The big long lore post
This post contains summaries of all of my character lore, and will remain on the pinned post on the blog for easy access!
PLEASE NOTE - THIS WILL HAVE TRIGGERING CONTENT WITHIN IT. CREEPS WITH ABUSE MENTIONS ARE MARKED.
Obvious disclaimer! Some of these are VERY different from their original canon, and that’s the point for me. I understand not everyone likes or wants to follow my lore, but my writing follows this lore.
Putting them under a keep reading because this is so long
Jeff (Mentions of abuse):
The second-born son to a family that didn't want him, born weaker but more intelligent than his older brother, Jeff was physically, verbally, and emotionally abused by his mother his entire life. The only kindness Jeff ever knew was from his older brother Liu, the attributed golden child of the family. Used to being a victim of bullying, his luck took a turn for the worst when he was escorted to an open field, tied up, and lit on fire by the worst of his bullies, only making it out alive due to Jane saving him. On the night that he snapped, he murdered his parents in cold blood before trying to escape, harming his brother in the process. To disguise himself easier and cause a distraction, Jeff in a break of panic and insanity started several house fires as a diversion. Jeff now lives life through a facade, presenting himself as a strong and capable person, hiding the weak, scared version of himself inside.
Liu (Mentions of abuse):
The first-born son to a family that originally treasured him, life started off good for Liu, until Jeff came into the mixture. While Liu will never tell Jeff, and will never shatter his reality, Liu was not as loved and treasured as Jeff thought. Their mother constantly pushed Liu to be the best, better than Jeff, and would beat him and scream at him as well whenever he disappointed her, however, Liu was better at hiding the bruises. Sully developed in his early adolescence as a way for him to cope with the trauma of his mother, Sully taking the brunt of the abuse and Liu trying to save his brother from the same fate. On the night that Jeff attacked him while fleeing, Liu ended up wandering into the woods, and in a state of half-death, ended up in a state of limbo. He ended up stumbling through a hidden area to access the Underworld from the human world, and in his state of limbo transformed into a self-aware zombie. Liu now spends his days trying to reconcile with his sibling.
Jane:
Jane grew up a normal child in a loving household. However, her fate was changed when the Masters family moved in across the street. While Jane had always shown the boys kindness, often helping Jeff in secret, telling off his bullies, and protecting him from the shadows, she felt ultimately betrayed when in his spark of insanity he lit her house on fire in the wake of his path. Jane suffered severe injuries trying to navigate inside to her parents who ultimately ended up dying in the fire. She vowed to seek revenge upon Jeff, but upon learning they both contracted with Slender and were not allowed to fatally harm each other was forced to form a truce with him. She's learning to give him ounces of forgiveness these days and finds hating him to be too exhausting as she tries to move on. They're neither friends nor enemies.
Nina:
Involved with the above three, Nina often followed in her older brother's footsteps and took great joy in terrorizing Jeff, hating him from an early age. She ended up developing a crush on the older brother, Liu, although he never returned her affections due to the age difference and her treatment of his sibling. After learning that Liu still loves Jeff even after the incident, Nina now holds that same hatred for him as well. After Jeff ended up seeking revenge and killing his bullies, he accidentally left Nina alive, and she viewed this as him mocking her and getting back at her for the years of abuse. She is now devoted to trying to kill him. She also has an issue with Jane who no longer has any drive to kill Jeff, viewing Jane as a traitor and an idiot for giving up on her vengeance. She is currently employed under Zalgo and works as one of his highest-ranking workers.
BEN (Mentions of abuse):
An only child born to a happy household, BEN was well-loved until his mother passed away when he was still a child from an illness that had been plaguing him for years. His father turned to alcohol and violence to cope, and while his mother would protect BEN when he was younger, once she passed BEN was forced to endure years of abuse alone, obtaining his fear of water from his father mock drowning him as an abusive punishment. After saving up cash and trying to escape, BEN's father discovered his hiding space and in a fit of rage and betrayal, intentionally drowned BEN in their bathtub. Now a mess of hollowness and fear, BEN drowns (pun I didn’t notice until beta reading) himself in work and games to distract himself from his trauma, trying to prevent himself from attempting to actually drown himself again from the emotional high it had given him. Working as the trusted, intelligent informant under Slender, he does whatever he can to hide his past from others.
Toby (Mentions of abuse):
Born as the second child to an influential CEO who was insanely fixated on having the perfect family, Toby, his sister, and his mother lived in an abusive hellhole for a very long time. He was rapidly punished once he started developing his Tourette's, as his father viewed it as an imperfection, and so all of their punishments would continue growing worse. Strict education and strict rules must be followed, and if you break them, endless suffering follow. Toby, unable to feel the pain of punishment, was forced to watch his sister and mother be tortured, serving as a much more effective punishment for Toby. Mock execution, starvation, isolation, sensory deprivation/assault, anything that would terrify his family, his father would do. After his father accidentally murdered his sister in a punishment gone wrong, Toby snapped and murdered him, escaping and running away while his mother covered for him. His mother still loves him and cares for him today while he recovers from all the abuse in hiding at Slender's mansion.
Tim and Brian:
Friends from a young age, Tim was the quiet loner, and Brian was the anxious boy who couldn't make friends. Brian was drawn to Tim like a moth to a flame, and the two of them were always side by side. They lived perfectly normal and happy lives until Brian got the interesting idea for them to try and be ghost hunters. It started off as an innocent and stupid hobby until they actually ended up stumbling upon truly cursed items, leaving the two of them to become possessed by entities that we now call Masky and Hoodie. The two of them searched everywhere to try and get help but no exorcism could expel the spirits from them. They eventually stumbled upon Slender in the woods near Brian's house, and he took them in, offering assistance with the entities now residing in them.
Kate:
A girl with a penchant for exploration, Kate had a habit of escaping from the free world and spent most of her time in the woods located behind her house. She liked the exploration and would try and visit cursed areas around her town, and one she had discovered online wasn't too far from her, at the very edge of the woods. It was an old shut down mining facility, however, it was shut down for a reason. There was a cursed monster lurking in the depths, and it ended up casting its curse upon her, invading her senses and causing her to leak a dark, wet, ashy substance when in her cursed and transformed state. She ended up being saved by Slender, attracted to the commotion as he keeps tabs on some of the entities residing in the human world. He gave her a place to live in his mansion and helps her cope with the curse residing in her veins. Due to the effect the curse has on her eyes, Kate was even originally unaware of Slender's true appearance.
Natalie (Mentions of abuse):
A daughter born in a family hoping for only boys. With a misogynistic father looking for a son to pass his business down to, Natalie was the opposite of what he wanted. Their next child, Natalie's younger brother, would go on to be the favored child, while Natalie was forced to behave like a boy and not allowed to own anything remotely feminine, and she was even referred to as "Nathan" instead of Natalie in the house. Natalie and her mother were routinely beaten by their father due to his hatred of their existence. After her younger brother grew close to her, treasuring Natalie as his older sister, this made her father even angrier and the abuse ended up escalating. As Natalie grew older, she tried harder and harder to become more feminine, and her father in a fit of rage started to sexually assault her as it was the only thing women were good for in his mind. Eventually, after dealing with all of this for so long, her younger brother snuck Natalie a knife, giving her the means to murder their father while he covered for her, allowing her to escape. The two are still in touch to this day and have made lots of progress in recovering.
Helen (Mentions of abuse):
The only son born to rich and influential parents who were hoping for a daughter. Helen lived two lives, one as a studious young boy in the public, forced to get the highest possible education, and in private nothing more than a toy for his parents to dress up as a girl, forcing him to act feminine and portray himself as a girl behind closed doors. Helen found escape in art and wished to grow up and pursue it, however, his parents ridiculed him for this, destroying any art supplies they would find and physically abusing, degrading, and humiliating him constantly as punishment. One of Helen's duties behind closed doors would be to dress up as a woman and cook dinner for them every night, and one day after finally snapping he poisoned their dinner, effectively killing them before escaping and running away, discovering Slender a few years later. Helen doesn't remember doing so and will dodge questions about it if asked, but his parent's corpses were discovered heavily mutilated and posed artistically. Helen still retains this habit today, although he always claims he never remembers doing so.
Dr. Smiley:
A completely normal man on the outside, Smiley always had a flair for the more inhumane sides of science on the inside. He liked pushing experiments a bit too far, doing things a little bit too monstrous for what would be considered safe. He lived as a well-respected doctor during the day and a sadistic experimenter at night. He was eventually outed for his crimes and went to escape. He lived on the run for a few years before Slender chose him specifically for his medical knowledge, scouting him as the first official doctor for the mansion residents, so long as he kept his experiments on their targets rather than those that lived within the mansion.
Sally (Mentions of abuse):
A child that was raised in an orphanage that was actually used as a human trafficking organization. Sally was a frequently used target within the organization, one of the more popular children. Constantly abused and assaulted, Sally never knew peace for the entirety of her life within that hellhole. Eventually, the organization was discovered, and in a last-ditch effort, all of the children within it were murdered and disposed of. Sally went on to wander around in the Underworld as a tormented spirit until Slender found her and took pity on her, giving her a place to finally rest. She still carries her severe hatred and mistrust of men but is making progress in recovering in the safety of the mansion.
Eyeless Jack (Mentions of abuse):
Another child brought up in an orphanage as his parents died in an accident when he was still a child, Jack ended up getting adopted into what he hoped would be a loving family. He was instead taken into a cult that only picked him due to his heterochromatic eyes. Forced to study, become nocturnal, and isolate themselves from each other, the children of the cult had to follow all of the various rules within it. Those that disobeyed rules would serve as human experiments as punishment, and despite being perfectly good, other kids would pin things on Jack so he had to suffer. After reaching a certain age, Jack would also be forced to consume human flesh. They went through all these lengths to prepare a vessel for a demon they wished to summon, and Jack would go on to become that vessel, the vessel for Ambrosa, the demon of scholars. Carved with symbols, branded and mutilated, eyes removed as an offering for the demon, in his final rebellion, rather than having the demon summoned, it fused its own soul with Jack's by accident, turning Jack himself into a demon that slaughtered all remaining humans in the organization and lost his memories in the process. He was eventually discovered and rescued by Slender, taken on as a second doctor. He views himself as a monster, containing feline ears, a tail, claws, teeth, and instincts, tormented by the glimpses of horrid memories he possesses and prefers to live alone.
Laughing Jack (Mentions of abuse):
Designed as a toy for Isaac by the Overworld, Jack was sent to him as a gift. Whoever possesses Jack's box has complete control over him and can command him at their will. This would have served no issue, had Jack not suffered an immediate glitch in his system after being received, becoming self-aware, however, he was unable to speak or move without commands from Isaac. Jack would grow traumatized, being forced to watch as Isaac was abused by his parents and unable to help him, left for years staring ahead and unable to move. Jack began to grow bitter and spiteful towards Isaac, for Isaac could do everything that Jack couldn't, could live however he wanted while Jack had to follow commands, and the more bitter he grew, the duller his once bright colors would become, now dull and washed out. Jack, unaware of the fact that his emotions were leaking into Isaac, ended up influencing Isaac to become as bitter and spiteful as himself. Isaac would begin to use Jack to kill animals, destroy houses, and set them ablaze to torment those he hated. It wasn't until Isaac brought home a girl and tried to assault her, ordering Jack to restrain her so he could that Jack finally snapped and gained control, denying Isaac's demands, although Isaac forced him into his box, and forced him to watch Isaac's crime, taunting him all the while. Isaac made the mistake of calling him back out, and Jack acted on impulse, torturing and murdering him, causing him to fall and truly become demonic, gaining claws and fanged teeth in the change, possessing darker magic. Eventually taken in my Slender, he now harbors a fear of children due to their cruelty and lack of empathy and views himself as a monster.
Jason:
Originally designed as a mechanical life-size toy for a magical toy shop in the Overworld powered by a music box "heart", Jason carried out his days as a caretaker and assistant in said shop. He was beloved by children and soaked up the attention like a sponge, however, envy is a hell of a drug. Eventually, the children would begin paying attention to newer models more than Jason, and he soon became ignored and forgotten. After becoming too self-aware, and too jealous, he suffered a system glitch and mutation. No longer the favored toy and beginning to become possessed by his jealousy, Jason snapped, slaughtering all those in the shop at the time and being cast into the Underworld. He now harbors a severe fear and distrust of people, especially children, and he fears everyone will take advantage of him and abandon him. He's built up a powerful facade for himself in the Underworld and garnered himself high standing, doing whatever he can to manipulate and keep the spotlight on himself so he can keep soaking up the attention.
Candy Pop:
In Candy's original lore, he fused with Night Terrors upon accidentally glancing into the mirror he was trapped in by Candy, but I take a different stance on this in my lore, saying Candy never trapped him in the first place. The other main difference, instead of Cand/Night slaughtering the rest of the Genyrs together, Night had come to slaughter them himself to absorb their souls. After witnessing all of his people having been killed, Candy in a last-ditch effort fused his soul with Night's, trapping them together and forcing them to share a body. This might be subject to fluctuation in the future as I don't have all of his lore completely meshed out, but this is a general idea.
Hobo Heart:
Hobo's main lore could be followed by the OG for my blog if you wished, although I have one key difference in my own lore. In the original, it was C.C that ended up causing him to break free, but in my lore, it was someone else. Hobo, one night when wandering around, stumbled upon a nice old witch outside of her hut, unaffected by the aura he gave off, she was the first to ever show him kindness. She took him in where he had nowhere else to go and would help him in his tasks while teaching him things like simple spells as well. She was the one that eventually gave him the power to fight for what he truly wanted and to live his life, and upon her passing, he decided to take charge of his own fate, abandoning the tree he had served and choosing a life of his own, left only with the treasured necklace she always wore that she had left him. While traveling in the Underworld, he happened upon Slender's mansion, asking for employment, as the witch had actually informed him of "the tall man in the world of death", the one who would look out for him. Slender was happy to welcome him on as part of the crew.
Puppeteer:
Originally a boy with a normal life, he was cruising along and living the high life. For lore reasons I haven't completely fleshed out yet, he would go on to become haunted by a spirit. It began to slowly drive him insane, and he would do whatever he could to escape the spirit that kept tormenting him, leading him to end up committing suicide, however, that allowed the spirit to mesh into him, causing Puppeteer to become the poltergeist he is today, although no longer the cheerful, happy boy he was, and now the narcissistic and demanding person that the spirit possessing him used to be. While not a full possession, Pup still retains his memories from human life but finds it hard to let down his guard and allow his true self to come out. He ended up accepting a job offer from Slender as he had nothing else to do with his afterlife.
Slender:
The oldest son of the Mann family, Slender has always had high expectations on his shoulders and was the most educated, forced to follow along in his father's footsteps. In an act of teenage rebellion, Slender decided to instead take after his mother and fulfill his own life in the meantime. He founded his own assassination company as a way to further spite his father, now competing with him for the better company, founding the mansion as a place to take in employees and help them to recover from their trauma, being especially drawn to wandering, lost souls. When the time comes and his mother steps down, he will take after her and become the head grim reaper in the Underworld, in charge of harvesting and guiding souls.
Trender:
The second oldest son in the Mann family, trender was always closest to his mother who works part-time as a model and has an affinity for fashion. He always accompanied her, making many acquaintances early on in life, devoting himself to becoming a fashion designer when he grows up, and he ended up succeeding. He is a renowned stylist, respected in both the Underworld and Overworld for his designs, and he's an extremely sought after designer.
Offender:
The third born son, and the one that struggles the most. While all of his other brothers always had clear aspirations, praise, and attention placed on them by their parents, Offender often drifted around, unsure of what to do with himself. With a passion for entertaining people, he would go on to found the Underworld's most popular club and bar, although he finds it hard to feel fulfilled with this when his brothers have done so much for. He often puts himself down and wishes he could have done something better with his life.
Splendor:
The final born son, and the most surprising one. Extremely eager, bubbly, and friendly on the outside, Splendor has a dark and sinister side to himself, almost like a split personality (but not quite as it's still "him", it's just triggered by certain reactions), and he does his best to keep it hidden as he hates it and hates how it brings fear to people. Splendor travels the three worlds helping children in need and getting them the care and support that they need.
Zalgo:
Zalgo was the only son and heir to the king and queen of the Underworld. He was never allowed friends or any source of entertainment and only had studying and work to occupy his time, harshly punished by his parents if he strayed from the path they made for him. He has a deep distrust of others due to the fact that many are eager to take advantage of him due to his status as the current king of the Underworld. He has a side company, an assassination one like Slender's that he uses to occupy himself and more diplomatically wipe out the scum of the Underworld. He has a deep affinity for plants, literature, and magic, and pursues them in his free time.
