Oral Tradition
Demographic
Folk, Proto
EX- Legends Brigith the Maiden
Art History
- N/A
Alt History
- Moral: Travel by night is perilous.
I loved this article! Very good work!
Thank you, Demon! I'm super happy you enjoyed this one! : D