Asterion's Thralls

They retain full sanity, rationality, and mental faculties, and are neither mindless nor directly controlled. Instead, their foundational beliefs and principles have been altered through insidious mental manipulation, causing their reasoning to fail whenever Asterion is involved, without them being capable of recognizing the unreasonableness of their thoughts. Thralls sincerely believe everything they say to be true and cannot have their devotion shaken through questioning or contradiction.^[1]

Despite their unwavering loyalty, Asterion's thralls possess only vague and incomplete knowledge about him. They may know that he is a Supreme, but do not understand how he attained Supremacy, what powers he wields, what his plans are, or what role they themselves play in bringing those plans to fruition. They are unaware that they are enthralled at all, do not know the identities of other thralls, and often assume that everyone naturally shares their beliefs. When questioned in detail, they may become briefly confused before producing improvised answers consistent with their distorted worldview, sometimes repeating incomprehensible phrases associated with Asterion's ideology, such as references to "togetherness", "communion", and "salvation for all".^[1]

The thralls were placed under a mental hex, where their thoughts and perceptions are influenced or altered by Asterion. This hex removes their ability to think critically about their mental state, actions, and their nature as thralls, making them unable to truly question or resist his control. Even when confronted with the idea that their loyalty is artificial, they perceive their thoughts as their own and may even express satisfaction with their condition.^[2]

• Asterion had the ability to read and understand people's weaknesses, explaining that although everyone had a weakness, some were easier to exploit than others, and that dealing with powerful, cunning, lucky, or highly skilled individuals posed no real problem for him. Through this ability, he determined that his subordinates could not deal with Jet without either sacrificing too many talents or destroying her instead of making her his, which led him to act personally.^[3]
  • In Chapter 2825, Asterion demonstrated the ability to read and influence Jet's thoughts until she ultimately escaped the Night Garden by teleporting away after briefly freeing herself from the Dreamspawn's mental influence.
• In Chapter 2827, it was unclear when Asterion had enthralled Saint Thane, but his involvement caused grave unseen damage to the Human Domain through infected dreams, which accelerated the spread of the plague and made countless people across the Dream Realm far more susceptible to it, with Red Hill being targeted especially severely. Despite being enthralled, Saint Thane remained a subject of the Longing Domain until the very end, demonstrating that Asterion's control over his thralls extended beyond simply making them blindly loyal to his cause.
  • Asterion had shown his ability to subjugate people without stealing them from the Domain of the Supreme they were loyal to.^[4]
• After Red Hill fell, Nephis and the others conducted an investigation into what had happened. Their investigation eventually pointed at Saint Thane, the Dream Merchant, and his treachery was revealed. It was discovered that he had been enthralled, connected to Asterion's influence, demonstrating Asterion's ability to subjugate people without stealing them from the Domain of the Supreme they were loyal to. When the truth of his betrayal came to light, Nephis, consumed by wrath, confronted the Dream Merchant and began burning him with her immolating white flames, repeatedly destroying and restoring his body in order to break Asterion's hex that controlled him.^[5]
  • Saint Thane was turned into a screaming bonfire with Nephis' white flames in her wrath. The flames quickly stole his voice, and she burned the enthralled Saint until nothing remained but a shriveled, blackened stick figure. However, she did not kill him; instead, she used the same flames to restore him to flawless health and then burned him again repeatedly, again and again, so that the name Asterion would become synonymous with harrowing pain in his mind. Eventually, the agony and horror overpowered Asterion's hex, erasing it, but by the time they left, the Dream Merchant had not regained his ability to form coherent sentences yet.^[5]
• In Chapter 2966, Yutra, despite succumbing to Asterion's plague, defied his sovereign's command, his legs buckling as he nearly fell before being caught and supported by two nearby soldiers—a man and a woman.