Krampus

Played By: Esjitu (story-only character)

Race: Monster

Age: Likely over one thousand

Gender: Male

Element:

Residence: Krampus Tower, Ice Plains (former)

Alignment: Neutral Chaos

Occupation: None

Krampus is a large, sapient monster standing somewhere between 7 and 8 feet tall. His body is covered in short green hair, with larger tufts of fur covering his neck, chest, and legs. He has pointed ears, bright red eyes, and large black horns sprouting from the top of his head. His long muzzle is lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth, many of shit jut out in an underbite style even when his mouth is closed. When open, his long tongue typically lolls out. He has satyr-like legs ending in cloven hooves and a short tail.

Until recently, his wrists were bound with thick metal-looking shackles connected to each other by a chain. As the cuffs were supernatural in origin, they didn't actually hinder Krampus' ability to move his arms about, and the chain could elongate as much as necessary to accommodate a full range of motion. Oftentimes the chain itself was not visible at all, seeming to fade into nothingness after a few inches worth of links attached to each shackle. This is because the shackles were never meant to physically hinder Krampus, but rather limit his powers and control in a spiritual sense. The shackles have since been broken.

Bound to Santa Claus' energy, Krampus reaches the peak of his power the closer it comes to Christmas. In December his body is fit and muscular, while the rest of the year he is typically thin and scrawny with almost no power of his own. Since the curse has been broken and his power is not being shared anymore, the large and muscular form appears to be his natural state.

Despite his monstrous appearance, Krampus is extremely crafty, cunning and intelligent. He speaks in a deep, low voice that almost seems to have a mild echoing effect regardless of the acoustics of the area, typically with a somewhat formal and almost polite tone of speech. Nonetheless, he is extremely ruthless and unforgiving of those who cross him.

For centuries, Krampus has held a grudge against Kristof Kringle, the man who bound him in his magical shackles. This translated into his desire for revenge against Kristof's descendants (most notably Christopher Kringle) and the holiday of Christmas itself, which originated as a celebration of Kristof's life and deeds. Thus Krampus spent much of his life plotting to overthrow Christmas once and for all, only to find himself defeated at the hands of the IGNOites time after time.

During the battle with Super Santa, Krampus' curse was finally broken by the ghost of Kristof Kringle, who had noted the changes in his heart during these past centuries. In the aftermath of the True End, Krampus was able to put an end to his grudge against the Kringles and the IGNOites both, deciding he wished to travel and see the world. It is not known what has become of him since, but it can be assumed that he is enjoying life for the first time in many hundreds of years.

Actually I lied, randomly it occurred to me that there is a simple way to edit the current backstory without changing too much drastically, and actually makes the whole Krampus/Linda thing make a bit more sense. Since I do not trust myself to remember this come December here's a quick runthrough while it's on my mind.

Krampus is a monster who terrorizes the Nordlands. Not just this one tiny village, that's dumb...but like half the countryside, moving from place to place when the food sources (IE villages) dry up. People across the countryside fear him like medieval peasants fear dragons. You hear about what happened to that one village several villages away from a traveling peddler or something and it's all you can do to think 'we might be next'. And probably yeah, you will be.

So fear of Krampus grows and spreads across the Nordlands and this fear fuels Krampus' powers, because he's like, magical and shit, too. The fear sustains him more than the actual victims he eats, but the more victims he eats the more that fear grows, so it's a self-sustaining system really. Anyways one such victim happened to be Kristof's younger sister which he mentions in the Christmas Story in passing so I suppose it ought to be worked into the revision of the Wintertide tale (which should be told more like a children's book with the editorial notes/commentary surrounding it). Anyways this is what spurs him to seek the beast and get revenge, possibly the thing that motivated him to become an adventurer in the first place as he spent many years wandering the Nordlands doing other adventurey-type things all for the day that he may find the beast that took his sister.

So Krampus and Kristof fight and legends say it lasts 3 days and 3 nights as legends often do. Finally they're both worn and exhausted but Kristof still has an ace up his sleeve and tricks Krampus, who didn't expect him to be able to use magic. I think remove the whole 'spirit of giving' trick because it's too soon for Krampus to be humanized, it's centuries of isolation that really changes him so I'm pretty sure that trick wouldn't really work. Kristof probably still surrenders and asks a final request before he's killed and that ties into his trick, though.

Either way he catches Krampus off-guard and manages to cast the spell with lifeblood magic and binds his soul to the staff as a phylactery. Magical shackles appear on Krampus' wrists - but the chains aren't physical and Krampus' ability to move is not hindered at all. He calls Kristof a fool because his spell failed, and goes to attack him...however, he finds that he cannot lay a hand on him. Like some sort of force field is preventing him from dealing any damage. Kristof explains that Krampus will never again be able to kill so long as this curse is in place. The curse immediately nullifies any killing intent and redirects it so the victim can't die. Essentially, Krampus has been de-clawed (get it because Krampus means claw). He will never again be able to terrorize villagers or claim more victims like Kristof's sister. Furthermore Krampus cannot die so long as he is bound to Kristof's life force. Krampus taunts that when Kristof dies he'll be free once more, meaning Kristof's effort was in vain, but Kristof explains that this will pass down to his descendants as well. So long as the Kringle bloodline continues, so will the curse. Krampus...has been defeated.

So Kristof goes down to the village below, much celebration and rejoicing is had, etc. Kristof then moves on to continue his life as an adventurer, eventually setting sail for the shores of IGNOLand where he would dock in the Ice Plains. Rather than being dragged there forcibly to be imprisoned, though, Krampus instead follows Kristof. He follows him everywhere from that point on. Finding a way to destroy Kristof and remove the curse becomes the goal that drives him. After a time of adventuring across IGNOLand (which is colonized by nords within his lifetime; he probably sailed with a sizeable viking crew who all set to colonizing the new land) Kristof settles down with a young lass and has a family. Longing for the environment he grew up in they settle in the Ice Plains. His adventuring days are over and he and his family go on to live a life of quiet solitude in what is today the North Pole. This is where his reputation as the original 'Santa Claus' begins and all those aspects of his story are relatively unchanged.

Meanwhile Krampus is furious to see Kristof living so happily while he is miserable. He wants to slaughter Kristof's family but he can't so long as the curse binds him (I'm sure he's tested this by trying to kill others just to be sure it's legit too). So Krampus spends a few years wandering IGNOLand in search of a way to dispel the curse, which leads him to various magical locations and such. Naturally this means he would have been to the Wayward Woods at some point, a notoriously magical place in IGNOLand, where he would meet Linda the Pixie Queen. This probably happened a few centuries ago which I guess means Linda's a pretty hardcore queen since she'd have to be undefeated to not be dead considering pixie culture. I've always had them in my head as a 'met in college' sort of relationship so maybe it was before Linda became queen at all, and they were both attending Faeland's academy for a semester while Krampus sought to study any form of magic he could in hopes of learning something. When the semester ended he went on his way driven endlessly by his one goal, though he and Linda never forgot each other.

Things change a little once the current Santa Claus gains his power, though. As we know from his backstory he was a little shit who betrayed Cross and sealed him in the Christmas Dimension, ensuring he would become the successor. Santa eventually sought out more of Kristof's rumored magical items (such as the Magic Bag he already possessed) and this journey lead him to the Ice Temple, where Kristof had hidden the Artifact of Belief. I imagine Kristof also hid away other magic artifacts across IGNOLand before he settled down and abandoned the adventuring life, which gives us the convenient ability to come across them in future plots. Anyways, while Krampus doesn't actually witness this expedition or know where the Ice Temple is, he does know that Claus somehow managed to get his hands on another one of Kristof's artifacts, and may be planning to amass even more of them. Thus Krampus ends his own searching and decides to settle in the Ice Plains himself, where he may ever keep a watchful eye over this ambitious Claus who can lead him to what he seeks...

Over the years Claus and Krampus butt heads a lot. However, thanks to the curse, they cannot kill each other. The specifics of their past history are unimportant. All we need to know is that Krampus decided to stay close to Claus from that point on, thus going into isolation in the Ice Plains and not seeing the rest of IGNOLand - or the world as a whole - for centuries (this way the ending of the most recent story still fits). It is during this time that he discovers an interesting loophole in the curse that binds his and Claus' life...the artifact Claus is using to power himself with belief is also sharing half of its magic with Krampus through their connection. This empowers Krampus once more, and while he still can't seem to kill anyone himself, he is capable of working with others who can. This leads to partnerships with the Garden Gnomes over the years and is what first acquaints him with the IGNOites.

As for his 'giant size transformation' and seeming ability to cause harm to others with it...chalk it up to the power of the Christmas Magic. I don't believe Krampus has ever killed anyone in that form (I know Cross nearly did), though...I think the end of A Crossmas Carol had him shooting SG2 through the heart and some cheesy 'brought back to life by tears' sequence? Not too hard to rework that anyways...all that matters really is that it's okay if he can hurt people so long as he's unable to kill them. This needs to apply across the board, and not just to Santa Claus as is often referenced - though perhaps the IGNOites were always lead to believe it only applied to Santa, and that Krampus could kill all of them if he wanted to. It'd certainly make sense to not want to advertise that, after all, and ruin his threatening image (especially since I assume he's still empowered by instilling fear, even if he can no longer kill). I dunno, needs to be ironed out a tad more, but I think it'll be okay.

So yeah...streamlines the curse a bit by not making Krampus bound to any one specific location, but also gives him a reason to isolate himself there by choice to keep an eye on Claus. This being after years spent searching IGNOLand himself, meeting Linda, etc. And I already know I need to change any references to him in the previous two stories as the figure that punishes children with his birch rods and whatnot, since the Bad End of RAtCT involves Santa making him this offer - in IGNOLand canon Krampus has never been 'Santa's evil counterpart' since he's been given a backstory all his own.

Oh, and as for the Library...I've been bothered by the original 'Cross wrote all of this' angle for a long time, but I don't think it can easily be changed. Knowing that, I even referenced it in RAtCT and tried to justify it a bit, though it's still somewhat flimsy. I'm not sure if I should try to change this or leave it as it is, even if it is a little weird, because it was a big part of A Crossmas Carol and probably no easy feat to change. Otherwise I was going to say it'd certainly make sense for Krampus to have discovered this place during his years of searching for knowledge. Bah. Guess I'll just let this one be, maybe try to tighten it up a bit better, but ultimately that's brainstorming better fit for Cross' page than here.

Before the curse bound him to Santa Claus, Krampus was known as a dangerous man-eating beast who would kidnap villagers and devour them. The telltale sign that there had been a Krampus attack was the appearance of bloody claw marks in the snow, thus earning him his name - Krampus, for claw. His jaws are also incredibly powerful and filled with razor-sharp teeth, making him presumably strong enough to crunch through bones easily to drink the marrow. None who ever went to challenge this beast in his lair were ever said to have made it out alive - that is, until Kristof Kringle.

Combat abilities aside, Krampus is very intelligent and crafty, able to come up with complicated schemes to destroy Christmas - and frequently pull them off without a hitch. His downfall usually comes after the successful execution of his plans. His history with Christopher Kringle seems to have been on the level of a long-running chess game between two masters, each frequently pitting their wits against the other to see which would come out on top. Since this is the very Santa Claus who had IGNOLand fooled into trusting him for centuries, it can be said that Krampus is extremely cunning indeed.