Before the Blood Comet tore across the sky, the entire world had cowered beneath the shadow of the Merfolk civilization for over ten thousand years.
Their slimy blackstone complexes spread from the seabed onto land like malignant tumors. Those underground labyrinths and black pyramids could gather and devour every form of energy.
They could turn gentle tides into world-ending tsunamis that devastated coastal lands. They could also convert vibrant life force, the power of the wind, the power of the earth, and light into blackstone energy, storing it for those Energy-Body Lifeforms to consume.
The grandest of them all, the Abyssal Court, stood at the easternmost edge of the world's continents, in the deepest trench in the western Sunset Sea.
It consisted of thirty-three blackstone spires arranged in a ring, each resonating with the others. Whenever the phases of the moon changed, the spires resonated together, emitting infrasound that drove the Merman Folk insane, making them frenzied and bloodthirsty.
Merfolk nobles wore fringed robes woven from luminous magical plants of the deep sea, coral-and-pearl crowns upon their heads, and collars set with Blue Demon Pearls around their necks.
These magical objects, made from crystallized blackstone energy, not only allowed their wearers to breathe freely on land, but could also instantly freeze their lungs the moment they harbored disrespect.
After nearly ten thousand years of conquest, the Merman Folk controlled many enslaved vassal races.
Human laborers had been altered to possess gill slits. Thick tissue fluid constantly seeped between the fingers of these "Amphibious Slaves," gradually developing into webbing.
The Children of the Forest had holes drilled into their spines and magical blackstone implanted inside. Their Greenseer bloodlines were used to cultivate carnivorous shrubs that could walk.
Once magical blackstone was inserted into the hearts of giant warriors, ice-blue flames began