Rathsern

Rathsern the Cursed One
Rathsern Depiction of Rathsern, the Cursed One.
Type	Fallen God
Divine aspects
Associated element	Dark Energy

Rathsern (Ruulden: "The Cursed One"), also known as the Dark One, is a fallen deity of Mundusian myth and is not considered part of the generally accepted Aetherian Faith. Ancient texts describe him as a fifth child of the divine age, part mortal and part god, created during the earliest and imperfect attempts of Simonius and Odivia to craft life.

Rathsern is widely blamed for the first deliberate corruption of Light, the creation of the first Netherkind, and the shaping of the Nether itself, a realm "beneath the world" born from isolation, anguish, and Dark Energy. The Faith forbids his worship, though reports of hidden cults persist wherever Dark Energy pools.

Names and epithets

• Rathsern (Ruulden): "The Cursed One".
• The Dark One.

Mythic history

Origin

According to surviving Aetherian accounts, Rathsern was the first "true child" made by Simonius and Odivia in a formative era, before humankind was fully established. He is described as pale, with white, featureless eyes, neither wholly god nor mortal, and left to wander unacknowledged until the gods later returned and bestowed affection upon humankind.

Temple teaching commonly frames his fall as the consequence of profound solitude: shunned by mortals and without a clear place among the divine, he awakened power and sought to create a lineage of his own.

The Gift of Sight and the Moonlit Glade

Many hymns claim the Four granted Rathsern the Gift of Sight so that his visions would reflect compassion. Instead, the most repeated (and most feared) teaching is that Rathsern delighted in unmaking what the gods loved.

The precise deed that "severed pity" is disputed, as many records were lost in the burning of the Grand Sanctum of Alessa's stacks. However, surviving marginalia repeatedly returns to a single image: a dusk-lit grove, a mother and her newborn, and joy extinguished for sport, witnessed with delight.

In its most widely told form, the episode is remembered as the Moonlit Glade: Rathsern is said to have drained living creatures of their Light, corrupting what he took and leaving lifeless bodies intertwined with shadowed growth. The Four answered in grief and fury, and Rathsern was stripped of divine gifts of Light and cast from their favor.

Dark Energy, Netherkind, and the making of the Nether

Bereft and furious, Rathsern is said to have harnessed the void within himself, spilling Dark Energy into the world and twisting life into the first Netherkind, things neither fully alive nor dead. Over long centuries he shaped a realm beneath Mundus, the Nether, described as a prison that is ultimately "a hell of his own making".

The sealing of the Nether

When the Four found their world assailed, tradition holds that they acted in stewardship rather than vengeance. First, they bound Netherkind to darkness so they could no longer roam freely in daylight. Then, to spare Mundus without destroying their wayward child, they locked the Nether away and sealed Rathsern within it.

Traditions name the barrier as the Ten Seals of Dawnstone, forged at the Nether's rim to bar Rathsern's dominion from the surface world.

Worship and taboo

The Aetherian Faith forbids veneration of Rathsern, treating his name as a warning rather than a prayer. Despite this, clandestine groups are believed to persist.

Order of the Darkened Flame

The Order of the Darkened Flame is described in modern accounts as an illegal cult devoted to Rathsern, operating underground in defiance of local law and the Faith's doctrine.

Creations and servants

Netherkind

Rathsern is credited with fashioning the first Netherkind as "children" of his own making.

Piglins, the Golden Children

Among the most feared of his creations are the Piglins, sometimes called the Golden Children. They are often described as high-ranking figures within Nether armies, with rumored leaders such as Q'roquirk appearing in whispered reports.

See also

• Simonius
• Odivia
• Alessa
• Darg
• Nether
• Netherkind
• Darkblight
• Order of the Darkened Flame