Goodman Surripio

His domains of patronage include theft, abductions, and reaves. He has been steadfastly a Midnight name, though there was a brief span during the Regency’s rule wherein he was a Twilight designation due to the dashing antics of a highwayman who saved the ruling king’s life through a swashbuckling shoot out on the unpaved roads that run through the Southern Reach. Shortly after the fall of this king, the ruling was reverted.

He is often shown huddled in a dark cloak, with no real distinguishing facial features: simply a smooth, impassively blank canvas. Goodman Surripio wears dark gloves, on account of the fact that the back of his hands are branded with bold T’s for thief. He is associated with the Fae, due to the practice of changelings: exchanging a human child for a faerie one. Thus, his patronees are treated with more politeness than is typical for Midnight names.

During his sacred hour of night, everyone boards their windows and doors, and sits indoors with bated breath, as his devotees slink through the town and make away with ceremonial offerings left on their front steps. These are often tokens that would be presented to the Fae: milk and honey, fresh baked bread, golden coins, shiny baubles. It is believed that this staves off their kleptomaniac desires through the rest of the year, and guards the household from further theft on the Goodman’s whimsy.

Following any birth, it’s customary to place a pair of iron scissors beneath the cradle of the child for the first night over, in order to force Goodman Surripio to leave the baby alone while it is at its most vulnerable. He features heavily in stories meant to scare children into sleeping.