Demons of Nil

in: Races, Demons

## Nil

The region of the wastes known as Nil is less of a region in its own right and more of an extension of the Void itself.  The realm is a quasi-real extension of the maddening nothingness beyond it.  The landscape is a twisted thing where the physical properties of reality have begun to break down.  Forests and plains exist in this place, but are quite unusual with unexpected elements to them that make little sense to the logical mind.  The deeper into the region one travels, the less the laws of reality apply:  Objects begin to float, water might fall upward and sound is distorted and unnatural.  Further still, the minds of men and demon alike cannot comprehend the oddities that their eyes behold.  Strange and impossible things appear, movement becomes difficult as direction and time lose meaning and ever deeper one finds that they are moving in multiple dimensions at once with no hope of finding a way back out.  Few beings dwell in this place with the occasional unexplainable horror lurking somewhere within the madness of the realm.  What demons dwell in Nil do so only upon the borders as even those with the strongest of minds cannot survive the deeper areas that touch the void proper without falling into inescapable madness.  Those who do dare to delve deeper have their minds changed completely, falling into service of some inscrutable patron that they refer to only as The Hidden One.

## Notable Places

### The Forests of Augh

The gateway to Nil is a seemingly benign forest that even sounds as though birds chirp and animals play among the trees.  Entering the forest however, is another matter and one quickly finds that the pathways through the dark woods run in maddeningly straight lines that seem to go nowhere.  That path runs ahead, but it is almost impossible to know how far one has gone as every fork seems only to get one more lost.  While some make it through the forest, those that manage to return always speak of something among the trees.  Some unknown terror that hunts those forests and is only ever seen from the corner of the eye.

### The Impossible Monolith

A strange and terrible object at what some would call the center of Nil, barring of course the expanse of the void, is this single object of black stone.  Impossibly tall and thin, the monolith is made entirely of featureless smooth black stone that stretches from the surface of a floating island as far as the eye can see into the sky.  Winged demons have flown until their bodies were too tired to continue and they fell from the skies at the base of this monolith and yet there is no sign or hint as to where it might end.  Every so often the monolith drops some hundreds of feet into the ground, though the other end never emerges from the island on which it sits.  The reason for its existence is still a mystery, though demons and men alike fear what will happen when the top is finally visible.

### The Drifting

Not technically part of Nil, but the Void itself is the Drifting:  An expanse of endless blackness that stretches out as far as the eye can see.  This area of the Void is said to contain The Hidden One.  Filled with endless visions of strange and incomprehensible beings that drift through the realm endlessly,  demons of Nil that have passed through this realm speak of things that have existed since before man.  This place is said to contain knowledge, languages and truths that have been long forgotten in the mortal world, if they ever existed at all.  Mortals have written tales of this place, having glimpsed it and fallen into madness.  The most common work is called ‘On Drifting Gods’ and details strange beings found within this realm before the writer was driven to insanity and something else took over his pen.  The last portions of the book are known to cause insanity in the weak willed mind.  Among the deafening silence of the realm and the drifting creatures there is one thing that is ever present:  A strange, soothing voice, whispering from somewhere deep in the darkness…  Beckoning.

## Greater Demons of Nil

### Ashra, The Singing Darkness

A Greater Demon of the Void that exists on the edge of Nil.  Nothing is known of the demon’s appearance or even its gender or even if it is truly a servant of The Hidden One, or simply a being that exists in The Drifting.  However those who glimpse the Void in dream occasionally wake with stories of Ashra’s song.  A haunting sound that is terrifying, awesome, enchanting and frightening all at once.  The melodies and harmonies of the song have caused many musicians to awaken and spend feverish years trying to recreate the sound that they had heard.  But like any dream, it is a fleeting thing leaving only the memory that it existed.  Every work the musicians create from then on holds a spark of Ashra’s song and never again holds the purity of creation that their music once held.  Though little is known of the demon itself, Ashra’s song has been plucked on rare occasions from the void by curious Nilean demons,  but even they are unable to reproduce it in its entirety.  The true nature of the demon and its song remain a mystery and likely will for eternity.

Demons that Follow Ashra do not truly follow the Singing Darkness.  Rather they are entranced by the song that lingers in their minds,  seeking to recreate it and learn the mysteries of that distant music.  They are typically pale blue and marked with musical notes that if played reveal some line of Ashra’s song, some small fragment of the greater work.  Ultimately they are all driven to seek the missing pieces of the music,  typically by exposing others to the Void in hopes that they might return with one of the missing pieces.

### Ul’gra’krak’vug’aouk, The Herald

A Greater Demon that dwells within the realm of Nil.  It is a creature that appeared from out of The Drifting in ancient days during the founding of the wastes.  Some say this being is the fourth sorcerer that became the first Demon Lords after touching the mind of the Hidden One within the Void.  It is a creature of intense insanity and yet an overwhelming sense of purpose.  While the intentions of The Hidden One are all but unknown, The Herald sends forth its minions to spread the word of that mad being.  A devious and wicked creature that seeks to spread the touch of Nil and the expansion of its dreadful influence across the whole of the Wastes.  The Herald is seen as an enemy by all demonkind as it tries to twist them all into servants of The Hidden One.  Despite this, the combined forces of the Waste have been unable to kill it.  A maddened thing, The Herald appears as an enormous skull shrouded in poisoned tentacles.  It's very touch can twist one to madness and corrupt its physical body into a twisted variation of itself.

Demons who follow The Herald are always those twisted by its touch.  They appear as they did before they were struck by one of this vile thing’s tentacles, but usually with a pale grey cast to their skin.  They are usually adorned with tentacles of some sort, hanging limply and uselessly from their bodies or far more functional in nature depending on the demon.  In nature, their only purpose is to spread their Master’s teachings.  They are prophets of The Hidden One, seekers of Truth, and Missionaries to the mortal world.  Aside from their other purposes, they serve as a sort of standing army for The Herald, fighting alongside twisted monsters from the depths of the Void in its defense.

## Demons of Nil

Demons of Nil are perhaps the most varied in their appearance of all demons, as they often largely retain the forms that they once had as servants of the other Demon Lords before they were changed and warped by exposure to the Void. Sometimes though, this exposure gives them profound physical changes, and it is not unknown for these demons to turn either stark white in color, or even strange and exotic shades of blue. Otherwise, their appearance usually denotes what kind of demon they once were.

**Special Ability: Discern Secret** - By staring into the eyes of a victim and with an accompanying and appropriate emote, the demon may attempt to force them to divulge a secret that only few know. If successful, the victim is forced to tell the demon a secret, though it may not necessarily be the secret that the demon actually wishes to know, and it may in fact be mostly trivial. However, it could just as easily be something incredibly profound!

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** 1 Person
* **Dice Modifier(s)**: Persuade
* **Difficulty Class:** Target rolls Determination
* **Cost(s):** None
* **Effect(s):** The user makes the target speak a secret belonging to them.
* **Cooldown:** 4 Hours

**Special Ability: Glimpse of the Void** - The demon can tear open a tiny window merely the size of a keyhole in reality itself, and for just a few fleeting moments. However, this is enough time for those present to get just the briefest glimpse into the deepest part of the Void on the other side. Through this exposure, the demon can attempt to throw all of those present and facing them within a small radius into a temporary bout of insanity. The results of this are unpredictable even for the Demon, as the effects can range from nothing happening to outright psychosis, mania, or intense hallucination.

**RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** Any within 5 tiles
* **Dice Modifier(s)**: Support Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Target(s) rolls Determination
* **Cost(s):** None
* **Effect(s):** The user drains the sanity of all around them
* **Cooldown:** 8 Hours

**Special Ability: Shrouded Form** - The demon may use its inherent magic to disguise themselves as a human version of their demonic form. Their demonic features are hidden and replaced with human characteristics. They have access to only this extra form, and cannot change its appearance with this ability. If they are downed in combat, the illusion breaks, and they are revealed in their full demonic splendor. Certain abilities and items are capable of seeing through or defeating this illusion. They must change to the human slider range while using this ability.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** Self
* **Dice Modifier(s)**: Disguise
* **Difficulty Class:** Fixed (1)
* **Cost(s):** None
* **Effect(s):** The user veils themselves with an illusion to hide their features as a human.
* **Cooldown:** 30 Minutes

**Weakness: Fiendish Nature** - Demons can never receive benefits from the benevolent powers of the Holy or Nature spheres of magic. They can still be negatively affected by these spheres, and may even be especially vulnerable to certain abilities.

**Weakness: Lingering Corruption** - A demon who has been injured cannot hide their nature any longer.  As per the Shrouded Form ability, when a demon is injured they are revealed for what they are.  While Injured a demon cannot make use of their Shrouded Form, nor do any of their racial abilities function until they are recovered from their wounds.  The nature of their corrupt blood brings chaos in the realm of mortals, even to the demon’s own power.