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 its devout, 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 the sum of all that exists trapped in Absentia, a plane of infinite nothing where time does not flow without a bridge to the material plane. It speaks to others playfully as if they were its young 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 Æld'Norai see him as a great wolf that will bring about Ragnærók.

Communication

Nihilos cannot be fooled, as it knows everything one has ever experienced the moment they connect to its thoughts. 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 who are judged to be truthful by the void are given the gift of understanding the language of Anafabulaic, and they are able to ask the Night-Father for insight. Nihilos speaks mainly through nightmares and hallucinations, or the Exodii that surround themselves in its essence, or those that are brought to Absentia.

Conversing as a nightmare, Nihilos presents the sense of something unimaginably massive, swallowing those that perceive it. Sometimes it might manifest during hallucinatory episodes of mental illness, or speak to someone as a shadowy entity during a state of Sleep Paralysis. Nihilos lives in the derangement of all things, and the more insane a person, the more it will fill their head with ideas, luring them over the edge until they become Null.

Anafabula

Anafabula is the nihilistic belief in the great unravelment of the Godheads and their Planes to nothing, the undoing of the story, the abandonment of time itself, and cession from all things. Its proponents who speak the sorcerous language of Anafabulaic are given clues to find each other by their god. Armed with mad knowledge, they scheme and murder zealously towards the resolution of these beliefs. While these cultists often lack clarity due to madness, they seek to infect the Godheads with Anafabulaic metaphor.

Insight

Nihilos is always truthful and shares its knowledge in the form of Insights. These are 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 those it has embraced. If asked about Protea, it would share the insight that it has never encountered a 'first god', granting an understanding that while both Nihilos and the Aetherium are infinite, there are places of metaphor Nihilos could not exist within when it was free of the Godheads, which are themselves a nest of these unusual metaphors that operate counter to its own existence. Know that Nihilos does not elaborate when pried by the confused, never answering a question it knows the faithful already has the answer to but fails to understand.

The Language of Anafabulaic

The insight granted by Nihilos takes the form of Anafabulaic, a maddening language of true understanding that is given rather than learned. If one attempted 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 any who partake in their memories or attempt to divine such with Arcana. Those who know Anafabulaic can choose to be immune to interrogation by weaving away individual parts of their minds into Insight, driven to mental illness or even insanity if they give over too much of their mind.

Note: This is a Minor Welkin Arcana that requires the expenditure of 250 XP to obtain. Anafabula and communication with Nihilos may be self-moderated provided your character has a way into Absentia. In spite of having access to profound knowledge, those who ask Nihilos many questions are driven mad with schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress unless they have high levels of Meditation; Discipline may also be used to ignore the madness, around three questions per tier advancement of either skill - an Apprentice of Meditation could tolerate six Insights in total. Those who die knowing Anafabulaic become Endless. If you are unsure about what Nihilos would say, you can always message a Lorekeeper with the question.

The Nihilum

Alítheia are a cabal of Anafabulaic Blighted fighting a shadow war with the ____. Like their rivals, they are fixers, politicians, and sorcerers proliferating the shadows of every large nation across Antarok, even among the Fae Courts of Ælphyne. Shades of the Nihilum work tirelessly as agents to hoard artifacts and wealth, infiltrating and weakening institutions through murder and blackmail. They are known only to the outside world through fronts where they offer confidential service. Yet, these cultists are universally unhinged and insane - each with their own brand of insanity - so much so that they babble about the truth and risk confrontation by those who would keep it locked away.

Their goal is to fell the gods and pit the greatest powers of the Planes against each other, preparing the world for Ragnærók. See Alítheia.

The Endless

The Endless are the ghosts of those who are trapped beyond time to experience the infinite nothing, charged with facilitating the impossible goal of collapsing cosmology itself into Absentia. Those who are given Anafabulaic insight go to Absentia and become Endless when they die, rather than Avernus. Members of the Nihilum cult thus serve even in death. Anything that is a soul without a body will become an Endless upon being given Anafabulaic, stripped of any Anchors and given a new purpose.