All The Stories Are True
Believe it or not, the Slipworld began with this trope.
You hear it in nearly every urban fantasy/horror story that includes some element of the supernatural. Sooner or later, someone will say a variation of the words “all the stories are true”.
What they mean is that the supernatural exists in their world. They mean that vampires are real. Or that werewolves are real. That elves are real. And as the story unfolds, it is almost invariably revealed that all the vampires follow the same rules. All the werewolves are of the same type. The elves have factions, but are all somehow related.
I found this trope repeated over and over in stories, movies, and TV shows. And it bothered me, because where in nature do you ever see just one type of anything? Sure, it could be argued that werewolves and vampires and pixies aren’t “natural” but “supernatural”, so the rules shouldn’t apply to them. But they thought the giant squid was supernatural—until it was discovered to be a real animal. The ngila - a legendary “ape man” similar to Bigfoot legends - was ultimately identified as the mountain gorilla. The Bondegezou of Western Indonesia was described as a little man, covered in black and white fur, who lived in the trees. It was revealed as the Dingiso Tree Kangaroo.
So I got to thinking: just how many legends were there about any one thing? And you know what? There are scores of them. I’ve found about 40 legends relating to werewolves and 50+ relating to vampires - and that’s not even including the tropes from pop culture!
When I began researching other legends of supernatural creatures, I discovered a rich vein of inspiration. Every culture in the world tells stories about scary monsters. All of them. And every culture has its own unique take on its legends. It’s practically inexhaustible!
This research led me to posit the question: What if all the stories were true?
Not just that the supernatural exists, but that there are different kinds, influenced by different cultures around the world, just like people. These creatures follow those of their culture - someone of Russian descent might be born an orboroten werewolf. A person who lived an evil life in a Greek community might arise a vrykolakas ghoul. Communities from the Dominican Republic might find themselves plagued by a galipote vampire.
And the rest, as they say, is history.