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its-rat-time-babey · 2 years

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So Hunter was researching grimwalkers in the newest episode and I got some Headcanons for what he found, along with grimwalkers in general.

In Hunter’s junk pile we can see three books:

Grimwalkers Extinction

The Legend Of Grimwalkers

Grim Walkers

Those are all the books that Hunter could find about Grimwalkers, and none of them are very useful.

The thing is, Grimwalkers as a concept are so old that by the deadwardian era, only one book containing the actual instructions to make one existed, and Philip found it and still has it in his possession now. During the deadwardian era Grimwalkers were so unheard of that they were basically just stories told around campfires and old wives tales.

However, Grimwalkers WERE a commonly talked about thing about a hundred years before the deadwardian era, even though only one or two Grimwalkers actually existed during that entire century. Back then Grimwalkers were not only considered real, but were feared.

One hundred years before the deadwardian era, Grimwalkers were to witches what witches were to seventeenth century humans. Considered powerful, unholy and dangerous things that were to be hunted down immediately if seen. The boiling isles even had it’s own version of the Salem Witch Trials called the Grim Trials, which was basically just the Salem Witch Trials but with people being accused of being Grimwalkers instead of witches.

The boiling isles even had its own ways of testing if someone was a Grimwalker. They’d either wait for it to rain or go to the boiling sea and stick the accused person in the boiling water. If they were unharmed by it, they were a Grimwalker because Grimwalkers are immune to heat and fire. If they were harmed by it, they were fine but would probably die anyways from the boiling water.

Out of the three books about Grimwalkers that Hunter found, two of them are just collections of old stories from about Grimwalkers and one of them is an old fiction book.

Grim Walkers is a collections of old stories from before and during the deadwardian era about Grimwalkers, mostly horror stories meant to be told around a campfire. The Grimwalkers in Grim Walkers are all depicted as a sort of undead creature created by other witches for one purpose or another that eventually kills their creator to begin preying on other witches, with it either being shown or heavily implied.

The Grimwalkers in Grim Walkers (and every other work of fiction about Grimwalkers) are consistently portrayed as bloodthirsty monsters that must kill and eat the flesh of the living so they themselves can live. Despite that, Grimwalkers are also depicted as very intelligent and more than capable of making complex plans and blending in with witches, just as long as they’re fed. In reality, Grimwalkers are just as intelligent as any witch and don’t need to constantly consume the flesh of the living to stay alive, so the beliefs that Grimwalkers are bloodthirsty monsters are just old superstitions from one hundred years before the deadwardian era, back when the very idea of Grimwalkers was considered terrifying.

Grimwalkers in fiction are also always shown to have powers that real Grimwalkers like Hunter don’t have, mainly the ability to shapeshift into other witches, especially the recently deceased. Actually, only the recently deceased, as a common “weakness” of Grimwalkers was that they supposedly could only become witches that were already dead.

The belief that Grimwalkers can shapeshift comes from the fact that one hundred years before the deadwardian era, basilisks were still around, but were critically endangered and needed to turn into witches and blend into city environments to avoid being hunted. Eventually one would end up making themselves look like a witch that was already dead, either by accident or on purpose, and townsfolk would attack them believing that they were a Grimwalker.

Just because the facts about Grimwalkers in the books are all mostly wrong doesn’t mean that they’re useless though. A small amount of the information in the books are real or close to being real. For some examples;

Grimwalkers in fiction are immune to the boiling rain and so are real ones like Hunter

Grimwalkers in fiction can’t use spell circles and neither can Hunter

Grimwalkers in fiction all resemble a long dead witch because a bone of orlet must be used in their creation and so do real ones like Hunter.

Grimwalkers always have red eyes, regardless of what whatever eye colour that the source of their bone of orlet had. Hunter is no exception.

There is useful information in these books, but it needs to be separated from all the misinformation and superstitions.

Grimwalkers Extinction is a fiction book made around the end of the deadwardian era. It’s considered classic literature by people that have read it, but it’s not well known enough for many people to know about it. The book follows a demon hunter trying to hunt down a Grimwalker as the Grimwalker keeps evading them by turning into other people while trying to hunt the demon hunter.

The Grimwalker in Grimwalkers Extinction is nearly identical to the Grimwalkers depicted in Grim Walkers. A bloodthirsty and intelligent monster that consumes the flesh of the living and turns itself into dead witches to accomplish its goals.

The Legend Of Grimwalkers is the most recent book of the three, being made just under a hundred years ago. It’s another collection of stories about Grimwalkers.

When The Legend Of Grimwalkers was written, Belos practically had the entire boiling isles following his titan based religion, but hadn’t become the emperor yet. Because Titanisum was so popular and new for some people at the time, Titanisum had quite a bit more…. ..fanatical supporters then it has now, who were quick to demonize and destroy anything that was considered a form of wild magic. (Fun fact: those fanatical supporters later became the first members of the emperor’s coven) Including stories that appeared to promote wild magic. And the stories about Grimwalkers became targets.

First of all, the creation of Grimwalkers was already considered a horrible crime before Titanisum showed up, so Titanisum didn’t really change anything there, but Grimwalkers themselves quickly became viewed as a perfect example of the dangers of wild magic.

The Grimwalkers in The Legend Of Grimwalkers are depicted as undead monsters that are created by wild witches by mixing magic along with preforming unholy rituals. They’re still portrayed as bloodthirsty monsters, but the witchlike intelligence that Grimwalkers were once depicted with is gone. They also always end up killing the wild witches that created them.

Interestingly enough, Grimwalkers in The Legend Of Grimwalkers are also shown consuming palismen when living meat is scarce, a characteristic that may have come from the author of the book seeing a certain 17th century witch hunter devouring a palisman like a Big Mac in the middle of the woods at night, before disappearing before the author could figure out what the hell they just saw. So the author went “holy shit that was a Grimwalker” and decided to write a book about them.

Grimwalkers always need to be created in a specific way with specific materials, and the books make many references to how Grimwalkers are made, but all of them are slightly different and none of them are correct. Only Belos knows how to make an actual Grimwalker.

The parts of a Grimwalker can be divided into five categories:

Skin

Power source

Bones

Organs

Bone of orlet

A real Grimwalker uses these ingredients:

Skin: Selkidomus Scales

Power source: Gladorstone

Bones: Palistrom Wood

Organs: Stonesleeper Lungs

Bone of orlet.

Use anything else and you’ll just end up with a really fucked up statue.

Grimwalkers in fiction use these ingredients:

Skin: Basilisk Scales, Witch Skin, Selkidomus Scales, Slitherbeast Fur or Leather made from certain demons.

Power source: The Red Crystals that Belos and Hunter use in their staffs, titan’s blood, Selkidomus Hearts, Witch hearts, Demon hearts or a Witch’s heart that’s been dipped in titan’s blood. Gladorstones are never mentioned.

Bones: Palistrom Wood, Sticks or the bones of other witches.

Organs: Name any organ from any creature and it is most likely on this list. Except, ironically enough, stonesleeper lungs.

Bone of orlet. The only consistent detail of the creation process. The bone of orlet is mentioned every time without fail.

Grimwalkers in fiction are also depicted with fast heartbeats that get faster when the Grimwalker is warm, but slower when the Grimwalker is cold. Real Grimwalkers don’t have heartbeats at all because they don’t have hearts, but instead have a gladorstone in its place. Interestingly enough, while that description of “fast heartbeat when warm, slow heartbeat when cold” doesn’t fit Grimwalkers, it does fit basilisks, which are a cold blooded species.

Basilisks used to be constantly confused for Grimwalkers one hundred years before the deadwardian era.

Another thing about Fictional Grimwalkers is that they’re commonly depicted with no emotion whatsoever. Completely unable to feel or express emotions. Probably because someone didn’t realize that when people say “Grimwalkers have a heart of stone”, they’re speaking literally. Real Grimwalkers are fully capable of emotion.

#owl house #the owl house #headcanons #hunter wittebane #grimwalkers #I don’t know I just like the idea of Hunter being a creature that is so rare and so not well known that all the information that’s left #is just old campfire tales #he’s the least well known crypid on the boiling isles #I bet Eda’s crypid book has a small passage on Grimwalkers #but it would just be the made up version that’s always chaotic evil

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