RDU119 AMENDED 7 JULY 2003
Exiled Sun
Other Known Designations: Nameless Exile, Lord of Sunsets, Drowned One, Horizon-Keeper, the Sorrow
Examples of Symbological Representations: Sunset, old man falling over the sea, separated lovers, half-buried sphere, Jibril
Description: The Exiled Sun governs sunsets and melancholy — a figure of longing and dread, but simultaneously of the acceptance of endings. While "ending" in this context is primarily interpreted as the end of a positive emotion, ocurrence or event, a secondary, significantly less prevalent interpretation treats it as the end of pain and sorrow. Always old and fading, its followers consider it the hardest truth to accept.
Exiled Sun cults are invariably nihilist in approach, single-mindedly directed towards the bringing of the world-ending flood. Other purposes are considered worthless, as the only thing that can truly bring change is the end of all things. However, followers of the Exiled Sun also indulge in hedonism out of a sense of melancholy for the world, believing they are soon to part.
Savage Redness
Other Known Designations: They Who Thirst, Lord of Meat and Bone, Fair Exchange, Tenochtitlan, Azrael, The Bloodlust
Examples of Symbological Representations: Bleeding heart, berserking warrior, human sacrifice, wolf's fang, spear and scimitar
Description: The Savage Redness represents the most primal aspects of humanity as a whole. Governing combat and sacrifice, it is an insatiable, lusting entity only calmed by the spilling of blood and cutting of meat. Although not directly worshipped, it is the prime governor of Aztec culture, where sacrifice of humans, animals, and goods is the primary way of communing with the gods. The Savage Redness also symbolizes brutal justice and fairness — "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth".
Cults following the Savage Redness are violent and ritualistic, regularly engaging in some form of important sacrifice of material goods, animals, or human lives. They commonly engage the Authority as well as other organized Groups of Interest in combat, and have the second-highest incidence of psychological abnormalities of Nihil cults, leading to the common perception of the Children of Nihil as a zealot organization.
The Pilot
Other Known Designations: Wanderer, They who March, The Voyager, Hafaza, The Vehicle, Eye of Dyēws
Examples of Symbological Representations: Chariot, plane, bird, ship, horse
Description: The Pilot represents the trajectory of the Sun in the sky, associated with premodern mythology and its common interpretation of the Sun's movement as caused by some sort of vehicle — exemplified by Ra's barge in Egypt, Helios's carriage in Greece, and Dagr's horse, Skinfaxi, in Norse mythology. Universally described as a vehicle and wanderer, the Pilot governs curiosity, long struggle, and routine.
Pilot cults are commonly nomads, known to inhabit Europe and Asia, having spread in a minor fashion to Africa, while other Nihil cults are more widespread. Paths followed by Pilot cults are cyclical, often directed by the passage of seasons or other, more specific time frames. They display a devotion for technology employed as a means of travel, considering spaceships and artificial satellites divine objects. Several Pilot worshippers and cults have been found across many space agencies, spanning all kinds of professions — software development, engineering, piloting, etcetera.
Unlike other Nihil cults, Pilot followers do not see humanity as inherently malevolent or corrupt, rather led astray by circumstance and hedonism, when devotion to the craft should be its primary goal.
Orrery of Ages
Other Known Designations: Timekeeper, Heart of the Machine, Ridwan, Celestial Clockwork
Examples of Symbological Representations: Clockwork machinery, aligned stars, night sky, skull
Description: The Orrery of Ages symbolizes the Sun as a timekeeping device responsible for the passage of time. Described as an immense clockwork machine, perfectly attuned with every unit of time. Some representations include spiral imagery, representing time as an inevitable, inescapable passage.
Followers of the Orrery closely associate themselves with those of the Void Unending, in that they both worship inevitable obliteration as an act of divinity. Neither seem particularly dedicated towards bringing the world-ending flood, as they believe it is an inevitable occurrence that cannot be affected by their actions. Of note, representations of the Void Unending and the Orrery of Ages as a romantic couple are abundant, a phenomenon that is rarely observed in followers of other Nihil deities.
However, while Void Unending cults gravitate toward ascetism, Orrery ones tend to shift to pragmatism or artistic inclinations, as they are driven to bring as much change as possible to humanity as possible in their limited lifetimes. Art pieces produced by Orrery followers are known to commonly possess infohazardous properties that cause instant reception of large amounts of Nihil-related information. Dizziness, hallucinations, and ideological crises are common results of exposure.
Orrery cults are generally the most passive of Nihil followers, which makes them hard to identify as their beliefs are not commonly expressed in public. This also makes them the most collaborative with the Authority, second only to Pilot followers.
Void Unending
Other Known Designations: Ceaseless Hunger, Seething Emptiness, Desert Reaper, Icarus' Bane, The End
Examples of Symbological Representations: Sun in the desert, empty space, black hole
Description: Void Unending represents the Sun as an obliterating, non-sentient force. Sometimes said to be only receptive to hunger, and sometimes depicted as entirely unfeeling. The Void can only be communed and communicated with while in a state of desperation and hunger, which drives some of its followers to a form of nomadic ascetism centered around desert, lifeless landscapes.
Void Unending followers sometimes claim that the Void Unending is Nihil itself; a primordial abyss of absolute nothingness with an ambiguous sense of sentience.
These cults' ideals vary between passive expectation and hostile accelerationism, but almost never enter conflict against each other.
Radiant Joy
Other Known Designations: Bliss-touch, Golden Ecstasy, The Laughter, Laughing Horror
Examples of Symbological Representations: Smiling sun, orange fruit, laughing figures
Description: The Radiant Joy represents happiness as an ultimate goal, either for mankind or individuals. Often taken to extremes, Radiant Joy followers are known for having the highest incidence of psychological abnormalities of all Nihil cultists, believed to be self-induced through unknown processes.
While specific beliefs vary wildly, the modus operandi of Radiant Joy cults remains the same for most. Their pursuit of joy and happiness is nearly always violent and hedonistic in nature, coming at the expense of other individuals that are not members of their cult. Some exceptions do exist; certain Radiant Joy followers based in Asia have adopted ascetism as an alternative, and as such act in a diametrally opposite fashion.
Radiant Joy followers have some overlap with Savage Redness ones; violence and self-servience are important values for both, and the subject of adoration of some cults seem to blur between either deity.
Empty Monarch
Other Known Designations: Royalty's Glow, The Hollow, Ozymandias, Maalik
Examples of Symbological Representations: Broken crown, throne, dead angel, overthrown monarch
Description: The Empty Monarch is the notion that monarchs descend from the Sun or are instituted by divinity. It represents the glory of monarchs and their wealth over everything Earthly and impure, and opposes the mindlessness of the masses. It is also the Ozymandian end that awaits all rulers; kingship is a transient existence, and even the greatest of kingdoms are condemned to fall and be forgotten — rulers are simultaneously glorious and futile or petty, and both of those aspects must be preserved equally.
Followers of the Empty Monarch are single-minded in their pursuit of reinstating monarchy, feudalism, or other authoritarian forms of government, be it as nobles, kings, knights, or peasants. They tightly follow caste systems and obligations from authority figures, and organize themselves around them. They are known to commit suicide if their ruling figure dies without successor or their caste system is somehow compromised.
Certain Empty Monarch cults believe that every "true" ruler in the history of mankind is an aspect of the same deity, either the Empty Monarch itself or a messenger sent by it. Cults aligning with this belief often have rituals of "emptying" a human vessel for the will of their deity.
Moth-that-Was
Other Known Designations: Fog-Shrouded, Born Ghost, Worm-Sun
Examples of Symbological Representations: Sun in cloud cover, moth/pupa/larva, suicide king
Description: The Moth-that-Was represents the sun as a deceiving figure, as if behind fog or cloud cover. It is also the sun during midday, as a point of transition and change. As such, moths symbolize the process of change, and the fuzziness associated with it. While it governs deceit, it does not necessarily deceive voluntarily, but rather misleads as a result of its constantly shifting state.
The Moth is often a literal expression of constant evolution and change, but represented as frozen or entrapped into an uncertain shape as a result of its interaction with the Engineer.
Its two most common names — Moth-that-Was and Worm-Sun — represent two opposite states of the life of a moth: it is believed to be simultaneously both, or in-between, as if perpetually trapped within a state of transition. Its followers treat it as if both dead and alive, as it cannot be communed with but its voice can sometimes be heard as a whisper.
Followers of the Moth worship the afterlife and ghosts as symbols of their sun, and view change as the purest motion possible in the material world, as it is the primary vehicle for transition. Information, and the change in interpretations of it, are the primary subjects of philosophical analysis by them.
Identifying Moth cults is difficult, as specific interpretations of their faith differ drastically, and no common trends are visible in most of them.
Early Light
Other Known Designations: Dissolver of Dreams, Bringer of Enlightenment, The Wakefulness, Israfil, The Light
Examples of Symbological Representations: Dawning sun, young woman bathing at the beach, half-buried sphere
Description: the Early Light governs cleanliness and revelation; as the morning sun dispels darkness, Early Light dispels dreams and nightmares, as well as brain fog. It is a perpetually young and beautiful figure, sharing the knowledge held by its worshippers, whose heart and mind it dispels of any darkness.
Followers of the Early Light focus their efforts on creativity, knowledge and art, commonly recording their efforts in fear of losing them. Authority discoveries and breakthroughs related to Nihil beliefs and artifacts are usually due to the Early Light's follower's constant recordkeeping and study, deeply contrasted by other sects' habit to pass knowledge by word of mouth.
Engineer
Other Known Designations: Sol, the Maker, The Foundation, The Great Betrayer, The Thief, Mikail
Examples of Symbological Representations: Sun, rusted machinery, dagger, bloated larvae, silver warrior
Description: The least common object of worship by Nihil cults, viewed rather as a demonic or antagonistic figure. The Engineer is viewed by nearly all Nihil followers as the reason for the universe's current state, as it is said to have exiled all nine other deities from the universe with a great arrow or spear taken from a deep abyss, and stolen their territories for itself. As such, the Engineer is the foundation of all physical laws, and what keeps all other deities at bay.
In its uprising, the Engineer is said to have ripped a piece of each of the nine deities and used them to build the foundations of the universe. Some Nihil cults seek to recover these pieces for their deity or to destroy them, so as to destabilize universal laws and allow for their deities to return.
Exiled Sun: The ability for things to end — the Engineer keeps the Exiled Sun's powers away, preventing anything from being truly destroyed forever.
Savage Redness: The joy in battle — harming others becomes largely viewed as negative, and wars are dreaded as a result.
The Pilot: The wonder in exploration — fear is made to dominate the wills of all beings, keeping everything caged in its place. This specific piece is said to have gradually "leaked out" and returned.
Orrery of Ages: The passage of time — time was made uniform and unchanging, rather than its original malleable state.
Void Unending: Entropy — things are allowed to deteriorate slower, and may be able to reform with sufficient time. Due to the Void's power, its piece cannot be kept fully caged.
Radiant Joy: Dominance of happiness — overwhelmed by other emotions, joy was pushed out of its place as the main emotional state of all beings.
Empty Monarch: Authority — the Engineer has taken the Monarch's crown away and used it for himself, as such perpetuating the eventual fall of all monarchs throughout the universe.
Moth-that-Was: Transition and evolution, in the form of the "kingdom of ghosts" — an uncertain dimension or landscape through which the ghosts of all beings and knowledge pass. May refer to the info-plane. Is said to have been killed in the process.
Early Light: Knowledge — all information was ordered, made streamlined and organized, creating modern science.
Due to the Engineer's place in Nihil cosmology, several cults adopt Gnostic beliefs, equating the Engineer to a demiurgic figure. Some of the more hostile cults take an iconoclastic stance against the Engineer: destruction of its symbols is seen as essential wherever and whatever they may be.
This generalized hatred for the "modern" laws of physics does not prevent the more passive of Nihil followers from employing and researching them — Pilot followers may specialize in astrophysics, Orrery cults may worship timekeeping devices aligned with modern units of time, etcetera —, but a generalized sentiment of disappointment or disgust remains.
This sentiment tends to extend to the Authority, as an organization against anomalies in the Engineer's system of universal laws — sometimes captive Nihil cultists describe the Authority as a sub-police force in the Engineer's greater vigilance scheme.
In extremely rare cases, Nihil cults may have the Engineer as a primary object of worship. These cults are the Authority's primary source of knowledge regarding Nihil mythology and modus operandi, and are considered valuable allies against the more hostile of Nihil cults.
Eleventh Deity
Potential Designations: "Apep", The Arrow, The Arrow and the Flood, Chaos Sun, The Capstone, Missing Piece
Examples of Symbological Representations: Arrow, spear, snake, breaking star, poisoned wine, black river
Description: The existence of a potential eleventh deity in Nihil mythos is disputed; this figure is rarely referred to directly, and is never an object of worship. However, appearances throughout wildly different interpretations of the theology are extremely consistent in role and nature — either as an arrow or a spear, poisoned water, an elaborate trap or a magical spell, it is always a tool used by the Engineer in order to win its war and exile all other deities, and characterized as innately malevolent.
This symbology is present in nearly all cosmogonic narrations from Nihil sources. Differing settings, narratives and interpretations of deities undergo the same process: at some point, a representation of the Engineer uses an object or device to kill or entrap other deities and take their powers for itself.
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