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| “ | Have no fear... we have not forgotten... your service to us... There is no need to be jealous. It is you we love... You know we need you... We need you to free us! Free us... and you will never... lose us again! | „ |
| ~ The Locust to the Hooded One |
The Lord of the Locusts, sometimes shortened as the Locust, is the overarching antagonist of the Bone graphic novel series.
He is a frightening and callous demonic force serving as the source of evil and the cosmic manifestation of nightmares of this universe, who commands the Hooded One. He preys upon the Dreaming (people’s connection to the source of the Bone universe), seeking to roam the Waking World and claim the lives of its entire population.
Nature[]
The Lord of the Locusts is the never seen God of Evil who orchestrates all the saga's villainy. He is an evil, eldritch, formless, nigh-undefinable, nightmare entity of unexplained origins, whose mere existence plagues the Dreaming. Being a purely spiritual being, he needs to possess a host to manifest on the Physical Planes. He feeds on fear, anguish and despair, which fuels his power and his evil, and spreads as much as he can.
He manifests in dreams as a gigantic golden locust, and in the Physical Planes as a sky-darkening cloud of billions of locusts, which he can control individually, being able to see and exert his influence through any of them.
It must be noted that he refers to himself with "we/us" instead of "I/me," hinting that every single locust is part of himself.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Locust is frighteningly powerful, having incredible control over illusions, being able to plunge many people into extremely realistic mirage sequences that might drive them mad. His presence alone blurs the frontiers separating the Dreaming and the Waking, the spiritual and physical realms, and can overwhelm his victims with nightmares.
An old wall-painting depicting the Lord of the Locusts.
He can conjure "Ghost Circles": invisible gates between the Spirit World and Nothingness erasing everything and everyone they touch from existence and trapping people's souls between life and death. And he seeks to expand them all over the world.
Even when sealed, he can swarm his surroundings with his locusts and communicate with people in their mind or corrupt them. He is attracted to creatures with strong affinities with the Dreaming, such as Dragons and Veni-Yan-Cari (Awakened Ones: people controlling the Dreaming), whose sensitivity makes them vulnerable to his evil.
Also, he influences the Rat Creatures who live in the mountains where he has been sealed. He is also able to grant powers to those whom he corrupted, or to seal a fragment of himself within someone. The more fear his agents spread, the more power he regains.
Role in the Story[]
Background[]
In the beginning of times, when the Dragons ruled the earth, the Dragon Queen Mim maintained the balance of the Dreaming and kept the world in perfect harmony. Alas, the Lord of the Locusts wanted to be part of the Waking World (and claim it for himself), and he chose Mim as his host. The Locust's possession drove Mim to madness and sent her on a rampage, in which she killed millions of living creatures and disturbed the balance of the Dreaming forever. (Mim's madness being likely the Locust acting through her, though it is hinted that she turned mad on her own as a last resort to impede his possession, counting on her subjects to stop her.)
The entire Dragon population fought against Mim in an apocalyptic battle, and managed to turn her into stone and to entomb her below the earth. This cataclysm separated the Dreaming and Waking Worlds permanently. Because of this, the Dragons taught a young girl named Ven Harvestar how to watch over the Dreaming. Later on, the tomb of the Locust became a mountain chain populated by Rat Creatures, and Ven founded the mighty kingdom of Atheia; along with the order of Venu, mystical keepers of dreams lead by shamans able to influence the Dreaming.
Rose[]
In the Prequel comic-book Rose, the Lord of the Locusts acts through the treacherous princess Briar Harvestar and a greedy River Dragon named Balsaad he tempted and corrupted. Briar's younger sister Rose confronts the Locust's swarm and eventually kills Balsaad, despite the healing factor the Locust granted him, by cutting him to pieces washed away by a river stream, unable to reattach to him. Furious at Briar for refusing to use Rose in the ritual needed to free him, the Locust ages her as a punishment.
Fifty years before the start of the story, the Locust indirectly influenced the Rat Creatures to wage war against Atheia alongside the eastern humans from the nation of Pawa. (The Pawan warriors eventually came to worship the Locust.) Thanks to Briar, who told them about the Atheian armies' actions, the Rat Creatures managed to topple the kingdom and claim the Valley as their own, eventually slaying the royal family (save from Rose and her grand-daughter Thorn). However, Briar's treachery was unveiled and she was slain by Thorn's father.
With help from the Dragons, Rose could drive the Rat Creatures out of the Valley, agreeing not to rebuild the kingdom if the Rat Creatures were to remain in their mountain. However, The Lord of the Locusts raised Briar as an undead so that she could continue to serve him. Fifteen years later, Briar using the alias of the Hooded One had gained complete dominion over the Rat Creatures and was ready to restart war.
Bone[]
The Locust frightens away the Bone cousins.
The Lord of the Locusts first manifests himself at the start of the story, when three toon-like creatures named Fone Bone, Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone enter the Valley. His swarm of locusts overwhelms and separate the three cousins, but the swarm's true nature would not be revealed before long.
The Locust speaks with the Hooded One several times during the story, discussing about her plans of action or the potential threats. At one point, he sends a swarm of his locusts after the Bone cousins and their team, so as to trap them in a mirage. His locusts then seize Fone Bone and attempt to take him with them, but a magic Dream Talisman incidentally given to him by Rose Harvestar drives them away.
When the Hooded One attempts to sacrifice Phoney Bone to release the Lord of the Locusts, it is revealed that she mistook him for a Veni-Yen-Cari and that sacrificing him would be useless. Displeased by this, the Locust turns her back into a corpse and attempts to corrupt Thorn Harvestar (who is an exceptionally powerful Veni-Yan-Cari), but Fone Bone drives his locusts away with the Dream Talisman. The entire mountain is later destroyed in a volcanic explosion, and both Thorn and Fone Bone now bear a fragment of his essence.
The Locust raises the Hooded One again and she expands his Ghost Circles all over the Valley, engulfing entire populations and spreading fear everywhere. All this strengthens the Locust, to the point that he ends up escaping from his jail while still possessing the Dragon Queen Mim, surrounded by a tremendous thunderstorm, spelling the imminent end of the world. As the protagonists struggle to defend the capital city of Atheia from the Hooded One's hordes, Thorn (who received spiritual guidance from her mother's spirit) sneaks out with Fone Bone and goes to Tanen Gard, the Dragons' sacred burial ground; searching for the "Crown of Horns": the very heart of the universe. There, she slays Kingdok and manages to touch the Crown with Fone Bone's help.
Thorn channels her Dreaming power into the Crown of Horns to destroy the fragment of the Locust within herself, causing a chain reaction that obliterates the Lord of the Locusts and the Hooded One once and for all, with all his locusts falling to the ground scorched. With the Ghost Circles gone and the Valley restored, the Dragons gather to bring back a newly freed Mim underground. Thorn later restores Atheia and becomes Queen of the Valley, setting durable peace with Pawa and the Rat Creatures.
Quest for the Spark[]
The Nacht, last remnant of the Locust's blight.
Alas, the threat of the Lord of the Locusts is not over, despite his destruction. His original second-in-command, an immensely powerful corrupted dragon known as the Nacht (German for Night), returns to the Valley in the sequel trilogy of novels.
Three years after the events of Bone, a boy farmer named Tom Elm and his friend, the talkative racoon Roderick join forces with Percival Bone, an elderly explorer from Boneville on his aircraft and his nephews Abbey and Barclay; Smelly and Stinky, Rat Creatures who hunted the Bone cousins, banished by their new king Agak; and a retired priest-warrior of Venu named Randolf Clearmeadow.
Guided by the female Nature Spirit Lorimar, but tracked down by the Nacht's pawns Constable Roark and King Agak, they set up to find all fragments of the Spark, a Light Artifact created from the Dreaming able to slay the Nacht and restore the Valley.
External Links[]
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