I’ve always been fascinated with one element of Jadis’ backstory (Jadis being an evil character from C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles Of Narnia, specifically The Magician’s Nephew). That would be the concept of The Deplorable Word.
What is The Deplorable Word, you ask? It is the Word Of Power. That which will wipe out all that exists upon its utterance. Jadis learns of this secret and all-powerful bit of magic and decides to use it during a war in which she is about to lose power to her sister. Rather than suffer defeat, she opts to utter the word rather than yield to her sister, despite her knowledge that all will be destroyed, even herself.
The concept of one word having the power to obliterate is kind of cool.
Would you ever be tempted to have this sort of power?