Little Nightmares - Resident Headcanons
The Residents are Tulpas, thought-form entities, and The Nowhere is the world of the subconscious, parallel to Earth in the physical realm.
The reason they are so hostile towards human children is because their race was corrupted by the cruelty and hubris of humans throughout the centuries. The Residents/Tulpas and humans are connected to eachother, so if humans are assholes, so are they. So basically all the kids getting kidnapped by Nowhere are all the parents and adults fault. HAHAHAHAHA
“If the world doesn't change…The Nowhere won’t either.”
The Residents mostly have the mentality and awareness of animals, as they often move in herds and attack when they are hungry and/or threatened.
While most Residents/Tulpas are violent, some are docile and maintain some human capacity, and only attack when threatened. Just like how a lot of people in our world are kindhearted and well intentioning, but can lash out if pushed to far.
Residents/Tulpas are super racist towards humans, considering themselves as a more superior race. While humans are constantly at war and infighting, their system is more orderly, if somewhat flawed. And while they too kill innocents, Residents only do so out of necessarily survival then for the sake of cruelty, while they also grief humans about.
Some Residents/Tulpas have normal human names, like how the Janitor is canonically named Roger. Though most have them have werid sounding cosmic like names.
Some Residents are born with powerful abilities, like hanging on the walls, emulating a blinding light, teleport, turning humans into nomes etc. The most common ability is shape shifting though. However a lot of Residents are not good at it, and can only shape shift certain parts of their bodies, like how The Teacher is able to extend her neck and The Supervisor is able to turn her lower half into a spider body.
When a Resident dies, their body is eaten. Residents don’t give a crap about cannibalism, it’s honestly not that big of a deal to them. They do it both out of survival, and as a tradition of returning the person to the womb or the body or something. They prefer this then burying or cremating the body as a means to prevent further pollution to their world.
Types of Residents/Tulpa Species
NetuMorh: Residents who are naturally born through child birth like humans are, these types of Residents are the most common, nowadays, populating around 80% of The Nowhere.
Thought-Form: Residents who are born through an idea and/or imagination. The person imagining then can decide their appearance and personality, most of them do not resemble their fellow Residents. They can be brought to life through objects, drawing, and even the idea itself. Thought-Forms include Alone, The North Wind, the porcelain children and the carnival dummies. (Also, Slender Man counts because I said so. He is a LEGEND in The Nowhere for all the children he kidnapped.)
No-Man: Humans who become Residents after giving up their humanity and innocence to the Nowhere. No-Mans grow to the size of normal Residents as they grow up, though maintain most of their human appearance. No-Man children still have the same size and appearance of human children, but grow in size drastically when they grow up. No-Man is both disrespected and feared, due to originally being human, and because most No-Mans become powerful monarchs in The Nowhere. No-Man also are gifted with powerful and deadly magic These include, The Lady, The Thin Man, The Pretender and her parents.