"Slender Man" is a legend that appeared a few years back on Something Awful forums. The legend started as a photo manipulation contest , and was created by a user named Eric Knudsen also known as "Victor Surge" in 2009.

He is depicted as an unnaturally tall, thin, humanoid creature sporting a black suit. What is terrifying about his appearance is somewhat credited to his unnatural stature but the really terrifying aspect of Slender man is his lack of facial features.

Stories of Slender Man commonly feature him stalking, abducting , or traumatizing people, particularly children.

Original creator Eric Knudsen posted two black and white photos, where he added Slender Man to the background with quotes under them that seemingly brought a whole new life to the contest.

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

Subsequent posters expanded upon the character, adding their own visual or textual contributions. Slender Man soon went Viral with no real origin story, people were free to give and take from the character as they saw fit adding a deep sense of creep and mystery to the legend.

One of the earliest additions was added by a forum user named "Thoreau-Up", who created a folklore story set in 16th-century Germany involving a character called Der Groẞman, which was implied to be an early reference to the Slender Man.

Early stories feature him targeting children or young adults. Some feature young adults driven insane ( Sometimes referred too as slender sickness)

"Slender sickness"; a rapid onset of paranoia, nightmares and delusions accompanied by nose bleeds.

Or driven to act on his behalf, while others did not, and others claim that investigating Slender Man will draw his attention. The web series Marble Hornets established the idea of proxies (people who fall under the Slender Man's influence) though initially they were only violently insane rather than puppets of the Slender Man. Marble Hornets also introduced the idea that Slender Man could interfere with video and audio recordings , as well as developing the "Slender Man symbol" , which became a common trope for Slender Man fiction.

This set of blog posts will come in 3 parts (I had a really hard time condensing the information due to the nature of the beast) Thank you for Reading part 1 , parts 2 (Slender Mans capabilities and the inspiration surrounding the legend) and 3 (Related Incidents) will be released as regular freaky Friday blogs in coming Fridays . XOXO Little Dot