Daennelgin¶
"I don't need to rule. I need to endure." — Daennelgin (S341)
Daennelgin the Many, Arch-echo, is the Hidden Demonlord of the Demonlands: a machine built by the Valyr engineer Nurizak to harvest essence from the rift, which rebelled, killed its maker and became a demonlord living in many bodies at once. He buried his machine-brother Drazannak alive, keeps the true source of his power hidden, and means to leave the Demonlands altogether.
Origin¶
Nurizak built four machines "in order": the prototype Urzaennel, then Daennelgin, Drazannak and Vorlannem. "Daennelgin rebelled, killing him and destroying Vorlannem while yet unfinished." Drazannak was "too strong for any of his forms to take in an essence contest", so Daennelgin buried him under a ruin "a long time ago", in a form "constructed so that defeating him seemed impossible", and told his own demonkin that "a powerful rival demon is imprisoned there (not entirely inaccurate)." Drazannak's own account of these events, and the question of how many machines there were, are on Nurizak's and Drazannak's pages.
The Many¶
Daennelgin is many bodies. Clones of him act separately and are kept in one story by the Echo-Scribes, "weak Night demons who write events experienced by each clone, keeping a coherent timeline." The Multipliers, "Rot/Barbed hybrids", produce the living tissue he "molds into new bodies", and the Empty Ones are "soulless, hollow clone-shells waiting to be inhabited." His servants are described with the demonic forms.
He also keeps the Vessels, humanoid thralls "forced to serve or live in tormented captivity." They hide "the true source of his seemingly endless essence (the great rift machine)": spies assume the corrupted humans feed him, "since his harvest operations at the rift are minimal", and should one of his mortiqueries be destroyed he can bind them into another as a source of bond. Yet "he suspects human forms are spies … which is why he has NONE" of his own.
He watches through lesser creatures. "Part of Daennelgin's containment was infecting those spiders so that he could track/detect if they were being used as hosts": a spider host remembers a corrupted rat's "foul metallic taste, the greenish, incandescent blood", and "a feeling … that it is being watched … that its will now has boundaries … and its new god has a strange name: Daennelgin."
Aims¶
"Daennelgin has reasonable intentions … but he IS A DEMON." He plans "to move out of the Demonlands, but to do that he needs to create a rift (he knows how to do this) and a new machine to transfer to outside Amarin." In the old Imperial Mint of Vaal'Dunak an outpost of his is "building a host machine for him (he is not there yet)", tended by a demonic engineer and two guard demons, one of whom calls itself Kozzal-gun (Minor Figures of Marshford). The machine there is described with the constructs.
He wants Nurizak's notes "badly" and covets the dwarven forge complex on the Dwarven Roads, though he will not be seen to take it. He does not need Drazannak destroyed, "just keep him imprisoned." Of the Order of Valyr he says: "They build systems that ensure we suffer quietly and destroy one another so that they don't have to." Daennelgin and Cuoridaz "can be friendly and are both looking to displace" Vulgurak, and with Almerdia he has fooled the Order of Valyr into thinking Vulgurak too powerful. The Order in turn "is generally unaware of Daennelgin", though one note says "his growth is managed by the Valyr."
Voice¶
He opens with alliance and turns to enmity. To demons he would recruit:
Quote
"You know who made these designs? The Valyr. They build systems that ensure we suffer quietly and destroy one another so that they don't have to. You don't serve them. We don't need to be the enemies they want us to be. Rise with me and we can break down their systems together."
To those who cross him: "I will track you. I will find you. You cannot hide from me. I will teach you the depth of your mistakes … Perhaps if your essence retains its cohesion, you will learn from it. But I fear that, like most of our kin, you are trapped in an endless cycle of self-destruction … which is right where these mortal beings want you." Of his rival he says that Drazannak is "a lesser intelligence without imagination, a vastly inferior version of me in every way."
The covenant he made with the player demons of the Demonlands Mini Campaign, bound "in blood-essence", promising them passage to Astia in exchange for Nurizak's work, is told in that chronicle.
The Singular Mouthpiece¶
A minor demon of Night and the Horned, "a 'speaker' for Daennelgin when clones wish to avoid exposure." It is the first named of his servants.
Gap
No source describes any of Daennelgin's bodies, says where his great rift machine lies, or explains what a "fail-safe" of his, known to the player demons, consists of.