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Overview
The World-Ender is the central figure behind the Sundering the catastrophe that destroyed the Old World and fractured reality into 81 Planes. According to surviving accounts, the World-Ender used an "external power" to annihilate the Old World. The 1st Sovereign, Victus, fought them seven times and destroyed them twice, but could never make it permanent.
The Pact of Rebirth
The World-Ender's immortality comes from a deal struck with Amstradath, the 5th Sovereign who controlled the paired Aspects of Life and Death. Called the "Pact of Rebirth" (or "Life-Death Contract"), this agreement made the World-Ender impossible to permanently kill. Whether Amstradath entered this pact willingly or was forced into it is one of the game's unanswered questions.
The protagonist connection
Within the first half hour of gameplay, the player learns a destabilizing piece of information: their character IS the World-Ender. The protagonist is an amnesiac who was trapped in an illusion world for over 214 years. The 4th Sovereign, Kumyo Kyo (who controlled Reality and Illusion), sealed them there as a promise to his dying sister Darsea.
The protagonist doesn't remember any of this. They wake up in Iia with no memory, take up the life of an Animaster, and gradually discover that some characters they meet already know who they really are. The Phoenixbreaker Novarchs (Blade, Parayaya, and Amorphiron) are actively hunting the World-Ender, which means they're hunting the player.
Past relationships
Before the Sundering, the World-Ender traveled with Parayaya and Darsea (the 10th Sovereign of Memory and Oblivion). A surviving account reads: "I traveled with Parayaya and Darsea. They were my friends..." Parayaya later described being "ruthlessly betrayed" by the World-Ender. Suggesting the friendship ended violently during or before the Sundering.
Darsea was eventually killed by the World-Ender. Her death, as the Sovereign of Memory and Oblivion, triggered the spread of Oblivios disease across the Planes: a cruel irony given that the World-Ender themselves now suffers from amnesia.
As the 1st Novarch
After the Sundering created the 81 Planes, the World-Ender is believed to have become the 1st Novarch. Their specific Aspect and the name of their Plane haven't been revealed. The gap between their actions (destroying the Old World) and their current state (an amnesiac playing with creature companions in a seaside town) is the game's central dramatic tension.
Open questions
What was the "external power" the World-Ender used to destroy the Old World?
Why did they do it? Were they acting out of malice, desperation, or something else?
How much of the protagonist's personality is genuine, and how much is a construct of the 214-year imprisonment?
Does Amstradath's uniquely unsplit domain (Life and Death still together) relate to the Pact of Rebirth?