T:D:H:D

Origin and Imprisonment

The second annual of the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps series begins with renegade Lantern and Corps archenemy Sinestro locked away in an Oan sciencell, along with several other criminals, in a section of the prison reserved for the worst cosmic offenders on record. The rest of the prisoners listen to Sinestro seemingly talking to himself non-stop and grow irritated with his yammering. Sinestro calls them fools and tells them that the Guardians would not waste any space in such a high-profile area of the prison, and says he is certain that the unseen prisoner in the ostensibly empty cell next to him is actually the entire area of space known as Sector 3600.

The other prisoners listen in disbelief and mock Sinestro, pointing out that a sector is a gigantic area of space that could not possibly be contained in a prison cell. One of them notes that as a former Green Lantern, Sinestro would know this better than any of them. Sinestro patiently begins to recount the tale of the 3600th Sector.

Where life exists, gods exist, and where life thrives, gods thrive. The 3600th Sector was once rich with life and the home of trillions upon trillions of sentient beings. The considerable population of this sector bolstered the strength of its gods. Most notable among these gods was the mysterious entity known as T:D:H:D, considered the most powerful of all the gods in the 3600th Sector.

His power was such that he had absolute control over every atom of the 3600th Sector. His merest thought would become reality if he wished it to be. As his power increased, his consciousness merged with the universe, driving him insane. His physical being became intertwined with the fabric of the sector, and his mental instability resulted in the instantaneous deaths of all the trillions of sentient beings and their gods who called it their home. This cataclysm claimed the life of the sector's Green Lantern, Rasa Nekroy, which brought the Mad Galaxy to the attention of the Corps.

Unchecked, the Mad Galaxy began spilling out into other sectors, causing random and unpredictable acts of destruction that claimed countless lives. In response, the Guardians dispatched 12 of the most powerful and accomplished Green Lanterns of the time ---- Palagua, Cimfet-Tau and ten more --- to handle the threat, but they never returned. It was at that point that the Guardians realized that they were the only ones who could defeat the rogue sector, and so all 36 of them teleported to 3600.

The Guardians spread themselves out around the galaxy and harnessed the green light that they bestowed upon the Corps to build a restraining net around 3600, but its energy continually broke free. Eventually, they managed to tighten the net enough to encompass the entire galaxy, and then psionically convinced T:D:H:D that he was trapped and could not escape.

Released

Back in the Oan sciencells, Sinestro deduces that T:D:H:D's imprisonment is entirely in his own mind. He has enough power to easily escape the prison and roam the universe again, but cannot utilize this power because the Guardians have planted the suggestion in his mind that he is trapped and incapable of escaping. To help the god get past this mental block, he narrates 1000 tales of events that saw the Guardians and the Corps defeated or humiliated, so as to convince T:D:H:D that his captors are not omnipotent and that his power can exceed theirs.

Sinestro begins his 1001st tale, a recounting of a meeting between Abin Sur and Qull of the Five Inversions. Qull offered to answer any three questions Abin had. Abin first asked where the survivor of the crash he was investigating on Ysmault was, and was answered truthfully. He next asked how he would die, and was answered truthfully, albeit prophetically. Lastly, he asked what would become of the Green Lantern Corps. This was Qull's answer:

"After untold millennia, the enemies of the Green Lantern Corps will rise united against them. The Corps shall be destroyed to the last life form. The planet Oa shall be as dust. Among the gathered foemen shall be numbered the Weaponers of Qward, Ranx the Sentient City, and the unspeakable Children of the White Lobe. The Empire of Tears finally released from entombment, shall join the assault. Sodam Yat, a Daxamite hailed as the ultimate Green Lantern, will perish battling the Lobe-Spawn. The planet-form Mogo will be the last to fall as Ranx explodes a blink bomb within his core."

The purpose of Qull's prophecy was to instill doubt in Abin, and this would eventually lead to his death. Upon hearing of the existence of such a prophecy that implied the Guardians' days were as numbered as anyone else's, T:D:H:D summoned his power and freed himself from Oan captivity. As a gesture of gratitude, he freed Sinestro as well, but kept the other prisoners in their cells. Now free and empowered by a nigh-omnipotent cosmic entity, Sinestro set out to seek revenge on Hal Jordan.