Dern Beast

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The Dern Beast, on its throne, speaking to Bak'al.
Dern Beast
Aliases	Dark Beast, "It"
Allegiances	Darkness (leader)
Relations	Orphion (opposite, arch enemy), Bak'al (servant), The Parasite (servant), The Eye (servant), The Nameless (servant), Unnamed Follower (servant)
Status	Alive
Age	Older than time itself
Information	The beast that embodies Darkness and the Realm of Dern. Conquered the Silent Expanse, now threatens the rest of the physical plane. Has been waging war with Orphion and the Light since the beginning of time. Uses servants to enforce its will across the world, such as Bak'al.

“	You are blind, my friend. Let me show you what this war has become. As the war of the realms... is endless.	„
	~ Dern Beast, Ne du Valeos du Ellach

The Dern Beast (unofficial name) is an unreleased character and the beast and embodiment of the Darkness, similar to how Orphion is the beast of Light. It is the current main antagonist of the game's storyline, having warped the Silent Expanse into a nightmarish and alien world and employing beings such as Bak'al and the Parasite to carry out its will across the world, which is to "restore the world to the path of purity" by ending the balance between the forces of Light and Dark.

Unlike Orphion, the Dern Beast mostly acts in the shadows and never shows itself to anyone except its servants. It has also never directly interacted with the physical plane. The only people in Wynn who know about the beast's existence, aside from beings of Darkness and the Olm, are an organization which also appears to worship it.

The Dern Beast is either directly or indirectly behind many of the most important events that have occurred in the story, such as the creation of the Decay thanks to the Parasite, its servant, spreading its offspring across the Gavel Province to leech the Light away, and then infecting Orphion afterwards. Being one of the two sides fighting the eternal, primordial War of the Realms, it is also partly responsible for the creation of Corruption and the Realm of War, as well as its spread into the Wynn Province afterwards, including slow but constant shattering of the barriers between realms that is a direct byproduct of the conflict, although both of these seem to be unintentional consequences of the war rather than actual calculated stratagems from the Dern Beast.

Furthermore, the Beast has made use of The Nameless, an anomalous aberration originating from the Realm of Darkness to engulf pieces of the Physical Plane and claim them as its own. The Nameless possesses the unique ability to remove chunks of reality and pull them across the barrier of the Void, leaving behind an empty gap where reality ceases to remain. The Nameless has been responsible for the misfortune of Void Valley and greater destruction in the name of Dern that is currently untold. However, The Nameless is not consciously or willingly serving the Dern beast, and is merely performing this action as "we would breathe".

At some point in the recent past, the Beast ordered Bak'al to place its eye at the top of the Eldritch Outlook so that its gaze may watch over the entire Wynn Province and subjugate all life in the Expanse, as well as to prevent intruders from trespassing into Dern.

Appearance

The Dern Beast's appearance is currently not fully known, but it is very large, dwarfing the human-sized Bak'al. Some parts of the body it uses can be seen when it is seated on its throne and speaking to Bak'al, namely, its arms. The Beast's arms are black and seemingly have humanoid proportions. They both end in two sets of sharp, white claws, and are lined at the top with a long line of dark brown scales that run all the way down the length of its arms. Due to the fact that its legs are not visible, whether it actually has any is unknown.

The Dern Beast's eye.

The Dern Beast's only other body part that can be seen is its eye, which it ripped out so that Bak'al could place it at the top of the Eldritch Outlook. When it was first removed, the eye, while still being roughly human-sized, was relatively small, but later on grew to be very large of its own right. The Beast's eye is round and looks similar to a human eye. It possesses a purple and blue iris, a black pupil and a white sclera. Its eyelids are dark orange and its eyelashes are a bright yellow color, and four sets of dark red blood vessels flow out of the eye at its four corners. In its final form, the eye's iris and pupil burst out, leaving only the sclera behind. Green tendrils can be seen coming out of the back of the iris, spreading out and likely allowing the eye to move.

Personality

The Dern Beast is a cold, calculating being, and with no regard for morals, which is not unlike its counterpart Orphion. However, while Orphion is perceived to want his followers to sacrifice morality to do what he considers to be the objectively right thing that would benefit the largest amount of people, the Dern Beast does not hide the fact that it only acts in its own benefit, not paying any heed to the immense number of casualties it creates through its actions as long as they all follow the Beast's ultimate plan to destroy what it calls the "imbalance" plaguing the world and bringing it back to the path of purity. In fact, the Dern Beast goes out of its way to hunt down and subjugate anything that may pose a threat or use to it, as it did with the Olm that had previously been inhabiting the Silent Expanse. At the same time, the Beast seems to be largely detached from the matters of the physical world, unlike Orphion who frequently communicated with his devotees, not showing itself to mortals when unnecessary. It probably only considers the people of the world, including its very own servants, as nothing but pawns in its project.

The Beast genuinely believes that it's doing the right thing by following its plan to bring the world to purity by unifying it all under the banner of the Darkness, as it claims that the endless war of the realms has torn it and Orphion apart from what they once were. It also enforces this will on all its servants - though not all share its motive - and eventually desires to impose it on the entire world by using The Eye to oversee everything.

The Dern Beast is able to quickly come up with a new plan after hearing of Bak'al's defeat.

The Dern Beast does not seem to hold any kind of animosity against anyone, not even against those who stand in its way such as Orphion, who is its opposite and ultimate archenemy, even referring to him as a "friend", albeit it may be in a joking or condescending manner. Even when its servant Bak'al failed to spread its will in the Wynn Province due to his failure against the hero Bob in 886 AP, it was perfectly calm and did not seem to harbor any resentment against its peon, instead immediately coming up with a new plan to use its eye to oversee the province and impose its will upon it. Furthermore, due to Bak'al's appearance in the present day during the quest Realm of Light V - The Realm of Light, it is implied that he was eventually forgiven by the Beast for his mistake and allowed to serve it again.

Biography

How the Dern Beast may have impacted the early world is much unknown, as most records have been lost with the civilizations who would have kept them. One of the earliest known dates is it laying siege to the civilization that lived in the area, the Olm, sending fireballs towards their capital. Although the Olm were already prepared for the invasion beforehand, thanks to an oracle who foresaw the Beast attacking, they could not retrieve the bracelet that the oracle created in order to fight the Darkness back. Thus, the Dern Beast was able to defeat the Olm, destroying their city and bringing them into its domain, Dern.

The Dern Beast transformed the Silent Expanse into a nightmarish land resembling Dern after its invasion.

However, the Olm were able to escape thanks to the power of the Crystals in their possession, and fled into the Dernel Jungle. Shortly afterwards, they went insane due to the Crystals' magic, which is known to bend minds and bring people to insanity. They begun believing that the Beast was still watching them and looking for them to kill them off (something which it however likely did). Meanwhile, the Silent Expanse fell under the complete control of the Beast, becoming a land of darkness.

Many years later, in 0 AP, the actions of Elder Prometheus of Aldorei caused the kindling of all three Portals that existed in the physical world: the Dern Portal, the Light Portal, and the War Portal of Corruption. Thus, the Corruption War started in Wynn, and a new, far more active phase of the War of the Realms began. The Beast sent the Parasite into Gavel to depreciating light and spread darkness in the province, with Orphion sending Lari and Dullahan to track it down in retaliation, although they failed to kill it. Shortly after the equinox, the Dern Beast also recruited Bak'al, a corrupted human who retained some of his intelligence, into its ranks. Bak'al went on to become the leader of the Corrupted armies in Wynn, using his large undead hordes to launch attacks against the province's many cities and forts so that they may be subjugated and returned to the very "purity" that the Dern Beast longs for.

In the last few centuries, the scales of the war tipped in the favour of the Darkness, leading Orphion to confront the Dern Beast directly. However, the Dern Beast launched a surprise attack against Orphion by having the Parasite leech onto him, infecting him and the Realm of Light as a result, and weakening the Light's influence in Gavel and exacerbating the Decay.

Around the same time, the Dern Beast, disappointed in Bak'al's failure to conquer the Wynn Province, had him place its eye at the top of the Eldritch Outlook, the tallest building in the known world, so that it may watch over the Wynn Province and enforce its will upon it. The Eye sits at the very peak of this building to this day.

Relationships

Being the Beast of Darkness, the Dern Beast has close ties to some of the story's most important characters, which are listed below:

The Dern Beast uses the Parasite to infect Orphion.

• Orphion: The Dern Beast's opposite and natural nemesis. Being the embodiment of Darkness, and Orphion light, it has fought with him since the very beginning of time, and it is their conflict that fuels the War of the Realms. Despite that, the Dern Beast and Orphion rarely talk in person, to the point where Orphion even says that it had been a while since they'd last met when he confronts it. The Dern Beast does not seem to harbor much resentment towards Orphion, talking to him with somewhat friendly terms and even referring to him as its "friend", whether it be ironic or not, and longing for the days before the war, which tore them apart from what they were. Orphion, however, refutes this and states that their paths had never been the same, and never will be. Yet, the Beast recognizes what it must do and does not hesitate to cruelly attack Orphion from out of nowhere, surprising him by sending the Parasite to attack him and latch onto him, infecting him. This was in accordance with its plan to slowly leech the Light away from the Gavel Province.
• Bak'al: Bak'al is the most prominent of the Dern Beast's servants and the former leader of the Corrupted armies in Wynn, serving under the Beast and working to spread its will across the province according to its plan to bring the world back to the path of purity. While Bak'al seems to show nothing but absolute loyalty and respect to his master, it thinks of him as a mere peon that it uses as a vessel to spread its influence. It is also quick to remind Bak'al of his failure against Bob during its meeting with him. However, it doesn't punish Bak'al too harshly for it, and instead shows a degree of forgiveness, even allowing him to serve under it once more, as he would go on to do when he fights Lari in the Realm of Light questline.
• The Parasite: The Parasite is yet another one of the Dern Beast's peons, and serves an extremely important purpose in the story of the Gavel Province, as the being directly responsible for the creation of the province's greatest plague, the Decay, on the orders of its master. Unlike Bak'al, the Parasite does not have any semblance of intelligence, rather acting upon its primal instincts to serve its master, spread and defend itself against threats. The Beast appears to mostly treat the Parasite as a tool which it can use offensively, as it did when it ordered the Parasite to latch onto Orphion and infect him, which the bug did without question.

The Ruined Olmic City, symbol of the Dern Beast's aggression against the Olm.

• The Olm: The Olm were once the dominant species in the Silent Expanse, back when it was a lush green land ripe for settlement, and the Wynn Province. They were the first victims of the Dern Beast's invasion of the physical plane, as it broke into their homeland and spread its influence there, going so far as to personally destroy their capital city with a barrage of fireballs. After putting an end to their civilization, the Beast forced the Olm into its domain, the Realm of Dern, to keep them captive. However, the Olm were able to escape by harnessing the power of the Crystals in their possession and fled into the Dernel Jungle, where they built an underground city to escape the Dern Beast's grasp. Although it's unknown how much interest the Beast took in the Olm, in its confrontation with Bak'al it described them as "people without hope", attributing that as the reason why it was able to conquer their land. The Olm fear and despise the Dern Beast so much that they went insane, both due to the Crystals' influence and due to their own belief that it was still looking for them to force them back into Dern, and refer to it simply as "It".

Abilities and Powers

Being the Beast of Darkness and the embodiment of the Realm of Dern, as well as transcending mortality and physicality itself, the Dern Beast is the most powerful being in the game's story, being even greater in might to Orphion, the Beast of Light. Its eye alone serves as a massive threat to the Player's journey, being the boss of the Eldritch Outlook, the highest-level dungeon currently. Furthermore, it has control over many servants who are very powerful in their own right, such as Bak'al and the Parasite. Some of its more specific abilities include:

• Complete Control over Darkness: Due to it being the embodiment of Darkness, the Dern Beast has paramount and limitless control over the force of influence, most likely being able to alter not just the landscapes affected by the Darkness, but also the many Dark beings spread across the Silent Expanse and Dern, if it so wished. This power essentially makes the Beast a God, with an unmatched degree of power and omniscience within its own realm of influence.
• Formless: Due to its status as a being above the concept of physicality, it is likely that the Dern Beast can change appearance at will.
• Genesis: The Dern Beast is likely able to create lesser entities to exact its desires, as well as climates, locations, objects, and obstacles. The Dern Beast's counterpart, Orphion, presumably created the Nexus of Light and Obelisk in Lutho by will, and as such it is almost certain that The Dern Beast is capable of, and has done, the same. This ability to conceive new things may have been the origin of The Parasite.

Trivia

• In earlier versions of the game, players believed that the Dern Beast was going to be the Ender Dragon.
  • This is because, at that point in the past, Dern itself was inspired by the End.
• In his Sealed Letters, Bob tells Nilrem that he is "going to seal away a dark creature of the night in a land far away". This could potentially be referring to the Dern Beast.
• In the Ultimate Discovery of the Light Forest, Ne du Valeos du Ellach, the Dern Beast mentions "a power that [it has] gained", which has made it stronger.
  • The "power" could refer to Darkness silently devouring the Physical Plane, and having established a medium for which to do so via The Nameless Anomaly.
• The Dern Beast itself appears to be way bigger than Orphion, as its arm alone is even bigger than Bak'al.