Horrors

Horrors are created when a critical mass of fear-tainted anima is sent into the Pit. The shear rejection and terror the once-vital substance experiences when being annihilated causes it to to undergo a transformation into a mockery of a living soul and being. These shadow-spawn need yet more fear to grow and survive, keeping sharp the shear terror of the great darkness at the end of everything which prevents them from fading.

As incarnations of fears and phobias, a horror's true form is terrifying and mind-shattering, a physical representation of fear so horrific mortal minds shrink from it. Indeed, many horrors themselves fear their true form, and hide it under layers of darkness, discorporating themselves into the supernatural shadows of the netherworld. However, existing as a void of living darkness is rather inconvenient in a world dominated by physical interactions, so most horrors are forced to learn how to extrude a portion of their shadow into the physical world, creating what is called a "puppet body".

These bodies are mutable, and dependent on the horror's own fears, personality, and the perspective others have of them. A horror can easily shift these puppet bodies, and invent new ones, but they often find one or two that are particularly comfortable to them – intentionally or unintentionally – and return to these forms on subconscious reflex. It is possible for horrors to shape and choose their own primary form, but this takes considerable effort and mental training, reshaping their own being as they change their body.

Because of a horror's origin, these forms are typically frightening, monstrous, or 'wrong' in some way or form, though the specific degree differs from horror to horror. There are five general “genres” of horrors, based on their physical forms: chimerae, who appear as monstrous fusions of various animals; nightwalkers, who appear as twisted, shadowy humanoids; abominations, who appear as animated objects or constructs; revenants, who appear as undead humanoids; and bogies, who appear as warped versions of mythical or fairy-tale creatures. Juvenile horrors, who tend to haunt children, are typically called closet monsters.

In most cases, horrors don't need to sleep and are immune to most – but not all – diseases and poisons. It is difficult to slay a horror through physical or magical means, due to their mutable bodies and the ability to slink away into darkness. However, trapping a horror and starving them is remarkably effective, and there have been certain weapons, blessings, and spells designed specifically to destroy horrors – though they are admittedly very rare. Most horrors are not the most skilled at physical confrontations, preferring the combat of wits and words over those of tooth and claw. There are, of course, many exceptions to this, but even the most brutish horror tries to think a few steps ahead.

These terrifying beings are birthed with a critical mass of soul-touched anima enters the Pit - a mass killing, perhaps, or a particularly vicious famine, or a virulent plague. Something cuts a brutal number of lives short - or a few lives violently and explosively short - causing a minor deluge of the departed's anima to tumble through Shadow and to the Pit. Normally, there's not enough anima at any one time to do anything other than stutter a bit before decaying. But occasionally - once or twice a week, typically - enough anima enters the Pit at once moment to cause that something else to happen.

This anima makes a choice, defying its fated end, and forces a patchwork "soul" into existence out of the fractured imprints of the anima. This newborn being then crawls its way out of the bleakest void in all of creation and into Shadow.

These new beings are "alive," they have a chance to "live" and escape the Pit for as long as they can - and some have been going at it for millenia. These creatures are almost like undead, except for one thing - they cannot replace their anima. Their anima is frozen, dead and dull, forced back into action by their psudo-soul - much like a demon or a jinn. However, while they don't need new sources of anima, they do need something to sustain them: fear. Their abject terror of returning to the Pit is what keep them "alive" and kicking, and they must continually replenish that fear, feeding off of frights and scares to prevent their own dread of oblivion from wearing dull; for if these creatures no longer fear non-existence, then they will finally stop fighting against the grip of the Pit on their anima and slip into the nothingness that is their destiny.

This reliance on fear is, incidentally, why they're called horrors.

The Bogeymen

The legendary Bogeyman served the King of Shadows, Lord of Terror, and the fear of fear itself. It was he who first united the Netherworld under his dark banner, and it is in his name that the insidious Parliament of Shadows continues to govern the Land Beyond the Closet.

The Bogeyman himself vanished some 1200 years ago, shortly before the Veil was established, separating the world of magic from the mundane world of mankind. In his place, the leaders of the thirteen most powerful factions--or "houses"--of the horrors appointed themselves to rule in his stead. Calling themselves the Nightmare Court, each of these elder horrors took upon themselves the title of "bogeyman" in honour of their one true king.

The thirteen bogeymen are horrific entities who control entire regions of the Netherworld, twisting the shadowy realm into a reflection of their own fears.

• There is Abu Rigl Masluka, the bogeyman of fire and destruction, who has transformed his domain into a blasted desert of black sand, from which emerge the broken ruins of countless fallen civilizations.
• There is Cuca, the bogeyman of the wild, who has raised up a trackless jungle which the dim twilight of Shadow can never pierce, where the only light comes from the glowing eyes of the vicious predators stalking your every step.
• There is Big Brother, the bogeyman of technology, who has constructed a marvelous, technological city of towering skyscrapers and sprawling malls, where his eye watches you from every monitor looking for any sign of rebellion.
• There is the Leviathan, the bogeyman of the sea, who controls the vast oceans of the Netherworld, from their stormy surface down to the lightless depths where dark things creep.
• There is Bonhomme Sept-Heurs, the bogeyman of pain, who has warped his domain into a sprawling asylum, where he can experiment on his many patients to his hearts content, serenaded by the screams of the dying and the mad.
• There is Grandmother Gryla, the bogeyman of winter and famine, whose mountainous domain is wreathed in an eternal blizzard, and the only edible thing to be found is your own self.
• There is Lagahoo, the bogeyman of magic, who has raised a remote tropical island as his own private realm, where he and his minions can conduct their abominable rituals without interruption under the emerald glow of the Witches Moon.
• There is the Sack Man, bogeyman of loss, who has filled his twilit swamp with centuries of stolen wealth, from religious relics to notifications of peace to the bones of thousands of lost children.
• There is Oude Rode Ogen, the bogeyman of death, whose misty moorland realm is filled with tombs and grave markers of all sizes; if you look hard enough, you'll find any grave you desire, from great heroes to lost loved ones, to your own forgotten headstone.
• There is Babaroga, the bogeyman of wrath, whose bleak mountains ring endlessly with the sounds of war, as her many children and minions fight for her amusement, and the right to join her in her wooden hut to feast on the blood of the innocent.
• There is Pugot, the bogeyman of disease, whose fetid jungle realm plays home to countless poisons, where every tree contains dozens of toxins, every pool of liquid is a churning puddle of puss, and the air itself is thick with spores and parasites.
• There is the Man in Black, the bogeyman of truth and lies, who has constructed a grand, palatial manor for himself and his brood, whose many rooms play home to all sorts of wicked delights, and whose doors can open anywhere within Shadow or the world of mortals.
• And there is Jack O'Lantern, King of the Pumpkin Patch and bogeyman of the dark, whose realm is a riotous celebration of Samhain by day, and a grisly, depraved horror film every night.

Horrorkind

However, the bogeyman are only thirteen horrors, there are tens of thousands more who call the darkened depths of Shadow home. The Grey Men, the fears of conspiracies, infiltrate governments and other powerful organizations, and possess the ability to twist your memories so you forget the truth you have seen... or so you remember things that never could have happened. The Rough Beasts, who are the ultimate predators, and whose forms are continually shifting and evolving in horrific ways so they may better capture and toy with their prey. The Ringleaders, who will promise you any delight, but will strip away your humanity with every gift until you are little more than a beast. The Commisars, who will happily fuse you to grand machines so as to improve your quality life, and ensure your undying loyalty to Big Brother. The Lost Children, whose passing can take from you almost anything you value, from your keys to your memories to your own loves ones. The Horned Hunters, horrors who have willingly merged themselves with machines of war and live to bring bloodshed, chaos, and violence. The Plagewrought, who are living vessels for every disease known to man, and a number of new concoctions created in Pugot's vile jungles. The Churgions, who live to find a cure for every ailment afflicting humanity, from the flu to cancer to blood loss and to painful memories to love, and are always on the lookout for new subjects to test their theories upon. The Yule Lads, who hunt down those lost to the cold, and drag their frostbitten victims back into the blizzards of Shadow so they may be part of the grand winter feast they serve to their eternally hungry mother, Gryla. The Ushers of the Parliament of Shadows, who have a key for every door, and have a door to every room... including your own. And the Prophets of the Apocalypse whose mad ramblings for tell the end of all things, from your own horrific demise through to the end of creation itself.

But these powerful horrors aren't usually the things that go bump in the night. No, instead that duty is passed off to the closet monsters.

Closet monsters

Closet monsters are juvenile horrors whose fear has yet to fully "mature," meaning that not only are they weaker than their fully grown kindred, but also that they are comparative more irrational, impulsive, and, for lack of a better word, childish. Indeed, most closet monsters true forms are far from intimidating. While elder horrors may appear as pale-skinned humans, or horrible tentacled, or shadows with stars for eyes, closet monsters are more likely to appear as monstrous chimerae, as if a mad scientist tossed a bunch of small animals into a blender without rhyme or reason. There's one whoappears as a six-limbed dog whose eyes and maw shine with flickering light in the darkness, another who takes on the form of a raccoon with a massive maw on her tail, another that takes on the form of a rabbit with the flesh peeled from his head and limbs, another who appears a black-feathered gryphon, and another that appears as a ferret with blood-stained claws the length of her forearms.

Still, while they might not possess the subtlety of a mature horror, closet monsters are still living incarnations of fear, and know a thing or two about striking fear into the hearts of children. They can slip through thin spots between the Netherworld and the mortal realm, such as the shadowy corners of closets or the darkness beneath the bed, and control shadows with their thoughts. They can twist their bodies into horrific, monstrous mockieries of their true forms, teleport through shadows to appear right behind their prey, and transform into living darkness.

Of course, closet monster can be stopped by a nightlight, they cannot harm anything covered by a blanket, and smacking them with a teddy bear sends them reeling as if they were hit by a real bear. So it's not like children are powerless in the face of darkness.

Oh, and they're also not evil. They're mischievous, childish, sometimes needlessly cruel, and hungry for your fear. But they can be kind, noble, thoughtful, intelligent, and protective of the children they haunt. See, horrors, and thus closet monster, are one of the besouled races, which means they have free will and thus the ability to be something more than a scary monster under your bed. They're their own person, with dreams, desires, and, usually, a life that they engage in when they're not scaring people up for food. Some work jobs both in the supernatural and mortal worlds, others assume human form go off to university, and others... spend most of their time on the internet, actually.

Houses of the Horrors

• The Apocalypse Edge, the house of the end times, lead by the Prophet of Endings
• The Archives of Terror, the house of knowledge and memories
• The Bleak Grave, the house of death, lead by the Black Dog, Oude Rode Ogen
• The Carnival of Terror, the house of the unknown, lead by the Man Who Laughs
• The Coming Storm, the house of storms and natural disasters
• The Dark Below, the house of stone, metal, and buildings
• The Empty Cathedral, the house of religion, lead by the the Hollow Angel, Iruel
• The Everywhere Eye, the house of madness, lead by the Princess of Dreams, Alice
• The Falling Sands, the house of time
• The Final Court, the house of law and justice, lead by The Final Judge, Ma'at
• The Forest of Fangs, the house of the wild, lead by She of the Savage Smile, Cuca
• The Grand Stage, the house of control and manipulation, lead by the Puppetmaster
• The Hateful Sun, the house of light and power, lead by The Man in the Corner Office, Mr. Street
• The House of Bloodied Horns, the house of anger and war, lead by the Horned Hag, Babaroga
• The House's Game, the house of chaos and chance
• The Hungering Cold, the house of cold and hunger, lead by Grandmother Gryla
• The Lake of Tears, the house of sadness and depression, lead by the Weeping Mother, La Tulivieja
• The Midnight Mirror, the house of mirrors and oneself
• The Nightmare Lantern, the house of the dark, lead by the King of the Pumpkin Patch, "Mad" Jack O'Lantern
• The Obsidian Desert, the house of fire and destruction, lead by the Burned-Legged Man, Abu Rigl Masluka
• The Plagued Spirits, the house of disease, lead by the Headless Ape, Pugot
• The Ragged Hands, the house of loss, lead by the Sack Man
• The Red Hall, the house of lust and temptation
• The Ritual Macabre, the house of magic, lead by the Coffin Mage, Lagahoo
• The Rotting, the house of decay
• The Screaming Asylum, the house of pain, lead by the Good Doctor, Bonhomme Sept-heurs
• The Shadowed Sea, the house of water, lead by the Leviathan
• The Swarming Veil, the house of insects and parasites
• The Technocracy, the house of technology, lead by Big Brother
• The Twisted Manor, the house of truth and lies, lead by the Man in Black

Horror Culture and History

The customs involving a newly spawned horror have changed drastically over the millenia.

The earliest records of the horrors aren’t from the shadowspawn themselves, but from dragons and giants, who recorded beasts of darkness who hunted mankind. These shadow beasts were noted for their cruel cunning and their incredible resilience—without magic, few humans survived being a horror’s prey.

As humans built towns and cities, horrors adapted to stalking the streets, and some even began to take on a human visage, hiding their cruel natures behind the mask of humanity. Cities proved to be a fertile hunting ground for the shadowspawn, and over the centuries, an increasing number of horrors civilized themselves.

This is where we get back to the spawning customs. For millenia, horrors were spawned as feral, fear-driven beasts who acted primarily upon instinct. They were fully sentient, and possessed of a soul and free will, but most horrors lived as little more than animals, slaves to the terror that animated them and drove them on.

The civilization of horrors that arose within the cities didn’t celebrate when a new horror was spawned, for that just meant another wild beast had been losed upon creation. Instead, they celebrated when that beast eventually calmed down, and the rational side of the horror’s soul took hold. The time this took varied for each horror—some would become rational within a decade of being spawned, others lived their entire life as brutal monsters.

These rational horrors formed societies within the Netherworld, building fortresses out of shadowstuff that housed gates to the various human cities that each society claimed at their own. Each of these societies was headed by a powerful, elder horror who ruled through fear and loyalty. Most of these ancient shadowspawn have vanished into the sands of time, but some of them survive to this day: the Man in Black, the Sack Man, the Leviathan, the Horned Hag, and the Bogeyman. Each society would seek out newly civilized horrors, and through a combination of flattery, intimidation, and lies convince them to join up with a certain society. In the early days of horror civilization, these were treated as, effectively, the equivalent to human births, as for the urban horrors, the monster they were before was scarcely worth consideration as a person.

As the millenia progressed, more horrors became civilized and more societies emerged, both of which lead to rivalries and even wars among the various factions of horrors over the precious resource that was their urban hunting grounds. Horror society likely would have remained in this disparate, fractious state into the modern era had the Bogeyman not seized the great citadel at the heart of Shadow from the fey Court of Night, and been crowned the King Over Shadows and Lord of Terror. The Bogeyman brought unity to horror-kind, and began to tame the wilds of Shadow at the same time human empires such as the Romans, Persians, and Chinese were taming the wilds of the mortal realm.

It was at this time that horrors began spawning their own offspring. Before the reign of the bogeymen, all horrors were either spawned directly from the pit, or were reborn humans. However, among the secrets discovered in the citadel was a ritual that allowed a horror to sever part of their fear and combine that with a deluge of anima to, potentially, create a new horror in their image. With access to the Pit now secured by the horrors control of the citadel, they could finally control the creation of new members of their species. Intially, only the leaders of the various factions performed such rites, creating loyal children to serve them. These newly spawned horrors were different from the horrors that were spawned naturally from the Pit. They tended to be smaller, and more easily tamed—tough the beast often flared up just beneath the surface. Indeed, it was discovered that if these new horrors killed, they would become just as savage as the newly spawned horrors from the earlier eras.

Now, civilized horrors had always tried to keep their slaughter to a minimum, because slaying an entire town was less effective than killing a single soul and letting the rest of the settlement tembe in fear and paranoia. However, what they didn’t know was that dying fear was something of a drug for horrors, it brought them temporary relief from the fears that constantly plagued them. Many horrors were unable to cope with that fear, and thus spent their entire lives seeking out the dying fears of mankind, never rising above the state of a savage beast. Those horrors who had civilized, however, were the ones who had developed a resistance to, or tolerance of, dying fear, and no longer had to cope with the addiction. Because the horrors spawned by the elders’ rituals were kept from going on a mass slaughter at their spawning, they didn’t have the same crippling addiction that every other horror had to deal with, and thus were spawned, in effect, civilized.

Thus it was decreed by the Bogeyman’s Council of Nightmares that horrors should not kill for dying fear anymore. This rule was not exactly the most popular one amongst the various factions of horrors. After all, it overturned millenia of practice. However, dissent was crushed, and a new generation rose among horrors: the spawn of the elders who never knew life as a beast. These horrors were different, more human in thought and action than even the reborn. Perhaps it was because these horrors never had to endure the darwinian cycle that defined the early years of the horrors before them.

These new horrors were typically reared in secret by the elders and their closest allies until they were strong enough to stand on their own. Creating a spawn weekend the elder, and the new horrors spawned by the rite were inexperienced—some would even say juvenile. Thus they were a vulnerability to be protected until they became an asset. There were no grand ceremonies or celebrations, instead the new spawn were raised in depths of their society’s fortress, taught the traditions of their elders and travelling with mentors into the mortal world to haunt.

Still, the majority of horrors spawned at this time arose from the Pit either naturally or through the rebirth of human souls, and these horrors still lived their early years as beasts. Indeed, it was considered important that these young horrors fight and struggle with both themselves and their kin to survive—only the strongest would survive to join the Bogeyman’s empire.

However, this would change over the following centuries. The societies became the modern houses. The Bogeyman established the Parliament of Shadows in the citadel, an advisory body formed by representatives of the common monsters of his dominion. And these politicians spread the knowledge of the ritual, forming their own, smaller dynasties. Generations of horrors were now being raised by parents and families. And this was having an effect on the horrors spawned from the Pit as well. They were coming to resemble the horrors spawned by the rite—smaller, less powerful, more easily civilized.

By the time the Veil Treaty was signed in Baghdad, a new paradigm had been established. The Parliament of Shadows understand that if they wanted to stick to the terms of the treaty, they couldn’t let the bestial horrors continue to plague mankind. And so they established towns throughout Shadow to track down wild horrors, bring them in, and civilize them. These towns were staved with experienced horrors who would try their best to tame the beasts, and bring out the rational mind within the monster.

This plan worked spectacularly, and was the start of the final shift in horror customs. Now, young horrors were being caught either shortly before or shortly after their first kill, and then brought to these towns to be trained and tamed, turned into functioning members of horror society. By the time of the Renaissance, the horrors were catching nine out of every ten spawns, and this, coupled with the increasing number of horrors spawned from mature horrors by the rite, created an entirely new ideology among the shadowspawn. The darwinian ideal of the past was replaced with the traditions of mankind, where every life was valuable and it was up to the community to raise their next generation.

A final major shift happened to the newly spawned horrors as well. Almost all of them were able to trap their beast away within themselves, creating something of a split personality, with a civilized half and a bestial half. While their bestial half still resembled the forms of the shadowy beasts of legend, their civilized half was smaller, weaker, and resembled something of a domesticated version of their beast. A new term came about to describe these young horrors: closet monsters.

The development of closet monsters changed how horror society functioned. Previously, the divide between young and old horrors held more of a master-apprentice. Now, however, it adopted a more human-like parent-child relationship, with closet monsters being considered the human equivalent of children. One was considered an adult within horror society when they finally managed to come to peace with their beasts and merged into a single, unified whole.

Horror society has continued to evolve, and some would say humanize itself. Now, most horrors are spawned to parents and raised by a diverse community of friends and family. Fewer horrors every year are spawned by the Pit, and most of those are reborn who have memories of a human life and family. In a few centuries, there may be little difference between the lives of horrors and humans, completing the transformation of the shadowspawn from the least human-like of the supernal races to the most human-like of them. Some may argue that this is the punishment levelled upon horror-kind for establishing the Veil and separating the magical and the mundane, but most modern horrors would disagree—after all, out of all the supernatural races, they are the most united and the most powerful.

The Self and the Beast

For the horrors of the Horror Shop 'verse, adulthood is defined when a horror's 'self' and 'beast' stop their struggle against each other and reach an accord--a unity of purpose, of thought, of personality that allows a horror to reach their true potential.

A young horror is torn between the human-facing 'self' and the 'beast', which is the purest expression of the fears and phobias a horror incarnates. The self holds the control over the body, but beast holds most of the horror's powers, and the more a horror's self taps into those powers, the more hold a beast has over the self--influencing the self to be more monstrous and less human in their actions. A self who is greatly weakened--through starvation, injury, or mortal danger--typically loses all control to their beast until the problem has been resolved, and the self can reestablish their mental and spiritual bindings.

For the majority of horrorkinds' history, new spawn were controlled entirely by their beasts--little more than savage monsters who stalked the night for human prey. Those spawn who were cunning enough or powerful enough to survive for long enough had their self emerge and the beast slowly acquiesce control to the more cunning and subtle self, until a mature horror arose from the beast.

After the civilizing efforts of the Bogeyman and the Parliament of Shadows, however, this balance was shifted--even on a metaphysical level. The beast is weaker now, and the self is able to tame it within days, if not hours. However, the self is still young and immature--little more than a human child--and the beast rebels against it, trying to regain control. Of course, modern horror society--which values subtlety and long plays--cannot have thousands of beasts roaming around slaughtering humans until their youth learn how to restrain their hungers. So instead, these young horrors' selves are taught to fully restrain their beasts, to ignore the tempting voices, to only let them out when the horror's life is on the line.

Of course, the beast isn't some alien entity, or even alternate personality--it's more of a reflection of the horror through a broken mirror, a version of themselves without the humanity, where they have fully embraced the monster within. A horror will always have their beast with them--it's as fundamental to the horror as the ego, superego, and id are to humans. Denying a fundamental part of yourself isn't exactly the healthiest thing. Eventually, the self will have to accept their monstrous parts, come to terms with the fact that they are the creature that goes bump in the night, and embrace their fears.

The question is how long this tug-of-war between the self and the beast goes on for. For some horrors, the beasts' promises of power are too tempting, and they give in almost immediately, resulting in a horror of an amoral, monstrous nature. On the other hands, some horrors have resisted their beasts for nearly a century, not willing to surrender their treasured humanity to the monster within. Now, all horrors do inevitably cave--but the longer the self holds out, the stronger the self is and the more equitable the partnership between the self and the beast, resulting in a more human--and humane--adult horror.

This also means that you can have a young horror who is 80 years old answering to an adult who is in their 40s. Because age is only a number for immortals.

Oh, incidentally, this discrepancy between beast and self is why young horrors look like small, bestial freakshow rejects--the beast determines the horror's true form, taking monstrous imagery from humanity's collective ID. The self then restrains that form, and 'tames it', thus taking a bit of an edge and cloaking themselves in a more presentable and acceptable form. Entirely subconscious in this case--it's more an expression of the self's rejection of the beast than wanting to actually appear like a three-foot-tall ferret or a six-armed dog.

Horror Society

Horrors are largely united as members of the Kingdom of Shadows, founded by the Bogeyman himself some two thousand years ago. Now, the Lord of Terror's been missing since after the Veil Treaty was founded in 821, and rulership has been passed to the Parliament of Shadows--the oldest and largest democratic body in existence.

See, back in the day, before the rise of the Bogeyman, the horrors were clannish, forming groups both to protect themselves from threats like human hunters, mages, fey, and therians, and to defend bountiful hunting grounds like cities or dense farmlands. These clans were ruled over by powerful elder horrors, who typically influenced the personalities, fears, and powers of their followers.

The Bogeyman was originally just the head of the Nightmare Lantern, a prominent house in Europe which defined itself through fears of darkness and things that went bump in the night. However, he was far-sighted, and managed to form numerous alliances across Shadow, and eventually, he headed to the monastery of the Last Prophet, the mad oracle of horror-kind. The Prophet fell to his knees at the sight of the Bogeyman, and proclaimed him to be "the Shadow and the Veil, the Eye and the Crown, Herald of the Third and the One Who Comes Before The Fall."

The Bogeyman, with the help of his allies, would drive the Winter Court of fey from Shadow and back to the Land of Eternal Winter. After this victory, the Prophet crowned the Bogeyman as Lord of Terror and King Over Shadows. His allies bent the knee--some willingly, others begrudgingly--and the Kingdom of Shadow was founded. Over the following several hundred years, the Bogeyman and his allies waged a war across Shadow, uniting most of Shadow, and a majority of horrorkind, under the rule of the Onyx Throne. Those elder horrors who joined him willingly were given seats on his Court of Nightmares, and those who refused were slain or exiled. In the end, the Bogeyman counted thirteen elder horrors on his council, and another seventeen who swore allegiance to him. These thirty would be the founders of the modern Houses of the Horrors.

With the rise of the Kingdom of Shadows, there was no more need for warfare between the horrors, and therefor the old factions, which determined themselves at least partially by geography, were no longer relevant. Instead, the elder horrors attracted followers who were ideologically aligned. This transformed the old clans into the modern houses, which as seen as more political and family groups than as having any regional identity. It's quite possible for a member of the Icelandic horror Gryla's house to be from Africa or Asia--indeed, Gryla's eldest daughter goes by the title of Xenue, the White Lady of the Himalayas. This transformation accelerated after the Bogeyman's disappearance and his replacement by the Nightmare Court, and the transformation of his Council of Shadows into the Parliament of Shadows.

The members of the Nightmare Court, and the other heads of the 17 houses, all were titled 'bogeyman' out of respect for their vanished king. Nowadays, the thirty houses are defined by the broad fears of the bogeyman at their head. For example, Gryla is the Bogeyman of Winter, and her house is called the Hungering Cold after her. Abu Rigl Maslukha is the Bogeyman of Fire and Destruction, and his house is the Obsidian Desert. Bonhomme Sept-Heurs is the Bogeyman of Pain, and his is the Screaming Asylum. Cuco is the Bogeyman of the Wilds, and hers is the Forest of Fangs. Jack O'Lantern succeeded the Bogeyman as head of the Nightmare Lantern, and is now the Bogeyman of the Dark. The Last Prophet is the head of the Apocalypse Edge, and Bogeyman of the Apocalypse--a title he refuses, but is foisted on him regardless (he also stepped down after the Bogeyman's disappearance, causing the group to elevate Bonhomme Sept-Heurs to his seat as the thirteenth member. This has only happened two other times. Once in the 1100s when Abu Rigl Maslukha overthrew the Wyrm to become the Bogeyman of Fire, and once in the 1600s when the Jester--the Bogeyman of the Unknown--stepped down, and the council elevated Big Brother--the Bogeyman of Technology.)

While the Nightmare Court functions as an executive, most of the actual power in Shadow falls to the Parliament, and its members, who are elected by the houses in 7-year terms. There's just over a thousand members, divided up through an arcane process developed over a millenia to give representation based roughly on house membership, territory, influence, power of their Bogeyman, and several other factors. Then members of that house vote for their representative, with members who get the most votes getting appointed to the Parliament. There's no parties during campaigning, but within the Parliament, there are numerous ideological blocks that cross house lines. It's a surprisingly democratic affair, though one rife with corruption, bribery, and the worst of politics.

Each Bogeyman is effectively the Lord and Master of their own domains--Cuco's shadow-filled forest, the Leviathan's great sea, the fetid jungle of Pugot, the sprawling manor estate of L'uemo Nero, Big Brother's Dark City, and so on. But the rest of Shadow nominally falls under the jurisdiction of the Parliament and their laws. It's a way to keep the peace between the various factions, appeasing the bogeymen while also ensuring unity among horrorkind. And most horrors tend to inhabit small towns and settlements scattered about Shadow, outside the domain of their bogeyman. As I mentioned earlier, horrors tend to treat houses as part political party, part union, part nationality, and part family.

Horrors are asexual creatures--are horrors are spawned from the Pit, ultimately, and thus they don't really have the urge to reproduce. And yet one of the great discoveries the Bogeyman made--and what cemented him as lord of the horrors--what a ritual which allowed a horror to essentially carve off part of the fear that composes them, combine it with anima, and toss it into the Pit. If done properly, the anima will react in a way that will draw a soul to it, and create a new horror based on the fear that was provided. In almost every way, this new horror is a child of the one who donated the fear--they share fears, and thus, in many cases, they also share appearances and physical traits. Now original this ritual was shared only with the Bogeyman's closest allies, but after his disappearance, the Parliament discovered it, and shared it with the masses. Now, in the modern era, more horrors are spawned via this ritual than crawl out of the Pit naturally, and thus are raised in families not entirely unlike humans.

Now, horrors are asexual, but that doesn't mean they're aromantic. Horrors--especially young ones--can fall in love. Usually it's seen as a youthful fling or too much influence, but older horrors usually entertain it, because horrors don't exactly have the easiest lives, and having someone to love might be the only thing that gets you through it. So while marriage isn't common among horrors, its not unheard of, and long-term relationships are not uncommon. And yes, that ritual that spawns new horrors can have more than one contributing horrors--it can have up to about a dozen, though any more than three usually results in multiple horrors being spawned (of course, multiple horrors can spawn even with one contributor--horrors can have twins too). Again, this is mostly found among under 200 years old, as age and ambition tends to sadly dampen such feelings and desires.