Condemnation
nightmare creature"Leave the Tyrant to me. Today, I will be the condemned."
— Anvil regarding Condemnation, Chapter 2083[1]
Description
Condemnation was a Cursed Tyrant that slumbered beneath the ruins of a nameless city located within the Hollows of Godgrave, a region of the Dream Realm. Ranked among the most imposing Nightmare Creatures Sunny had ever encountered, it was credited with the destruction of a civilisation whose city it eventually came to inhabit, having descended upon them “like a cataclysm”.[2][3]
Condemnation was ultimately slain in battle by Anvil, the King of Swords, after which its shadow persisted into the Shadow Realm as a colossal remnant of its former self.[4][5]
True Nature
Ketzelkan the Winged Serpent, Sovereign of Mictlan, was the uncorrupted form of Condemnation, and the strongest Supreme in the Sun Realm.[6]
Ketzelkan eventually rallied his fellow Supremes and challenged a Fifth Nightmare Seed with them. The attempt was successful, and his cohort became the first Spirits of the Nightmare Spell. However, they lost their sense of self in the process, dooming their civilisation and becoming corrupted.[7]
Appearance
"It was vaguely human-like in shape, possessing two legs, two arms, and a head. However, the semblance was rough and distant, as if created in the image of a human by a consciousness that either did not really know what humans looked like, or simply did not care."
— Description of Condemnation, Chapter 2086[8]
Condemnation was of truly incomprehensible scale. While Sunny had fought mountain-sized abominations before, such as Goliath, who towered between one and two hundred meters, Condemnation dwarfed the Fallen Titan effortlessly, standing at multiple kilometers tall at its full height.[3]
In fact, Condemnation was so vast that its full form could only be perceived from a great distance; any closer, and an observer would have to lie on the ground and look up to truly take in its scale [Ch 2085]. According to Sunny, the mere sight of it rising felt less like the movement of a living being and more like watching a natural disaster unfold.[3]
Most distinctively, Condemnation's body was not merely covered by the ruins it had risen from. It literally consisted of them. Stone, soil, shattered bone, trees, vines, rubble, and entire crumbling buildings were suspended in the air by an invisible force to comprise its colossal figure. Less tangible elements were also part of its form: the twilight of the subterranean ruins, vast swathes of ancient shadow, the howling wind, and clouds of mist, alongside likely more abstract concepts beyond mortal perception.[3]
As its battle with Anvil progressed, Condemnation continued to assimilate more of its surroundings, incorporating lava, billowing clouds of ash, vacuum, and frozen flames into its titanic figure.[8] Sunny likened it to a malevolent spirit that had possessed the nameless city and built itself a body from its remains.[3]
Behaviour
Condemnation was an apathetic and indifferent being, slumbering beneath the ruins of its conquered city for thousands of years before being roused.[2]
Though slow in appearance, it was not truly sluggish. Condemnation was able to manipulate space—twisting and extending it to allow the dark deity to pass. Therefore, Condemnation was able to move much faster than a creature of its immeasurable size ought to.[9]
When confronted by Anvil, it showed no fear and exhibited little emotion. Even in its shade-form, long after death, it retained this same indifference. When Sunny tried to command his shade of Condemnation within Ariel's Game, it simply refused to move, as it always had.[10]
Abilities
Presence
Condemnation's mere existence reshaped the world around it. When it rose, Saints paled and stumbled mid-battle, nearly losing their lives; its presence also made its minions stronger.[3]
Merely standing near Condemnation made it difficult to breathe, and Sunny felt as though his mind was about to shatter even though he was not the target of its gaze.[3]
Will
As a Cursed Tyrant, Condemnation's immense Will was truly dreadful. The ruins of the ancient city were its domain, and within them, Condemnation's Will was law.[2] This domain actively clashed with invading Domains, such as Anvil's Sword Domain.[8]
Notably, Condemnation's Will enhanced its durability to staggering proportions.
Anvil's storm of countless blades struck Condemnation continuously with obliterating force. This produced a chain reaction of flame that incinerated the obliterated the ancient city and the surrounding jungle. Despite all that, Condemnation was undamaged with not a single scratch on its body.[4]
"Beyond the Great Nightmare Creatures, the vast ruins of the ancient city… were utterly gone, having turned into a hellish landscape of ash and molten lava. And further still…the Cursed Tyrant, Condemnation, remained intact and undamaged."
— Chapter 2087, 'Fragments of War (24)'[4]
Concept of Condemnation
Condemnation's most defining ability and its namesake, was the invisible force that tore pieces of the world from their place and bound them into its body.[3][11]
"His hands were not his. Even though they were attached to him, they were not a part of him. His eyes belonged to someone else, gazing at the world with a cold and unfamiliar indifference.
The heart beating in his chest was a foreign object. His chest, as well, was merely an external vessel.
Someone else's eyes widened in horror. Someone else's mouth opened to let out a terrified scream."
— Sunless being Condemned, Chapter 2113, 'Condemned'[12]
This was not merely a physical force, but rather conceptual in nature. When Sunny fell into the body of Condemnation’s shadow in the Shadow Realm, he found that reality itself was subjugated and subsumed by Condemnation's force, with time and space themselves being consumed.[12] His body, soul, mind, and even his spirit, were gradually being absorbed.[13]
Regeneration
Destroying Condemnation's body did not destroy Condemnation itself. Even after the body of the Cursed Tyrant was ground to dust by an essence storm, the invisible force that had built it persisted, manifesting first as a weak whirlwind before steadily drawing in shards of bone, dust, and stone to construct itself a new vessel.[14]
Asuras of Condemnation
As a Tyrant, Condemnation commanded a host of Great Beasts called the Asuras of Condemnation. These were once suits of runic armour that were once operated by Awakened warriors of the Sun Realm.[15] After the civilisation in Godgrave perished, these suits were exposed to corruption, eventually becoming servants of Condemnation. The Asuras drew strength directly from Condemnation's presence, growing more powerful within it. After Condemnation was slain, they stood motionlessly like statues, devoid of life.[16]
Habitat
"Condemnation dwells in the ruins, and its sphere of influence overlaps with any viable route to the First Rib"
— Sunless to Anvil, Chapter 2081, 'Fragments of War (18)'[17]
Condemnation dwelt in a ruined city located near the Western First Rib of Godgrave's skeleton. There, the Cursed Tyrant ruled over a small army of Great Beasts called the 'Asuras of Condemnation'.
Notable Encounters
Pre-Story
Long ago, Condemnation descended upon the civilization of the nameless city like a cataclysm. Despite the defenders wielding powerful exosuits and sublime diamond weapons, the city fell, and Condemnation came to rest beneath its ruins.[2]
First Encounter (Volume 8, Lord of Shadows)
Condemnation was roused from its slumber while Nephis and the Lord of Shadows were within its territory. Unable to escape due to the warping of space around them, the two Saints were forced to fight. By detonating a soul core and using the power of Shaping, Nephis was able to burn Condemnation and pierce its mind with unbearable pain, causing the Cursed Tyrant to convulse and scream.
Battle Against Anvil (Volume 9, Throne of War)
Anvil, King of Swords, eventually confronted Condemnation directly during the Domain War. Rising into the air across from the Tyrant's face, Anvil summoned countless swords to attack Condemnation's body with obliterating force, producing flashes of light and blooms of flame as kinetic energy converted into heat. The resulting chain reaction ignited the air itself, vanquishing the twilight of the Hollows, turning the jungle to ash, and melting the ancient stone into rivers of lava. When the fire died down, Condemnation remained utterly undamaged.[3][4]
Subsequent Defeat (Volume 9, Throne of War)
As the battle continued, Anvil revealed that the scattered swords drifting across the battlefield had not been idle. The swords been deliberately positioned as anchors of a vast, intricate runic array, which Cassie identified as a kind of “magical prism or fulcrum”.[18]
The runic array existed only for one slash. Anvil's upward cut broke through the damaged dome of the Hollows and carved a wound in the sky above Godgrave, tearing a wide breach in the veil of clouds that protected it from the sun's incandescent purity.
A pillar of annihilating sunlight then fell through the breach, striking Condemnation directly. Everything comprising its body, including soil, stone, trees, twilight, shadow, frozen flame, and even the absorbed lava, was reduced to ash. One of its legs crumbled, and the Cursed Tyrant fell to its knees, resembling a mountain of flames slowly dissolving into radiance.
With a final wail, Condemnation was slain, leaving behind only ash.[9]
Shadow Realm (Volume 9, Throne of War)
Condemnation's shadow persisted into the Shadow Realm, where Sunny encountered it walking across the obsidian dunes. This shadow was woven from immaterial things, including shadows, black dust, distant light, and giant slabs of floating obsidian, since the Shadow Realm lacked the soil and stone the original Tyrant had drawn upon.[5] Ascending the colossal shadow, Sunny found that its body was a terrain unto itself, with hills and valleys vast enough to shelter an entire city.[19]
An essence storm eventually ground the shadow's body into a hill of black dust,[20] but the invisible force behind it began constructing a new vessel from the surrounding debris. [14]
Sunny plunged then into the reforming whirlwind and stabbed the fang of a Soul Serpent, a conduit of Death, into the sphere of bone at its heart. Sharpening his will into infinitely cold killing intent, he channeled it through the splinter of ancient bone. This finally killed the Cursed Tyrant.[21]
Ariel's Death Game (Volume 10, Dark Lord's Dreadful Travelogue)
Having slain the shadow of Condemnation, Sunny claimed it as a shade within his Soul Sea, though it remained characteristically inert.
During Ariel's Death Game, Condemnation still refused to move. In a desperate attempt, Sunny decided to expel the gigantic shade of Condemnation from his Soul Sea, in hopes that it would battle the Puppeteer Moth. This feat was made possible by his Supreme authority over his own soul. Condemnation's shade eventually bought Sunny enough time to prevail over the Puppeteer Moth.[22]
Trivia
The name "Condemnation" is implied to derive from the fate of those subsumed by its assimilating force, who were "condemned" to exist as a part of the Cursed Tyrant forever.[11]
Condemnation’s mountainous body had chaotic, dreadful contours, and simply looking upon it was described as maddening, as if wounding the mind of the observer.[3]
After Anvil slew Condemnation, he used his transformation ability to convert the slain Cursed Tyrant into a memory.
"The Sovereign was holding a new sword in his hand, this one emanating an even more chilling aura. It was a greatsword with a beautiful flowing pattern permeating its steel, indescribably fearsome... and strangely familiar."
— Chapter 2091, 'Fragments of War (28)'[16]
The shadow of Condemnation dissolved into essence so slowly that, left undisturbed, it would likely have taken countless years to fade away completely.[5]
References(21)
- [1]Chapter 2083, "Fragments of War (20)", Vol. 9
- [2]Chapter 1683, "Dark Deity", Vol. 8
- [3]Chapter 2085, "Fragments of War (22)", Vol. 9
- [4]Chapter 2087, "Fragments of War (24)", Vol. 9
- [5]Chapter 2100, "Wolves of Shadow Realm", Vol. 9
- [6]Chapter 2770, "Gods of Godgrave", Vol. 11
- [7]Chapter 2771, "The Unmaking", Vol. 11
- [8]Chapter 2086, "Fragments of War (23)", Vol. 9