An existential darkness that devours light, life, and magic, radiating from the Black Throne. It is the reason Mandatory Awakening exists — and possibly the reason the Old Gods were cast down.
threatdarknessexistentialcorruption
The Devouring Dark
The Cimmerian Blight is not mere absence of light — it is an active, hungry force that consumes illumination, warmth, vitality, and magical energy. It radiates outward from the Black Throne in the Cimmerian Deep, bleeding through rifts in reality where it has eaten through to the mortal world.
Origin
Scholars debate whether the Blight created the Cimmerian Deep or was born from it. What is known:
- It predates Phaethon's ascension, plaguing the latter Age of Dusk.
- The Eclipsed Old Gods may have been cast into the Deep because of their connection to it — or it may have grown because they were imprisoned there.
- The Deep is expanding. Slowly, inexorably, but measurably.
Effects
- On the land: Soil goes grey and crumbly; plants twist into barren husks; water turns viscous and cold.
- On magic: Spells flicker and fail; sun-glass dims; Awakened magic drains from the body, leaving victims empty husks.
- On the living: Prolonged exposure causes the Fading — a withering of vitality where the afflicted grows cold, listless, and translucent before dissolving into shadow.
- On the dead: Those killed by the Blight rise as Blight-cursed undead — husks of former citizens wrapped in clinging darkness.