Wendigo

Origin

Wendigo are the biological offspring of "Cain"; that is, the resulting children of his sexual liasons (almost all of which are non-consensual (*cough*)). Like their father, they crave the death of those who cross their paths, killing them, eating their flesh and drinking their blood (okay, so Cain doesn't usually do the cannibalism thing).

When they're first born, they look like normal human children. They grow up as normal human children, though with perhaps a slightly morbid obsession with death and blood. It's not unusual to find them torturing animals, though they will usually claim that they were just "playing" or were "curious how it worked" or something. Given that their conception is almost always founded in rape (since mortal women will flee from or attempt to fight off Cain, given the mark on his forehead), their mothers sometimes have a distant relationship to them.

No matter how strong or weak the maternal bond is, as the child begins to undergo puberty, other changes begin to happen as well: increased strength, speed, and healing abilities (not at all dissimilar to weres, though without the ability to shapeshift or the lunar relationship). Their eyes will become more animal-like, and the Cravings will begin. The "human" child completes his or her journey to being a full-fledged Wendigo when they eat their mother. In nearly all cases, the child kills their mother and then eats her; sometimes an accident befalls the mother instead (or she commits suicide), but upon finding her body, the end result is the same.

Having now acquired the taste for human flesh, the young Wendigo makes their way in the world. Unlike hybrid-form weres, they don't have excess body hair (unless they got that genetically from their mothers), animal features (other than the eyes), claws or tails. It's not unusual for them to develop proper fangs for better flesh-ripping, but it's not a requirement. Some are quite civilized - think Hannibal Lecter-esque - but many of them prefer the feeling of killing and immediately tearing off chunks of raw flesh to eat.

Wendigo of both sexes tend to look gaunt; no matter how much they eat, they crave more, always. They are perfectly capable of eating regular food, but the Craving is such that they vastly prefer human meat to anything else. They are, therefore, never satisfied (and often suffering from malnutrition from a lack of a varied diet). Wendigo also tend to be manipulative and/or seductive, as a means of getting their prey alone for easier killing and consumption.

Due to Cain's wanderings (and his only briefly lucid periods), it's rare for there to be more than one Wendigo in an area. In the rare times when two have met and married and had children, the locals have generally risen up and destroyed the "family of monsters". Most Wendigo end up killed themselves or sent to prison (and often killed there - either through capital punishment or through guards breaking up fights/inmates defending themselves).

Cain is actually proud of his biological children, though he rarely sees them or stays to raise them. In his more lucid periods, he likes to track down the news from various places he knows he's likely to have fathered children in and see if any of his offspring are doing him proud. He keeps a scrapbook, of sorts, with clippings of his childrens' "achievements".

Likely Wendigo

.:Back to Index:.