How does Zalgo text work?

I’ve seen weirdly formatted text called Zalgo like below written on various forums. It’s kind of annoying to look at, but it really bothers me because it undermines my notion of what a character is supposed to be. My understanding is that a character is supposed to move horizontally across a line and stay within a certain “container”. Obviously the Zalgo text is moving vertically and doesn’t seem to be restricted to any space.

Is this a bug/flaw/exploit/hack in Unicode? Are these individual characters with weird properties? “What” is happening here?

H̡̫̤̤̣͉̤ͭ̓̓̇͗̎̀ơ̯̗̱̘̮͒̄̀̈ͤ̀͡w͓̲͙͖̥͉̹͋ͬ̊ͦ̂̀̚ ͎͉͖̌ͯͅͅd̳̘̿̃̔̏ͣ͂̉̕ŏ̖̙͋ͤ̊͗̓͟͜e͈͕̯̮̙̣͓͌ͭ̍̐̃͒s͙͔̺͇̗̱̿̊̇͞ ̸̤͓̞̱̫ͩͩ͑̋̀ͮͥͦ̊Z̆̊͊҉҉̠̱̦̩͕ą̟̹͈̺̹̋̅ͯĺ̡̘̹̻̩̩͋͘g̪͚͗ͬ͒o̢̖͇̬͍͇͓̔͋͊̓ ̢͈͙͂ͣ̏̿͐͂ͯ͠t̛͓̖̻̲ͤ̈ͣ͝e͋̄ͬ̽͜҉͚̭͇ͅx͎̬̠͇̌ͤ̓̂̓͐͐́͋͡ț̗̹̝̄̌̀ͧͩ̕͢ ̮̗̩̳̱̾w͎̭̤͍͇̰̄͗ͭ̃͗ͮ̐o̢̯̻̰̼͕̾ͣͬ̽̔̍͟ͅr̢̪͙͍̠̀ͅǩ̵̶̗̮̮ͪ́?̙͉̥̬͙̟̮͕ͤ̌͗ͩ̕͡

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