Father Poppy

"Central to the tales of the ancients was the figure of Father Poppy, a character, apparently male, who traveled across Eryia in the middle of the night to visit his children and bring them gifts."

— From the essay "Prominent Ancient Personages" by Filecia Drawstrink

Humans are extremely odd creatures as history proves time and time again. While one can certainly understand some historical behaviors given the context of ancient cultures, some stories stand out as oddities that hint at customs that we may never fully understand. One of these is the many recorded midnight interactions between children with a male figure named Father Poppy. The story of Father Poppy's midnight visits are recorded and repeated consistently across the entire continent of Eryia across a period of time lasting roughly five hundred years.

Father Poppy was clearly a wizard as by all accounts he traveled in a magic flying cart drawn by blue oxen with wings. He insisted that all children be asleep while he visited them, and he left gifts for them and their caregivers on the foot of the child's bed. By all accounts, Father Poppy claimed the children he visited were his own and that he loved them dearly. This appears credible from the gifts left with the children and attested to by adult reports during the historical period during which Father Poppy's visits were recorded. Some have speculated that these midnight visits were of a shady nature, but there is absolutely no evidence from any of the actual historical accounts that this is true, rather, the visit of Father Poppy was seen as a special treat and time for great joy and celebration, particularly for children, and every dark tale told during the season of Father Poppy, ended with a happy, hopeful message.

One might be tempted to discard the stories of Father Poppy as fairy tales, since even the ancients did not appear to normally live over a hundred years, and the thought of Father Poppy being the parent of the hundreds of millions of children to whom he reportedly gave gifts is mind boggling. However, the stories of Father Poppy's visits are backed with personal accounts by children receiving these gifts and also by parents and caregivers recording these gifts as being from the midnight visitor who claimed to be the children's Father Poppy.

The visits of Father Poppy were mostly benign, rewarding children with good behavior with food treats including candies and fruit, along with an occasional toy or useful item. However, some early stories also included tales of children who had displeased Father Poppy, and as a result received a measure of blackrock used to heat homes, or a sour yellow citrus fruit which was used to create a pleasant sweet-tart beverage. This was seen to indicate that even when Father Poppy was unhappy with a child, and refused to reward them with toys, he was not so unhappy that he would not provide for their basic physical needs.

The story of Father Poppy, be he a real person , a mass hallucination or a giant conspiracy, is a tale that provided ancient children a sense of safety and fun, and allowed them to understand that the world is a good place, an odd and unique perspective that the ancients fully embraced.