"Ah, Atriox, how do we explain it to them? The world is not built on the laws they love. Not on friendship, but on mutual interest. Not on peace, but on victory by any means. The universe is run by extinction, by extermination, by gamma-ray bursts burning up a thousand garden worlds, by howling singularities eating up infant suns. And if life is to live, if anything is to survive through the end of all things, it will live not by the smile but by the sword, not in a soft place but in a hard hell, not in the rotting bog of artificial paradise but in the cold hard self-verifying truth of that one ultimate arbiter, the only judge, the power that is its own metric and its own source—existence, at any cost. Strip away the lies and truces and delaying tactics they call ‘civilization’ and this is what remains, this beautiful shape. The fate of everything is made like this, in the collision, the test of one praxis against another. This is how the world changes: one way meets a second way, and they discharge their weapons, they exchange their words and markets, they contest and in doing so they petition each other for the right to go on being something, instead of nothing. This is the universe figuring out what it should be in the end.
And it is majestic. Majestic. It is the only thing that can be true in and of itself.
And it is what I am."
the deep
Like the Light, the Deep is a cosmic paracausal force that has existed since before the beginning of time. In our universe, it has been shown to enact its will indirectly through numerous proxies and servants, with some of the most powerful being worshiped as deities unto themselves. Atriox, Agdayne, Reclaimers and Emanation are all linked to this force.
The Deep is fundamentally driven to reduce complexity and diversity within the universe, and to eliminate any entity which cannot survive in the face of adversity. The Deep once ruled the universe, and the Emanation believe that the Light must be consumed for the Deep to reclaim its domination. Its ultimate goal is to bring about an end-state of the universe in which the only entities that exist are those that have overcome all possible obstacles to their survival, and which have the strength to continue existing forever. It refers to this goal as the "final shape" of the universe.
In addition to being a fundamental paracausal force, The Deep is intelligent, and capable of communicating with sentient beings; in the Creation Saga, Kronos is described as directly communing with the Deep, and the deposed Separatist Emperor Atriox is recorded as doing so as well.
The Jen'rasaii re said to carry Darkness within themselves as well as Light, a product of the circumstances of their creation.
The Deep is fundamentally driven to reduce complexity and diversity within the universe, and to eliminate any entity which cannot survive in the face of adversity. The Deep once ruled the universe, and the Emanation believe that the Light must be consumed for the Deep to reclaim its domination. Its ultimate goal is to bring about an end-state of the universe in which the only entities that exist are those that have overcome all possible obstacles to their survival, and which have the strength to continue existing forever. It refers to this goal as the "final shape" of the universe.
In addition to being a fundamental paracausal force, The Deep is intelligent, and capable of communicating with sentient beings; in the Creation Saga, Kronos is described as directly communing with the Deep, and the deposed Separatist Emperor Atriox is recorded as doing so as well.
The Jen'rasaii re said to carry Darkness within themselves as well as Light, a product of the circumstances of their creation.
history
understanding
- Vauban Antilles understands the Darkness as the natural evolutionary endpoint of the entire universe. Since the beginning of time, everything has been in competition with everything else for no reason, other than that is the way of the universe: the law of the jungle. As atoms came into being, they defeated the "primordial broth" that preceded it. From atoms came stars, from stars came galaxies, worlds were created, and finally life arose, all due to the eternal competition.
influences
The Darkness desires to sway Mithras and the Lunaros to its philosophy, as it acknowledges them as beings powerful enough to potentially become the "final shape" it wishes to bring about. There are a handful of Annunaki who fell into the darkness, notably Dredgen Yor. Yor came to desire taking innocent lives and sowing despair, claiming he had developed a hunger for it.
The Striders were once Forerunner or Reclaimer, but were transformed during an unknown period of time. The events of their transformation reveals that a number of Annunaki were captured in a kugelblitz formed by the Darkness and Light battling one another in the vicinity of their ship. As a result of this event, the Strider (or Jenrasaii) were reborn as beings containing both Light and Darkness within themselves.
The Striders were once Forerunner or Reclaimer, but were transformed during an unknown period of time. The events of their transformation reveals that a number of Annunaki were captured in a kugelblitz formed by the Darkness and Light battling one another in the vicinity of their ship. As a result of this event, the Strider (or Jenrasaii) were reborn as beings containing both Light and Darkness within themselves.