The Deep One, Ug-Qualtolth
To say this myth is ancient would hardly do it justice. First conceptualized by an extinct sentient species that rose to power before the last ice age, only fragmented bits of the tale have been passed down through oral tradition and dead languages. The story tells of an entity so powerful, it once threatened life on a galactic scale. Even the might of several Type 2 civilizations could not stop its expansion, forcing them to work together to banish this threat.
This being is what humans would now classify as an extremophile, however unlike the simple organisms encountered on Earth, this creature has developed sentience. Closely related to a creeping mold, it sustains itself by breaking down iron and feeding off the energy. It can also withstand extreme temperatures, allowing it to attach itself like a leech to the core of a planet and slowly dissolve it away. This process reduces the total lifespan of the celestial body itself and exposes those living on the surface to cataclysmic events once it has increased its mass according to its food supply.
After exhausting many devastating and scientific solutions, a proposition was made to sterilize the entire system before the entity could infect multiple worlds. Despite facing severe public backlash, the planet was knocked out of orbit using advanced technology that redirected focused energy from the sun. This decision was said to have also spurred on a large galactic war that ended up wiping out 99% of life across the entire universe, a heavy price to pay for ridding themselves of their enemy.
Aiming for the Sun in our humble stretch of the Milky Way, errors in calculations instead sent it on a collision course with Earth after it smashed through the Kuiper Belt. Vaporized by the impact, the creature as it was originally thought was destroyed. Dormant cells had miraculously survived however in the molten core and were now scattered throughout the mantle and surface. Most died, but some mutated and seeded the fledgling planet with what humanity now knows as common lifeforms. Although doomed to restart its evolutionary process from a single celled organism once again, it had no concept of defeat or loss, only hunger.
Unable to accomplish sentience above ground competing for resources, this new entity was reborn deep beneath the crust of the planet. Pieces of itself that became separated during this transition have forgotten their connection to the source. It was thought to be the purpose of the pineal gland in living beings, with the existence of dimethyltryptamine in all living things lending further proof to this concept. Assimilating anything organic that it comes across to learn experiences through a form of chemiosmosis, it was known to lure in prey using psilocybin and other sense altering narcotics to achieve this without a struggle. Though few know truly of the danger this being presents to Earth, it has been trapped in its natural prison for nearly 4.5 billion years, so perhaps there really is no need to worry..
Comments