Zalgo

Zalgo is a malevolent and mysterious entity. He is an internet legend that has inspired many Creepypasta stories, most notably the stories "He Comes" by Chris Phoenix and Zalgo invocation.

## Origin

Zalgo is the brainchild of Dave Kelly (aka "Shmorky"), a Flash animator and Something Awful "goon". It was first mentioned (but not seen) in parodies of syndicated newspaper comics on a semi-secret page on his official site.

Zalgo spread rapidly from there, with people making their edits of supposedly "Zalgo-fied" comics, writing creepypasta stories about him and continuing the lore.

Since the meme's spread, Shmorky has made several flash animations (in his own inimitable style, of course) referencing it, including ZALGO. On August 22nd, 2009, Shmorky explained the origin of Zalgo in a post on the SomethingAwful Forums:

"I like how people who try to figure out the origin of the “meme” don’t even know where it came from originally. I’ll tell you where it came from. From me. I just made it up. Zalgo is something horrible. Zalgo is something that’s coming. It’s coming soon. It has nothing to do with Lovecraft. I’m not nerdy enough to make those kind of references. Seeing it become a meme kinda killed doing further Zalgo edits in the future (for me anyway) but maybe I’ll do one when you least expect it."

According to Shmorky, Zalgo's abilities only affect comics, cartoons, and illustrations, not reality itself. This idea has drifted out of favor with more recent stories portraying Zalgo as a powerful demonic being.

## Appearance

Generally speaking, most people do not agree on what Zalgo himself actually looks like, and portrayals vary greatly. In an early image, Zalgo is depicted as a jet-skinned knight in silver armor surrounded by a corona of black lightning.

Later in the video *Zalgo Invocation*, he is described as having seven mouths speaking in six foul tongues, the seventh waiting to sing the song that will end the world, and four arms holding a dead star and a candle that sheds darkness rather than light.

He has also been described as an amorphous, eyeless being. Since Zalgo is malevolent chaos incarnate, it is possible that all of these descriptions of the character are true, as well as countless others. Despite extreme differences in portrayals, Zalgo is commonly portrayed as being red and black and having a floating head.

## Personality

Due to Zalgo being such an enigmatic figure, his true personality remains entirely unknown. It is hard to determine just what he is thinking, and what his plans are, although he is commonly seen as a cruel, sadistic, manipulative, predatory, misanthropic demon who only seems to torment humans just because he despises them.

## Powers and Abilities

Zalgo appears to have abilities similar to Slender Man (video corruption, mind control, a virus-like sickness, etc.) though the results appear more severe and life-threatening. Many who look upon Zalgo end up crazy, disfigured, or even dead.

## Facts

* Zalgo was created by Dave Kelly (aka "Shmorky").
* Zalgo mainly focuses on trying to destroy the multiverse.
* His speech is glitched/scrambled.
* Zalgo has several (human) followers, which use scrambled text to represent him.
* Zalgo has no consistent form.
* He is believed to relate to the death of the world, along with insanity, and unspeakable things. Most of the time disfiguration, gore, and dismemberment go along with the creature. Many who look upon him go insane.
* Zalgo is featured in the Creepypasta comic series, *"I Eat Pasta For Breakfast"*, and is portrayed to be Lazari's biological father.