The Hunger

The Hunger, also known as John, is a former spokesperson turned sentient plane that feeds on other planes. It serves as the endgame, main antagonist of the Balance Arc campaign. He was the best public speaker ever.

The Stolen Century
The Hunger is first encountered by the Red Robes as they are leaving their home planet. It starts attacking and feeding on their plane, forcing them to escape. It is not known how many planes it devoured before reaching the Red Robes' world but from there on it would relentlessly pursue them across space and time.

Cycle One
A year later it finds them again in another plane, and it starts to attack and devour that plane as well. The Red Robes then watch as it grows slightly bigger from devouring the plane and its Light of Creation.

John
Merle would eventually find a way to converse with the Hunger directly, and he would find it to be, in fact, a man named John. He has a slight build, looks to be in his early fifties, has salt-and-pepper hair, and wears a suit, tie, and some very nice shoes. The broad strokes of John's backstory are revealed here: John was a philosopher and spokesperson who came to realize the limitations of being mortal after pondering eternity, and came to believe that "living is horrible." He shared his dissatisfaction and fury with the people of his home plane, and soon everyone and even every thing came to agree with his worldview. It turned them into the Hunger, a force seeking to transcend existence regardless of the cost by chasing the Light of Creation, which allows the Hunger to exist and consume bonds for power.

John is now the Hunger, but it's likely he doesn't exactly know what he's doing, since he didn't even know what the Starblaster looks like or how the Light was getting away from him every cycle before Merle told him. He also said he must look beautiful from Merle's perspective, which would seem to mean that, physically, he doesn't realize that the Hunger is more terrifying than beautiful, and that, metaphorically, his mission to transcend existence, in practice, isn't as magnificent and admirable as he considers it.

Story and Song
After the IPRE crew successfully hid the Light of Creation for a decade, The Hunger supposedly lost its way; rather than trying to overcome the laws of reality, it now simply wants to consume everything. John uses Parley to warn Merle that he's no longer in control of The Hunger, and gives him a hint to defeating it - breaking the bonds between it and the planes its consumed - before The Hunger drags him away.

Planes Devoured
All known planes that have been devoured by The Hunger.
 * The Red Robes' plane
 * The Animal Kingdom
 * The (K)nights plane
 * The Legato Conservatory
 * The Judge's World

Trivia

 * The Hunger's appearance was inspired by black opal.
 * Lucretia came up with the name "The Hunger".
 * Even though Griffin chose the name "John", he does not want this to discourage people from drawing him like Jon Arbuckle, creating hilarious parallels between the big bad of the entire campaign and the mysterious Garfield the Deals Warlock.
 * The Hunger bears some resemblance to The Blob from Car Boys.