The Hytoike are the villains of the Aetherion Storyline. They are cruel and cunning, evil and wicked. In the story A Darkened Place, they are explained to have once been Aetherion who chose to embrace the killing power of metal and sever their souls with it, gaining new powers and immortality at the cost of most of their sanity. One Hytoike awake is enough to shatter a world; however, because of their broken condition, they can only survive so long outside of the metal coffin in which they sleep in a coma-like state, only communicating with their minions through a stone edifice called their oracle.
Throughout the storyline, the Hytoike send their minions after Zane, and several times try to tempt him into giving up his power or becoming a Hytoike like them. Zane resists each time and shows them that all their evil power and darkened places don’t begin to make up for their broken souls.