Sorrowful, powerful Nertagmil was the third presence in the Beyond to interact with the world of matter, some time after its “siblings,” observant, curious Sukhallu and dread, baleful Engidir. It seems clear that Nertagmil dwarfed the others in power, as the merest brush of its presence in the Beyond against beings of matter was enough to annihilate them to dust, and its voice and will reduced living beings to empty husks. It has been speculated that Nertagmil is in fact the most powerful presence in the Beyond, but there are those who would argue that others yet undiscovered or yet unconfirmed might yet challenge it for this title.

This incredible power might explain the only known desire espoused by Nertagmil, which was for companionship and peers with which to communicate, once it became aware of Sukhallu and Engidir’s success in establishing contact with the world of matter. Why it did not, or could not, find companionship with curious Sukhallu or dread Engidir remains unknown, but given that its demonstrated power was orders or magnitude higher, it may be that it would have destroyed them just as surely as any matter if it had tried.

It is believed that a spate of deaths by immolation and spontaneous combustion can be tied to Nertagmil’s early attempts to establish communication with the world of matter, as a number of the victims were able to record all or part of the attempt before being annihilated. While there does not seem to have been malice–if such an emotion can even be equated with the Beyond–behind these attempts, over 100 lives were nevertheless officially claimed, and more may have remained unrecorded.