Dreadbeasts

Dreadbeasts are misshapen beasts, mangled by corruptive hunger aura. Wei Shi Lindon and Yerin must battle numerous of them in book 2, Soulsmith. They were used as research subjects long ago, resulting in the accidental creation of Dreadgods.

Timeline: Ozmanthus and Dreadbeasts

Dreadbeasts existed long before the rise of Dreadgods, even before historic clan Founder Ozmanthus Arelius, according to Suriel’s report:

He never lost his admiration for those who kept the world clean, and one of the most hideous plagues in the world was the population of dreadbeasts that roamed the countryside, feeding and spewing out more of their kind. With his weapons, he would clean the countryside. He found an ancient labyrinth, built by the original Court of Seven before their ascension. He researched their understanding, growing in knowledge and power. (-Reaper, ch 2)

But contradictory text?

Eithan tapped his fingers together. “Disturbing implications, but that was always one of the strongest theories about the origins of the dreadbeasts. That they were the failures, and the successes were the Dreadgods.” Lindon examined the binding, turning it in his hands. “So you’re saying the Dreadgods have a binding like this one.” “You’d have to kill one to prove it. But I would say it’s likely.” (Reaper, ch 12)

This theory might contradict the above quote, where Ozmanthus wants to clean his ancient world of dreadbeasts, because Subject One, Dreadgods, and the concurrent development of hunger madra came after Ozmanthus Arelius ascended (but hunger aura was around in his time):

“Anything from the Arelius founder should predate the introduction of hunger madra to this labyrinth. Did he anticipate this, or was he protecting against other threats? A puzzle for you!” (Reaper, ch 11, Eithan)

So, this is unclear. Possibly some much much earlier research on hunger aura gave rise to dreadbeasts long before, and Subject One only picked up on earlier research, by tampering even more with dreadbeasts.

Dreadbeast defined

Much Maligned Monsters

The lesser dreadbeasts, even those with the power of Lords,
had all looked like creatures from a horror story. They were
twisted and mutated bodies, broken from the inside out.

-Reaper, ch 11

Dreadbeasts are corrupted sacred beasts, whose spirits are mangled up with their bodies, unlike the distinct spirit found in humans and in sacred beasts. They can’t leave behind a Remnant because their spirit is mangled into their body. Hunger aura corrupts them — it corrupts everything.
They inhabit the Desolate Wilds and the surrounding areas because they are lured towards the Labyrinth in Sacred Valley. The labyrinth is brimming with hunger aura, but its suppression field weakens draedbeasts, dreadgods, and humans.

Words from Will

Dreadbeasts have their spirits all mangled up with their bodies,
so they’re weird. Sacred beasts have spirits like humans do.

-https://abidanarchive.com/events/1/#e313

No Remnant

Dreadbeasts don’t leave a viable Remnant (a spirit) behind when they die, probably because their spirit is mangled into their bodies. “Eithan, you and I handle the Remnant,” Lindon called. His pure madra cycled faster. Eithan was peering in the direction of the Hydra’s body. “No need. It’s a dreadbeast.” (Reaper, ch 11)

Hunger Aura

A pure white aura that felt to Lindon’s senses
like an endless, gnawing greed for more.
Hunger aura.

-Reaper, ch 7

Hunger aura is a major problem, because it’s unnatural and corruptive and free-ranging. It corrupts anything and anyone it touches. And hunger aura, itself, is the unnatural by-product of corruption in humans — the bottomless need, greed, and endless ambition shown by self-interested sacred artists, especially Monarchs. Hunger aura does not exist naturally. (Reaper, ch 21, ch 24)

Hunger aura is not a natural force. It is a corruption of the natural order of Cradle. A manifestation of ambition, of selfish desire, created by the presence of Monarchs. Back then, "hunger aura drifted all over the world, and where it moved, all other aura weakened. It corrupted everything; Remnants, natural spirits, sacred beasts. Even humans." (Reaper, ch 21)

Dreadbeast + Hunger Madra=Dreadgod

See more detail at Subject One — the original researcher who became a Dreadgod. The details are still a bit unclear.

About 2000 years ago, roughly, Dreadgods came into the world, the result of research and experimentation conducted in the Labyrinth in an attempt to control the planetary problem of corruptive hunger aura, itself the unnatural by-product of bottomless need, greed, and ambition. A second implied research goal was to “cure” the poor dreadbeasts, and/or rid the world of them forever.

Each Dreadgod was originally an unremarkable dreadbeast when the research team tampered with it. Most test subjects (dreadbeasts) never became Dreadgods. Presumably, the dreadbeast began to cycle all the hunger aura so abundant in the maze, and hunger madra was born, apparently. It never existed before. Subject One is called the Father of Hunger Madra.

For some reason — probably because of the voracious nature of hunger aura and hunger madra — the dreadbeast quickly grew beyond its peers. It eventually escaped the researchers and entered the outside world.

Subject One was the first one to become a Dreadgod because he put the hunger binding into his own body, to test his research, as he was the lead scientist, and because the lure of powerful hunger madra was tempting (Reaper, ch 21). Thus, the researcher became the subject of a failed experiment. Subject One is confined deep in the Labyrinth at Sacred Valley. The other four Dreadgods (née dreadbeasts) did escape, but they always strive to come back to the Labyrinth, because it’s rich in hunger aura, and home to Subject One.

Hydra Binding

In the Labyrinth, Lindon dissected an altered dreadbeast — a Hydra he dubbed a “baby Dreadgod” — to examine its core binding:

.. .lines burned with the pale, spectral green of death madra, running in veins all through the Hydra’s flesh. “This is.. .” Lindon had dissected his share of dreadbeasts, and it was hard to put into words how shocked he was by this sight. “. ..it’s so organized. This looks like a real set of madra channels. And how can death madra, of all things, possibly exist alongside real, living flesh?” (Reaper, ch 11)

Later, Lindon used the pulsing hydra binding when soulsmithing Reigan Shen’s broken death trident into a weapon: Midnight, Cursed Spear of the Destroyer. He also used “the bone ring set with the ruby, the object that had once given birth to the Bleeding Phoenix. He felt its weight on the world” (Reaper, ch 18)