Nyx

And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartaros and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor. It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is awful even to the deathless gods. There stands the awful home of Nyx wrapped in black clouds.”

Nyx is a primordial goddess, the personification of the night and all that its concealment embodies. She was the only goddess Zeus was afraid of, and lived in Tartarus amongst shadows and monsters, far below Hades.

It’s said that those looking to create mischief are appreciative of Nyx, as are thieves and fugitives, for under the cover of darkness is the best time for such treachery. Night is also the time for Deceit, Sleep, Doom, Madness, and Death – the children of Nyx. Lovers enjoy Nyx because night opens up the arms of her child Love. That’s why many budding romances chose to meet when the stars are out.

She had numerous offspring, and was sometimes titled mother of gods and daimones. Her depictions often show her as a winged goddess, sometimes with a chariot. Her ominous presence is marked by an aura of dark mists enveloping her head, symbolising the deep darkness that accompanies the night.

5th Age

A primordial goddess said to have been born from Chaos itself, Nyx was among the oldest of the world’s channelers, and lived a life that spanned across two Ages. She predated Uranus, who fathered the first generation of Titans to rise to ruling prominence. His youngest son Kronos violently overthrew his father to claim the throne, only to later suffer the same fate when his son Zeus sought to do the same to him, resulting in the cataclysmic Titan-Olympian war.

This posed a significant threat to Nyx and her consort Erebus, as they represented the forces that existed before the Olympians came into power. Yet Nyx refused to pander to the pettiness of war.

She was swayed to involvement only when Hades discovered the hidden, underground prison that had been Sheol in the previous Age. Desiring to study it without the inconvenience of conflict, she assisted in the creation of Tartarus and the bindings that held the vanquished Titans. As such she became most closely associated with the court of Hades.

6th Age

Nyx dwelt in Tartarus amongst the most feared and abhorred of Hades‘ subjects. As its custodian she retained her closest connection with Hades’ court, and indeed raised many of her children to be loyal to the underworld. Many of them rose to prominence in their own right.

She had great affinity and connection with the world’s supernatural creatures, particularly those most maligned, and as such had both a motherly and terrifying reputation. Hades’ will kept the Hekatoncheires, the guardians and jailers of Tartarus, in place, but it was Nyx who worked with them.

Her consort Erebus remained the great love of her life. With him she mothered a great many children over her long years, including Thanatos and Eris. She raised some of her grandchildren too, in particular the naiad of oblivion, Lethe.

Royal Court

The majority of Nyx’s family and offspring were loyal to the underworld court, which naturally informed her own loyalties.

She was a powerful matriarch, and when she made her rare appearances others stepped lightly and curried favour while they could, for Nyx was amongst the oldest among them, mysterious in her manner and feared even by the king of Olympus Zeus himself. She was a force to be reckoned with, when she chose to be.

When her son Hypnos made the mistake of aiding Hera’s rebellion against her husband, he was only saved from Zeus’ wrath by fleeing to his mother’s side. Despite his anger, Zeus dare not cross her.

Nyx was respected in whichever court she chose to grace. Inevitably most were also afraid of her. Perhaps fortunately for them, she was also often absent. She spent much of her time pursuing her own, secretive ends, and was rarely involved in politics, leaving such trivialities to her many children (and grandchildren). The warring of the three brothers little concerned her.

She was formidably loyal to her large family, and often arranged positions for them. Nyx took a great deal of interest in her children’s lives and their happiness, whatever form it took.

Research and Study

Nyx lived mostly beneath the realm of Hades, Tartarus.

Her life’s work took place in secret pocket dimensions dedicated to research, study, and communication with creatures most would condemn as monsters, and she was masterful in the creation, protection, and maintenance of these small realms. Her research posts spanned much of the world; they were hidden at the edges of the Pattern, and were subject to vastly different flows of time to the rest of reality. The human entrances were heavily warded, located in remote and inhospitable spots, and were usually opened with a blend of blood sacrifice and channeling. Entrances for the creatures themselves, in particular those with a high level of sentience, were tailored to those with whom Nyx communed.

In Nyx’s absence, the sites were protected by guardians, each bred by and soul-bound to Nyx herself. The secrets she kept were never discovered, at least while she lived, but it is likely she had a great wealth of wise foreknowledge, and an understanding of the Wheel. Among her known mysterious actions was incarcerating the Water Guardian’s offspring in stasis. The act lured Thalia Milton and Tristan Úlfarsson in the First Age, leading to Tristan’s blood being spilt in the Nexus and preserved for discovery in the Second Age by Asristin. It was used by Amogorath the Forsaken to create Trollocs.

Each of her research stations also had a doorway that connected back to Nyx’s abode in Tartarus. This room, which appeared as a study, was called the Nexus.

If any of the other gods were aware of her work, it behoved them to keep it to themselves. No one saw within these spaces but those invited, and if that ever happened, it was the rarest occurrence and retained for close blood-kin. The only exception to this rule was her granddaughter Lethe, who was often to be found in Nyx’s shadow, and had rooms attached to the pocket’s nexus, alongside Nyx’s own.

Any who tried to trespass upon Nyx’s realm were condemned to punishment.

Such was her reputation that when the Norse pantheon approached her grandson Morpheus, the king of dreams, for the second time seeking help containing their prophesied children, it was Nyx who stepped in with the expertise to create the chains of gleipnir. Specifically she created the soul-binding itself, using her long centuries of study, her experience in containing the Titans, and her experiments on the strange glyph on her granddaughter Lethe.

Research Stations

Lake Baikal: Its entrance is located beneath the Shaman Rock on Lake Baikal, Siberia. It was an aquatics based post that comprised of an expansive warren of different rooms, was sumptuously furnished, and had an appearance of deep underground. Time in this vacuole runs very slow. Beyond the antechambers, some rooms featured pools built into the floor, each of indeterminate depth, while others had what appeared to be power-wrought tanks in the walls. In the main these were not enclosures, but creature entrances that connected to any number of deep-water places around the world. One in particular was used by Poseidon’s female water guardian, whom Nyx studied and communicated with. Though this creature “belonged” to Poseidon, and answered to him, Nyx was never interested in what she protected. Indeed, she was never much concerned with the brothers’ little power trinkets at all.

Creations

The Keres

Also known as the Daughters of Nyx or the Tenebrae, these creatures were sentient female shadows who were bound to serve the underworld. Whether Nyx created them or summoned them is unclear, but they were loyal to Nyx and by extension Hades, to whom their service was offered as a gift and symbol of Nyx’s own allegiances. They were considered spirits of violent death. Within the court they wore robes and porcelain masks, rarely speaking, though they were capable.

See: Keres

The Nemesyne

A creature made to keep Lethe company and out of mischief. It was an artificial fusion of various creatures, including the carbuncle and dola. It had a rudimentary intelligence, and could communicate telepathically via a ter’angreal worn by Lethe. It was soul-bound to her, recognising her in any form. Prior to its discovery in the First Age it had never left the pocket world in which it was created.

Current incarnation: Nhysa