Godsday, 11, Fireseek, 376:
This is likely to be my last entry. After today, I can only hope the words and experiences of a man embroiled in so ancient a conflict can serve to enlighten and, indeed, warn others of dangers yet to come. Of course, I suppose it is only normal to suffer the bouts of obsession that have been afflicting me, considering everything I have been through; still, there are days when I wish the gods had chosen someone else as their instrument.
At any rate, here I am, years after using the Theoparts to entrap an avatar of He-Whose-Name-Cannot-Be-Spoken, and the Dark God has ever been the focus of my thoughts and, consequently, my research. Would that this had not been the case, for I have been cursed with a knowledge that makes me even desire the restoration of the destroyed Thepoarts, for, though the evil they wrought was great, they may serve to divert the seemingly unstoppable disaster I see inexorably heading our way.
But I get ahead of myself. For you who are reading this, it is my fervent hope that you have access to my previous works, but if this should not be the case, allow me to summarize the events that have passed, in order for you to get a better understanding of the events to come:
In Times Primordial, a dark and infinitely evil presence came to discover our universe: the Dark God. Seeking dominion and the destruction of life, this unimaginably powerful deity began to reap death and chaos amongst the creations of all the gods. So powerful was he, that no individual god could stand against him. The newly wrought universe of the gods was in peril, about to be consumed by He-Whose-Name-Cannot-Be-Spoken. In these desperate times, an event occurred that has not been repeated since, the Powers of Good, Evil, and Neutrality agreed, on this one occasion, to unite and use their cumulative power to destroy the Dark God, leaving their own creations intact so as to renew their immortal feuds.
Such was not to be, however.
Terrible and almighty was the power of He-Whose-Name-Cannot-Be-Spoken. While ultimately losing this great battle, he was not destroyed as the powers had thought. Instead, they merely weakened him, siphoning off a great deal of his power, and using this weakness to entrap the Dark God, supposedly forever. Unforeseen by the Powers, however, was the resultant of this released energy. Finding a home on the Outer Planes, it divided even further and came to rest on what we know term the Lower Planes. Taking on inherent characteristics found in each of the planes, it multiplied and fed itself, and so the creatures known as fiends came into existence. To this day, each race of fiend knows it is incomplete, sharing only a piece of the ultimate evil from which they sprang, and so also was born the Blood War.
But this is not a treatise on demons and devils; there are others who are more knowledgeable than I in such matters. This is, as I stated previously, a warning. The ‘locks’ if you will, that kept He-Whose-Name-Cannot-Be-Spoken imprisoned were the stars, arranged in a particular configuration and kept that way so that the Mindrender could never be allowed free again. However, a passage from The Journal of Kevelli Mauk, founder of that dire order known as the Scarlet Brotherhood, has caused me to believe that the prison is not as absolute as once thought. Note to the careful reader! I am not referring to the periodic ‘escape’ of some of the Dark God’s force in the form of an avatar. Diligent readers will note that I myself have confronted once such being and, while easily the most monstrous and powerful of any foe I had ever encountered, not on the scale of which I am speaking. I am writing about the release of the god himself, a calamity so unthinkable that words cannot do it justice.
How is this to be? From his prison, the Dark God is able to slowly and subtly manipulate the stars, effectively ‘unlocking’ his prison in a sense, but only partially. This may take many years, but of what is time to a god? In addition, there are certain sites and areas of the world in which the Dark God infused some of his essence… or perhaps it escaped there when the powers of our world imprisoned him. No matter. Those insane and nihilistic humans worshipping the Dark God took to those sites and began dark and foul services to He-Whose-Name-Cannot-Be-Spoken, further empowering those essences. Over time, they have waned, but if the stars are ever in position and those sites revived, we are in danger most dire, for I believe that that will be the key in freeing him.
However, all is not lost. While the revivification of these unholy areas is, in my esteemed opinion, the key to freeing the Dark God, other criteria must be met first, according to The Journal of Kevelli Mauk. These criteria include the powers of Good, Evil, and Neutrality once again uniting in some cause, as well as a uniting of the ‘lost essence’ of He-Whose-Name-Cannot-Be-Spoken. While I am neither theologian nor demonologist, I cannot in good reason see these happening. What’s more, the uniting of the ‘lost essence’ must be done twice, an even more unlikely event, I am sure.
Nevertheless! Stranger and more magical things have happened! As long as it remains at all possible for this to happen, it must be guarded against with the utmost scrutiny, for it would mean the end of all. I speak as one whom, with the aid of the gods and three artifacts most foul, barely manages to defeat a portion of this unimaginable power. May these last words of mine serve as warning to all who come after me.
