The World of Lil Monsters

The Hollow

Every story people have ever whispered in the dark, beside a campfire, in a church tower or at the edge of a swamp, leaves something behind. When enough people believe it, that something wakes up. It wakes in the Hollow, a hidden world folded just behind our own.

The Lil Monsters are those somethings, grown small. They are the legends people tell, shrunk down to pocket-sized beasts that carry every quirk, rumour and grudge of their tales.

How a Lil Monster gets its personality

A Lil Monster's nature comes from how its story is told.

• Friendly ones were born from stories told with a grin: campfire jokes, souvenir postcards, grandparents' tall tales.
• Mischievous ones come from prank legends and trickster tales.
• Evil ones were fed by warnings, the stories told to keep children away from the woods.
• Furious ones remember being hunted, doubted or mocked.
• Bloodthirsty ones grew in the darkest retellings, where fear was the whole point. They only fully show themselves around Halloween.
• Nightmare ones were never told as stories at all. They grew from the fear itself: the shape at the end of the hallway, the sound in the attic. Even other monsters keep a light on when one is near.

The Veil and Halloween

Once a year the Veil between the Hollow and our world thins. The Lil Monsters slip through wearing whatever they grabbed on the way out: witch hats, jack-o'-lanterns, candles and cobwebs, with bats trailing behind. That is why some of them still carry a little Halloween on them.

The Witch's Garden

At the edge of the Lantern Fields grows a garden nobody planted. Some Lil Monsters wandered in, ate what grew there, smoked what they found, and came back a little altered. You can tell them by their eyes.

The Neon Rift

Not every crossing happens in the dark. Deep in the Hollow lies the Neon Rift, a seam of humming lime-green light where the Hollow touches the on-chain world. Lil Monsters who pass through it come back glowing at the edges. They are rare, and they are said to be the first to have found their way onto the chain.

Regions of the Hollow

• Frostpeak

  Endless snow ridges and blue ice caves

  Who lives there

  Yeti, Snowman, Wendigo

• The Ember Deeps

  Volcanic caverns and rivers of light

  Who lives there

  Dragon, Phoenix, Oni

• The Sunken Reach

  Black water, mangroves, drowned ruins

  Who lives there

  Kraken, Kappa, Lizard Man, Slime

• The Pine Barrens Gate

  A forest that is always night at its centre

  Who lives there

  Jersey Devil, Goatman, Dogman, Bigfoot, Werewolf

• The Lantern Fields

  Harvest fields under a permanent orange dusk

  Who lives there

  Pumpkin Head, Scarecrow, Mandrake, Jackalope

• Bonegate

  Crypts, mausoleums and fog

  Who lives there

  Mummy, Skeleton, Zombie, Vampire, Jiangshi, Ghost, Stitched Brute

• Skyfall

  A high plateau where strange lights land

  Who lives there

  Grey Alien, Flatwoods Monster, Fresno Nightcrawler, Mothman, Thunderbird

• The Shrine Hills

  Red gates, mountain temples, fox fires

  Who lives there

  Kitsune, Tengu, Oni, Kappa

• The Labyrinth Isles

  Broken temples on a wine-dark sea

  Who lives there

  Minotaur, Medusa, Cyclops, Cerberus

• Stonewatch

  A city of towers that watches back

  Who lives there

  Gargoyle, Golem

• The Alpine Hollows

  Bells, pines and winter markets

  Who lives there

  Krampus, Goblin

• The Badlands

  Red rock, cactus and missing livestock

  Who lives there

  Chupacabra

• The Saltwind Coast

  Storm cliffs, black lochs and sea caves

  Who lives there

  Kelpie, Selkie, Grindylow, Vodyanoy, Bunyip, Loch Ness Monster, Lanternjaw

• The Wildwood

  Endless jungle, river ruins and red-earth bush

  Who lives there

  Aswang, Tikbalang, Ahuizotl, Mapinguari, Curupira, Tokoloshe, Grootslang, Mokele-mbembe, Drop Bear

• The Sand Kingdoms

  Dunes, sunken palaces and singing sand

  Who lives there

  Djinn, Mongolian Death Worm

• The Gloom

  The unmapped middle of the Hollow, where new legends form

  Who lives there

  Gloomhorn, Grinmaw (originals of the Hollow itself)

The Hundred (one-of-ones)

Legends are older than the stories that shrink them. The Hundred are Lil Monsters that never shrank at all: legends in their true form, each one alone of its kind. Nobody agrees on what they want, but every one of them has been seen standing at the edge of the Veil, watching.