Slender Man

Slender Man
Typical early Slenderman photo
Names	Slender Man, Him, The Operator, Der Ritter, Der Großmann, Bundle, The Tall Man, The Thin Man, Der Schlanker Mann, Fear Dubh, Schlankwald, Tree Man, Slendy, Slenderman, Slender, The Pale One, The White King, Master
Identity	Unknown being
SCP Classification	Euclid
Appearances	MH EMH ML TT DH
Origins	Victor Surge, Something Awful Forums

The Slender Man (See other names on the right) is a creature or being with various but not clearly defined characteristics, abilities, and links. Slenderman was first mentioned in Something Awful Forum's "Create Paranormal Images" thread, along with two photos of Slenderman. Slenderman generally appears as a tall man in a black or grey suit, tie, and white shirt, with no eyes, mouth, or clearly defined facial features. It has no hair, and generally has normal-looking bare hands. Slenderman typically is depicted in imagery and literature as between 6 and 15 feet tall, depending on the situation, and in video as around 6-7 feet tall. The internet popularity of Slenderman has spawned a massive amount of Alternate Reality Game, which are collectively known as the Slenderman Mythos.

Abilities

Slenderman's original abilities included invisibility to select people, adult humans, or anyone without use of a camera, the ability to change height and body shape, the ability to warp and shape its arms into tentacles, and the ability to sprout tentacle-like appendages from its back to be used as additional arms or legs. Many stories seem to indicate that it can control a person's mind, which became the basis for the Proxies in the video ARGs.

As more stories came forth, however, the use of tentacles and tentacle-like appendages became less common, and the invisibilty was limited or eliminated depending on the storyteller. Slenderman also had connections to strange fires and children- many of the original stories revolved around disapearing children, or it being sighted in photos with groups of children.

EMH, TT, ML, and DH all contain some sort of video and/or audio distortion, indicating that Slenderman has some sort of effect on modern digital instruments. This does not appear in any of the original accounts- however these mostly make use of photographs and video of primarily lower-tech varieties.

EMH and ML also make use of "Slenderwalking", a term created to describe Slenderman's apparent teleportation, appearing, and disappearing at will. EMH independantly indicates the use of selective invisibility to groups or individuals through head tilting, and also spacetime warping/teleportation between locations. Similar abilities were seen in early Slenderman accounts. EMH also hints at the affecting of mental health or control of it. Slender man has the capability of Time Travel, Telepathy, Teleportation, Digital Distortion or Electronic Communication, and Other mental based abilities.

Canon History and Information

Slenderman has no exactly defined or specified history, however contributors have placed early sightings of Slenderman-like beings known as Der Ritter and Der Großmann in early 1600s German and before, where it took the dress of a knight or royal figure. Germanic fairy tales and mythology also makes use of the creatures to be used as cautionary tales for children.

Photographs from the early 1900s were the next confirmed reports, where imagery of Slenderman can be found in classical black and white and sepia imagery. Reports from this time indicate sightings in America, the UK, and Russia, as well as reports of child disapearances.

By the mid-1900s, some rare run-ins occured in the warzones in Germany, apparently Slenderman's native land.

Der Ritter

Soldiers were the primary targets here. In America and Canada, reports of missing skiers and children appeared, coming from forested areas of the nations.

After a spree of building burnings from unknown causes, several deaths and a few surviving witnesses, it could be gathered that the Slenderman had the following traits:

• Slenderman would find interest in a victim for reasons unknown
• It would then contact the victim, if it is a child, presenting itself as friendly
• The adults he stalks have a common trait, they have all been through a terrible tragedy in there life even if the tragedy was made by Slenderman directly
• If an adult, it would stalk the victim for long amounts of time causing what is known as "Slender sickness" causing massive paranoia, nose bleeds, nightmares, hallucinations appearing to only the sick person, and many other dangerous symptoms.
• Eventually, it would abduct the victim into nearbye forest, where they would be killed.
• In 'messy' cases, it may remove evidence of its existence by causing fire of their home, place of work, or school

Death of the victim originally occured through an odd means- the victim(s) would be impaled on branches of very tall trees while still alive, and bleed to death. The organs would be individually removed, then placed in plastic bags. They would then be replaced into the body in their original positions, plus the plastic bags. The victims' corpses do not show any sign of a struggle.

In the late 1990s, technology brought more vision of the creature through the use of commonplace camers and video cameras. Slenderman was recorded and photographed stalking potential victims many times.

In the late 2000s to early 2010s, several individuals recorded ongoing stalking and attack scenarios of themselves and their friends. These video accounts are codenamed Marble Hornets, EverymanHYBRID, DarkHarvest00, MLAndersen0, and TribeTwelve. As well as certain Rivn videos.

Association

Slenderman makes association with several groups, individuals, or creatures.

The least known of these is the unknown organization tracking, observing, or involved with Slenderman, whose identity or name is yet to be confirmed. The Organization appears only in early Slenderman written accounts, and makes an (assumed) appearence in only one ARG, DarkHarvest00.

The SCP organization, though mostly unrelated, maintains hold of a creature known as SCP-582, aka "Bundle", whose appearance and nature is similar to Slenderman. It is possible that Bundle is a local dialect or local version of Slenderman. SCP is unable to currently permaently contain Bundle, indicating that because it is not stationary, it could be the same entity as Slenderman.

Slenderman has links to several Proxies, or insane individuals under its control or influence. The nature of Proxies, their workings, etc, are et unknown, however Proxies make appearances in MH as Masky/totheark, EMH as HABIT, and DH as an unknown Proxy.

The Rake is the name given to another mystery creature somehow linked or associated with Slenderman. The Rake has a far shorter history, and only real appearance of association with Slenderman or a Proxy is through the video accounts of EMH.

Trivia

The Enderman creatures introduced into the game Minecraft during the adventure update takes some inspiration from the Slenderman, but acts differently in that it moves blocks around with it's freakishly long arms & acts similar to the Weeping Angelsfrom season 5 of the Doctor Who television series.

Slenderman in the music video "Equinox" by Skrillex

Endermen's actions may also be based off of SCP-171 of the SCP Foundation series, and their appearance similar to SCP-096], which also has a slight resemblance to Slenderman.

Slenderman also makes a cameo appearance in the music video "First of the Year" by Skrillex (Also resembling The Rake). Its presumed that the young girl in the video is a Proxy being controlled by slenderman in order to kill the child molester stalking the young girl.

Slenderman could based on Nyarlathotep from the Cthulhu Mythos for a few of his forms have him as a tall faceless man.

Resources

Encyclopedia Slenderia contains large amounts of information on Slenderman canon.

The Slender Nation is a network of various places to discuss Slenderman, including a partly developed Wiki. They currently are most known for their interactions with people involved in Slenderman mythos, and in their developedment of Core Theory.

Unifiction is undoubtedly the largest discussion zone for the Slenderman mythos' video ARGs. Their Marble Hornets and Slender Man Mythos sections of their forums attract thousands of posts every week.