The Straw Men's History

The Straw Men formed across parts Austria. A gathering of ex-cons from the Briar Patch cobbled together out of a common terror. Each honed their own role within the motley to a notable craft. Star-shine kept them together. His authority earned in the bloody uprising that led to most of their escape.

Indeed, this group needs each other. Without a collective, the motley’s members would soon spin off to their mortal fates. The wild Pinky, a monster with no restraints runs a bloody and gory muck. Clover would die off second, succumbing to his addictions unchecked. Twinkle, not far behind without teachers to guide her through the intricacies of modern humanity. Eaten by the streets most likely. And what a sad and lonely survivor Star-shine would make, a general with no troops. Furthermore, they have a symbiotic relationship. Twinkle peddles odd fruits and apples to sate Clover’s vices, and Pinky is fed by the leftovers from Clover’s habit. Twinkle relies on these skewed teachers for the vaguest understanding of the real world, more alien than Arcadia to earth. And Stare-shine uses them all, it’s his support group. This gathering of surreal entities are like just him, monsters, miscreants, or misled, these are his people, ex-cons.

The Straw Men’s early history is marred by several criminal blunders, and consequent disappearances of a score of Austrian private citizens. They were testing their legs, testing the market, seeing how below the radar they could operate without getting major attention from the Court. After a working relationship was established, they had more successes. But their attachment to the ideals of the Autumn Court grew more intense, salting their goals with new a found philosophical bent. The Straw Men came to realize their escape had a meaning, one they were wasting on selfish ideals like greed and survival. No. There was purpose here, the withering autumn months called them back to Austrian soil to do its bidding.

The Straw Men spread their vice, enable it in others, and aid those that choose a withering path. Aid them not to get caught. Their words, ‘Never Shackled Again’. It is their anointed role to enforce the gravity of the last harvest season. They see themselves as proprietors of fear, co-enablers of vice, and crushers of those with hope enough to challenge their ways. The subtle creeping of impending rot, they work low-key, now a perfected art.

It wasn’t till a year or two later they heard of another motley calling themselves the Straw Men, claiming similar connections to the Briar Patch. They ran about Germany, rumor was most of them got shot up in a confrontation with the police, but none could confirm this. The other supposed Straw Men cell was run by a man named Jacob One Two, something with a mechanical heart. The two cells never met each other, and none of the Austrian Straw Men have actual proof other escapees from the Briar Patch made it past the Hedge, or Clover’s Orchards for that matter. But it was a message passed on from someone claiming to be of the Straw Men that led Starshine and the Motley to Vienna.

“The Warden has spies in Austria’s heart.”

That was enough. Real or not, the Straw Men would find out. They’d dig them from the shadows and grind their bones to make bread. Personal vendetta is a great motivator, and so it was that the Straw Men came to Vienna.

Their arrival was timely, they'd missed the massacre at the infamous 'Event of Joy" by a year, though it was odd to see Vienna so sparse of Changelings. The Straw-Men's commitment to the Autumn Court was also to their favor, as Autumn seemed the dominant season amongst the seasons. They quickly fell into the political system, Starshine being the figure head for the alien ex-cons. He attacked politics as a mechanical problem. Did quite well to, using the size of this Motley to bolster Autumn's hold, under Der Schwarze Vogelscheuch's ruler ship. For this, they were awarded tittles of position. Fear Wardens, the lot of 'm. And the Straw Men had an excuse to dig in now and root for the Wardens spies. Be them in Court, or creeping about the Hedge.

Though during the Straw Men's stay in Vienna since, they've yet to turn over a nest of informers or the Warden's minions. But there's time yet to search, and occasionally the Motley turns its suspicions inwards for a possible double agent amongst their own ranks. A bit of paranoia keeps them on their toes.

They've taken up residence in a local abandoned Porn Theater, where their Hollow exists. It's from this central location that the Straw Men operate. Booby-trapped beyond mortal comprehension, the entire place is a maze waiting for intruders to make the wrong step. Starshine's seen to this. Clover's also infiltrated the seedy underbelly of Vienna's streets, grifting tar to mix in his apple injections and pegging the big dealers in town at the same town. Pinky currently works at a meat packing plant, the cannibal is the bread winner of the bunch. While Twinkle still struggles to carve a nitch for herself into the human world. A place that's just as alien to her, as she is to it. Twinkle demands constant supervision, and can be seen being led through Vienna by any of the Straw Men. Well, maybe not Pinky.