True Darkness

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There are many tales throughout the world, stories of grand battles, of victories. Legends of heroes, mighty and proud. Myths of great tragedies, and mystical things. The ones telling these tales do not always know the full story, however. They do not know the true beginnings, or all those involved. I am here to tell you such a story, one that has been told many times over, but details are always missing. It is perhaps because none of them was told of the true monster at the heart of it, or they knew few people would believe and be able to comprehend the horror of it without going mad. I trust you will be strong enough, for this is a tale that must be told.

To begin this tale, I should inform you I am a part of it. I was there at the start of it, and before the start of it. I am but one of many ageless beings mortals like yourself either revere, or totally ignore, or even outright hate. Such hate is not unfounded, but I am not one worthy of it. There are two groups of beings like myself, and we go by many various names. Mortals have named us with their own words. I am one of the benevolent ones, a builder and shaper. I create new worlds, mold them and form them. Upon them I bring forth the spark of life, watching and sometimes helping it grow.

The ones that deserve hate, are the vile and evil ones we call destroyers. Their shapes are often more varied than ours, and their hearts are filled with a lust for destruction. They find worlds my brethren built and annihilate them. Shattering them and wiping out life wherever they see it. This tale involves one of them, one of the foulest of them all.

The story begins with but one of many worlds I wrought. A fairly average sized chunk of stone to float about the cosmos, with deep oceans and high mountains. When I was pleased with it, I set to work on creating life. My first children were unlike anything you've likely seen, residing in a realm tied to the planet but separate from it. A realm constantly in flux, where thought and will ruled. I set in it a grand cathedral for myself, a throne and keep to watch over my creation. My children however, disappointed me.

I created in them the power to control their realm. To shape and form the very fabric of it as they willed. But what I was able to gift them in power, I was unable to grant in creativity. They lacked any of their own ideas, merely mimicking what I had wrought. I grew weary of this in time, and began to turn my gaze elsewhere. That was when I saw him.

One of the destroyers, a being made up entirely of darkness. A fluid creature, oozing around within my realm. Slowly trying to infect it with his wretched poison. My children had failed me, but I would not let all that I had wrought go to waste so easily. I battled the destroyer, for many long hours. His fluid nature rendered most of my blows useless, and my magic only enraged him. I know this was not a battle I could win, and so I elected to imprison him instead. I lead him to my keep, luring him over its high walls. Once he was within, I quickly erected a barrier.

For hours still he raged against the walls of his prison, pounding uselessly, before I watched him pool into the very center. A mouth formed, and issued forth a warning. That one day, he would get his revenge. That he would break free, and destroy everything I had built. I heeded it not, for I knew he could never escape that prison. How very wrong I was.

Having been disappointed in my first children, I began to work on my second. These are the ones you know, mortal. Beings of flesh and bone, born of the earth and returning to it. Men and women, of varying races. For many years I watched them, saw them grow and flourish. I saw in them great creativity, cunning minds that I had hoped for in my first. Many of them even developed powers similar to those of my first children, tapping in to the energy of that realm to shape and alter their own.

It was then that I saw another threat to my creation arriving. A group of lesser destroyers who often worked together, arrived on my world. To my shock, a group of powerful mortals began worshiping these foul beings in my stead. Instructing them in wretched sorcery. I knew a battle with them would do far more harm than good, even were I able to prevail and defeat them. Instead, I imprisoned them far below the earth, believing this would end their influence over my children. That was my second mistake.

For many long years my children began turning back to me, and something seemed amiss. It was then that I watched a group of the most powerful sorcerers perform a ritual I had never seen before. When it was done, they had shifted entirely from their realm to that of my first children. At first I was quite amazed they had such power, thinking that they may be the true children I sought. The powers of the first, with the minds of the second. They sought no such thing, I soon realized.

One of the many laws I set down in ages past was they should never approach my throne, for if they entered it they would surely meet the destroyer and perish. These sorcerers were heading directly for their doom. I followed them, and tried to warn them. I could not show myself to them, for mortal eyes cannot behold my true form without perishing.

They soon reached my citadel, and I could only watch in horror as they passed through the barrier. I had not built it to keep out corporeal beings like them. They marched into my halls, and in an instant the destroyer was upon them. His foul blackness coated their bodies, and poured into them. I can still hear their screams of terror and agony, and watch their minds break. It did not end there, however. The true horror had only just begun. The destroyer withdrew from the sorcerers, and I saw their bodies warp and mutate. Their skin darkened, their hair fell out, and they grew thin. I could feel the darkness within them, and then they vanished.

Their ritual had ended, and they went back to their own realm. Before I could follow, I heard him laughing. The destroyer was laughing at me, and he began to speak “I warned you, did I not? All that you have made, is for nothing! Weep for this world, it is lost. My taint has infected it now, and it will infect all life. My children, my dark spawn, will overtake yours, Maker. Mark my words...”

In the mortal realm, those sorcerers spread the destroyer's taint. They bore deep into the earth, to find one of the destroyers I imprisoned all those years past and infected him. My children had elected to destroy themselves, and I could not bear to watch. I left my children in sorrow, until a voice cried out to me. A woman's voice, the most fair and beautiful I'd ever heard...