Evil

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Evil
World of Origin Threnody
Universe Cosmere
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We are Forescouts. We survive. We will be the ones to defeat the Evil, someday.

The Evil is wild, living Investiture[2] on Threnody, the planet that contains the Forests of Hell.[1] The Evil has its own will and creates enormous figures, but its nature and motivations are unclear.[2]

History and Mythology[edit]

Smiling was wasted energy. And love...love was for the people back in Homeland. The people who'd died to the Evil.

—Silence's grandmother's perspective on life as remembered by her grandaughter[1]

Before the Splintering of Ambition, over 7700 standard years before the True Desolation,[3][4][5] the Evil did not exist in the state it would later become; as it was warped by the clash between Odium and Ambition.[6]

Sometime after the people of Threnody discovered the continent that contained the Forests of Hell, an unknown cataclysm occurred in their Homeland.[1] A being or force referred to only as the Evil appeared and somehow managed to kill the majority of people living on their continent. The survivors were desperate enough to flee across the ocean to the Forests that they had once believed to be hell, where the Forescouts had already begun to settle. The Forescouts helped care for the refugees and acclimatize them to their new home, coexisting with the shades and following the Simple Rules. Much of the government, cultures, and technology of the old continent, what was now called the Fallen World was lost. Ideals such as justice, kindness, or moral living became things of the past, worship of the God Beyond became less common, and much knowledge, such as the use of gunpowder, was nearly forgotten in the Forests. The people who survived in the Forests were a harsh, hardy people that focused more on practicalities and less on things such as love and family.

Despite the fact that less than a century had passed since the Evil made its appearance on Threnody, the true nature of the Evil had already become surrounded by myths and legends by the time that Silence Montane ran her waystop.[1] Some of the Forescouts, such as Silence's grandmother believed that one day they would be the ones to destroy the Evil. Others, who told stories about the White Fox, said that he had been to the Fallen World and shaken hands with the Evil there.

As of the rebellion against the Cinder King, the Evil was still on Threnody.[2]

Nature of the Evil[edit]

This page or section deals with theories or speculation.
Please read carefully and note that this is not necessarily canonical.

It is difficult to ascertain precisely what the Evil is and what it did. What is known for certain is that it is not a full Shard.[7] It certainly seems to have the ability to cause widespread death and destruction.[1] It is apparently dangerous enough to cause an entire population to abandon its original continent and flee to the land containing Forests of Hell, a place considered to be the realm of the damned. Chunks of Ambition's power were ripped off here by Odium,[8] so the possibility remains that it is a Splinter of sort. It has something to do with the same natural magic of the cosmere and the cognitive shadows that have to do with the shades.[9] Nomad described it as mountain-sized, black, shifting blobs of a substance resembling Midnight Essence.

Notes[edit]

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