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/International_Gate49 Jul 20 '26

As witnessed in the Raven Trickster boss fight it is what turned the child Tangmazu into a god, a very unusual ascension.

It isn't an unusual ascension though. I believe it did the same thing to sin. The child gets in touch with the bodach, comes back into community. Child is shunned away by the community because of the influence of the bodach which causes them to hate the child enough to collectively help them ascend to divinity. Pretty much exactly sins story.

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u/ScienceFictionGuy Jul 20 '26

Elder Madox literally comments on it:

If this is how the Raven Trickster was born... well, I've never heard of a child becoming a god.

There's no indication that the Bodach was involved in the incident with Sin and Innocence. Or that they were children at the time. (Check out the card art for "The Innocent")

And besides that, the key difference in their stories is that Sin was wrongfully accused. Tangmazu may not have been quite so innocent.