Aldreinus
Legend: Aldreinus was a sinister alp. An alp (also alb and Eeb) is old Germanic folklore, the more modern English version of the word is elf. Interestingly, there are many kinds of alps. Some were harmless and some were not. Aldreinus falls into the most harmful category. These alps are similar to the nightmare or pressure demons from many cultures. (old hag, incubi, mære, knashbari etc.) Aldreinus is ancient and powerful. He was filled with power and dark magic from claiming so many victims. The cost was that he became more shadow and rotten sludge than human. His particular form of Alp is sometimes called shadow-wanderer. (Beowulf may have been referring to these creatures calling them sceadugenga, which translates roughly to shadow-wanderer.)
Shadow-wanderers were known to shapeshift, and have been seen in many forms. They were thought to have once been human, yet, for various reasons, they give up their humanity for a longer life, magic, and power. Unlike vampires, these creatures feast on fear, hate, contention, etc. Their victims are plagued with nightmares and sometimes go mad. Often soldiers, especially those who were in the trenches for extended periods, were thought to be victims of shadow-wanders, seeing them in the trenches and then the persistent nightmares and flashbacks after the war. The shadow-wanderers were said to cling to their victims, following them from place to place until their victims were dead. Their favorite thing to do is to drive people mad and feast on the chaos of madness.
Shadow-wanderers are said to have sophisticated magic that helps them shapeshift from a dark oozing state into whatever suits them as long as they have the right hat, clothing, fur, etc., and as long as it is dark. They are said to lure victims to them posing as a high-ranking officer, a handsome hatted stranger, or a friendly animal. Shadow-wanderers are said to live in a dimension outside of our world. They travel to our world to feast. Occasionally, people have entered their worlds. It never ends well for people who enter a shadow world. To travel between worlds, a door must be created. To create a door shadow-wanderers use part of their inky ooze to mark an object in our world. His mark takes on many different forms, but each has similar pieces. It is unknown why the mark varies. We have wondered if all of the powerful shadow-wanderers can create these doors. Shadow-wanderers hate light and crowds. Their victims are always alone and in partial or total darkness. Often a bell is heard as they go between worlds.
We have discovered variations of the mark of Aldreinus or perhaps another shadow-wanderer’s mark on a wall of the mill, a wall in the granary, on a glass button we found inside the mill, and recently a small smashed bell discovered in 2024 on the mill grounds. We have removed the mark on all items. There is also a picture of the granary with a shadowy man inked onto it, but no mark. We do not know why this artwork was created or who the man is supposed to be. The grandchildren of the mill told the owners it was Slenderman when the legend became popular. At the time, we found these shadowy men in other cultures and thought they were variations of Slenderman. We went with this theory, until finding out about Aldreinus and shadow-wanderers.
Note: Modern science calls this phenomenon sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is when you wake up during REM sleep. In REM sleep your muscles are temporarily paralyzed. This leads to intense fear in the person when they wake without the ability to use any part of their body. In this state, people are also prone to intruder or pressure hallucinations. Even though science has attempted to explain this phenomenon, the monsters people see in this state are similar across all world cultures, even though their cultures are not similar. Furthermore, science can explain the paralysis, but not the hallucinations. They have attempted to say the pressure on the chest and the image hallucinations are an anxiety response, but they admit the actual reason is unknown.