New Sages

Come on, Robert (Guardian), I was hoping that the month of November would be mostly bereft of major Slendy events, so I’d have the time to keep up with NaNoWriMo. Then you dropped this bombshell. And on top of that, we’ve got the HYBRIDs going to Centralia, the Rake (?) attacking Alex, Michirui kidnapping Chase, Willow being attacked, and Nightcrawler killing people in the name of JUSTICE. If it weren’t my love of suicide by writing, I’d be going insane trying to keep up with all of that+NaNo+school.

Robert (Guardian) has named the three new sages. They are zerombr (A hint of serendipity), Maduin (A Really Bad Joke) and Amelia (Road to the Heavens). As always, links to the blogs will be provided at the end of the post.
At this time, I’d like to strut around with my chest puffed up, because when I said I was following possible candidates for the role of (Sage), zerombr and Maduin were two of my predictions. I wasn’t sure about the third; I thought it might be Jackson from Searching For Angels, as he is a paranormal investigator, but I now realize that the lack of any communication between him and Robert (Guardian) would disqualify him from that role.

For those who haven’t been reading White Elephants, I should explain what Robert (Guardian)’s theory was (or at least, what I interpreted it to be). This is my favorite theory about Slendy, mostly because it goes with my love of stories. According to Robert (Guardian), every culture has a monster. This monster is given strength and form through belief in it, and the myths surrounding it. One example would be Der Ritter, who was the monster from Germany. These monsters go about doing their monster things, in accordance with the legends which both constrict and strengthen them, until a (Hero) arises and defeats the monster.

Slender Man is our monster, although whether he is born from American culture, or the culture of the internet, I can’t say for certain. He gains strength and rules from the stories which we tell about him, though he is much more flexible than the monsters of other cultures; he is still young enough that the stories haven’t yet pinned down an exact set of rules which he must follow. The beauty of this theory is how it connects to Slender Man’s belief based existence, as well as humans’ tendency to create stories. If Slender Man is created from our stories, how do we stop him? By playing out the story. The story of an unstoppable monster appearing and terrorizing a people, only to be stopped by a single person who stands up against it wielding a powerful weapon, is almost totally prevalent across global cultures. In hindsight, I’m amazed no one noticed this before Robert (Guardian); Slender Man is just another retelling of a classical boogeyman tale, where we attribute all the things we fear to a monstrous entity. And like every legend about a boogeyman, dragon, Der Ritter, or other monster, it will eventually end with the monster conquered.

In this story setting, Robert (Guardian) assigned each of the players a role within the greater legend. Thus far, the roles he named and gave importance to are (Sage), (Mystic), (Hermit), (Warrior), (Guardian), and (Hero).

Sage: (Going with Robert’s artful explanation for this) ”There's a dark jungle next to the village. People who go into it never return. The villagers fear the jungle. Then one day a man with a torch goes in, the villagers scream at him to not, but he does anyway. He returns the next night, crawling back, bleeding to death, claw marks on his back. With his last breath he says 'Within the Jungle lives a Tiger, who is twelve feet long, obsidian claws, and has fire in its eyes...but it is just a Tiger and it bleeds.' After that he dies. The villagers no longer fear the jungle after that day. Oh, it's still scary and they take precautions from the huge Tiger...but it's just a Tiger. No longer is it Unknown or Shadows, perhaps one day someone will go and kill the Tiger...but there is no need for pointless fear.”

Mystic: Zeke Strahm (Seeking Truth). ”The Mystic can equal to -Veteran.- Mystic has fought, stores the knowledge of the past, and continues to give support when possible.”

Hermit: M (The Tutorial) ”The Hermit lives by himself, has developed methods to survive, and is willing to pass on instructions, but has his own priorities, and odds are will not fight as opposed to run.”

Warrior: None yet ”Brave, Bold, Stupid in that headstrong way, Fights for the sake of the fight, Fights without fear, Only fights on This Side, Can push /Construct/ back to Other Side for a while, cannot beat it. A stop gap, and if they become an /Agent/ then there's going to be a lot of trouble.”

Guardian: Robert ”Calm, controlled with knowledge, FIghts for others BUT will have nothing left on This Side, FIghts on Other Side, Stays on Other Side and keep Him there for a much longer time, will return when the Vigil is over, or if a Hero emerges.”

Hero: None yet ”Afraid but pushes on, Foolish but gains wisdom from Sages and Mystics, Fights for those who are important to him, Fights on both This Side and Other Side Only a Hero can kill a monster...but the Hero always dies at the end of the story.”


Robert (Guardian) also referred to Sandra from H(a)unting as (Oracle), though I can’t find any quotes on his blog where he fully explained that role. The HYBRIDs were also called (Champions), again with no quotable explanation. I think both of those are fairly self-explanatory, especially after the HYBRIDs attempts to fight back against Slendy.


For the story to be completed, we need to fill the (Warrior) and (Hero) roles. Who the (Hero) will be, I haven’t the slightest clue. There was some discussion about it being M if he were to ever stop running, but he’s been out of contact even longer than Shaun. As for (Warrior), I’ve got some ideas. Evan (EverymanHYBRID) has the fighting spirit, and the desire to kill Slendy, but his sanity may be somewhat in question, since he’s been the most obviously affected by Slendy so far. Nightcrawler (Observe and Terminate) has the resources and skills to fight back, but right now his priorities seem to be more on killing Runners than protecting them. There’s also Joker (The Master Laughs), who’s an interesting case. If he were to ever decide to change sides, he’d make a perfect (Warrior). As it stands, he’s currently working for, not against Slendy. What’s interesting about it is that he doesn’t seem to be a Slenderproxy. He acts more like a guy who just happens to be working for Slender Man because it amuses him, without any binding loyalties to Tall Dark and Faceless.

Or maybe the (Warrior) and (Hero) are people who haven’t entered the game yet. Perhaps Slendy will pick a victim who ends up being a bit more than he can handle, having the right combination of traits to be either a (Warrior) or (Hero). As knowledge of Slendy spreads, his victims are becoming more aggressive against him; it likely won’t be long before someone else stands up to fight back. Then at last the story ends; the monster is slain, and put back into our minds, where he belongs.

Useful Links
A hint of serendipity: http://despairpalesbeforeme.blogspot.com/
A Really Bad Joke: http://worstjestever.blogspot.com/
Road to the Heavens: http://weavethecauseway.blogspot.com/

P.S.
Never introduce your friends to Slender Man. Not because they’ll become hunted by him. But because whenever you post something like, “Trees are trying to kill me. Freakin' huge branch snapped off one and nearly fell on my head while I was running.” as a Facebook status, you’ll find your comment consist of operator symbols and people claiming Slendy’s out to get you. Which isn’t something I need to be thinking about while I’m running, since my morning runs tend to go through forests, usually before the sun has risen.