honestly mentally i am still in update 1.6 crown of mundane & divine. the most divaest diva to ever diva, screwllum finding a little critter of a crazy man, ruan mei proving who the true "i support womens rights but more importantly i support women's wrongs" people are, giving us CATS!!!!!! what a time, what an update
Almost a month ago, I wrote a meta based on the newest information revealed to us by Asat Pramad during the willing interrogation before the boss battle during Limelight, In Ravages Does The Whistle Sound. The portion of the question that revealed it was startling, but straightforward: Voracity serves as a portal into Nihility.
Of course, there was some indication of this beforehand.
In Ashveil's 3rd character story and the Penacony MSQ Bullet & Brain, In Our Time, the connection between Nihility and Voracity seemed obvious, even if the reason and mechanics were lost on us. Why did the Oroboros fragment in Ashveil's arm lead to the Rangers who got caught up in it being transported to the Dead Sea? At first, I honestly thought it might have been a fluke, or an exception. And yet, as Asat Pramad seems to tell us outright, the end destination of those devoured by the Voracity seems to Nihility.
Hence the question I'm asking here: why are Nihility and Voracity so interconnected, enough that one leads directly to another?
Voracity, Nihility, and their connection to black holes
In thinking about this, one of the conclusions I drew is that the link between the two Paths is that of a black hole.
Black holes are among the most mysterious cosmic objects, much studied but not fully understood. These objects aren’t really holes. They’re huge concentrations of matter packed into very tiny spaces. A black hole is so dense that gravity just beneath its surface, the event horizon, is strong enough that nothing – not even light – can escape. The event horizon isn’t a surface like Earth’s or even the Sun’s. It’s a boundary that contains all the matter that makes up the black hole.
- Black Holes, NASA
As NASA puts it succinctly, black holes are extremely dense concentrations of matter in such small spaces that this causes a distortion in the fabric of space, with gravity so immense that its pull is enough to draw even light into its grasp. By this alone, we can already begin to see how Voracity and Nihility can begin to connect, as they already share some traits in common with black holes.
In the readable "How to Poke An Aeon And Get Away," one of Enroute's misadventures with his fellow Fools involved being caught by a fragment of Oroboros and banding together to explore its peculiarities. One of the curiouser aspects of this husk of Voracity was that it contained whole civilizations founded by those also previously devoured.
The theoretical physicists Daniel Jampolski and Professor Luciano Rezzolla have now presented, for the first time, a dynamic solution to the field equations of Albert Einstein's general relativity describing the collapse of a star that could lead to the formation of such a gravastar. The solution showed that the collapse may trigger the creation of a mini-universe inside the collapsing matter, not very different from the Big Bang from which our universe emerged. Like our own universe, its expansion is driven by dark energy. The findings are published in the journal Physical Review D.[...] In this way, the expansion of the new universe counteracts the gravitational forces and halts the collapse of the star before a black hole can form. In this process, an equilibrium is established between the expanding mini-universe and the collapsing matter, and this equilibrium is what leads to a stable gravastar.
- Collapsing stars could form mini universes
According to Gaby Clark on phys.org, the very nature of a black hole could enable the formation of whole universes, which reflects on Enroute's misadventures and what he found in his stint within a husk of Voracity: a trait that enables the creation of independent civilizations, which mirrors how black holes could theoretically become cradles of new universes.
Astronomers have long known that black holes originate from massive stars, but direct observational evidence of that transformation has been scarce. While gravitational-wave detections have revealed black hole mergers across the universe, they do not show how those black holes initially formed.[...] Only one other candidate direct-collapse event has been reported previously, but it was significantly more distant and fainter, leaving its interpretation uncertain. The relative proximity of Andromeda and the quality of the available data make M31-2014-DS1 a particularly compelling case.[...] “We’ve known that black holes must come from stars,” said Morgan MacLeod, lecturer in astronomy at Harvard University and co-author of the study. “With events like this, we’re getting to watch it happen, and are learning a huge amount about how that process works along the way.”
- Astronomers Find Compelling Evidence of a Star Collapsing Directly Into a Black Hole
According to this citation, one of the tenets of the nature of a black hole is that the longest-held and most accepted theory is that they're almost always created by collapsing stars. When a star reaches the end of its existence, it tends to meet two ends: it goes supernova and generates a massive explosion, or it collapses inward and creates a black hole.
The next question to be asked, of course, is how this connects to both Voracity and Nihility.
The Planar Ornament, Izumo's Magatsu no Morokami, of the relic set, Izumo Gensei and Takama Divine Realm, not only speculates the possibility that the black sun may have been responsible for the erasure of Izumo and Takamagahara, but it also hints at the possibility of it being the work of the Voracity. While the former is more what I'm focused on, the latter is an interesting nudge, especially considering the subject of this meta.
Additionally, the SU curio, Black Hole Trap, also sees the description of a black hole to indicate the presence of Nihility, which is another compelling link between Nihility and black holes.
And yet, that hint towards the Voracity isn't completely lost.
In the Arcadia of Mystery & Terror chapter of Lethe Below the Living, Ruan Mei brings attention to the fact that Voracity, stripped of THEIR Primum Mobile (that is, the ability to taste), has reduced THEM and organisms related to THEM to "biological black holes." To me, this seems to cement the ties between Voracity and Nihility even more.
However, one aspect I was a little mystified by was a crucial component in the formation of these black holes, and how Voracity could've been involved in that process. Frankly speaking, it's easy to look at this as Voracity merely being a "portal" to Nihility, as Ashveil's own fragment provably can be. What I'm thinking of, instead, is the link between Leviathans and the generation of stars, largely because Oroboros ascended from a Leviathan and a collapsing star is a prerequisite to the formation of a black hole; Nihility, in this case.
The answer I found wasn't exactly a literal process, but an extremely strong link.
In the readable Researcher Eikura Shuu's Diary and SU curio, Shattered Star Bait, I have reason to believe that these vivid descriptions of Leviathan literally devouring stars may be the metaphorical equivalent to the formation of black holes. Leviathans (or Oroboros) devour a star, and in doing so, the "digestion" causes these stars to collapse into black holes.
Another interesting tidbit is the fact that the Antimatter Legion uses the remains of Leviathans to create Doomsday Beasts.
Between the readable (Recording) A Fool's Play: Calamity's Wrath Seeks Olden Clash, Fool's Blade Rends Divine Flesh, and the trace material, Destroyer's Final Road, there's another hint that through the use of black holes (Nihility) and the remains of a Leviathan (or Oroboros), they're able to make their literal war machines that links Leviathans with black holes.
Again, while not wholly relevant to this meta, it does provide another interesting connection to look at in trying to connect Voracity and Nihility to black holes that bridges between the two conceptually.
Conclusion
In short, in order to understand the connection between Nihility and Voracity, you have to look at black holesand the science behind them to begin tracing through a map to lead to this conclusion. Of course, while not every aspect has a literal explanation within canon, one may have to consider it from a metaphorical basis instead.
With all of this together, I have reason to think this may be enough to cement the two together and to explain how Voracity can be a pathway to Nihility.
