Enter the Void
You bow your head and raise your hands palm-up. The clouds part—her eye opens—and the full moon’s pale light bathes you. The pain in your prayer is a song to her, and when she speaks, you feel it in your soul.
“Your heart, burdened; your prayer, pure.”
“How long you have suffered, my child.”
“If the world truly has no love for you, will you enter the Void?”
You open your mouth to answer, but a chill ripples down your spine the moment you do. Your arms ache when you lower them to the soil below. Your hands dig anxiously into the earth and tear up the grass. You sweat. What is this fear? This is your Mother Dearest, so why are you afraid? Just as soon as it comes, the fear vanishes, replaced by… absence—nothing.
You feel no fear, yet you feel no peace. The wind against your back gives only vague sensations, and all you hear is the sound of your heartbeat softly thrumming. When you roll forward onto your hands and knees, dryness wrings your face. It peels and crumbles to dust. Your tongue runs over exposed teeth. You raise your hands to your face but meet bone. The pearl white of your inhuman skull gleams in the moon glow.
The clouds draw a curtain over the moon, and you are plunged into darkness once more. Absent. Alone.
Localization
Tynnosian scripture tells of an abstraction of the known universe that overlaps it and all its planes. This forbidden plane, referred to as the Void, the Nothing, or the Abyss, consists of a form of energy antithetical to all that lives. Gateways to it do not exist naturally, yet its essence seeps into other planes via channels known as Rivers. This essence cannot exist in its natural state outside of its home plane, so it is transformed into a form that can persist independently. These modified forms are called Lakes. The most well-known Lake is Tynnosa, Nocturne’s moon.
Beings that come into contact with Void energy are violently transformed by it, and it’s known certain individuals that stared into Tynnosa became warped by its power. Dr. Jynx of the NWS-Atlas describes the process as being similar to lycanthropy, in which the moon is also the catalyst for transformation. She believes Nocturne’s cryptid-like elves are products of Tynnosa’s magic, though this is mere conjecture.
Post-Void
Three outcomes await those directly affected by the Void: death, corruption—a twisted reflection of what the creature used to be—or adaptation. Regardless of the outcome, what remains is a creature suffused with Void. The unfortunate are capable of leading fulfilling lives, albeit with a heavily distorted psyche; the triumphant are granted the powerful but volatile ability to manipulate the Void within them. This power can take a variety of forms. One notable example is Noah Hughes of the NWS-Atlas, who can use his own shadow as an extension of his body.
Ulfilas Jr.'s Research
Due to Dr. Bourgeois raising ethical concerns about controlled Void corruption, almost all attempts to study the process in an enclosed environment have been unsuccessful. In the only known—now-infamous—experiment, Zathrus von Ulfilas Jr. obtained knowledge of Void corruption on the planet Basidio.
Ulfilas Jr. created a tincture using scraps of an infected beetlefolk’s carapace and injected the mixture into his body. Ulfilas Jr. theorized that individuals of adequate mental health could consistently withstand the harsh effects of Void energy. As he expected, Ulfilas Jr. did not die from the injection but experienced auditory hallucinations within an hour.
Without any perceived major side-effects to note, Ulfilas Jr. monitored his condition over the following week. However, after several episodes of erratic behavior, Ulfilas Jr. confided in Dr. Bourgeois about his findings and was demoted from his R-Class position as punishment.
Ulfilas Jr. was undeterred by his circumstances and, whilst imprisoned, shared his findings with the NWS-Atlas staff. His contributions and Noah Hughes personal history led to the creation of this article and all information found within it.
Undercurrent
“Luminism’s folly is the belief that enlightenment comes from naivete. How can you expect to see as Our Star does by rejecting their darkness?”
Ulfilas. Jr’s survival led to the investigation of Voidism, one of the two major religions of Eden. Due to the violent actions of Voidists during the Twilight War, Voidism was known as a cult and was documented as such in the NWS-Atlas archives. Due to the deliberate and methodical destruction of Voidism iconography by the Scalebacks, however, very little information remains of how it was practiced. Voidists considered themselves caretakers of sapient life and servants of a universal order. Ulfilas Jr. hypothesizes—if their actions can be explained as attacking a perceived threat to this order—that Void energy, despite its destructive nature, is an integral part of reality.
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