Here’s a hunter, there’s a hunter, everywhere a hunter-hunter. Let’s face it this word is used a lot. It’s used for the people who hunt animals for dinner, people who hunt down other people (bounty hunters), and then there’s people like you who hunt the supernatural monsters that go bump in the night. (Really you’d think we’d come up with a more original name.)
No matter how good a hunter you think you are, there’s one thing to remember. There’s always someone or something better. In this case, I’m talking about a Wendigo.
Never heard of it? Well then, let me educate you.
What Are They?
Wendigo is Cree for "evil that devours" which describes the thing pretty well. They are always hungry. Always. They are damn near perfect hunters. Everything we got, they got but it’s enhanced: Senses, speed, strength, power, vision, smell, cunning, all of it. They got it better and they do it better. They can mimic human voices, lay the best traps, and they know how to bide their time. They can hibernate for years at a time before showing their ugly mugs. Local lore says they can be hundreds of years old. All that time alone, as a monster? I can't imagine their sanity level is anywhere near normal. All that time to plan how to grab it's next meal and being that crazy, chances are you won’t see them until it’s too late. They’re cannibals with no morals. In short, they’re evil sons of bitches who eat people for dinner.
How They’re Made
There’s a lot of lore surrounding Wendigos, but this isn’t one of those instances where you need to worry about being infected. (Eaten yes, infected no.)
The following is the main lore of how one becomes a Wendigo.
A proud warrior trades his soul for the power to destroy a threat to his tribe. (Take note here, it’s never a good idea to sell your soul!) The tribe is all hunky dory about it until the threat is taken care of. Then the warrior is driven out where he vanishes into the wilderness, slowly turning into monster of pure evil because of a combination of dark magic and cannibalism. Cultures all over the world have their own speculations about how cannibalism helps grant whoever eats their fellow homo sapiens special powers, so that's probably why the Wendigo resorts to it. After a while, it probably went after the people from the very tribe they were trying to protect, though that’s not in the lore.
As time goes on they don’t even look human anymore. Their bodies adapt to help them be the perfect hunters they are. Hence the fugly looking picture. They're described as having glowing eyes, long yellow fangs, overly long tongue, most have yellowish sallow skin. Some are matted with hair, lanky, and driven by hunger. Can be male or female, but always hungry. Some versions of the legend have them growing in size with every meal, so there’s always more to feed.
The final transformation from human to Wendigo is when the heart changed into pure ice. It probably explains why they have no morals, no compassion, and are as ruthless as they come. They can’t feel anything other than hunger. It’s what drives them.
Protection Against
Anasazi symbols.
Draw these little doodad symbols around you and it’ll keep the Wendigo out, they can't cross over them. It’s good for stalling, but it won’t work forever. Eventually you’ll have to do things like eat, use the bathroom, and hopefully survive long enough so that you can go crying to the tabloids about the monster you met in the woods.
How To Gank Them
Okay, so, we've learned so far that Wendigos are nasty looking and perfect hunters. They know how to stalk you better than that creepy dude in the apartment down the hall and they have no table manners when it comes to eating. They also have hearts made of pure ice.
So, pop quiz time, kiddies: How do we kill them?
Anyone? No? Think about it. If the final part of the transformation is that their hearts turn to pure ice, then the best way to kill them is to go straight for the heart. Shatter it with an iron or silver blade and you've got one dead Wendigo. But to do that, you need to get up close and personal with it and that's more dangerous than running from it. So another good idea? Melt it's heart. Go all pyro on the sucker. Then get rid of the body. Chop it up and salt and burn it.
That's an important thing to remember, no matter what you kill, you need to salt and burn it's body afterward. That's pretty much the only way it's not gonna come back.
Forest Dwellers
