Here's the backstory. An evil organization has abducted a group of young psychics for several nefarious experiments. One of which is forcing the psychics to use their collective power to create a Tulpa (which in itself might take some explanation.) This tulpa is the embodiment of fear. It knows what its victim fears and uses that to take on whatever form it wants in order to siphon the energy from its prey; like a fear vampire.
So I like the story, but the name I came up with for the character is horribly generic. Mister Nightmare. I really need some help coming up with something better.
Is the Tulpa the character in question? If it is why not name it Fear? That way when people refer to it its name [b]IS[/b] Fear.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
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Fearmonger.
Tulpa originated in Buddhism.
Rakshasa is an Indian demon with the ability to shapeshift. They are usually very intelligent, especially cruel, use magic and delight in eating humans alive. This seems to fit your description of the Tulpa creature.
Oni are japanese demons (lack of a better word) who also delight in tormenting humans. They are said to be able to shapeshift and have the ability to cause insanity along with great strength, cunning and other abilities. Again this would fit your description of the Tulpa.
Alternately you could ignore the origins of Tulpa and go with the term Gestalt which means a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts in reference to the fact that the Tulpa is made up of multiple people. Maybe Gestalt Parasite to indicate it's feeding on others, although personally I prefer single word names for characters.
So I have a quick question: does it appear in the physical realm? If it does does it have a physical form? Or does it appear in the minds of the people it's attempting to scare?
Some cursory names:
Dream catcher
Fear Eater
Dream Eater
Edgar Alan Foe
Nevermoore (moore like a last name)
And now some names put through google translate I like:
Frikë (pronounced like "freak-uh" albanian for fear)
Meng Shi (chinese for "dream eater")
Dromeneter (dutch for dream eater. Pronounced sort of like Dominator)
-I've found a lot of languages use the term "Strakh" for "fear" Maybe give it a last name Strakh. Like Edgar Strakh
It does have a physical form. But that form can be whatever it chooses, and even appears differently to different people. I suppose the closest comparison would be "It" from....erm "It".
Love those names, btw.
There was an X-Files episode that was almost exactly this idea. It's the one where they are doing a ride-along with the cops as if they were on an episodes of COPS. They chase a monster that is killing people but everyone that saw it described it differently, as their own worst fear.
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
There was an episode of Supernatural called #Thinman in season 9, I think, that uses the concept of a Tulpa as well.
I also seem to remember something similar in a real old Twilight Zone, but I could be wrong.
Losername's premise of a Tulpa fear creature created by a group of psychics is a fairly unique combination that I find interesting.
I like Gestalt as a name. I think it’s brilliant.
Thanks! The idea is inspired from "real" accounts of people doing exactly that. Once again, the strangest fiction is real life :)
Skulmination.
Yeah, I'll just see myself out.
Thank you. I wish I could take credit for it but I had recently watched old episodes of Red Dwarf and one episode had a gestalt creature. The description of multiple people making up this Tulpa creature, which is a divergence from traditional Tulpa creation, reminded me of it.
Sure thing. It's not often you see a combination of familiar story elements put together in unique ways in these 'need a name' threads.
Most of the time people are content with 'my character is this and that bad thing happened so he became hero/villain x'. It's the Batman formula of character creation and it's become boring to me.
I thought Tulpas where creatures made from belief, like one could create one by believing in it hard enough and getting enough people to believe in it hard enough....
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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It is. The idea is that a handful of psychics have enough psychic power between them to create one. It would take a lot of regular people to will one into existence.
I’ve seen different takes on the concept but this particular one is pretty novel.
To build on the idea, since the psychics were abducted and forced to create this, could they have intentionally given it a weakness? One that isn’t obvious. They could have telepathically conspired between each other without their captors’ knowledge. Partially to assuage the guilt they’d feel in participating in the creation of a monster, and partially so that if they became victims themselves they’d have a better chance of at least escaping it.
That's pretty brilliant. I had admittedly written myself into a corner because, on paper, this thing is all but invulnerable. So thanks for that!
Bravo, good sir and/or madam.
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"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
If I may offer something more in that area.
This creature is made up of multiple peoples thoughts perverted by an evil organization. If we flesh out its creation we can take a traditional way of beating gestalt creatures and make it new.
So this evil organization kidnaps a bunch of psychics in order to make a fear Tulpa. They know that this creature is going to need a variety of abilities to effectively be the monster they want. So the psychics they kidnap all have different specialties. Pyrokinesis, telekinesis, telepathy, bio-manipulation and so on.
Furthermore in order for this fear creature to manifest these psychics all have to will it to exist. But these psychics are not bad people, they are just being used. So the evil organization has to manipulate the development of the fear Tulpa otherwise it would be basically good, like the psychics who make it up.
The evil guys do this by forcing a mind link between the psychics that has no protection in place. Each psychic cannot keep a sense of self as thoughts and emotions that are not their own intermingle violently with their own.They no longer know who they are or where they begin and end. This group mind grasps for any sense of stability and at this point the evil organization leads the kids to create this fear tulpa.
This is incredibly taxing on the young psychics and if they meet too great a resistance from a hero, for example, individual psychics can pass out from the strain or worse. When one of the psychics is no longer a part of the fear Tulpa it loses access to that psychics abilities.
More importantly, for each psychic that is removed from the gestalt the psychics are able to regain some sense of their selves and their natural goodness has more of an influence of the creature. If enough of the psychics are removed from the gestalt it would turn on the evil organization.
Obviously the evil organization would have some safety protocols in place but there is still the chance the heroes can find a way around them.
One thing I particularly like about this 'back story' is that the psychics who make up the gestalt provide it with it's power. If at any point you want to add new powers or remove old ones you have a ready made reason for it. New psychics are brought in to the gestalt and old one are removed. You can even make this a darker story by revealing to the heroes that the permanent removal of some of these psychics was due to that heroes actions. The battles the heroes had with the creature eventually wore down one of the psychics and he died, his mind was destroyed or whatever cruel fate you want to make the hero feel guilty for.
I hope that makes sense and would love to hear your thoughts about this.
Love it!
I had always pictured the group of psychics as a small, neat number; say five. Each has unique specialties, and then there's one that is significantly more powerful than the rest. He/she serves as a lynch pin for plots and stories, etc.
The evil organization is a direct analogy for the CIA of the 50s and 60s. They perform all kinds of experiments on humans and this Tulpa conjuring is just one of many. The psychics are just helpless pawns to their agenda, and are enslaved in some sort of PSI harnessing machine. As it always goes, the organization is not prepared for success and soon have a Frankenstein situation on their hands.
This little nugget works as the perfect foil for my hero. He is a supernatural/horror type who sends demons and monsters to Hell, and so on. He's possessed by a spirit and therefore doesn't feel fear. (At this point he's a Ghost Rider clone, but I'm trying to flesh him out as well.) He is obviously immune to the Tulpa's power, but finds out that fighting it directly has left one of the psychics in a catatonic state. The actual elimination of the psychic is the organization's doing, but the hero feels no less responsible. (That could be the point, storywise, where the reader finally gets a glimpse at the greater picture.)
Maybe as psychics are added/removed from the equation, the Tulpa can take on many different traits, etc. so it can never truly be defeated. Kind of like an Ultron situation?
It's funny. I was just looking for a name for this dude, and now I've got a backstory with some real legs on it. Thank you!
No problem.
Like I said it just nice to see someone interested in originality instead of just playing super hero mad libs.
[u](noun)[/u] was a normal kid until [u](tragedy)[/u]. Now, using his [u](powers)[/u], the kid fights crime under the name of [u](noun)[/u].
It seems to me that your hero's true victory over the tulpa will be when the actual holding facility for the psis can be located. Until then, the villains only have to keep plugging in new psis. Free them all at once, shut down the machines, and then go after the evil organization.
Of course, this assumes that the evil organization is the people plugging new psis in. If the tulpa doesn't need the machine any more, and can hunt down new "component psis" on its own, it gets a lot harder.
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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I like this a lot. Wish I had thought of it.
Ooh, the Gestalt is running around collecting psychic victims to put into its own little torture lab to make itself stronger and also to keep itself alive. Its activities become known when psionic people start mysteriously vanishing.
This reminds me a lot of the HunterxHunter storyline
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
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Never got into that one.
The Bye Bye Man
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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His theme song could be Bye Bye Bye by *NSYNC.