"The Green" and "The Red" were both sources of life force for the entire Earth, and even the universe.
Swamp Thing was the embodiment of the Green on Earth. To put it crudely, he was an elemental being connected to every living creature on Earth. He had appeared when the first swamp formed on this planet, and until Earth's life ran dry, he would possess an endless supply of vitality.
Yet even this incomparably powerful force of nature had to submit to the erosion of this gray mass of flesh.
A century ago, the Court's agents had followed the Innsmouth people's prophecy to the swamps, where they dug Swamp Thing out of the rotten sludge, tormented into slumber by the growth.
"Approach madness, approach the truth. It descends amid chaos, granting all living beings equal death."
The Court firmly believed that this sentence, recorded on the front of the Parchment Scroll, described the growth attached to Swamp Thing's back. They retrieved Swamp Thing and enshrined him inside Wayne Tower.
As for how to worship him, the Court had gone through countless failed attempts, from prayers and offerings to sacrifices of living flesh, until Charles Wayne accidentally cut his finger.
Scenting blood, the growth began to expand, enveloping Swamp Thing, writhing as it absorbed his nutrients.
Then the growth's surface began secreting a layer of emerald-green slime: energy released by the altered Green.
This was precisely what the Court desired.
Once, the pure energy of the Green had briefly manifested in a corner of the Earth.
"The Lazarus Pit." Ra's al Ghul bestowed this name upon the pool of immortal holy water, and it spread throughout the world with the ringing of Arab camel bells.
But as human industry flourished, green spaces dwindled, skyscrapers and smokestacks rose from the ground, and