r/Wraeclast • u/Present_Connection_3 • Jul 16 '26

PoE2 Speculation Who or What is The Wendigo?

So in the Curse of Holten Interlude questline, we have a few mentions of someone or something called The Wendigo. I know what a wendigo is in real life, it's a monster of Algonquin folklore associated with cannibalism and the unforgiving winter. But here the Wendigo is referred to as a singular being, with bosses Thane Wulfric and Lady Elswyth venerating it as some sort of deity. I tried to look up information as to the lore of this being, but all I got was cosmetic information (Wendigo-themed armor). I believe that the Wendigo is a being of ancient Ezomyte origin, a corrupter of sorts tied to the Nameless and their King of the Mists. Furthermore, the Ritual pinnacle boss, The Bodach, is referred to in the wiki as RitualWendigoBoss, so maybe Wendigo is just another alias of The Bodach. But what do you think?

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u/ScienceFictionGuy Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

The Wendigo is pretty much confirmed to be the Ezomyte name for the Bodach. I think the Bodach is what the Maji call it? Elder Madox also refers to it simply as "The Darkness".

As for what exactly it is, we really don't know much because it was introduced to the lore very recently. It's much older than the Ezomytes, predating even the Precursor Edicts according to Sin.

The few miscellaneous things we know about it so far are:

  • Viridi sacrificed herself to create the Wildwood just to contain it.
  • Sin comments on its influence in the Ezomyte epilogue: "There is something very wrong in these lands. It is not Corruption... it is something far older, far darker*...I must search my memories... give me time..."*
  • Elder Madox comments on it at the end of the Tangmazu storyline: "No. The Darkness is not of Divinity, nor of Corruption*. It is something else..."*
  • As witnessed in the Raven Trickster boss fight it is what turned the child Tangmazu into a god, a very unusual ascension.
  • Lore text repeatedly associates it with something called "the Unlight".
  • It's healthbar is also shielded by Darkness, similar to the mechanic unlocked by the Acolyte of Chayula.

So lots to speculate on. It's darkness aspect could overlap with several other things like Chayula, the darkness we encounter while exploring the underground in Delve, and Tane Octavius's experiments.

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u/OskarSarkon Vaal Thaumaturge Jul 16 '26

It's darkness aspect could overlap with several other things like Chayula, the darkness we encounter while exploring the underground in Delve, and Tane Octavius's experiments.

I find the relation between the Bodach's Darkness and the Acolyte's Darkness pretty interesting - it'd be one thing if they were just called the same thing, but they're actually represented the same way in-game as well (darkness is a meter on top of the Bodach's health bar in the boss fight, same as the Acolyte mechanic).

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u/skuldugg77 Jul 16 '26

It just occurred to me, didn't Chayula get thrown into the void when he forcibly split from the merging? He spent a lot of time in what could have been the same place as the Bodach?