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hyzmarca
In the Awakened World of corporate consumerism it may be easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas, the day when a fat Immortal Elf flies around the world delivering gifts to all the children of the world.
Santa is just a myth some might say, but people said the same thing about spirits, dragons, and vampires. The return of magic to the world would only make Santa more real. But, it still leaves the question, just what is Santa Clause?
He is apparently immortal and sometimes described as an elf, so he may just be an IE. King Auther and Leonardo daVenci may have been IEs. His amazing feats may be attributed to 4th world magics such as netherwalking. Is Harley dressing up in a fat suit every wear and neatherwalking around the globe with a team of reindeer form spirits? Or is Santa a previously unknown IE?
He could also be some sort of free spirit, using its powers to appear as a fat elf and enslaving many mortal elves at its North Pole toyshop using mind control spells.
Santa's apparent downcycle magic use could be because he isn't using magic at all. He could be a technologically advanced alien trapped on Earth who used parts from his damaged spacecraft to create a team of flying cyborg reindeer.
Most sinister of all, Santa could be the Horror Giftbringer, using its cursed toys to stir greed an envy in the hearts of children across the globe.

Or, has Santa been reduced to just another corporate logo? Is he splashed across billboards? Do trid commercials show him using an Ares MP Laser to fight off the Arctic Nazis? Is some misguided wageslave programed working on a Santa Clause AI? Do people still put tacky plastic St Nick statues on their lawns?
Mercer
Santa is clearly a psychotic robot from Neptune.
Fortune
I think his North Pole home is a misremembered fable. He really lives in the mystical Northern Isles that are referenced in Earthdawn and amongst the Tir Na nOg elvish legends.
Sandoval Smith
He's the great form spirit of Christmas.
Mercer
QUOTE (Condensed Cyberpunk Cinema Classics (1981-2001)
Chapter 18: You're Born In The Gutter @ You End Up In The Port. )
The Santa Claus imagery is carried throughout the film, and it all makes much more sense if you're familiar with the true origins of Santa Claus, which go way back to Norse mythology. Back then, Odin (alternately Odihnn, Wodan) was the god of (among other things) wisdom, magic and occult knowledge, and this tall, elderly, white-bearded God oft travelled into other worlds with his two ravens named Muninn (Memory) and Huginn (Thought) and his white 8-legged horse Sleipnir. Odin had only one eye; the other was removed willingly in exchange for wisdom and insight, allowing him to see inward worlds with his lost "eye." Over the years, Odin gradually transformed himself into the Dutch Sinterklaas, a tall, elderly, white-bearded man who rode on a white horse and was accompanied by Black Jacks, who gathered secret information about young children throughout the year. If a child was good, Sinterklaas delivered that child a present. If the child was bad, the Black Jacks might abduct the child and take him away to the realm of Sinterklaas, never to return.


Interesting side note, Santa didn't start wearing red until he got the endorsement deal with Coca-Cola early this century. Before that he just wore sweats or something, I guess.
Botch
Santa was rebranded to Red and White by Coca-Cola, before he had been mass portrayed as wearing Red and Green (traditional winter colors), this also was a rebranding.

I'll go with a named terror, surely everybody has noticed the weeks of heart-break, saving and stress that comes with a few hours of joy around the 25th.


Catsnightmare
QUOTE (Botch)

I'll go with a named terror, surely everybody has noticed the weeks of heart-break, saving and stress that comes with a few hours of joy around the 25th.

ROTFLMAO

I like that theory. smile.gif
Catsnightmare
QUOTE (Botch)

I'll go with a named terror, surely everybody has noticed the weeks of heart-break, saving and stress that comes with a few hours of joy around the 25th.

ROTFLMAO

I like that theory. smile.gif
Trashman
I also agree with the idea of named horror. Couldn't be anything else.

But as a side note: What about Tinkerbell in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan? She surely must be a surviving windling (Earthdawn character race for those who are to young to remember that game).
From one of the 1st ed. sourcebooks on paranimals we know these loveable types are already back in the world (albeit in small numbers).
Trashman
I also agree with the idea of named horror. Couldn't be anything else.

But as a side note: What about Tinkerbell in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan? She surely must be a surviving windling (Earthdawn character race for those who are to young to remember that game).
From one of the 1st ed. sourcebooks on paranimals we know these loveable types are already back in the world (albeit in small numbers).
Pthgar
Clearly he is a free spirit with the wealth power. He produces all those preasents on the spot.

On the other hand some legends say that he was a human that enslaves elves! Maybe he's really a GD.
lodestar
I wonder how many Santas man the Renraku Arc during the Christmas sales blitz?

Does Ares still count on record sales during the holiday season? Every merc wants a new Ares Alpha under the tree. wink.gif

Don't forget to watch out for those exploding Aztechnology Piniatas.
mfb
santa isn't dead; he lives on. in space. gathering power.

raise the shields, children.
Nikoli
Not to mention the rise in suicide rate, you can't tell me a horror wouldn't engineer that.
mfb
that's actually a myth. suicide season is in jan-feb, after the holidays.
RangerJoe
Obvious Santa is a rigger of some kind. *flipping through his R3 to generate stats for a VTOL T-bird/sleigh with drone raindeer*
PBTHHHHT
QUOTE (mfb @ Dec 22 2004, 03:37 PM)
that's actually a myth. suicide season is in jan-feb, after the holidays.

But one can also say that the holidays is one of the main contributing cause for the suicide. After facing the horrors that is xmas, the person is scarred for life and decides to take their lives rather than face the holidays again next year...

Oh, slightly off topic, anybody catch the horrid movie on sci-fi channel a few days ago? Puppetmaster v. Demonic Toys? They were battling it out to prevent the toys from being possessed on xmas morning, thereby causing much mayhem. I've never seen the Puppetmaster movies before. Now I have and I am much more scarred because of it. Well, now I know what happened to that one child actor from the 80's who was in 'Lost Boys', the one with the very deep voice. At least he's still acting... ok, acting might be a stretch for this movie.

edit: fixed a spelling error
Cray74
After reading the Lobo Christmas Special (where the other holiday icons hire Lobo to take out Chris "Chrusher" Kringle), I'm voting "Named Horror." Santa was just NAUGHTY in that comic.
mfb
it's the letdown after the holidays that tends to be the main factor, PBTHHHHT. i guess you could work it out where Kringle is a devious horror who makes people happy for a week or so, in order to highlight how dismal the rest of their lives are.

hm. i bet, when the army put me and the rest of my platoon through all those goddamn anti-suicide classes, they didn't intend for me to use what i learned there in a thread about whether or not Santa is a supernatural soul-eater. misuse of government resources, baby.
PBTHHHHT
mfb: Ah, I gotcha. I overlooked the other reason. Xmas week being the ultimate high and the january/february being the big withdrawal almost like a drug.

Hmmm... rather devious that Mr. Kringle... That's why I placed my vote for named horror.
durthang
Giftbringer anyone?

Spreading greed, bitterness, and the highest suidide rate of the year for over 2,000 years.
Nikoli
And, as said before, the subjagation of an entire Elven nation. Even in the "Night before Christmas" he's described as an elf, can't horror's possess folks?
FlakJacket
The real face of Santa Claus. Not exactly the Coca-Cola version is it? As one newspaper article put it, if you saw this guy in your living room in the middle of the night uninvited you'd be reaching for the shotgun not the mince pies and sherry. smile.gif Here's an article on how they did it.

And just to make it somewhat Shadowrun related, that's a good idea for a run. The citizens of Myra hire a group of runners to head over to Bari, break into the tomb and bring the remains back. Lot easier than going through any courts.
GunnerJ
Where's the "ape-like creature making crude and pointless toys out of dino-bones and his own waste" option?
DocMortand
QUOTE (lodestar)
I wonder how many Santas man the Renraku Arc during the Christmas sales blitz?

From 2059 - 2061, I think the number of Santas in the Renraku Arcology would be zero. Unless somebody dressed up some whirling dervishes as Santa....
hobgoblin
QUOTE (mfb)
that's actually a myth. suicide season is in jan-feb, after the holidays.

when people start seeing the bills from the credit card companys?
Snow_Fox
He comes from the north, riding through the night's sky to bring pleasure and joy.
He is immortal and enduring going beyond a single culture and appearing back through the ages. He is clearly a free spirit.
DocMortand
By the way, technically Bun-Bun was Santa Claus after he killed him...or would that fall under the named Horror category?

So we have two Santa Claus possibilities that aren't on the poll - homicidal robot from Neptune and homicidal rabbit.
hyzmarca
QUOTE (DocMortand @ Dec 23 2004, 10:59 PM)
By the way, technically Bun-Bun was Santa Claus after he killed him...or would that fall under the named Horror category?

So we have two Santa Claus possibilities that aren't on the poll - homicidal robot from Neptune and homicidal rabbit.

Neptue being another plant, its inhabitants would qualify as extraterrestrials.
Snow_Fox
No, that was just where he set up his base after leaving the factory on earth.
Snow_Fox
No, that was just where he set up his base after leaving the factory on earth.
Nikoli
See he is a Horror
littlesean
PBTHHHHT-The earlier Puppet master movies are cheesy, but worth watching, in my opinion. I too saw the travesty you mentioned, but there was one line in the movie that made it worth two hours of my life which I shall never recover.

"Even without the slaughter of innocents, this will be our best Christmas ever."

Considering the movie, son't worry about the context, it is just a great line!

Have a Happy [insert your winter holiday of choice]!!
Kanada Ten
What if Santa isn't a free spirit, but rather is conjured by the rituals practiced around the season, and draws his power from the dreams of children and such?
DocMortand
QUOTE (Kanada Ten)
What if Santa isn't a free spirit, but rather is conjured by the rituals practiced around the season, and draws his power from the dreams of children and such?

AKA a Horror? Oh wait a sec...
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