Prologue: Is Evil simply a condition of an arbitrary moral code? Or is it something Real?
Azrael sat on a throne of Quall bone, in his keep, on the Plane of Awareness. His cowl was pulled back, revealing himself in a way Falosini only did while alone or among only other Falosini. The eyes of Azrael so like stars in an expansive galaxy flickered.
Azrael sighed to himself, Aeons completed, worlds built and destroyed, and all for what? His end game had always been a grand Peace, a peace where the Quall’s desires for conquest would finally be blunted.
He saw that future in glimmers. A future of peace, of respect, of care, of love. It was a beautiful reality, and a reality that could have one day become real. A reality where Quall and Da’uhnb worked side by side to police those descended beings who worked against the Balance as Warmonger did, and to leave those descended beings who worked alongside the balance alone…
But instead the “heroes” of Refuge completed their ritual to eliminate the Warmonger once and for all, banishing the Descended Beings from our timeline in one fell swoop. Then he watched as Time Shredders ripped apart reality, and the timelines he was preparing for were wiped away like so much scrap thread once the tailor was done.
There was a moment of rage, to see so much good simply destroyed due to greed and desire for control.
There were now a horrible splintering of futures he saw, ones where the I.R. Quall civil war wiped out all life in this timeline, ones where the EEF become little more than a vassal state of the Iron Republic, and ones where the heroes of Refuge were forced to flee to the Draco, and the planet once more became a penal colony.
And that but one planet, and all of it hung upon a single temporal thread. The temporal thread created by the K’iorn known as Ryuk, killing the Da’uhnb Queen. It was his act of supreme evil, a choice born from LUST FOR POWER, from SELFISHNESS, and from a desire to TAKE CONTROL AWAY FROM OTHERS.
Azrael knew now why Ryuk’s many paths had been hidden from his future sight. A betrayal and coverup by the Da’uhnb known as Herniker Guerre, a former idolator of Warmonger who had been tweaking the timeline to keep Ryuk’s path hidden.
Azreal was saddened. For Aeons since his ascention, the return of the Da’uhnb Queen had been one of his grandest goals. The greatest of all goods, birthed from the most dangerous of all evils, the Da’uhnb Queen lived her life with no other purpose than protecting all timelines from incursions by the ancient evils.
Now with her death, the balance had spread out all the evil of the Warmonger among countless species and countless sentients. The Ascended had hoped to offset the Balance shift by sealing themselves away in the Prison Dimension of Les’tas’tral. Many had gone willingly, but among the Falosini one had refused.
Ceroj the Red and in his refusal he had began his descention, becoming a primal descended along with Ryuk, and many others.
Azrael knew he would have to account for a Primal Evil among the Falosini Sovereigns soon enough, but that might lead to a Falosini Civil War. With the Sylvan at Civil War, if the Falosini were to fall to interal strife it would leave all the goodly beings’ governments broken and unable to mobilize them against the enemies of reality.
Suddenly he could feel those moments when his ascended mind was encorporating new data, information from new timelines that were springing forth. Each was created by the annihilation effect of a Time Shredder, and one seemed to be created by the Annihilation effect of someone trying to manipulate time without a time shredder.
He could feel it, sense it, and it concerned him. A primal descended with power over Time itself? It must be stopped at all costs…
Then he could sense someone was coming, and he pulled his cowl back on.
As the door to his hall opened, he saw Zaodonai Dokos Ha’jima, most loyal of his Uthvelor Zaodonai, and the ancient Uthvelor looked worried and concerned. Something was mewling from inside Dokos’ clenched hands, as the Uthvelor shook he squeezed his hands, and blood pooled between his fingers.
The uthvelor leader bowed deeply before Lord Azrael and said, “My Sovereign, I know of concerning news from all of our settlements. Primal Descended have grown in power revealing themselves across our holdings.
It is as if Lord Pelos knew this was coming my lord.
Lord Pelos had agents waiting for that moment, and has already gathered the Primal Evils to his side. He has amassed a significant army of powerful evil beings who will do much harm.”
“Good” said Lord Azrael.
“Good? My lord, I don’t understand,” said Zaodonai Dokos.
Azrael said, “If we had Primal Descended among us, we would have had to deal with them. That would show our own darkest elements brought out by fear and worry, or would result in our demise if we did not take their threat seriously enough.
Pelos is a warrior. He is a general. He is a strategist. He is a terrorist. But he is not a demon. He has a sentient mind. He will not be prepared with the evil is he really facing. Pelos may have thought he has brought a powerful array of weapons to his side. But he is unwilling to see that these beings are not reliable weapons. They are self destructive and will act out in ways without asking for support, guidance or council that will cost their entire societies everything…
These are not the Ancient Evils, representatives of universal traits that destroy us.
These are the Primal Evils, primally thrashing against society, restraint, empathy and rules not for any greater goal other than selfish fulfillment. They are Warmonger’s philosophy of “Me, Mine, More” taken to extreme and recognized for their choices and destructive actions.”
Zaodonai Dokos asked sadly, “Does that mean they cannot be redeemed?”
“What does redemption look like to someone who would destroy a solar system just to see if they could, would harm innocents to fuel the building of their endless warmachines, and seek out enemies even when there previously had been none?” Asked Azrael, “When that riddle is solved you will solve the problem of the Primal Descended.”