A tree wearing boots? Anyone know what this is about?

[MangoPuffin]

I'm just wondering if anyone has some sort of clue what this is all about. I'm puzzled by the reference here.

https://imgur.com/OzI7M33

[Flinty94]

That's amazing :D

[Mephisto-Luzifer]

Its an Ent bro.

[Vexillum]

It’s Otesánek. A czech fairy tale from

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Never dried your boots on a longer hike this way?

[76561198046838937]

Originally posted by Vexillum:

It’s Otesánek. A czech fairy tale from

I would have loved more stuff like this ingame. I could imagine having a couple of Czech legends and myths that they could have based a side quest storyline on. I guess it would be kind of fantasy but they could just conclude the mission to be something realistic.

My rough example mission:
You get asked to investigate where the copper came from, the same copper that was used to make the counterfeit gold. You find an old lady with the answer but she will only tell you if you deal with this crazy tree that comes alive at night.
And then have it end with something reasonable: You investigate the surrounding woods, only to find that its just one of the local villagers trying to scare her out of the village because she's mean to them.

That way you can find out common stories and cultural legends of bohemia, and it wouldn't break realism because people believed in all that during that period. Just like how people in western Europe would believe witches were real.

[MangoPuffin]

Thanks! Also Jon Snow, I totally agree. I'd love to learn more about Czech legends and fairytales like that! Even including them as readable books would have been fun.

[MangoPuffin]

Oh wow! This is some dark stuff!


Otesánek is a Czech fairy tale created by Karel Jaromír Erben which tells the story of a fearsome and constantly hungry, living log of wood. In the story there are elements of narrative that are similar to more famous fairy tales such as The Adventures of Pinocchio and Little Red Riding Hood; despite this, the themes present in Otesánek appear nonetheless to be quite different from most other European fairy tales, with a particularly ambiguous moral which leaves a lot of room to subjective interpretation.

Plot
The story begins with a couple that for a long time has been waiting for a child, which however does not seem to arrive. One day the husband finds in the nearby forest a log of wood (Otesánek) that strangely resembles a baby and decides to bring it home. To the joy of the couple, the wooden baby comes to life and asks to be fed. Initially the couple is enthusiastic that their wish of having a child has finally been granted, however the situation soon takes a turn for the worse as they find themselves having to deal with the insatiable appetite of the baby, who will keep growing and eating until he will start eating even people, including his parents. The log anticipates each meal with a nursery rhyme in which he lists every previous meal he has done. The story eventually concludes with the death of Otesánek at the hands of an elderly lady of the village who rips open his chest with a hoe, thus killing the monster and freeing all those who were eaten by him, including his parents.

Thank you SO much to Vexillum for providing the name!