Shard of Nihil

A basic Shard of Nihil

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**Shards of Nihil** are pieces of the long-dead primordial creature of nothingness: Nihil. A being antithetical to creation and reality itself, Nihil could not be conventionally destroyed. Its brief reign of terror was ended by Bahamut, who broke apart Nihil into tiny pieces and scattered them across throughout the universe. These Shards of Nihil are now mostly inert, incapable of sentience or much action besides an innate destructive capacity when interacting with the divine. However, the Shards exude a magnetic pull towards each other and will fuse together if brought into proximity. If enough Shards of Nihil fuse they begin to manifest the sentience of Nihil and grow increasingly powerful. Large Shards of Nihil can be molded into god-slaying weapons and are extremely dangerous to both wielder and target alike.

## Origins

### Nihil the Destroyer

Nihil was a being of pure nothingness, a primordial who brought mindless destruction wherever it went. It was a thing older the the gods themselves and entered into b’Papiren from the Far Realm around 5000 years ago, rapidly inciting a crisis. The Dragon God Bahamut did battle with Nihil directly, but found it impossible to destroy something that was already antithetical to existence. However Bahamut was powerful and intelligent and devised a way to defeat Nihil by splitting its body into tiny pieces, each individually of no threat, while technically never actually destroying the antimatter itself. Unfortunately, in his focus amidst the height of the battle, Bahamut failed to notice himself and Nihil careening towards the dominion of Aerath. When Bahamut struck Nihil with a carefully targeted blast of magic at full power, it was in the skies above Aerath. The explosion of Nihil's antidivinity as it was scattered apart recoiled straight through Aerath, destroying it in the process. In spite of this cost, Bahamut was successful. Nihil was gone, in its place tiny harmless Shards had been spread throughout the Astral Sea.

### Reforming

Even as the Shards of Nihil had been dispersed across the universe, they still exerted a minute magnetic pull on each other; a desire to become whole again. Slowly, over thousands of years, they started to recoalesce. Shards which found each other fused into larger forms and exerted a stronger pull. By modern times this has resulted in 'clumps' of Shards of Nihil localized in particular regions. One of these was on Tasyurai in the continent of Nerath during the 1400s AON. The Party took advantage of the unusually high number of Shards to forge them together into the weapon Deicide to use in defeating the Dark Lord Rob Boss.

## Appearance

A standard Shard of Nihil appears as a small obsidian orb, hollow and composed of intricately woven vine-like strands. In its center a small black ball rolls freely. It can easily fit in the palm of the hand. Although this is typically the more basic form a shard, smaller specimens have been observed. In AHOSP The Party finds a bag filled with tiny gem-like Shards of Nihil.

As a Shard fuses with others and grows, its size increases proportionally. Typically these fusions create larger spheres with an increasing lattice of hollow layers within. With each additional Shard that fuses another black ball fills the center. Although they keep a similar composition, particularly large Shards of Nihil take more ornate shapes. They can be forged to look like weapons or spellcasting implements and perform the functions of their new form.

## Abilities

### Anti-Divinity

The primary natural property of all Shards of Nihil, regardless of size, is their anti-divinity. If a shard comes into contact with divine matter, such as a blessed object of the flesh of a divine being, it will instantly annihilate that matter. In some cases a stronger divine presence, such as that of a god, may be too strong for the shard to annihilate, although it may still cause short term harm. The larger a Shard of Nihil becomes the more pronounced the effects of its anti-divinity. It can begin destroy nearby divine matter without being in direct contact, annihilate more powerful sources of divinity, and negate the abilities of even greater divinities.

### Sentience

Every Shard of Nihil contains an extremely rudimentary piece of Nihil's consciousness. In most small shards this is only capable of manifesting through an internal desire to recombine with other Shards. Once enough Shards fuse, however, the consciousness of each component Shard is pooled back together and they can begin to exhibit higher sentience. Medium sized Shards of Nihil are capable of more precisely targeting their abilities, manipulating their surroundings, and even basic communication with their wielder. As exhibited by The Cimmerian Blade, a Shard of Nihil which grows large enough can achieve full sentience and act on its own. The Cimmerian Blade, however, still required a wielder for it to manipulate towards its ends.

When larger Shards of Nihil fuse, their greater consciousness allows them to control the fusion to adopt more tailored forms. Through this method they often become specific objects such as weapons.

### Oblivion

Very powerful Shards of Nihil, like The Cimmerian Blade, are capable of manipulating the force of nothingness just like the original Nihil. This Oblivion is similar to the shard's Anti-Divinity, but focused on the eradication of all existence, not just the divine. Oblivion manifests in the form of black lightning and waves of shadowy energy that completely annihilates that which it touches. This ubiquitous destruction makes a Shard capable of utilizing oblivion exceedingly more dangerous. The particular danger of oblivion is coupled because the size required to achieve it corresponds with a shard gaining higher sentience.

## Known Shards

* Deicide - Composed of seven Shards of Nihil which had accrued in Nerath by the 1400s AON. They were assembled by The Party and reforged by Clan Gimsteinn into the weapon known as Deicide. The Party used Deicide to de-power and defeat the Dark Lord Rob Boss. Deicide was lost after the Battle of The Colossus.
* The Cimmerian Blade - The largest Shard of Nihil yet encountered. The Cimmerian Blade was a sentient greatsword which infested its wielder and used them as its body. It attempted to bring oblivion to Chernoggar but was defeated by The Afterparty. After falling back into its own sphere of annihilation the fate of the blade is unknown.