With no one remaining in Qasile, Dothan Vou took all the supplies for himself and resolved to meditate on the matter until he received the enlightenment he sought or until he ran out of supplies and starved.

It was during this meditation that Dothan Vou first conceived the ideas that he would eventually collect into the Nihilexicon, the Book of Oblivion. There was no higher power or higher plane of existence, he reasoned. The One had been mistaken in that, though Dothan Vou did not blame him for this failing.

The One had been right, that emotions born of the flesh were the source of all suffering. But the solution was where He had erred; it was as impossible to purge all emotions born of the flesh as it was to remain alive after starving to death. And, far from an enlightened ascension, denying emotions born of the flesh led only to more suffering in an endless cycle of despair.

No, the only times devoid of suffering were the oblivion before one was born, and the oblivion after they died. That was perfection and freedom. After all, in his journeys, Dothan Vou had seen the brilliance of the skies, and the great natural wonders of the river basin. What need had the universe of people, of suffering?

Oblivion, Dothan Vou came to believe, was the only answer. And so, on sheets of vellum made from the flayed skin of the people of Quasile, he began to write the first copy of the Nihilexicon. In it, Dothan Vou pledged to spread this oblivion to all the peoples of the earth, and then to die by his own hand.

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