The Void

*The Void* is one of the names given to a distant celestial object, a hole torn in the fabric of deep space. Occasionally, a person of deeply chaotic mindset proves attractive to the spirits who dwell there, and they are gifted - or perhaps cursed - with abilities derived from the strange rules of the realm.

Mental and physical abnormalities are common in those afflicted, both of which tend to become more serious as time progresses.

Once a person has fallen victim to the so-called *Mayhem Disease*, it has a tendency to spread throughout a population, but the exact mechanism behind this is currently unknown. Similarly, the motivations of the faraway spirits are a mystery, but most will cite the same assumption.

Entertainment.

## *Excerpts from Faizel Nakam's book, Peering into Elsewhere*

As I write, I can feel myself collapsing under the strain of what I have endured while conducting this research. My only hope is that I can complete this work - this resource - before I truly expire, and return to the dust that has given me life.

Even among its most devoted followers, its most experienced scholars, there is little consensus about the Void itself. Theories abound, however - and a few of them will be listed below, before I recount my personal encounters with it.

* The final resting place for spirits too horrifically corrupt to survive in another realm.
* The gap separating universes (such as Atmos and Eternia) from one another.
* The husk left behind from a dead realm.
* A single entity, vast and otherwise formless.

Due to the nature of the Void, as well of how difficult it is to access - I believe only an accomplished Rift magi who has fallen to Void might be able to enter it - it is difficult to discredit any of these theories. I can only give my own experiences with *Elsewhere.*

I believe the first time that it called for me was something of a fluke. Sounds - possibly musical - heard in the night, drifting down my corridor. When I arrived to the source of the noise, in the corner of our basement, I had seen only a glimpse of a minuscule white *eye*, obscured partially by a haze of heat, but otherwise immobile.

At the time, I blamed this on exhaustion, or perhaps the first signs of an occult madness developing within me. How I wish I had been correct.

Day by day, things escalated. A rare outburst became a pattern of irrational behavior. My thoughts and actions were overtaken - circular thoughts became the norm, and I began to do things I would never have imagined doing in my right mind. I would rant and rave for hours, to the horror of my beloved wife and daughter, that I was being watched.

My only prayer is that this condition cannot spread beyond myself, and the few other victims I'm aware of in the distant corners of Britannia.

For my family's safety, I isolated myself while I began to work on this manuscript. I fear that I am not in enough control of myself any longer. Of all people, why would it choose *me*? Just to watch an innocent man suffer?

Please, to whoever reads this. Do not seek the Void. Do not tempt it. Trying to understand it only angers it more - it will only twist you more. Your mind, your body -- everything that you are is a plaything to it.

To Ava, to Sahar. I'm sorry.

## *Faizel Nakam* •

*To the right of the author's signature lies a single dot of red blood.*