| “ | As I was going up the stair, I was a man who wasn’t there. I wasn’t there again today. Oh, how I wish I’d go away. |
„ |
| ~ The Unkown Figure twisting Antigonish to explain their existence. |
The Unknown Figure is a minor character in the Rusty Quill horror podcast The Magnus Archives, serving as the protagonist of Mag 85: Upon the Stair. He was an initially normal person who had an encounter with a man who apparently "did not exist" on a supernatural staircase, and the two ended up switching places. As the Unknown Figure began to stop existing, he began to take people up the staircase in the hopes of switching places with them, frequently killing them in the process.
Personality[]
By his own account, the Unknown Figure was a perfectly normal person before his encounter with the man upon the stair, which broke their mind. He seemed to develop a sort of obsession with the man and couldn't deal with his lack of existence, to the point of insanity.
The Unknown Figure had not power to wrap his head around his lack of existence when he stopped existing, living perpetually horrified by his state, but seemingly accepting it readily. He lost any and all personality traits he had had before, and began to lose attachments to humanity just as much as everything else began to lose attachments to them, no longer feeling anything. Despite this, he tried in small, superficial ways to remain connected to reality, and sought above all things to exist again.
Biography[]
According to him, the Unknown Figure at some point had a family, although something may have happened to them, leaving the Figure living on his own.
One night, the Unknown Figure awoke to get some water in the downstairs of his house. He came down the stairs, but when he returned to go back to bed, he found the stairs blocked by a man who didn't exist. They began to climb the stairs, which turned into a spiral staircase that wasn't actually in the house, and the man stayed three steps ahead of them the entire time.
The Unknown Figure awoke the next morning to find the man and the stairs gone. They remained gone for several days, until the Figure yelled for them in anger, wanting them to appear and then to leave forever. Somehow, this outburst triggered a switch, allowing the man to begin to exist again after being acknowledged and stopping the Figure from existing. This was a gradual process, and the Figure existed less and less while the man existed more and more.
One night, the Figure had his parents over for dinner, but all their conversations died, and his parents could not remember he was their son and then couldn't remember they had a son. The Figure tried to bring his father up the stairs, hoping to trigger the switch and exist again, but killed the old man in the process, achieving nothing. His mother left, presumably with his father's corpse.
The Unknown Figure watched the man who wasn't there come into reality again, only to realize he had died a long time ago and scream as his body decayed. It did not help the Unknown Figure, who continued to force people up the stairs, only for them to die without switching places with him. He eventually came back into reality enough to possess Eric Delano and force him to right down the story as a statement to the paranormal investigative organization known as the Magnus Institute.
Powers and Abilities[]
After he stopped existing, the Unknown Figure stopped being able to interact with reality in a traditional sense. However, he gained the ability to warp reality, creating a supernaturally long staircase, and was able to control people's minds.
Quotes[]
| “ | I didn’t meet him on the staircase as well. The carpet didn’t bend under the weight of his soft, round body, and I distinctly recall the absence of a creak as his foot pressed on the loose board of the empty fifth step. He laughed, but there was no humor it, because… then it would have had to break the silence. In the poem, I had always imagined a translucent figure, absent in life and body, but visible. But I couldn’t see this man. Obviously I couldn’t. I couldn’t see him or hear him or speak to him. Because… there was nobody there. The staircase was empty, as he stretched his arm to gesture me closer. | „ |
| ~ The Unknown Figure describing his first encounter with the Man Who Was Not There. |
| “ | My father said nothing, as I had taken him up the stairs an hour before, and he now lay dead in his chair, his heart unsuited for the expedition. He had sworn at me as he tried to climb them to the top, telling me I was no son of his, and I was trying to agree with him, but if I could have done so, then he would have been wrong. Eventually, after almost an hour descending the spiral, he keeled over in his seat and lay lifeless. My mother got abruptly to her feet, and told my father that they were leaving. My father got to his feet, and silently followed her out. I never saw either of them again. | „ |
| ~ The Unknown Figure describing him killing his father. |
| “ | I haven’t been here for a long time now. Time is difficult. I try to take people up the staircase. Sometimes they make it, sometimes they do not. None of them have called out to me, though. Not like I once called out to an empty house. Most staircases are easy for me to not be on, but this one here took effort. I tried to be just real enough to talk to you. I wanted to share. I, I don’t want to take you up the spiral staircase, so you should try to leave. I don’t want to, but it’s my nature now, and you can’t fight what you are. Or even what you aren’t. | „ |
| ~ The Unknown Figure ending his statement to the Magnus Institute. |
Trivia[]
- The Unknown Figure was strongly implied to be an avatar of or a least touched by the Spiral.
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The Dread Powers and Their Servitors The Library of Jurgen Leightner Others The Magnus Protocol | ||
