The Hidden People

[Ne0n]

By the look of the posted screenshots/videos and user comments, the hidden people are refered to as the Huldufólk, creatures from icelandic folklore.



Being from Norway, I agree that they could be based on the Huldufólk, but looking at the pictures posted, I would say they are a combination of icelandic and scandinavian folklore. Iceland was a part of Norway until 600 years ago, so no big wonder why they should have common folklore.

In scandinavian folklore, we call the creature a "Nisse"(Norway & Denmark) or "Tomte" (Sweden).
They are small creatures, always hiding from humans, and often living on lofts in farms/houses, or more rarely in the forest. They like to live undisturbed, and can cause damage if not respected by humans.


In the Grickle-video "Hidden people", the scenario is a bit scary. Nisser is not seen as the most scary creatures in nordic folklore, but we have some other creepy ones:

Nøkken:
He is a underworld creature, lives in ponds/lakes and tries to drown people or animals by attracting them with spell-music, or by luring them in other ways. It is said that you can hear his terrifying and tearful screams right before suicides or deaths.
Pregnant or young women, and unbaptized infants are prefered victims.



Troll:
They are evil, ugly, strong human-like creatures. They appear after sunset, and in the night they kill and plunder. Some trolls steal human babies from their beds, and sometimes exchange them with their own ugly offsprings.



There are several other creatures in nordic folklore, you can watch a video of some here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BVowBzVOo

I actually hope the Pilot game is as creepy as the "Hidden People"-video, and I think it would be an interesting step for Telltale.

[Secret Fawful]

This actually looks like something Annable used as reference for his design of the Hidden People. Trolls actually play a big part in a game I'm working on as well. It would be great if stuff like this actually existed; it would make things so much more interesting.

Oh, and hey it's May 4th!

[GinnyN]

Originally Posted by Ne0n

By the look of the posted screenshots/videos and user comments, the hidden people are refered to as the Huldufólk, creatures from icelandic folklore.

That was me.

Too much Lazy Town, to be fair.

[Ne0n]

Originally Posted by GinnyN

That was me.

Too much Lazy Town, to be fair.

You are in no way uncorrect by calling them Huldufólk, because of the similarity between the folklores.

Secret Fawful: Cool! Do the game-project have any title?

[splash1]

Originally Posted by Ne0n

Nøkken:
He is a underworld creature, lives in ponds/lakes and tries to drown people or animals by attracting them with spell-music, or by luring them in other ways. It is said that you can hear his terrifying and tearful screams right before suicides or deaths.
Pregnant or young women, and unbaptized infants are prefered victims.

Who the hell made up that crap? Were they on drugs or something when they thought up about that?? Dear lord, folklore gets creepier in every culture!

[Ne0n]

splash1: Hahah, yeah one can only wonder. I think one reason was to scare kids from walking near lakes alone. I would guess Christianity was part of shaping the folklores too, scaring parents to baptise their children with fear-stories.

A lot of folklores/mythologies are also created to explain certain things, for example if a lost child was last seen at a lake, but no body was found, one would guess that Nøkken had taken him.

[Irishmile]

Folklore are often cautionary tales.... Like stay the heck away from water kid or you will die!!!

Or be good or Santa will not make you toys!

[splash1]

Originally Posted by Ne0n

A lot of folklores/mythologies are also created to explain certain things, for example if a lost child was last seen at a lake, but no body was found, one would guess that Nøkken had taken him.

Why couldn't they just say: "Oh, yeah; your kid fell in the lake so go and mourn for 1/2 days."?
Telling horror stories to your four year old about a lake creature that plays a guitar till you decide to jump in, is a good reason why people today are mentally ill.

[Rather Dashing]

Originally Posted by splash1

Who the hell made up that crap? Were they on drugs or something when they thought up about that?? Dear lord, folklore gets creepier in every culture!

I know, right? I know one culture that has this omnipotent and omniscient being that kills 70,000 innocent civilians because one guy took a census, or forces a rapist and his victim to marry...unless she's "set to be married", in which case she should be stoned to death with her rapist.

Folklore is CREEPY.

[wefeelgroove]

Originally Posted by splash1

Who the hell made up that crap? Were they on drugs or something when they thought up about that?? Dear lord, folklore gets creepier in every culture!

And that's exactly what makes it so fascinating.

[Alcoremortis]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

I know, right? I know one culture that has this omnipotent and omniscient being that kills 70,000 innocent civilians because one guy took a census, or forces a rapist and his victim to marry...unless she's "set to be married", in which case she should be stoned to death with her rapist.

Folklore is CREEPY.

Which is why I find it amusing that some of my uber religious friends are allowed to read the Bible, but not good modern literature because "it is full of sin."

[Chyron8472]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

I know, right? I know one culture that has this omnipotent and omniscient being that kills 70,000 innocent civilians because one guy took a census, or forces a rapist and his victim to marry...unless she's "set to be married", in which case she should be stoned to death with her rapist.

Folklore is CREEPY.

I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish by posting this. Deutoronomy does have some crazy stuff in it, but...

Ah, I'm not going to get into an argument with you about this. It's not worth it, unless I intended to get the thread locked.

[Secret Fawful]

Originally Posted by Chyron8472

I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish by posting this. Deutoronomy does have some crazy stuff in it, but...

Ah, I'm not going to get into an argument with you about this. It's not worth it, unless I intended to get the thread locked.

It's just Dashing. Don't take it so seriously.

[thesporkman]

What's important to remember is that the people who originally told these stories to their children weren't deliberating lying to them or making things up to scare them; they whole-heartedly believed in these stories themselves. The stories that survive in mythology and folklore were part of ancient oral and religious traditions passed down generation after generation, and they were no less significant to people's lives than the stories and beliefs of major world religions with written canon today. All religions feature stories with bizarre, supernatural, and even scary elements, but people nevertheless believe in them, and they form a meaningful and significant part of their culture and their lives.

That's more or less what Dashing was getting at, I think, but I've tried to phrase it in a more anthropological and culturally sensitive sort of way.

[Rather Dashing]

Originally Posted by Chyron8472

I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish by posting this. Deutoronomy does have some crazy stuff in it, but...

Ah, I'm not going to get into an argument with you about this. It's not worth it, unless I intended to get the thread locked.

Ah, I'll explain my point then.

The idea posited was that folklore and mythology of cultures other than the western, Judeo-Christian set was weird. The idea was, hey, let's grab some stuff from an accepted as "not weird" source and go with something that might turn a person's head. Might have gone overboard on it, though it wasn't intended to offend(as hard as that might be to believe), but it was done because I often deal in hyperbole. I have not been a Christian for some time, so I've somewhat lost the empathy to sense that line anymore, but I bear no ill will toward them(er, you) as a general rule.

I probably should have gone with "The world's most misbehaved children get flammable rocks for Christmas", or "There's a magical fairy who pours her bountiful riches into purchasing old teeth" though.

[Avistew]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

"There's a magical fairy who pours her bountiful riches into purchasing old teeth" though.

I never got the tooth fairy thing. What's her motivation? In France it's a mouse, who needs the tooth to use as furniture. And it being a mouse, it doesn't need money so it gives it instead. Also, it's small and goes unnoticed.
It makes more sense to me. Plus it's neat imagining a whole town of tooth-furnitured mice located under your home.

[Alcoremortis]

Originally Posted by Avistew

I never got the tooth fairy thing. What's her motivation? In France it's a mouse, who needs the tooth to use as furniture. And it being a mouse, it doesn't need money so it gives it instead. Also, it's small and goes unnoticed.
It makes more sense to me. Plus it's neat imagining a whole town of tooth-furnitured mice located under your home.

I always saw the Tooth-Fairy as making a necklace out of the teeth. I don't know why I thought this, but it made sense to me at the time. I never really wondered about the money, because I never got much money for my teeth.

The tooth mouse sounds really cute. I probably would have insisted on making a stuffed animal mouse after losing my teeth at that age.

[GinnyN]

Originally Posted by Avistew

I never got the tooth fairy thing. What's her motivation? In France it's a mouse, who needs the tooth to use as furniture. And it being a mouse, it doesn't need money so it gives it instead. Also, it's small and goes unnoticed.
It makes more sense to me. Plus it's neat imagining a whole town of tooth-furnitured mice located under your home.

We have the mouse too, but I never knew it was because he need it for its forniture. Interesting.

[Chyron8472]

I lol'd at that.

Mental images of a city of tooth-furnitured mice. That's funny

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by Avistew

I never got the tooth fairy thing. What's her motivation? In France it's a mouse, who needs the tooth to use as furniture. And it being a mouse, it doesn't need money so it gives it instead. Also, it's small and goes unnoticed.
It makes more sense to me. Plus it's neat imagining a whole town of tooth-furnitured mice located under your home.

Hehe! Telltale should make a game about that!