European cryptids can be creepy as hell if you look into older, non-disneyfied versions.
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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They've (euro cryptids) have gotten nerfed over the centuries, and the especially nasty ones probably got wiped out during world War II.
Our (American) culture is strongly combative, and our last giant local war was over a century and a half ago or so. The dark things that have crawled forth from our deepest nightmares and waking dreams are far hungrier, crueller, and have had much more time to proliferate than your feeble, mischievous survivors.
Your cryptids crave petty things, like food, stealing names, or the occasional child. Ours crave the end of all things and the souls of the multitudes, to truck is into turning each hand against every other, and ultimately to drag our shattered remnants kicking and screaming into the dark places under the Earth.
Honestly the disneyification fits in pretty well with old european folklore, the gambit for a lot of our mythological creatures was tricking you into thinking they're your friends and then a whole towns worth of people vanishes. We have some wendigo stuff style too and it tends to follow a similar style of moral lesson about don't do x or you will turn into the monster or the monster will come get you.
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Seems like OP is not familiar with fae mythology.
Could you offer what you know?
Off the absolute top of my head there's the redcap. Depending on the material it can be depicted as a gnome, goblin, or kobold with a jaunty looking red hat (generally long and pointy like a gnome hat or like Link's hat in Legend of Zelda).
It keeps the hat red by dying and regularly re-dying it with its victims' blood.
There's also a number of depictions of pixies as essentially flying piranha.
But this sort of mythology isn't some deep secret, it's everywhere outside of the kid friendly/disney filtered stuff. I'm sure a simple search will net you tons of content.
Shoot, I was just referencing the modern interpretations of fae, but that’s absolutely fascinating! As recompense for unintentionally misleading you, here are a few of my favorite fairy artworks by Arthur Rackham
One of the best jokes I’ve seen is everyone with adhd accidentally answered yes to a fae asking “could I have your attention”
Or the scissor man.
That's definitely a bad idea to invite them to tea:
- They know you saw them
- They've got permission to enter you house
- You are giving them food!!
It sound like a recipe to get your daughter stolen from you, or to have your house falling down on your head, or losing your mind or straight being skinned you and your family.
Carefully go back so they don't know you saw them.
Do not ever speak to this to anyone, not to your parent, your neighbour, your child not to your SO, not on the internet or your diary and lets hope you don't speak in your dream.
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European Crypitids
How europeans deals with them
The only thing I vividly remember from this movie is the pretty lady just about sitting on Hugh Jackmans face.
I love this movie. It's probably one of my favorite schlock fantasy movies. The casting was way better than it had any right to be - Hugh Jackman, sure, but Kate Beckinsale? Well, I guess she was fresh off Underworld, so she was still in that headspace. And Richard Roxburgh doing the perfect amount of scene-chewing for the villain.. introducing himself properly as Vladislaus Draculea.. and the opening scene, shot just like a 1920s Universal monster movie! I legitimately think it's the closest we'll ever get to a live action Castlevania. I could go on, but I'll spare you. Might be time for a rewatch.
The sets, the wardrobe, the direction, the acting. All of it is so good without taking itself too seriously. It's from the same director of the (good) Mummy movies, so go figure
Nipple tassels?
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Brazilians with our cryptids:
Which one is the Brazilian?
The chick, in this context.
The Boto-cor-de-rosa, or river dolphin, is a real animal
But the cryptid of the same name is a river dolphin that is actually a shapeshifting trickster, who will turn himself into an attractive man (often depicted wearing a fancy hat to cover the blowhole atop his head) and seduce and bang women.
I was joking but this was actually very interesting. Thanks!
And then there's Norway.
That brings me back memories of when is was ~5 years old and visiting my father's cabin in the forest, which had a copy of that painting on the wall. He would put hall of the mountain king on full blast and tell troll stories just to scare me from time to time.
Nøkken was scarier though, kept me from going down to lake alone after dark, which I guess was the original intention of that creature.
Fuck yeah Savatage! Rare to see referenced in the wild.
Edit: wait I didn't click the link, did you mean this 80s metal classic or Edvard Greig's lol
I'm speaking about nordic folklore, so Edvard Grieg. I'm not sure the metal music could ever scare the same way Grieg's symphony did back then.
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Americans with Cryptids:
This stereotype is just based on Europeans exoticising native American culture
Yeah exactly, the cryptids are kind but they hate colonizers
I guess you've never heard of German cryptids... Or Polish cryptids... Oooor Nordic cryptids...
I think Japanese cryptids can fit in either category.
Tbf, the Europeans have some pretty fucked cryptid lore, it's just that they're more chaotic neutral and less chaotic vengeance than the American variety. My favorite american cryptid is an old one you don't hear much of anymore, and was born from Pacific NorthWest loggers: the Hide Behind. Basically, this mf stalks your shit and will always duck behind a tree when you turn to look at it; it's fast enough to never be seen clearly, but you can just catch glimpses of it if you're fast/lucky. Eventually, it catches and eats unwitting loggers who let it sneak up on them.
Edit: I also like the deer stories. One of my all time favs was a free text about a deer stumbling up the street very clearly saying "BEEP BEEP BEEP" like a car being unlocked, followed by "Honey, I'm home!" over and over. That was the whole story, just a weird fucking deer stumbling up the street and talking to itself. 10/10 would gladly read again.
I like Not Deer. Weird Birds are in a similar vein. I doubt they're established well enough to be considered a cryptid, but they're kinda similar.
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Someone didn't play the Witcher
Translation: War it shall be, then
How about Australian cryptids?
Most of them were killed by the non-cryptid wildlife.
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I like that Japanese foot that slams into buildings and demands you wash it
America's got some goofy cryptids too. Like the hugag. A large, moose-like fearsome critter with a big floppy upper lip and no elbows or knees. Unable to lay down or kneel, it can only eat bark from trees around the height of its head, and it can't lay down to sleep so it leans against trees, sometimes causing the tree to lean.
Can't forget Squonk. The gross pig thing that is so ugly it cries constantly. It can dissolve itself with its tears at will.
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MOTHMAN MOTHMAN
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