Moby Dick
"It is not down on any map; true places never are."
Moby Dick was believed to be a monstrous sperm whale of colossal size with a ghostly white hide by Captain Ahab and the ill-fated crew of the Pequod. What they did not know was that they were facing a creature from the cursed times of ancient Atlantis, which vanished nearly 18,000 years ago. These abominations were known as Giganto, summoned and controlled by the dark magic of the Atlanteans using the Horn of Proteus. Whether Ahab had angered the spirits of Atlantis or if the Giganto that became known as Moby Dick had turned rogue, their first encounter ended in horror, with Ahab’s crew marooned and driven to cannibalism to survive. The captain, consumed by a vengeful obsession against the ancient, spectral beast, deceived a new crew once he commandeered another whaling vessel. The cost to Ahab was far greater in his second and final clash with Moby Dick.
History
Giganto is believed to originate from cetaceans, which appeared in the fossil record around 50 million years ago during the Eocene epoch. The closest living relatives to whales are hippos, which share a common ancestor that branched off from other artiodactyls about 60 million years ago.
The Thurian Age
Giganto, though often referred to as a singular creature, is actually a race of whale-like leviathans lurking in the abyssal depths of the ocean. They were first seen in the Thurian Age, commanded by Atlanteans through the Horn of Proteus, though their origins remain shrouded in mystery. They may have been Deviant mutates, products of Atlantean sorcery, or evolutionary offshoots. Their lifespan is similarly unknown, so it’s unclear if Moby Dick was alive during this period. Enormous whales were encountered during the following Hyborean Age, but Giganto was not seen again until the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution
The first recorded encounter with Moby Dick occurred in the early 19th century when Captain Ahab commanded the whaling vessel, the Essex. The Giganto rammed the Essex in the middle of the Atlantic, stranding her crew of 20 about 1,800 km off the coast of Africa. By the time they were rescued, only 5 crew members, including Ahab, survived. The rest had perished due to dehydration, starvation, and exposure on the open ocean, while the survivors resorted to cannibalism. Cannibalism that cost Ahab his leg.
Ahab became obsessed with exacting his revenge on Moby Dick but kept his dark intentions to himself until he had command of the Pequod. He then offered a gold doubloon to the first man who spotted the Giganto in the open sea. The crew sailed to the haunted Banshee Islands in the Philippines before Ahab spotted Moby Dick himself and claimed the doubloon. However, the Giganto destroyed every whaling boat sent after him and scuttled their crews. On the third and final day of the chase, Moby Dick engaged the last of the whaling boats. Ahab harpooned the beast but noticed the line was caught. He bent over to free the line, but it ensnared his neck and dragged him into the abyss. The Pequod and her crew were entirely lost, except for one man, known only as Ishmael, who was rescued by the Rachel, another American whaling vessel.
Aliases:
- Giganto
- Monstro
- The White Whale
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