Difference between revisions of "Subject One"
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But in book 10, Subject One allows lion Monarch [[Reigan Shen]] to kill him, after Shen promises to end the Monarchs, so all four Dreadgods might finally be weakened and allowed to die. Shen kills Subject One, but he has no intention of keeping his oath — he just wants his power. So the Monarch took Subject One’s core binding, thinking that he’ll have the power of Dreadgods. | But in book 10, Subject One allows lion Monarch [[Reigan Shen]] to kill him, after Shen promises to end the Monarchs, so all four Dreadgods might finally be weakened and allowed to die. Shen kills Subject One, but he has no intention of keeping his oath — he just wants his power. So the Monarch took Subject One’s core binding, thinking that he’ll have the power of Dreadgods. | ||
| − | However, Lindon makes a promise to Subject One’s ghost, to deal with the problem of Monarchs, | + | However, Lindon makes a promise to Subject One’s ghost, to deal with the problem of Monarchs, which is actually the problem of hunger aura, hunger madra, Monarchs and Dreadgods, all rolled up together. |
<br>Lindon also takes the dead man’s arm, for his prosthetic. It’s the arm of a powerful Dreadgod, the “Father of Hunger Madra” and the First of the Five Beasts. | <br>Lindon also takes the dead man’s arm, for his prosthetic. It’s the arm of a powerful Dreadgod, the “Father of Hunger Madra” and the First of the Five Beasts. | ||
Revision as of 09:04, 15 December 2021
Subject One is/was a scientist who long ago swallowed his own potion, figuratively, and unintentionally became a beast, a powerful and nearly immortal Dreadgod. He’s imprisoned in the Labyrinth beneath Sacred Valley. We first hear about him in book 2, Soulsmith, when Lindon finds some of his research notes in the Transcendent Ruins.
Contents
In Brief
Subject One is/was a scientist. Long ago, he delved too deeply into hunger aura and hunger madra. To test his theory, he swallowed his own potion, figuratively, and unintentionally became a beast, a powerful and nearly immortal Dreadgod. He’s imprisoned in the Labyrinth beneath Sacred Valley. He’s the first Dreadgod, and the progenitor of the other four Dreadgods.
Because he’s a monstrously hungry and powerful beast of a man, hard to kill and nearly immortal, he’s kept bound in the Labyrinth in the power-suppression field covering Sacred Valley.
His Name
He doesn’t recall his birth name — he’s been more beast than man for too long, a Dreadgod consumed by raw hunger. He goes by many names. The Devourer itself. The Slumbering Wraith. Subject One. “The Father of Hunger” (Reaper, ch 1)
Hunger Aura
It was a problem warranting research!
As Subject One and his research team knew, hunger aura is not a naturally occurring substance or phenomenon. It is a by-product of overweening ambition, greed, lust. Hunger aura is a corrupting force. Anything and anyone it touches, it corrupts. And it ranges freely all over the planet — or it did at that time. These researchers sought to deal with Cradle’s problem of hunger aura.
Why the Labyrinth?
Subject One and his colleagues conducted their research in the Labyrinth under Sacred Valley. They needed a place big enough and secure enough to trap and contain all the free-roaming hunger aura in the world.
“He took a rattling breath. “We came to this Labyrinth as a secure location to perform our research. We were looking for a way to control the hunger aura. ...This site was old beyond memory, even to us. We used it as a trap to focus all the hunger aura in the world. Instead of running wild, it would be concentrated here, controlled by ancient seals.” (Subject One, Reaper, ch 21)
Hunger Madra
In the process of studying the nature of hunger aura, and its effect on dreadbeasts, the researchers somehow created a new kind of madra — hunger madra.
“We researched fusing hunger bindings into animals, whose power would be suppressed by the great formation.” He laughed quietly, until Lindon couldn’t tell the difference between laughs and sobs. “We thought we had it under control.” (Subject One, Reaper, ch 21)
“They say he virtually brought hunger madra to life.” (And it’s damn hard to kill)
Greed, Ambition, Gluttony
In book 4, Wei Shi Lindon’s prosthetic arm gives him a good sense of the nature of hunger madra.
“He studied the arm. What he called hunger wasn't just that. It felt similar to hunger, but it was more textured, with deeper layers. He felt ambition, greed, gluttony, an endless desire to reach for more and more.” (Skysworn, ch 12)
Hunger madra is a force, virtually alive, always taking. Consuming. In book 10, when Lindon and the team had been in the Labyrinth for a while, they felt weakened. The hunger madra in the labyrinth was sucking their power. “How much of this weakness was the suppression versus the constant effects of being fed upon by hunger madra?” (Reaper ch 9)
The Death of Subject One
Spoiler!!
From Reaper, especially chapters 21 and 24:
It’s pretty much impossible to kill a Dreadgod, and Subject One is a Dreadgod. The Monarchs cannot kill him and his four Dreadgods. The only way to kill them is for every Monarch to die and/or to ascend from Cradle, thus starving the beasts, because Monarchs create hunger aura as a byproduct of ambition, greed, etc. And the beasts consume/ cycle hunger aura into hunger madra.
But in book 10, Subject One allows lion Monarch Reigan Shen to kill him, after Shen promises to end the Monarchs, so all four Dreadgods might finally be weakened and allowed to die. Shen kills Subject One, but he has no intention of keeping his oath — he just wants his power. So the Monarch took Subject One’s core binding, thinking that he’ll have the power of Dreadgods.
However, Lindon makes a promise to Subject One’s ghost, to deal with the problem of Monarchs, which is actually the problem of hunger aura, hunger madra, Monarchs and Dreadgods, all rolled up together.
Lindon also takes the dead man’s arm, for his prosthetic. It’s the arm of a powerful Dreadgod, the “Father of Hunger Madra” and the First of the Five Beasts.
