Void-Stars

They are not stars, nor were they ever part of the Current. They are wounds in the firmament, places where the world has thinned too far, and something greater peers through. The Archaists named them "false-lights", the Archomancers called them unborn gods, and the Shattered Sky call them salvation. Yet none can say what they truly are, for to look too long is to feel the self unravel. Their radiance does not grant sight, but strips away memory, until only silence remains. Some whisper they do not shine at all, but rather devour, and what we mistake for light is only the reflection of all that has already been consumed.   Where the Magical Bleed afflicting the lands erodes flesh and stone, the Void-Stars erode meaning itself. They feed not by devouring, but by unwriting — turning history, names, even purpose into nothing. To gaze too long is to invite Resonance Sickness: the visions, whispers, and unmaking of the self. The Shattered Sky cult embraces this, believing the “second Annihilation” will free all souls into formless eternity.   Void-Stars, originated from the The Hollow Sky, act as portals for powers from the other side to spread their influence and corrupt it, one mind at a time. 

History

Before the fall of the empire, the Archaists believed that the night sky was a living map of Zhak'raa's Primordial Current, with each star a distant, stable manifestation of that magical flow: a part of Zhak’raa’s divine order. When the Tempest War climaxed in the Annihilation, it did not only tear apart the empire but also the veil between worlds. The sky above Nel'Akhiron is now a permanent, roiling twilight, and in its center, there is a great, gaping wound of pure cosmic darkness.   From this wound, new, unnatural constellations have appeared—the Void-Stars. They are not sources of light, but of a maddening, silent radiance. Their glow does not illuminate the world but casts strange, deep shadows, and their influence can drive those who stare at them for too long into fits of cosmic madness. These stars are a direct link to a terrifying, inhuman power that existed long before the empire, a raw and uncaring force that the Archomancers foolishly tried to harness.   In actuality, the Void-Stars that appeared aren’t part of the Current or Zhak'raa at all — they’re outside it, intrusions from beyond. They manifest as “constellations” only because human eyes are trying (and failing) to comprehend them. The Shattered Sky sees them as liberation, while others see them as obliteration.