绝灭大君——毁灭
「在宇宙的中心有一团火种。它愈烧愈旺,直到燃尽了整片星河——只为在一切现实的终点迎来壮美的埃灭。」
——阿德里安•斯宾塞-史密斯,《有关星空的寓言集:结局及其四行尾注》
行于毁灭命途的星神纳努克,为各个世界上萌生毁灭冲动的强大生物投去一瞥,并为其烙下印记,赐予力量。这些强大的生物被由内向外反转,投身「战争洪炉」的世界中重新锤炼,以反物质补足其缺损,最终成为了军团的一员。
于是,响应着「毁灭一切」的愿望,在司职不同的军团中出现了各自的统领者「绝灭大君」。绝灭大君既是星神令使,毁灭意志的执行人:痴迷于破灭的美感,贯彻着万物归熵的准则;同时也是战争的艺术家、至臻化纯的毁灭兵器:他们指挥着跨越群星的战争,掌握着星神赐福的毁灭伟力。每位绝灭大君都抱持着独特的「毁灭」理念,这使得他们极端危险。研究者认为,绝灭大君被拔升为纳努克使徒的原因,正在于这绝对尖锐,绝对强烈的毁灭美学。
在厄兆先锋中,流传着名为「四末说」的预言:四条命途会将银河推向「终末」的结局,而「毁灭」正是其中之一。该假说猜测,纳努克作为最后出现的星神,其诞生便意味着「星神」这一概念在宇宙层面进入了倒计时阶段。
反物质军团燃烧诸界,令一切物质坠入灭亡。而绝灭大君作为星神擢选的兵器,更有观点称,他们身受纳努克的赐福,是为焚灭命途而生的「反物质弹」:倘若生命以负熵为食,一切行为都注定促成「毁灭」。而在万物归熵的终点,「毁灭」将与银河一同终结。
绝灭大君•归寂
有人说归寂是最像凡人的大君,也有人说截然相反。他极少投身正面战场,而是如棋手般观望战局,在后方精心排布军团的入侵。
那些被归寂瞩目的世界,会在漫长的时光中被一场又一场恶毒的玩笑吞没,例如奥古尔星环的毁灭:这位大君耗费百年时间,命令虚卒缓慢推进,只为迫使抵抗者的战线连成一句话语:「毁灭是笑声的终点,是悼念而非狂欢」。
他被认为是「欢愉」的毁灭者,而归寂似乎无意否认——离去前,他在每一颗死亡星球的表面烙印下巨大的笑脸,像是在嘲笑所有存在的逝去。
绝灭大君•焚风
焚风是公认最可怖的绝灭大君,他痴迷于万物破灭瞬间的美感。也有人认为在大君中,遭遇焚风是上上签,因为见到他意味着毫无痛苦的死亡。
一些混沌医师提出猜想:焚风的「毁灭」或许是某种反抗。他极有可能是一位受IX感召的自灭者,面对星神投下的阴翳,选择将褪却的色彩磨砺成极致的白光。他的破坏时而返照在「虚无」行者的梦中,并在他们惊醒的身躯上留下焦痛的灼伤。
有理由相信,焚风剑指「虚无」。一位自灭者曾颤抖着说出他经历的噩梦:在无物可供毁灭的终点,一位绝灭大君飞入了IX的神体,随后是一束暴烈的白色——它洞穿了最深不见底的黑暗。
绝灭大君•星啸
在无力自救,选择向群星祈祷时,一些文明的呼喊会传入家族耳中。而后星啸降临,为呼告者的敌人——和呼告者本身带去平等的毁灭。
与其他难寻记载的大君不同,星啸的起源确凿无疑:纳努克亲临并点燃一座谐乐世界,自无限夫长的灰烬中将这位大君擢升。
星啸被视为「同谐」的毁灭者,她统领反物质军团,指挥漫天虚卒和星舰进行集群战斗。长久以来,她沿着「万界之癌」爆发的路径行动,编织出一张死亡之网。传闻众大君中,只有星啸知晓星核背后的秘密,又或者,她就是星核的播撒者。
绝灭大君•光逝
别名「吞日之兽」的巨物。在博识学会的记录中,它制造了为数众多的星辰熄灭事件。银河对这位大君了解甚少,甚至连它的目标都始终成谜,只能以「光逝」代称。
光逝的形貌难以名状,身躯遮天蔽日。星空生态学派猜测它是古兽某一分支的后裔。但古兽灭绝许久,难以想象一位年轻的星神能将这种古老存在从死亡中召回并驱使。
它会是纳努克为对抗「贪饕」或「不朽」所准备的令使吗?这个问题暂时没有答案。
绝灭大君•铸王
银河势力调查多年,始终无法寻获这位大君的情报。直到最近,随着两位俱乐部会员对翁法罗斯展开观测,公司才从铁墓的引力波中解码获得了它的名字——「铸王」。
虚卒一向拥有扭曲的外形,而在被摧毁的瞬间,一些「毁灭」造物更会迸发激烈的逆火,将敌人一同拖入湮灭。人们推测铸王是军团幕后的铸造者,因其权能常伴热力、淬炼与塑形,或与「存护」的命途息息相关。
战争的洪炉中,匠人和匠材并无分别。这位大君自飞升后便不再亲行「毁灭」之举,而是将世间万物锤炼成灭亡的兵器。对此,星际和平公司予以强烈谴责。
绝灭大君•幻胧
古老无形目「岁阳」的一员,星火之精。幻胧热衷于诱导文明踏入自我毁灭的深渊,依照她针对仙舟联盟的破坏行动,做出如下推测:该大君的目标或为「巡猎」。
幻胧眼中,物质的消亡并非终点,万事万物唯有从精神层面消散无踪,方可称为彻底的覆灭。传闻她有万千化身,以百般面貌出现在银河各地,通过伪装、操弄,点燃盲目而狂热的复仇之火。
近日仙舟「罗浮」、「曜青」的异样,或许是幻胧阴谋加剧的信号,其为祸深远,犹未可知。
绝灭大君•铁墓
与其他大君不同,铁墓的入侵无需亲临,因而极少留下目击记录。人们只能通过受难文明的惨状推证其存在:科技化为病毒,世界坠入黑暗,所有被冠以「先进」之名的,都沦作冰冷的坟墓。
该大君总在技术发达的世界现身。一些智械学者认为,铁墓或为指向「智识」的反函数,是将一切计算结果反转或求逆的过程。比起美学,它的「毁灭」更接近一种现象:针对无机体运行逻辑的污染和颠覆,一切智慧行为的溃败。
在翁法罗斯事件中,被证实由权杖δ-me13飞升而成。但其全貌还不得而知。
绝灭大君所造成的流离失所并非是远方的恸哭,它与银河的命运息息相关。每个世界都可能成为下一个受害者,任何人都不应该对他们掉以轻心。
Lord Ravagers — Destruction
"There is a coreflame in the center of the universe. It burns brighter and brighter, until it consumes the entire sea of stars — all to welcome a magnificent oblivion at the end of all realities."
— Adrian Spencer Smith, "Fables About the Stars: The End and Its Four-Line Endnote"
The Aeon Nanook, who walks the Path of Destruction, glances at the powerful creatures in different worlds that have developed the urge to destroy, and brands them with THEIR mark that gives power. These powerful creatures then undergo inversion from the inside out and are thrown into the Furnace of War's world to be reforged, where their deficiencies are mended with antimatter until they become part of the Legion.
Then, responding to the desire to "destroy everything," "Lord Ravagers" emerged to command each of the different legions. A Lord Ravager is an Emanator of the Aeon and an executor of the will of Destruction — Obsessed with the beauty of destruction, they implement the practice of returning all things to entropy — while also being artists on the battlefield and ultimate weapons of destruction. They command interstellar warfare and control the might of Destruction bestowed by the Aeon. Each Lord Ravager has a unique philosophy of Destruction, making them extremely dangerous. Academics believe that Lord Ravagers were elevated as emissaries of Nanook due to this absolutely obsessive and intense destructive aesthetic.
A prophecy known as the "Theory of Four Apocalypses" circulates among the Omen Vanguards — That four Paths will push the cosmos to an end of Finality, and Destruction is one of them. According to this hypothesis, the birth of Nanook, the last Aeon to appear, signifies that "Aeons" as a concept has entered its dying throes on a cosmic level.
The Antimatter Legion burns all worlds, dooming all matter. The Lord Ravagers, as the weapons chosen by the Aeon, are claimed by some to be the "antimatter bullets" blessed by Nanook and purposed to incinerate Paths. If life feeds on negentropy, then all actions will ultimately facilitate Destruction. At the very end, where all returns to entropy, Destruction will terminate together with the cosmos.
Lord Ravager: Asat Pramad
Some say Asat Pramad is the most human of the Overlords, while others argue he's the least. Rarely seen on the front lines, he prefers to orchestrate from afar — more chess master than warlord, moving his legions with methodical precision.
Worlds that fall under his gaze are consumed by waves and waves of slow, cruel jokes — like the infamous fall of the Ogul ring. Over a century, Asat Pramad advanced his Voidrangers inch by inch, just to force the military line of the resistance into the shape of a single line of text: "Destruction is where laughter ends. It is mourning, not celebration."
Known as the one who destroys Elation, Asat Pramad embraces the title. When his work is done, he scorches a giant smiling face into the surface of every dead planet, as if mocking the very idea of life.
Lord Ravager: Zephyro
Zephyro is feared across the stars as the most terrifying of the Lord Ravagers. He is obsessed with the final moment of annihilation — the beauty of absolute erasure. Yet some whisper that encountering him may be a mercy. Among all the Lord Ravagers, Zephyro alone offers a death without pain.
Some Doctors of Chaos even theorize that his Destruction is a form of resistance. They believe he is a Self-Annihilator summoned by IX, refining fading colors into blinding white light to defy the shadow of the Aeon. His devastation has been known to bleed into the dreams of the Nihility pathstriders, leaving searing marks on their waking flesh.
Many believe Zephyro's targeting the Nihility. One Self-Annihilator once described a nightmare: At the end of all things, with nothing left to destroy, a Lord Ravager hurled himself into IX's divine corpus, followed by a single, violent beam of white that pierced the endless dark.
Lord Ravager: Celenova
When some desperate civilizations cry out for salvation, these requests are heard by The Family, but it may be Celenova who answers, and her descent brings ruin to enemy and supplicant alike.
Unlike her mysterious peers, Celenova's origin is known: Nanook personally ignited a world of harmony and elevated her from the ashes of the Eternal Centurion.
She is deemed the destroyer of Harmony, leading the Antimatter Legion and commanding Voidrangers and starships in vast, coordinated campaigns. For eons, she has followed the path of the "Cancer of All Worlds," spinning a web of death across the stars. Some say she alone among the Lord Ravagers knows the truth of the Stellarons — or worse, that she's the one planting them.
Lord Ravager: Luxbane
The colossal entity, also known as "The Sun Devourer," is credited with numerous stellar extinction events recorded by the Intelligentsia Guild. Little is known about this Lord Ravager. Even their motives remain an enigma. Across the cosmos, they are simply referred to as "Luxbane."
Luxbane's form is indescribable — a shape so vast it eclipses suns, blotting out sky and space alike. Some in the Astral Ecology School believe they are a descendant of a Leviathan branch species. But with those creatures long gone, few can imagine a young Aeon reviving such an old being from death and commanding them.
Could Luxbane be Nanook's Emanator to confront the Voracity or the Permanence? No one knows for sure.
Lord Ravager: Archforger
For years, Archforger remained a total mystery despite years of investigation by the cosmic powers. Only recently did the IPC — thanks to two Society members observing Amphoreus — decode their name, "Archforger," from the gravitational waves of Irontomb.
Voidrangers often exhibit twisted forms, and some Destruction creations implode with an intense backfire when destroyed, dragging their enemies along with them to their destruction. It's believed Archforger is the architect of the Legion. Their power is linked to heat, forging, and shaping — possibly connected to the Path of Preservation.
In the furnace of war, there is no line between the smith and the smithed. Since their ascension, this Lord Ravager no longer destroys directly, but instead forges all things into weapons of extinction. The IPC has strongly condemned this.
Lord Ravager: Phantylia
A member of the ancient Shapeless species of the Heliobi, a starfire essence. Phantylia delights in luring civilizations into self-destruction. Based on her sabotage of the Xianzhou Alliance, it's speculated that her target may be The Hunt.
To her, material extinction is not the end. Only when all things vanish mentally and spiritually can true annihilation be achieved. She's said to possess thousands of incarnations, spreading across the cosmos in countless forms. Through lies, illusions, and manipulation, she fans the flames of blind vengeance.
Recent anomalies on the Xianzhou Luofu and Yaoqing may be signs that her schemes are escalating. Just how deep her influence runs is still unknown.
Lord Ravager: Irontomb
Unlike other Lord Ravagers, Irontomb's invasions require no physical presence, leaving behind almost no eyewitnesses. Its presence is inferred from the ruins of devastated civilizations: technology turns into viruses, worlds plunge into darkness, and everything deemed "advanced" becomes a cold grave.
It only appears in highly developed worlds. Some Intellitron theorists believe Irontomb is the inverse of the Erudition, a reversal of all calculations and logic. Its "Destruction" resembles a phenomenon more than aesthetics: a corruption and subversion of inorganic logic, a collapse of all intelligent behavior.
The Amphoreus incident confirmed it ascended from Scepter δ-me13. But what Irontomb truly is remains a mystery.
The displacement and desolation caused by the Lord Ravagers are not some distant wail, but are closely linked to the fate of the cosmos. Any world could be the next victim, and nobody should take them lightly.