On an eternally-night version of the planet Earth, people have been gaining a "glimmering" status, which causes them to receive praise and worship regardless of their actions. This also allows these "glimmering" individuals to gain control over others and aspects of the environment. This phenomenon appears to be the result of "light" pouring from the Upstairs Man. The only known way to remove their status is through the abilities of a demon named Shax, who can "steal" things in a certain radius and can traverse through shadows.
Eventually, this gains the attention of other demons and those within the Friendship Community, making him a target for unclear reasons.
- Always Night: For some reason, the Sun doesn't seem to exist in this story. People have to rely on other light sources in order to see and survive. Which seems to include the Moon.
- Ambiguous Situation: It gradually becomes apparent that Shax stands out compared to regular Demons, but its unknown what this truly means. Part of this is because while demons erase light, Shax outright steals it due to his powers, which doesn't seem to be normal for them. And he's stealing light for some unknown purpose.
- Anti-Hero: Shax isn't exactly someone one would call ideal. He takes away the "light" status away from people, sure, but he otherwise doesn't care too much about saving people. He mostly just sees the whole thing as a "side-job" as it allows him to get money from "sin", which those with a glimmering status have a ton of. It's also implied he's stealing "light" for some other purpose, which may or may not be good for others in the long run. Complicating things even further is that he never outright kills people.
- Big Bad: The Upstairs Man, along with the Friendship Community.
- Central Theme: The issues from keeping a masquerade despite how harmful it is, & the problems coming with defining your identity based on an ideal or belief.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The whole idea of "glimmering" people receiving praise and admiration from thousands of people despite their toxic personalities & horrible actions is similar to controversies regarding social media influencers.
- With later information, there also seems to be many similarities to cancel culture, and how people often use this for better or worse. This often has them disregarding human decency just to receive validation on being "right", something which many people in the story are guilty of.
- Double-Meaning Title: Blackout Monsters references the fact that Shax is a demon that steals the light away from "glimmering" people, who can also be seen as "monsters".
- Eldritch Location: The small city (?) the story takes place in is all but outright stated to be something more.
- Fictional Currency: Demons can convert the "sins" of someone into money.
- God Is Evil: While we don't know who the Upstairs Man is, the fact that His light is the cause of "glimmering" people puts him into this status. Although...
- Humanoid Abomination: Those with a "glimmering" status will receive blind praise from thousands regardless of their morals or actions, can manipulate their environment based on their mental state, and straight up control anyone nearby.
- On top of that, if someone's Tulpa backfires on them, they'll fuse together into an abomination bent on proving their beliefs are right.
- Those who are a part of the "Friendship Community" only look vaguely humanoid with some angelic aspects.
- Large and in Charge: The main character is over 8 feet and 5 inches tall, towering almost everyone else. Because of him being a huge target, he takes advantage of his ability to traverse through shadows in order to maneuver better, and fights far more indirectly than what his size would suggest.
- Light Is Not Good: Let's just say that those who're "glimmering" doesn't exactly have the matching personalities. However, it appears to be like this due to differing information from random ordinary people. In truth, no one truly knows if those who're glimmering are good or evil.
- Ominous Mundanity: Would you expect a group called the "Friendship Community" to be a dangerous and brutal religion that's dead focused on propagating "glimmering" people? And those under it seem to be turned into humanoid things?
- Only in It for the Money: Many demons, including Shax, have this as their motivation, as many of them woke up in this world for seemingly no reason. Their status as demons prevents them from using regular money, since it combusts into flames via touch.
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons in this world, while far from harmless, don't seem to openly indulge in brutal activities and never seem to make "deals" with people. Many of them also have some strange and oddly-specific abilities, and have little to no problem helping people (except for those like Shax).
- Tulpa: In order to protect themselves, a regular person will have the ability to create a monster based off of their beliefs. Too bad "glimmering" people can also use one. The "best" way to deal with one is to provide counter-arguments to their beliefs, which turns them into humanoid things bent on proving their ideas are "correct".
- Weird Moon: The moon seems to alternate between phases randomly, appears to be an actual object in the sky, is the source of much of the light in the city, and has a smiley-face.
