First Seeker

The creature was immense and seemingly indestructible, too vast to be destroyed even by powerful flames, and was surrounded by numerous Nightmare Creatures guarding it, alongside powerful and ancient Defiled beings, many of which were Corrupted or Fallen. This made approaching it an almost impossible task. It was believed to possess a heart or core hidden deep within its mass, where the remains of Aletheia of the Nine were buried, and destroying this source was seen as the only way to end it. However, the flesh itself regenerated faster than it could be destroyed, further emphasizing its overwhelming and relentless nature.^[6]

Aletheia had come to the Tomb of Ariel where the war had never reached.^[7]

She was a mysterious sorceress who built an island now called Wind Flower and for some unknown purpose created the whirlpool of twisted time surrounding it. She lived on the island for a while but eventually left in search of the Estuary. Her name slowly disappeared from the River People's memory. She found the Estuary, unlike other Seekers who traveled downstream. The Tomb of Ariel now knows her as the core of the Nightmare, the source of the Defilement, the First Seeker.^[2]

• It was mentioned in Chapter 2929 that in the Third Nightmare, the vast, formless mass of red flesh had overgrown the entire city of Verge, burying most of it beneath its expanding mass, while its flesh spilled into the Great River, infecting it. Continuously growing, it appeared capable of eventually covering all of the Great River and consuming the entire Tomb of Ariel.