The History of "The Slender Man".

On June 10th, 2009, it was made. On a "Create Paranormal Images" contest thread taking place on the SomethingAwful forums, these two photographs with captions was what sparked the phenomenon. The following excerpt is from that post.


"We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time..."

1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.



One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as "The Slender Man". Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence.

1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986."

Those two photographs and a few more that Victor Surge had posted led to the creation of what we've come to know as "The Slender Man". Another set of images known as the "Der Ritter" woodcuts had also made some circulation around the net, hinting to a pre-existing history in Germany, but it turns out that these are merely photoshopped images.

The Slender Man, as it's called, is often depicted as a tall and slender being, hence the given name. It's usually depicted as wearing black pants, a black suit with a white shirt, and a black necktie underneath. He has no visible face, although a few appearances show him with a facial structure of some kind. He can stretch out or shorten his arms and legs at will, and hides some form of tentacle-like appendages on his back. Its capabilities are debatable at times, and its victims are many. Judging from the original posts, kidnapping humans and/or killing them seems to be the inevitable outcome for most of its victims.

The first ever video series that featured it was created on June 20th, 2009, ten days after the initial post that made the creature known. This series is known as MarbleHornets, and has garnered a mass following. Currently, the first "Entry" to the series has reached over 3 million views on YouTube. While initially it's considered the first video series to feature it, the figure known as "The Operator" in MarbleHornets is not The Slender Man, but rather based upon him. Even so, many people, including myself, still call it The Slender Man nonetheless.

However, there are other forms of media that are used to tell stories of it. The blog "JustAnotherFool" was made in July 2009, and from August 5th, 2009 onward, it told the story of a man named Logan who received a book that he had given his friend Matt who went off to Iraq. After Matt had been caught in an ambush and sent to a mental hospital, he committed suicide, and the book was sent back to him at the request of Matt. From then on, the story takes a turn down a dark path and became famous as the first "Slenderblog".

Many blogs and video series followed suit after the creation of MarbleHornets and JustAnotherFool, wanting to contribute their own stories to the overall Mythos (The mythology behind a person, place, or thing.) that now surrounds the Slender Man. The earliest and most prominent ones to be featured were the Slenderseries known as "EverymanHYBRID", and "TribeTwelve". EverymanHYBRID features the story of Vinny, Evan, and Jeff as they start a video blog to provide heath tips and exercises on an affordable basis, until the circumstances for them take a turn for the worse. Whereas TribeTwelve features the story of Noah Maxwell and his investigation into the suicide of his cousion, Milo Asher, after watching some old tapes of them hanging out together and noticing something odd.

There are many other Slenderseries and Slenderblogs out there, with the number climbing steadily as the Mythos continues to thrive. With series such as; The Andersen Journals, DarkHarvest00, The Angel's Game, TJAProjects, 5zer02, CaughtNotSleeping and related videos, compileTRUTH, StanFrederickBTS, 004Steps and OctarineNight, CoyoteIsAwesome, thetulpaeffect, CloverInChicago, OneHundredYardStare, OsirisChronicles, and more.

The amount of blogs that exist are even more numerous, with at least 300-400 already in existence. The more prominent blogs include; Dreams In Darkness/MaleOrderMan/Deja Vu Dreamer, SeekingTruth/The Mystic, A Really Bad Joke, Walking The Hallowed Halls, The London Librarian, Fabulous, Make It Count, The Tutorial, Exilis Veritas, Vivere disce, A hint of serendipity, and What You Are In The Dark.



People have used its appearances or its likeness in various videos, such as LittleKuriboh's Concrete Giraffes video, Neil Cicierega's Splendorman video, and Minecraft's Endermen are a homage to the tall, pale, and faceless being. Among the videos and the blogs, there is another form of media that people have tried to use to feature The Slender Man. Movies featuring The Slender Man have been attempted quite a few times already on YouTube, with most gaining some form of notoriety. While others have tried aiming for the big screen and getting their films produced by Independent Film companies.

The biggest impact lately has been from the attention caused by the game known as "Slender: The 8 Eight Pages", which was released sometime around late June/early July of 2012. The game is fairly simple, but its simplicity is what makes the game short, scary, and fun. The game became popularized through the YouTube user PewDiePie and his "Let's Play" of the game, in which he films his reactions when playing. This caused a massive influx of people coming into the Slender Man Mythos in general, and the popularity of people filming their own reactions to playing this game.

With the influx of people, there has been much controversy as of late within the fandom of the Slender Man Mythos and fans of the game. Many who come into watching MarbleHornets and other series somehow believe that the Slender game came first, and was the inspiration for everything else. People have called The Slender Man, "Slender", instead of the full given name to the creature. Some people have come to despise the game, while others are more accepting of the game than the people who play it. As much as some people may not like the ignorance of those coming from the game, there are still people within the game's fanbase who come and indulge themselves in what the entirety of the Mythos has to offer, and possibly provide more content for the Mythos as a whole with new series and blogs.

Even so, more and more people have gotten involved with The Slender Man and the media based off of him. What originally started as some pictures for a Paranormal Image contest, has now turned into an internet meme of grand proportions. As far as any of us may see, we have not a clue as to what might be in store with the future. We can only guess as to what else may come for this being, and the people who immerse themselves in the mythology of The Slender Man.

(Thank you for taking the time to read this. I just felt like I should share this tidbit of information with everyone, just to have some facts clear and promote some series out there.)

I could hug you right now.


Permission to Copy/Paste to send to a couple fuckwit friends of mine who are convinced that Slenderman is real?

<3

Yes, feel free to share this, and thank you. I hope it helps.

Hopefully it will stop the four am phone calls.

Fully grown men shouldn't be calling a 5'0 92pound female to come and protect them from the Slenderman. /facepalm

I love this mythos, so much. But I should not have shown it to my easily frightened friends.

Thank you for this history on the Slender Man's origins. I feel like such a noob (I am) but I appreciate learning nonetheless. Thanks again for educating me further and giving me new material to search up.

The Slenderfreak wrote:

Can we make this required reading? Like, when you come to the site for the first time, it IMMEDIATELY shows this post. I hate trying to explain to people how this entire mythos works-this'll be easier.

... yes please. well, at least promote it so people find it easily when they first sign up

Xilaya wrote:

The Slenderfreak wrote:

Can we make this required reading? Like, when you come to the site for the first time, it IMMEDIATELY shows this post. I hate trying to explain to people how this entire mythos works-this'll be easier.

... yes please. well, at least promote it so people find it easily when they first sign up

In my humble opinion, this needs to be a Sticky.

britaki wrote:

Xilaya wrote:

The Slenderfreak wrote:

Can we make this required reading? Like, when you come to the site for the first time, it IMMEDIATELY shows this post. I hate trying to explain to people how this entire mythos works-this'll be easier.

... yes please. well, at least promote it so people find it easily when they first sign up

In my humble opinion, this needs to be a Sticky.

Well, if more people agree with that, then I'll do so. Haha. Thank you though. I'm glad you all think of it so well.

Well-done, Zander. I like how it turned out.

Also +1 for sticky.

Just wanted to post and note that I edited the article to include a small tidbit about the fake "Der Ritter" woodcuts, since some people seem to be under the impression that those are real.

slender man was first seen in the Egyptian art in the pyramids.

tall man wrote:

slender man was first seen in the Egyptian art in the pyramids.

Yes, but that was based on a badly photoshopped image. Trust me, I looked into it too. Nothing of worth, except to use in that case file video on the Slender Nation Youtube Channel.

"Badly photoshopped image" is the basis for 90% of the bullshit "lol slenderman is from germany/egypt/wherever" factually-challenged "legends" out there.

tall man wrote:

slender man was first seen in the Egyptian art in the pyramids.

Tell me more about how you have been to ancient Egypt and know how to read hieroglyphics. Haha, I'm just messing with you.

Cougar Draven wrote:

"Badly photoshopped image" is the basis for 90% of the bullshit "lol slenderman is from germany/egypt/wherever" factually-challenged "legends" out there.

yeah well guess what? I HAVE A 100% UNPHOTOSHOPPED IMAGE OF SLENDY FROM OVER 200 YEARS AGO!

Watch out, Etreo! He's in your image too!

Watch out, we got a Slendy over here!

Hello I am new here and already know quite a bit about slenderman but i just want to find some one who can help fill in the whole picture for me so I have questions if anyones willing to answer.

You should introduce yourself in the introduction section. What's your question?

I'm also going to point out that it's against the site rules to post in a thread that has been inactive for over 30 days, as this one had been. But I can answer your question to the best of my ability? It's what I'm here for, after all.

Wow there's alot of rules but anyway I wanted to know if anyone knew where slenderman take his victims, what the general belief is here pertaining to if he is real or not. If anyone here believes in him, how they would kill him. Also i'm most curious about how he chooses his victims and what about his biological make-up makes camera's and electronics freak out.

A lot of the fear of the Slender Man is the fear of the unknown. We don't know where it takes its victims, we don't know why it makes electronics malfunction. That is up to each person to decide for themself. If you think you've got a good idea, then why not write it into a blog yourself to share it with everyone? Another major perk of this mythos is that there's not much by way of a set-in-stone canon for it, so anyone who chooses is allowed to contribute what they see fit to it.

As far as "if anyone believes in it": The Slender Man is decisively fictional. That's what the very first post in this thread details. Our very first rule (which you were meant to read upon signing up) is "do not post in-character". This includes posting anything to imply a possibility of the Slender Man being real. There is no chance of someone speaking up here who believes in an internet meme as an actual monster.

I hope this helped clear things up for you!

Hmm, so then what is the point of this site, like what do you guy's discuss I've looked through some of the pages but mostly seen things about videos like marble hornets and such.