Mark Patenaude

### Aliases

Godhunter, Surgeon General of the Northern Gnome Army, the Boy Wonder, the Disruptor

### Relatives

Elizabeth Alton (wife), Hugo Patenaude-Alton (son), Tilani Patenaude-Alton (daughter), Vespesian Patenaude (father), Joanne Patenaude (mother), Vincent Patenaude (uncle), Annie Patenaude (cousin), Hyacinthe Patenaude (cousin), Cyril Patenaude (cousin), Robert Patenaude (brother), Maximilien Patenaude (brother), Pierre Patenaude (brother), Gilles Patenaude (brother), Lukas Patenaude (brother), Carine Dufort (sister-in-law), Flavie Dufort (sister-in-law), Jean-Luc Dufort (brother-in-law), Millicent Hawkins (sister-in-law)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Brown

*“There's not much you need to know about the world. Except how to use a sword and trust very few. Raising the sword aloft is sometimes the only way to make the other side stand down.”*

-Mark Patenaude

## History

One of six sons of Vespesian Patenaude. Vespesian was the younger brother of Vincent Patenaude, the family patriarch, who has just married Joanne, a woman that Vespesian fancied, and had three children by her - Annie, Hyacinthe, and Cyril. During the wars between the wood elves and old Arendur, Vespesian betrayed his brother and his people, giving the Arendurians information that would allow them to overrun the Patenaude camp while Joanne was absent. Vincent and his three children were killed, but no one knew of Vespesian’s perfidy. He was allowed to marry Joanne in his brother’s place, and had six sons by her. Sometime after the fall of New Arendur, the Reich released many classified documents as part of the war crime trials; among them Vespesian’s correspondence with the Illuminated. The family was declared traitorous by the other gypsies, and Vespesian’s sons deemed as abominations. Robert Patenaude, the eldest son, rallied his brothers, and they slew their father. Their mother committed suicide immediately afterward. Though the Patenaude’s had righted an old wrong, their family was ruined, and the brothers swore to never have children, and let their name die out with them.

Mark Patenaude's own prospects are wretched. As the youngest son of a cursed family, he has neither fortune nor marriage prospects, and has survived by becoming a great warrior - only his eldest brother Robert is said to be his better in that regard. He was befriended by young Amand Perrault, who introduced him to Bastian Sauvage. Many of Bastian's gang harbor hatred: Bastain towards the Arendurians who betrayed his father, Rosaire St Martin towards the Church that the rest of his family belongs to, and Mark Patenaude towards the whole world. But the Arendurians are the most visible manifestations of that, for his father sold out his entire people to them for petty gain, and the Patenaude brothers are the fruit of that betrayal. Like Bastian, he has something of a death wish, and dreams of dying in battle against the Arendurians. In the meanwhile, he is happy to help Bastian with his bomb plot, and equally content to ruin the works of the Department of Experimental Theology.

## Personality

Patenaude is proud of his origins and of his people, but years of being a pariah amongst them have left him cautious and guarded. Patenaude has a bit of a chip on his shoulder, and a death wish - he does not forget or forgive easily. He maintains tight bonds with his family, who are the only people he truly trusts - and who trust him in return. Despite the suspicion that the world has cast upon him - or perhaps because of it - he tries to keep faith in the fundamental decency of man.

After his return from the Plateau of Leng, Patenaude hovered at the precipice of madness, his psyche dangerously fractured. He was still pulled between his old self, and the new persona of the Godhunter. He struggled with regret over ending the Dream of the Old Ones, and was haunted by the voices of the many restless dead. Only well into the Long War did he finally reconcile himself, burying his old self, silencing the voices, and giving himself up entirely into the identity of the Godhunter.

## The Dauntless Few

Mark Patenaude's task force. Each of them was made a weapon by Leopold Heppenheimer.

* Axel Heiberg: Married Mary Malone and died fighting Sertrous. *A bow that channeled his inherent magic into his arrows.*
* Millicent Hawkins: Still a constant companion to Mark.
* Knil of Tyrsea: Became King of Dragonsmouth, killed by Mark after making a statue of Rhan-Tegoth. *A warhammer with a black-powder charge in its head.*
* Johannes von Stille: Still in service to Mark as "the Godhunter's Skald." *A whip retracted into a cane.*
* Mogget of Ulthar: Still posing as Johannes' familiar.
* Reese Wilmarth: Settled down in Dragonsmouth as the butler to Lord Axel Mistmoor. *A pair of daggers that speed up with increasing momentum.*
* Mary Malone: Married Axel Heiberg, settled down in Dragonsmouth, and became the first Royal Scientist in the Lab of Prometheus.
* Robert Patenaude: Killed Tsathoggua with Blackrazor and died fighting Atlach-Nacha. *An unnaturally light, enormously sized greatsword.*
* Leopold Heppenheimer: Died fighting Tsathoggua. *A portable hand-held cannon.*
* Isaac Icarus: Overthrown by Caleb Carscallen and the New Arendurian Army. *A long-barreled pistol empowered by his blood.*

## The Long War

*“The old ones already won, a long, long time ago. They devoured the vast majority of the universe, and that's why the planets are so relatively small, compared to the sheer amount of nothingness. It's why we're so very tiny, in the grand scheme of it all."*

-The Godhunter

Mark Patenaude's priority in the Long War was the creation of a "task-force" - to identify like-minded, trustworthy, and competent individuals who would stand alongside him in the struggle with the great old ones. Only reluctantly - at the persuasion of Axel Heiberg, his first choice for the task force - did he agree to work alongside entire countries. His thinking had been that nation states, during the Long War, were unreliable and doomed.

Patenaude's efforts to persuade would-be heroes to join his cause were often met with hostility. In particular, a faction emerged that called itself the Army of Humanity, composed of immortal heroes from past conflicts, rejected the Godhunter's overtures and explicitly blamed him for the apocalypse. These seven - composed of Khamsa, Lord Paralance, Miyamoto Kai, Annakiya of the Red Heights, Toranna the Fateless, Serghei Bran, and Prince Vamnas Vuhlanath - elected Khamsa as their leader and swore to fight the great old ones by themselves. Patenaude was somewhat disappointed, as he had particularly hoped to sway Khamsa to his cause. In a small but crucial consolation, Khamsa rebuffed any effort to sway mortal nations to his camp, and insisted that his Army of Humanity was independent from the Godhunter but not his rival. They were united in pursuit of the same desperate goal.

More disastrous was Patenaude's overtures to General Vilhelms Eglītis, the General of the Order of the Einherjar and the owner of the Black Blade of Disaster. Patenaude was certain that King Bolgar's grandson would join him, and perceived the Black Blade as a necessary weapon. It was a source of horror - and the first great blow to morale - when General Eglītis turned his back on the Godhunter and swore that he would master heretical strengths and wield the power of the gods as a weapon to better humanity. Patenaude would avow that the Black Blade of Disaster was a paltry loss compared to the General's condemnation, whose words, "had moral authority and swayed entire nations to his way of thinking." Bolgar's grandson affirmed many people's perception of the Godhunter as reckless and mad, and enabled great horrors by "sacrificing faith on the altar of utilitarianism and charismatic authority." In Patenaude's thinking, the General shared more in common with the twisted ideals of Tolumvire of Arendur then the unshakable resolve of his grandfather.

There were nonetheless strange allies to the Godhunter's cause, wanted and unwanted. He would always be able to count on the support of his friend King Knil of the Naz, but to his surprise and distaste, Emperor Arthur Ramander of World's End would emerge from seclusion to pledge his unwavering support. He would similarly be able to make common cause with his fellow wood elf and enemy of Arendur, King Odilon Roy of Saa Belanore and to a lesser extent with the former adventurer and enemy of Arendur, High King Bron Ironstout of Gandoral. Father afield, King Pyndran of Aurum and Queen Damaris of Ostoria were aligned with his cause but too egotistical and mercurial for any meaningful partnership. Beyond them, Emperor Marnard of the Final Empire was too manipulative and conniving to be worth approaching, and King Onaxx of Dao and Immortal guardian Jack Hinamen of Ledge simply ignored him. Marshal Malrog of Nadezhda, for his part, would never forgive Mark Patenaude for initiating the chain of events that freed the Windwalker, and never thought of the Godhunter without righteous anger.

Midway through the Long War, following the death of his brother Robert and the near-demise of the New Arendurian Colonial Legion, Mark Patenaude - who had thus far fought Vilhelms Eglītis twice - decided that he needed to prove his strength to himself by defeating the General. He faked his own death in order to see how essential he truly was to mankind, and went on a journey to Ragnarok, where he eventually became a squire to the death knight and fallen paladin Karekin Baghdassarian, who he helped defeat the great old one Wormwood. Following Baghdassarian's training, he was able to reunite his fractured mind, banish Brennen's voice from his thoughts, defeat Vilhelms Eglītis, and finish the Long War.

## Tulzscha, the Green Flame

Perduke led Patenaude underground, where they slaughtered the ratfolk cultists that had summoned the the Green Flame. Perduke trapped the great old one within a cage of stone, leaving enough space for the Godhunter to plunge the Reiterpallasch into its fiery heart. The god's earth set off an explosion through the earth, collapsing the caverns above the city of Oddrentyn, burrying the ratfolk alive. Only Perduke's magic preserved a space for them to survive. Patenaude was horrified at the incidental genocide, knowing that the majority of the ratfolk were mere slaves of their king, Cendahl Rahk.

## Abhoth, the Source of Uncleanliness

Trapped underground, Perduke blasted a hole for Mark Patenaude to reach the veins of the earth, and gave him a map. Following the tunnels deep beneath Mt. Voormithadreth, the Godhunter entered the Cavern of Archetypes, killing his way through the Filth, numberless monsters summoned by Abhoth to protect itself, including the so-called Twin Blasphemies, Nug and Yeb. At the Cavern, Patenaude cut through Abhoth's tentacles, and plunged into the muck and slime that formed the great old one's now helpless body, slicing through its nucleus. Abhoth marked the first great old one that Mark Patenaude killed by himself.

## Tsathoggua, the Sleeper of N'kai

Following Perduke's map, Mark Patenaude made his way up through Mt. Voormithadreth and rejoined his allies on the surface, where he discovered that the Church of Transcendental Theosophy had fallen, Hastur had been killed by Khamsa, and New Arendur under the leadership of Isaac Icarus had joined the fight against the great old ones. New Arendur was directly in the path of the now-awoken Tsathoggua, who was on a rampage eating every living thing in his path. The forces from Ostoria were fighting a losing battle to slow the great old one's warpath. This would be a foe far more dangerous then anything he had fought thus far. Assembling the Munitions Department from St. Franz's College, the Godhunter came to the aid of Ostoria, where he discovered to his horror that as a last ditch effort, Queen Damaris had summoned Tolumvire of Arendur from the abyss, reckoning that he would be willing to defend his homeland. Positioning themselves in front of the god's path, the Munitions Department fired their heavy artillery at Tsathoggua, aiming to stun him. Tolumvire deflected the god's arcane assault, permitting the Godhunter to cut his way through the Formless Spawn defending the Sleeper of N'kai. Tsathoggua had feigned helpless, grabbed Patenaude, and devoured him. Tolumvire rewound time to give the Godhunter another chance. Prepared for the great old one's feint and remembering how Tilani had cut her way out of the Shoggoth, allowed Tsathoggua to swallow him, and hacked his through the Hyperborean god's digestive tract, truly stunning him this time. The Department of Munitions, having had time to reload their artillery, bombarded their enemy again. Patenaude was protected from the barrage by the great old one's bulk, and from deep within him, cut a portal to the plane of fire, vaporizing the god but burning himself to death in the process. Only the presence of Tolumvire saved Patenaude from his second death, as the demon lord was able to psychically resurrect the Godhunter. Patenaude was victorious, but deeply shook by how close he had come to failure, even with the amount of help he recieved.

## Byatis, the Serpent-Bearded

Still shaken by his brush with death at the hands of Tsathoggua, Patenaude was hailed as a hero for his victory. Despite the acclamations, the Godhunter knew that morale was plummeting. Other great old ones were beginning to rampage across the world, his allies far away were beginning to accuse him of focusing only on his own homeland, and his allies close at hand were beginning to doubt his prowess. They had seen how close he came to dying not once but twice, and how much help he had required to kill Tsathoggua. Even those who did not wish to give up were beginning to have conversations about taking the Reiterpallasch and giving it to a worthier warrior. The recent deaths of Yig *called Sertrous* and of Ithaqua *called the Windwalker* were providing that others were capable of slaying great old ones. Only disagreement about who else to give the Reiterpallasch to actually forestalled action. Knowing that he still had a lot to prove, Patenaude made an abrupt trip to Guilddon across the sea. He chose the location at random to demonstrate that he would be willing to help anyone, even in a place where he had no allies. The Godhunter deduced Byatis' location by honing in on a mysterious village where villagers were disappearing, only to be forgotten by their kinsmen. Reminded of the False Hydra, Patenaude snuck into a dungeon beneath the village's castle, coming upon the so-called god of forgetfulness. There he was mauled, dashed to the walls multiple times, drained by Byatis' tentacle, and grievously wounded while his foe flew in circles out of reach, getting the better of the deity and driving the Reiterpallasch into its skull as it came in for the kill and attempted to feed upon him. The Godhunter was victorious, but he had still nearly been killed by a relatively weak and inactive great old one. The stolen memories returned to the people of Guilddon, who turned upon their king, Talfryn Goronwy, killing him. The Godhunter had proven himself to his allies, who had not seen his struggles, and who were celebrating the recent death of Yog-Sothoth *called the Maker* and the subsequent fall of the Empire of Aglazdere - but he had not proven anything to himself. For now, he reckoned, he would need to fight with allies - close allies.

## Atlach-Nacha, the Spinner in Darkness

Mark Patenaude returned to his homeland, for having proven himself willing to fight elsewhere, his inclination was to complete secure New Arendur and the former Hyperborean territories, rather than play whack-a-mole around the world. The most pressing threat was the great old one known as the Spinner in Darkness, whose ever-increasing Forever Web was permitting the mortal forces of the gods to travel across vast distances. The Godhunter received word from Perduke about Atlach-Nacha's location; the deity resided beneath Mt. Voormithadreth in the same underground cave system as Abhoth and Tulzscha. Patenaude chose to take the New Arendurian Colonial Legion with him, led by his brother Robert Patenaude; they were by far the most committed to protecting the north from the Spinner's predations. Moreover, their numbers had swelled from recruiting former members of the Arendurian Army. The Legion followed the strands of the Forever Web deep underground, taking some losses to monsters beneath the earth, and others to the dangers of navigating the system of caverns. A horrific battle took place on the Forever Web itself, with the Legion contending with a swarm of arachnids in an effort to guide the Patenaude brothers close to Atlach-Nacha and keep them safe from the binding spider silk, the touch of which spelled death at the hands of the swarm. Mark and Robert Patenaude closed in to the god, who began to ensnare them both. The Godhunter was able to fire the Reiterpallasch into the great old one's eight eyes, and, no longer able to distinguish which individual was carrying the lethal weapon. The Spinner in Darkness grabbed Robert Patenaude, the stronger, armored target, and devoured him, giving Patenaude enough time to cut himself free and slice through Atlach-Nacha's thorax, killing it and causing the Forever Web to wither and collapse. Victorious again, Patenaude grieved the loss of his brother and contemplated how lucky the world had been, staking the battle on a fifty-fifty chance.

## Cthugha, the Living Flame

Mark Patenaude and the New Arendurian Colonial Legion, filled with grief at the loss of Robert Patenaude, fled the underground and marched onwards towards the nearest great old one, the Living Flame Cthugha. The Colonial Legion attempted to pledge itself to the Godhunter, who refused and allowed command to pass on to Nicholas Lachapelle, former second-in-command to Robert Patenaude. The journey to Cthugha took the Legion back to the Northern Dome, where the Great Awakening began, to contend with an entity once so deeply asleep that Emperor Brennen had deemed it a source of power, and named it Life's Flame. Cthugha was not hard to find, as its awakening had melted and subsequently evaporated the permafrost near the Northern Dome. At the heart of now barren desert was a great pillar of fire ascending into the heavens. The Colonial Legion formed a cordon around the numerous Fire Vampires, while a few of their members availed themselves of various anti-fire magic and began to systematically cut them down. Inevitably, however, more and more of them succumbed to the great old one's hypnotic effect and turned on their fellow, initiating a horrific bloodbath. The Godhunter made his way to the center of the fiery pillar, systematically killing each one of Cthugha's manifestations one at a time. As the god perceived the danger to its life, it directed the hypnotized members of the Colonial Legion to attack the Godhunter, who was forced to cut down anyone who interfered with his massacre of the Fire Vampires. Eventually the Fire Vampires attempted to flee and fly away, but this did not stop Patenaude from firing upon them until none survived. Cthugha was no more, the devastation he had wrought on the Colonial Legion crippled them as a fighting force for the remainder of the war.

## Ghatanothoa, the Dark God

Mark Patenaude chose to strike next in an unexpected location, arriving in the Land of the Fey where the elven Army of Saa Belanore was withering in the face of Ghatanothoa. The god's cultists had fashioned a formation of perfect images, who in time had created a garden of petrified elven warriors, while the god's rootlings had begun to eat away at the oldest trees, weakening the kingdom's connection to the Feywild. The Godhunter observed that King Odilon's determination to preserve his land was sustaining the Dark God, and convinced a determined faction of elves to set fire to the land, killing the rootlings, smoking the cultists out of their hiding places, and destroying the perfect images. To do so he enlisted the help of Isaac Icarus of New Arendur, who provided the deforesting munitions necessary to initiate such a conflagration. Amidst the flames, Mark Patenaude found Ghatanothoa, and knowing that he had but a short time before he would himself mummify in the face of the Dark God, rushed over to the bloated, vulnerable deity, and ran it through to the hilt. All the rootlings had perished in the inferno, leaving Ghatanothoa no other proxies with which to escape its demise. The Godhunter was triumphant, and yet his triumph would be stained by disaster and dishonor. In horror at the destruction of his land, King Odilon had been ready to turn on the Godhunter and order every wood elf to an oath of vengeance. To put a stop to this, Icarus, who had been waiting with the King in Saa Belanore, killed the king. Not long after, word came to the various forces of mankind that Cthulhu *called Tholorhee* had finally risen from the waves, destroying the Thunderdome and plunging much of the Final Empire into the sea.

## Nyogtha, the Haunter of the Red Abyss

Despite the destruction of the Thunderdome, Mark Patenaude did not travel to the Final Empire immediately. In the south, the Empire of Caprakan was ascendant, as the nation of Ledge, on the orders of their Immortal Protector, Jack Hinamen, had retreated from the battlefield. Only the soldiers known as the Steel Wolves, having occupied the remnants of Swamp House, were still in the war, and wanted to gamble everything on a hunt for the great old one Nyogtha called *Aldrich*, the old enemy of Arendur who had already slain the god Nylock and sent Tolumvire fleeing. The Steel Wolves had no way to kill Nyogtha, but sent a messenger to the Godhunter, promising a suicidal invasion Caprakan to set the stage for him. Patenaude had misgivings about the plan, feeling that the Steel Wolves wanted not victory but martyrdom, but assented to their request while formulating a plan of his own. As he had feared, the Steel Wolves were little match for the psionic-using forces from Caprakan. The Godhunter traveled to Ledge to beg Jack Hinamen to return to the battlefield, but was rebuffed by the Immortal Protector, who doubted the Godhunter's strength, and believed that the only course of action was for Ledge to buckle down and defend itself as it always had. Seeing no better option, Patenaude fought a duel to the death with Hinamen, an opponent he would later rate as his hardest besides Franz Forrawyn and Vilhelms Eglītis. Upon Hinamen's death, having proved his strength, the Godhunter shamed the warriors of Ledge to return to the battlefield to save the Steel Wolves, which at his urging they did, turning the tide of battle and prompting Emperor Bolon D'zacab to call forth Nyogtha, as the Steel Wolves originally hoped. The Thing which Should not Be manifested as four bodies within impenetrable darkness, but the Godhunter, remembering how Venom Tilani had slain Brennen and the Shoggoth, stepped into the Nothing and allowed Nyogtha to devour him, keeping him safe from the great old one's magic while using the Reiterpallasch to blow his way out the god's innards and dispatching the stunned bodies one at a time. A haggard and badly wounded Patenaude would emerge from the Nothing, after which the army of Caprakan would rout, and Emperor Bolon D'zacab would free on the back of his dragon, which would later turn on him and throw him off above the ocean. The Godhunter was victorious, but his reputation remained shamed, for twice in a row, his victories had come by sacrificing ordinary soldiers and killing their leaders when they objected. In future Patenaude vowed to face all remaining great old ones alone. To do so, he would need more strength.

## Chaugnar Faugn, the Horror from the Hills

After dispatching Nyogtha, Mark Patenaude decided that he needed to prove his strength to himself by defeating his archenemy, General Vilhelms Eglītis. He faked his own death - allowing it to be said that he had been devoured by Nyogtha - in order to see how essential he truly was to mankind, and went on a journey to Ragnarok, where he eventually became a squire to the death knight and fallen paladin Karekin Baghdassarian, who he helped defeat the great old one Wormwood. Following Baghdassarian's training, he was able to reunite his fractured mind and banish Brennen's voice from his thoughts. He observed that in his absence, mankind had been willing to keep fighting; in the Final Empire, the reconstituted Raine of Atlantis had hunted down Cthulhu *called Tholorhee,* while in the Kingdom of Qogor, Kai the Honorable had dispatched Gobegeg *called Dax.* Yet despite these victorious, Raine had perished and lost the Black Blade of Disaster somewhere in the sea, and though Kai had killed Gobegeg, he had not been able to stop the deity from constructed the Moon Ladder and destroying the entirety of Qogor. Mankind had fought valiantly, but their forces were nearly spent. Vindicated, the Godhunter swiftly reappeared in Shangare, where no one had expected him to arrive even before his faked death. Slipping in amongst the sacrifices prepared for Chaugnar Faugn, the Godhunter shot off the great old one's probiscis-like trunk. The surprised great old one transformed back into a statue, which the Godhunter immediately sundered, killing the Horror of the Hills with his second blow. Patenaude immediately departed, leaving the cultists at the mercy of their former prisoners. The shock of his return and the stories that spread of how swiftly and decisively Mark Patenaude had butchered - not fought, but butchered - a great old one spread through the known world.

## Ubbo-Sathla, the Unbegotten Source

There were not many great old ones left, but neither was there much of the world left. After killing Chaugnar Faugn, Mark Patenaude wasted no time in going after the heart of the enemy's forces, to Rhomduil where Queen Idas has unearthed the Tablets of the Gods, where Drutreu's fortress still loomed above the city of Mydra Tura, a monument to the fall of heroes. It was here where Tolumvire of Arendur had been transformed into a demon, and here where Vilhelms Eglītis had betrayed the hope of mankind. In the depths of Drutreu's Fortress, Queen Idas of the Drow had left the Tablets in the grasp of her god, Ubbo-Sathla *called Ghaunadaur,* believing them safe with it. The Godhunter cut his way through a fractured landscape of horrors, where solidity became slime and segments of reality began to seep into each other. Patenaude had for his guide two drow, Mourn Malaggar and Vierna Molvayas, refugees from the depravity wrought by their queen. His mind was dumb to horror and no alien being was a match for him any more, but the Godhunter knew that the gods would manifest a champion to face him, to replace Eglītis. As he expected, in the shadow of Drutreu's fortress, he found himself facing Welvog Tare, the great general and veteran of the War of the Philosopher-Kings. To Patenaude's shock, Welvog Tare, the consummate survivor, had surrendered, disbanding the Grand Army, leaving Drutreu's fortress abandoned, and opening the gates to Mydra Tura. Nothing stopped the Godhunter from wading through the muck and rubble of the fortress, making his way to its basement, and sundering the Tablets of the Gods one at a time. Ubbo-Sathla fought back with grasping pseudopods and a flurry of chaotic arcane might, but could not stop its foe from shattering the six tablets with a sword that could cut through worlds. Upon the destruction of the tablets, with nothing to anchor it to the world, Ubbo-Sathla *called Ghaunadaur* expired, its muck seeping into the earth and poisoning the land forever. Mark Patenaude left Drutreu's fortress and entered Mydra Tura, intent on capturing Queen Idas, but met a foe he had met once before, the old dark elf swordsman Raunin Vrane, who dueled him long enough to delay his entry. Idas fled, and Vrane unable to kill his foe, vowed to resume the fight once he had secured a god-slaying blade of his own. As Vrane departed, he informed Patenaude as to where he could find and punish Welvog Tare.

## Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat in the Woods with a Thousand Young

The Black Goat in the Woods with a Thousand Young

Patenaude learns that Idas Gharna has been sacrificed to the Black Goat, who has consumed the Army of Humanity

## Bokrug, the Great Water Lizard

The Water Lizard

Considered his offer to revert civilization to a primal state.