The Silence

The Silence is a mindless force of unknown origin wandering the multiverse. So named due to its ability to 'silence' civilisations, The Silence is recognised as one of the single most destructive forces present in the local multiverse, and is avoided by all but the most foolish or brave entities. Upon entering a universe, an instance of the force immediately wipes out the very concept of life, causing all activity in sapient and non-sapient entities to cease permanently. This eerie lack of activity gave this conceptual force it's name, as places where it has been active lacks the 'noise' that civilisations usually emit, whether in the form of magic, technology or the very life that lives in them.

Origins and History
The precise origins of the Silence are unknown, though most researchers agree that it is very likely an artificial entity. While the precise purpose of such a creation is not wholly known nor understood, the Silence is almost certainly something that has uses as a weapon.

The Weave's first encounter with the Silence occurred almost immediately within its first wave of expansion after the Ascension Wars. An initial scouting expedition into a nearby universe from Point 01 exposed a reality filled with dead civilisation, with all life completely wiped out. No living microbes were found within that entire reality, nor unconventional life such as digital intelligences and energy beings. After the first expedition returned to report the information. a second one was launched to scout further. After some amount of searching, the forces of the second expedition encountered the cosmic force in a reality somewhat further away from its last catastrophe. In an attempt to destroy the force, the expedition attempted to use Voidfire based weapons as it prepared to move on to its next universe. The Silence fractured into several more instances, alongside spreading many much smaller shards to adjacent universes. Within the presence of cosmic force itself, only the Transcends within the expeditionary forces survived the encounter to report back.

After the initial fiasco, it was determined a policy of containment rather than destruction as to be pursued with the Silence. Linecutters would be deployed to remove all links a universe hosting an instance of the Silence has with its adjacent realities, thereby trapping it. This strategy has proven to bear great fruit, allowing the creation of Shardbearers in a controlled setting. However, the Tor Crisis has all but seen these prisons shattered and the trapped instances of the forces once again roaming free.

Effects
The chief effect of the Silence is to kill off all life in a universe on a conceptual level; forcing the concept of death on everything within a universe and taking away the concept of life. This notably kills off even immortal entities with no concept of death, such as the Old Brethren, though those such as Transcended, Outer Gods, Godminds and other such entities that outright reject such concepts from their existence are unharmed. During the height of the First Aeon War, a civilisation of Transcends managed to hijack the force and control it. Using a device known as the Jade Tablets, these Transcends were able to control of full instances of the Silence and utilise it in a more targeted manner, outright destroying concepts that are vital for the function of some universes; in several cases, the Silence was used to destroy the concept of Space, thereby collapsing and destroying the universes it was used on, or destroying the concept of Change, freezing the universe in stasis to be picked off at leisure. The Transcends were forced to relinquish their control when the forces of several Weave Nodes destroyed the Jade Tablets.

Shards
Attempts to defend against The Silence have been made, with varying degrees of success. Some of the more aggressive methods, such as attacking the Silence itself, have resulted in portions of itself splintering off into fragments. While the majority of these fragments are still extremely dangerous, often forcing the concept of death on the surrounding area and killing off all life in the vicinity. However, those small enough to be relatively benign can attach and merge with objects or entities. Those animate entities that have been merged with these Shards are called Shardbearers, being able to use some of the abilities of The Silence on a smaller scale.