The Bad Man
"Don't look out the window! Gods please don't! HE'LL TAKE YOU TOO! PLEASE!"
He comes when the world forgets to bury its dead. When grief lingers like smoke, when whole villages vanish without protest, and sorrow hangs thicker than fog, he finds his way in. A creature made of mourning and mirrored glass, The Bad Man is no mere spirit, no lone ghost wandering the ruins. He is legion given form, an echo of screams no god came to answer. His smile stretches too far. His eyes are always yours. And when the clock strikes 3:33, he does not knock, he watches. Just once. That’s all it takes. You will not scream. You will not run. You will not be missed. You will simply... be gone.
Summary
A tragic being, and one of very malicious intent. Widely believed from accounts of it's chilling words, as an amalgamation of a great many souls who fell in The Great Schism, dying with regret and despair somehow, rather than passing on or becoming another form of wandering spirit; Became suffused with one another in an unholy and cruel amalgamation all crying out in agony, screaming in a thousand voices all-at-once full of hate for those who got to live, begging the living to "J O I N T H E M" in death. The being, known only as "The Bad Man" takes the lives of families, friends and enemies alike from many every year. The being will appear from place to place seemingly 'travleing', migrating on a campaign of carnage; On the hour of 3:33 AM wherever it may be, it will look in random windows it can find or from other reflective surfaces like lakes or mirrors; Should you see it's sick, smiling face you are already dead, the faces of those that do immediately morphing into a sick replica of the creature's, before disappearing entirely believed to 'join' with the horrible weeping and smiling monster these folk have become leaving only empty clothes behind where once you stood.
Historical Basis
While no direct evidence of the Bad Man exists, many believe the tale stems from the late Schism-era collapse of the mountain settlement Dolbrin Hollow, whose population vanished without struggle or sign of attack, save for clothing scattered like shed skin in every home. A Scholar’s Guild excavation in 38 CA recovered a cracked hand mirror buried beneath the hearth of one home, its surface blackened and impossible to reflect anything, no matter the light cast upon it. Some believe the myth is rooted in the psychological toll of survivor’s guilt during the Schism, the Bad Man becoming a vessel for communal despair too vast for one spirit to carry alone.
Spread
The myth is most common in mountain regions, remote villages, and war-torn border towns, particularly in places where the dead were not properly buried. However, urban slums like those in Opulence and Gullsperch have also adopted the legend, especially in orphan circles where “don’t look at the glass” is a common lullaby. Apocryphal reports suggest the Bad Man only appears in regions with recent mass death, implying it is not merely a creature, but a spiritual aftershock of widespread loss. In private, some believe even acknowledging him aloud increases the risk of visitation.
Variations & Mutation
In Kathar, the Bad Man is known as “The Choir of Regret,” and is said to knock on windows instead of stare through them, three knocks at 3:33 AM. In the lower districts of Catcher's Rest, he is whispered of as “That Which Grins,” and it’s said if you leave out a cracked mirror in a locked chest, you can trap one of his faces within. A particularly strange version from Twinpeak holds that the Bad Man is not a man at all, but a malformed child born during the Schism who absorbed the souls of a thousand dead with his first breath and has been growing ever since.
Cultural Reception
Among the common folk, the Bad Man is a tale of profound terror, passed down not only to frighten but to explain senseless disappearance. Nobles dismiss the story as superstition, until one of their own is found vanished, their garments folded neatly by the hearth. Children are told never to look out windows at night without lighting a lantern first. Artists and playwrights treat the Bad Man as a symbol of the collective grief of war, the literal face of what Everwealth lost in the Schism. And for those who believe too strongly, seeing a face in the window is never followed by screams, only silence.
In Literature
The Bad Man is a recurring figure in grim nursery rhymes and cautionary tales whispered to children by candlelight. The infamous verse “If you see him in the glass, say goodbye, you’re made of past,” appears in many children’s readers as a riddle or puzzle. A controversial banned novella, Smile Wide, Sleep Deep, fictionalizes the creature’s attack on a mountain village during the early Civil Age, suggesting the entire region was emptied overnight with not a single stitch of clothing left disturbed.
In Art
Woodcuts and black-ink sketches from the Civil Age depict the Bad Man as a tall, hunched figure with dozens of mismatched faces stitched into a single, smiling mask. In these works, he is shown lurking outside windows, with trails of clothing blowing behind him like dead leaves. Modern artists, particularly from Stargaze and the Opulence warrens, have adopted him as a symbol of existential dread, often rendering his face in warped reflections or broken mirror mosaics. Some say painting or drawing his likeness attracts him, though whether this is artistic affectation or genuine belief is often left unclear.
Interactions with Daily Life:
The legend of the Bad Man shapes a number of subtle, fearful behaviors across Everwealth:
Archetypes of Everwealthy Myth:
The Bad Man embodies multiple mythic archetypes, tangled together like the voices that form him:
The legend of the Bad Man shapes a number of subtle, fearful behaviors across Everwealth:
- Windows and Mirrors are often covered at night in rural homes, especially before sleep. In inns and poorhouses, a single candle or lantern is sometimes left burning by the window from dusk until after 3:33 AM.
- Children are taught to avoid looking into reflective surfaces after midnight, and many learn a quiet rhyme: “Three eyes blind, three bells chime, cover the glass and bide the time.”
- In areas recently struck by plague, famine, or battle, travelers and families refuse to sleep in mirrored rooms, some going as far as cracking the glass or painting over it entirely.
- Clockmakers in southern regions have been known to sell timepieces with no 3:33 mark, or whose hands “skip” that minute, a small superstition sold to anxious clientele.
- Street vendors in Catcher's Rest sell "Empty-Eye Charms," small brass coins engraved with closed eyelids, meant to ward off the Bad Man if left in pockets or on windowsills.
The Bad Man embodies multiple mythic archetypes, tangled together like the voices that form him:
- The Forsaken Hero (Twisted Form): Though no clear identity exists for him, many believe the Bad Man is a fallen warrioror a thousand, left behind in the aftershock of war, their duty, purpose, and peace denied in death. Now, instead of redemption, they cry out for company in the void.
- The Hollow King (Shadowed Reflection): A monarch of the forgotten dead, the Bad Man rules over nothing but shared grief and unburied names. His power lies not in command, but in hunger for unity through annihilation, a kingdom made of absence.
- The Cursed Child (Amalgam Form): In some tellings, the Bad Man began as one soul, cursed from birth to bear the regrets of the dying. This idea, though less common, paints the creature as a cursed vessel, born of war, filled by sorrow, destined to overflow.
- The Shapeshifter (Spiritual Distortion): Always seen differently, too many eyes, too wide a grin, features shifting as if made from the faces of those you know, The Bad Man distorts familiarity into terror. He is a living memory of the dead, reshaped through the lens of fear.
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