Designation
PRE01
Terms- Angular
- Ash
- The Birch King
- The Duke of Dead Trees
- The Erlking
- Fossil-Type BIRCHMAN (Topography Genera Center)
- The Jabberwock (Baker and Bellman)
- Long Limbed Man
- Old Mister Gaunt
- The Pale Prince
- Rail Thin Man
- The Rawboned Man
- The Silent Stranger
- The Skinny Bastard
- The Slender Man (sometimes Slender Man or Slenderman)
- Slendy
- STRANGER (PRE03)
- Subject Tango Whiskey Delta (The SMSC)
- The Tall Man
- The Thin Man
- The Thin White Duke
- Timor Lignum Homo (The Library)
- The Walking Willow
- Willow
- Yggdrasil
Description
PRE01 superficially resembles a Caucasian adult male wearing a black business suit and a red or gray tie. However, its facial appearance differs based on the individual viewing it, and when viewed in camera footage, it becomes apparent that PRE01 is anomalously tall and thin, as well as lacking hair and a face.
Certain accounts of PRE01 describe the author viewing its tall, thin, faceless appearance while viewing it in person, implying that when PRE01 takes on a human appearance, this is a deliberate choice rather than an inherent trait.
PRE01 may manifest black tendrils from its back. It usually manifests at least four at a time, if any. However, it is capable of manifesting enough that it becomes difficult to count how many there are. These tendrils are capable of strength the upper limit of which is unknown.
PRE01 displays a wider range of behaviors than the majority of PREs, with prey including young children, high schoolers, college students, adults, those familiar with PRE01 by reputation, those whose friends or family have had contact with PRE01, those who were targeted but not killed by PRE01 as children, and those completely unfamiliar with PRE01. Its abilities are similarly varied, including, but likely not limited to, sensory manipulation, memory manipulation, creation and control of fire, free movement throughout spacetime, and the aforementioned tendrils.
PRE01's modus operandi is inconsistent between accounts. Most sources describe it as passive in nature, watching its victims from a distance and only acting when it feels the need to make its power apparent or after having stalked the victim for some time. Others describe it as taking a more active role, gaining the trust of its victims before killing them and placing their internal organs in plastic bags or nearby trees.
PRE01 is associated with a symbol known as the Operator Symbol, a circle with an X drawn through it (represented in text as "(X)"). The purpose of this symbol is unclear, and a good deal of debate has gone into whether it acts as a ward against PRE01, a sigil which attracts its attention, a symbol of its presence and activity in the area, or a placebo with no effects in its own right. Regardless of the true purpose of this symbol, the cautious decision would be to assume the worst and avoid drawing it. The exception would be a last resort when already in an encounter with PRE01, in which case there is little risk of drawing PRE01's notice, and the possibility that the symbol does in fact repel it would mean a potential chance to survive the encounter.
PRE01 is sometimes described as gaining the trust of its victims prior to killing them, or as gathering long-term servants to stalk and attack its victims for it. Servants of PRE01 are categorized as P01A00 ("Hallowed"), P01B00 ("Berserkers"), P01C00 ("Sleepers"), and P01D00 ("Agents"). Servants of PRE01 are collectively referred to as "Proxies" or "Slenderproxies."
PRE01 servant types are distinguished from one another largely based on their degree of autonomy. P01A00 are fully under PRE01's control, though whether or not they are aware of their actions while PRE01 is controlling their bodies appears to vary from source to source. P01B00 are willing servants of PRE01 which it takes control of when necessary. P01C00 are not only unwilling servants but unwitting, believing themselves to be free from its influence but controlled into acting as its servants while asleep. P01D00 are fully autonomous, though they may have been coerced, threatened, or manipulated into becoming servants of PRE01.
Further Reading
Note that, while all Further Reading sections will inevitably be lacking at least some entries, that of PRE01 in particular is not exhaustive, owing to the sheer volume of both information and fiction pertaining to PRE01.
Scribe's Note
PRE01 is an interesting one to me. It varies strongly between accounts, as noted in the official description. Does it go after children, past victims who escaped it as children, or people who have never heard of it? Is it a passive observer or a sadistic murderer? Does it earn the trust of others in a human guise or is it a visibly monstrous figure that warps its servants' minds into submission?
It seems as though part of PRE01's power may be that it does not limit itself to a single set of behaviors. It does not target the lonely, like PRE08, or the guilty, like PRE10. It is not a being of chaos, like PRE31, or of order, like PRE09. It simply is.
