Dark Ones
The Dark Ones are a matter of speculation throughout the global network. Many have tried and thus far failed to uncover the nature of humanity’s gravest adversary, their only practical result being the common usage of the name “Dark Ones.” Most people spend little time contemplating these horrible entities, however, instead focusing on direct threats: Beasts and Darkhearts. Read on to learn more about these minions of the Dark Ones.
Beasts
The corpses of the world are the Dark Ones’ playthings, the immortal results of their work roaming the lands in endless bloodlust. Only Starsteel can truly injure these Beasts, wounds made with any other material immediately healing.
This regenerative ability does vary, however. Some Beasts need a few moments to recover from injuries caused by mundane means. Conversely, there are also Beasts who barely even pause at the most grievous of wounds caused by anything other than the purest Starsteel.
In addition to this horrible variety, Beasts also widely diverge in form. Some resurrect almost unchanged, sporting only a few minor alterations. Others remain ostensibly similar, except that they have swelled enormously in size. Still others have had their proportions altered so much as to become almost unrecognisable. Lastly, there are those Beasts who are amalgamations of different creatures, surprising their victims with curious traits and abilities. The cause and significance of this variety remains uncertain, at least for now.
Thus, the hunt for understanding continues. Some particularly enterprising – or desperate – souls have even discarded their caution to try and fathom the Dark Ones through trial and error. The consequences of these practices have often been disastrous.
Darkhearts
There are those who wish to escape from the struggle that is life in the global network, who wish to finally understand the threat humanity faces, whose instinct for survival has become corrupted, or who wish for power.
All these people are at risk of becoming Darkhearts, people enthralled with the Dark Ones. Not all Darkhearts set out to give themselves to the entities that haunt humanity. Indeed, not all of them consider themselves to have done so, or even realise the forces they have meddled with.
However, the power of the Dark Ones is insidious, and those who stray too close to it can become changed in mind the same way that Beasts are in body. Those who stray the closest can even find themselves transformed into Beasts upon death – or, as some claim, before it.
It is illegal to be a Darkheart throughout the global network. Those found to worship the Dark Ones are put to death and towns with many worshippers are cut off from trade until they resolve their situation. Still, the Dark Ones’ call is alluring, and even the coming of the Hunters of Fenblith cannot prevent that some seek to hear it more clearly.