Creepypasta Origins

Zalgo

Zalgo is an ominous creature that appears to be horror itself, or an ultimate terror all on its own. It's believed to relate to the death of the world, along with the scourge of insanity, and unspeakable things. Most of the time, disfiguration, gore, and dismemberment go along with the creature. Mainly known as 'He who waits behind the wall', and the 'Nezperdian Hivemind', he has no reported form yet appears to have powers similar to the Slenderman (Video corruption, mind control, a virus-like sickness) however the results appear more severe and life-threatening. Many who look upon the form of Zalgo end up crazy, disfigured, or die.

Origins

On July 27th, 2004, SomethingAwful Goon Shmorky uploaded several modified versions of the syndicated comic series Nancy and Archie to his personal website, which included the word "Zalgo" in two comics in the series. From there on, the meme picked up. Shmorky himself was displeased with the spread and never continued his edits. From there on, the spread continued. Many images, and photos would become known as well as creepypasta, stories, and name drops. Shmorky himself even returned to SomethingAwful and submitted a video, which included footage from several children's animated television shows with a black tentacle creature edited in.

Something else Zalgo is known for is its use of c̗͒̇ͯ̌o̗̗̪̔̾ͧ́r̦̬̝̩ͫ͆̕ͅr̲̘͔͌ͮ̍ͩͅṵ͎ͯͧ̕p̵ͨ̎͑ͣͦ̆̔t͕̰̗ͧͯ͛̈͞ê͟d̯̲̥̈̊̽ͣͪ̎ ̞̝͔̬̙͛͋ͩ͒̃̚̕t̟͉͈̦̜͈̜̍̍̏ͧ̐̄ě̩̳̺͚̖̗̌͆x̝͙̼̰͉̗̠ͧt̪͇̣̼̹̭͗ͨ̑ in many related posts. Usually, the entire phrase above is scrambled with garbage characters.