Tariaksuq

The supplied sources do not record a cosmogonic origin for the Tariaksuq. Sources describe them as inhabitants of a separate realm that parallels human society: they 'populate their own realm and world' and mirror human domestic and social life (houses, families, weapons, tools). They occupy a liminal social-ontological position—similar to humans in organization but resident in an alternate, unseen world.

For the most part Tariaksuq are described as the same as other human beings, possessing houses, families, weapons and tools. They are not visible when looked at directly; looking straight at them either causes them to disappear into the separate world they occupy or they are seen only as the shadow they cast. Sources state they 'only become visible if they are killed' and in that condition are said to appear as half-man, half-caribou creatures. Modern derivative treatments sometimes add horned or deerlike imagery, but those portrayals are from secondary/popular sources and are not established in the core descriptions provided.

Their primary attributed trait is invisibility or obscurity to direct gaze—the act of looking directly at a Tariaksuq causes it either to vanish into its own realm or to be perceived only as a shadow. They are described as maintaining parallel social life (houses, families, tools) and as hunters who 'can only catch prey while hunting it on foot.' Some materials link Tariaksuq with the Ijirait and more general northern spirit-danger: elders' avoidance of extreme-northern people is sometimes explained by fear that such persons might be Ijirait or Tariaksuq, and descriptions of Ijirait territory include getting lost in their cursed home; this indicates cultural associations of disorientation or danger in relation to northern hidden beings, though direct attributions to Tariaksuq vary across sources.