The Yule Lad - Disruption Based Hero with tons of Map Prescense

[Rabbit Inc]

Based on the Icelandic folklore of the yule lads who would either reward those who were good or be very terrible to those who weren't. Essentially the character would be a villain in the sense that he has an extremely flawed sense of justice and believes he has moral superiority over people and enjoys hurting people as much as he enjoys helping them.

As for design, he carries around a large burlap sack with him that he drags on the ground whenever he walks. If possible, allowing him to have access to the tunnel system would be interesting, I would imagine him to be very lanky, tall, and pale (Unnerving visually and his lankiness allowing him to squeeze into the tunnel system) wearing a sort of long fur coat, beanie, and snow boots with a sort of sick grin, something a little more subtle than the drifter's but with eyes that are more endearing but betrayed by the grin.

Gun - A lever action rifle, Winchester based design.

1) Gift - The Yule Lad will be able to mark a teammate to heal them or mark an enemy to lower specific stats or a damage amp.

2) Jacks - The Yule lad will reach into his sack and throw a spray of Jacks on the ground that will cause damage upon being stepped on, different from ivy kudzu as they are activated when moved on and not just being in the area, are thrown in a straight line, can be thrown point blank similar to Calico Gloom Bombs.

3) Tug - The Yule Lad will be able to hold his sack and have it seemingly drag itself forward quickly causing him to move forward quickly and deal a small knock-up to any enemies hit.

4) Snatch - The Yule Lad will lift up his sack and a vortex of wind will suck everything in front of him into the sack for a moment, forcing everyone towards his direction

I understand that if this idea is considered the source material is typically referenced, I would like that but I am not really a huge fan of the orcish troll vibe (doesn't fit the game's vibe either). I would rather him be a human who was consumed by the eldritch force of the sack causing him to look the way he does.


Other Ability Ideas I had were a way to either mark enemies through walls after seeing them keeping him roaming a lot of the time, or being able to have a sort of way to hide himself on the map through an ability, maybe even a sort of weaker Traveller ability or Shadow Weave esque move.

 

[Rabbit Inc]

I changed my mind about Jacks, I think Jacks would be better as an alternative fire. 2) Stalk - mark a sort of sigil on the ground and enter a sort of hidden state where you are not visible on the map and have a breif period of invisibilty, after the invisibility runs out (Lets say 5 seconds of invis) you will be in a stalking state, if an enemy sees you while in this state they will immediately be marked and have huge debuffs, you will be teleported back to your sigil and have increased movement speed for a period of time and heavily encouraging the player to kill the enemy they successfully stalked with their position on the map shown for 15 seconds.


I want this character to kind of mimic drifter in a way where drifter has an ambient horror aspect where he can be anywhere while this character is more of a jumpscare and is made to kill solo farmers and potentially people who are roaming in the tunnels

 

[Galdur Kær]

I love any mention of the Yule Lads, and there could be a historical tie-in with the mass emigration of Icelanders to the west around the turn of the 20th century (1870-1914):

https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesturfarar
The Wikipedia page is in Icelandic, but you should be able to translate it and get the gist - around 20% of the population at the time left for the west.

I feel that a Yule Lad character should be more of a thief and/or prankster type rather than a straight-up horror monster, though. In their folklore, they never cause direct harm to people, instead stealing their food, candles and cattle, slamming doors and peeping through windows. Stalking and stealing people away in the night is more their mom Grýla's business.

I picture more of a support character who slinks through enemy territory, with the ability to steal unsecured souls, block doorways and trap enemies in elaborate traps for his allies to finish them off in.

 

[Aush0J]

A support that can heal/dmg, apply debuff, has mobile stun, and suck enemies off. And it's based of Yule Lad, sign me in.

 

[Rabbit Inc]

I love any mention of the Yule Lads, and there could be a historical tie-in with the mass emigration of Icelanders to the west around the turn of the 20th century (1870-1914):

https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesturfarar
The Wikipedia page is in Icelandic, but you should be able to translate it and get the gist - around 20% of the population at the time left for the west.

I feel that a Yule Lad character should be more of a thief and/or prankster type rather than a straight-up horror monster, though. In their folklore, they never cause direct harm to people, instead stealing their food, candles and cattle, slamming doors and peeping through windows. Stalking and stealing people away in the night is more their mom Grýla's business.

I picture more of a support character who slinks through enemy territory, with the ability to steal unsecured souls, block doorways and trap enemies in elaborate traps for his allies to finish them off in.

I did look into that before writing this, I think the team could definitely get involved in folklore if this is considered, but I do like the creative liberty behind getting an idea and altering it while keeping up with source material. (Hence the eldritch sack he has) Either way I would love to see a rendition of a sort of concept like this come to light.