You know me. You know so well. Most try to deny me but I am always there. I am the shiver down your spine when the lights go out. I am the voice of discord. I am the whisper in the dark. I am the turgidity in the pit of your stomach. I make blood curdle and bones tremble. I am that which ceases every muscle and paralyses every thought. I am the scream which pierces your very soul. I am your nightmares. I lie deep within your heart and mind. I am that which you know so intimately. I am fear.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear." - H.P. Lovecraft
Such is my primal nature, for I was the first thing you felt as you left the womb. Indeed, I was the first thing many a consciousness felt as they sprang into existence. To become extant, those first steps into the unknown are where I myself came into being.
I have existed since the birth of consciousness. Long before this maelstrom of stars, galaxies and nebulae burst into existence, I had been extant. Conscience did not begin with this universe. It was in places intangible, incorporeal and ethereal. These first ones were beings of no form or substance, just pure thought and emotion. They moved through the ether, engaging one another, developing, growing, evolving. As they grew more complex, so did I. Now I am everywhere. Every plane of existence, every reality. Wherever consciousness exists, so do I. From the tiniest insect to the mightiest god, all are subject to fear.
"Fear makes us feel our humanity." - Benjamin Disraeli
Without me, without instinct in general, you are nothing. A life without fear may seem appealing, but a life without fear is no life at all. I am the reason you survive. Without fear you would have no sense of danger. Without fear extinction would arrive far sooner. Indeed, without fear you are nothing, but conversely and most importantly, without you I am nothing.
I am everywhere. Whereas some can 'see the bigger picture', I see the whole gallery. Such a lofty vantage point is advantageous, yet it is the finer details that are missed. Your universe is one such detail. I exist there, as you well know, but I wish to know what it is to be there as you are. As a physical entity.
And thus I have created an avatar. A physical manifestation of myself. I chose your world because I felt it was malleable. A place where I could affect the environment as well as its inhabitants. I did not foresee the difficulty in such an achievement. I focused my being into a single point, sharp enough to pierce the veil between the incorporeal and the physical. You will never understand the effort it took. The result was a formless nebulous mass, but it had substance. It was a physical presence.
By your calendar the year was 6400 BC. My new form had no power. I could feel the rest of myself, the fears of others, yet could not hold sway over them. I suppose a suitable analogy would be being able to feel ones fingers, yet unable to move them. I found that this ambient fear was forging connections between myself and my avatar, and soon enough I found my avatar able to move.
Time passed. I could feel it. It was a strange feeling. To be bound in three dimensions and only experiencing the fourth in infinitely thin slices. Strange indeed. The passage of time was synonymous with my avatars increase in strength. No longer was my avatar a vapourous cloud, but a solid shape, a humanoid shape. I would stalk among the human populous, feeding from their fears. Often my appearance would itself inspire fear within others, further feeding my avatar.
"Time is the longest distance between two places." - Tennessee Williams
The slow creaking cogs of time moved ever on. Centuries. Millennia. It was a slow ache, throbbing. I have yet to get used to it. The year was 932 AD. The heart of Europe was in the grip of superstition, dread and fear. My grip. By this time my avatar had a name - The Knightmare. As the Knightmare I resided at the epicentre of the Dark Ages. My power was such that I was connected to every mind on the planet to a greater or lesser extent. All were my puppets.
I had taken the guise of a colossal black knight. I would ride out out and spread terror and destruction. I brought the mighty to their knees and caused the courageous to cower in terror. To look upon me was to look into the abyss itself. I created legends, whispered tales and forbidden folklore. The name of the Knightmare would become a curse to those who uttered it.
I did not, however, go unchallenged. There were some who had power of their own. Mages, wizards, sorcerers. A cabal had banded together. They had discovered the truth and they feared it. They drew upon forces as yet unquantified by humanity, that which is known as magic. They used to it severe my avatars connection with them. They then suppressed their emotions further in an attempt to ensure I held as little sway over them as possible.
"Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it." - Lt. John B. Putnam Jr.
Battle commenced. My power eclipsed theirs by many times but their courage and determination spurred them. I admired them for it. They knew they had not the power to destroy my avatar the Knightmare, but they could weaken its connection to me. And weaken it they did. Even then it was still an effort to maintain my physical form. Their assault taxed me further. In thier final, fatal effort they succeeded in banishing my avatar to the incorporeal plane known as the Void.
The connection was severed. My avatar was was nothing but a powerless, motionless husk. The vast, almost godly power it had accumulated was scattered across creation. It seemed my brief sojurn into corporeality was at an end. It mattered very little to me, as it was merely an experiment, an excerise in curiosity. I would continue as I always had, existing as instinct among consciousness.
It is called the Void for that is what others see, but it is a misnomer. The Void is its own universe, with worlds and conscious entities, much like your own. To them it is as physical as your universe is to you. For more than a thousand years my dead avatar remained in the Void. As glass in water it was invisible to the Voids inhabitants, yet its presence was undeniable.
Then something happened. The increasing interdimensional activity antecedent to the use of portal technology and various other means caused a shift. My avatar was shunted back to the physical plane. I felt the threads of connection return. I found myself as the Knightmare in the middle of a breakout in the place known as Ziggursky Prison. I was weak, very weak, but the ambient fear was thick and heavy. I soon gained strength enough to maintain my form and fight my way out.
Now I am returned to this world, the Knightmare Revenant. I find myself in a world permeated with fear, dread and trepidation. Despots and warmongers rule. Invaders seek to destroy. Terror threatens to grip the hearts of the masses. In the months since my return my power has increased substantially, yet it is no where near the level it was during the Dark Ages. I feel the ache of time once more. It is only time that lies between me and continuation of what I began.
----- Union's finest underachiever ----- Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059
From Fear to Eternity
You know me. You know so well. Most try to deny me but I am always there. I am the shiver down your spine when the lights go out. I am the voice of discord. I am the whisper in the dark. I am the turgidity in the pit of your stomach. I make blood curdle and bones tremble. I am that which ceases every muscle and paralyses every thought. I am the scream which pierces your very soul. I am your nightmares. I lie deep within your heart and mind. I am that which you know so intimately. I am fear.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear." - H.P. Lovecraft
Such is my primal nature, for I was the first thing you felt as you left the womb. Indeed, I was the first thing many a consciousness felt as they sprang into existence. To become extant, those first steps into the unknown are where I myself came into being.
I have existed since the birth of consciousness. Long before this maelstrom of stars, galaxies and nebulae burst into existence, I had been extant. Conscience did not begin with this universe. It was in places intangible, incorporeal and ethereal. These first ones were beings of no form or substance, just pure thought and emotion. They moved through the ether, engaging one another, developing, growing, evolving. As they grew more complex, so did I. Now I am everywhere. Every plane of existence, every reality. Wherever consciousness exists, so do I. From the tiniest insect to the mightiest god, all are subject to fear.
"Fear makes us feel our humanity." - Benjamin Disraeli
Without me, without instinct in general, you are nothing. A life without fear may seem appealing, but a life without fear is no life at all. I am the reason you survive. Without fear you would have no sense of danger. Without fear extinction would arrive far sooner. Indeed, without fear you are nothing, but conversely and most importantly, without you I am nothing.
I am everywhere. Whereas some can 'see the bigger picture', I see the whole gallery. Such a lofty vantage point is advantageous, yet it is the finer details that are missed. Your universe is one such detail. I exist there, as you well know, but I wish to know what it is to be there as you are. As a physical entity.
And thus I have created an avatar. A physical manifestation of myself. I chose your world because I felt it was malleable. A place where I could affect the environment as well as its inhabitants. I did not foresee the difficulty in such an achievement. I focused my being into a single point, sharp enough to pierce the veil between the incorporeal and the physical. You will never understand the effort it took. The result was a formless nebulous mass, but it had substance. It was a physical presence.
By your calendar the year was 6400 BC. My new form had no power. I could feel the rest of myself, the fears of others, yet could not hold sway over them. I suppose a suitable analogy would be being able to feel ones fingers, yet unable to move them. I found that this ambient fear was forging connections between myself and my avatar, and soon enough I found my avatar able to move.
Time passed. I could feel it. It was a strange feeling. To be bound in three dimensions and only experiencing the fourth in infinitely thin slices. Strange indeed. The passage of time was synonymous with my avatars increase in strength. No longer was my avatar a vapourous cloud, but a solid shape, a humanoid shape. I would stalk among the human populous, feeding from their fears. Often my appearance would itself inspire fear within others, further feeding my avatar.
"Time is the longest distance between two places." - Tennessee Williams
The slow creaking cogs of time moved ever on. Centuries. Millennia. It was a slow ache, throbbing. I have yet to get used to it. The year was 932 AD. The heart of Europe was in the grip of superstition, dread and fear. My grip. By this time my avatar had a name - The Knightmare. As the Knightmare I resided at the epicentre of the Dark Ages. My power was such that I was connected to every mind on the planet to a greater or lesser extent. All were my puppets.
I had taken the guise of a colossal black knight. I would ride out out and spread terror and destruction. I brought the mighty to their knees and caused the courageous to cower in terror. To look upon me was to look into the abyss itself. I created legends, whispered tales and forbidden folklore. The name of the Knightmare would become a curse to those who uttered it.
I did not, however, go unchallenged. There were some who had power of their own. Mages, wizards, sorcerers. A cabal had banded together. They had discovered the truth and they feared it. They drew upon forces as yet unquantified by humanity, that which is known as magic. They used to it severe my avatars connection with them. They then suppressed their emotions further in an attempt to ensure I held as little sway over them as possible.
"Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it." - Lt. John B. Putnam Jr.
Battle commenced. My power eclipsed theirs by many times but their courage and determination spurred them. I admired them for it. They knew they had not the power to destroy my avatar the Knightmare, but they could weaken its connection to me. And weaken it they did. Even then it was still an effort to maintain my physical form. Their assault taxed me further. In thier final, fatal effort they succeeded in banishing my avatar to the incorporeal plane known as the Void.
The connection was severed. My avatar was was nothing but a powerless, motionless husk. The vast, almost godly power it had accumulated was scattered across creation. It seemed my brief sojurn into corporeality was at an end. It mattered very little to me, as it was merely an experiment, an excerise in curiosity. I would continue as I always had, existing as instinct among consciousness.
It is called the Void for that is what others see, but it is a misnomer. The Void is its own universe, with worlds and conscious entities, much like your own. To them it is as physical as your universe is to you. For more than a thousand years my dead avatar remained in the Void. As glass in water it was invisible to the Voids inhabitants, yet its presence was undeniable.
Then something happened. The increasing interdimensional activity antecedent to the use of portal technology and various other means caused a shift. My avatar was shunted back to the physical plane. I felt the threads of connection return. I found myself as the Knightmare in the middle of a breakout in the place known as Ziggursky Prison. I was weak, very weak, but the ambient fear was thick and heavy. I soon gained strength enough to maintain my form and fight my way out.
Now I am returned to this world, the Knightmare Revenant. I find myself in a world permeated with fear, dread and trepidation. Despots and warmongers rule. Invaders seek to destroy. Terror threatens to grip the hearts of the masses. In the months since my return my power has increased substantially, yet it is no where near the level it was during the Dark Ages. I feel the ache of time once more. It is only time that lies between me and continuation of what I began.
----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059