Tiranus and the Nightmares

   Tiranus is the Elder God of Fear, the King of the Nightmares, and is the equal and opposite force to the Feign, being a symbol of darkness and ignorance as well as fear. Though Tiranus has been depicted as a large skeletal dragon in some ancient murals found on the walls of Helios, as far as mortals can comprehend, they’ve only had two forms: the apocalyptic storm known as Temporal Tempest, and the Doppleganger.
   Temporal Tempest are what the residents of the Alseason Archipelago known Tiranus as, though it’s also the weakened, imperfect form Tiranus takes while inside of Feign. In this state, Tiranus is a massive purple and black cloud that’s constantly changing in shape and size, ranging anywhere from a cloud covering a small city to something the size of a nebula. Despite them being rather weak in this form, Tiranus can still do incredible damage, as it’s believed if the Temporal Tempest ever appeared on a planet like Mobius, the weather would become apocalyptic and chaotic. It’d hail with winds stronger than any hurricane, all while the temperatures reached volcanic levels. Acid rain would pour down in the freezing cold. Tiranus’ target would suffer the effects of drought even during heavy rains, with the land drying up despite the water pouring on it. Even if people went underground to escape the storm, they’d die within a month, if not quicker. This terrifying, destructive force is only amplified in its Perfect form…
The Doppelganger.
Perfect Tiranus is a dark cloud that takes on the form of whoever is nearby, usually their “opponent” in a fight. In this form, they effectively have no weaknesses as they become an exact mirror image of you with all your power and strength, and all the knowledge of how to use that power. It is utterly ridiculous how powerful they are despite being a mere mirror image, and that’s ignoring the control over Nightmares as well as the Feign Guardians they hijacked from the Feign.
Like all Nightmares, they are weak to the Feign Light, however there is more to it. A certain irony of being this raw and powerful is that they seem to be weak to any energy that isn’t theirs? Theoretically, though Tiranus can’t be killed, someone in a super form could help push Tiranus back if they ever tried to escape their imprisonment in Feign. Yes, it is true that they are incredibly powerful and “without weakness”, it’s certainly no walk in the park to try and fight them…

   The Nightmares are eldritch entities spawned from Tiranus, and are living representations of fear and the nightmares of those who’ve died. Most of them appear as beasts with oily black skin covered in a thick cloud of black smog all over their body. The small few who know about Tiranus seem to believe that Nightmares are created from souls passing through Feign and being torn to shreds by Tiranus’ presence, though this is fairly easy to prove untrue given this implies there are an equal number of Nightmares since  Tiranus’ sealing as people who have died since then, barring any Nightmares that have been killed, plus there is some evidence in Heliosian murals that Nightmares have existed before Tiranus’ imprisonment, which wouldn’t make sense if they were dependent on him being in Feign. The main thing is that there are Nightmares that just appear as Nightmares, and no one knows where they come from really because they are nearly impossible to study, but in other cases, vengeful spirits can become Nightmares if they aren’t killed beforehand, and are known for being much more intelligent and “human” than others.
Nightmares are currently growing in numbers, though historically they’ve been fairly rare and monster hunters across the ages haven’t helped their numbers grow much at all. However, as a result of “Daybreak”, the most recent opening of the Heliosian Feign Gate, Nightmares have been appearing a lot more often and have been fairly difficult to fight back as a result as their power slowly yet surely increases.
Their signature ability is the Fear Flash, where Nightmares use a corrupted form of the Feign Light from their own body(usually where their “eyes” would be, which glow brightly through the shadowy exterior) in bright, strobe-like flashes. There is very little warning to this attack, and anyone who even catches a glimpse of it will go into a panic or, at worst, become paralyzed with fear, making the target an easy prey. Stronger Nightmares are even capable of creating illusions and temporarily wiping their preys’ memory.

   There is another prophecy passed down from the ancients to the modern day Heliosian royal family, that comes after Daybreak, the opening of the Feign Gate that would supposedly lead to Helios’ destruction. Though Helios remains, the Feign Gate has been opened, and Nightmares are just… appearing in larger numbers, now. They aren’t even pouring through the Feign Gate in large numbers either, they are just popping into existence. It would seem that now that a portal to Feign is open, Tiranus’ influence is spreading across the world.
   Tiranus will soon try and leave Feign to command his terrible army. The Nightmares’ numbers may grow so large that they will outnumber living things on Mobius, and then some. They will spread across the galaxy, and the universe, snuffing out all life until everything is gone.
   We do have a fighting chance though, to push Tiranus back and start killing Nightmares in large numbers. With a little hope and strength, we can fight back the force of fear!

   Close to 100 years ago on the Clockwork Foundry, an accident happened that resulted in everyone that was there dying, The people who had commissioned a bunch of scientists and engineers, including Dr. Charlie Ironworth, turned on them, storming the flying facility and gunning everyone down, including Charlie’s son Ciel who stowed away on the plane there. It was fairly easy to see coming, but Charlie was heading the project, and he was too focused on his work to care…
Months after the incident, the machines they’d begun working on just… started moving of their own accord.
Clockwork Nightmares are the result of Nightmares possessing machinery in some sort of freak accident - it’s so rare that the only known cases of this are from the Clockwork Foundry incident, where they got the name. Effectively, the spirits on the Clockwork Foundry were filled with negative emotions - guilt, hatred, anger, sadness, fear, ect. - and became vengeful as a result of all that dark energy. Eventually, it led to them becoming Clockwork Nightmares, some even becoming more primal and deranged as a result.
Like all Nightmares, they have access to the Fear Flash, and stronger Clockwork Nightmares like Ciel are capable of powerful illusions, but most notable is that they aren’t weak to light like normal Nightmares are. They can be damaged by much more physical means, but this increased physicality in the wood and metal that makes up their body makes them equally more fragile and stronger than normal Nightmares by the fact that the worst that might happen if you shoot it is a dent or two whereas a Nightmare that has been doused in light might go down with a headshot. Clockwork Nightmares can also be more dangerous by the pure virtue of whatever they are possessing - it doesn’t always need to be a full machine, some are just scrap metal or even barbed wire and broken glass!