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The Fears

"It’s kinda like an embodiment of the fear of being discovered... Only not really, more like a creature which existed prior to the fear but grew as that fear gathered around it... But it also didn't really exist, more like it potentially existed... But looking at it from a nonlinear perspective, it still had physical presence in the multiverse all along the various spacetime lines... Ah, screw it. It's all eldritch shit and nonsense."
— I-330, Mephi

    The Slender Man 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SlenderMan1_9963.jpg
He held out both arms and there was a moment where his arms grew thin and long, like the branches of a tree, and I let myself be entwined in them.

A faceless Humanoid Abomination who represents the fear of strangers and the unknown. Please see: The Slender Man Mythos

    The Rake 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheRake_2003.jpg
I saw a thing sitting on me, pale and hairless, kind of humanoid, two big black eyes looking straight at me.

A brutal, savage beast — yet, it is at least capable of human speech and is likely quite intelligent. It represents the fear of brutality and animals, and originates from a creepypasta story.

  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Most people just focus on his claws and teeth and see him as a physical threat. He wouldn't have it any other way.

    The Archangel 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ArchangelGasMask_2675.jpg
There is no escape from the Archangel. I understand that now.

The fear of religion, religious dogma and the things associated around it. This may explain why it is, in fact, the afterlife. A twisted bastardization of that, but all the same.

  • And I Must Scream: The ultimate fate of everyone is to be enslaved by the Archangel after death, trapped in a body that moves in accordance with another person's will for all eternity. The Archangel is the afterlife after all... It is theorized, however, that one can escape this fate by being killed by another Fear.
  • Angelic Abomination: Despite being called the Archangel, it is still one of the fears, and has no form of its own that people can comprehend, reducing itself to human forms for convenience.
  • Catchphrase: "Embrace the Archangel"
  • Evil Gloating: It can occasionally be seen to giving into something akin to this.
  • Eyes Never Lie: Some of its victims can be "told" by looking into their eyes. This may be a reason for the gas-mask disguise.
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: It has no form of its own (that we can comprehend) and it thus reduces itself into human forms.
  • Malevolent Masked Men: The "gas mask" persona.

    The Blind Man 
His lips were cracked; they looked almost the same as his skin, except for the firm line between them. A small nose. His skin was drawn tight, and yet loose; quite indescribable. And then there were his eyes, or lack thereof; two dark holes from which no light escaped.

The fear of getting old and forgetting, often found wandering libraries and carrying an old book along with him. If he writes your name in his book, you will forget your childhood, and those memories will belong to him.

    The Wooden Girl 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WoodenGirl_2955.jpg
There in the middle of the living room was a woman I had never seen before. She was covered in some sort of wooden armor, with strings all around her. Her face seemed painted on, and she stared straight at me.

A perverse puppetmaster, the Wooden Girl is the fear of being controlled. Her body is wrapped in living strings that also manifest within her victims. OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING puts her as the fear of abuse.

  • And I Must Scream: Most of her "servants" are victims who have been forced into her service against their will.
  • Bad Boss: She is a complete bitch to her servants, often torturing them for no apparent reason other than For the Evulz. After all, what are they gonna do about it?
  • Razor Floss: She can produce thin marionette strings, either to channel her powers or as deadly weapons.

    The Empty City 
It is a land of twisted time and distorted sky — the space between the tick and the tock.

A sentient city representing the fear of being lost, the Empty City likes to... play with its food. Anyone who opens one of its Doors and goes inside will wander the City, never finding a way out, until they die. It also serves as a neutral meeting place for the Fears and their minions.

  • Cool Gate: Sometimes the Doors that lead to it look like normal doors. Sometimes, they look awesome.
  • Painting the Medium: Often associated with it. Out of the Spent and Unconsidered Earth treats it akin to the House, whereas Quiet Cacophony labels the doors that lead to it as "Doors" note .
  • Trapped in Another World: The standard fate of those who wander it. Or, perhaps, something else.

    The Choir 
"The [Choir] are the ones who invented language itself. They have mastered it so well that they can create and edit life merely by speaking words. They prefer to be.. behind your eyes. Hiding in the pit, if you will.”

The fear of what others say, of what others think about you. The Choir manifests either as a blur in the corner of your eye or as fading shadows on the wall. They change the words people say and will drive their victims to commit suicide.

  • Brown Note: The Archive revealed that they can also create a sound that can rupture people's eardrums, shatter glass, and hemorrhage the victim's brain. Yeah.
  • Driven to Suicide: They have a knack for twisting people´s perception of reality, often making them hear things that weren't really said. You can expect how well this can end.
  • Living Shadow: Less intrusive then the Nightlanders, but it has been stated to live inside people's shadows.
  • Morphic Resonance: When they enter a person's shadow, it will look grey instead of black.
  • Poor Communication Kills: They alter audio, often leading to a literal example of poor communication killing (see above).
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to the Nightlanders blue. Active, sadistic and willing to go for fun. Embodies Chaos to the Nightlanders's Order.

    The Cold Boy 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Pic_ColdBoy_8968.jpg
The boy's face was cracked. It looked like he was made of ice and when I hit him, it created a single crack down the side of his face.

A small child who sings nursery rhymes. Yet, he could freeze your entire body in a few moments — and that is nothing compared to what he represents... the fear of the cold and of alienating yourself from others, the Cold Boy could lead one to mistake it for something far less threatening.

  • Creepy Child: The hint is in the name and the fact he is delightfully happy as you freeze to death. His minions are black-eyed, undead children, most of whom are under sixteen years old.
  • Despair Event Horizon: As the Fear of alienation and loneliness, he preys on people that are inches away from suicidal depression.
  • Ironic Nursery Tune: He can be heard singing them. Most of the rhymes are composed by himself.
  • Shadow Archetype: So the Cold Boy is a nice, happy boy. The Unnamed Child is a silent, malevolent girl. You would think that a child stealing your family would try act more like a girl who found a family... The same way you would think that isolation personified would be more dark and grim and more in focus with the cold motif.

    The Nightlanders 
The shadows remain on the wall, not laughing at me. The shadows watch me, curious and sympathetic. I feel as if these are creatures I cannot easily name. Nothing can easily describe them. They know me, and I feel as if I know them. They know my delusions all too well, and they have seen my nightmares. They live nightmares every day, trapped as eternal shadows. All they can do is shift along the walls of our disillusioned daydreams, and pray we follow them down the rabbit hole.

Little is known about these living shadows, the fear of the things in the dark. They may or may not have been previous victims of the Empty City — if they are, they aren't telling.

  • Cold-Blooded Torture: If you were starting to take them as The Woobie, you are really wrong. They can be as sadistic as the Empty City, or worse, if you keep tampering with their OCD related phenomena.
  • Order Versus Chaos: By all accounts, the Nightlanders detest change. They often engage in poltergeist-esque activities, such as moving furniture around to minimize the changes in an environment. If the Empty-City-Victim theory is correct, this is due to the City being a Mobile Maze; the Nightlanders merely want to make sure they haven't wandered back into it by mistake.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to the Choir's red. Passive, not very sadistic and only attack when provoked. Embodies Order to the Choir's Caos.
  • Viral Transformation: It is claimed by some that the Nightlanders are actual people who have wandered into the Empty City and escaped incomplete.

    The Black Dog 
"It moves like a ninja of the apocalypse, and its eyes burn your mind to look at. We thought it was just a regular dog, but no. It tore us apart. Our plans shattered apart. Hell, it left a lot of us with nothing but minor injuries. That’s what scares us the most. What the hell is it trying to do, y’know?”

The fear of being found and your secrets being discovered. The Rapture interpretation depicts it as the fear of the feral unknown, and the fear of Body Horror. It can smell your secrets.

    The Manufactured Newborn 
Finally, what was left of Maxwell crumpled to the ground, and there above him was a creature of metal and machinery, assembled in a shape not unlike a human fetus, its small arms ending in two long knives. It seemed to float in a nearly invisible sphere, and extending from its stomach was a fleshy and no doubt organic umbilical cord.

The fear of the future, of what is to come, of technology out of control. The Manufactured Newborn is the youngest of the Fears, but still as dangerous. It can appear as a small mechanical toy, slowly building itself bigger and bigger (with inorganic and organic materials), until it's big enough to open a portal to where its real body lies - a vast tower of clockwork and body parts, machinery a mile high.

  • Adaptive Ability: It can assimilate anything into its structure, be it organic or inorganic. He can use the materials he absorbed or gain inmunity from them.
  • Artificial Intelligence: In some depictions, the Newborn isn't just an intelligent robot-creature. It's in control of the entire Internet.
  • The Assimilator: Unlike EAT below, the Newborn doesn't conform with your knowledge. It will take the whole package, your mind, your body, everything.
  • Collector of the Strange: When it materializes into our world, it will seek to absorb everything in sight until it can't absorb anymore. When that happens, it will return to its home dimension, where it will deposit all its "treasure" so he can go find more.
  • Evil Is Visceral: Despite its mechanical body, it often uses human body parts, like hearts or sinew.
  • Fetus Terrible: Its original form was a mechanical fetus.

    The Plague Doctor 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Pic_PlagueDoctor_7737.jpg
"A... man walked in and then walked out of the warehouse. He wore some sort of overcoat and a mask, with a long beak. Looked it up later on - it was a Venetian costume, Medico Della Peste. The Doctor of Plague... Just looking at him on the security footage made me want to wash my hands until they bled."

The fear of disease and contagion - the Plague Doctor wears a beak-nosed mask (if it is a mask) and long coat. Sometimes, his presence will manifest as a mental disorder or hypochondria.

  • For Science!: He often tests his powers in hospitals controlled by his servants. He also tests new medicine techniques using other Fears, mainly EAT and the Newborn.
  • Not a Mask: The mask might actually be his face.
  • Plaguemaster: He spreads disease just by his very presence. As if that wasn't enough, there are also a number of doctors who serve him, intentionally using contaminated surgical equipment or slipping pathogens into their patients' medication...
  • Villains Out Shopping: He really enjoys costume parties, and his favorite day of the year is Carnival. However, he also enjoys spreading disease.

    The Convocation 
The maid waded to the edge where her cloak was and pulled a knife from the folds. Before my terrified eyes, she traced the blade along her skin, cutting a smooth line across her left breast. The cut widened on its own and I could only watch in horrified silence as a bird climbed out and flew into the sky.

This group of feathered fears represents the fear of heights and of being taken away.

  • I Am Legion: They sure like speaking in plural. Even when there is only one bird doing the talking.
  • Shock and Awe: In some accounts, the flock is gifted with the ability to generate thunderstorms. In others, the flock is the thunderstorm.

    EAT 
There's something in the sea. A thing with ill will. It's coming out of the sea. It's coming out in waves.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/EAT_neoplayer2_7324.JPG
An entity of what looks like living water, EAT represents the fear of water and drowning in your obsessions. One drop will infect somebody, causing them to obsess over something, then it will consume and replace all the water in their body and make them into a "Camper."

  • The Artifact: One of EAT's names, "the Epping AquaTarkus," was named for two prog songs. They don't have anything to do with it.
  • Genre Savvy: If EAT learns it, it learns it well. Genres included.
  • Hive Mind: "We are The Camper, Rael. EAT is The Camper, and The Camper are EAT."
  • I Have Many Names: Technically speaking, EAT's only universal name is "EAT," and even then, it's often called "the Ichor" or "Salmacis" or "the Hogweed" or some other name instead. But even when it is called "EAT," what that stands for changes depending on who's talking. The Epping AquaTarkus, the Evolutionary Adverse Trigger, the Eternal Answer Tree, Evolution's Angry Twin, to name a few. Perhaps the most common name EAT goes by is "Ichor." It's referred to by that name at least just as much, if not more often, than it is referred to as "EAT." Interestingly, according to at least one Camper in Hidden in the Trees, it actually likes the name EAT.
  • Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: "I'm a being of knowledge." EAT knows many things humans should not, and in the Rapture Logs, some of this information is shared.
  • Line-of-Sight Name: Sam in Jordan Eats Normally Now named EAT from essentially random song titles.

    The Dying Man 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dyingman1_547.png
"Let me in," he said.

The fear of, well, dying, he unbalances his victims through possession.

  • Body Horror: Possession by the Dying Man will eventually lead to disfigurement and necrosis - according to the Archive, this could mean extra limbs or digits, scales, or cancerous growth of skin and muscle cells.
  • Body Surf: His modus operandi is to move from one body to another, chemically wrecking whichever body he is inhabiting. He moves on by killing his hosts, hence the name.
  • Literal Split Personality: In a Noodle Incident, the Dying Man got broken into many pieces, each developing a complete personality and new ways of inducing decay. Most blogs featuring him tend to portray the shards as highly individualistic or as an entity looking to be complete.
  • Possession Burnout: Depending on which piece has infected you, the Dying Man will break chaos in your body in a different way. Most pieces are content with the Archive description, others tend to be copycats of the Choir. And there are others that tend to be... Creative in ther ways of corruption.

    The Intrusion 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Intrusion_5349.jpg
Thousands of bugs from hundreds of species crawled about the walls and floor. They crawled up her bed in a grotesque mob, a sea of limbs and carapaces.

The fear of insects, of swarms and hives and being invaded inside.

  • Body Horror: The Intrusion's MO is to crawl inside of people and lay eggs within their bodies. When the eggs hatch, the newborn bugs will then proceed to eat their way out.

    The Eye 
I'll be seeing you very soon.

The fear of judgment and punishment. Not much is known about it, only that its victims tend to start seeing an eye watching them everywhere they go... and then mysteriously end up dead.

  • Body Motifs: Focusing on the eye, obviously.
  • Demonic Possession: When it comes time to kill its victim, it will inhabit the body of another human and call itself "Judgment". Said body will begin to slowly break down immediately.
  • Faceless Eye: As the name implies.
  • Knight Templar: He will seek any wrongdoer and wil enact its Judgment. Ranging from inhuman crimes to absurdities.
  • The Walls Have Eyes: Usually how it manifest in its first form.

    The Unnamed Child 
"Oh, right... well, this kid was pretty creepy... Sorta looked like what you expect a homeless kid to look like, but... I don't know... wrong. Like that one abstract painting where the woman's face is melting over her arm or whatever. Sort of like that, but not. It is hard to describe. She didn't say anything, and I didn't get a name or anything."

The fear of commitment, responsibility, and the loss of a loved one. She appears as a little girl, and her victims slowly become more and more obsessed with caring for her, often at the expense of everything else in their lives. Then one day, she vanishes, leaving her victims lost, without purpose or hope.

  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Those few victims who do end up finding the Child after she disappears are rewarded by her whispering something in their ear. It is the only time she ever speaks, and everyone she whispers to becomes broken and mad. Theories vary from it being some grand truth humans were not meant to know, to her True Name, to simply the sound of her voice being what causes the insanity.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She's too silent, too knowing. And all she does is smile and watch as you burn yourself out for her.
  • Uncanny Valley: In-Universe. Those not affected by her describe her face as "wrong", with photographs showing her to look almost reptilian.
  • The Unfavorite: If the victim has any kids of his or her own, then those kids will likely be neglected as the Child becomes more and more important to the parent.
  • Yandere: Before she gets to leave, she will act jealous if she sees something that is deviating attention from her. People loved by her victims often end up dead in their sleep... If not outright killed by her or her brainwashed "parent".

    The Quiet 
"Imagine nothing," he said. "A vast nothingness. A vast and alive nothingness that's spreading. That's overtaking us all."

The fear of nothing. The Silent Void and Screaming Darkness. The Hole in All Things. The Quiet claims us all.

    The Mother of Snakes 
You begin to cry and claw at yourself, and curse your existence. You beg for a salvation that will never come. That's when you see her. The Mother. The Salvation. The Lady of the Scales. Her scales, her love, her shining light glancing off her fangs as she smiles at me from the darkness. Her beautiful evil. Her every move is one of love, of mercy. Your blood runs cold, just like hers. She tells you everything you ever want to hear.

The Mother of Snakes isn't just the fear of snakes, but the fear of what you are, what you were, and what you might become. Those who hate themselves and look into the mirror will see her and if they accept her, she will make them into her Lilim, whom she gifts with scales, fangs, and the ability to travel through mirrors.

  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Accepting her gifts can make you miserable for your entire life...
  • Cannot Tell a Lie: She is unable to lie when she is giving lectures or using Magic Mirrors, but she is a master at telling half truths and distorting visions.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Her prime form of breaking people and make them join her ranks.
  • Magic Mirror: Any mirror where she manifests can become one. Usually they will show distorted images of the victim, appealing at their flaws and imperfections. Sometimes, they will show events of the past, present and future, instead. Full honesty is optional
  • The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Sometimes she'll talk to her victims through the mirror, telling them to give in to their darker half.
  • Pet the Dog: She really lives up to her title as Mother. Just forget the whole "take-away-your-humanity" thing
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Her initial look was a grotesque snake-human monster.
  • Scaled Up: Her Lilim can look like normal women or snake women.
  • Snakes Are Sexy: Can be seen as this.

    The Grotesque 
Now, the magician says, the Cabinet of Dreams is very dangerous. If you stay in there too long, well, you'll never wake up again. He smiles at her, his teeth a sickening shade of yellow.

The Grotesque is the fear of dreams, of nightmares coming to life. It watches your dreams while you sleep and can enter your dream and take control. It can appear in any guise he wants but his favorite form is that of a circus.

    The Smiling Man 
He smiled at me and his smile was wider than his face, and he had so many teeth, so many goddamn teeth.

The fear of stalking and stalkers, the Smiling Man was given a "body" by an online group that were trying to create a Fear. It has straggly red hair and a smile wider than its face. While it has eyes, you cannot look at them, they are so wrong. Before it takes its victims, it delivers a bouquet of flowers to them.

  • Brown Note: Looking at his eyes has been compared to trying to look directly at the sun, in that your eyes will instinctively slide away to avoid damaging themselves, only instead of brightness it's the wrongness your eyes are avoiding.
  • Institutional Apparel: Its sometimes described as wearing a straight jacket.

    The Red Cap 
"Won’t know if you’re a Vessel, But in bliss you still can wallow. Our Mistress will be good to you – That is, unless, you’re hollow."

The Fear of shame and temptation. The Red Cap is an entity made of a substance indistinguishable from blood, that possesses people and twists them into horrible and depraved erotomaniacs.

  • Bloodier and Gorier: When the sex and shame motif is not used, the blood motif enters in action.
  • Bloody Murder: Sentient blood capable of controlling people.
  • Deadly Nosebleed: When in presence of the Red Cap, its servants, The Scarlet Marked, tend to suffer from heavy and painful nosebleeds.
  • Demonic Possession: That can also be spread form sexual contact between infected and not infected. Noticing something?
  • Extreme Omnisexual: Red Cap infected don't care for gender, race, whether you are a Greyskin or a Dying Man infected... As long as you fulfill one of their fantasies, you're going down.
  • Living Aphrodisiac: The Red Cap is essentially, living Viagra. And the aftermath is someone aggresively horny and very deviant in taste.

    The Brute and the Burning Bride 
When in the Burning Bride's presence, you feel the Brute around you, just behind the veil of reality, frothing and raging and ready to burst out. Meanwhile, the Brute, even in its rage, has a sort of grace to it, and an intelligence in its eyes.

The fear of fire and anger, split in two different personalities. The Bride burns in you a pain that wants to be shared, she makes you look for justice for all the pain you had to endure. The Brute, on the other hand, wants all of us to be like him, murder machines that run on hate and anger.

  • Affably Evil: The Bride is quite calm and collected and she can break you without using her powers.
  • The Dividual: It is theorized that they are the faces of the same coin. However, they seem to be really independent from each other even clashing in some blogs.
  • Fatal Flaw: Their plans are often wrecked by their level of influence. The Brute is too subtle, the Bride is too impulsive. See below for the irony.
  • Hate Plague: They are able to take peace away and make people very aggressive. However, the Bride uses this ability in order to make you harm your loved ones. The Brute uses it to turn up the heat in wars.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Both of them took a liking for using people in their awful plans.
  • Masochism Tango: What would you expect from Violence and Rage marrying? The funny thing is that the Bride seems to be the sadist of the pair.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: For some reason, the other Fears sealed the Brute in the Empty City, in a special jail to rot for the ages. The Bride could escape and has been working on freeing him.
  • Super Smoke: The Brute has a number of smoke motifs, ranging from being able to control it to being a sentient mass of smoke.
  • Tranquil Fury: Victims of the Bride often become emotionless, looking for nothing but retribution against the people (either guilty or innocent) that made them suffer.
  • Unstoppable Rage: The people affected by the Brute. They are bloodthirsty and savage, capable of turning a peaceful shopping trip into a war aftermath.
  • Wreathed in Flames: The "Burning" part of the Burning Bride's name comes from the fact that her bridal dress is set in fire.

    The Vision 
She was beautiful. Had this glow that stays with me. And throughout all the chaos and the blood and the gore, there she was, this vision of beauty and it was so wrong it makes me sick.

The fear of destiny and inevitability, usually portrayed as an impossibly beautiful woman with angelic-like features, and chitinous claws on her fingers. She can show humans their future through her eyes or transfer parts of her consciousness inside them.

  • Angelic Beauty: Apart from her clawed fingers, that's how she's usually described.
  • Femme Fatalons: Chitinous and usually blood-red like her wings.
  • Magical Eye: Her eyes are pupil-less and can be used by humans to divine their own future and destiny.
  • Manipulative Bitch: In some of her incarnations, she uses her knowledge of human emotions to manipulate humans and achieve her goals.
  • The Omniscient: Well, she IS the personification of destiny, after all.
  • Uncanny Valley: In-Universe. She's so beautiful and ethereal you know there's something wrong with her...
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Usually subverted. The Vision is one of the few Fears who can actually experience human emotions. Whether those emotions are sincere or not it's a completely different matter.

    The Algernon Forest 

The fear of regression, de-evolution and nature out of control. As its name suggests, it's usually portrayed as a forest or some other kind of plant-based life form.

  • Planimal: Animals infected by the seed pods growing inside the Algernon forest can become these. Men are of course included.
  • Plant Person: The Green Man, the "avatar" used by the Algernon Forest, is portrayed like this.
  • Transflormation: The fate of those infected by the seed pods.

    The Constant Wanderer 

The fear of stagnation, repetition and routine, usually represented as an androgynous humanoid wearing an eyepatch and ragged clothes. Its presence is known to cause temporal loops and time slips.

  • Technicolor Eyes: Its left pupil is shaped like the infinite symbol.
  • Was Once a Man: In its origin story, it was repeatedly killed and resurrected by the other Fears (and robbed by its previous memories) in order to turn it into what it is now.

    DEVOUR 

The Fear of addiction and starvation.

    Nobody 

The Fear of being replaced, of losing one's identity and purpose. This Fear stalks its victims, learning everything about them. Then it takes their form and imitates them, slowly replacing them and stealing their life, leaving the victim insane and uncertain if they are the original or another fake.

    The Architect 
What goes up must come down. That is the way of creation. You will not live forever. You will become the very soil on which you stand upon. For that is life, my dear traveler. And this is how it ends

The Fear of the powerful and of control. The Architect is precisely that; a designer of places to live in. Except, what he designs are universes, smaller than core Earth's own, but with absolute power in each. He is a cold and remorseless overlord, caring only for the development of his work and new artistic experimentation. His one limitation is that he is only capable of acting in his Architect Universe-but his servants are working to change that...

  • Church Militant: The one commonality between all his creations are the Enlightened, who worship the Fears as gods and him as Top God. Even he doesn't know why they keep showing up.
  • Clock King: He seems obsessed with time, in particular a wristwatch that seems to be the source of his power.
  • God Is Evil: He's pretty much God within the confines of his universes, and he's always described as a heartless, uncaring craftsman whose only concern is order and his own agenda.
  • It Amused Me: As far as anyone can tell, this is his only motive; creating universes to see what happens. It's also why he doesn't interfere as much as he can, it's more fun to watch them develop naturally.
  • Malevolent Masked Man: Manifests as a man in a winter coat wearing an animal's skull to hide his face. The only thing that can be seen of his face are his smoking coals for eyes.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: He's said to be prevented from working his crafts on core Earth by a Gate. The Enlightened's mission is to look for Marked who can open it.
  • Sufficiently Advanced Alien: What he was initially; his species, the Voyagers, always had the capacity to create pocket dimensions, but he's long developed the capacity to create entire civilizations.

Human Antagonists

    Charlotte 
A young girl estimated to be around 12 years of age. She is one of the Wooden Girl's more devoted servants.
  • Happiness in Slavery: She's fully aware that she's just the Wooden Girl's puppet, and she loves every minute of it.
  • The Mole: She once purposefully gained Hunter's trust so that she could aid her mistress in birthing the Manufactured Newborn.

    The Jester 
A mysterious, seemingly immortal man who serves the Wooden Girl. He is easily distinguished by his black hoodie and clown mask.
  • Expy: Out of Game, he's been noted to have a similar personality to The Joker. His mask has also been compared to a certain other Joker.
  • Legacy Character: The Archive proposes this as a possible explanation for his longevity, though they admit that it's unclear whether he's multiple people or just one immortal one.

    The Witch of Gatlinburg 
A woman who lives in the mountains near Gatlinburg, Tennessee. She is distinguished by her cloak of black feathers and her unique mask, which is made from the skull of a large and unknown species of bird. She serves the Convocation.

    Doctor Beakman 
A doctor who runs an institution known as "Shady Lawn." He is a sadistic and demented psychiatrist who works for the Plague Doctor.

Other Entities

    Jack of All 

A man with a literal Red Right Hand. Whether it is truly red or merely in a glove depends on the story. He makes deals with people.

The Bloggers

    Jordan Dooling 

British teenager, American accent. Goes by the name DJay32. Has been running Jordan Eats Normally Now since he was twelve. Currently investigating what happened to Samantha Grant.

Tropes associated with Jordan:

  • Character Development: After Nathan dies, Jordan goes through a lot of denial and withdrawal into himself, but he seems to be coming out of this a better person. Maybe.
  • Starving Artist: He goes to the Salvation Army to ask for food. He hangs out at the home where his brother and Sam died because he has nothing to do in the day.

    Tav Lowe 
A 25-year-old who started brighter than a spoon to post his poetry. Weird things started to happen around him, however, and he began to realize he was something called a "receiver." When he met Agnes Day, a runner who told him he was a receiver, he quickly became involved with her struggle against something called the Cold Boy.

Tropes associated with Tav:

  • Blessed with Suck: Being a receiver is not nice. The only power is that you are "tuned in" to the same frequency as the Slender Man (or other Fears) and can hear weird shit.
  • Punny Name: Not Tav, but rather Agnes Day ("Agnes Dei" is Latin for "Lamb of God") and her dog Opus ("Opus Dei" means "Work of God"). Immediately lampshaded by him.
  • Sleepwalking: Being a receiver doesn't shut off even when he's asleep - causing some of the weirder posts to happen when he's not even conscious.
  • Victory-Guided Amnesia: At first, it seems like this, but then it's averted. He remembers, but then slowly starts to forget the time he was away.

    Joey Steward 

Somewhat timid 19-year old who started a blog called Eccentrically Bored basically to pass the time. He quickly gets caught in the crossfire between the Slender Man and the Archangel. Currently, he is working for Slender Man and calling himself "Steward". He now runs the blog Hidden in the Trees.

Tropes associated with Joey:

  • Berserk Button: He does not take kindly to the Archangel posting on Crystal's account. The next post, he apologizes to readers for his unprofessional behavior.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: Having managed to piss off five Fears (and the Choir for some reason), he solemnly writes one last post and waits with a machete and a shotgun and tells them to bring it on.
  • Face–Heel Turn: After Crystal's death and the archangel's attempt on his life using her body, he decides to serve the Slender Man and becomes a Proxy.
  • Freak Out: Something similar in his withdrawal from the pills. He has a rather more extreme one when he realizes what the Archangel is.
  • Meaningful Name: Becomes a Steward, i.e., a Proxy.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Shortly before he officially became a Proxy, he murdered his family to save them from being assimilated by the Archangel.
  • The Teetotaler: Amusingly, he gets drunk once, has a nasty hangover, and then resolves never to touch alcohol again.
  • Through the Eyes of Madness: During his episode with the mysterious pills (particular during his withdrawal), things get rather... surreal.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Gets this treatment from Slendy, being traded to the Rake without a second thought. This prompts a Heel–Face Turn.

    James Hunter 

A father who lost his family to the Rake. He now hunts it and records his travels on his blog.

Tropes associated with James

  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Helps Maxwell steal the pocketwatch so he can use it to kill the Rake. This... doesn't turn out well.

    Bill 'Garth' Hogarth 

A court bailiff, Garth began making audio recordings of sounds around his house at night. Garth blogged the results of his nightly recordings at ''Moonlit Whispers'', only to discover that what he had been recording was the Rake.

  • Miscarriage of Justice: Is eventually (wrongly) arrested for the murders of his neighbour and landlord, in reality committed by the Rake.
  • Non-Action Guy: Gets beaten up by his neighbor for daring to ask that he turn his TV down.

    Kobalos 

Just a regular teen who is haunted by some fears. He meets another person who is haunted and quickly befriends that person. He runs the blog Oedipus House of Death

Tropes associated With Kobalos

    Jeanette Cotton 

A tomboyish teenage girl who finds herself drawn into confrontation with a certain smiling gentleman. She writes The Jeanette Experience.

    Penny Balisong 
Author of Runneth Over. She's part of the group that supposedly gave the Smiling Man form. She's not exactly stable. Has recently joined up with Jeanette, her sister, and Tara.

  • Blind Seer: What she likes to think of herself as. It's still unclear as to how much of a seer she really is. Though she is definitely blind.
  • Eye Scream: According to her, her eyes were burned from their sockets by the Smiling Man.
  • Handicapped Badass: Manages to kill a proxy with a shotgun without being able to see him.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: So far, all we really know about Penny's real name is that it is six letters long.

    Locomotive Breath 
Real name: Archibald Donald Sullivan, Junior. Author of In The Shuffling Madness. An old man who maintains a collaborative archive of collected information on the Fears, until his study of them draws their attention and he is forced to become a Runner.

  • Tomato in the Mirror: According to Thaddeus, he's Indisen. Though what exactly this might mean is not yet clear, given what Indisen means in OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING, it can't be good.

    Proxiehunter 
Author of ''The Most Dangerous Game''.
  • Properly Paranoid: He has good reason to suspect everyone and everything. Especially on Halloween, since everyone's wearing costumes.

    Amy 
Author of Something Generic. She promises, she's not important. Ignore the hell out of her.

  • What the Hell, Hero?: Quite keen on calling out other Fearbloggers on their often less than admirable self-preservation instincts.


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