Though there are many protagonists in DIES IRÆ, there is one chief antagonist: an inanimate object that somehow gains power and threatens to conquer or destroy the world.
This object, called the Cipher (from Arabic صفر şifr "zero; empty"; see cipher), may not even be real. It just exists somehow, but only as an illusion. It is a shadow in Plato's cave, but it is a shadow of nothing.
It is an object of pure lies and deception. It promises great magical powers and knowledge, and may grant such powers, but ultimately it steals power. It survives and grows on evil deeds, but usually thrives on ignorance and folly.
It seems to have fallen to Earth from space many thousands of years ago, in the form of a marble-like sphere of black glass, one centimeter in diameter. It often shines with multi-colored light which swirls around it, like a tiny black hole.
Its influence on the world was greatest around 10,000 BC, but after the collapse of the city-state of Hriya, which possessed it, it disappeared, only to turn up again around the year AD 2000. Many leaders of the world, political, business and religious, who learned of the object and its powers, began to seek it, but before any of them even found it, they were already corrupted.
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