Update made with new "shorter" prologue set in the Anteruinum era, centred around the dark god and the creation of the Dagger of Darkness.
In the yawning abyss of time, when the Nihilmere was naught but an infantile glimmer in the infinite void of the universe, a malevolent entity cast its stygian shadow across the Nihilmere's wide expanse. This entity was no mere absence of light, but the physical manifestation of a Dark God; Ʋōr'gƙɲar, a primordial deity whose insatiable craving for chaos threatened to rip asunder the delicate equilibrium woven into the very fabric of reality.
Stirred from their timeless watch, the Seers, faithful heralds of the Lesser Gods, materialized from the spectral mists that shrouded their existence. Their divine task, bestowed upon them by the celestial pantheon, was to guard the fragile balance and harmony that nurtured the nine worlds. They accomplished this through the creation of the Mundus-Moths, celestial behemoths wrought from spectral matter and divine spirit, ordained with a singular purpose: to traverse the nine worlds, much like bees among blossoming fields, disseminating the life-sustaining ambrosia of magic known as Pollenium. With each flutter of their iridescent wings, they bore the potential to germinate and nourish life, kindling the sparks of creation across the great expanse of the Nihilmere.
Yet, the Dark God, in his malevolent nature, set his ominous gaze upon these spectral pollinators. He reveled in the desolation that stemmed from choking the vital essence of life. With perverse intent, he unleashed his monstrous minions to hunt and exterminate the Mundus-Moths, severing the lifelines that interconnected the nine worlds. As the Moths were extinguished, their radiant luminescence waning like dying stars, magic began to wilt and fade, leaving in its wake a trail of barrenness and despair that stretched across the Nihilmere.
Unable to stand idle in the face of such sacrilege, the Seers, sworn protectors of the nine worlds, convened in their ancient sanctum. A profound decision was forged — an audacious and desperate solution — the creation of a Dagger of Darkness, an artifact reflecting the Dark God's haunting allure. Its ethereal glow pulsed ominously, casting an eerie tableau of dread and fascination. This dagger was intended to serve as a crucial tether to prevent reality from unraveling upon the banishment of the Dark God.
Sensing their audacious endeavor, the Dark God commanded his vile legions to halt their progress. A cataclysmic clash of cosmic forces and shadowy malevolence ensued, as the Seers fought to protect the vestiges of life itself. With the aid from the Lesser Gods and a grim resolve, they used the dagger to tear the heart from the Dark God, sealing it beyond the veil of time to suppress his malignant influence on reality.
With the Dark God's heart sealed away, the fabric of reality maintained its precarious balance, and the Seers returned to their eternal vigil, ever watchful against the return of the malevolent deity. The dagger, the sole key capable of unsealing the heart, was lost to the ravages of time, its location known to only a few.
However, unbeknownst to the Seers, a tragic mishap occurred during the dagger's creation. One among them, in a moment of ill-fated distraction, grazed themselves on the blade's edge. Their divine blood commingled with the dark essence of the blade, forming a sinister bond between their celestial nature and the residual darkness.
This unfortunate wound gave rise to a subtle corruption. The darkness within the dagger whispered insidious promises and disquieting secrets to the wounded Seer, exploiting their vulnerability and planting seeds of malevolence within their spirit. Slowly, this corruption morphed the Seer into the first Carkeress; a demonic entity of considerable power, consumed by the sinister influence and turned into an embodiment of the very darkness they sought to contain. Their mind and body twisted, their abilities amplified by the dark essence coursing through their veins, they became a harbinger of chaos and destruction.
In a turn of fate, it was this Carkeress who later retrieved the Dagger. Driven by power, she gifted it to an Emperor hungering for dominion. Blinded by his insatiable lust for power, the Emperor released the heart from its temporal prison. The cost of this act was great and horrifying, shaking the delicate balance of the Nihilmere, with repercussions reverberating through the nine worlds, threatening to plunge them into an era of darkness and despair, one that would unfold in a universe teetering on the precipice of oblivion.
Read more here: Check out Absent Light on Tapas https://tapas.io/series/Absent-Light
