Some writing for a TTRPG I'm running - three versions of The Little Match Girl from three different Histories - divergent timelines. And, yes, some serious inspiration for the structure of these has been taken from Book of Hours/Cultist Simulator.

The Little Match Girl

The Opening...

A fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, about a young girl sent to sell matches on a freezing New Year’s Eve, unable to return home lest her father beat her for failing to sell any matches.

The Body...

The little girl caught in the cold huddles in an alleyway and begins to light her matches to try and keep warm. In this version, each time she lights a match, someone spots the flame and steals it from her. First a housewife who goes to light her stove, then a father who uses the light to return to his family, and finally a cleric who goes into the church to light votive candles. All characters abandon the girl.

The Conclusion...

Finally, the little match girl, dying of cold and unable to stand, sees her grandmother approach. She lights as many matches as she can to try and guide her grandmother to her, but her grandmother is blind.

The next morning, passers-by find the girl’s body and give thanks to God that they didn’t freeze to death and suffer like she did.

The Little Match Girl

The Opening...

A fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, about a young girl sent to sell matches on a freezing New Year’s Eve, unable to return home lest her father beat her for failing to sell any matches.

The Body...

The little girl caught in the cold huddles in an alleyway and begins to light her matches to try and keep warm. In this version, she lights a match and a housewife spots the flame and approaches, asking how they can help. When she explains, they buy all her matches in an act of charity, then, unable to afford their own needs, attempt to sell the matches on. The matches are passed this way to a father, a son, a cobbler, and finally to a doctor who uses the remaining matches to light a funeral pyre for all the story’s characters, as the matches were a symbolic representation of plague.

The Conclusion...

The next morning, all characters stand in heaven and give thanks to the doctor for ensuring the plague went no further.

The Little Match Girl

The Opening...

A fairytale by Hans Christian Alfredsen, about a young girl sent to sell matches on a freezing New Year’s Eve, unable to return home lest her father beat her for failing to sell any matches.

The Body...

The little girl caught in the cold huddles in an alleyway and begins to light her matches to try and keep warm. In this Mirror History version, each time she lights a match she sees a wonderous vision of safety and luxury – a warm home, a hot dinner, a loving family, etcetera. Finally she has a vision of a kindly lady who invites her to light all the rest of her matches at once. The little match girl protests that she will die of cold, but the kindly lady promises this will not come to pass, and that all will be well. The little match girl trusts in her, lighting all her matches.

The Conclusion...

The next morning, her father finds her seemingly on the verge of death and brings her home, renouncing his unkindness, but she has been replaced by a changeling which eats him and the rest of the family.