The Stranger

The Stranger

A creature that appears unexpectedly and can take on arbitrary material properties.
Reference Sheet

by Kathrin Janowski

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

While the Stranger mostly appears with a lean, muscular body, he is also seen in pudgier forms from time to time. His health is hard to judge because of his body's tendency to shift between materials and textures.

Identifying Characteristics

Some features remain rather similar across all accounts. The Stranger usually stands on two digitigrade legs with three toes and a blunt spur on either heel. He tends to have three tail-like tentacles on his back and two short, blunt horns on the back of his head. Most of the time, he has two eyes that are located on the sides of his head, but no visible mouth.

Special abilities

Changing Material and Texture

His most striking aspect is that he often appears to be made of materials other than flesh and bone. For example, he has been described as a living sculpture made of wood, stone, or metal, as well as an inexplicably coherent shape of water or smoke.
Sometimes his skin (for want of a better word) is completely smooth while on other occasions it is covered in scales. Occasionally he is overgrown with fur, crystals, vines, or what appears to be objects from his surroundings.

Changing Body Features

In some rare instances, the structure of his body changes as well. He has been reported to have four tentacles on his back instead of three, or to possess a long, lizard-like tail. While he shows no mouth most of the time, he was once seen with an animal-like maw of pointy teeth. Several accounts mention a weird grin that curved up in front of and above his eyes.

Appearing and Disappearing

While the Stranger is known to walk on his legs or float through the air, he mostly appears in a location without any indication of how he got there. He is known to randomly show up while people look elsewhere, even in locked rooms. After a while, he disappears in the same manner, being gone after somebody turned their back on him.

Mental characteristics

Gender Identity

Nobody knows to what extend "sex" and "gender" apply to the Stranger in the first place. Nevertheless, most people who encounter this creature agree that they perceive it as male without being unable to explain why. Some witnesses report addressing him as "boy" or using similar male terms and believe that he responded positively to them. But given how difficult it is to communicate with the Stranger, these accounts should be taken with a grain of salt.

Morality & Philosophy

Very little is known about the Stranger's personal beliefs, but what is known indicates that he is a benign creature.
Most reports describe him as curious but mostly passive. Although people are often startled by his sudden and unexpected presence, he is not known to actively harm living beings. A few claims to the contrary do exist, but they usually turn out to be rooted in prejudice or ulterior motives such as shifting blame away from oneself.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

His penchant for shifting between materials hints at a love for experimenting and exploring. He is often seen near craftspeople or artists, appearing very interested in what they are doing and what materials they are using.

Personality Quirks

When people offer him food, he usually ignores the actual food and starts nibbling on the bowl or cutlery instead.

Social

Family Ties

The biggest question regarding the Stranger is whether this is one individual or different members of the same species. His appearance is known to change wildly during single visits, which would make it impossible to identify a single specimen in the latter case.
There are no confirmed reports of more than one Stranger in the same location together. Sometimes his presence is reported in locations that are so far removed from each other that it appears impossible to travel between them in the available time. However, since nothing is known about how he can suddenly appear and disappear, it cannot be ruled out that this is the same creature teleporting across long distances.

Mannerisms

The Stranger communicates mostly with body language. For example, he tilts his head in what seems to indicate curiosity, or leans away when confronted with something unpleasant.
Occasionally, he emits indistinct sounds with a similar tone as the speech that a person would utter in that context.
Some scholars propose that these behaviors are not natural for him, but rather learned from the species he encountered. This theory is rooted in ancient texts that describe him as rather expressionless and detached from his surroundings.

Age

unknown

Pronouns

he/him

Sex

unknown

Gender

man

Eyes

unpredictable

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

unpredictable

Height

unpredictable

Weight

unpredictable

Art

by Kathrin Janowski

by Kathrin Janowski

by Kathrin Janowski

by Kathrin Janowski