Wendigo (creature)

Wendigos are a type of supernatural creatures, whose name means "evil that devours".

Characteristics
Wendigos were once humans, but after being forced to eat human flesh to survive, they become supernatural monsters that retain little human features in common. After doing so, they crave human flesh, and appear to not have a greater intelligence than when they were complete humans.

At the same time, Wendigos are embodiments of gluttony, greed, and excess; never satisfied after killing and consuming one person, they are constantly searching for new victims. It is also common that wendigos just capture humans to hoard their food, and then eat when hungry.

Wendigos are rarely seen out of Minnesota or the north of Michigan. They are hundreds of years old, and they also have hibernation behaviour during the long, cold winters they must survive--meaning they must hoard food if it scarces. In addition, they keep their victims in dark and fresh, safe places, such as caves.

Appearance
Wendigoes are gigantic spirits, over fifteen feet tall, lanky and with glowing eyes, long yellowed fangs, terrible claws and overly long tongues.

Powers and Abilities
Wendigos are excellent hunters, either during the day or at night. There are few possibilities to defeat a wendigo during the day, but it is almost impossible to defeat them at night, since it is their favorite period to hunt.


 * Imitate Voices - they can imitate the voices of humans to lure unsuspecting victims


 * Superspeed- they possess unhuman speed, enough to move in three seconds from a place to another


 * Superhuman Strength - they can carry two people with ease


 * Superhuan Agility - they can jump from tree to tree with no problem


 * Invunrablility - They are invulnerable to normal knives and guns (though they will piss them off).

Vulnerabilities
As they are unable to be killed by common weapons like knives and guns, this make wendigos dangerous foes. However, hunters can protect themselves from Wendigos by creating protective circles with Anasazi symbols. The most common way to kill a wendigo is burning them to death, or using a special-made weapon, like The Colt, that can kill almost anything.

Early History
A creature that was once human but was transformed into an immortal evil spirit when it took up the practice of cannibalism. Wendigoes are cursed to wander the land, eternally seeking to fulfil their voracious appetite for human flesh.

Various Native American tribes tell slightly different stories about this creature and refer to it by different names, Wendigo, Witigo , Witiko and Wee-Tee-Go, but each version roughly translates to mean the evil spirit that devours mankind. Around 1860, a German explorer translated Wendigo as cannibal.

Season 1
While trying to find their father, John Winchester, Sam and Dean help a family whose brother has gone missing on a camping trip. He has been taken by a Wendigo, but they find him alive in a cavern where the Wendigo stores its victims as living food sources. Dean kills the creature by shooting it with a flare gun.

Season 6
Sam finds a mask of a Wendigo in the trunk of the Impala. Dean tells him that he helped Ben Braeden make it for Halloween, and Sam admits that it is a good likeness.

A Wendigo is mentioned being in New Mexico by the Demon Ellsworth to be captured by and brought in so Crowley can question it.

Lore
The Wendigo (also known as Windigo, Weendigo, Windago, Waindigo, Windiga,Witiko, Wihtikow, and numerous other variants) is a mythical creature appearing in the mythology of the Algonquian people. It is a malevolent cannibalistic spirit into which humans could transform, or which could possess humans. Those who indulged in cannibalism were at particular risk, and the legend appears to have reinforced this practice as a taboo.

Wendigo psychosis is the name conventionally given to a culture-bound disorder which involved an intense craving for human flesh and the fear that the sufferer would turn into a cannibal. This once occurred frequently among Algonquian Native cultures, but has declined due to the Native American urbanization.

Trivia

 * The Wendigo, as depicted in the series, resembles Basil Johnston's description of how Wendigos were viewed:

The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody [....] Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odour of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.