Rise Of The Great Destroyer

The Great Destroyer (also known as the Pale One, the White Flame, the Rotting End and many similar titles) is an extremely common, yet mysterious figure in Elvish mythology. While most variations of his myths are found on Valdesa, there are myths among the Faerian Elves that assign the same role to the Heaven aspect Qei.

The most popular myth surrounding the Great Destroyer is the of their rise to power amongst the gods, defeat of The Dark Lady, and the subsequent destruction of Şiv´ia.

Summary

The most popular version of this myth was recorded in The Fall of the Dark Lady, an epic poem from the East Islands region of Valdesa. The poem opens with the narrator introducing the Oracle of Yehuz, who tells of a horrifying vision. In this vision, an arrival from a distant land brought strife and war to Valdesa. During this time, nine Generals of great and terrible power would rise to aid the Destroyer into the world.

The appearance of the Generals would lead to may devastating disasters across the world. First, the weather and waves would become inhospitable, forcing the Deep Lord to journey to the surface. This would cause random, unnatural waves of death which would wipe out entire villages and yet leave others untouched. Then, animals would be born of unusually large size, or with disturbing characteristics such as fangs or pale yellow eyes. Similarly, plants would grow out of control with no reason.

The water would soon become grossly acidic, and necessary nutrients would be in sudden short supply. Siblings will kill sibling over food in these times. As the devastating famine continued, rot and mold would spread throughout the land. Plants would die under strange inflictions, and elves would fall mysteriously ill. The rot would destroy any wooden structure, and render the fire wood useless. Following the rot, a blizzard, the likes of which never seen in Valdesa would hit.

The next happening would be more subtle, as the upper classes around the world slowly gave further into lust and greed, to the level of insanity. This leads to a sudden increase in corruption through all governments, until there are no honest leaders left in the world. Entire governments would fall under this rampant corruption, and even the children of these leaders would turn against them.

War would then sweep the world, and all nations would fight all other nations. In this war there would be no allies or negotiations, only enemies and bloodshed. As the world battled itself to its end, the dead would rise from their graves to slay the living, and all slain beasts would take vengeance on their slayers.(start Sprint) On the final day of the world, the sun and stars would vanish behind a thick, ashy cloud, and the only light would come from the fires burning atop every mountains.

During that final day, the Dark Lady would come to her creations defense, and battle the Destroyer. She would then fall at his hands, and the world would be swept by fire.
After recounting this prophecy, the Oracle reportedly collapsed to the ground and died of a strange rot. Their body became pale and brittle, like kindling, within minutes. The author ends the poem by proclaiming the Oracle the first victim of the end times.

Historical Basis

As the Rise of the Destroyer is a prophecy, there is much disagreement about when, or if, it will happen. In many regions, prophecy is seen as fake, or at very least fickle. And even in the regions where the myth is believed, there is debate over whether the end has started yet, or if the horrors of the Destroyer's rise are a distant, future concern.

Interestingly, the groups who claim that it has begun have an unusually large amount of historical evidence.

Firstly, only a few short millenia after the initial recording of the prophecy, the Emberton Empire of Faerie was overthrown. The fleeing Emperor Emberton IX is now believed to have arrived in Valdesa, where his supporters may have clashed with small Elven kingdoms along the coast. There is definitive evidence of an Emberton settlement in that region, which was discovered to contain only the remains of it's inhabitants. Strangely, all of the inhabitants seem to have died suddenly and without warning, though there is no sign of a natural disaster or other incident that could have caused it. This supposedly also happened to elven villages in the Coastal regions. However, these villages were torched upon their discovery for fear of plague, and thus these claims cannot be proven.

Secondly, mutations are unusually common in certain parts of Valedesa. While at first glance, this follows the prophecy, in actuality many of these regions can be connected to known magical hotspots. This makes it impossible to prove if these mutations are connected to the destroyer in any way.

Around the end of the first King's Peace, an increase in volcanic activity did cause water sources to become acidic. The acidic water made vital minerals difficult and dangerous to secure, which lead to widespread famine throughout the Western Kingdoms. Naz and Koshl, twin princes of Xuot aligned with differing factions as tensions rose prior to the Xuot civil war. While both princes died at the battle of Texh, it is unclear whether they killed each other.

Most of the Oracle's warnings after this are much harder to prove either way. Rots have always been one of the most feared diseases of the Elves, and often lead to epidemics. This makes it impossible to point to any one time that rot was common as part of the prophecy. And of course, nobles have always been known to be greedy. As far as governments collapsing under the weight of their own corruption, it is a rare occurrence but not unheard of. Prime examples of this include the Storm Dynasty of the Faerie Empire and the Great Iather Empire.

While wars happen, and necromancers can be a problem, none of these events are happening on the global scale described in the prophecy. Due to the origin, vagueness, and lack of credible evidence, the Rise of the Great Destroyer is generally considered to be nothing more than an interesting myth.

Date of First Recording

~300 Pre-Empire (Faerian)

Related Species

• Elves

Related Locations

• Faerie
• Otherlands
• The Dancing Iles
• Valdesa

Related People

• Qei
• The Dark Lady