1 A Dark Beginning

On the day that future historians would mark as the unholy commencement of the reign of the Dark One, a strange, brown-skinned, goblin-like creature would begin his day by waking up at the foot of a truly grand throne. The creature, an elderly member of his race who had slept underneath a pile of rags, took a single moment to adjust to his surroundings.

His sensitive, enormous ears, picking up the distant sounds that came from a variety of sources, his nose crinkling as it took in a staggering array of new scents, and his amber eyes opening in confusion as he took a moment to realize something unnatural.

He, and indeed the dark tower he had lived in for so long, were not where they were meant to be, in the depths of the netherworld. And what's more is that the netherworld, the ancient homeland of the overlord's fanatical servants; the minions, was also, somehow, not where it was meant to be.

"Gnarl! Wake up, you senile old coot!" Came a loud, annoyingly high-pitched voice, as the ancient lord of the minions, and indeed the customary adviser to whoever held the title of overlord began to stagger up and out of the tiny "Bed" he had prepared for himself long ago.

The "Head-Minion" turned, anger and irritation visible in his gaze as he rounded on the stupidly dressed "Jester", the minion who was a simpering fool who enjoyed being beaten by his superiors. Gnarl grabbed the eldritch staff he had been given by one of the very first overlords and swung it at the approaching fool, who was able to step out of the way of the thing with surprising deftness.

"You'll have to be quicker than that! Hehehehehe." The fool began, his childish giggle ringing out of his thin throat. Gnarl sighed, already tired of the blithering idiot's games.

"You idiot! I am not senile!" Gnarl roared, revealing a surprising amount of youthful vigor to his fury. He continued to threaten to thwack the idiot who had insulted his sanity and even began to chase the court fool, brandishing his stick threateningly. This would continue for a full minute before the throne room of the tower would itself react to their foolishness.

The throne room was a grand, open chamber, where the throne of the overlord was the central feature but other eyecatching things included the cracked nether-flooring which itself occasionally spat gouts of fire, and the litany of armed, trained minions who patrolled the entire chamber, were but some of the features. Gnarl had been in the midst of chasing the court-fool when the entire chamber itself changed colors.

The natural color of the throne room was a dark, fiery red, and everything from the imperial throne itself to the floor was some variant of that color. When the throne room changed, it went from being dominated by various shades of red to being dominated by a series of darker colors, including primarily, an eerie, azure blue.

The change was sudden and drastic, and it was quite frightening, even for the battle-hardened and diabolical species known as "The Minions".

"What… What is that?" The head of the race, the wizened creature known to his followers as "Gnarl" uttered, as he stopped and began to study the changes.

The creature took a careful approach to study the changes, and he began by glancing at the throne, where the connection to the outside world was the strongest. It was there where the changes were the weakest, and where the eerie blue was mixed with tinges of scarlet light. That did not surprise the potent servant of evil.

From there he began to move in a circle, and as he did so, so did his fellow minions, most of whom were far more foolish than he was. They made silly observations about the nature of the strange blue hue that had infused and dominated almost everything around them. Gnarl was not as easily distracted as they were.

The wise minion noticed that the eerie blue lighting was infecting everything, and he was the first minion to feel the subtle but constant temperature change that was slowly occurring. The grand chamber, linked to the numerous volcanoes that dotted the lowerest reaches of the netherworld, was supposed to be an incredibly hot place, and yet with every passing second, the temperature was dropping.

Gnarl's perceptiveness also alerted him to the eerie reality that the blue hue got darker the closer it got to the area leading to the overlord's personal chambers.

"Could… Could it be?" Gnarl dared to hope, as he wondered if the cause of all of this was somehow the spontaneous emergence of a new overlord. He turned to one of the hulking "Elite minions" who guarded the dais leading to the throne and pointed his staff in the direction of the personal quarters of the overlord, though they had been uninhabited for decades.

"You! Come with me. We need to investigate the overlord's personal quarters." Gnarled uttered, his voice shrill as he attempted, unsuccessfully, to hide his excitement.

The minion he had pointed his staff at nodded at him and was internally grateful for the ornate helmet he wore that kept his smile from being noticed by his current master. Gnarl was often harsh to minions who smiled, as a means to keep up his devotion to evil and petty cruelty.

The two minions began to walk, surprisingly speedily, towards the stairs that led to the overlord's personal chambers. As they did, both of them noticed the intensifying chill. At first it was only a bit cold, but then, once they were beginning to climb the stairwell, the cold dramatically intensified.

_______________________________________

The trip to the chambers quickly became unbearable for the minions, who had to request the aid of blue minions and red minions, the spell-casters of the minion species, and the fire-wielders of the minion species, respectively. By the time they reached the opulent personal area belonging solely to the true master of the minions, the would-be tyrants, and conquerors of the world to which the netherworld was connected, Gnarl had amassed a small party of no less than ten minions, counting himself.

The area spread out before the party was dyed a dark shade of blue, the sort of shade of blue one might expect the deepest trenches of the ocean to be. And the entire area was frigid, so cold in fact that the area in front of the minions was frozen solid.

The area before them was a grand foyer that led to the personal bedchamber of the overlord, and to a surprisingly scenic balcony allowing those who stepped to it to gaze at the dark heart of the netherworld, a swirling maelstrom of amber-colored demonic energy that made this entire dimension inimical to good and neutral beings.

The minions stepped carefully through the frozen place and were able to avoid any missteps or even tripping as they approached the bedchamber that would have belonged to the overlord, had there been anyone who could claim that infamous title. Gnarl noticed this, when they found themselves in front of the door to the bedchamber and wondered if they were somehow… being allowed to reach this point.

When they stood in front of the massive door, the minions turned and looked at Gnarl, curiously. He steeled himself for whatever may lay beyond the door, and then placed a single, leathery hand on the thing. And then he pushed it open.

The minions, as one, collectively gasped when they saw what was waiting for them. Inside of the opulently decorated room was a massive sarcophagus, made of some sort of otherworldly metal. Gnarl, took a deep, steadying breath, and approached the thing.

As he did, he thought back to the last time he had done this; decades ago when awakening the mythical overlord who'd go on to defeat the Forgotten God, who had been placed in a tomb to recover from the legendary battle that left the physical body of the arch-sorcerer known as "The Dark Wizard" destroyed but his spirit intact.

When Gnarl was beside the sarcophagus, he shivered as the evil energy the thing radiated began to touch his skin and his soul.

"This… Yes… Whatever is inside of here is indeed a creature of great malice and darkness." Gnarl whispered, excitedly. His voice was soft, and high-pitched, as he placed his hand on the thing, and caused the metal of the object to begin to glow sinisterly.

_______________________________________

The creature inside of the alien object began to sense a rush of information flood his brain, the very same second that Gnarl touched the sarcophagus in which he resided. In an instant, the very instant that the sleeping alien's sarcophagus was touched, he immediately learned everything from the history of the universe he was now in, as understood by Gnarl, to the countless languages the little sage knew.

The being inside of the object opened his eyes, and as soon as he did the lid of the sarcophagus began to melt away, revealing the eerie, human-looking entity inside of the thing.

_______________________________________

I watched as the dark cover of the sarcophagus in which I must have, at some point, been placed inside of melted away as if by magic. As it did, my mind adjusted to the eerie sounds of the creature known as "Gnarl", according to the memories placed in my mind by some outside source I couldn't understand, laughing in evil delight. The first sight that would greet me as the cover finished vanishing would be the sight of the large head of Gnarl, his yellow eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Greetings, oh stranger." The head-minion muttered, subserviently. I gazed at the creature, and when I didn't immediately respond I sensed him beginning to grow nervous.

I wracked my brain for any memories of my own, and weirdly, couldn't find any. What's more, is that that didn't scare me at all, instead, I was able to react to it with a weird sort of detachment and acceptance. After a few seconds, I sighed and turned the full measure of my attention to Gnarl.

"Hello, Gnarl." I replied, my voice eerily deep in comparison to these creatures, or even to the beings of the world this place was attached to, at least if Gnarl's memories could be trusted. Gnarl's eyes widened in shock, and a bit of fear, as he realized that I knew his name.

I placed a single one of my muscular hands on the edge of the sarcophagus I had been placed inside of. I turned to face the hand that I had placed on the edge of the sarcophagus and was surprised to see that it was covered in a metal gauntlet, and my eyes widened as I gazed at the thing.

I heard the creatures behind and beside Gnarl, all of whom looked like palette-swapped, muscular versions of himself, all gasp in unison and drop to their knees when they saw the eldritch piece of armor affixed to my hand.

"So it's true… A new overlord…" Gnarl uttered, reverentially as he stared, wide-eyed at the gauntlet.

"I... " I muttered, caught off guard by the appearance of the thing. It felt like it was a part of me like it was itself my hand, and not actually a piece of armor. I began to sense the sentience within it, the will and ego the thing attached to me possessed.

I suddenly pushed myself up, using my mind more than any specific muscle, and studied the otherworldly artifact attached to me.

"Master…" I heard the thing utterly, quietly, almost childishly. I could hear a note of yearning, and dissonate notes of joy, in the voice of the gauntlet. It was not opposed to me. It was… excited that I was here. It was at that moment that I turned my gaze towards the "Minions", as the strange race seemed to be enjoy being referred to.

Before me were a number of eerie beings, ten in total, two brown ones, and eight that were red and blue. The ones with red skin were the first ones I gazed at, and as I did I felt my eyes begin to burn. But not from them.

_______________________________________

Those who were gathered around the sarcophagus were surprised to watch the air around them begin to shimmer, and then they felt the air around themselves beginning to abruptly and dramatically heat up as if someone had put them in a sauna.

"So… That's what the reds can do…" The eerie, inhuman voice of the creature uttered, as his eyes continued to study the scarlet-skinned goblin-like beings.

"And… Now, what I can do." He uttered, his voice filled with some sort of inhuman authority, causing the minions gathered before him to fall to their knees as they recognized him as their leader and master, their true leader and master.

"Your powers… I shall add them to mine." The eldritch being whispered, pride and joy filling his voice, as he felt the first real emotion he'd ever feel: a covetous desire to wield and master every single power in the omniverse.