#Nixie the former hero...

[owens-of-the-lab]

Evil Google search history :

Molecular structure resources

How to help an engineer with a large scale project

Non-silver jewelry

Jewelry that doesn't contain silver

Silver allergy friendly jewelry

Is there an organization with the initial V.M.A.?

V.M.A. meaning

V.M.A organization

Nixie

The late hero of Tumbler Town, Nixie

Nixie, the Hero agency

Recent vagabonds, shadowy figures, or vigilantes

[cavefilllingcorporation]

The Battle of Elites, Aftermath

The events of this Employee Experience happened on 1/2/2025.

Location: Steel’s Vengeance, currently hovering over C8H

Agent, a new Acolyte of the Legion, was standing in the meeting room. He hadn’t participated in the battle below. Not that he needed to. From what he understood the Legion took them out easily, along with the Contractor. Huh, it was amazing that a random Chaosdiver could end up doing so much.

Agent’s thoughts were then broken by the arrival of the Centurion and Commander Vismark.

Centurion: “Agent. What are you doing at this hour? It is very late.”

Agent: “Same could be said to you. And I’m trying to figure out what happened down there.”

Vismark: “Really? I didn’t take you to be the curious type.”

Agent: “Well, I…”

Centurion: “You found that there was a Nixie Shark in the report, didn’t you.”

Agent, while looking at the floor: “…yes. Yes I did. I presume she’s related to Vixie Shark.”

Centurion: “We believe so, yes. And based by this report, she also seems to be in command of one of the MazeRun terrorist organizations”

Agent quickly snapped his head around upon hearing that. This was news to him.

Agent: “I’ve heard of those terrorist groups. Tell me, how bad are they?”

The Centurion and Vismark didn’t even need to answer him to answer the question. Instead, Vismark played a couple of clips from the fight.

“A slave doesn't get to challenge their master! And you are nothing more than a mere peasant!”

“Fine. I will deal with this animal myself! Strike the first blow, see how powerless you truly are at a higher being!”

The first clip came from a terrorist, joined by others, who were coming towards a man in black and red armor. The second was from before that incident, coming from a man of leadership who was wearing monkish robes and wielding a large staff. Both clips were recorded from the wreckage of a surveillance Crate.

Agent: “Hold on, I recognize the terrorists. Trying to blend in as normal civilians with as much body armor as they can get their hands on while wearing jewelry and fine clothing and anything else that exposes them as former elites. But what about the monks? Who are they?”

Vismark: “Those are Librarians. They hail from the Storytime Dimension. They… aren’t usually this radicalized though.”

Agent: “Seems just like another case of elites talking out of their- sorry.”

Vismark: “The problem is that they weren’t this bad. Dangerous with a destructive ideology for sure, but not universe conquering bad.”

Agent looked at the Centurion, hoping that this was a joke.

Centurion: “The reports from the Contractor did indicate that their plan was to take the riches of the planet, before using them to build an army to conquer everything.”

Agent: “There’s no way they could have succeeded, right?”

Vismark: “Of course not. There weren’t even a thousand there. There’s no way they would have been able to take the planet before the Legion arrived. Their idiotic plan was doomed from the start.”

Agent: “Then why are the others celebrating the Contractor as a hero if he did nothing?”

Vismark: “Don’t worry about that, they’re quite fine. It’s the biggest invasion the planet has seen to date, even if it wasn’t much. Besides, the Contractor didn’t’ do nothing. He stalled them for a long time, allowing the Legion to arrive to help neutralize them. He even killed one of the Librarians on his own. Not an unimpressive feat. If it wasn’t for him, we could have had some employee casualties on our end.”

Agent nodded. “Alright, I’ll leave you two be then.”

And with that, Agent left. Perhaps he could find an ally in this Contractor. Moreover, this discovery confirmed what he had suspected. Vixie was up to something. And if anybody was going to catch her in the act, it would be him.

{Atlas "Chaplain" RPed by Lore_Chaplain}

[nixie-deangel]

For @losfdiversityweek, Day Seven, Ladies.

Sara Lance, White Canary.

[gerrinson]

MOAR CONTENT

I am going to try actually generating some content. I am expecting to embark into adventure by running a monthly Kingmaker campaign. For those not familiar with Kingmaker, it is a series of adventures set in the mythical world of Golarion, put out by the company Paizo for use in their Pathfinder gaming system. It’s basically Dungeons & Dragons. And tons of fun!

In the meantime, I am going to present some highlights from my prior, and sadly defunct, gaming group. The party consisted of:

Yoshimori Mochizuki, a Kitsune sorcerer with a red panda animal companion named Niyati.

Ilyat Krugasdottir, an orc barbarian, former slave, lesbian, and bubble bath connoisseur.

Drogo Brownlock, a halfling rogue with a mild obsession with cooking.

Haran-ne-quet Lindele, an elf wizard who had parted ways with his family and traveled under the sobriquet of ‘Simon’, a nickname given to him by human friends.

And Allinav, a human bard, who grew up on the streets of Absolom and stumbled onto the path of the bard.

I take credit only for creating the stories that brought them together. The player running the character of Allinav wrote journals from the PC’s perspective for the first few sessions. Here are the journal entries, in his own words:

Entry one.

Today is the day! After weeks of training, my resume into the Pathfinders guild has been accepted. I received notice today by a very nice gentlemen that I am to be sworn in, as well as given my first orders as a member of the guild in three days’ time, and that I should and I quote "maybe purchase some more efficient clothing..." I guess this miss matched Hodge podge of an outfit sourced from local lost and founds does appear to be lacking in that official Adventurer Looks. This is most certainly going to be an amazing adventure, I cannot wait to see who I become partied with, A noble knight, a wise wizard, A cunning Evlish ranger, a Mighty Dwarven Paladin, or maybe a catlike rogue! Hmm, I wonder what sort of things I should bring with me on this trip. I feel like I should have a grappling hook... All good stories have a grappling hook... I think I'm going to buy a grappling hook.

Entry Two.

It's an Orc. There is an Orc not 10 feet from me, and it’s a Lady Orc. This is ridiculous! How did an Orc manage to become a member of the pathfinders guild!? Is there not some sort of law against allowing Orcs with great swords bigger than a person to just walk around Absalom all willy nilly? Today was the day I found myself partied with the strangest cast of characters I could ever imagine. We have the aforementioned Orc, Ilyat. She is just... Ginormous, at least a foot taller than myself, and the most strange and to be quite honest disturbing part of it all, the heavy dense smell of lavender. It's almost hard to breath! I wonder is this the scent that the stories always spoke of, that orcish scent that sends weaker men running from the battle field.

In addition to Ilyat, there is an elven sorcerer named Simon, He seems like a pretty nice fella, all things considered, was looking some place called "The Academy" We don't really have any academies from my area of town, maybe one of the richer folks can assist him in finding directions.

Next up is Yoshisomething somethingsuzuki, Looks like a regular human Sorcerer, but oh my word he has a red panda named Niyati. It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen, upon further inquiry he found it when it was a babe, whilst foraging in the jungle... I have made a note that at the next nearest opportunity that maybe we should go in search of more red pandas.

Finally, we have the worst of the group, and that is saying something when one of the group is an Orc Barbarian. Drogo the Halfling rogue. To those that may find this journal, if I am dead, Drogo is the cause. Not 5 hours after meeting this Halfling, He asked If I could show him where he could gamble a few coins, Obviously having grown up on these streets I knew just the place, what I did NOT know however was just how quickly the Halfling was to be angered, and even quicker he is to flee, and abandon me to the mercy of the 4 armed thugs he picked a fight with, and that had just lost out on a very large purse filled with coin. Ultimately I was able to scare the lot off with a little bit of bravado and a whole lot of telling them that I have it on good authority that a giant Orc would be coming by any second to check up on me. Suffice of to say, that Halfling is not to be trusted.

On a better note however is I've got a mission! Col Arkola is sending us to Maina. Apparently Goblins have been raiding the village, and in addition to that someone has been stealing Live Stock. I wonder if the two could be connected. I bet it's a bunch of Halflings… Halflings appear to be just the worst.

Side note, be sure to investigate getting limbs replaced with dragon bones.

Entry Three.

Drogo shall feel the wrath of any ancestor I may have that might deem me worthy of dealing out wrath. I was informed by one of the guards that Drogo attempted to steal from my pack last night while I slept inside the Guild Barracks. What sort of monster attempts to steal from his own group on the very first night, not a very nice monster that's for sure.

I will say though, one of the perks of being an adventurer, the food. They feed you like kings here, fruits, vegetables, breads, Beef Stews, Tankards of mead. This truly is amazing, although the stew wasn't as good as a hearty bowl of mystery meat.

We leave by boat today, after talking to the others, I've realized that I'm severely under geared. All of that Gold I'd saved is nearly gone now. Although Col. Ma’am informed us that we would be awarded 100 gold for completing the mission, as well as anything we legally obtain along the way. Of course the Halfling would need a definition of "Legally"

Entry Four.

Everything is going Tits up. Not an hour into our adventure everyone is bleeding, half of the other passengers on the boat hate us, and I'm pretty sure the orc managed to kill a half dozen elves while nobody was looking. She swears that it wasn't her that put all those elf skulls into that trunk, but I'm still skeptical, the next story I hear about a good Orc will be the first story I hear about a good Orc.

After seeing the Orc with a chest full of Elven Skulls, and then the Halfling trying to rob the poor lady's second trunk, which was fucking trapped by the way, seriously what kind of rogue just flings open a trunk like that; hence all the blood, It took me a good portion of the rest of my gold, and a solid hour worth of talking to both the captain and the woman to make sure everything was squared away, and no charges would be filed. I feel as if this is some sort of cruel trick, I've been partied with what appears to be a group of felons, and a red panda.

Fun fact of the day, some Elvish clans send their remains and ancient relics to special shrines so that their souls be at peace. Keep that in mind the next time you run across a nice lady with a trunk full of skulls.

Entry Five.

My first attempt at travel by boat has ended. Three of the longest, partially sleepless night aboard this boat during the storms is over, I never wanted to be on solid ground so badly before. We have arrived at ‘Oppara’, the first stop on our journey.

Have you ever heard the rumors that Adventuring is a good way to make some gold pieces? Those rumors are a lie. It's been less than a week, but my coin purse is not nearly empty. In order to complete the next portion of this journey we will need to take a barge up river, and in order to do that it's going to cost us double because of the Orc. Between paying for the Orc Tax, and constantly keeping an eye on the Halfling I have little doubt that I will either end this crusade dead, or very much so in debt.

It's raining again, Captain Slather has informed me that it is almost time to push off. Maybe playing some music for these chaps with get us to our destination faster.

Entry Six.

Forget everything I've said. Adventuring is Amazing. It's been three days since the barge began to head up river towards Maina, and today we saw our first action as a group, without any Halflings running away.

Sometime around lunch I was watching the waves the barge made as it swiftly moved upstream when from under the water we saw some otters, sure they were not as adorable as the red panda, but these ones appeared to play with us by splashing us with water, The orc didn't seem to even notice them, but what do you expect from such a beast. What was unexpected however was when the otters turned into Nixie! Two Magical fae sea creatures! Simon appeared quite smitten by them as they were talking back and forth in what sounded like garbled noise. Yoshi, who was less enamored, made sure that the rest of us understood what was going on. Apparently the Nixie were in search of champions to help save their children from a fearsome Taztlewrym, which according to the stories I've heard is a DRAGON!

After a brief debate, and a promising to the captain, Barnabus Slather that so long as they wait for us at shore we will give them an additional 5 gold pieces, we began our journey up an offshoot stream to the nixie's den. After assessing the situation, and taking up positions, the Wyrm made its appearance charging with full force towards Ilyat whom was guarding the land entrance. This “mighty” Dragon was of little threat to such a magnificent cadre of heroes, a couple of powerful swings from Ilyat's great sword, and a single Arrow from Simons bow, we felled it without a single wound received. After the hide had been carefully skinned and stowed away for sale at a later date, And the Halfling nearly murdering all of us by trying to remove its poisonous sacks, the Nixie were kind enough to provide us with some potions, and well wishes. I'm still low on gold, but the rush of battle shall keep me energized for days to come.

Entry Seven.

After 3 more days on the barge, we have arrived in Maina without further incident, which in of itself is a minor miracle, but even better we have sold the wrym skin, and I have won a story telling competition! After stopping off at ‘Meklo, Meplo, and Shrine’ and meeting a true to life angel person The group split up to take care of the business of restocking supplies, I of course Sent word back to Col Arkola informing her of the news she may here regarding the Elf Skulls, and after that I decided to visit the trumpeting swan from the recommendation of Miss Shrine, which as the name might suggest, has trumpeting swans which sound once for each hour, on the hour. There was so many talented bards and the fact that I won reaffirms that I made the right choice in deciding to finally leave Absalom.

The competition was to tell two stories, And It appears that most of the other bards were not prepared to tell the additional story, I however was able to make up a short story based on the day’s earlier events.

The Orc and the Angel Has any a time seen such a more odd pair One so full of rage and ready to strangle The other so stunning you can only stare But looks can be deceiving One searches for acceptance While the other is scheming The subtle change in stance, By the beast so wounded "That orc has no worth" spoken with venom How can someone so lovely, say something so stupid Little does she know this orc is a Phenom.

Of course in order to get to the finals I had to tell the tale Of how we had slain the mighty two headed dragon in order to save the Meer folk city, and how in the middle of battle I squared off with the dragon face to face, Lute versus fire breathing destruction, and how we came out victorious against all odds. A little embellishing never hurt anyone. The 75 gold pieces added to my cut of the Wrym skin has my gold pouch nearly filled to the brim. I should investigate purchasing a second one, possibly a third which I'll trap to keep that filthy Halfling on his toes. Below is a rough impression of my first place medal, its solid bronze, and would no doubt work quite well in a fight.

*Editor’s note - he didn’t actually include a picture so you’ll have to use your imagination.

[emotionalwizard]

That’s nice to hear! I fully agree with the former two definitions, as they seem very applicable. 100% agree that dragons are generally Weird Snakes with additional bits and bobs added and that they are sometimes considered demonic spirits. A good friend of mine actually wrote an article on the topic of Western ones. Quite frankly, I like ‘em weird. 

I do (respectfully!!!!!) disagree on the topic of what makes something an ogre, however, likely due to differences in needs for the term. I personally categorize monsters, most especially ones of a humanoid appearance, into the two categories of ogres and trolls (of which I’m delighted with your single offering of Boyg) with a simple rule of thumb: ogres from within, trolls from without.

Huge amount of self-indulgent nerding out below the cut. I’ve been wanting to share this somewhere for a long while, and this just happened to be the best opportunity to get it off my chest.

If a monster is big, humanoid, and is dangerous to folks, but its general role in the story is to represent the perils of nature in an anthropomorphized form, it’s a troll. If it eats people, it’s almost certainly a troll, but it doesn’t have to. This definition loosely covers things like dwarves, nixies, goblins, and many of the creatures you have labeled as ogres such as the man-eating boulder, dulhath, eloko, the Dodo, etc.

I hesitate to say that all of these creatures should definitively be labeled trolls primarily because trolls, despite the name having originally been a catch-all term in a very similar sense as “oni“ once were, is still a Western European concept, just like fairies. It’s like if Japan referred to Tinker Bell as a youkai: technically not wrong from a certain point of view, but we have our own word.

Meanwhile, my impression of ogres is that of humanity magnified. While a troll represents nature, ogres are either dark reflections of or are/were human in nature, origin, or behavior.

My foremost example of this concept is the ogre devoured by Puss In Boots who, rather than being portrayed as a force of nature, is instead living in a great castle close enough to a village of commoners that he can regularly scout out, steal away, and have his servants prepare human flesh, with some illustrations giving him a lion-like countenance, something associated with both nobility and animal temperament, while others opt for “kinda just a bigger dude, really.“ He could very well have just been a noble that practiced magic and ate babies for fun.

Further cementing this take are stories like Sleeping Beauty, where our Prince Charming figure’s mom is a cannibal frequently described as an ogre that nobody seems to be having any problems with until she wants princess for dinner, Beauty and the Beast, where a fairy transforms an asshole prince into a horrid monster until someone helps him get over himself, as well as stories from across the globe, including oni and the w*ndigo, wherein intense evil proceeds a transformation into a horrid giant that craves the flesh of one’s fellow man.

And then you have stories about people who are just larger than life in some way. They’re supposedly human, with or without the addition of purported magical abilities, but the way they’re presented is so over-the-top ludicrous that they become either a hero or, more relevantly, a bogeyman figure. That latter category, which includes the exaggerated reports of Bluebeard, Blackbeard, Vlad Tepes, and Attila the Hun, I’d say often strays into the same realm of ogres, as do fictional tales of many a “totally human“ slasher movie antagonist, like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, who just so happens to be freakishly tall, strong, resilient, and deadly in cartoonish ways.

And then there’s the giants that don’t fit the mold of people-eaters. Even discounting the last paragraph, I can still easily point to the eponymous Beast wooed by the Beauty, the Ogre King Rhinoceros of Bearskin, Red Oni Who Cried, Andrew Lang’s The Ogre, etc. While the vast majority are villains, and them being “really big*, evil people” is pretty much par for the course, the uniting factors boil down to “they’re ultimately human in nature, whether or not they look the part.”  (disclaimer: may not actually be big in ways you were expecting)

As for why I came to this specific conclusion... it’s mostly a growing infatuation with giants in general and how they’ve been handled in many a story. Giants in fairy tales, ogres especially, tend to feature as either stand-ins for big, bad grown-ups and/or bullies who want to hurt them, to the delight of children and people who remember being children, or as stand-ins for foreign enemies (of which I vastly prefer the former over the latter), but as times have changed, they’ve also presented the third option of “that big weirdo that just needs a friend.“

Also, D&D and Tolkien (LotR onward) style ogres and trolls just make me grouchy. I don’t like how wildly inventive and compelling creatures got boiled down into something so bland and uninteresting, and while I don’t deny that big smashy man is fun sometimes, I crave the more legendary aspects, too.

...But that’s just my opinion, and not only is this a “tomato: fruit or vegetable?“ debate where the answer is dependent of what approach you’re taking, it’s also about something that does not objectively exist in reality. Besides, “a rock that eats people is an ogre“ is objectively more correct than what D&D came up with.

tl;dr: Ogres are simultaneously very specific in terms of vibes and yet also weirdly everywhere, in my experience. Your Mileage May Vary.

So I've been a major fan of ABoC since I first saw your quite faithful recreation of the Hidebehind. Big fan. That said, I wanted to know a few things about your choices for categorization. Namely, what would you say truly categorizes a dragon? What about demons? And, this one most especially has taken root in my brain, what makes something an ogre?

Good questions! I've been going by different rules of thumb, more or less strictly, which may or may not ideal!

Everyone loves coming up with classification schemes for dragons. Generally I go by the rule that if the reference calls it a dragon, it's a dragon. But then it gets more difficult.

The broadest definition for dragon is "anything big and reptilian", which is how it's been used, generally speaking. But I would say True Dragons (TM) in the Truest Sense (TM) are the Greek drakons and their descendants. So dragons in the Greek, Roman, and eventually European tradition. Which makes dragons big snakes anyway. (The things sent to strangle Heracles? Drakons. The tail end of the Chimera? Yup, a drakon.)

I generally use "demon" to refer to anything that can be described as an "evil spirit". Being reptilian (or otherwise) is not its main aspect as much as Being Evil. Of course, a dragon can be a demon too, why not?

As for ogre, it's not a physical quality, it's an occupation. And that occupation is Eating People. If the main thing that distinguishes it is that it eats people, that makes it an ogre.

[cult-of-death-blog]

Garden Dwarves and House Spirits by Claude Lecouteux

The impression that we have of dwarves from fairy tales is essentially based upon nineteenth-century folk literature. In fact, once upon a time they were a fantastical people that lived in wild and uncultivated regions, some of whom entered into the service of lords or heroes.

According to the Poetic Edda, dwarves were originally born out of the decomposing body of Ymir, the primordial giant, although the traditional accounts are hardly unanimous. These children of Ymir who created a race in their image were named Móðsognir and Durinn. They were not the only ones, however, since the gods took Ymir’s skull to use as the celestial vault, set it atop four columns, under each of which they placed a dwarf. These dwarves bear the names of the four cardinal points: Norðri, Suðri, Austri, Vestri.

In the tenth century, the various Germanic terms for a dwarf—such as Old High German zwerc, Old Norse dvergr, and Old English dweorg—were portmanteau words that concealed all manner of figures from folk mythology. The names designate elves as well as nightmares, howlers, fauns, satyrs, ogres, goblins, and brownies. The dwarf’s own image suffers as a result of this, and a number of its actions can only be explained in the light of such conflations.

The first dwarf turns up in medieval German literature between 1023 and 1050, but other non-literary evidence exists to show that dwarves were present long before this. As a result, it becomes apparent that the medieval romances drew upon folk traditions, among other things.

In this same geographical region, the Heldenbuch (Book of Heroes), printed in Strassburg around 1483, puts a Christian spin on the earlier mythological material when it relates how God peopled the earth that he had just created. God first made dwarves to develop the earth; afterward he created the giants whose duty it was to protect the dwarves against the then teeming population of dragons. But the giants turned treacherous and began oppressing the dwarves, at which point God created heroes to restore and keep secure His order. Another very old text, the thirteenth-century Middle High German translation of the Magnificat, says: “God distributed the demons among the entire earth. In the waters and mountains lived the Nixies and the Dwarves, in the forests and swamps the Elves, the Thurses, and other spirits.” We should note that an Icelandic tale collected in the nineteenth century, Huldumanna genesis (The Origin of the Hidden Men), made dwarves the children of Eve. Because they were unwashed, Eve hid them from the eyes of God, who then decreed: “Whatever should be hid from my sight should also be hid from that of men.” These children were therefore invisible: they dwelt in the hills and mountains, in holes, and among the rocks.

Illustration by Helen M. Armstrong, from “The Peasant and the Brownies,” Swedish Fairytales, 1901.

There are three major types of dwarves in the Germanic regions. The first is the old, bearded figure, who is somewhat rare but whose existence is attested to by the figure of Alberich in the Nibelungenlied; this type of dwarf is ubiquitous in folktales and, much later, in European gardens. Next, there is the extremely beautiful child, a type for which the sole evidence is found in the thirteenth-century epic romance Ortnit, but this depiction actually corresponds with that of an elf. Finally, there is the figure of the dwarf knight, which appears quite frequently and is a diminutive version of a human hero.

Dwarves reside in hollow mountains, have hierarchical systems and families, and their society is similarly structured to that of humans. Like human beings, dwarves fall prey to their passions, wage war, become jealous, and so on.

Originally, the dwarf had no set size, but rather could transform at will to whatever size he desired. Furthermore, we constantly come across expressions in the Middle Ages like “little dwarf” or “miniscule dwarf,” as if it was necessary to indicate that a given dwarf was a small or tiny figure. The small size of the dwarf undoubtedly stems from the influence of the scholarly tradition regarding the pygmies, which were called Trispithames because they measured three spithames, in other words, around three feet tall. Generally speaking, dwarves measured between two to four feet in height.

The dwarf possessed the strength of twelve to twenty men, which is sometimes explained by their ownership of magic objects such as a belt, a helmet, or a ring.

As a cave dweller and a subterranean inhabitant of wild and rocky places, the dwarf knew all the secrets of nature: the virtues of plants, waters, and minerals. For this reason, he is an excellent smith, although the weapons that he manufactures under coercion—often after having been captured—turn out to be malevolent in nature. He can go wherever he pleases in the blink of an eye, knows the future, is the keeper of great wealth, and sometimes kidnaps women to be his brides. His hereditary enemies are dragons and giants. In Germanic mythology, dwarves and giants often bear the same name, and giants have dwarves for sons. A figure like Regin, the smith who took in the young Siegfried, was even described as a giant with the size of a dwarf. Again it becomes apparent that “dwarf” and “giant” do not connote the size of the creatures they designate; these are the generic names of mythological races.

Names That Speak

Thanks to the names of dwarves, we are able to see that these creatures are regularly confused with elves—one is named Gandálfr, for example, which literally means “Elf with the magic wand.” Elves are typically craftsmen and more especially smiths, and we find dwarves with names like Sindri (“Spark Sprayer”), or even simply Brokkr (“Blacksmith”). The harmful nature of dwarves is evident from names like Alþjófr (“Master Thief”), Ginnar (“Deceiver”), Þráinn (“Threatener”), Dori (“Damager”), Eitri (“Poisonous One”), or Mjǫðvitnir (“Mead Wolf”). They know magic, as is evident in such names as Galarr (“Enchanter”) or Finnr, Fiðr (“Finn,” i.e., Sámi or Laplander, a people who were regarded as sorcerers). Their physical nature is displayed in such names as Dúfr (“Twisted”), Bǫmburr (“Fatty”), Hárr (“Hoary”), and Blindi (“Blind”). This last name refers to a very specific characteristic of dwarves: the sun blinds and petrifies them. Undoubtedly even more interesting are the names that clearly show that dwarves represent a mythical vision of the dead, or, at the very least, that they have a very close bond with the dead. 

Here are several of them: Dáinn (“Died”), Nár and Náinn (both meaning “Corpse”), Frosti (“Cold”), Funinn (“Decomposed”), Dvalinn (“Torpid”), Hornbori (“Pierced by a Horn”), Haugspori (“The One Who Enters the Burial Mound”) and Búinn (“Ready for- Departure,” i.e., for burial). To this list we can also add Nýi (“Dark”) and Niði (“New Moon”), since this planetary body is that of the deceased, and Ái (“Ancestor”), which clearly indicates the transformation of the dead into dwarves. Furthermore, the natural habitat of the dwarves is the lithic realm, which is of course that of the deceased. We should note that the malevolent dead (those who experienced a premature, violent, or unusual death) become dwarves and revenants. The good dead, as I have shown in another study, Fantômes et Revenants au Moyen Âge, become elves. One final detail is that whoever follows a dwarf into his kingdom never returns, as is related in the legend of the Scandinavian king, Sveigdir, and, with a subtle difference, in the legend of King Herla in England, the leader of the Infernal Hunt, which is also known under the name of Mesnie Hellequin.

Freya in the cave of the dwarves.Illustration by HLM, Asgard Stories, 1901.

Dwarves are fabulous artisans who forged various instruments and objects owned by the gods: Thor’s hammer, Odin’s spear, Njord’s boat, the ring Draupnir, and Freyr’s boar. All of these items are magical. But it was dwarves, too, who crafted the grate that seals off the underworld, Hel, and the chain that shackles the wicked Loki. When they forge things for men, their wickedness comes to the fore: the weapon is baleful. As for their treasures, whoever makes off with them will die, the best example being the cursed gold in the legend of Siegfried. In short, what is predominant among the “true dwarves” is their sly and ill-scheming nature, a quality that reappears in the romance literature. It is this character attribute that distinguishes them from elves.

Household Deities

Garden dwarves have adopted some of their traits from goblins and from spirits of the mines: their red caps come from the former and their lanterns from the latter. The beard is an old attribute intended to represent their great age and therefore their erudition and wisdom. The pipe is an element that was apparently added to this figure during the nineteenth century. But the garden dwarf has another, much more profound meaning, in that it actually represents the household deity: a creature that oversaw the proper functioning of the house and the well-being of its inhabitants on the condition that they granted it their respect, gave it regular offerings of food (broth or dairy products), and made sure never to set foot in the territory reserved for it, such as a corner in the attic. There is a spirit that lives in the main house, and others reside in the outlying farm buildings. All of these spirits have various names in the Germanic countries and are characterized by their physical aspect. Names referring to objects are not uncommon, such as “Piece of Wood” (Poppele) or “Block” (Butz); these beings were originally amorphous and gradually were given human features. In earlier times they were certainly idols. Their generic names may also refer to anthropomorphic features., such as Junge (“Youngster”), Kerlchen (“Little Fellow”), Männchen (“Little Man”), or, in the case of Grieske and Schrättli, connote the idea of deformation. They can refer to their color (which may be gray, white, or red), or a distinctive feature of their dress, such as Hödeken (“Little Hood”), Blauhösler (“Blue Pants”), or Stiefel (“Boots”); or simply their vague and indefinite nature such as Umg’hyri (“Disturbing Monster”) or Spuk (“Phantom”).

The majority of these spirits are of male gender and their names, which are quite often diminutives, suggest the notion of their small size as well as that of familiarity and affection. Beyond the aforementioned sorts of names, we come across those that simultaneously designate spirits, deities, and the dead who are predisposed to smoothly running households.

A house can have one or more spirits. When they are numerous, a family of spirits may be involved, although this notion seems due to a contamination with the dwarves. A Frisian account relates how a poor peasant finally managed to finish building his house thanks to the gifts from his neighbor. To ensure his good fortune, he invited the Puke [spirits] to live with him. They soon arrived to inspect the new house, and danced about it until one of them, about three inches high, decided to stay there and chose a hole in the beam for his home.

Typically, each individual building of a homestead is inhabited by its own spirit. This explains the multiplicity of names that we find for these spirits in a single geographic area.

These spirits that we see today, frozen in our gardens and reduced to the status of simple decorations, are the misunderstood vestiges of a former time when they were vitally alive and participated in the lives of men. They have lost their names and are now little more than generic dwarves. Since men no longer believe in them, and because our habitat has profoundly changed, they have abandoned us—they no longer perform any domestic duties, and, with their disappearance, part of a dream has vanished.

(Translated by Jon Graham)

A version of this article originally appeared in La Grande Oreille 35 (2008): 52–55. For publication in English, it has been slightly expanded in collaboration with the author.

Selected Works by Claude Lecouteux on This Theme:

Claude Lecouteux. Nos bons voisins. Nains, elfes, lutins, gnomes, kobolds et compagnie, textes réunis, présentés et annotés. Paris: Corti, 2010. ———. Les nains et les elfes au Moyen Âge. 3rd edition. Paris, Imago, 2004. ———. Eine Welt im Abseits. Studien zur niederen Mythologie und Glaubenswelt des Mittelalters. Dettelbach: Röll, 2001. ———. “Zwerge und Verwandte.” Euphorion 75 (1981): 366–78

[nixie-deangel]

for the hc ask, how about Coldflash and halloween?

Everyone assumes it's Barry that's gonna go crazy over the Holiday, as Joe is fond of telling everyone about how over the top Barry would get, but it’s actually Len that insists on pulling out all the over the top, scary decorations for their house. He says it’s just to ensure their neighbors -very normal people Barry and Len try to keep from finding out one is the cities Hero and the other is a former world renowned former thief turned hero- don’t get suspicious. 

But it’s really because Halloween had been something Len remembers his mom being into and he’s gone decades without being able to indulge in it. 

Send Nixie a ship/character + a word, and I'll give you a HC.