Hierarchy & Order

"there are two opposing forces: The Green Vs The Inner Dark."

An important thing to remember is that you're being dropped into the middle of a world that has been playing out for a long time. HH and his ilk had dealings with indigenous folks, small groups of settlers, large groups of settlers--by the time Barlo happens, the coal industry (and thus B&L) are institutions.

The Green
"The Green is life. It is holler medicine and granny magic, elemental things, purity, light, rain, wind, earth. Bears. actual elemental LIFE"

the greenis not all sunbeams rainbows and grumpy giant bears the green is shredding rain and rotting trees. The green is falling rocks and cricks overflowing their banks trying to get back home and waterlogging and rotting everything in their path to get there.

Bartholomew
A very large bear made of greenery. Associated with Daughter Dooley; Bartholomew is seen in Barlo after Sarah channels the Witch Queen while sleeping in the schoolhouse, and appears with her when she finds Timothy Vanover freezing to death outside Yellow Oak.

The Inner Dark
"The Inner Dark is where Those Who Sleep Beneath....well...sleep. and since TWSB are...entities....the place they occupy and maybe are from is The Inner Dark"

The designation of "Thing" refers specifically to all things connected to, associated with, and of Those That Sleep Beneath. There is an order to the Things we've seen:


 * Those Who Sleep Beneath are The Old Things
 * Horned Head, Granny White, etc. are Deep Things
 * The hunting dogs, possessed/reanimated humans, etc are Low Things

The Old Things
If you are ever in their presence - game over. they've won. the gates have fallen. all your gods are dead.

Also, the definition of "God" in our world is...not really a thing. I mean I know it's in the name of the show, but it's maybe not as literal as you'd think. The Things (Those That Sleep Beneath) are beings of world altering/ending power. They are more like a cosmic id for lack of a better way of saying it--so I probably wouldn't look for any kind of clear cut pantheon or anything.

The Deep Things
all the major monsters we've met have been Deep Things.

they slept beneath and were sent up to find ways out for the rest of the collective hivemind-faceless-nameless-collective-id of the universe

A lot of the things come with scent memories/smells that aren't their doing. Our world WANTS them to end. Actively seeks to undo them. Thus why there are a lot of associations with rancid milk or spoiled meat. Our reality is giving them cues to hurry up and pass on.

The Things that can walk in physical form possess massive power--that alone takes up a whole bank of processors to use a computer metaphor. If a thing can hold onto PASSABLE human form, then they're burning HUGE amounts of power just to do that and have to shift to something not human or as human to recharge that particular battery. (The Swarm showing under Ignatius Combs's skin. HH finding a form that is between normal and not to maintain a balance.)

if you've listened to season one and BMAC you have met:

Horned Head

 * Main article: The Thing Whose Name Sounds Like Horned Head, But Is Not

The Swarm

 * Main article: The Swarm
 * First appears as Ignatius Combs in Episode 7: Afterbirth
 * The Swarm is a Deep Thing that was once MUCH more powerful. MUCH MUCH more powerful. then Granny White stole that
 * The Swarm was the first Thing to reach the surface after imprisonment

Granny White/The Hungry Mother

 * A major player in BMAC
 * BMAC takes place ten years after Barlo, and Granny White had been in Esau (like in the bible) County for decades at that point

The Broken Bough/The Sentinel/The Tree

 * featured in BMAC

Old Copperhead

 * featured in BMAC

The Middle Things
you've met servants of TWSB. Servitors, Servants are things made from things in this world. BY the things. so they BELONG to the things, but they are not OF the things. They are slaves, not family. They are agents, whatever agency they have, but they're still flesh and blood - of this world.

The B Children

 * Servants of Granny White
 * Byron the Elder, Bryson the Silent, Betina and Birdie the Scarecrows

The Reanimated Annie Messer

 * Servant of... well, whatever that thing was in Barlo.

The Grey Ladies

 * Servants of HH, but are far beyond the base nature of The Six
 * Run the Home/orphanage Sarah is sent to
 * Hunt down and acquire artifacts in The Holiest Days of Bone and Shadow
 * When given names, generally seem to start with Es

The Low Things
Low Things are the creatures and being literally created by the Things in general to be their servitors and hunting dogs. Reanimated corpses, unnatural wildlife that obeys the commands of sinister figures (often mindlessly), that sorta thing.

The Hounds
Servitors of Ignacious Combs; appeared during the disaster in 1917 when Barlo burned. Unfriendly.

The Sixmen

 * Servitors of HH, given to Daughter Dooley for her convenience
 * The Six Men were men that HH hollowed out and filled with his will. Unlike Pinky and Eddie, there ain't nothing left of those boys.

The Thing that Was Not Daddy/Uncle Eddie
Eddie Avery, once his humanity was purged, would have been a low thing. Pinky gets a bad rap. people hate on pinky bc they think he was honestly trying to get Sarah to come with him. Pinky was stalling until whatever was controlling him started banging his burning corpse ON THE PLANET to get him to comply

Free Agents
"there are supernatural things in our Appalachia that were here first, or came along during, that have no connection to The Green or The Inner Dark."

J.T. Fields of Dorchester

 * Sometimes called Jack
 * Appears in BMAC
 * Appears in the city of Paradise, late in season 2
 * Old. Oh, very old.

The Boy

 * Takes vengeance on those who cause the death of living boys
 * Carries a lantern, has dead eyes the color of shovel-dust
 * Always appears as a boy (although of variable age and appearance), but speaks with a man's voice

The Railroad Man

 * Sometimes abbreviated TRM
 * As mentioned in the Wolf Sisters arc
 * As in “that business with the railroad man and the local magistrate”
 * Warned to be the scariest thing we'll have ever met