u/TicksFromSpace

Cause some don't like clicking links

Use your OC or make a new one. Choose from the options or roll and interpret your take on it! Comment if you want me to roll for you, and let me know if you want a mystery as well. Then tell us your story in a post or comment!

Good luck and have fun!

Changing Woman, Asdzáá Nádleehé, is one of the central Holy People of Diné tradition and is closely associated with life, fertility, renewal, the Earth, and the changing seasons. In Navajo Nation accounts she is described as the inner form of the Earth, reflecting its continual transformations through growth, maturity, decline, and renewal. She matures with supernatural speed and becomes the model for the Kinaaldá, the coming-of-age ceremony for Diné girls, in which her transition into womanhood is ritually remembered. She is also credited in traditional narratives with establishing important teachings connected to harmony, kinship, and the continuation of the Diné people, including the creation of the original clans.

Changing Woman is also the mother of the Hero Twins, Monster Slayer and Born-for-Water. Their birth marks a turning point in the Diné creation narrative: the world is still threatened by monsters that prey upon humanity, and the Twins eventually seek out their father, the Sun, obtain the means to fight them, and make the world safer for the people. Changing Woman therefore stands at the center of both creation and restoration. Her role is not that of a warrior herself, but of the generative force from which the warriors emerge, linking the survival of humanity to birth, transformation, family, and the recurring renewal of the world rather than to destruction alone.

Tieholtsodi is a water monster in Diné (Navajo) tradition, described in early recorded accounts as a huge otter-like being with fine fur and buffalo-like horns. Rather than simply being a monster that lives in water, Tieholtsodi is tied to the dangerous and life-giving power of water itself. In the emergence story, Coyote secretly steals Tieholtsodi’s children after entering his underwater dwelling. Unable to find them, Tieholtsodi causes the waters of the four directions to rise, producing the great flood that forces the people upward toward another world. The stolen children are eventually discovered and returned, allowing the waters to recede. Some traditions speak of Tieholtsodi almost as a class of water beings rather than one unique individual, with particular springs or bodies of water having their own such power.

Tieholtsodi is also connected to the cycle of the Hero Twins, Monster Slayer and Born-for-Water, whose task is to rid the world of the anáye, the dangerous beings that prey upon humanity. In one recorded version, Monster Slayer pursues a supernatural being called Travelling Stone, Tsé'nagahi, until it retreats into a river. Rather than kill it, he accepts its promise to stop harming people and to preserve springs and flowing rivers; Tsé'nagahi then becomes the Tieholtsodi of the upper world. This makes Tieholtsodi unusual among the beings encountered by the Hero Twins: its destructive aspect is not simply exterminated, because water cannot be removed from the world without destroying the world with it. The same force that can drown humanity is therefore allowed to remain because it is also necessary for life.

The drekavac is a creature from South Slavic folklore, especially associated with Serbia, Bosnia, and neighboring regions. Its name comes from a verb meaning to scream or shriek, and the sound is often more important than its appearance. Accounts vary widely: in some traditions it is the restless spirit of an unbaptized child, while in others it is described as a gaunt, animal-like being with an elongated body, sparse fur, large eyes, or unnatural limbs. There was never one fixed image of the creature; different regions imagined it according to their own local fears.

The drekavac is usually said to appear at night near graveyards, forests, rivers, or isolated roads, announcing itself with a piercing cry. Hearing it could be interpreted as an omen of death, illness, war, or some other approaching misfortune. In stories where it is linked to an unbaptized child, the creature reflects older beliefs about improper burial, exclusion from Christian rites, and the danger of the dead who have not been given a proper place among either the living or the deceased.

The Nachzehrer is a figure from German and Central European folklore, especially associated with beliefs surrounding restless or dangerous dead. Unlike the more familiar vampire, the Nachzehrer does not always rise bodily from the grave to attack the living. Instead, it remains in its coffin and consumes its own burial shroud, clothing, or even its own flesh. As it feeds, the life of surviving relatives or members of the community is believed to weaken, sometimes causing illness, wasting, or death. Epidemics and unexplained chains of deaths could therefore be interpreted as evidence that one of the recently buried had become a Nachzehrer.

Certain signs were thought to reveal one: a corpse found unusually well preserved, with blood around the mouth, swollen features, or a burial cloth that appeared chewed or disturbed. Preventive measures varied by region and included placing objects beneath the corpse’s chin to stop it from biting, removing or damaging the jaw, weighing the body down, or exhuming and decapitating it. The belief reflects an older understanding of death as something that could remain socially active after burial, especially when death occurred suddenly, improperly, or during disease outbreaks. The Nachzehrer is less a predator stalking the night than a dead person whose presence continues to consume the living from inside the grave.

Baba Roga is a bogeywoman of South Slavic folklore, especially associated with Serbian and neighboring traditions. Her name roughly means “Grandmother Horn,” from baba, “old woman” or “grandmother,” and rog, “horn.” She is usually imagined as a hideous, hunched old woman marked by a single horn, though its placement varies between traditions: some put it on her forehead, others on her knee. Certain versions give her iron teeth, long claws, leathery skin, or other inhuman features. Unlike Baba Yaga, with whom she is often confused, Baba Roga has no standard chicken-legged hut, mortar, pestle, or other familiar Baba Yaga attributes.

Her role is closer to that of a child-snatching bogeyman than a fully developed fairy-tale witch. Parents invoked her as a threat against children who wandered away, refused to sleep, or behaved badly, warning that Baba Roga might carry them off to some dark hiding place. In harsher versions she takes children to a cave or lair and eats them, sometimes using her iron teeth to emphasize the threat. There is no single fixed account of her appearance or habits; Baba Roga survives mainly through oral warnings and regional variations, so details such as the horn, teeth, dwelling, and precise fate of her victims change from place to place.

The Butzemann is a figure from German-speaking folklore, usually understood as a bogeyman used to frighten children and explain unsettling noises, shadows, or movement in the dark. Unlike many named monsters, he has no single fixed appearance or story. Depending on region and period, the Butzemann could be imagined as a small goblin-like creature, a shaggy household spirit, a dark man lurking at night, or simply an unseen presence hiding in cupboards, under beds, or in corners. His name is related to older German terms such as Butz or Butze, which could refer to a frightening apparition, ghost, or masked figure.

In folk belief, the Butzemann often functioned less as a fully developed supernatural being and more as a personification of fear itself. Parents and storytellers invoked him as something that would come for disobedient children, wander through houses after dark, or punish those who ignored warnings. Because the figure remained vague, each household or region could shape him differently, which made him especially effective as a childhood terror: he did not need a precise form, only the suggestion that something might already be standing in the dark where you could not quite see it.

You might think you did, but you never did.

Yūrei are spirits of the dead in Japanese folklore, usually people who died violently, unjustly, or while consumed by powerful emotions such as grief, jealousy, hatred, or longing. Rather than passing peacefully into the afterlife, they remain bound to the world until the cause of their unrest is resolved. Traditional depictions often show them with pale faces, long disheveled black hair, and white burial clothing, sometimes with their hands hanging limply before them. Their lower bodies may fade away entirely, emphasizing that they are no longer fully part of the living world.

The familiar image of the woman in white comes from Japanese funerary custom and later theatrical tradition. The white kimono resembles the clothing in which the dead were traditionally prepared for burial, while the loose black hair reflects a reversal of normal social presentation: respectable women usually wore their hair arranged and controlled, whereas the ghost appears disordered and outside ordinary society. In kabuki and ukiyo-e, this visual language became increasingly standardized, especially for female ghosts driven by betrayal or vengeance. The result is the classic onryō-like figure: a silent or mournful woman in white whose apparent fragility contrasts with the danger created by emotions so intense that death itself has failed to contain them.

The Leshy is a forest spirit from Slavic folklore, especially associated with deep woods, wild animals, and the danger of becoming lost beyond the boundaries of human settlement. Descriptions vary widely: he may appear as a tall, shaggy man, a horned or animal-like figure, or a being whose size changes with the forest around him. In some traditions he has green hair, bark-like skin, backward clothing, or other subtle signs that distinguish him from an ordinary person. He is not simply a monster, but the personification of the forest as a place with its own rules, moods, and ownership.

Leshy stories often portray him misleading travelers, imitating familiar voices, moving paths, hiding landmarks, or carrying people deeper into the woods. Hunters, shepherds, and woodcutters were sometimes expected to respect him through offerings or careful behavior, because offending the Leshy could mean lost livestock, ruined hunts, or disappearance. He could be hostile, playful, protective, or indifferent depending on the story. This ambiguity is central to the figure: the Leshy represents wilderness that is neither evil nor benevolent, only powerful, unpredictable, and fundamentally outside human control.

The Noonday Demon comes from an ancient interpretation of Psalm 91:6, especially in the Greek Septuagint and later the Latin Vulgate, where the verse refers to a “demon of midday.” The Hebrew text is less specific and speaks more generally of destruction or pestilence at noon, but Christian tradition gradually personified the threat. Noon was imagined as a dangerous hour because it combined heat, exhaustion, silence, and exposure. In later folklore and religious writing, the Noonday Demon became associated with lethargy, despair, oppressive heat, confusion, and sudden spiritual weakness rather than with simple physical attack.

Early Christian monastic writers connected the Noonday Demon closely with acedia. Evagrius Ponticus described the “demon of acedia” as especially dangerous around the middle of the day, when a monk might become restless, disgusted with his surroundings, unable to pray, obsessed with the passage of time, or tempted to abandon his discipline altogether. In that sense, the Noonday Demon became less a monster lurking outside than a force that turned emptiness, boredom, and exhaustion into spiritual collapse. Its most unsettling form is therefore not necessarily violent: it is the presence that makes the day feel endless, purpose feel hollow, and escape seem more attractive than endurance.

"Oh right, renegotiate the terms." - Mr. Tick as he tries to sleep, probably. Don't worry, he'll forget by morning.

Featuring Bummer Saddington by u/thecrookedpath.

This has been great fun! Thank you for letting me dig through your goop a bit, Buddy!

Part 1

Part 2

'Tis be the season of good vibes.

Drop a comment, optionally with your OC and get something nice said or done about you or them! Say or do something nice for another commentor (or 2, or 3,) in return!

"We have to go deeper."

Featuring Bummer Saddington by u/Thecrookedpath .

Part 1