The Dark Men are strictly NPC. They're the uber-monsters. They feed off negative psychic energy, and are particularly attracted to the energy that comes from those who Glimmer.
Table of Contents
Who They Are
"The stuff of nightmare is their plain bread. They butter it with pain. They set their clocks by deathwatch beetles, and thrive the centuries. They were the men with the leather-ribbon whips who sweated up the Pyramids, seasoning it with other people's salt and other people's cracked hearts. They coursed Europe on the White Horses of the Plague. They whispered to Caesar that he was mortal, then sold daggers at half-price in the grand March sale." - Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Dark Men feed on nightmare and dread. They flock to the chinks in the armor of the Veil, knowing that it will bring food for them, and they will let loose horror upon the world and feed upon that dark terror. They will find those who Glimmer and attach themselves, like parasites. The brighter the light, the stronger the shadow. And they are things of shadow.
For those who Glimmer, they are a persistent threat. They tease and torment, coax and caress their prey into using their abilities, to make themselves into beacons and then descend upon them, harvesting their pain. They might simply siphon off a single source indefinitely, sharpening neuroses, weaponizing insecurities. And they might find one strong enough to be worth the kill, hunt like wolves, separating the Glimmer from the safety of numbers, cornering it, capturing it, devouring it. They don't just feed. They annihilate.
Appearance
The Dark Men don't have a physical form. They're completely non-corporeal. In Dreams, they might take whatever shape is most effective for torment, but they can only interact with the real world through their agents - those they can twist to do their bidding.
Those who Glimmer may sense their proximity as a dark, shadowy presence - the opposite of finding someone else that Glimmers. Instead of a flash of recognition, it's like a little punch of pain in the back of the mind. Looking for them seems to make it harder to find them; one almost has to stumble across them to really, fully notice them.
They feel grim and terrifying. But not like a singular consciousness. They don't have human thoughts or emotions that can be read or deciphered. Some liken it to the feeling of a thunderstorm that might pile later in the day: pressure, discomfort, foreboding, but nothing concrete or tangible.
Hunting Methods
The Dark Men are few and far between. In a town like Gray Harbor, where the Veil is thin, their presence is much more prevalent, but it's hard to know much about them, even just to know "how many of them" are around at any given time.
They will look to feed on those they can truly overpower. A weaker psyche is a smaller meal, but a stronger one is more dangerous. They can take small sustenance from those who have only a small glimpse of the Glimmer, but it takes a lot of those bites to make a proper meal. They might bring nightmares to an entire neighborhood - but that won't fill them up, and it costs them their own energy to exert such influence.
If they feel they have a prize - a truly strong source of pain - they will work harder, focusing in on their prey to make it give off all the nourishing negativity that they can. When they find someone whose light is bright enough - bright enough that they have cause to fear it - they will absolutely bring that person low, by whatever means necessary.
For lesser sustenance, they will just lean into someone, harvesting pain by feeding them small amounts of negativity, but their primary method for both feeding and destroying is to drag a person into a nightmarish Dream, where they have much more control over the surroundings.
What Your Character Should Know
Characters who take "Dark Men Lore" can assume they know significant chunks of the information on this page.
- Most characters don't know the term "Dark Men," and often refer to the Dark Men as "Them," with a capital-T. How your character refers to or rationalizes the Dark Men is entirely up to you IC.
- Characters that have newly manifested their abilities may not have felt the Dark Men yet.
- The more that you use your abilities, the more frequently you feel Them. Eventually, things will come to a head, and you will be caught in a horrific Dream designed to make you use your abilities.
- Note: If you roll an "embarrassing failure" on a Glimmer roll, feel free to throw in a request to a storyteller for a Dark Men run-in. 😃
- Sometimes, you can feel when they've noticed you - a sense of oppression, dread, and anxiety may precede a bad Dream.
- If you use your abilities to deliberately harm someone else, They seem to be distracted and will take advantage of that pain instead of feeding on yours.
Characters who do not Glimmer have probably never heard of "Them," and they are unlikely to have had many brushes with them. Unless your character has specifically been told, you would have no reason to know the Dark Men exist.
Out of Character Info
The Dark Men feed off negative psychic energy. While they can sustain themselves on "normal" people, they get much more fuel from those who Glimmer, and they selectively target them. They may torment a single individual indefinitely, fueling their insecurities and feeding off them. For those that Glimmer, they often push them into terrible Dreams.
Their agents in the real world are usually those who also Glimmer, and they're able to exert influence over them, driving them to do things to hurt themselves or others. They can influence mundane people as well, but it's harder to control them, so they tend to selectively target those who Glimmer. They might use them to commit crimes, drive them insane, harm someone else, peddle drugs, anything they can to sow discord and discontent. And then they feed off that negativity.
It's fine to assume the Dark Men know how to push your character's buttons. Part of the struggle is learning how to combat their influence. Remember, though, that the Dark Men aren't human. The don't subscribe to human emotions, and they may not even have singular consciousnesses.