The Nite Qing

The Nite Qing

The Nite Qing is the name by which an evil spirit was known that possessed Erin Righ in The First Word War, who thus became the first Night Monarch and created the first Undead Horde. Originally thought to be a dark side of Erin's own personality, he instead turned out to be some kind of demonic entity that had an independent existence from Erin Righ. It remains a mystery as to whether the Nite Qing existed prior to that point, as some kind of evil spirit or demon lying in wait for centuries for an opportunity to emerge, or whether he was a dark side of Erin Righ's own personality given tangible form; in other words, some sort of Litwalker.

Artifacts

The Reaper's Scythe - A giant obsidian scythe used to create the first undead

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

In his natural form, the Nite Qing lacked a physical body. When he possessed Erin Righ, he seemed to be capable of manifesting improvements in Erin's own physical condition, as he appeared to be more muscular and lean.

Body Features

In manifested form, the Nite Qing appeared as a grey-skinned, bat-winged, goat-hooved and goat-horned classic demon. His goat legs were white-furred, and his hair and beard were white. His eyes glowed red. He was also about eight feet tall and had a goat's tail.

Facial Features

When he manifested physically, the Nite Qing strongly resembled Erin Righ, except in better physical shape, and with grey skin and white hair.

Special abilities

The Nite Qing seemed to possess all of Erin Righ's talents in manifested form, including the exceptional eyesight and twitch fibre reflexes that qualified Erin for the Canadian Olympic biathalon team in his youth. This made him an exceptional sniper.
In addition, he had a talent for Dark Literomancy, using his words as weapons to tear down and weaken his opponents, especially literomancers.
He had the power to "shadow teleport;" that is, he was capable of stepping into any shadow and emerging again from any other shadow, as long as he could establish a connection. This, however, might have involved something as simple as a phone call or access to a satellite signal. Erin Righ has maintained this ability, stolen, perhaps, from the Nite Qing. This may have been a direct ability theft, since the Nite Qing did not, himself, display the ability to do this after the end of the First Word War.
As the Night Monarch, the Nite Qing was capable of raising anyone he killed as undead, and had powers over cold and ice.
As might be expected, he could also fly and see perfectly in the dark. In his spirit form, he was (is?) immune to physical attacks.

Apparel & Accessories

Casual working class clothing, usually consisting of ball caps, long shorts, and T-shirts, something like Erin Righ's own preference in attire.

Specialized Equipment

Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle, The Reaper's Scythe

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The Nite Qing first appeared during the First Word War as the alter ego of Erin Righ, and the first Night Monarch. Thought to be simply a darker side of Erin's personality, he raised up the first Undead Horde and attacked the living for possession of The Iron Tome. He disappeared at the end of the war, although Erin Righ claimed he could still feel the Nite Qing's influence in his subconscious.
The Nite Qing reasserted himself just before The Second Word War started, stole the Iron Tome from the vault in The Zafforza Trench where House Mollusca had been keeping it, and joined the forces of the new Night Monarch, AuthorGoddess. There is some indication that he may have picked his successor prior to the end of the First Word War, just in case something went wrong.
During both of these early Word Wars, he seemed to seek out the children of Erin's wife, Sable Aradia, The Chief Rabbit, to draw them into the Undead Horde. Whether this was out of a desire to torment Erin, or Queen Sable, is not clear. Erin Righ believes the answer is "yes," because he believes that the Mother of Bunnies is the only person in the world who makes the Nite Qing "nervous" (as sociopaths have no real fear.)
For her own part, while the Bunny Queen doesn't doubt Erin's perceptions, she doesn't really understand why. She suspects this might have something to do with the deep respect that her husband holds for her, who has often described her as "the strongest person he knows," and probably doesn't have any real good reason behind it... other than, perhaps, her healing powers.
Knowing this, and knowing that the Nite Qing had a particular scythe to grind against Queen Sable, Erin Righ refused to return home to The Warren for the first couple of years following the war in 2020. He wandered through the different Houses, temporarily finding a home with House Chiroptera, and eventually ending up with WriterGreg and the School of Worldcraft and Wordmancy.
When an assassination attempt nearly killed his royal wife in April of 2022, however, Erin Righ returned home, and the power of his love saved the Bunny Queen from what otherwise would have been a fatal poisoning. Queen Sable begged him to stay, and he did... but he insisted on being locked and chained up at night, when the Nite Qing was more able to exercise his influence over Erin.
While the Nite Qing attempted, again, to reassert himself during The Third Word War at the Battle of Mount Mitchell, Erin Righ managed in a violent Literomantic duel to bind him into a manuscript that he was writing. However, the Nite Qing had bound his fate to Erin Righ's, and while neither could die while the other lived, both continued to maintain their injuries and wounds from their battle, which could not be healed.
Erin Righ and Queen Sable came up with a plan to perform a literomantic edit on the manuscript that bound the Nite Qing, to defeat him once and for all. They enlisted other Tome Knights to help them generate the necessary Literomantic Power for the ritual, which was performed in the Lapin Secret Library so he could not escape into the Realm. This intense literomantic combat has become known as the Battle vs the Nite Qing.
It appears, for all intents and purposes, that the ritual was successful, and the Nite Qing was destroyed. However, he succeeded in corrupting at least one of the combatants, AttorraRu, the Lapin Royal Librarian and Erin's bodyguard, one of the Night Watch. She became the new Night Monarch the following November. Whether this represents the continued existence of the Nite Qing in some form or other remains to be seen...

Morality & Philosophy

In the Nite Qing's opinion, neither of these concepts were valid, except that might made right.

Social

Reign

November 2020

Family Ties

While he didn't really have any family ties that anyone is aware of, the Nite Qing did seem to like to single out the members of Erin Righ's family for tormenting. This might have been simply a result of his attempts to dominate Erin, or it might have been a result of his... discomfort (since he had no real "fear") with the Mother of Bunnies, whom he viewed as a threat.

Social Aptitude

The Nite Qing was a narcissist and a sociopath. He had no fear, guilt, or remorse. While he could be quite charismatic when he choose to be, he also did not have any respect at all for the people around him, and used and disposed of them as he saw fit.

Mannerisms

Like most narcisstic sociopaths with little concern about reprisal, the Nite Qing was rude, crass, offensive, and sadistic. He liked to cause pain and would do whatever he thought was likely to do that, especially if he could dominate and control the situation by doing so. He was capable of planning cruel torments over long terms, but sometimes got in his own way through a lack of impulse control.
He frequently deliberately mispelled words because he "would not be bound by living-centric conventions."

This article is a work in progress, and may be subject to changes.

This article is part of a series related to streaming the Game of Tomes. For more information, see Streaming Game of Tomes.

Divine Classification

Demon

Species

Litwalker

Ethnicity

Literomancers

Church/Cult

Order of the Nite

Age

unknown

Pronouns

He/him

Sex

Male

Gender

Male

Presentation

Masculine

Eyes

glowing red

Hair

white

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

grey

Height

8'

Weight

Unknown

Quotes & Catchphrases

Have no fear, the Nite Qing is here!

The Nite Qing picks his successor (relevant section begins 2:25) Dinos and Rust: A Letter from Sable Bright-Eyes to the Nite Qing The Battle vs. the Nite Qing (complete audio recording)