Special Spotlight: Krampus
CR 21
Neutral Evil Large Monstrous Humanoid
Pathfinder Bestiary 6, pg. 178~179
Show of hands, who didn’t see this coming? It was impossible for me to NOT talk about Krampus on the actual day of Crimcram. While typically viewed as some form of demon, or an “Anti-Santa” in our world, Golarion has no Santa expy. Their version of Krampus was formed by a circle of Druids seeking to create a singular figure of worship to raise the morale of the local population during the lean times when winter raged and kept everyone in the miserable dark. While Krampus was originally a delight, raising spirits during the day and leaving bounties of fruit and game for people in the night so that they would never starve, there was a terrible error in his creation. Cracks and imperfections in his soul soon became filled in with the greed and resentment that plagued people during the winter, even as he tried his best to quell it.
Krampus observed others being selfish or bitter, at first using his magic to aid them, but as that corruption spread through his entire being, he began to retaliate instead. At first it was merely whippings with bundles of birch, but eventually he began using his considerable magic talent to transform his targets into the petulant, spoiled children he saw them as. Once his soul was fully corrupt and he began to see greed and hate everywhere, he fully transformed into the goat man you see above, the form he has used to terrorize the northern lands during winter for thousands of years since his creation. Krampus went from the bringer of joy into yet another reason to fear traveling out into the cold dark.
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