Hi all,
With Halloween next week I thought I would share something about my horror book, Mute. As the title says, I'll be discussing the designs of the wendigo.
The main antagonist of the book is a wendigo, an undead creature with extreme speed and a taste for human flesh. In Mute, there is one wendigo that the characters face up against, although it doesn't look like a traditional wendigo.
Human-like.
The wendigo in Mute is shaped like a human and has human features. Although many people depict wendigo as a large deer-like creature, I prefer the human version. Mine has ghastly pale skin which is rough and rubbery. It also has longer limbs than the average human and usually walks around on all fours.
Branches.
A lot of depiction of wendigo contain antlers, so I thought I would play on that a bit by having rotten branches instead. These branches stick out the back of the wendigo and can move independently, like limbs. They are used to impale prey and cling to high places.
Teeth.
The wendigo has a mouth full of sharp teeth, layered like shark teeth. They are small, sharp and yellowed. Some are even permanently stained with blood.
Eyes.
The wendigo has a pair of bloodshot eyes with pale irises. Unlike in some depictions, it's not blind. It can see as well as a human can, so it doesn't have better sight in darkness.
Fingers.
The fingers are long and bent into the shape of claws. Each finger has a wooden fingernail on the end, some of which are sharp and others are dull due to tearing.
Throat.
I like the concept of the wendigo being constantly hungry, no matter how much it eats. I thought I would change that idea up a bit by having an open wound in the wendigo's neck. This way, all the flesh it eats falls through the hole instead of getting consumed. This would explain why it is always killing and eating, as it can literally never fill its stomach.
Voice.
The wendigo has the power to mimic human voices, or in the case of the main character, take her voice completely.
Blood.
With the theme of rotten wood, I decided that the wendigo would bleed a sap-like substance. This only happens when it isn't pierced by a silver object, in which case real blood would be drawn.
I wanted the design to be creepy and nightmare-ish, as I find the concept of a human-like creature hunting scarier than a deer. I wanted to write about a wendigo since discovering them online and reading more about them.
That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed. See you next week!
