| “ | This object should not exist. It cannot be measured or manipulated in any way. It is not possible for such a bastardization of space and time to occur. Although visible to the naked eye, it emits no energy of any kind and has no detectable mass or weight. Can such an object be destroyed? How are we even able to observe it? Does it move because we move it, or of its own free will? Is it even sentient? Nothing about it is logical! | „ |
| ~ An excerpt of TribeTwelve's leaks of Sebastian's Journal, describing Slenderman. |
The Slender Man (also spelled Slenderman) is a fictional supernatural character that originated as a creepypasta Internet meme created by Something Awful forums user Eric Knudsen (also known as "Victor Surge") in 2009. The image depicted is a redraw by Trevor Henderson.
Appearance
The Slender Man depicts a grotesque and unnerving, unnaturally tall white humanoid entity with pale white skin and no facial features wearing a black suit and a tie, in many of his appearances, The Slender Man is depicted with several, mostly eight tentacles or tentacle-like arms, the use of these tentacles appendages has become less prominent in later depictions. This paranormal entity is often associated, or located within forests, rural areas and/or abandoned locations. Proximity to Slenderman, as prominent in many published urban legends of the cryptid and other appearances can cause the victim to undergo what is known as "Slender Sickness", described as "a rapid onset of paranoia, nightmares and delusions accompanied by nosebleeds."
Origins, Appearances, Abilities and Behavior
Dating back to June 10th, 2009. The Slender Man began as a part of a Photoshop competition hosted by the comedy web forum known as "Something Awful" where users of the forum were asked for ideas of a mythical creature/supernatural being to terrify people.
As for what started its immense popularity as a creepypasta character, due to how shrouded in mystery and enigmatic the creature was in its very origins, it left place for people from all over the world to create their own stories and lore for the ominous Slenderman. Earlier appearances of the creature depicted him as an enigmatic entity that abducts children and young adults, and is said to be drawn to people who investigate his being. The entity is also said to be able to tamper with people, mostly young adults' mental health, thus driving them to insanity and even suicide, targeting victims for months or even years before attacking in some depictions of the entity, it looks like a man, but it for sure does not act like one. Original depictions of the creature have its killing method be impaling its victims on tree branches. Some depictions of the entity also have it being able to manipulate fire, even burning houses/forests/places where it killed its victims to not leave a trace of its existence.
Later depictions of the entity that are supposed to take place in the 1990s feature the use of camcorders and cameras, meaning that if one was curious and brave enough to go for a sighting of the creature, they can have it on tape, though proximity to the creature has been agreed in later depictions to cause visual/audio devices to heavily disrupt and distort as prominent in Slender Webseries EverymanHYBRID, TribeTwelve, MLAndersen0 and DarkHarvest00, which mainly include protagonists falling victim to Slender Man through different means and being mentally (and for that matter, physically) scarred/tortured by the entity.
EverymanHYBRID depicts this distortion as being a result of Sigma Radiation, a phenomenon said to be given off by Slender Man and furthermore, The Rake. It appears to be contagious, as it entered one of the protagonists of the series (Evan)'s bloodstream when his arm was attacked by The Rake.
The most popular known webseries about the creature, "Marble Hornets" has included the idea of "proxies", formerly human victims who fall under the control of Slenderman as cryptic beings, this idea was altered and became more prominent in other Slenderverse webseries, such as "TribeTwelve" featuring the concept of "The Collective", described as a "a mysterious, hivemind-like group of entities who manipulate the world through mortal vessels."
The Slenderverse Fanbase have also agreed to having several symbols that debuted in their respective Slenderseries to represent Slender Man, the most common and well-known being The Operator Symbol, debuted in Marble Hornets and also occasionally used in TribeTwelve, The Severance Rune (also known as Sensum), debuted and mostly used in TribeTwelve, and the four arrows logo of EverymanHYBRID.
Aside from dozens of webseries and stories surrounding the creature, numerous fans of the entity made video games surrounding it, the best and most well-known being "Slender : The Eight Pages", "Slender : The Arrival" and "Slender Man's Shadow".
Trivia
- Trevor says that in this redraw, he drew him a face under there, it's just buried, so nobody will ever see it.[1]
- Trevor also says that the 2018 Film concept art depicts The Slender Man's suit as animal markings, and this redraw is his interpretation of that idea.[2]
- Marble Hornets has had its respective film titled "Always Watching".
- Slender videoseries have included many crossovers of each other, which have been indeed role relevant to each parties of the crossover.
- The Slender Man is depicted alongside The Rake in EverymanHYBRID.
- In TribeTwelve, Slenderman's tentacles are said to be "fragments in space and time".
- On May 31st of 2014, a real life nigh-murder case occurred that began to surface and sparked big drama regarding The Slender Man. In Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States, two 12-year-old girls, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, lured their friend Payton Leutner into a forest, held her down and stabbed her 19 times in an attempt to become proxies of Slender Man.[3]
Relevant Links
- The original source of Trevor's redraw : https://twitter.com/slimyswampghost/status/1228130317619339264
- Marble Hornets series (Finished) : https://www.youtube.com/user/MarbleHornets
- EverymanHYBRID series (Finished) : https://www.youtube.com/user/EverymanHYBRID
- TribeTwelve series (Cancelled, ending leaked) : https://www.youtube.com/user/TribeTwelve
- DarkHarvest00 series (Likely Ongoing) : https://www.youtube.com/user/DarkHarvest00
- MLAndersen0 series (Likely Ongoing) : https://www.youtube.com/user/MLAndersen0
