Dethl (Total War)



Dethl (Akkalan: Dithle, lit. "nightmare"), also known as the Nightmare or Bongo-Bongo, is the Druthulidi manifestation of fear in Hyrule and the Realm of Twilight. A nightmarish being of madness and undefinable reality, it persists so long as fear lurks in the hearts of mortals. Dethl is believed to embody the rung of fear.



Etymology
Dethlis a corruption of Dithle, the Akkalan word for nightmare.

Characteristics
Dethl is among the older of its kind, the Druthulidi, and like its kin, is a fundamental element of reality, the physical embodiment of the concept of fear. By mortal standards Dethl is utterly insane, its motivations chaotic and undefinable even to itself. It is defined by its insatiable fear of definition and existence, to the point if able to it would erase itself from existence. It is, by nature, utterly cowardly, fleeing into the shadows the moment its mad plots unravel.

Dethl's presence distorts the confines of reality, causing madness, decay, and death. The most hideous manifestation of this are the undead, beings twisted into existence by the laws of life and death being warped. Wherever shadows conceal horrors and secrets, the whispers of Dethl creep into the dreaming minds of those consumed by fear and insanity, eating away their minds. Eventually these poor souls are compelled to cut off their own heads, only for a horror birthed of their own nightmares to blossom from the stump like a flower and mutate the corpse as its new body. These are the Devoured, Dethl's spawn.

Dethl's physical form is nebulous and shadowy, screaming at the mere limitations of being physically defined. Constantly wreathed in shadow and void, it manifests as a trunk-like body with a single yellow glowing eye, with two appendages ending in flowerlike red eyes emerging like arms. It continuously screams at the horror of existence, and is surrounded by an stench that disturbs even other Druthulidi.After its host, Bongo, was decapitated and thrown into the well of Kakariko, Dethl mutated her corpse to a form similar to its Devoured spawn, with a single flowerlike red eye emerging from the neck stump and the body mutated into a crawling black mass of muscle. This manifestation became known as Bongo-Bongo to the Sheikah.

Like other Druthulidi, Dethl cannot be destroyed, as it is a fundamental element of reality. While its physical form can be overcome by powerful forces, it can only be defeated by mortal beings overcoming their primal fears, and will reemerge on another world, wearing a different name so long as fear is known somewhere.

Age of Myth
Dethl is unimaginably ancient, having emerged into existence when the first beings knew fear. Since then it has manifested in any world living beings who could know fear came into existence, drowning countless worlds before Hyrule in their own nightmares.

Dethl, along with the other Druthulidi, was released into Hyrule during the Age of Myth by the First Sages, whom hoped to use them as weapons against one another in their war for the Triforce. The beings quickly proved uncontrollable, devouring or enslaving the mortal beings of Hyrule and destroying much of the world as they waged war against one another and the First Sages. Dethl did not actively partake in this conflict, instead slowly driving mortal victims insane through their nightmares, eventually twisting them into some of Hyrule's most hideous undead abominations. In desperation, six of the First Sages bargained Hyrule's fate to the dark god Majora, and in exchange, it slew or drove the Druthulidi into hiding. Dethl retreated deep into the undefined shadows below the earth, beneath the future site of Kakariko.

Ancient Age
During the First Golden Age, the descendants of Nazyal, Cinna, and Iana Harkinian formed the bloodline-obsessed cadre of assassins known as the Sheikah, and established their secretive headquarters in the town of Kakariko. Beneath its graveyard they constructed a great reliquary of secrets and house of horrors known as the Shadow Temple, in which their forbidden magics were hidden, and enemies of Hyrule imprisoned and tortured. At some point the Sheikah unearth Dethl, but were able to imprison it in a magical ward and sought to exploit its power, learning dark magic and extending their lives through undeath. However, its presence still ate away at the sanity of both the jailers and prisoners, and the tortures, murders, and other horrors commited in the depths of the Temple only strengthened its influence. The Sheikah were forced to abandon and seal the Temple when the prisoners and dead began rising as hungry undead abominations. However, many of the magical artifacts they had crafted, such as the Malmord and Eye of Truth, were tainted by Dethl's madness and allowed it to spread its influence beyond its prison.

Rise of Ganon
The current holder of the Eye of Truth, the powerful Sheikah wizard of the Yiga Clan known as Bongo, fell prey to this influence, and driven by a mad desire to unseal the Shadow Temple, she allied with the Moblin Warlord Ganon, thus opposing both her cadre and the Kingdom of Hyrule. With Ganon's aid, she breached and cleansed the Temple of its undead residents, before the two fought and seemingly slew Dethl. In truth, Bongo had become so consumed by her madness and fear that she embodied Dethl, and the entity walked out of its prison wearing her face.

Dethl knew of Ganon's plan to take the Triforce, and sought the relic for itself, believing it would bring about the end of its hated existence and unravel the confines of reality into an unending nightmare. Feeding off the fear and madness Ganon's war left in its wake, it guided the Moblin Warlord as his ally and advisor, helping him inflict his Curse upon the Gerudo and leading him to victory over the King of Hyrule, however, it misdirected him to seek the Triforce at the Fire Temple under Death Mountain, while taking its own Yiga followers to the actual hiding place at the Water Temple at Lake Hylia. However, Dethl found itself a pawn in a greater game, as its puppet Ganon was serving the ambitions of Demise, one of its kin, and the alliances it made him forge with the Darknuts had pulled Vaati, yet another Druthulidi, into the war.

Enraged that Dethl's betrayal led to the death of his champion and the loss of the Triforce, Demise allied with the mortals of the Kingdom of Hyrule to stop "Bongo" from acquiring the golden power, and Dethl, sensing that its plans were unraveling, allowed itself to get incapacitated, taken back to Kakariko, and have its vessel be executed for treason. Once safely returend to the shadows, it began spreading its influence again amidst the Sheikah and all those who aquired the artifacts it had tainted.

Quotes about Dethl

 * It takes no form and it would make all formless. Fear is its weapon, fear is the goal, and fear is the desire. For in irony it is the fear of definition that drives this one, and it would bring the walls of world down and make everything but a nightmare, a nightmare without beginning, or end.

List of appearances

 * Unearthing Shadows (First appearance)
 * Triumph of the Moblin
 * Dark Interlopers
 * Skyfall