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I'm the one who runs,
The one who hunts,
The one who kills,
The one who destroys,

In verity I am an oxymoron,
The one who erases memories,
Yet remembers every detail,
The one who is black,
But has a twin who is white,

Who / what am I?

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  • $\begingroup$ My guess would be Cygnus (since it is a black hole named after a demigod in Greek mythology), but not all the clues fit directly (the one who runs does not seem to fit). But black holes destroy, kill, swallow information/memory (effectively erasing it from the universe, but possibly the information keeps on living inside the black hole, just unable to escape). And white hole, though not a real thing, is also a thing. $\endgroup$
    – TStancek
    Oct 3, 2019 at 20:43

15 Answers 15

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Demigod

Hercules in New York

I'm the one who runs,

running man

The one who hunts,

Predator

The one who kills,

Terminator

The one who destroys,

Conan the destroyer

In verity I am an oxymoron,

True lies

The one who erases memories,

Eraser

Yet remembers every detail,

Total recall

The one who is black,

Schwartz is black in German

But has a twin who is white,

Twins

Who / what am I?

Arnold Schwarzenegger, or a film collection staring him

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    $\begingroup$ YES! Surely this is the answer - such a great fit! Well done for getting this through the flood of incorrect guesses :) +1 $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Oct 3, 2019 at 22:56
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    $\begingroup$ Hooray, you've got it! $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 3, 2019 at 23:41
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    $\begingroup$ Damn.. that was good. +1 $\endgroup$
    – Lidaranis
    Oct 4, 2019 at 16:16
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I think you are a

Black Hat Developer - a hacker who violates computer security for personal gain or maliciousness.

I'm the one who runs,

Runs malicious executables and software.

The one who hunts,

Hunts for vulnerabilities in their target's defences

The one who kills,

Kills computer processes of the target machine.

The one who destroys,

Destroys reputations.

In verity I am an oxymoron, The one who erases memories,

Can delete memory from target devices or, in the case of ransomware, hold memory hostage by encrypting.

Yet remembers every detail,

The details of the attack (or in some cases the memory can be stolen).

The one who is black,

Black Hat

But has a twin who is white,

White Hat - an ethical computer hacker who specializes in penetration testing and in other testing methodologies that ensures the security of an organization's information systems.

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    $\begingroup$ Yes, a more reasonable answer :D $\endgroup$
    – Conifers
    Oct 2, 2019 at 9:15
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    $\begingroup$ +1 for fitting most of the clues, but the answer I'm looking for is something completely different. The oxymoron clue refers to a literal oxymoron, and the demigod in the title has a meaning to the answer. $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 2, 2019 at 17:07
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I think you might be:

chess game (or Chinese Elephant Game, Japanese Shogi)

I'm the one who runs, The one who hunts, The one who kills, The one who destroys,

The chess pieces actions on the board.

In verity I am an oxymoron, The one who erases memories, Yet remembers every detail,

The pieces will be reduced one by one in the game progress, however someone will record it on the Chess Playbook.

The one who is black, But has a twin who is white,

2 companions Black & White versus on the board.

A demigod among men

All pieces King, Queen, Rook, Knight, Bishop, Pawn could be a real human role in reality, but they're "virtual" on the chessboard, like demigod.

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    $\begingroup$ Sorry this isn't the answer although some parts fit. The answer I am looking should fit every line very closely (with a small amount of poetic license here and there). $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 2, 2019 at 7:05
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    $\begingroup$ I'll try a bit more ;) $\endgroup$
    – Conifers
    Oct 2, 2019 at 7:36
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You are a

black hole

I'm the one who runs, The one who hunts, The one who kills, The one who destroys

Thee black hole moves through space, "hunts" stars, "kills" planets, "destroys" everything.

In verity I am an oxymoron,

It's there, exists, but it's a hole. so.. there' s nothing there.

The one who erases memories,

Leaves nothing in it's path. Like nothing was there. ever.

Yet remembers every detail,

Some argue that information is not lost when something fals into a black hole.

The one who is black, But has a twin who is white,

The oposite of a white hole. Yes, in theory, there is such a thing like white hole

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    $\begingroup$ +1 for fitting everything except for "demigod", although it's not the answer I was looking for. It's interesting how varied all these answers are, because everyone has an imaginative interpretation of the words in the clues, but nearly every word was meant to be interpreted literally, including "demigod", "oxymoron", and "twin". $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 3, 2019 at 18:51
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You might be:

A garbage collector (GC) in a managed programming language

I'm the one who runs,

The GC runs in the background whenever the program is running.

The one who hunts,

It hunts for blocks of un-referenced allocated memory.

The one who kills,

It kills completed threads.

The one who destroys,

It destroys un-referenced memory blocks and completed threads.

In verity I am an oxymoron,
The one who erases memories,
Yet remembers every detail,

Despite appearances, GC's typically don't actually "erase" the memory they are cleaning up, but instead simply mark it as deleted, so the details are all still there (until the memory is reallocated for something else).

The one who is black,

This type of system is often a "black box", in that most programmers don't necessarily need to know exactly what's going on under the hood.

But has a twin who is white,

The memory allocator would be its opposite twin.

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    $\begingroup$ Sorry, as I said elsewhere, the answer has nothing to do with computers. $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 3, 2019 at 21:49
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You are not directly related to computers or hacking, but perhaps in some ways a precursor to some elements...

I propose that you are a

Video cassette recorder (VCR)

I'm the one who runs,

Play: runs the tape

The one who hunts,

Fast-forward or Rewind: hunts for different places in the tape

The one who kills,

Stop: kills the playback

The one who destroys,

Mechanical error: Oh no! The tape got pulled out of the cassette and mangled!

In verity I am an oxymoron,
The one who erases memories,

A VCR can overwrite old memories (recordings), erasing the old ones

Yet remembers every detail,

Record: creates a long-lasting imprint of all information

The one who is black,

VCRs were often housed in black plastic cases

But has a twin who is white,

While the similar BetaMax players (often) had white/light-colored housings

How does this fit as being a "demigod among men"?
I have no idea

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    $\begingroup$ Sorry this is not the answer. However, your guess has one thing right: it is in the correct timeframe / era. (But just to clarify, the answer isn't any electrical device, appliance, machine, etc). $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 3, 2019 at 3:09
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You are

Time

I'm the one who runs, The one who hunts, The one who kills, The one who destroys,

Age / time causes death. Also nothing can last the test of time

In verity I am an oxymoron, The one who erases memories, Yet remembers every detail,

Time erases memories yet remembers every detail

The one who is black, But has a twin who is white,

Referring to space time continuum, black hole and light?

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    $\begingroup$ It fits somewhat, but a correct answer should have an explanation for each line and the title (i.e. 10 explanations). Running/hunting/killing/destroying are actually 4 separate clues, even though it may sound like a single thing. $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 3, 2019 at 18:18
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In a similar vain to @hexomino, I think you are:

A computer infection/virus

I'm the one who runs,

A virus executes (eg. "runs")

The one who hunts,

Searches your system for what it wants

The one who kills,

Kills processes, files etc

The one who destroys,

Deletes files

In verity I am an oxymoron,

Maybe poetic licence on a "computer virus" as a computer can't actually catch a virus

The one who erases memories,

Again, removes files, clears memory etc

Yet remembers every detail,

Stores data on the target

The one who is black,

Virus's are bad, associated with black

But has a twin who is white,

Anti-virus

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I think you are

Mr. clean

I'm the one who runs, The one who hunts, The one who kills, The one who destroys,

you find hunt and kill grime and germs

In verity I am an oxymoron,

you are dirty from all the cleaning even though your name is "clean"

The one who erases memories, Yet remembers every detail,

you clean away evidence of the past, but hold it within yourself (like a now-dirty rag)

The one who is black, But has a twin who is white,

mr. clean was white but was recently recast as a black guy

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    $\begingroup$ +1 for fitting a lot of the clues but unfortunately it's not the answer I had in mind. $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 3, 2019 at 8:38
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You are

Agent J

I'm the one who runs, The one who hunts, The one who kills, The one who destroys,

If you see the intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVAePIyC4kQ it covers all these points.

In verity I am an oxymoron,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV-WEb2oxLk White guy in black suit.

The one who erases memories,

They use a Neuralyzer to erase memories.

Yet remembers every detail,

They are as sharp as men could be.

The one who is black,

Men in Black or Will Smith himself.

But has a twin who is white,

This could either refer to Agent K or Chris Hemsworth as Agent J.

The title A demigod among men can also refer to

Hancock

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    $\begingroup$ Not the answer, but +1 for fitting the clues. Hint: the clues all predate your answer. $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 3, 2019 at 21:39
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I'm the one who runs,

He runs the Empire

The one who hunts,

he hunts anyone who opposes him

The one who kills,

he kills Jedi and normal people

The one who destroys,

he destroys the republic

In verity I am an oxymoron,

He turns to the dark side to try protect those he loves

The one who erases memories,

Jedi powers

Yet remembers every detail,

Again Jedi powers

The one who is black,

His suit is black

But has a twin who is white,

Princess Leia who generally wears white and is his twin

A Demigod among men

He has Jedi Powers

Who Am I?

Darth Vader

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    $\begingroup$ SPOILERS! rot13(Yrvn vf Inqre'f qnhtugre - YHXR vf ure gjva...) I'm guessing you mean 'twin' in more of a good-and-evil counterpart way? $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Oct 3, 2019 at 12:06
  • $\begingroup$ Not the answer, but you're close to the correct timeframe. Hint: One clue predates your answer, and the rest of the clues postdate your answer. $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 3, 2019 at 21:46
2
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I think you are

the concept yang, as opposed of its white twin, yin

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I guess you are a

A software daemon

The one who runs,
The one who hunts,
The one who kills,
The one who destroys,
The one who erases memories,
Yet remembers every detail,

various software daemons can do these things to processes and memory

A demigod among men

a daemon in mythology is a demigod

In verity I am an oxymoron

the mythological daemon is both man and god

The one who is black,
But has a twin who is white,

perhaps a black console with white text and vice-versa

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    $\begingroup$ Sorry, that's not the answer. To anyone reading this comment, the answer doesn't have anything to do with computers, viruses, or hackers. $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Oct 2, 2019 at 20:44
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    $\begingroup$ Got to be honest @JS1, the sheer number of computing-related interpretations is making me chuckle :) Whatever the answer really is (I've not got it yet) I'm sure you didn't think it would lead quite so far down this alley! $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Oct 2, 2019 at 20:48
  • $\begingroup$ Mythological d***s are not demigods (god-nongod childred), but lesser gods (100% divine). $\endgroup$
    – toolforger
    Oct 3, 2019 at 19:51
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I think you are a

Panda

The one who runs, The one who hunts, The one who kills, The one who destroys,

A demigod among men

Taichi Panda

The one who erases memories, Yet remembers every detail,

Pandas rely on spatial memory, not visual memory

According to your comment about the time frame and era of Video Cassette Recorder, only one iconic figure fill up the blanks and that is Michael Jackson. So i think you are Michael Jackson.

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The best answer would be:

T I M E is the one who runs, The one who hunts, The one who kills, The one who destroys,

In verity I am an oxymoron,(because T I M E is) The one who erases memories, Yet remembers every detail, The one who is black, (as night) But has a twin who is white, (as day)

Who / what am I? Obviously T I M E

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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Puzzling.SE! Can you please explain your answer fits with each line of the poem? Happy puzzling :) $\endgroup$
    – Zoir
    Oct 5, 2019 at 1:17

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