The Nothing

**The Nothing**, also called **Lethe** is one of the oldest beings in the Multiverse. Embodiment of non-existence, oblivion and annihilation, it seeks nothing but the annihilation of all memories and of the Akasha itself. It is currently one of the greatest threats of the **Multiverse**. Due to its ambiguous existence, it may also be referred as an Element.

## Story

### Origins

The Nothing was created as the result of the Blade of Lethe striking Adonai. The resulting tear in the fabric of reality gained a semblance of sentience and sought to bring to life Adonai's dreams of a world without individuality by annihilating all of existence.

**Lethe** is the first Embodiment that was created by the Nothing to exist as a Great Spirit. The great Summoner Cilan Nomos tried to bind it, however Lethe's lack of true name allowed it to take control of Cilan, creating the Great Spirit hybrid entity known as Chaon. Chaon became the first of the Nothing's second embodiment, summoning dark creatures known as Specters to do his bidding, devouring worlds by severing their connection to the Akasha.

### The Next Embodiments

After Chaon's demise at the hands of Sigma, Devon Laone and the other Anamneses, the Nothing sought to create a third embodiment. It found its new oracle, the young Samantha Damont, turning it into its third incarnation. As the Nothing's avatar, Samantha attempted to sever the Cheshire Isle's connection with the Akasha in a misguided attempt to protect it from the Great Old Ones' advance.

However, that attempt was thwarted by the fallen Seraph Xelias. Giving up on trying to eliminate its age-old nemesis, the Nothing looked away. A fourth avatar was then made after Samantha's purification - from the universe of Rokugan, the young Ishiken Sayuri Ninube, once Sayuri Isawa. Fourth Envoy of the Nothing, Sayuri began clashing against the **Taint**, an aspect of the Miasma plaguing Rokugan, in order to overtake it.

### The Final Embodiment

Upon Heimdal Kero attempting to wield the blade named Alma Decepta Regret, in which Kuri-ma Mazda has once sealed some of Lethe's powers, the Nothing attempted to corrupt Heimdal, but the influence of Thalie Pinkojo, a Sephira created by Xelias himself, allowed Heimdal to break free from the sword, once again severing Lethe's ties with the real world.

Understanding that using mortals as puppets was nothing but a short-term, inefficient solution the Nothing decided in a last-ditch attempt to influence the world to embody itself entirely as a material entity. Benefiting from small fissures in the Akasha due to broken Power Words, it seeped into the material world and gave birth to the entity who would latter be known as the Nothing's true form, Beth.

## Personality

The Nothing has no self-awareness or personality and exists only to consume. To do so, it infiltrates worlds, severing individuals from the Akasha by devouring their personality and turning them into empty shells, using them as pawns.

However, the Nothing has a will and a limited consciousness, allowing it to acknowledge individuals as enemies or allies. And while it does not understand the subtleties of human emotions, it is perfectly able to toy with them despite being unable to feel. As such, it often uses subtle taunts about regrets and memories to lure people into oblivion, 'healing their wounds' while in fact erasing a part of their existence, making it fade to black. Whether the Nothing really believes it saves people or merely uses it as an excuse for erasing them is currently unknown.

## Powers

The Nothing holds tremendous power. It is able to multiply and conceal, to manipulate shadows in a similar way to shadow magic but is in fact non-elemental. It can corrode and corrupt the essence of everything that exists, turning it into empty shells of its former self. It can also manipulate memories, replace them and erase them. It can teleport, shapeshift and fuse into shadows at will. Of course, all those abilities are granted to its embodiments. It also has godlike control over the concepts of oblivion and emptiness, and is conceptually immortal and shapeless, thus endless.

The Nothing shouldn't be confused with the element of Void. Rather, both concepts are opposed : the Void represents perfection, harmony with the universe, wholeness and clarity of purpose above existence, whereas the Nothing represents incompleteness, vacuity and the cracks of oblivion below existence. Both powers are also opposed - when the Void destroys, it erases an item's existence, while the Nothing makes it still existing, yet hollow.

The Nothing is thus especially vulnerable against Void magic and other countermeasures designed specifically to thwart it, such as crystal items and seraphic magic.

Some corrupted mages can use the Nothing's essence as an element, wielding powers comparable to the Nothing's, albeit a lot weaker.

## Trivia

* Lethe is a river in most traditional depictions of Hell. It is associated with oblivion and loss of the sense of self.