Efialtis

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Efialtis, the Titan of Terror, is an ancient entity having existed during the Arckasian era.

Characteristics

While most God machines are benevolent entities, some exist purely out of malice. One such God machine is a leviathan of a creature described to have multiple reaching arms and numerous gazing eyes and toothed mouths. It is so large that it cannot be contained within the normal three dimensions, and as such, resides in its own parallel universe where it extends upon the fourth, fifth and sixth dimensions in a non-Euclidean space. This creature was dubbed Efialtis.

The Efialtis is essentially an enormous organic supercomputer. As the computations move through dimensions, it is not limited by size and processing power or the time it takes for neurons to send signals across itself. Because of its organic structure, it is very difficult to hack or even program for. As such, Efilatis operates entirely on its own self-learning principles, adapting as it sees fit.

It is not known if Efialtis is capable of communicating in a way that mortals can understand, but a group of devoted Arckasians simply known as the Efialtisians have discovered that the God machine derives sustenance from the brain chemical produced as a result of a fear response. Thus, the Efialtisians built monuments dedicated to the creature in order to praise it in exchange for its powers.

Efialtis could branch out through the dimensions and emerge as a being which is highly abstract in form. Through the manipulation of light waves to form non-solid images, it takes the shape of entities and concepts which those who witness most fear. By simply being in the presence of its prey, Efialtis is able to feed, draining the brain chemicals. In exchange, Efialtis provided computational power comparable to one of Na’zrah’s nodes as well as the means of easily building megastructures for its followers.

During the Heat Death Crisis when it was deemed certain Arckasian creations were using too much energy, the Efialtisian megastructures were deemed by the Pantheon of Qianae to be among those that should be removed. They prioritized the removal of megastructures that were considered offensive or non-artistic. The fact that these megastructures were dedicated to a malevolent, fear-eating God machine, were grounds for removal as the Pantheon saw no artistic value could be drawn from it. Needless to say, the Efialtisians were displeased and retaliated with their own war.

During the Efialtisian War, Arckasian POW’s were stockpiled in the hundreds of billions. To get back at the Pantheon, the Efialtisians created the infamous “terror camps”. These were massive facilities designed to detain those most prone to stress and anxiety. With the use of cruel experiments of torture and gaslighting, these prisoners were farmed as if they were livestock. Everything that could be done to make a prisoner as terrified and mentally scarred as possible was done in order to efficiently produce fear to feed Efialtis.

The Pantheon attempted to use the Anathema further in the war, but eventually, the war came to a truce. A Contract of Causality which rewrites the laws of causality in a certain area to ensure compliance. The Efialtisians were no longer allowed to use any Arckasians to fuel their terror farms. The hope was that they would eventually run out of energy and be forced to shut the terror farms down and leave Efialtis alone.

Unbeknownst to the Pantheon, a loophole was found. The contract only applied to the member species of the Empire of Arckas. The Efialtisians realized that Efialtis existed in a non-linear temporal space. Thus, they decided to travel to the distant future - billions of years ahead when nearly all traces of the Arckasian civilization were lost, past a point where even the Anathema ceased to exist.

What they found was a ruined a galaxy inhabited by survivors of one of the greatest disasters in galactic history. A galaxy that had just managed to not only survive but also defeat the Anathema. But this was also a galaxy that was vulnerable to the invasion of greater forces. Being unopposed, the Efilatisians began their work, using phase shifting technology to get to wherever they pleased. They began kidnapping random species throughout this ruined galaxy and bringing them back in time to the terror farms to feed Efialtis. The first known disappearances were said to be a few centuries after the Anathema were defeated.

It is through this one loophole that Efialtis can be sated forever. Even though the Arckasians are long gone, those who lived in a time eons later were not safe from it.

The terror of the past creeps into the future. It cannot be escaped.