The Keys To The Kingdom - Nithlings

Nithlings

Nithlings are animal-like entities formed from Nothing. They are feared by most of the House due to their ability to kill even an immortal Denizen with a festering bite. Nithlings take a variety of shapes and are incorporated into every book in some form. They appear to lack complex intelligence, although some types can be used as servants (notably the Fetchers, sent to retrieve the Key in Book One). Most lower forms of Nithling can be dispatched with silver or salt, though this has little effect on higher or more substantially Made Nithlings.

Nithlings dissolve into Nothing when killed. They are employed by many Denizens and the Morrow Days for menial tasks, especially when someone is needed to venture into the Secondary Realms. Nithling species usually are named; this implies that they are usually made in regular forms. The Nithlings seen so far in the books are:

• Fetchers (Mister Monday, Lady Friday) — resembling men with the faces of bloodhounds, sent to retrieve objects. Fetchers cannot cross thresholds uninvited. They can be banished with salt, which causes them to dissolve, and are forbidden to wear wings or carry weapons.
• Bibliophages (Mister Monday) — a snake-like Nithling, expelling a venom that reduces any kind of writing to Nothing. They are attracted to writing, which they then try to destroy.
• Spirit-Eater (Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday) — a creature made by sorceries and a seed item belonging to the person whose physical form it assumes, being designed to imitate them. It requires a year of House Time to grow from Nothing. It can grow mentally conducive mold on people and can only be destroyed if its seed item is plunged into Nothing. The mold originates from the (fictional) planet called Avraxyn; its mutant form, present in Spirit-Eaters, is transmitted by skin-to-skin contact between and only between the Spirit-Eater and natural beings, wherein after it communicates knowledge of its model to the former. A Spirit-Eater's true form varies and can only be seen through a veil of raindrops on a sunny day. At all other times, it resembles its model. Its technical name is 'Cocigrue', which it shares with a legendary monster called Cocquigrue or Coquecigrue.
• Scoucher (Grim Tuesday) — a Nithling originating from small, semi-enclosed spaces. Can take any form, but always has long, sharp, ribbon-like tentacles, with which it causes mortals or Denizens to bleed uncontrollably. It then obtains strength from their blood. Silver, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium and platinum can kill a Scoucher upon contact.
• Feverfew's Cormorants (Drowned Wednesday) — heralds that communicate to the pirate Feverfew that his treasures have been breached.
• Feverfew (Drowned Wednesday) — Part Nithling, part human, this cruel pirate sails on the Border Sea. He is eventually killed while fighting Lord Arthur.
• Gore-Draken (Drowned Wednesday) — A rare type of Nithling created when certain lost items come into contact with Nothing.
• Not-Horse (Sir Thursday, Lord Sunday) — A Near Creation made in the workshops of Grim Tuesday. Not-Horses are red-eyed equines having a metallic skin, three clawed toes on each foot, discerning intelligence, personalities suited for battle, and the ability to march in step with each other. They are used as beasts of burden by the Glorious Army of the Architect, particularly by the pseudo- Mongol division thereof known as the Horde. Other versions of Not-Horses include Winged Not-Horses as in Lord Sunday.
• New Nithlings or Newniths (Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday,Lord Sunday) — Creatures created by the Piper in vast numbers to invade and conquer the Great Maze. The Piper made them as "new Denizens", incorporating as many mortal traits as he could. New Nithlings are much more docile then regular Nithlings. They possess creative impulses and the ability to adapt; without the Piper's leadership, he has said, they would probably prefer to become farmers.
• Nightsweeper (Mister Monday) — A Nithling taking the from of a tiny horse whose sole purpose is to spend one night gathering any contamination that has emanated from the House into the Secondary Realms, with which it then becomes Nothing.
• Soot, Grim Tuesday's Eyebrow (Grim Tuesday) — One of Tuesday's eyebrows, which was blown from its face when he was experimenting with Nothing. It was blasted into the Pit, where accumulation of Nothing upon it made it strong, mobile, and self-aware.
• Grannow-Hoinch (Lady Friday) — a monstrous creature consisting of pure Nothing contained within a silver armature or framework. It resembles a combination of a wild boar and a Unicorn, having a six-foot horn. It is black, and has no visible eyes or mouth. It is extremely aggressive, and will go to great lengths to defeat its opponent.
• Elephant (Lord Sunday) — Arthur's stuffed elephant which, while Arthur was trying to break free from a clock face and thinking of the elephant, was animated by residual powers of the Fifth and Sixth Keys and grew to the size of a large dog with sharp tusks.

Note: There is some question on whether all of the above species classify as Nithlings, shown in Mister Monday, when the Atlas says (in reference to creating Fetchers) "...it is not the high treason of treating with the Nithlings, those self-willed things that occasionally emerge from Nothing". This seems to imply that species created by someone are not true Nithlings, as a true Nithling is self-made.