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Supernatural thriller based on folklore about Saint Nicholas of Myra (writing discussion thread)
Spin-off of my post on IJBMer Updates about something I'm writing. Decided to start a thread about it since updates and the general writing thread would just be clogged up. Warning, a bit long. This is the premise:
Not sure if that means he's a racist caricature in those cases though. I don't know if the people who imagined him as Black ever used blackface to play him. He traditionally whacks the naughty kids and takes the really naughty ones away in a sack (but apparently "he" doesn't do that anymore, just carries a switch and the sack is full of presents).
TL;DR version: St. Nicholas, patron saint of practically everything, is also a child-kidnapping, child-protecting elf who has to investigate mysterious murders of random children and uses his various helpers for this task since he's too busy preventing other kids from being murdered.
Santa Claus is real. Sort of. And then he's not. The light-skinned, mostly blue-eyed guy with the reindeer and sleigh and North Pole workshop is just an illusion woven by St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, former Bishop of Myra, to throw everyone off the scent of where he really lives and prevent himself being credited for the gifts he leaves and the deeds he does. He still doesn't like being credited for gifts.
In reality, St. Nicholas looks like this reconstruction and not like the traditional or popular images; dark skin, broken nose, magical hooded cloak, staff which he always carries. It's said he's been around since the 4th century CE and his bones leak a mysterious liquid called manna of St. Nicholas. Some people say it can resurrect the dead.
On December 6 in the 4th century, in a year that even Nicholas can't remember, he died in his bed at his house not far from his church in Andriaki, near Myra. When his body was being laid out for burial, people saw him on horseback on the church rooftop, accompanied by his two wards, a group of horned half-human creatures chained together and people with impossibly bright eyes and rich clothing. He rode a white horse, the colour of sea foam. He carried his staff and wore his red hooded cloak. The horse soared into the air, carrying the bishop and the train he led away from the church and towards the hills outside the city walls.
Centuries later, Nicholas has partnered with Lucia of Syracuse (Lusse/Lussi), the Midwinter Queen, and has a headquarters in the Lycian hills. His workforce is mostly made up of children and adults who he has the Krampusse, demons who fight evil spirits, kidnap either for rehabilitation or to give them better lives. Then a fifteen year old Australian girl named Lucy, her brother, and her cousins are kidnapped for a reason no-one can explain, and at the same time children have been found murdered around the world. Lucy and her cousins and brother and Ruprecht* and Pete, two of his enforcers who in their mortal lives were orphans raised by Nicholas during his time as Myra's bishop, decide to try and figure out who's murdering all these kids.
* Interesting note on Ruprecht: Apparently in parts of Germany, Knecht Ruprecht, Nicholas' most common helper/companion in German tradition, was (or is?) sometimes conflated with Black Pete. A girl I know told me a version of the "coming from Spain" story that she believed in as a little kid, with Africa --- no country mentioned---- instead of Spain. She lives in a town on the Dutch border.
TL;DR version: St. Nicholas, patron saint of practically everything, is also a child-kidnapping, child-protecting elf who has to investigate mysterious murders of random children and uses his various helpers for this task since he's too busy preventing other kids from being murdered.
How do you write a dark take on "Santa" (word used in its loosest sense and put in quotes since "Santa" as such doesn't really exist, just St. Nicholas) without making "Santa" an outright villain?
Comments
Well, when you have legends associating him with creatures like the Krampus... the association just begs to be made. And "CSI North Pole" should be made.
I heard he was originally Huginn and Muninn, Odin's ravens. Also he turns up in the occasional 19th century American portrayal of Santa, as well as Santa himself being Black but that didn't happen very much since some people thought it was too progressive and subversive.