The Dark Ones

The Dark Ones, also known as the Brood of Th'nath and Th'nath's Blood, are a form of aberrations comparable to the faceless and forgotten ones. While their sheer existence is mostly not even known to the common folk, a few ones know about them and speak of those aberrations in fear. Their origin leads back to the Old God himself.

Origins
While there are many theories about their origins, the most believable one is that they're the blood of Th'nath himself. As he and the Titans fought and caused the violent reshapeing of the whole of Azeroth, Th'nath intended to spill some of his blood before fleeing this plane of existence. Due to his power, his blood evolved a life for itself, seeping into the soil of certain places and corrupting them from their core. Later on those things remained in the darkness of these corrupted areas, manifesting as something even greater than just a pile of black slime.

Over the years those aberrations remained hidden for an yet unknown reason, untill something woke them up recently. Now they dare to strive the surface of the areas that they once corrupted for all these years. While some still remain in a rather powerless state, others managed to gain in power and manifest real shapes and forms.

States of existence
A Dark One goes through several states of power, which can be activated due to several different reasons. One of the most common reasons is the possession of a mortal vessel.

The first phase
When a Dark One is nearly powerless, it appears in the shape of a black, non-reflecting, slime-like mass which crawls over the soil, ceiling and walls. During this state, the Dark Ones are constantly on a search of a source of power. One of the most common ones is trying to crawl into the mouth of a mortal and possessing him/her, while feeding upon their soul. If the mortal vessel's resource is drained fully, the Dark One will enter the second phase. There are other ways to gain power though. Some Dark Ones feast upon magical resources. This proves to be way more exhausting though, thus most will rather seek out a vessel, not only for the easy task, but also for the sake of causing chaos and corruption in disguise.

The second phase
In the second phase, the Dark One will be able to manifest into a more solid form, taking on a real shape. Most Dark Ones will prefer to either take on the shape of their former vessels, to remain hidden within the lines of the enemy, or to manifest into horrid aberrations with several tentacles and spikes on their bodies. Note that, in order to take on the shape of their former vessel, they need to consume the dead body of this person. During this phase they will drain upon the life energy around them, and eat the spirits of those who still dwell in the mortal realm. If they gained enough power, they will enter the third phase of their existence.

The third phase
As soon as a Dark One enters the third Phase, they will lose their ability to cloak their aura and real form, but will also gain upon monstrous might. They will partly grow as tall as a whole house if they continue to feed. They mostly appear as black-red abominations with several, bone-like legs, many spikes on their back, and massive pranks with giant claws. They have several eyes, glowing in a dangerous red. Like in the second phase, their bodies have mainly the colours of black with flashes of red pulsing through them. The third Phase is how far most of the Dark Ones come after a few weeks, or months.

The fourth phase
While most Dark Ones only reach the third Phase, there are a very few recorded, who reached the fourth Phase of their existence. Those aberrations are grown in so much power, that defeating them alone is entirely impossible. While their size is double the size of the Dark Ones in the third Phase, their bodies looks very similar, though with some exceptions. The fangs are longer, horns bigger, spikes longer, and their power is way greater. If a Dark One of such power could ever manage to reach a village, it'd be lost. Fortunately, a Dark One of the fourth Phase wasn't seen in many, many years by now, thus they are assumed to be exstinct. But no one is able to know what ancient horros lurk beneath the surface.

It is assumed that there are even more Phases, or rather that there's no limit in their growing. Yet it is -extremly- unlikely that a Dark One could reach phase four, thus it is nearly impossible to reach any further phases. Note that, as soon as a Dark One is defeated, it returns to phase one, thus it's easier to kill, but it's also more likely that it could escape.

Abilities
The abilities of a Dark One vary massively, according to their several states of existence. While the Dark Ones in their basic state are rather powerless, they are still a great threat to lone travellers. A black, unreflecting ooze, waiting to ambush you and crawl into your mouth is pretty dangerous. Due to the fact that the Dark Ones are just slime during their first phase, you can't kill them with mere weapons. The light and fire are the best way to get rid of them. You can't really resist their possession, since they crawl into your mouth and literally flow through you. That's one of the reasons why sometimes, black veins are visible under a vessel's skin. Their blood turns black aswell. The vessels seem to possess greater power, like supernatural strenght, dark magic and more.



As soon as a Dark One enters phase two, their prowess in combat increases a lot. Their strenght is greater than that of an ogre, and their sheer presence could let their environment die. Thus they prefer already dead places, so that their disguise won't fall. The magic of a Dark One seems to be very distructive and is practically uncompareable to anything a mortal could wield. Apart from that, they seem to be able to duplicate, dominate minds, harvest souls, drain the life of their foes and their environment, shapeshift themselves into the individuals which of which they consumed the soul before, shapeshifting their limbs into deadly weapons and even stealing memories and imitating voices.

In their third state of existence, they will be able to reproduce, by dropping oozes from their bodies, which will manifest into new Dark Ones. In basic, they use their own blood, to create new Dark Ones. In the third phase, a Dark One is an extremly hard, if not overwhelming opponent, if faced alone. Their bodies assume giantic sizes, and their strenght is far greater than any mortal being could get. Their magic is unrivaled.

It will go on like that, each state bringing more power and more abilities to their arsenal. More devastation, more corruption and more darkness.

Weaknesses
While they seem very powerful, which they are, they have two very obvious weaknesses. The holy light and fire. The greater the power of a Dark One is, the more vulnerable it will get aswell, -especially- towards the light. Dark magic seems to be absolutely useless against them and will ratehr cause a mere tickle, than pain. The lower their power is, the more resistant they are. The greater their power, the more vulnerable.

There are a very few, secret organisations which specialize on fighting against the Dark Ones, and holding them at bay. Most of their members seem to be wielders of the holy light, while mere combatans use oil and fire against them.

Note that explsions might make it even worse, since they tear them apart. Those little parts will either crawl back to the body, or infest nearby vessels.

Behaviour
The behaviour of a Dark One varies during the different phases of their existence. While a Dark One of the phase one, will have no other aim than finding a source of power, a Dark One of the second phase will mostly stay shapeshifted in the form of it's former vessel and will wander around the areas which his victim wandered before. That may also happen during the first state, yet the vessel is still alive during that state, and it's more likely that people could see the strange signs on the vessel. The behaviour changes drastically during the third phase, resulting into something more destructive and chaotic. During phase three, a Dark One will give in its lust for destruction and chaos, and won't be afraid to show itself in public anymore. From that phase on, it will go on like that.

You should note that Dark Ones of the phase one and two, show a great amusement in manipulating and corrupting under the cover of the mortal vessel. It is assumed that, by possessing the vessel and consuming its soul, the Dark One will drain the memories out of the victim, taking on its personality and mind.

Vessels
During the possession of a vessel, the victim is still in there and is able to see everything with her/his very own eyes. For most that's a torture, not for all though. There are several different signs that others could notice, when a Dark one is possessing a victim. Yet those signs would dissapear, as soon as the Dark One enters phase two and is able to shapeshift itself into the former vessel. During phase one though, it is possible to see a few sympthoms which show the possession.

The sympthoms are the following:
 * If looking close around the region of the eyes, you might see faint, black veins beneath the skin.
 * The eyes get pretty pale.
 * The vessel's skin might get pale, like if that person would have a viral infection.
 * The blood of the vessel turns black.
 * The fingernails and teeth get darker in their colour.
 * In the very late states, the Dark One might get the full control, causing minor mutations on the vessel's body like claws, spikes and other bizzare things. Though such things were only seen if the Dark One wasn't able to enter phase two.

As mentioneed before, the Dark One will consume the dead body of the vessel, after entering phase two, thus giving it unlimited control over this form, which makes it way more dangerous. While shapeshifted, none of those sympthoms are seen anymore, thus people mostly think that the victim was temporarely sick. Already dead creatures (Undead) seem to be immune against possession. If you stab the vessel of a Dark One, the vessel will be dead, but the Dark One will still be able to live within it for a certain amount of time.

Since it's difficult to reckoginze a Dark One as soon as it entered phase two, people without magic will most likely fail in finding them. The light seems to be a good tool to track those aberrations quick enough though. While mere mortals won't scream in agony from a healing spell, a Dark One would. This method is used by the very few organisations which hunt those beasts. The chances are very high that if you kill a vessel with the holy light, the Dark One may die aswell.

Cults and worshippers
There are several different cults and worshippers out there which rever Th'nath, thus they will do the same with the Dark Ones. There is no cult out there directed to Th'nath, which doesn't worship the Dark Ones aswell. In some Cults it is considered a great honor to be possess and later on devoured by a Dark One, to serve the purpose of spreading the word of Th'nath. The Dark Ones actually allow the mortals to worship them, which leads to the believe that Dark Ones are pretty arrogant creatures. They even seem to enjoy it. Yet they will not even bother to help them in any way, if there's nothing for them to achieve.

Inside these Cults, the ones that get elected to "ascend" into possession are mostly high ranked members. Thse cults mostly speak of a so-called "Ascension".

The only line of defense
Even if the whole situation looks pretty sinister, there are still a few secret organisations out there which try to hold the Dark Ones at bay and eventually hunt them down. Most of these organisations are mere mercenaries which try their luck with oil and fire, while there are skilled orders which fight them effectively with the help of the holy light.

One of those Orders might be the "Order of Damnation". The leader is a great dwarf by the name of Gundrin "The Banisher" Lightflame, skilled Paladin and firemage. Wherever the Dark Ones may lurk, the Order of Damnation will be there and keep them at bay, if not even fighting them off completely. Though even they are not able to keep the news at bay that wander the whole of Azeroth by now;

A unknown, dark power woke up and is now threatening the world.

The Order of Damnation used to try to keep such trouble away from public, but even they shrink in numbers, day after day. Thus, Gundrin decided to let the word spread, so that new recruits may show up, since the threat it growing each day that passes. He even stationed recruiters in each of the major cities of the Alliance and hanged out flyers in every town available, which advertise to join the Order.

Environment
Dark Ones normally prefer dark and tainted places, mostly those which were touched by Th'nath himself. Corruption is their favourite condition.

Most Dark Ones of the phase one either dwell beneath the surface, in the shadows or come out around midnight. As soon as they possess a vessel that could change though, same with the further phases.

Prophecies of Th'nath
During the years, there were several different mortals who seemed to be the so-called "Prophets of Th'nath". Some were cultists, some were just mere civilians. Clear is that one day all of them received visions. After they received those visions, they wrote down things, abstract and horrid. They went insane and most of them preached the end of the world, when the Dark Ones and the Old God Th'nath shall return.

What is mentionable though, is that they named five names with Th'nath's. The names of five Dark Ones.

Most of those Prophets get hanged, if they not die shortly after they preached. It didn't happen very often yet, that a prophet showed up. Only three recorded cases across the whole of Azeroth. Yet all of them preached the same.
 * Gargondoth the First - He, who was the first amongst the first. He, who is the incarnation of Th'nath himself!
 * Shak'zeth the Devourer - He, who shall devour the landmass of Frostfall and digest the souls of those who inhabit it!
 * Vahn-Dûr the Prime - He, who spread the darkness upon Darnassus alongside our father. He, who is responsible for the near eradication of a race!
 * Cohr'vezz - He, who even made the ancients of war fall on the knees. He, who dominated and enslaved. He, who twisted them and turned them against each other!
 * Dhakkur - He, who darkened the skies above so much lands. He, who was with all of them, the one who made certain areas in our world perfect. Perfect corruption!

(More to come)