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The Darkest Lord, Leader of the Council Of Four, Ruler of Earth

The Darkest Lord is the most dangerous force and the most dangerous creature on or near the Earth. He has taken or been given near total dominion over the Earth and its inhabitants. His actions and choices are respected by the other Imperators; only the combined decision of the three other members of the Council Of Four may gainsay him.

The touch of Lord Entropy is corruption, and so dark have been his deeds that his hands drip forever with blood. Where Zaafiel (the angel of destruction) teaches lessons with pain and brings forth new growth from decay, the Darkest Lord commands the destruction in which healing has no part. He is but a step away from being an Excrucian — but that step is an important one. He is natural, an integral part of Creation. When the time has come, prophecy says, Lord Entropy will lead the last defense of Earth and Heaven. His understanding of the Excrucians and their magics will be the defenders' greatest hope. That last defense on the day of Ragnarok will earn him forgiveness for all his crimes — unless he is too much like the Beyonders and turns against those arrayed beneath his banner. (Some among the Nobilis point out that this is an awfully convenient prophecy — particularly when the concept of Time and the concept of Entropy are so inextricably linked.)

The Darkest Lord can be nothing other than he is. Labels like "unethical" or "evil" are at best misnomers. His malice is not a vice or a weakness, but the same elemental hostility towards life that the deserts and the ocean deeps possess. His works express his nature: every mortal organization or semi-mortal Power that he controls slowly sinks into corruption, degradation, and foul spasms of interwoven hatred and glee. He must perform his work at one remove, therefore. He does not command mortals or Powers with his will, but with their fear of the forces he does control directly. One such force is the Cammora, and he will have to restrain it soon, before it becomes so livid with corruption that it is another extension of his will and nothing more. Then there are his Cossets (ogres, Nimble Jacks, and domicelli), his Noble-hunters and house-servants. His most important tool, however, is the Code Fidelitatis: the laws he has set on the Nobles of Earth. Under his hand, the courts of Entropy have become wild and unjust, but Powers who fear to break the law act as he wishes without his contaminating touch upon their lives.

Lord Entropy is the true ruler of the Earth, appointed not by humanity but (he claims) by the leaders of the Imperators in the Valde Bellum. The laws he makes for the Powers to live by are readily enforced: even a Power's own Imperator will not defend them from the Imperial miracles of the Darkest Lord. His three Powers are frightening as well. Scorn's Regal and Exemplar Joktan, Destruction's Regal Baalhermon, and Desecration's Regal Meon all have magic above the Noble norm. It is not known what breed of Ymera Lord Entropy is, although it is commonly assumed that he is a "true god."

The Darkest Lord is part of what defines the Nobles' reality. He is the malevolent and violent force sitting like a bloody tick atop the body public, the force that inspires and commands the social contract of the Nobilis. He chooses to set his will upon the mundane Earth as well, with great and delicate care. He does not command the seats of highest power—those he leaves for Nobilis and the Cammora to squabble over. Instead, he chooses dominion over those nations that the essence of his being will not defile, the degenerate, vile, and warlike regimes that are chancrous sores in the angels' sight. They are strong, in the world of Nobilis, because he has given them power to make the wiser nations afraid. Brazenly, they parade their nuclear and viral arsenals on the stage of world politics—unaware that one limit exists on both these weapons and their users.

Lord Entropy's Seeds.

Even the Darkest Lord cannot enslave or destroy humanity, not when there are the Imperator of the Light. In the countries he has claimed, then, he acts subtly. To each person (and each thing) that has lived there he gives a dream never spoken of, a dream of decay. Everything mortal carries a seed of its own destruction, and this seed is part of Lord Entropy as well. The mortal things of the warlike countries (which the Powers call the Despairing Lands) are taught how to hear the forbidding of that seed's voice. And if they ignore that forbidding? The seed will sprout.

See Also

• Familia Lord Entropy
• Edicts Of Tal

Category Imperator, Category Entropy