Asphiox, the Lord of Nightmares

... I have told you of the past, but of course, it is the future that is our domain. Let me show you how my journey into the future began…

To the ones who are bathed in the bright darkness of Weave, the futures are often more evident than realities that produce them.
We often have more foresight than insight, more premonition than cognition. I too was fallible in this. I did not understand how the futures I saw were formed, I did not understand the pattern.

We were promised a victory of ruin, but I saw apocalypse of a larger scale, not the Dissolution that was promised, the return of All into the Ocean, but a true End, and end of the Dream. And beyond it, there was nothing…

I set out to learn, and soon I knew that our Tree of Planes was dying for a long time, bleeding slowly from a tiny wound near its very heart.
I learned that from the moment the last demiurge was sucked into the Underverse, the return to the Maelstrom was inevitable.
The First Council had failed us… The mystery of their apparent demise so intrigued me I became obsessed, to the great delight of my masters, for my restlessness brought such a wave of nightmare upon the Warped Planes my name became synonymous of Doom.

But the source of my power is the source of my Doom as well. None of the servants of Weave ever dream, truly, of freedom – for they believe themselves to be free, such is the measure of their passion for what they were born to spread, be it hatred, fear or lust.
I dreamed of it though, and I feared the End. Then I had learned of the Great Unmaker, the one who can break the chains of fate.

What madness could drive me to betray the Warped Gods whom I served? Why, boredom, the greatest madness of all!
You see, as mighty as my masters are, their struggle against other Primes, their schemes of conquest and depredation always seemed to follow a predictable pattern… And it grew tiresome to me, very tiresome indeed.
It was as if I was trapped in an unchanging cycle, locked in a room full of mirrors, and great Ocean knows these mirrors became a true nightmare for me, me, the Lord of Nightmares!
I was born with one purpose - to serve that power that spawned me... to truly serve the Eidolon of Dreampower was to embrace inconstancy, limitless possibility, to walk a line between madness and genius…

Arrogance or not, I would tell the entire Multiverse - as I tell you now - the other archfiends are mere brutes; I alone am capable of true Creation! Why, perhaps it is Asphiox who is in truth the Last Demiurge…
But let me return to the matters at hand. You may wonder, how I came to dwell in such a place, so far removed from the world of light and the living?
I had different a sanctuary once, and I had a great many friends, lovers you could say, though most would only see them as slaves, unable to see the bottomless rapture of their souls.
They gave me their bodies with a passion, and I freed their mind, molded them into one perfect entity, on which I bestowed myself to bring it unity of will.
Our voices were… like the chorus of all gods, light and dark, lined in the temple of ecstasy, of Apocalypse, of the Great Change...
But it was all lost, all undone, for I had grown arrogant as I beheld the beauty of my own creation. I tried to move too fast, and too openly, and was defeated. I was carried away with the grandeur of my newly gained powers…
And so the ice-prince, the unwitting tool of the Void, and his pet knight had defeated me.
I know that a reckoning is inevitable. For I have seen the agony that wrecks my omnipotent, but yet imprisoned Master… and for every moment that His agony is extended, those responsible will suffer equally.

You may wonder also how I came to serve such an alien force, so incapable of either mercy or compassion - more so even than my former mistress, the great Weave…
Yes, I know that this road will have an end both dark and painful, but I cannot help it - it is the very core of my existence. To scheme, to twist, to dream and to change... and this world is so intolerably unchanging!
The thought that the ultimate destruction and rebirth of the entire multiverse may be my legacy, thrills me too much for the basic instinct of survival, let alone mercy, to stand in my way.

Now, it is time. Hush, sweet girl, the pain is but another illusion, drink in the mist, let the Underverse fill you, bleach you of false colors, lead you to your destiny. Yes, good... Now sleep, and see what the Lord of Dreams has prepared for you…