Background

Children sometimes turn their snowcraft toward the villains, raiders and monsters of local folklore. As the stories are repeated, the figures become increasingly exaggerated, with multiplied horns, oversized weapons and deformities reflecting every remembered cruelty. Older villagers may even encourage the mockery, which is normally far safer than confronting the horrors that inspired it.

On rare nights, the Hidden Folk take notice. The great effigies that rise afterward do not reproduce the original creature so much as the story that survived it. A raider remembered for running down villagers may chase anything that flees. A brute remembered for impossible strength may test that strength against doors, livestock and anyone who stands their ground.

These figures accept exaggeration, invention and misunderstanding with equal seriousness. By morning, a Great Snow Effigy may be found far from where it was built, surrounded by the results of whatever role it decided to perform.

The danger is not that they remember the past accurately, but that they perform the village's surviving version of it with enthusiasm and almost no judgement. An old joke can become hazardous once it is standing several times the height of a man.

Great Snow Effigies | Dark Forest

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