A Year and A Day: Krampus

Changeling: the Dreaming

Homebrew Rules

Character Creation Guide Download: Krampus.pdf

Quoth the Krampus:

“I smell a naughty child; will it get a lump of coal? Will it get a lashing? Will it get a boil in my cooking pot? Yes, yes, yes, it will my dumpling. All these and more.”

Kith Excerpt:

They come all over Europe. They are Pere Freutard, Santa’s evil twin in France. They are Frau Perchta, the Goddess of the cold children in Switzerland. They are Zwarte Piet, although they balk at the Netherland’s interpretation of it. They are the anti-Santa, created by the dreaming with a dark purpose. They punish and frighten those youth who forsook the rules of Yule. Disobedience, stinginess, laziness, for the least naughty these traits were rewarded with coal. The worse naughtier received beating switches. The worst of children were placed in the sack of the Krampus and dragged off to Christmas town. Their fate is known to only the eldest grumps of this dark Kith.

While many surmise the Krampus to be a holdover from an old-world (especially amongst the New World Americans or the more Seelie-minded of Christmas Town), the Kith boasts a popularity amongst mortals that belies such naysaying. December 5th is Krampus Nacht in Europe, they have parades and festivals, and even their own form of brandy. Films are made of them, action figures, comic-books and songs. Even now, they are becoming more prevalent in North America. There are even whispers of Namahage a Japanese Kith that punishes evil children during the winter months.

But for all of this, the Krampus remain quiet and humble. They ply their trade in the icy darkness of long winter nights. Children fear them; Adults whisper their names and even the staunchest of the Yule-Born Fae understand that each Krampus has a role to perform.

Flavor

“Mankind has lost its connection to the land, to the earth, to the beasts and spirits. They gather their food not from the forest and fields, but from plastic bins and ice boxes. Their lives are no longer tied to the cycles of the seasons and the harvest, no longer do they need the Yule Lord to chase away the winter darkness and usher in the light of spring. Man has only himself to fear now…he has become his own worst devil.”
― Brom, “Krampus: The Yule Lord”