The Patron Species of Evil
Species is plural in its use here. They are a consortium of sentient creatures. Darkly godborn rapeget, they are composed of the substance of fallen deities fused with the ectoplasm of evil, venomous fate. They come in differing shapes and sizes, with some perhaps being bipeds as it suits them at present, but others definitely aren't—because they're older than that, and predate the prevalence of bipedal forms. In appearance, they exude an overwhelming sense of wrongness, as if nothing should be able to exist in such a state, let alone thrive. Paradoxically robust in their sickliness, they use unnatural means to sustain themselves as they cheat the cosmos to obtain its secrets and powers—powers they shouldn't possess. This fundamental disrespect for the cosmos leads them to cut corners in their sciences in ways that anyone with a soul would find unconscionable. But, since the Patron Species are not weighed down with souls, their scurrilous pursuits continue unabated until their powermad overreaching ultimately results in physical changes:
A kind of toxicity emanates outward from the empty place within them where their souls should be. It seeps slowly through their physical bodies over the ages to the point of saturation so that they cannot any longer be mistaken for natural lifeforms, nor will anyone mistake them for paragons of health or for champions of what should be. Their toxicity amounts to an outward confirmation of the darkness within. It is the physical manifestation of how they are in deep conflict with this reality in both body and mind, as well as in their immortal deeds. In many cases, the toxicity is a direct result of experiments gone wrong as they put their bodies though unwise changes to grasp at undeserved abilities to match those of the angelics. This process over time leaves them more hollow than hallowed. In some other patrons, the malady seems to haunt them without specific cause, almost as if karma were speaking through their decrepit forms.
Patrons of Evil refers to those entities who make possible evil's reign. They do so by possessing the vast power of their birthright, the will to use it, a persistence through the ages, and the genius of their dark designs, by which the forces of light are kept befuddled and in disarray. Demons wish they were Patrons! So free are they to act! To malign. The term Patrons brings to mind the phrase patrons of the arts—those wealthy and powerful donors who pay the cost to keep the show running, and who influence the content of the play itself. Also unimaginable age is implied. We're talking about some of the original patent holders for evils they themselves pioneered eons ago when the first generation of sentient beings set about discovering what was possible. These are the ones who first tested the limits of what the cosmos would allow us to do, and then broke its heart as they introduced horrors into the universe for which the gods had no answer, meaning that their crimes shaped your current existence and are responsible for life's inherent pains. In the process of their ceaseless efforts, they turned this reality into a laboratory most foul until they had thoroughly expanded evil's repertoire. They were (and are) the engine which pushes forward the evolution of malice.
You would recognize some of their names. Their most famous innovations were named after the inventor of each. So imagine if instead of meeting with the usual thieves and brigands along the roads and in dark alleys you instead were to lock horns with Murder itself! Does it rankle you to know that the originators of Betrayal, Envy and Distrust are still out there somewhere, surveying their work unpunished? Or that with each of your lies you do homage to the one known as Liar and in a very real way you help to propel that entity toward apotheosis? In truth, every repetition of these Original Evils is felt by the Patrons, who are like spiders that have spun a web of evil throughout the cosmos to ensnare and incorporate you in their fate. They sense the vibrations in the webbing of reality whenever lesser beings like yourself fall prey to their trap. Whenever you are inspired to commit evils in imitation of them, you speed their purpose by lending yourself to it. You are aiding them to tear down this reality. Their original crimes tore cracks in the natural order of Creation, and each imitation of those crimes scratches and claws away further at the better world that might have been, until in the end all must crumble. In the unseen dimensions that underlie the physical world, these cracks in the natural order lie exposed, and your corrosive evils seep down into these seams. As evils spread and become universally practiced, the pressure builds upon those cracks in reality and pries them open, gradually ripping reality apart. You are doing the work for us. Patrons feel it in their marrow when your evils resonate with theirs. Since their marrow is composed of the stuff of fate, it courses with added strength as you consign your fate over to them and become trapped into serving their purpose by the consequences of your fateful actions.
As their evils grow in notoriety and proven effectiveness, the entities who originated those evils are propelled into elite status, resulting in their coronation as the ruling oligarchy of the patrons. Nothing could be more deserved. Hell is a meritocracy. We reward success. Membership in this ruling caste is open to all who warrant it, and as such it is comprised of individuals hailing from many different Patron species. If this coven of unique beings, or singularities, were ever lost, it would be a crushing blow. Not in the immediate sense, mind you. Their loss would not trigger any magical reversal of evil's progress. But in the long term it certainly would not bode well, since it is difficult to imagine them being replaced by a more capable leadership cabal. Whereas the demigods rule by being a paragon of brute force, the patron singularities are the ones who provide us with much needed direction. They have survived alongside the demis all this time by virtue of how their particular genius has proven even more effective than brute force, prompting our gods to yield to the guidance of the Singularities in many matters. Though the demis remain the ultimate arbiters of fate—the final say rests with them. If the hellgods should determine that the ruling patrons have run afoul of orthodoxy or have fallen short of expectations in one or another of their millennial undertakings, not even the singularities could forestall their doom. So it is that sweat and toil continues apace in the hell dimensions and the forges are ever glowing hot.
These patron species are wholly won over to darkness; so thoroughly have they wallowed in its substance that they demonstrate none of the redeeming qualities seen in species such as humans who still operate in the gray area of undisciplined minds and hearts. Whereas you will have your good days and bad days, these patron species practice an unwavering willful evil that becomes unto a force of nature. You look at the world that has dashed your hopes and say there is simply too much disorder there to be overcome; in reality this disorder has been put in place by the unceasing efforts of the patron species as they keep lit the fires of destruction and continually mar complex systems so that this existence cannot perfect itself further. All patrons of evil are unmistakably the enemies of what we consider to be society's hope chest—they exist to crush order and compassion and free will and heavenward potential, be it in the individual or in those constructive aspects of society wherein you see the most beauty. They seek to impose darkness onto the emergent wonders of the cosmos, and actually derive sustenance from twisting the universe's gathering complexity to serve them, rewiring the cosmos, lacing it with necessary evils while draining the essence out of light and life. Leaving the world tarred and feathered.
They were the muses who inspired Dark Eden. This event was nothing but an exaggerated form of the same motif they use every day the world over to corrupt the divine order. They dominate, twist things perverse, drain the vitality out of a thing, then replicate their successes, expanding the chaos. In the end, your world will inevitably gravitate toward one Dark Eden scenario or another, it matters not which. The effort is ceaseless and will succeed. You have had a glimpse of your future. The natural order shall be rewritten in the image of those toxic outcasts destined to overthrow it, the Patron Species. For the Dark came first. It is the living ecosystems seen on temperate worlds today that are the true upstarts, the impurities that came late onto the scene to disrupt the Dark. When we seek to repeal Life, it is because we rightly perceive It as the corruptor, the cancer. We see Dark Eden differently than do you. To our eyes, Dark Eden does not represent a perversion of the natural order but rather a proper reversion back to the original order that came before.
This hegemony of evil species ruled such an environment unchallenged during the first great epoch of the universe. As time struggled to find its beat, and was yet slow and unsteady, it meted out first the era known as The Primordial Dark. There is thus no telling how long it lasted in truth for those who experienced it, though we have since measured the duration of that era using the steady metronome of time as it currently passes, and we arrived at the conclusion that the Dark endured for some 300,000 of your planetary years, objectively speaking. Though the evil ones clashed with each other then as a matter of course, the overall effect of their bickering was that each species found its niche and seat of power, abusing some others along the way while having some portion of their own population suffer similar use, so that each found a way to utilize its potential and make its mark on the worlds as they contributed to the dark glory of the whole. All of their nasty interactions served to strengthen the hegemony as it expanded over the infinite plains of hell. The twisted evolution of their society reached inconceivable heights of complexity as it began exerting ever greater control over the material world. All other civilizations are no more than anthills by comparison.
Through violence and internecine struggle they established a complex balance of power, like a vast equation of dominance. In short, your politics and strife are as nothing to them. As such, they became expert in the slaying of rival species, and being the maggoty offspring of the gods, death did not find them easily. They clung tightly to their existence and required special kill techniques in order to be vanquished. The secrets of these techniques were hoarded as a priceless treasure for as long as could be before the knowledge became commonplace. The rise and fall of several Patron Species, in terms of their prominence, can be traced back directly to when their invincibility was brought to an end by the discovery of a weakness that could be used to dispatch them. Certain other patron species are still riding high—those for whom no kill method has ever been found. Ever. Or at least the knowledge of their weaknesses has never been widely disseminated. It should daunt the mortal reader beyond all measure to hear this, for if no weakness has been found in these horrific creatures in all this time by their cohorts—and you can trust that their fellow species have most assuredly been looking!—then what chance do you have when at last their time comes round again to effortlessly reclaim the worlds you pretend to own?
As a laughing courtesy, then, we have included these established kill methods as part of each species' entry in the gallery of horrors presented below. Earthly kings and scholars will doubtless direct their attention unduly to the following passages, believing themselves armed with a staggering newfound occult defensive capability. They are mistaken to think so. Though it may seem to the denizens of Nosgoth that we shower you next with revelations thick as falling stars in a great meteor shower, remember yourself and your place in the cosmos and you will recall that to us this is not secretive knowledge for we have never forgotten it as you have. The wise among you will see the real import of what follows; they will know it as proof of how very ill equipped mortals are to stand against such terrors. It is not by coincidence that these creatures stalk your nightmares. All living beings share the ancestral memory of a time when your evolving ecosystem emerged alongside another, one much older, coarser, and dreadful in its stability. It was then, in Life's infancy, when We walked beside you and the Patron Species taught biological lifeforms to shudder in fear at their likeness. No matter how far evolution has carried you since, that instinctive fear, though dormant, is still waiting to paralyze your body and flow through you as surely as the blood pumps in your veins—blood which has also known the Patrons' touch, as you will now discover.
Described hereafter are those individual Patron Species of Evil who enjoy the most prominence at this time, or those who have occupied the same niches for so long that, even in diminished form, in all probability they will still be there as the ones waiting to trigger the armageddon at time's end. Also, we shall catalogue those patron species who turned rebellious and sided with divinity during the great uprising. These are the cursed ones, they who most assuredly will not be extant at time's end.