Dark Triad

The Dark Triad

New and old evils have united since the end of the Vitality Wars. These forces plague the Titanic Ring and the Cosmic Stack like never before. Bent on the destruction of all life, the forces of the Dark Triad offer no mercy to those who find their way into their clutches.

Demons

These new creatures are marvels of creation. A demon has no “true form” while appearing on the Rings of Meropis. The corporeal nature of a demon is caused by the creature attempting to replicate a portion of the song and other underlying universal principles. However, this means that simply injuring a demon’s physical form will not, in the end, cause the creature’s corporeal nature to de-manifest.

It is thought that each demon has a specific weakness, ritual, or rite that can aid a hunter in exorcizing it. A demon that is exorcized is sent back to the Ravenous Abyss where it was formed. Lesser demons are often consumed, their essence turned into residual darkness, waiting to be reused to create the next demonic spawn. Demons of greater power are allowed to reform, some scholars even believed they are evolved, before escaping from the Abyss once again. It is however agreed that a demon that returns after being destroyed is more powerful. Some hunters of the Ashen Veil even report demons returning with altered forms, new abilities, and even immunities to rites that exorcized them previously.

Demons are attracted to two things: living flesh and sound. The average demon is a ravenous beast whose sole focus is the consumption of living flesh. While animals will satisfy a demon their preference is sentient creatures. A group of Ashen Veil members once captured a demon and while interrogating the beast came to a startling conclusion: the demon did not feel hunger. While it spoke of the concept, it did not truly feel hungry. This has given rise to other scholars debating whether demons truly feel emotions like love, hate, or regret. Some scholars have pushed the discussion further and have asked if demons feel pain, if they can truly feel temperature, and whether or not they understand taste. Whatever the case demons are foreign beings. It is the position of organizations like the Ashen Veil, Ard Magos, and Confederation of Ramesh that demons cannot be trusted.

However, this does not stop cults from rising around demons and demonic activity. While some demons are more beastly, most are far smarter than the average person. They can trick the average populace into doing their bidding. Many times this agenda results in an entire town suspending itself in living death so that the demon can pry the flesh from its victim’s bones unimpeded. Strangely enough, although demons hate noise they also feed off of sound which causes them to require chanting from their followers. Rituals may sometimes resemble orchestral symphonies or dynamic plays to satiate the hunger of a demon. However, based on the aftermath of such performances, the demon still often holds the ceremony against its followers.

Demons are known to possess individuals. It is their preferred way of moving around the Rings of Meropis. Luckily, only the most powerful demons can possess a person without some sort of ritual or physical action. In most circumstances, the demon is knowingly or unknowingly invited into the host’s body. The demon entering a body can also be caused by the touching of a grimoire, consuming of an elixir made using the dark alchemy of the Abyss, or other similar methods.

While in the body of an individual, a demon can fully manipulate them to do their will. This allows a demon to be easily detected. Therefore, most demons will opt to nudge their hosts toward their will. More tricky demons will even manipulate a person around the host to be their main agent while staying safely hidden in the shadows.

Demons are ranked according to the Farox Scale. The higher a demon is on the scale, the more dangerous they are considered. A demon ranked on the Farox Scale is judged by how many gallons of holy water they can boil per minute. Members of the Ashen Veil and other organizations use devices called Boilers to calculate the rating of a demon by splashing a small amount of holy water on them. Ratings of ten and below are considered lesser demons while anything above fifty gallons is considered territory for Ashen Veil Death Wraiths, Retainer Counts, and Material Gods. Only four demons of rating 100 or more have ever been found. Two were slain by Klaus ru Farox, one by the Earth-Bone Witch, and one by the Twin Empresses while on vacation.

Those who fight demons do so at great risk. When a person is killed by a demon there is no hope of resurrecting them.

Mind Flayers

This notorious threat has risen to new heights since the Vitality War. As the world fought itself, the Mind Flayers grew in power beneath the surface. Now their numbers spew forth out of the dark crevices of the world.

Mind Flayers, known colloquially as “squid,” are created via a process known as Plagamorphisis. The process initially involves an unsuspecting host ingesting Flayer Worms. This is usually done through drinking the rice-sized worms or is sometimes down by a Shell. A Shell is a person that the colony has allowed to keep its normal features after infestation. They are a vector by which the colony collects more future Mind Flayers. Yet, whether infected by Shell or normal consumption, the result is the same. The worms, once inside the host, burrow through the host’s flesh until they enter the bloodstream. From there they swim to the brain. Once inside the brain, the Flayer Worms converge near the frontal lobe. At the exact moment when enough worms are present in the brain, using a blast of magic the worst rip apart the frontal lobe of the host in what is akin to an aneurysm. From there the hosts attach themselves to the wounded parts of the brain as they replace the destroyed tissue with their own bodies. At this point, whoever the host was is considered dead. Over the course of the next few days, the worms duplicate and eat the remaining portions of the host’s brain until there is nothing left of the original. From there the host has two choices: hide the changes to their body over the next ten to fourteen days until the host becomes a full Mind Flayer or return to the colony so that the Elder Brain can transform the body in mere hours.

Recent research has been unearthed that shows that the Flayer Worms leave a small part of the host’s brain intact when they are consuming the host. This allows them to avoid mental attacks since the worms shut all magic towards that lingering part of the person. A fledging Mind Flayer is thought to pass any known truth fields or mental attacks with this method. However, the horrific side effect is that for days the host is still conscious and aware of their condition. They are trapped in their mind, powerless to stop the puppeteering of the Flayer Worms, as their body becomes another drone of the colony. One could only imagine the suffering felt by some Shells as they turned on the people they held most dear.

Each Mind Flayer colony is led by an Elder Brain. An Elder Brain is created when a single Mind Flayer starts a new colony. They ingest between 300 and 400 pounds of Flayer Worms. The worms begin to grow the brain of the Mind Flayer until it is so big that it must sit in a pool of amniotic fluid. This brain becomes the leader of the new colony. It has complete control of every Mind Flayer, Flayer Worm, Shell, and other abominations that lie within its warrens. Although not confirmed, some scholars say that the average Elder Brain must consume no less than ten brains a day to live. The largest Elder Brain ever discovered, if the estimates are to be believed, required close to 100 living brains every day to sustain itself.

To help spread their control, the Mind Flayer built devices known as Steele in their underground warrens. These Steele help to broadcast the will of the Elder Brain across greater distances. Furthermore, Steele can amplify the powers of the Elder Brain. An amplified Elder Brain can read the minds of those within its warrens at will, levitate objects above ground that weigh many tons, and even directly attack powerful aether souls while they are still miles from its amniotic fluid pool. Mind Flayers who are seeking to strengthen their colonies become obsessed with creating Steele. This is why Mind Flayers are often obsessed with the metal mercury.

Mind Flayers communicate via complex, highly-modulated, multi-spectra electromagnetic waves within their colonies. This can be interfered with, but only on the level of broadcasting loud noise to stop audible communications. Mind Flayers have demonstrated the ability to speak the local language if they choose to; however, this is rare for them.

It can also not be understated that Mind Flayers are depraved. They throw themselves into dark alchemy to create horrid monstrosities. Great beasts that spear the memory out of victims with their talons, oozes that can recreate any of its victims, and swarms of serpents whose venom erases minds have all been found in Mind Flayer dwellings. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Mind Flayers also use their alchemical prowess on people. Breeding programs are common as colonies seek to create the most nourishing brains possible. Often these humanoids have servitude bred into them by the Mind Flayers. Many die protecting the colony from raids. They have also been known to create Mantra Bearers. These are humanoids who are tasked with repeating a cursed mantra before being spread into a community. The mantra often drives a community mad allowing the colony to covertly snatch away individuals. Finally, and dear reader I do hope this isn’t true, but field agents have reported that Mind Flayers have come to discover the power of love. They have begun running experiments on how to get individuals and even whole communities to fall in love with a person. The data has shown that people can be easily led into traps if they love the bait. Mind Flayers are becoming masters of not only deception but weaponized paranoia. Divided or united, the Mind Flayer threat still seeks to descend on communities.

This leads to the final topic: Mind Flayer nautiloids. Elder Brains can manufacture great living ships made out of Flayer Worms, steel, and wood. These ships descend from the skies with their great tentacles snatching whole towns in the night. To the dismay of most defenders, the nautiloids possess extraordinary regenerative capabilities. Even heavy siege weapons or cannons are momentary inconveniences to most nautiloids. The only tried and true method to destroy a nautiloid is to board the ship and destroy the creature’s brain. This is easier said than done. A fully crewed nautiloid is filled with at least half a dozen Mind Flayers, slaves, and horrific abominations.

Beholders

These creatures are beasts made up of eyes and malice. Beholders possess nine eye stalks and one central eye. That central eye is the Beholder’s greatest weapon. The central eye of a beholder can disconnect any creature from reality. While in the eye of the beholder, even Material Gods are often powerless. Only those whose skill goes beyond the world can hope to fight their way out of this death trap.

However, even if one destroys the main eye, the other eye stalks of a Beholder are deadly. Each one can bend and twist reality in different ways. The arsenal of each Beholder is different meaning that unless a group has scouted the monster, there is no way to tell what exactly a Beholder can warp.

Additionally, the flesh of a Beholder is incredibly strong and resistant to magic. Only the strongest warriors can pierce the abomination’s thick hide. Most mages cannot even dream of effecting a Beholder with magic. The strongest spells, and only the strongest spells, will do. To illustrate the point, a general once ignited more than 60 tons of dynamite inside a cave that housed a Beholder. After a few minutes, the Beholder turned the rubbled it was buried under to feathers and began massacring the army that had dared to attack it. Eyewitnesses report the create barely had a scratch on it.

With all this being said, a Beholder is most dangerous when it is asleep. While resting a Beholder can shift the world around it with its dreams. So far it is unknown if Beholders have a limit to this power. Other scholars have pondered the question if people truly know everything that Beholders have warped about the rings. This is a question that many sane scholars, who wish to remain sane, do not wish to ponder.

Do Beholders have a weakness? If so, it has yet to be found. Empresses save us if they decide to ever unite. The only thing that Beholders hate more than everything in the world is another Beholder.

It is also unknown what exactly Beholders eat. However, this volume proposes the following theory. There is evidence to suggest that those killed by Beholders often do not pass on to an afterlife. However, it has been proven by several groups that resurrections are possible after death by Beholder. It seems that this is no coincidence. The theory proposed is that Beholders are partially sustained by consuming the souls of those they consumed. There is also evidence to suggest that people dream two standard deviations less often within one mile of a Beholder than those not within proximity to a Beholder. It is also possible that Beholders eat dreams to supplement their diet.

The Endless

It is believed the Dark Triad serve the Endless. Not much is known about the Endless. They are thought to exist outside the Cosmic Stack. It is unknown how many Endless there are beyond the borders of reality. Some cultists have reported there to be sixteen Endless, while others have specified five, the largest demonic cult ever destroyed by the Ashen Veil proclaimed that there are thirty-nine members of the Endless while others still have reported that there is just one Endless being. The real truth is unknown.

Demon Princes

Many demonic cults and demons recognize the existence of Demon Princes. It is unknown how many there are or their true nature. What separates a powerful demon from a Demon Prince? The question looms large.

After a considerable amount of research, Scholars have agreed that the following demons are to be considered Demon Princes moving forward. It should be noted that none of these Demon Princes (except for one) have been met in combat. Or at least, for many, nobody has met them in combat and has lived to tell the tale. The Demon Princes known are:

• Carsomyr (Defeated moments after ascension)
• The Sibilant Beast
• Asteroth
• Graz’zt

The Silent Queen

Not much is known about the Silent Queen. What is known is not meant to be written in pages unguarded by the greatest of wards. So know this, the Silent Queen is the leader of the Endless’ forces who assault the Cosmic Stack. She is considered unstoppable. The Silent Queen has never been beaten. It is thought that she was exorcized from the Cosmic Stack long ago. It is feared that she is back.