Krampus (The Secret World)

"Who's that dancing on the icy roof - stamping on the ramping with a cloven hoof? "Hra-hra-hra! To all a good night!" Cheeks painted red. His belly writhes like a bowl full of worm jelly - children's faces press from within distended skin like nervous actors against the theater curtain. He reeks of sugarplums. When will the Krampus Gate open? When will the Holiday Devil come from the little ones? "When mother freezes over," he cackles. "Hra-hra-hra!""

- The Buzzing Based on the well-known Christmas bogeyman of the same name, the Krampus is an entire race of demonic creatures introduced in the Funcom MMORPG The Secret World. They only appear in the game during the Winter Holiday event scheduled from December to early January, but they make the most of their time on Earth by appearing in almost every combat zone accessible to the players.

Much like the Krampus of the original legends, these creatures are driven to kidnap unruly children and take them back to their lair for punishment; with most of the areas having suffered enough calamities without adding child abduction to the list of misfortunes, players must hunt down and kill the Krampus wherever they are found. If possible, they must also follow them back to their lair and stop the abductions at their source.

However, as with many myths and legends uncovered over the course of The Secret World, the Krampus has a much stranger history than its counterparts in traditional folklore: quite apart from being an entire species rather than an individual, following them through the mystical portals they conjure reveal that they reside in the Norse underworld of Nifleheim - and the original Krampus is none other than the son of Hel, the Norse death goddess.

Grandfather's "Blessing"
The history of the Krampus began with Hel, daughter of the trickster god Loki. As a child, Hel was one of the few members of Loki's children who hadn't been born monstrous in some way: unlike Jörmungandr the serpent and Fenris the wolf, she looked at least appeared as human as any of the other Norse deities. However, this did not last long.

One day, Hel's father led her to a lake in wintertime, and without warning, hung her between two trees, plunging her body into the icy waters of the lake: half of her was left submerged, the other half exposed to the open air. Satisfied, Loki departed, leaving his daughter hanging from the trees. For hours, she remained suspended there, unable to drown but unable to escape, screaming for a rescue that never came. At time went on, half of her body succumbed to frostbite: her flesh shriveled and blackened, her left eye rotted, and as the agony reached a crescendo, Hel's soul split it two; suddenly, her ruined eye opened and she could see the world of shadows underlying our own, even sensing the ravages of time and approaching death in mortals.

Eventually, Loki returned and released his daughter from the lake. To Hel's confusion, he then gently led her ashore, and gave her a drink that flooded the still-functional half of her body with warmth. As she sat there, dead on one side of her body and alive on the other, Hel could only ask why she'd been punished; Loki only replied that she hadn't been punished at all - she'd been blessed.

It was because of this half-death that Hel was granted the throne of Hel and dominion over the souls of the dishonored.