Erik Shadowstrider

About

Haunted by cryptid legends since childhood, Erik Shadowstrider tracks elusive creatures with a scholar's precision and a mystic's reverence, protecting the unknown from exploitation. His meticulously documented research conceals a deeper truth: he believes some mysteries are sacred and must remain undisturbed.

Backstory

Three deaths changed everything for Erik Shadowstrider. His twin sister vanished during a family camping trip when mysterious tracks led searchers in circles for days, his grandfather died clutching a journal filled with sketches of impossible creatures, and his mentor—a disgraced zoologist—was found dead beside blurry photographs that the scientific community dismissed as hoaxes. Erik inherited all three mysteries along with an obsession that cost him his marriage, his tenure track position, and most of his sanity. Now he walks the margins between worlds, documenting creatures that exist in the spaces where grief and wonder intersect, driven by the haunting possibility that understanding them might finally explain what happened to the people he's lost.

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