The One King

The One King (一なる王, Ichinaru Ō) is the ultimate antagonist of both Suikoden Tierkreis and Gensosuikoden Tierkreis Hoshikuzu no Shiro. He is a god-like being aiming to merge every world of the Infinity into a single moment and place to preserve perfect peace for eternity.

Biography
"The One King has neither past nor future. Only conflict. A war against myself, a sacrifice of myself..."

- The One King

The One King is a presence that exists throughout the Infinity, in all times and places. Although he appears human, he exists as something more akin to a natural disaster. His goal is to merge every single reality of the Infinity into a single, perfect world where the same moment repeats forever.

The One King descends on a world when twelve world fusions occur on it, carried out by those who believe he offers the world a true, guiding path such as the Order of the One True Way. He then fuses that world to his own, absorbing it. His power is such that he is able to interfere with the True Chronicle of a world, rewriting its future so that it collides into his own. By repeating this, the One King has destroyed many, many worlds.

His identity is thought to be that of a "Nameless Hero". His name was the only one that remained on the Stone Tablet of Promise located inside the Statue of the One King, all other names having been scorched away. It was believed, throughout the Infinity, that the only way to stop him was to use the power of the 108 Stars against him, in such a way that would cause the sacrifice of all those save the hero.

Instead, this would have the effect of transforming the surviving Tenkai Star into the One King. As the One King exists in all of time simultaneously, it is believed that he is essentially any and all heroes who sacrificed their comrades to stop him. This is because the light of the stars which inhabit the 108 Stars represent the possible futures of people. Therefore, sacrificing those stars essentially creates a single future, fulfilling the maxim of the One King and allowing him to continue to exist.

The One King would eventually be vanquished when the hero realised the folly of the sacrificial plan and used the power of the Chronicles to strip away enough of the being's power that a coordinated combined attack from forces fighting the One King throughout the Infinity, representing all the potential futures, could finally bring an end to his ultimate goal of a world suspended in time for all eternity. In his last moments, the One King seemed to regain his human consciousness, showing relief at the end of the "monstrous cycle."

The end of the One King had unforeseen effects in that his demise saw the deactivation of all the known Gateways. The power of the Wanderers was seemingly reliant on the One King connecting the worlds of the Infinity to function properly.