Each community in Europe has a slightly different story about who brings gifts to children at Christmas time. Let’s not review them when David Sedaris has done such a brilliant job. If you haven’t listened to “Six to Eight Black Men” go do that now. Seriously. Pause this. Actually, no. Don’t. His work’s a lot more interesting than this, so it will make this sound terrible. Listen to this first.
Stories have power in Mythic Europe, because they attract faeries. Powerful stories allow faeries to affect whole communities. Being invited in makes communities even more vulnerable to the fae. Dozens of little kiddies leaving out milk for a jolly old elf is a ridiculously bad idea, unless it has been so tied up in a safe story that it can’t do any harm.
The problem is that medieval people are terrible to their kids. Mythic Europe is full of mystical guys who hurt kids on the naughty list. Some steal naughty children. God Himself has some children torn limb from limb by bears for sassing a bald prophet, in the Bible. So: it’s important to have a consistent, safe story. This is the story of Black-Faced Hermes.
Blackface is, for American gamers, a particularly problematic idea. Black-faced Hermes isn’t in blackface: he’s the ancient Greek god who steals children, particularly weird, wicked children, often by coming down the chimney and getting covered in soot. To get rid of the problematic term, you might prefer to call him Hermes Harpyios which means “Hermes who snatches away”.
So, apprentices leave out items for this faerie: because he is the faerie who steals Gifted children and leaves them on the doorstep of covenants. He really likes chicken. They are encouraged to place their gifts for him outside the Aegis. As a patron of games and sports, he is best propitiated in spaces where these are played.
Similarly, children receive whatever is left behind for them outside the covenant’s mystical defences. As the spirit of sport, games and mystical initiations, the treasure hunts he leaves may become complex little puzzles, which the apprentices need to work together to complete. As the patron of commerce he can leave valuable gifts.
He’s also thoroughly and childishly amoral, and is the patron of thieves. Like all faeries, he feeds on raw emotional expression. His gifts can, therefore, be mixed blessings.
Games From Folktales 
Hermes Who Carries Away
Faerie Might: 15 (Herbam)
Characteristics: Int +3, Per +6, Pre 0, Com 0, Str +3, Sta Tireless, Dex 0, Qik +6
Size: 0
Virtues and Flaws: Greater Faerie Powers, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Humanoid Faerie, Increased Faerie Might, Immune to Fire,
Personal Faerie Powers; Incognizant, Traditional Ward: cannot steal someone who is seen by another human being.
Personality Traits: Compulsively steals Gifted children from mortals +3, Dislikes Ungifted humans +1,
Combat: Brawl (hands): Init +6, Attack +9, Defense, +9, Damage +3
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11– 15), Incapacitated (16–20), Dead (21+)
Pretenses: Acrobatics 7 (rooftops), Brawl 7 (children), Faerie Speech 5 (convincing children to come away with him), Order of Hermes
Lore 9 (apprentices), more local area lores than you’d imagine possible.
Powers:
Appear Human, 1 point, constant, Imaginem.
Immure to Fire and Smoke: 0 points, constant, Ignem. You can’t go sliding down chimneys if you’ll catch fire.
Invisibility: 1 point, Init –1, Imaginem (1 intricacy point on cost). Strictly speaking he becomes a shadow, not invisible.
Squirming Sack: 1 point, Init –1 Corpus: Moves a child up to 50 paces away, who has made eye contact, into his sack. (Base 15 + 1
Eye, 1 intricacy point spent on cost)
Still Sack: 0 points, Init –1, Mentem (2 intricacy point on cost): A powerful version of the Cause Drowsiness Power that keeps children
unconscious until they are removed from the sack. (Or Sun, whichever comes first)
Vis: 3 Ignem, a lump of coal.
Appearance: Hermes Who Snatches Away is called “black-faced” which refers to the soot that covers his form. His detailed
knowledge of Hermetic institutions suggests either contact with the Order, or that he is a faerie expression of a story sprung up from
the activities of magi stealing apprentices. Note that he does not seem to have the power to remove the child’s memories, or the
memories of the parents of the child, both of which are widely believed to be his. This adds further weight to the idea that he is a
figment of story left behind by the actions of magi. The main counter to this is that stories of Black Faced Hermes predate the Order –
the ancient Greeks used him as a nursey bogey
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