Florida Men

Mythical race of people from the sunken land of Florida, a legendary former state of Ancient America.

Summary

Spoken of in tales throughout the North American southeast, Florida Men are said to stalk the forest at night, responsible for various sorts of unsettling noises and objects found out of place in the morning. Driven from their homeland as the seas rose, they are now claimed to inhabit isolated rivers and bodies of water in the wilderness, harboring an unending anger at mankind for bringing the flood upon them. On occasion, they may even venture out to waylay and kill lone travelers on isolated roads. More benign versions give them a trickster air, responsible for mutilated trees or long-lost things reappearing.
Sightings of Florida Men themselves (as opposed to their effects) are rarely reported, and most tales do not supply a physical description in order to heighten the mysterious air, but they are usually said to be tall humanoids with amphibian aspects such as long webbed fingers and glowing eyes.

Historical Basis

Scholars trace the modern Florida Man myth back to before the Collapse, giving it an origin in the culture of Ancient America. Back then, the Florida Men were not a race of inhuman monsters but rather a term given to otherwise-ordinary people who committed some outrageously bizarre or amusing criminal act. Why this phenomenon remained isolated to the state of Florida remains unknown, some scholars say it was a sort of mass psychosis caused by the inhabitants' knowledge of the impending climate change-induced sea level rise, while others claim the Floridian news media was abnormally fixated on such events because of laws which made all criminal records public.

Cultural Reception

Tales of Florida Men are most common in the American Southeast, though they have also spread north even into Canada. The myth and its variants have been recorded in many books of folk tales, and is occasionally depicted in plays.

Date of Setting

Pre- and Post-Collapse