Hanging Men
In a tarot deck, one may often find the Hanged Man on a tree upside down, one leg crossed over the other. The readers of the cards will tell any number of interpretations of divinity, suspension of life, martyrdom, but none will speak of the true meaning of the card. The card represents the Hanging Men, those who are between sleep and waking, on the edge of life and death.
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| by John W. Sheldon |
The Hanging Men are the ghosts of men who died destitute and shamed for their cruel actions in life, and they hang from unseen trees. All of the Hanging Men appear to have been at least partially flayed, their bodies less the pound of flesh they paid for their sins.
Hanging Men can only be seen in peripheral vision, on the brink of death, or in dreaming sleep. They will target a person based on some imagined slight, still bitter and vindictive from their past life, and tease them, creeping into their minds and burning in thoughts of self-hatred, visions of pain and horrific torture, and leave the person with a damaged psyche as their revenge.
A victim may never escape the Hanging Men. If they are fortunate, they may find a blessing that hides them from the view of these spectres, and if they are less fortunate, they may meet someone in their dreams who will offer them a way out. In either case, by the time an option is found to leave, most people will take whatever option they can to get away from the endless scenes of terror that play in their minds.
Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.
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I REALLY like this:
"Hanging Men can only be seen in peripheral vision…".
All in all this is a good creature design. However the peripheral vision dynamic is something I never even thought of before and should be an aspect that defines this creature.
These creatures should instill fear and horror not because they seek to do so neccessarily but because they are an unknown. The thought of only being able to see a creature at the edge of my vision is kind is terror to even think about.
Perhaps make it more gender neutral like 'The Hanging'? The Skewed? The Distorted? Something like that.
All in all very good and good art too. 🙂
I'm glad you like it, Lihim!
I thought about doing it gender neutral, but in this case, I stuck to the Hanging Men because it's ripped straight from nightmares, and I didn't like the version I'd written up that was gender neutral (it lost some of the flavor, for me). There will definitely be some gender neutral monsters at some point. I am hoping to do a pretty big collection of this.
The art is by John Sheldon, my husband – he also did the Underskin (the last Monster post). He's pretty fantastic!
Very, very cool. Your husband is an excellent artist. Good team.
partially flayed, their bodies less the pound of flesh they paid for their sins
Nice touch.