Nili

Nilikanti, or Nili, is one of Terra Avium's two moons. Nili is the blue moon and is the secondary moon in Terra Avium. In the Material Realm, Nili is seen as an azure blue moon travelling across the night sky. In the Spiritual Realm, Nili is a pocket dimension that contains the palace and sanctuary of the Nili Goddess, Ashak. Nili is also known as the Lesser Moon because it's smaller than Tele.

Nili has a strange orbit. The moon orbits around Terra Avium like Tele. However, it only comes into viewing distance once per ten years. So for the other 9 years, Nili is nowhere seen from the surface of Terra Avium. Arkhaists believe that Nili spends her 9 years travelling the stars and the Farsee Lands, but returning to her home once every 10 years to greet the Avians. A festival is celebrated once every ten years for a month, named Caerulis.

## PALACE OF NILI

The Palace of Nili is dedicated to Ashak. It is located within the Nili pocket dimension, and it symbolic of the moon Nili. The Palace has an angelic blue color to it, often reflecting colors of the rainbow. The Palace is mainly inhabited by Ashak and few of her apprentices.

The Palace's ceiling peers into the stars and cosmos of the Farsee Lands, ever twinkling in the dark night. As Nili travels, the ceiling changes from places to places, from different stars to constellations. The floor is made out of crystal-clear water but people can walk on it like solid ground. Note that the floor is not ice, but people can walk on water. Strange white glowing shapes swim throughout these waters, carrying hopes and dreams of the mortal Avians.

Swirling round pillars uphold the starry ceiling. The pillars shape that of smooth swirls like leaves from the bottom up, with reflections of rainbow colors near the roots. If someone looks into it carefully enough, they can see the dreams and nightmares and visions from various Avians across Terra Avium. The pillars aren't control centers for the dreams, however, but just viewing places. The Palace of Nili is vast and bustling with ice sculptures and star-like orbs floating around the place. There are also plenty of waterfalls.

Nili's throne room is that of the illustration picture. The throneroom, aslo called the Hall of Reverie, is Ashak's throneroom and the most important room in all of the Palace. The floor is shaped with patterns and symmetry leading to the Throne. At the end of the hall is an altar and the Throne of Nili. It is v-shaped, strecthing out like wisps of light. Behind the throne if the altar, which looks out into the Farsee land and acts as a navigation panel. Ashak's half of the Lunarian Ring sits atop the altar, directing the way for Nili to travel.

## HISTORY

From the Age of Savages to before the first-half of the Great Desolation, Nili was unimportant to Terra Avium. For millions of years, it sat there in the sky as a brown piece of rock. It was dim like Tele beforehand, and it didn't have its iconic blue colour. So it stayed that way for a long time until during the Great Desolation.

After Theruee fought with Qwui and used the Blade of Names and the Sunrazor to end her reign, Qwui's blue blood formed Ashak. Ashak's soul and being immediately took claim to Nili, and turned the whole moon blue. Ashak is sometimes called Goddess of the Lesser Moon because Nili was smaller than Tele, and had less significance on Terra Avium.

During the first years of Ashak’s life, she overtook the job of being the moon. However, Theruee didn’t return Qwui’s moonlight in fear of corruption, so Nili was just a dim piece of blue floating rock. This gave her the title Ruler of Nowhere, and Nili the title of The Nowhere Land, as it didn’t have any significance whatsoever. Ashak couldn’t do anything since Ashak lacked the sentience of living being. This is because she didn’t have moonlight; without Qwui or moonlight, Ashak couldn’t think - similarly to how the Lunarian Ring worked. So Ashak was basically a deity of nothing, without a mind on a blue dim rock.

That was until Uoira reclaimed moonlight after tricking Theruee. Moonlight is a piece of Qwui, though not Qwui’s mind per se. When Uoira brought moonlight to Tele, the moonlight spreaded to Nili too. It washed both moons in bright white and blue. The wash of moonlight “awakened” Ashak, and gave her thoughts. Ashak was best described as both shocked and curious, but mostly shocked, so she remained on Nili for some time without moving. So now Nili became a glowing blue moon instead.

This led to the beginning of the Tales of Tele & Nili, where it started with Uoira visiting Nili after being unnerved by its unmoving state. Ashak and Uoira agreed to travel around Terra Avium to help Ashak learn of its inhabitants and history. At the end of the journey, Ashak wondered about the Farsee Land - the world beyond Terra Avium, more specifically the stars and space. But there were no stars, which made Nili remember the Lunarian Ring.

So the two embarked on a journey to relcaim the Lunarian Ring. Both found it eventually at the end, and agreed to split it between one another. Uoira got the Lunarian Ring of Moonlight, Sight, and Night. Ashak got the Lunarian Ring of Dreams/Nightmares, Stars, and the Farsee Lands. However, the stars were still not shining yet, for they require to be activated.

So Ashak decided to travel the Farsee Lands to activate these stars and bring light back to Terra Avium. She used the Lunarian Ring as a compass to guide her in the dim road ahead, and commanded Nili to travel beyond, but promised to bring Nili back to Terra Avium once per 10 years. A yearly ceremony is celebrated where Avians would float lanterns to the sky, representing stars and the mysterious lands beyond Terra Avium. This also represented Nili's odd orbit around Terra Avium.