Summoning Pacts are required to summon the more powerful, deadliest tiers of the Voidal Hierarchy. Alone, these entities are too powerful to cross the barriers between our physical plane and the Void and must be summoned via rite to a prepared vessel suitable to contain them. The more powerful the voidsent, the more specific the conditions required to summon them. 

In order to “control” these voidsent once summoned, the would-be summoner persuades and binds the voidsent to an oath or covenant. Many of these covenants seem to be sealed in blood or ritual sacrifice, though a simple verbal contract is sufficient for the voidsent.

Encyclopedia Eorzea - Summoning Voidsent: “Though one could walk a thousand malms and never reach the other, the void and the Source lie but a hair’s breadth apart, separated by an unseen veil serving to prevent travel between the two worlds. This veil, however, is not absolute, and with the right amount of aetherial force can be torn to create temporary gateways - gateways to which aether-starved voidsent are drawn, sensing the life energies of our realm. Naturally occurring rents are typically minor, allowing only the smallest and weakest of voidsent through before the wound heals. However in the years leading up to and following the Calamity, the barrier between the two planes has grown weak, resulting in larger and more frequently tears and thusly stronger intruders.

Recognizing the power that lies in this dark realm, mankind has developed methods of creating artificial rents and therefrom summoning voidsent, binding the beings into service with precarious bloodpacts. In the Third Astral Era, the emperor Xande sought to enter a covenant with the Cloud of Darkness that he might utilize her power in the conquering of the world. Taking cue from the Allagans, mages of Fifth Astral Era Mhach summoned voidsent into Eorzea not only to fight their wars, but to power their creations… an endeavor that ultimately met with disastrous results. Since then, void summoning has fallen out of fashion, being deemed both dangerous and harmful to the world’s aetherial balance. Natheless, this has not prevented cultists from dabbling in the deadly art - their achievements finding immortality in forbidden tomes such as the Necrologos.

Voidsent summoning is oft conducted using one of two methods. The first entails the opening of a voidgate - a rent in the veil large enough for most of the realm’s denizens to pass through. However, casting a spell capable not only of opening a hole of sufficient size, but sustaining it for any duration is costly, requiring massive amounts of aether. The second is far more aether-efficient, requiring but a small hole through which the soul or essence of a voidsent passes. The soul will then possess a ‘vessel’ provided by the summoner - the drawback of this method being that, the stronger the voidsent summoned, the more powerful the vessel required to contain the soul.”

What’s on Your Mind?: “Very little is known about the void other than that the laws that govern our realm do not always apply. In addition to one-eyed monstrosities, peculiar balls of fur, and nightmarish demons, oddities such as floating orbs of energy also periodically break through the boundaries that separate this realm from the void. Make no mistake, however, everything through those rifts does not belong in Eorzea and must be destroyed.”

Fernehalwes: “The ‘void’ is the generic term that inhabitants of Eorzea have given to a dark realm they believe exists beyond their own. This domain is different from the heavens (where the Twelve reside) and the seven hells (one of the destinations to which those who do not follow the teachings of Nald'thal believe the body goes upon death). Little, however, is known about the void or what it contains, and thus creatures deemed too queer or unnatural to be ‘of Eorzea’ (such as ahriman, imps, phurbles, etc.) are often categorized as ‘voidsent,’ the common belief being that they were sent by some sinister force from beyond the corporeal realm. Recently, Eorzean scholars have begun pointing to the high concentration of voidsent in the Dzemael Darkhold as evidence of the void’s existence, though concrete proof (beyond the Ishgardian sapper’s claim) has yet to be uncovered.”

Encyclopedia Eorzea: “Prior to its discovery as an actual existing realm parallel to ours, the void was simply an imagined place that ignorant peoples used as a convenient answer to questions they were unable to answer. Whither comes the unknown beast? The void. What causes the moons to wane? The void. However, it has since been proven to be a realm not dissimilar to ours, albiet one devoid of light, a trait that has given rise to terrible creatures - creatures who will stop at nothing to invade our realm and sup on our life-giving aether.”

Encyclopedia Eorzea - Voidmagicks: “Although the Mhachi were known as masters of black magic, the extent of their powers was not limited to Shatotto’s school of spellcraft. Toward the autumn years of the Fifth Astral Era, the civilization had begun perfecting voidmagicks - the summoning and manipulation of creatures known as ‘voidsent’ from beyond the corporeal realm.

A report by the scholars of the Nominated Observers of Artifacts Historical defines the ‘void’ as ‘An otherworld parallel to the one in which man dwells. Abnormal events can weaken the veil between worlds, tearing it asunder and allowing the voidsent to invade the material realm. These fiends have a depraved appetite, and seek our world merely to consume the aether it contains, allowing neither beast nor man to stand in their way.’

The mages of the Allagan Empire had previously experimented in forging covenants with the demons of the void in hopes of harnessing the creatures’ powers. The Mhachi expanded on this endeavor, adding extra protections to their experiments so as not to invite the same fate that befell the Allagans. To this end, the mages developed an occult device - the Nullstone - to preserve themselves and their city should a pact be broken. If a summoned voidsent refused to obey the master, a voidmage could smite the feral being using the Nullstone to sever its ties to the corporeal realm. It was in mastering this power that Mhachi came to believe in their civilization’s supremacy over all others, eventually driving them into war.”

Encyclopedia Eorzea: “Creatures categorized in the upper rungs of the twelve-tiered voidsent hierarchy cannot pass through dimensional borders by way of an artificial tear. They instead require a willing vessel from the corporeal side, possessing their soul and entering the world by way of a ‘summoning’. The Nullstone has the capability to destroy that vessel and nullify the pact between it and the summoner, making it a powerful tool in maintaining control over even the most powerful of voidsent.”

Encyclopedia Eorzea - The Nullstone: “Hidden deep within the great Mhachi pyramid which, to this day, towers over the salt-strewn lowlands of Yafaem, this weapon was created as a safeguard for those mages who forged pacts with voidsent. By severing the essence of a voidsent from the vessel into which it was summoned, the staff can banish even the most powerful of entity.”

Cait Sith: “…If I am to speak of the Nullstone, then I must first explain the method by which Mhachi sorcerers would bind the voidsent into service. The more powerful the voidsent, the more difficult it is to manifest its presence in this world. Their own immense strength weighs them down like an anchor, you see, preventing them from breaking the surface of our dimension. And that is why they ‘cooperate’ with mortal sorcerers. A mage can provide a suitable vessel for the summoning, or rip a large enough hole in the fabric of reality for the entity itself to step through.”

Stacia: “…And let me guess: the mage forces the voidsent to agree to a pact in return for the invitation into our world?”

Cait Sith: “That is correct. But it would be foolhardy to expect such devious and malevolent creatures to abide by the spirit of even the most carefully worded contract. Thus did the Mhachi magi construct an occult device that would more securely bind the voidsent to their will─a safeguard of sorts, that to the best of my knowledge yet lies entombed within the remnants of the ancient city. The Nullstone was seen as a last resort! Should a voidsent break its pact and turn on its summoner, the mage could use the relic to disperse the very essence of even the most potent entity, obliterating it completely.”

X’rhun Tia: “I discovered a number of tablets myself which, while positively fascinating, offered little on the subject of occult rituals… It appears to be a record from a time before red magic was unified as a distinct discipline. The passage describes a rite by which one can make a pact with a voidsent, and ingest its blood in exchange for supernatural power! Even amongst their kin, certain creatures of the void harbor a voracious appetite for living aether. [Spoiler] must have acquired the ability to siphon his victims’ life force from one such fiend… And if one can employ such energies to fortify and sustain one’s own form then one can even wield magicks beyond the limitations of ordinary mortals. Not surprisingly, however, its tendency to result in aether-starved madmen led to the rite being declared a forbidden art.”

X’rhun Tia: “But all is not lost! See how she did not immediately claim her body for her own? From what I understand of such things, in order to possess a mortal host, Lilith must conduct a ritual of exacting preparations.”

Yayake: “In order to invest herself within a new host, Lilith will need to recreate the conditions of her original summoning as faithfully as possible─alignment of the stars, weather, location, that sort of thing. The location I can tell you. Assuming the ground itself hasn’t fallen into an abyss, Lilith will have taken your friend to a summoning circle in the ruined city of Mhach.”

X’rhun Tia: “Lilith only has one chance at this ritual. But once she knows we’re there to stop her, she may begin the ceremony anyway─conditions be damned.”

Hope this helps, anon! There’s more lore on voidsents commonly called with pacts, and lore on the illegality of using such magicks in the Read More below.

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