The Grand Abominations were weapons created by the Nephilim as their most powerful instruments of war, with enough power to literally destroy worlds. They were made from the remains of an extinct race called the Ravaiim, the Nephilim's first victims in their rampage across all of Creation.
Mortis: An Abomination used as a shield and reflects attacks back to an enemy.
History
Before the Nephilim
In the early days of Creation, the laws of existence were less defined, and the separation between animate an inanimate objects was less distinct. One such race that typified this was the Ravaiim. Similar to Makers, they were unique in that they could craft their own flesh into technology and weapons. This attracted the attention of the Nephilim, among them Death, who saw in the Ravaiim the potential to create weapons of world-ending power. Thus, the realm of the Ravaiim became the first world to burn at the hands of the Nephilim, and the Ravaiim themselves were slaughtered to the last being. From their remains, the Nephilim, at Death's instruction and with his guidance, created the weapons he had envisioned. The profanity of the act poisioned the Ravaiim homeworld, and after it fell into the Abyss, it began to exhibit a quasi-organic nature. Ultimately, it became a diseased, putrid place, where the very ground oozed and bled and the air smelt of gangrenous rot; even Hell itself was said to be a less revolting locale.
Forging and Characteristics
The Abominations were forged in many forms, including a gun, a buckler, even a multi-storried, tentacled walking platform. Their power comes not only from the innate power of the Ravaiim themselves, but from their lost potential; all the power and magnificence that they could have had and could have brought into being had they not been slaughtered. Despite having been made from inanimate materials and corpses, the Abominations themselves are alive, though not in any comprehensible sense. They are capable of base judgements, and are aware on some level of what was done to create them. Due to this they are said to hate all of Creation with such ardor that even the most vicious of demons pale in comparison. The weapons themselves produce an air of uneasiness in those in close proximity to them, and can be "felt" to be endlessly screaming. Their hatred is capable of driving undisciplined wielders mad, but a sufficiently disciplined mind can easily keep their psychic influence at bay. Hadrimon, for instance, went almost completely mad after having wielded the Abomination known as Black Mercy for a relatively short time, but Death was able to essentially block out their influence with barely an effort.
Due to the overwhelming power of the weapons, a safeguard was developed in order to make sure that the Abominations would remain under the control of the Nephilim. That safeguard was that one could only fully activate the Abominations by feeding Ravaiim blood to them, and the secret of their activation was known only to the Firstborn generation of Nephilim. To further ensure that other races could not use the Abominations against their creators, the bulk of the weapons were locked away in a separate dimension called the Abomination Vault, to be removed as needed. A few of the weapons were lost on battlefields across Creation, but the Firstborn, being the only ones who were able to properly wield them, never made any concerted effort to retrieve them.
After the fall of the Nephilim
After the defection of the Horsemen and the subsequent slaughter of the Nephilim as a race, the Firstborn generation of Nephilim was reduced to a single individual; Death. As such, he became the only being in Creation with the knowledge of how to find and activate the Abominations. To ensure that they were never unleashed upon Creation again, Death kept the secret of the Abominations to himself, and built his abode right on top of the entrance to the Vault.
The Abomination Vault Crisis
Eons later, the mad angel Hadrimon learned of the existance of the Abominations. Hoping to use the weapons to exact vengeance against Heaven for exiling his lover Raciel to Hell, he discovered the Abomination pistol known as Black Mercy, and allied himself with the rouge maker Belisatra in an attempt to locate more of the weapons. He decided to make an attempt to scour Eden for more of the weapons, but was repelled by an army of angels under the command of Abaddon. After the attack on Eden, the Charred Council ordered Death to begin an investigation, and after a visit to the Crowfather, Death learned that whomever had attacked Eden was seeking the Abominations. In light of Hadrimon's plot, Death was forced to reveal the existence of the Abominations to the three younger Horsemen and the Council. However, when the Council demanded the location of the Vault, Death refused to give it to them, provoking their ire. However, after explaining to them that whomever was seeking the Abominations could retrieve any number of the weapons that had been lost in battle, they tasked him with the destruction of any parties seeking the Abominations and the safeguarding of the Vault, ordering him to make use of the other three Horsemen in fulfilling his objectives. Death ordered his siblings to stay behind but was disobeyed in short order by War, who accompanied him to both Heaven and Hell as he continued his investigations. Eventually, the two of them caught up to Hadrimon and Belisatra at an old laboratory thanks to information provided by Lilith. However, an attack by a small demon army distracted the Horsemen long enough for the conspirators to escape. In the wreckage of the battleground however, War discovered the Aboination known as Mortis. Death, determining that it was nearly dead, donned it and was caught off-guard by the psychic power of the weapon, which was not quite as dead as he had thought. It briefly penetrated the mental barriers Death kept his consciousness surrounded by, and exposed both the location of the Vault and how to fully awaken the Abominations. As all of the Abominations shared a psychic link with one another, this information was transmitted through Mortis to Black Mercy, and thus to Hadrimon.
Out of options, Death and War went to the Ravaiim homeworld to stop Hadrimon from obtaining the blood of the Ravaiim. Joined by a small task force of angels lead by Azrael, the Horsemen waged a battle against Hadrimon's forces and another demonic horde under the leadership of the same individuals who had commanded the previous raiders. Hadrimon's use of the awoken Abominations Black Mercy and Earth Reaver drove the Horsemen and their forces into a retreat, but Death managed to temporarily disable Earth Reaver. During the short time Hadrimon's forces needed to restore Earth Reaver, Death and Azrael conducted a necromantic rite to gather all the Ravaiim blood on the planet and concentrate it. Death then concocted a plan to fool Hadrimon with a double feign, using themselves as distractions while War fled the Ravaiim homeworld with the blood. However, Death purposely leaked this plan through Mortis to Hadrimon, and then slipped away with the blood himself while giving War a fake duplicate. This essentially ensured War's death, but would allow Death a nearly foolproof escape with the true blood. After casting the blood into Oblivion, Death returned to the Ravaiim home world and found War's corpse. In a sudden stroke of inspiration however, Death managed to resurrect War by using Chaoseater's bond with War's soul to provide his body with a spark of life while Death summoned War's soul back to his body. However, Hadrimon discovered that he could cannibalize the Abominations to provide enough blood for others to function, and sacrificed Earth Reaver to power Black Mercy. In light of this, the Council once again demanded the location of the Vault, but Death refused again. As such, the Council began to torment him in order to get the information, but relented when War declared that they would have to visit whatever fate they chose for Death on him as well.
Distrustful of Death after his recent independent activities and defiance, the Council instructed Death and War to stand guard over the Vault while Strife and Fury sought Hadrimon. However, Death knew that Hadrimon had learned of the Vault's location, and knew he would attack it to obtain the rest of the Abominations. As such, he accepted the Council's assignment and revealed his duplicity to War once the were out of earshot of the Council. Sure enough, Hadrimon attacked the Vault with all of his remaining forces. Knowing that they could not hold off Hadrimon's entire construct army and Black Mercy at the same time, Death sent Azrael to Hell to surreptitiously recruit the very demonic mercenaries that had been hounding them by revealing the location of the Vault to their leader, the fallen angel Raciel. The Horsemen were forced to retreat after a protracted engagement with Hadrimon and his forces, but just as Hadrimon reached the entrance to the Vault, the demonic mercenary horde attacked, and he discovered that not only were they under the command of Raciel, but that she had been transmuted into a demon. Stricken with remorse and grief at the terrible transformations forced on her by her long stay in Hell, Hadrimon agreed to open the Vault and share the weapons with her for use against Heaven. Though Raciel intended to betray Hadrimon once she had gotten what she wanted, she was severely wounded by a sneak attack from Azrael. Hadrimon returned to the Vault's entrance, and was engaged by Death. Hoping to overwhelm Hadrimon's mind, Death blasted the seal off of the Vault's entrance, exposing his mind to the full onslaught of the Abominations unholy hatred. However, destroying the seal allowed Black Mercy itself to begin acting independently, and it fired off a round at Death. Caught completely off guard, Death managed to deflect the projectile, but with Harvester instead of Mortis. As such, the life-draining effects of the projectile temporarily paralyzed him. Before either Hadrimon of Black Mercy could finish Death, a mortally wounded Raciel stumbled into their battleground and begged for Hadrimon's help. As he moved to help her, Black Mercy, wielding Hadrimon's own arm, turned and fired at Raciel, killing her. Hadrimon, horrified by what had occurred, attempted to kill himself with Black Mercy but the gun refused to fire. As Black Mercy again made to end Death's life, what appeared to be Raciel's soul appeared over her body. Restored to her angelic beauty, the phantasm proclaimed that she forgave Hadrimon. However, Black Mercy once again attempted to turn and fire, held at bay only by Hadrimon's own failing strength. By that time however, Death had recovered sufficiently to attack and, with Hadrimon silently pleading for him to do so, the Horseman ended Hadrimon's life. After conversing for a short time with Azrael, who had used his magics to create the illusion of Raciel's soul to distract Hadrimon, Death retrieved Black Mercy and forced Belisatra to surrender. Afterwards, Death planned to re-seal the Vault with his magics, and eventually to transport all of the Abominations to Oblivion, where they could never again be used. However, he determined that Mortis, as it was nearly dead, was harmless enough to keep for himself.
Known Grand Abominations
- Mortis: A buckler that when fully awoken could redirect a attack from an enemy as well as send forth a very powerful, energy charge with enormous velocity towards a random friend, family member or loved one from the attacker's memory.
- Black Mercy: A tri-barrelled gun that fires teeth and when fully awakened can kill anything, even by the smallest wound. Even unrelated, bleeding wounds from the wielder's enemies caused in Black Mercy's presence have the same effect.
- Earth Reaver: A rifle connected to a slow moving platform that when fully awoken redirects the magma of an area creating a massive volcanic eruption at the target.
- Lamentation: Nothing is known about this weapon
- Anathema: Nothing is known about this weapon
- White Anguish: Nothing is known about this weapon
- Gravesire: Nothing is known about this weapon
- Bleak Tranquility: Nothing is known about this weapon
Other Nephilim weapons
- Absolution: A massive axe wielded by Absalom, the first and leader of the Nephilim. Its origins are unknown but it followed its master into Corruption.
- Affliction: A possible prototype of the Abominations, Affliction was a narrow-bladed sword almost as long as Death is tall with serpentine filigree running up its center that can leave behind wounds purely unnatural as well as turn completely necrotic soon after the weapon is removed. Not even Angelic medicine can fully restore any organ Affliction has damaged. This sword was, in fact, the main cause of Abaddon losing his right eye in battle. It took his own will and several healer angels to keep the infection in his eye and eyesocket from spreading, but his wounds from Affliction's poison could not be fully healed.
- The Harvester: Crafted by Death himself, the weapon serves as his signature weapon. Its standard form is a large scythe, but it is able to transform into any imaginable melee weapon, even splitting in half, as fast as Death can think it. Along with Affliction, it is one of the Nephilim weapons created before the age of the Grand Abominations. According to Death the Abominations made weapons like Harvester and Affliction seem like a maker's toys.
- Chaoseater: War's signature weapon. It feeds on the chaos of battle and transmutes the energy to its master, allowing him to take on his powerful Chaos Form.