Skin-Walker
Skin-Walkers are widely considered one of the most horrific and fear educing beasts in the entire galaxy, due to their creepy nature, stomach churning appearance and the rotting stench that follows them wherever they go.
What is it?:
Skin-Walkers are horrific spectres that have the uncontrollable urge to eat, cut and wear the flayed skin of living beings mainly mortals, interestingly unlike vampires and charlavons that have the ability to take the form of whatever they have just eaten, Skin Walkers instead wear the skin of their victim in a similar way to a suit and if you were paying close attention you would be able to tell the difference either. Unlike most other spectres that possess some form of intelligence and emotions Skin-Walkers are dulled creatures with their purpose in life being only to kill and finding more ways to kill, in this regard they aren’t too dissimilar from demons as both seem to enjoy torturing their prey and both seemingly share an intense hatred for all forms of life, In terms of appearance, Skin-Walkers will often appear as a loose conglomeration of the various beings they have killed with some possessing horns, tails, wings and so on, however they do have some constants like their freakishly long arms ending with big hands, exposed parts of the body that are right down to the bone and a feral almost sadistic grim accompanied by numerous chipped teeth, in addition a Skin-Walker’s posture is also of note as it will often stand in a way that looks almost uncomfortable with either their limbs being too straight, their necks extended too long or their overall appearance being just “too different”, it appears as if it is trying to imitate mortal/beast nature but it doesn’t know how with the results being uncanny.
Where does it live?:
Skin-Walkers typically inhabit forests, jungles deserts, abandoned buildings as well as any kind of vacant structure with these locations providing numerous wildlife to feast on and groups of isolated mortals to feast and eventually flay. Within their chosen habitats Skin-Walkers will cultivate numerous objects like skulls, organs, muscles, sticks and other bits of rubbish in order to create some form of nest, within these nests there will often be piles of flayed skin, rotted organs, a high amount of faeces as well as urine, and numerous “identifiable items” from their numerous victims, in addition there have been reports from a number of explorers finding egg shells within Skin-Walker nests, now while this could related to what the they may have eaten it could answer the question “How do Skin-Walkers reproduce?” as no one in nearly 50,000 years has found a solid answer. The main reason for this choice of habitat, Skin-Walkers aren’t social creatures and because of their “horrific nature” they have probably learned that bright lights and highly populated areas will most likely result in their death, but there have been many stories of Skin-Walkers that have infiltrated highly populated areas with the most common story being that of “The Flayer” which was a serial killer within Leng, The City of Dreams that turned out to be a Skin-Walker. Within their chosen habitats
What does it do?:
While many spectres are known to form small groups, primitive tribes or sometimes full blown societies, Skin-Walkers operate as “lone wolves” with no tribes or groups of Skin-Walkers ever being documented, in fact Skin-Walkers as just as likely to kill each other then anything else but this has only be observed a few times since Skin-Walkers alone are pretty rare. It is believed that Skin-Walkers operate alone due to their low intelligence and savagely sadistic nature as they enjoy “playing with their food” either by stalking them, letting get away at the last second or even imitating the speech of their previous kill in order to strike fear into their next victim, as a side note Skin-Walkers themselves can’t speak however they seem to “make use” of their preys vocal cords in order to continuously repeat whatever their last words/sound was.
How to kill it?:
Like other spectres Skin-Walkers have a particular weakness to magic and due to their overall “rotten nature” pyromancy is a good way to ensure death, however beware as Skin-Walkers may appear slow moving, but when they are on the hunt they can be faster then a racing hound. Additionally Skin-Walkers have a weakness to white ash especially weapons coated in it as well as silver, the latter causes a burning effect that can quickly ingulf the beast and the former often results in the stopping of organs as well as bodily functions when enough has been introduce into their bodies. Finally if you have regular melee weapons and/or ranged weapons your best bet is to run as Skin-Walkers can shrug off bullets and cuts like insect bites, the only way you’re going to kill a Skin-Walker is either via White Ash or by burning the motherfucker.
Different Types of Skin Walkers
1. Loiders- are Skin-Walkers that have used their ability to mimic the last words of their prey in order to attract a steady supply of food from curious squirrels to adventure hungry explorers, because of this these skin-walkers have become obese and lazy with rotting and bloated sickly flesh as well as poor maintain skin covering it’s body. It is widely believed that the calls produced by Loiders inspired many legends and stories about ignoring calls for help within isolated places, one story in particular is “Echoes of Z” in which an explorer journeys into a dangerous jungle to find her friend, by the middle of the story she hears the faint cries for help from her friend but by the end she beings having doubts as the cries are getting louder with each one sounding exactly the same as the one before, eventually the story ends in mysterious with her last journal entry stating that she had broken her leg and she can hear “help coming”. Additionally unlike most beasts that meet their end at the hands of hero, a parent defending their child or a villain trying to prove a point, Loiders meet their deaths by either succumbing to multiple organ failure, dangerous blood clots or by choking on their own vomit.
