Etterpaste

Describe the tales in your world designed to make naughty children behave.

Quieten down you lot or the etterpaste’ll be supping on you tonight.

Originating in the barren marshes the etterpaste is one of the broad family of bogeys used to terrify small children across the known worlds. Attracted to the dark spaces in roofs or cellars it feeds on children either whole or breaking a finger off to chew while it plots malevolence to humanity in general.
Most towns and many villages across the Marivan Empire have at least one person who will show off a mutilated hand and regale any passing child of their bad behaviouur and their experience with the etterpaste. Whether such object lessons actually persuade children to improve their ways or merely encourage the devil may care among them to tempt fate for the he’ll of it and to be something of a centre of attention for the remainder of their lives is a matter for debate.

Historical Basis

The Harren marshes have long been home to many rumours of strange humanoid creatures with amphibian or reptilian characteristics and the etterpaste probably originated in one or other of these for they were occasionally seen lurking in the dark places of deserted houses in the winter. The Harren marshes seem to be the origin of this monster.
Historical records from the early days of the empire record the finding of mutilated children’s bodies in roofs and cellars with attribution of the deed to swamp dwellers. This seems to be the origin of the myth’s spreading beyond the marsh lands and becoming a more general child scaring tactic across the empire. Whilst some take them at face value - possibly a semi-historical memory of some of these creatures, possibly a mindless blood libel on a shy and fundamentally harmless creature there exists a more chilling and yet mundane explanation for this child intimidating myth which has spread far beyond the marshes where it could have had literal truth.
This is that the legend serves as a front for corporal punishment that went too far. What other rationalisation could there be for the etterpaste’s exclusive focus on the misbehaving child? For sure the existence of adults missing a finger or two from their left hand adds immediacy to the threat and their lurid tales have been known to transform more than the occasional wayward child’s behaviour.

Variations & Mutation

As the legend migrated from its point of origin the focus shifted from the etterpaste killing and eating the child to its habit of snacking on fingers, usually from the left hand. Children may also be told that it is the act of sucking thumbs or fingers that gives them the taste the etterpaste craves.
There are also variations told to the tale where a parent interrupts the etterpaste leaving the child with a sprained or broken finger. In these instances the etterpaste often makes several visits before succeeding in its aim.

Cultural Reception

All children like a good gory story and the presence of someone in a nearby village missing a finger or two and passing on the gory story has kept it live. Most children in well populated areas will have heard it from 2 or 3 victims and parents will often relate to their children the tellings they heard as children - especially where they related to the parents family or friends.

The Etterpaste in Entertainment

An etterpaste will often figure in any plays or mummery aimed at children. Sometimes this is as part of a moral tale with the creature acting out the myth on one of the cast - often with the aid of a false finger made from a carrot to give an impressive snap as the etteraste breaks or bites it off. On other occasions the etterpaste will lament that the children of the play are too well behaved for their fingers to be tasty enough - at which point the actor will turn to the audience and speculate on the moral character of the audience - especially any that have been misbehaving during the performance.
Occasionally the etterpaste will descend into the audience and it is not unheard of for one of the cast's children to be sniffed out and for the carrot finger to be used at this point.

You vile and unspeakable child! Look at that poor dog...
Green, with a pink snout...
You know the etterpaste'll be after you, don't cha?
Never heard of the etterpaste eh? I don't know what's up with your parents...
Right, listen to me for when boys and girls misbehave...
yes, painting the dog is misbehaving...
whether he enjoyed it or not is beside the point...
when that happens it changes their very bodies and makes their fingers tasty and appealing to the etterpaste. The etterpaste can smell that taste on the air and a naughty child will attract it like rotting fruit attracts wasps. And the Etterpaste will creep up on the child as it sleeps and ... crack!snap! break or bite off a finger to chew on like a tasty sweet...
you don't believe me eh? ... right me lad - you come with me, we'll pay old Norris a visit and you can hear from him how he lost his finger

And despite what they say, many children know about the etterpaste even without being explicitly told about it - for why else would they suck their thumbs if not to try to tell if they were changing their taste? Some even sleep with a thumb or fingers in their mouth so that the etterpaste can't get to them.

A Digression on Thumbs

An enterprising apothecry in Mariv-thip had a steady business making etterpaste repellent - "Ondell's Thumb Saver", a foul tasting concoction that could be painted onto a well sucked thumb to try to break the child's habut. Similar approaches have been used in many other towns and villages but none have managed the degree of permanence of taste that Ondell achieved in her formulation.