Nihil

Nihil, also called zarytes, are a race of powerful beings created by the god Zaros by weaving elder energy gathered from Muspah created by the elder god Mah. The Nihil were created as part of Zaros' attempt to solve the infertility issue of the Ilujanka, also known as the Dragon Riders, by manipulating and weaving their living essence. Zaros did not have the ability solve an issue of creation, for that is exclusive to the elder gods, and that is why he returned to Freneskae, to harvest elder energy from Mah's creations.

According to Zaros, the nihil are capable of absorbing the energy of their brethren much like the Children of Mah.

Nex
Once on Freneskae, Zaros deformed Muspah and gathered elder energy and weaved it into creating new beings, which he dubbed nihil, for they had no worth to him. Despite that, one particular nihil had fastly outgrown the others and sparked Zaros' interest. He thought leaving her as she was would eventually have her destroyed by other nihil, due her peculiarity. Seeing this, Zaros chose to adopt her, and implemented a sliver of his body in her, giving her consciousness and much power. This nihil then named herself Nex, influenced by the Infernal language.

Fate of the Gods
The history of the nihil is revealed during the quest Fate of the Gods, where players gather information from Zaros' stored memory in the Sanctum at Freneskae. Players also have fight nihil during the quest shortly thereafter in the Pit.

During the quest, players must fight off 4 nihil:


 * Blood nihil
 * Ice nihil
 * Shadow nihil
 * Smoke nihil

Trivia

 * Zaros was to originally refer to the race as Zarytes, but chose Nihil due to them 'meaning nothing to him'. Fittingly, Nihil means 'nothing' in Latin.
 * According to Mod Rowley, nihil have adapted to survive on Freneskae after they were abandoned, likely by consuming Muspah.
 * For a while when fighting Nihil in the pit for combat/slayer, four nihils 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 has fixed this by adding more Nihils into The Pit.