I don't understand anything!

"'Help! I've read/ I'm reading this comic and I have no clue what's going on!'"If you or someone you know has had that thought frequently, you are in luck! You've stumbled into a helpful guide into what you are and aren't expected to know, if you are up to date with the comic, of course. This is not an in-depth explanation, you will find that in "The story so far" page. (Note: said page is currently quite barren, as it will be filled in the future)

Consider this a FAQ+ page, and feel free to ask any question you may have. And if it's not obvious by now:" SPOILER ALERT. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION. "

Who are all of these people?
Nil follows quite a few characters and factions, most of them are important enough to be remembered, but I cannot realistically expect you to recall some dude that appeared once some hundred pages before once (The assassin comes to mind). As a reader you are permitted to hold the motto "If I don't remember it, it's probably not all that important", however, for the full enjoyment of the story you may need to know the who's and the what's. So here's a quick summary.

Heavensroad, rebel group, 8 members (+ Icon): White (Jamie), Red (Carlos), Orange, Gold, Green (Kyra), Blue (Akira), Violet and Black. Gold is the boss, Orange handles the intel and communication, Black does... stuff (?) and the rest are physical fighters. It's clear that Green holds some kind of authority over Red and Blue but it's not necessarily hierarchical as much as their natural disposition.

Consecuently, they rebel against The world government, the name is somewhat self explanatory and if nothing else, it's implied that it's not the most fair or libertarian of organizations. The story shows two important figures within this government, The general commander, the highest military position and the late Evgen Drakov, presumably in the highest political position. You may consider them the main antagonists.

The are a plethora of other independant groups and agents, like Montenegro industries or Hunter. Some work with the government, some work against it and this line is a useful first step if you're trying to follow along. Just remember, nuance is natural and "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is more of a guideline than a rule.

For more detail, here is a character summary page.

What is up with Jamie?
Our protagonist is a troubled figure, mainly because sometimes reality decides to relax a bit around him. If you see Jamie acting strange, and a lot of colors, consider that what you are seeing is not real and definitely has no bearing or relevance in the story. None. Definitely.

And Icon?
The main ability of this funky dog is to manipulate space. They can teleport themselves and anyone around them. And is also incredibly powerful in practically every other aspect. This might be a bit of a broken character but Icon is also very capricious and their intentions are inexcrutable. If you are wondering why this character is suddenly somewhere else, it's probably Icon. If you are wondering why Icon doesn't just help the others, it's because they don't want to.

I don't understand the magic system
Understandable, I haven't given a comprehensive explanation. And... I won't do it here. I want to slowly show how the powers function and let you understand it, your way.

Ok, maybe that's bullshit. Look, the magic system is not a soft one, it has very precise rules and applications. But for several reasons, one of which is not having a lecture in the middle of the plot, I've decided to keep it somewhat vague. For now.

Some quick pointers though. The main source of powers is Kothium. It has a chance of making you superhuman, though how this manifests varies. As a quick rule, those who gain powers through kothium have two sets of abilities: General superhuman atributes, being very strong, quick and tough, this part is very simple and some characters are basically limited to it. Polarity however is much much more complicated. The simplest way of understanding it is:

For every action there is an opposite, if A intends to destroy B by pulling it apart, keeping it together would be the opposite. When one user sends a wave of destruction to another, this other user can counter by doing the opposite.

This play on opposite effects is abstract, sure, but very flexible, and it can be used to basically do anything. One might stick to a wall by essentially making their feet one with the wall, as opposed to separating them. Even if, in fact, the later is the natural state of being. Note that the limitations of what can be done with polarity are very vague and it depends on the user not only in their ingenuity but also in some kind of hard limit, x user of polarity probably can't just make time stop going forward "as opposed to it's natural state". Probably.

Note: Kothium is not the only way to gain powers.

I'm lost in the plot, why is anything happening?
If I had to do the back-of-the-book summary of Nil it would go something along the lines of:

Our protagonist, Jamie, finds a stranded dog. Trying to return it he flies to the other side of the world and in an unfortunate bus ride he ends up being entangled in the works of a rebel group, being forced to join them against the world government.

So far so good. That you probably know, but, if the story was that simple, there wouldn't be so many characters and weird stuff happening every other page. No, the real plot is very complicated and for the first chapters pretty much uncomprehensible. But do not fret, the misteries will be unveiled and slowly the picture will be clearer, at a pace that makes sure you understand what the story is trying to tell. Keep in mind however, that the subtitle is "The book of illusions", so don't be surprised if things aren't as clear as I might've just made them out to be a line ago.

But just to give you something to think about, the first mission in which Jamie participated and which main purpose was to capture someone, ended up with said someone dead, possibly by the hands of a man who previously appeared talking with (and subsequently exploding) a severed, but still breathing head. Then later the one leading said mission concluded saying that the mission was a complete success.

Are there demons / Cosmic entities in this story?
; )

Quick summary
Don't be bothered too much if you feel lost, that is part of the intention. But if you feel really lost, as in absolutely, literally not a clue of what's going on, then I reccomend first to reread the story, paying a little bit more of attention, and maybe with the guide close at hand. So you can give me more views.

And comment below if you have any questions! I might answer them, possibly... probably?