ongoing; project dahaka
case study files; project dahaka
Subject Of Study: Azi Dahaka
Azi Dahaka. He’s an interesting case study subject. From the legends passed down through Zoroastrian myths, ‘Azhi Dahaka’ , literally translated as ‘evil serpent’, is a three headed red dragon with three mouths. As we know, however, our modern-day Azi Dahaka has four, with the extra mouth prominently located on his stomach. Did he merely steal the name of his predecessor for his own? Did Azi Dahaka evolve in some way to gain that extra mouth? It is not unheard of for monsters’ appearance to change after they evolve.
Regardless, it is important to heed his other appearances in the biblical legends of the world.
If one was familiar with the Bible, they would know that the Leviathan appears in Psalms 74:14 as a multi-headed sea serpent that is killed by God and given as food to the Hebrews in the wilderness. In Isaiah 27:1, Leviathan is a serpent and a symbol of Israel's enemies, who will be slain by God. He appears once again throughout Revelations as an evil red dragon, said to be Satan himself, and the embodiment of evil. To cap it off, the Leviathan too was sealed away until the appointed time.
While the Zoroastrian myth makes for an good story, it has no practical usage whatsoever to determine Azi Dahaka’s abilities and where they came from. However, the biblical legend not only seems to provide a trail to his beginning, it also supports the current evidence as to Azi Dahaka’s power and limitations.
During the infamous cruise ship incident in which Tasuku Ryuenji defied the explicit orders of Commissioner Seiichi Nobari to activate the Future Force upon the ship hitting icebergs, it has been revealed by reliable sources that Kyoya Gaen summoned his Buddy Azi Dahaka in order to test Ryuenji, and it was the dragon that was later reported under official eyewitness accounts as a dark, three headed shadow underwater.
As the Leviathan is well known as a sea serpent, one cannot help but notice the similarities between them, especially as the colour red is often linked to and associated with fire. The colour of a dragon is widely known to be the determining factor of the source of nature it receives power from, so much that a large portion of the attributes in Dragon World are divided by colour. (Refer to the Dragon Shields for more information on this topic.) Fire and Water do not meld. In this respect, Azi Dahaka’s ability to create ice and manipulate water is highly unusual, as well as his choice to attack Dai Kaido in his Buddy, Duel Jaeger’s own territory, the wide ocean. Far past unusual? He got away with it.
Despite the fact that you would expect Duel Jaeger to have the upper hand, Dai Kaido suffered an injury to his arm. This is a powerful reminder that Azi Dahaka is a deity, but not any normal deity. He is a deity that transcends the power scale as we know it, one who has some affinity with an element he should have nothing to do with as the black sun, perhaps second only to Yamigedo, whose power he was not able to absorb through Aqulta Gwaneff during the events of the beast’s awakening. When faced with him, I am reminded of the Bible’s Genesis, which describes the earth as a formless shape covered in dark water. Could the very meaning of the black sun mean the extinguishing of light and the return to the darkness of the water? If so, it would explain his ability to conjure ice; without the source of light, the sun, there is also no heat. The world would become cold and dark, perhaps appearing like a black sun.
However, even should Azi Dahaka’s water and ice affinity be explained through these biblical texts, his ability to tear apart the world is not, and perhaps, will never be explained through lore, probably due to the technological gap that exists between our ancestors and our present day. And who could blame them? After all, the missing piece, Disaster Force, only came to light this year along with the long-hidden Darkness Dragon World. After extensive research, the results are as follows;
All the natives of Darkness Dragon World are already dead.
To fully understand this, you would need to be familiar with the Three Deaths, as I will refer to them. Hell, Hades, and Purgatory. These three names appear repeatedly in various cards (see Katana World, Skull Warriors, Searing Executioners, and the Purgatory Knights for more information beyond what is briefly explained.) as a promise of punishment and death for where monsters will go to when they pass away, if they were sinful in life. Hades is well-known as the home of the Skull Warriors in Katana World. From location-based cards in the Executioners attribute, for example Gate Of Verdict, Judgement, which belongs to Darkness Dragon World, we know that the Hell they mention as their base of punishment is in Darkness Dragon World. The Death we will be focusing on, more important than the others in the context of this paper, is Purgatory.
Purgatory’s definition is, from the Merriam-Webster dictionary ‘an intermediate state after death for expiatory purification’, or ‘a place or state of temporary suffering or misery’. Purgatory is located in Darkness Dragon World.
Haven’t you ever wondered, assuming you realised the colour of dragons was pertinent to their origins (dragons are said to be the overflowing forces of nature personified), where the Black Dragons came from? Unfortunately, we do have the answer for this, found within the flavour text of [Black Dragon] Black Dreaded Motion, Gataclysm. “This black dragon was born when time and space shook, and the dimensions tore.” Black Dragons are born from the force of disruption to nature, when the parallel worlds are torn apart. Their energy is literally sucked from another world and reborn as a spirit that is able to survive outside of the body, as is supported in the flavour text of various Darkness Dragon world cards. They say that even if the body dies, as long as the will remains, they can remain alive. Besides that, in the impact card Blood Dragon Ceremony, Bloody Operate’s flavour text, an ominous question is asked. “They don’t bleed. Now then, I wonder where they obtained the blood used to draw red magical formations.” Blood is a symbol of life. To have no blood, it is because their physical bodies do not require sustenance. They might feed, but it would be a feeding of energy. As for where they obtained the blood? Now, that’s just obvious.
No wonder the Purgatory Knights went insane. Imagine battling for thousands of centuries, knowing that every drop of blood you spilled was just fuel for enemy spells. Imagine knowing that they will never die, and sealing the portal behind you because the zombies known as Black Dragons would sweep across the land and turn your people into blood cows for rituals, if they weren’t killed first.
Imagine that.
The final nail in the coffin is [Black Dragon] Captive of Eternity, Zamseed, whose flavour text reads like this. “The souls buried by the demonic dragon, roam between the mortal and afterlife realms as prisoners forever.” Whether created by his murders, or taken from their rightful worlds by the tears in the fabric of reality only Azi Dahaka was able to facilitate through the means of the Original Core or the Disaster Force, all Darkness Dragon World monsters are Azi Dahaka’s puppets. He is their primogeniture.
Of course, all of this depends largely upon the Disaster Force to be revealed. The Disaster Force, which Kyoya himself has admitted tears reality apart, is probably a result of drawing on a parallel self’s power, or in other words, stealing the resources of a multiverse self. However, this comes with a cost. The user seems to take on the traits of a multiverse self, the most powerful multiverse self, and this version may overpower the original user so that they lose their self-control. Only the strong, or reasonably passionate, can assert themself over their other possibilities. Azi Dahaka admits that the traits of a good Disaster Force user is that of one with a dark shell and a bright heart, in other words, someone who was twisted but is internally good, in order for them to resist the compelling call to become else entirely.
Based on these, we can reasonably assume that Azi Dahaka has energy transfer powers (supported by his later evolution in X to the Deity of Transgression, attempted energy absorption from Yamigedo, and his ability to tear open the dimensions, noting the forceful use of the word tear.) This could be a part of his ability to make ice from water, but there is no denying he has an affinity for the element. (elementally wise, water is trumped by earth. This could be the reason why he was unable to break out of the mountain he was trapped under in the past.)
It is highly unlikely that Future Force serves as an intentional foil to Disaster Force.
From the reports submitted by Tasuku Ryuenji and Gao Mikado during their time in the Buddy Police Youth, we know that only the holders of the Gargantua Punisher have obtained the Future Force, and that they have both sighted a mysterious pair of red eyes that granted them powers when they were at their most desperate. The trail on those eyes, however, goes cold, as no monster sighted so far fits the description of the voice and eyes they gave. On the other hand, Future Force works completely differently from Disaster Force, as it sends power from the future to the past instead of tearing open dimensions. Suffice it to be said Future Force works vertically, whilst Disaster Force works horizontally. While this imposes limitations, it also heals the rips in the dimensions caused by Disaster Force, protecting the timeline’s stability. This seems more like a product of the nature of the deities that created these powers, though, rather than due to any rivalry. Of course, I could be wrong. Note to self; find an Omni Lord to question. I haven’t been able to innocently get ahold of Gao Mikado for questioning on this incident.
tba; the nature of the colour of portals and ability to fuse with monsters. Sofia Sakharov cannot hide her identity forever.
