• Serenity
• The Soulforges, especially Thylsyphyr
• The Old Order [fuck ‘em]

A ritual cast by Serenity on the entire Dreaming. The link between all Soulforges was used as a conduit, instantly killing anyone and everyone bonded to a Forge and the Forges themselves. All Soulforge hearts were destroyed.

Skadi has confirmed that during the Death Wave, Odin was prioritizing saving his people and getting them into realm-jumping ships. It is unclear if any of the other major Pantheons were trying to save their people or if they were fully focused on the war and invasion of the capital.

Eventually the remains of “The Soulforge” were put into a reliquary chest, but which Soulforges were in the box and when this happened is not clear. It was taken to a Templar holy site and buried.

The Death Wave remains a semi-ongoing effect on the Dreaming that has marked them, which left the Vanir trapped in a dying realm (see: World War Eternal/Paradiso). We’ve learned that the Death Wave is also holding something else back (related to the Unbreakable Promise) and that it would be a Very Bad Idea to try to end the ritual.

The Death Wave was a defined solitary point in time which created a causality paradox: anyone who was connected to a Soulforge (and thusly a Dreamwalker) was killed using that connection. There were people who could not be reached by the effects of the ritual at that time, but as a result of being “marked” by their at-the-time Dreamwalker status would immediately undergo the effects as per the causality of that event. The only way to prevent deaths via the Death Wave would be to go back in time and undo it entirely, something which is both currently impossible and a catastrophically bad idea due to the incalculable ripple effects that that would cause on the timeline as a result.

During the Solstice festivities hosted by Chaos, several Dreamwalkers used the Time Stone to view the moments just before the Death Wave went off. Thylsyphyr was heard telling Serenity to “take [his] heart and begin the ritual” before he noticed the Dreamwalkers observing him. He was able to use the Time Stone and the presence of the Tablets to step into the present.

1 This is why Väinämöinen, who was in the Void, and Thylsyphyr, who stepped through to the present, survived.– Source: Nes, per Thylsyphyr