Influence on Northman by The Northern Darkness

The Northman, after tracking The Northern Darkness as close as he dared get, sat long and watched. unseen beasts and elemental forces swirled in and amongst the steep crags, deeply shadowed hollows, caverns and misty regions surrounding the enigmatic Invisible Woods. He did not perceive that over time his obsession and unwavering desire for meaning opened his soul and subconsciousness to be perceived by The Darkness.

As it became aware of him it pondered him. Boredom and malice breed contempt, and it slowly began to take interest in the purpose and potential knowledge of his people's path to come and seek its dark power. It also used this influence to sew doubt in the Northman's mind, telling him that he was right to keep his watch to the north, and whispering to his isolated and weary body that there were more of his people coming behind him, but that they would not understand the importance of his unceasing vigilance against ignorance and an aimless future in a fractured world he could only sense on the deepest level of his life's essence.

This is also when a hostility toward neutral attitudes, selflessness, and settling for mediocre outcomes began to harden within him, and The Darkness fed that and incorporated into it a suspicion of the neutral zone, which is a literal blast crater upon the planet formed from the violent collision of The Darkness with the very heart of the expansion of this tiny planetary system within a new galaxy. Whereas neutrality, banality, mediocrity and foolish selflessness among humans would normally be a universal quality spread throughout humanity, it was shifted as it passed through The Darkness and actually formed an indigenous race that retained more of this essence than the other human races, in turn making all other races less infused with this quality and more inclined to hard, practical and pragmatic means of handling affairs. This is why the neutral zone population is mediocre. They are selfless and just revel in their good fortune and communities, unaware that they are mostly just an ongoing experiment waged by powers who aren't sure what to do with them.Northman