Nihil, properly called Zarytes, are a race of powerful beings that were created by the god Zaros through weaving the living essence of other races. There are four varieties of nihil, each created from a specific race and attuned to one of the four elements of the Ancient Magicks. They are fought as bosses on Freneskae during Fate of the Gods.

After the quest they can be unlocked as a Slayer assignment for 50 Slayer points. They drop the ingredients to create Summoning pouches for nihil familiars, which are some of the strongest combat familiars. After the quest, the nihils may be fought for their drops. They are aggressive unless the Shard of Zaros is equipped.

Contents show]

History

The nihil were created as part of Zaros' attempt to combat the infertility of the Ilujanka, also known as the Dragon Riders, by manipulating and weaving around their living essence. Zaros did not have enough power to manipulate their essence and restore their ability to procreate, so he returned to Freneskae to harvest energy from his creator, the elder god, Mah.

Once on Freneskae, Zaros reformed the essence of icyene, demons, aviansie and vampyres into the nihil, which he brought to life using Mah's energy; as an elder god's divinity was the only way to create life from nothingness. As he required Mah's energy to give life to the nihil, Zaros considered them and himself a failure, and he abandoned them on Freneskae.[1] What happened to the nihil after this is largely unknown.

One of the nihil grew much quicker than the rest, which caught Zaros' attention. Zaros decided to give this nihil a fragment of his consciousness in order to prevent the remaining nihil from destroying her for being different. She learned quickly from Zaros and took the Infernal language name of Nex for herself.[2] Nex proved to be one of Zaros' most powerful and loyal servants.

Like Nex, the Fallen Nihil is also larger than the nihil presently found on Freneskae. However, for Nex's growth to have been notable to Zaros, it is unlikely that all of the original nihil were this large. The Fallen Nihil may have grown as Nex did, or his increased size may be a result of unknown events prior to his appearance in service of the Queen of Ashes at the Birth by Fire event.

Known nihil

Monsters

These nihil are found in the Pit (option 3 entering the World Gate tuned to Freneskae).

Blood nihil special attack - blood barrage - damage heals

Ice nihil special attack - ice barrage - freezes

Shadow nihil special attack - shadow barrage - 500 x 3 damage

Smoke nihil special attack - smoke barrage - drains combat stats

Familiars

Individuals

Miscellaneous

Trivia

Zaros was to originally refer to the race as Zarytes, but chose nihil - meaning 'nothing' in Infernal - due to them 'meaning nothing to him'.

According to Mod Rowley, nihil have adapted to survive on Freneskae after they were abandoned, likely by consuming muspah. [3]

For a while when fighting nihil in the Pit for combat/Slayer, four nihil initially spawned (all four types), and a glitch/bug in the game continually decreased the spawn rate of the nihil by one until no more nihil could be spawned. Jagex fixed this by adding more nihil to the Pit.

As of 1 February 2018, the highest kill count for these monsters was 124,900 kills [4] . This had increased to 180,000 by 6 May 2018. [5]

.