Subject One

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.

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

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 to ascend from Cradle, thus taking your damn hunger aura with you, and starving the beasts.

But in book 10, Subject One allowed lion Monarch Reigan Shen to kill him, after Shen promised to end the Monarchs, so all the dreadgods could be weakened and die. Shen killed him, but he has no intention of keeping his oath — he just wants his power. The Monarch also took his core binding, so he could somehow and somewhat control every Dreadgod and even gain the power of Subject One (and supposedly all the dreadgods eventually).

However, Lindon made a promise to Subject One’s ghost, to deal with the problem of Monarchs, who create too much hunger aura, thus feeding the dreadgods plenty of hunger madra, keeping them alive and virtually invincible. Lindon also takes the dead man’s arm, for his prosthetic. It’s the arm of a powerful Dreadgod, a very hungry appendage.

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