Perpallaki

a gruesome death will scare most children into behaving

Perpallaki howl and Perpallaki shriek.
Perpallaki hunt and Perpallaki sneak.
Perpallaki's woken up and looking for a meal.
Perpallaki's searching round for little lives to steal.
Perpallaki sniffs and Perpallaki knows.
Perpallaki finds and Perpallaki goes.
Perpallaki's in your house but he didn't make a noise.
Perpallaki's claws are seeking naughty girls and boys.
Perpallaki dart and Perpallaki shift.
Perpallaki subtle and Perpallaki swift.
Perpallaki's found you now, he's underneath your bed.
Perpallaki slinks away, but you're left without a head.
Perpallaki grins and Perpallaki creeps.
Perpallaki got his treat so Perpallaki sleeps.

Summary

Perpallaki is a mythological creature believed to hunt and kill human children. The story has had variations and differences through the years, but the common themes are that a creature that has some variation of extreme camouflage, will either find loan children (usually while asleep), and kill them through massive head trauma. The head is either removed and never found, found nearby broken open, or in early versions of the story, left attached but cracked open. In all cases, the brain of the child is almost entirely missing.
The myth of Perpallaki has been used to frighten young children into good behaviour, and as a cautionary tale for a variety of bad behaviours, for centuries.
The origin of the name "Perpallaki" is totally unknown. It matches no known word from any of the known Fallen tongues, and does not even match any known S*la'vn word. In no known version of the myth is the creature physically well described. It is either not described at all, described vaguely as having horns, or claws, or talons, or other generically menacing features, or described simply as "horrific" or "terrifying" or any number of other frightening terms. The only vaguely academic or intelligible description from many years before Unification, describes the Perpallaki as "A riplin play o shaddow an lite, distortin wut cud be sene bahind, as if thru warpped glass. No clere form atall wud the kreture ave, if not fer strange glows ov blu an pink that did show round its edges as it wakked thru Denshaa's lite. It wus not unlike a man, but not like wun iether. That breef shimmer of lite an the shape I sene, wer enuff to last my nitemares til I die."

Historical Basis

Mentions of the Perpallaki began less than a century following the Sunder and the name was attributed to a "monster" responsible for killing pigs around a farming village on the western side of the Arche. It wasn't until years later that the name was attribute to the death of a child, though it was only off hand reference. It wasn't until the third century that the several references can be found from settlements and Rangers up and down both side of the Arche. The reports drew the attention of the Rangers, but they could never find any evidence of any creature whatsoever except for dead, usually headless, children. Even those who said they saw the beast for certain could never actually describe it, and there was never a footprint, dropped hair, or claw mark to be found at any of the horrific scenes.
The attacks seemed utterly random. At first, there was no regular pattern in time or geography, though none of the known killings were any closer than a year apart, and sometimes were several. Eventually it was deduced that the attacks only happened mid-week, when Esha was set and Denshaa's blue glow lit the sky. Ironically this was the piece of information that led scholars to believe that such a creature might actually exist, since it was reasonable that a predator might have eyesight that worked best under the cooler, difused light of Denshaa. The creature, whatever it was, also only killed children who were alone, in rooms or shelters with windows, and lived in solitary houses outside of towns or villages. Attacks continued on and off for over a century, but remained very few in total. It soon became practice for farmers and wildlings to keep children sleeping in the same room as them until they were in their early teens, or if there were multiple children, to ensure they all slept in the same room. Folk outside the cities also began putting wooden shutters on the insides of all their windows and closing them all when they would go to sleep.
Whether these strategies were effective or not, supposed Perpallaki attacks all but disappeared by the fourth century. It was not until the 530s and the great exodus of Septur refugees into the towns and cities along the Arche, that killings were once again attributed to the monster. These stories were few and far between, and at the time attributed to bandits, crazed family members, or even muada that had managed to get over the River Ora. By this time the Perpallaki was the stuff of stories, nursery rhymes and songs all along the Arche, and connections were eventually drawn. Villages even began refusing to help or even talk to Septurn refugees for fear that they had brought the Perpallaki out of legend to kill their children. Most of this was dismissed both by the refugees and authorities.
Regardless of the validity of the stories or the existence of the monster itself, the last mention of it as a genuinely suspected cause of death was in Gramtonville Cove in 589AS. The myths and children's stories of the creature became a part of the culture of not just the Arche, but the new lake towns, the hill towns, and eventually most Austurian towns and cities below The Cascades.

"Of course it's not real, but that's not the point! If it keeps that boy from setting fire to the house and getting hauled off by the Uma, then Patrons bless it!"

- woman overheard yelling at her husband at the Longlake solstice fair (816AS)

Date of First Recording

unknwn

Date of Setting

unknown

Related Ethnicities

• Midlanders

Related Species

• human

Related Locations

• the Arche