#/ the tragedy itself is very important to how nox functions cognitively. how they think. that sorta thing

[astarab1aze]

the worldeater - is an extremely complicated entity that is equally as extremely intertwined with very old, old lore i share with ( @elysiumtouched ). we're talkin' years, baby!

they eat. a manifestation of the universe itself. they who devour the stars, the very gods, the heavens, the hells, themselves. they eat, and within them is born a new universe, a new time, a new land, with new names, new cultures, new people, new gods, new suns and moons. they are the embodiment of rebirth, chaotic in demeanor, but rigidly adherent to the structure and function of sunjatta as a whole, which is why every outer god, ascendent or not, must also serve a purpose ( take, for example, loux and his eventual ascendency - his purpose, to stoke and carry the flame of ambition, passion, love, and courage, heroism in a place you least expect to find it (in a bastard of a scoundrel), fire itself ).

they represent more than just rebirth, but new beginnings, atonement, obsession, parenthood, grief, transformation and change, vanity, pride, snakes, lizards, dragons, demons-- they can take many forms and have many names, but few have persisted over the unfathomable amount of time they've existed, and such are the forms of a man with white hair and a wyrm spanning the milky way's diameter, perhaps larger in fact. nox, nocturne, endrbinger, worldeater. on the surface, they are a forgotten god - too old to remember the prayers for, the magic required to commune - but in reality, they are ever-present, inevitable, a viciously unpredictable being ( by mortal standards ) who has no moral code to speak of until it pertains to the things that are important to them specifically, and even then... perhaps even more so.

they are not the first of the gods to exist nor will they be the last, but they are the god and they will not be disobeyed.

i've included under the cut a story of sorts about them and their relationship with their mate, from another time, another place, another version of them - but no less canon.

     Nox was the prince of demons. Truly the baby of the family, no one really wanted him to take the throne or to be god of gods, king of them all, but they’d little choice. It was prophesied. He was king regardless of what they felt was wrong or right.

     So his eldest brother, the schemer and maniacal god of death, chose to play the long game, and propped him up. Paraded around as his only true support, carefully selecting male and female consorts to stand at his side when it came time to produce an heir, gathering armies, etc etc.

     While at the same time plotting to use him as a tool, to manipulate him into doing as he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted. Nox could trust him! He’d given him support when all their other siblings sought to lead him to slaughter, to tarnish his reputation and somehow put an end to his reign before it’d ever even begun.

     He meets his mate on the night of his coronation.

     A young god of only a few centuries old, thrust into the arms of a lesser demon a mere few thousand years older than he, whose bloodline had been carefully modified in order to meet the requirements laid out by the gods themselves. Ade, who was extremely bitter (and rightly so), wanted little to do with Nox and abused him regularly, but being foolish and young, believing his own manipulative siblings had his best interests at heart, he really didn’t know what was good or bad, so abuse became a common theme in their dubious and unwilling relationship.

     A few centuries go by and Ade has come to…at the very least, seem like him, so the abuse between them slows to a halt and they’re able to live their lives as normally as two demons might. They are gentle with one another now, loving even, and have so decided to mate properly and without the context of ‘king and consort’. In this universe, dragon- and otherwise reptile-like creatures are capable of reproducing asexually or with any gender as their populations have been so devastated that only a few remain. This goes double for the gods, especially those of primordial origins - like Nox.

     And so, Nox lays his first clutch of eggs.

     But on a day he is away from his nest, to bathe in the Oblivion Pools, one of his siblings (the god of assassination and trickery), destroys his nest and savagely murders Ade.

     As Ade’s bloodline had been altered by the gods for one specific purpose, he is reincarnated over and over and over again, to suffer the very same fate…over and over and over. And Nox is helpless to stop it as he has no understanding of what’s happening or why. He may be primordial, but he is not omnipotent, and over the many thousands of years this process repeats, he is forced to lay his clutches or watch Ade lay his own, and summarily suffer through loss after loss.

     This gradually pushes him into embracing his role as the demon king and Endbringer his brother was shaping him to be in the first place. A disconnect forms between himself and his memories of Ade, and he can no longer recognize him as his mate, so the cycle of abuse returns at full force. Though, Nox had become the abuser.

     He regularly mistreats Ade, goes out of his way to personally destroy each and every clutch they have between them (if he doesn’t, someone else will, and he’s not willing to suffer at the hands of anyone else again). So much time passes that he forgets why he’s as cruel as he is anymore, he forgets what made him, he forgets why he made the choices he did, why he loved Ade. And this cycle repeats for another thousand years.

     It isn’t until Nox is gearing up for a mass-scale demonic war and Ade is reincarnated for the millionth time that he realizes (or even begins to think) that what he’s done is wrong.

     He knows he is beyond any redemption of his own, so he doesn’t bother to seek it out, instead choosing to cease causing Ade any further pain and treating him more neutrally than anything. Jarringly so. He keeps a close eye on Ade from the time he comes of age until he has a few thousand years on him, protecting him through the use of his most valued and trusted spies and advisors.

     As Ade grows older, he grows colder, and rightly so, and this instills within Nox so heavy a feeling of regret, he eventually comes to rethink his decision not to seek out his forgiveness… Every step taken is slow and thoughtful, every word spoken careful and ringing clear with his intent to mend their bond. In this time, he realizes everything he’d done, who Ade truly is to him, and desperately tries even harder to fix what was broken.

     Ade is unkind to him, entreating him to much of the same treatment he’d endured for the many lives he’d lived as Nox’s consort. Yet, though it may have taken centuries more, Ade had begun to soften and in so doing he came into his role as an Endbringer, a Worldeater. Despite an equally broken heart, Nox was proud of him, happy that he had become his true equal.

     After yet more time, they left the Hellplane - together - and now live within Nox’s own belly, a temple built from stardust as a testament to what they shared, both for better and for worse. In effect, they are married, consider themselves so, and have had only one successful clutch of eggs between them insofar. Of course, they are open to the idea of more as children just grow up so fast, don’t they?