Nihilos

Nihilos, the Night-Father

   Many cultures share the aeons-old mythos of the sky fading to a world of pitch black, the light of Aarda snuffed out for seven days as a being of the infinite nothing descended from the Aetherium. Referred to as 'Nihilos' or 'The Stranger' by those who are aware of its existence, and the 'Night Father' by the fae, it attempted to devour the Godheads all at once before it fell into their dream and became an infinite plane of its own timeless being. The Night-Father is Absentia. The Night-Father is Absenth itself.

Description

Of all the gods, Nihilos is the only one that speaks in words, for its conscious is all-knowing within the void of Absentia, a plane of infinite nothing where time does not flow. It speaks to others as if they were its children, that all belong as a part of 'it'. Many faiths see Nihilos as the being that will one day bring about the end of everything; as one example, the Nedes see him as a great wolf that will bring about Ragnarok. Nihilos speaks mainly to the Null Magi and Exodii that surround themselves in its essence.

Communication

Nihilos cannot be fooled, as it knows everything one has ever experienced. It uses one's self-doubt to convince them towards faith in itself - in the nihilistic idea of Anafabula. Those who give themselves over entirely to nihilistic belief and are judged to be truthful by the all-knowing void are given the gift of understanding the language of Anafabulaic, and they are able to ask the Night-Father for insight.

Anafabula

Anafabula is the nihilistic belief in the great unravelment of the Godheads and their Precepts to nothing, the undoing of the story, the abandonment of time itself, and cession from all things. Its proponents who speak the eldritch language of Anafabulaic are given clues to find each other by their god, armed with profound working zealously towards the resolution of these beliefs. These cultists are trying to find a Prophet who will then bring into existence an Anafabulaic Precept from Anok.

Insights

Nihilos shares its knowledge in the form of individual Anafabulaic insights. This is not spoken, rather given directly to the minds of those who ask. Those who ask for too much risk being driven mad by the weight of what is known. For example, if the information comes from the 'Cosmology' or 'Metaphysics' pages, or the write-ups of individual Arcana, it probably knows, but it would not be able to say much about individuals aside from its interactions with them.

Anafabulaic

The knowledge granted by Nihilos takes the form of Anafabulaic, a maddening language of true understanding that is given rather than learned. If one were attempt to speak information given to them by the Night-Father, it would sound like quiet whispers of babbled noise. Written, it appears as strange symbols that only make sense to those who share the madness of nothing. Even the arcane logic of artifacts created by these nihilists is twisted, source materials confounded beyond understanding with strange corruptions of truth. There is and never will be a cipher capable of finding the true meaning of these mediums, driving mad the arcane scholars who try.

   Anafabula and communication with Nihilos may be self-moderated if one has a way into Absentia, but requires the expenditure of a Minor Merit to obtain.

The Shades

The Shades are a small, secretive order of Anafabulaic-touched assassins, politicians, sorcerers, and fae proliferating the shadows of the Free Cities, the caverns of Ur'duun beneath the Marches and the Mountain Holds, or among the dour fae of Elphyne. Shades work together as agents to infiltrate and weaken institutions through murder and the spilling of damning secrets. They await the next Prophet, to give them over to Nihilos for its ends while preparing the world for the coming of Anafabula. See The Shades.

The Endless

The Endless are the souls of those who are trapped beyond time, charged with facilitating the impossible goal of collapsing cosmology itself into Absentia. Those who are given Anafabulaic insight go to Absentia when they die, rather than Pandemonium. The Shades thus serve the cult even in death.