The Twelve Kings of Night

They come.
They come.
The Twelve Kings come.
They stalk the dark and hunt the night,
The Twelve Kings come.
First came the Wolf King, padding through the black
Treading paths between the light without a look back
Second came the Sea King, swimming in ink
Eating what light he found deep in the drink
Third came the Witch King, reading from her book
A single whispered word from here is all that it took.
From realm of man they rose and realm of us they stay
The only way we'll be rid of them is at the break of day

The Twelve Kings are an...interesting cultural facet. Called the Black Dodiadem in Fushell, or the Eaters of Stars across the whole continent of Gaianios, they're a tale told with consistency I'd regard as impossible, though it's not perfectly uniform.
There are always a dozen or more, they are always said to have come from the realm of man, and they are always of a monstrous temperament and appearance. Their numbers vary (resulting in different titles, of course), and how they traversed from the Realm of Man to ours is also one of the things that change.
The elements are always there and fairly recognizable in the grand scheme.
Now, I'm going to make it clear, I am not trying to suggest that I somehow have come to the conclusion that such a story is true or based off of real events. I'm far more interested in its widespread nature. Sure, there might be a kernel of truth somewhere within the stories folds, but I imagine that kernel so small that if someone attempts to present it as fact you can call them a grifter and move on.
In any case, I have included the first part of a song I have heard many children sing amongst themselves as they run through the streets in not so many words. By no means is this some sort of official account of lyrics and meaning, but it covers the bases of what other versions of the song seem to go for.
They sing it both for entertainment and to scare themselves, it seems. The children aren't the only ones who do so, though the adults take their own versions of the song far more seriously as they sit in pews and make offerings to the gods. I cannot blame them for this, as little stock as I put into the Stained Glass Temples, for when a man in vestments speaks of the dark ones that followed the first humans it sounds much less like a fairytale.

Other versions of the story that I've seen, and with the greatest and smallest number of stated members would be the version of this story found within Vox and Moce, respectively.
In Vox, the songs and stories are directed at the Night Choir, with so many 'members' that many aren't named at all. Neither a title or an actual name. To the best of my investigative abilities, I couldn't find scholarly accounts that sunk below the mark of twenty-two members total.
Moce, on the other hand, has a grand total of six members included in their bedtime stories, referred to as the Moonriders, and with a notably less sinister connotation than the average account that I found.

Some of the versions that hold a different count of the "Kings" are differentiated by what they consider to wear the crown, so to speak.
That is to say, some writings contain groups that have what one might call 'minor members' who are not deserving of a full title as they are said to be weaker than the true members of these strange pantheons. Often times, these smaller members are minions of the larger, or fulfill smaller folkloric roles.

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It should be stated that my title for this is somewhat erroneous, but given the fact that there isn't a truly uniform way to refer to these...mythologized beings, I decided to title it after the version of them that I was most familiar with from my childhood. I'm sure you will have your own, familiar, version that you recognize more than this one unless you find yourself suddenly knowledgeable of your status as my countryman.