Wheel of Topics #1

by Flege2 Sat Dec 11, 2010 8:58 pm

I'm going to slowly put all of the Wheel of Topics into this topic (one a day). Did anyone save the one I did?

For my first WoT in this fleet(the other one was only a presentation), I decided to write on an old topic I already used; the Alp. No, I'm not talking about the moutainous region in europe. I am speaking(writing) about the largely unknown mystical creature coming from germany. First some warning. Because of many similarities in their power and abilities, they are sometime compared to vampire. This is not true, but I wont spoil why righ now.

An Alp is a kind of short elve living among human, feeding on our dream and playing pranks on us. When you see one in their true form, they look like small, sick child with a very pale skin and strange eyes. On their head, they always wear a hat that they will never share or give. That hat is a tarnkappe, a magic hat, sources of all their powers. If they lose it, they lose their powers.

The way they come to life is not well know, but ancient folklore give them two way of birth. The first one(possibly the most common) is when fay creatures(wich one isn't known) give true life to a stillborn human baby. The young Alp will grow normaly until it reach its normal size(how they gain their hat and power isn't explained clearly in the folklore I found). Although they were dead, they are now truly alive and not undead. The other way is a curse put on a normal human by a certain type of witch. The person will slowly turn into a Alp while staying to its full size. Only the witch can break the curse.

Alps possess many power, they are far stronger than a fully grown man(when in its real form), can transform, can eat dream, can turn invisible and possess the mind of people. They transform in many common animals, like dogs, cats, wolfs, pigs, roosters, etc..., and in a few special form. The special forms usually are: a cloud of mist, a "dream snake" and a pure white butterfly. One thing you must keep in mind, in all of their form(exept the mist and the "dream snake"

they have the tarnkappe with them, making them easily indentifiable.

The possession can happen through hypnosis or by merging completely with your body. The hipnosis isn't perfect, and the people look like they are sleepwalking. When fused in your body, they have access to your memory, so they know how to act like you, but they have a big flaw, a monobrow. When they go inside someone's body, that person grow a monobrow, making it visible that they are under the control of an Alp.

The Alp live by eating dreams, but they also live by eating common food and some other form of sustenance. They eat dream either by turning into mist or into the "dream snake" and entering your head through your mouth or nostrills. The dream snake is described as a long, thin and not completely material creature, white in color and without any visible mark. Some stories also says that they simply put their long tongue in your mouth(that's simple).

The food they like the most is milk, of any origin. They even drink milk from woman's breasts. If you propose a glass of milk, a cup of tea or a cup of coffee to an Alp, you can be sure he will say yes, you can even tell him to leave your house an return in the morning. Among the other thing they can eat or drink is human blood. They drink it from man's nipples(from womans too if they can't draw milk).

I will finish tomorow, so stay tuned.

Grim the pirate

Lets finish what I started yesterday.

Alps are more mischievous than malicious, they like to play bad prank but not to hurt people. They can put back a dirty diaper to a baby, drink all the milk of your cow(if you have cow), leaving them dry, give you nightmare or do the "alpdrucke" to you. The alpdrucke is when they sit on your chest and slowly increase their weight until you can't breath and wakeup because of it. When you wakeup, they disappear while laughting. They do not hurt people directly, unless they want to get their revenge on you.

There are many way to get rid of an Alp, some less violent than other. The most effective one without killing it(and not the easiest one) is by taking their hat. They will try to convince you to give them the hat by crying and begging. If you have the hat, you can ask them for a wish within the limit of their powers. If an Alp make a promise for his hat, he will always keep it.

The others non-lethal way are to invite it for a drink, put a lemon in is mouth or closing its way out to imprison it. As I said earlier, you can invite it for milk, tea or coffee. When he come, you have two choice, try to convince him to leave you(being nice works) or give a good beating(watch out if he return with a bad plan). If you put a lemon in his mouth, the Alp will lose all its powers and become paralyzed. The folklore say that it can take them weeks to recover(again, watch out if he return).

When closing the way out, you dont have to close all the holes in the room, only the one he used to enter the room. If he use his transformation power to enter a room, he can only escape the room through the same opening. You don't even have to close it perfectly, only to cover it completly. Tape a sheet of paper in front of the hole he used to enter and not only he won't be able to leave, but can't take the paper of the exit. Again, the folklore isn't clear about this if he enter in his true form or inside another body.

As for killing them, as long as they are in a physical form, they can be killed with conventional method. They have an aversion for pure iron, because it can weaken them(not as efficient as the lemon). Other metal are said to be efficient if they are completely pure, like silver and gold. So if your goal is to kill them, pure iron(or silver) bullet will do the trick, but as a said earlier, their goal isn't to hurt us, so it may be a bit much for a simple nuisance.

I hope you liked the info I gave you about it, because they where not easy to find the first time I did it.

Grim the pirate