The Hollow Man
Rimmer Children’s Nursery Rhyme
Seek, seek the Hollow Man,You still owed a debt.
Spill and spill the blood again,
Adorn and ne’er forget.
Speak, mourn, and curse the Sun,
Your vengeance now is set.
Rejoice and praise the Hollowed one,
The last man ever met.
The Myth
The generally accepted form of the Hollow Man in Rimmer Culture is that of an obscenely tall, gaunt man spanning 8-10ft tall with incredibly long, gangly limbs. He is said to have a large hourglass in place of a head and carry a long, spindly scythe to rend his victims bodies. He is said to be a specter of vengeance and is called upon by wronged individuals who have received no justice to bring final retribution upon the one that wronged them. In the myths, he tracks down his supplicants by following the blood spilt upon their arms, then walks along their bond of grief through time and space to find their target wherever they may be hiding. He then traps them in a world of nightmares, keeping them alive as he rends their bodies into pieces small enough to slip through his hourglass like grains of sand. They stay trapped in his hourglass, their body dissolving into ash in his hourglass while still alive, their soul still alive and fleeing from piece to piece as it slips through, until their spirit is trapped in the final speck of their body. He returns this speck, laden with their soul, to his supplicant as payment for their blood debt. Origin of the Hollow Man Stories of the Hollow Man, an obscenely tall, gaunt, long-limbed figure with an hourglass for a head carrying a spindly scythe have existed in Rimmer culture for over a hundred years. No one is sure exactly where it started, but stories have been passed down from families to campfires for several generations now. What seems to be unique about the story of the Hollow Man is his purpose as a specter of vengeance rather than the blunt reinforcement of a moral code. This seems to indicate that he was created from frustrated Rimmers who, whether forced or pioneering into the Rim, were so often wrong by governments, corporations, and each other in the initial days of colonization. This monster, like so many folktales born of a morality story, seems to be the story of justice they needed to believe existed to survive in the harsh realities these early pioneers found themselves in.Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
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