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[Anarchid]

It is very probable that the "horrible" bogeymen are actually some form of a group of benign creatures tasked with keeping the world safe from an alien invasion of Armok.

Here's why.

1) Bogeymen can talk, open doors and use tools. They have souls and dreams (you can see all that in DFHack). Most of them will dream of world peace.
2) Bogeymen will only strategically target the adventurer. Sure, they'll also exterminate anyone who is too close to the adventurer during the Cackling, but there's more to it. Proof to this is that while elven retreats and dwarf hillocks provide no protection against bogeymen, they still exist. If bogeymen were ubiquitous and attacked everyone, surely the elves would not survive.
3) Adventurers are posessed by Armok. Their internal states are completely overridden by a hostile alien force. While the possessed can cry in horror or be paralyzed by fear (watch your adventurer have eyes covered in tears as you murder children), their posessed body will pay no heed to those emotions. Armok is in full control.
4) Adventurers are evil. They go around and kill stuff and do all kinds of murderous things. Adventurers of any race or faction will have no problems butchering sapients even if it is unthinkable in their civ ethics.
5) Fortress Dwarves are a weaker form of mass posession. This is why bogeymen try to kill everyone else in adventure mode: they think that posession is infectious and are trying to prevent an Armok Base from taking root.

Long story short, bogeymen are DF's XCOM or MIB.

[Orange Wizard]

I don't really know what to say. "Holy crap, DF is even more messed up than I thought" fits, so I guess I'll go with that.

[MDFification]

Boogeymen are servants of the dark god RNG, patron of Demons, Forgotten Beasts and Migrant Waves.

[GavJ]

I've never actually stopped to consider myself as playing the role of Armok, especially as an evil influence. I think you should rework this as a thread about THAT, with bogeymen as just one piece of evidence thereof.

[MDFification]

I've never actually stopped to consider myself [snip] as an evil influence.

We are the playerbase that farms mermaids and throws its children into a dark pit full of animals to ensure they're efficient, hardened sociopaths.

[pisskop]

Bogeymen only want acceptance.  I find them fascinating.

[Anarchid]

I've never actually stopped to consider myself as playing the role of Armok, especially as an evil influence. I think you should rework this as a thread about THAT, with bogeymen as just one piece of evidence thereof.

That was already discussed elsewhere.

[StagnantSoul]

My two theories:
1: Bogeymen are really the ghosts/wills of clowns, risen from the circus to enact vengeance against lone travellers. This would explain their disproportionate amount of strength for their size.
2: Bogeymen are your own fears materialized from the dark. Think of it: the tag [NOFEAR] makes them unaggressive, they show up when it's dark and you're alone, and when you have companions, which would make you feel better, you no longer fear monsters popping out of the dark.

[neblime]

the op doesn't account for the laughter, which seems kind of evil to me

[TacoSundae84]

Toady actually said in that interview he linked to in the 9/01/2014 post on main page that he sees the player as Armok, so this kind of makes sense. All the more reason to hunt boogeymen. How dare they defy the will of Armok.

[GavJ]

It does seem a little un-Armok-y though to be, like, ordering specific pet ducks to move from this one area of grass to this other area of grass. Etc.

[Orange Wizard]

Micromanagement is important for the most blood to be shed. Ordering ducks around is a necessary evil.

[escondida]

the op doesn't account for the laughter, which seems kind of evil to me

Nonsense. It's the joyous, mad laughter of complete abandon. They will give their very lives to stop your rampage and defy the will of the evil One True God.

Further evidence: we know that one of Armok's attributes is that he becomes bored of worlds, destroys them, and creates them anew. How many players, I wonder, on first getting into adventure mode, have deleted the world to generate one without bogeymen, perhaps adding them back later when they're better at it?

[tonnot98]

I'm just wondering if it's possible to kill all the bogeymen in a given world.

[pisskop]

I'm just wondering if it's possible to kill all the bogeymen in a given world.

nope, like all nightmarish abominations they are numberless.