A Year and A Day: Boogey-Men

Changeling: the Dreaming

Homebrew Rules

Character Creation Guide Download: Boogey-Men.pdf

Quoth the Boogey-Man:

“Come here little boy… Here… under you bed. I’m hungry. What? Too scared to come under? Good…”

Kith Excerpt:

Arguably one of the most well-known of Kithain, the Boogey-Men have been a staple of Nurseries since time immemorial, although they have earned a special place in the American Fae context. All children know the stories, and each child has his or her own spin. Their own Boogey-Man lives in the closet, under the bed, or just behind the door. He’s alternately hairy or scaly, tall or short, teeth like razors, or toothless and gummy and sucking. Above all, he’s scary.

A holdover term from archaic Celtic antiquity, the Boogey-Men are spiritual inheritors of Bogies, Bugbears, Boggles, Buggles, Boggans and Bug-a-boos. Not that any remaining Kithain of those persuasions would admit such. Bogies and Boggarts sneer, Bugbears bristle, and Boggans tremble at any relations. The Boogey-Men (and women) are a family of their very own, and don’t need any supposed familial ties to succeed. In truth however, they aren’t really a Bug family at all, just unfortunate victims of time and place.

Fear seems to be the modus operandi of the Kith, but few understand why. Under the bed, in the closet, just behind the door, in certain places, in the wee hours of the night, the veil between the Dreaming and the Banal World becomes thin and brittle. A stupid or fearless child could go wandering into an unknown trod, or slip into the Deep Dreaming. There are a multitude of hidden trods that open and close seemingly at random, and it would be all too easy for a child to cross over there, or something else to cross over here. Fear keeps children safe, and Boogey-Men have the thankless of jobs of maintaining this fear.

Flavor

“I am the one hiding under your bed,
Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red.
I am the one hiding under your stairs,
Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair…”
– Danny Elfman, “The Nightmare Before Christmas”