WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, on sale now.
In the novel Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi, Charles Soule introduces a deadly weapon to the Nihil's arsenal: hyperspace cartography. Because they have charted faster and more chaotic paths through hyperspace, the Nihil are able to get in and get out of situations faster as if they were never there at all. They originally limited their usage of the technology to the Outer Rim, but when the Republic seeks to expand into their territory, the Nihil use their knowledge of hyperspace to deadly effect.
The High Republic subseries reimagines the ways in which hyperspace can be used. Marchion Ro describes normal hyperspace travel as follows: "You entered the lane, you flew through the unchanging, swirling nothing for some set period, and then you exited back to realspace." This rote form of hyperspace is the norm throughout most Star Wars media. In contrast, when the Nihil travel through hyperspace, they do not stick to specific hyperspace lanes. Instead, they zip about "changing direction without bowing to consideration of inertia, acceleration, or deceleration." The Nihil secure their indemnity from the chaotic, stormlike unpredictability of their paths, and use them in conjunction with their other battle techniques to devastate their victims.
The Nihil have these paths because Marchion Ro has tricked Mari San Tekka, a mathematical and geographical genius, into believing that she is helping various governments by charting new routes through hyperspace. Marchion Ro's treatment of Mari reveals his capacity for cruelty in service to his ambition. Mari is a human who is over a hundred years old, and Marchion Ro is keeping her alive. While she still is able to create the paths, Mari's brain has been damaged by the demands put upon her by Ros. She does not actually know where she is, and she often confuses Marchion Ro with other people. Marchion's treatment of Mari also reveals his penchant for cruelty. He reflects that she is in a way the only family he has left. Yet, when he wants something from her, he does not hesitate to send shocks to her system that could kill her even though his entire operation depends upon her work. Thus, Mari is a victim, too, and completely unaware that her work has been used to kill so many.
Mari's data is not comprehensible for most people who study it. Therefore, the Nihil have developed Path Engines to translate Mari's paths into usable navigational data. All of the Nihil's ships have these path engines installed, and Marchion Ro can control them from his own ship. He also uses the path engines to keep the Nihil in line, destroying an entire Tempest because he believes his father was possibly killed by their leader Kassav Milliko. He convinces most of the rest of the Nihil that Kassav's Tempest sacrificed themselves to preserve the Nihil way of life and avoid Republic capture. In doing so, he paves the way to transform the Nihil from a pirate organization into a cult with him as its leader.
The most devastating example of the Nihil's lethal use of mapmaking is the Great Disaster. Because the Nihil know the routes that the Republic uses, they are able to place an obstacle in the path of the Legacy Run while the ship is in hyperspace. Captain Hedda Casset cannot avoid the obstacle, and the ship is torn apart. Because the ship was traveling so fast, the fragments achieve a deadly velocity. Many of these fragments still contain living people on them, complicating matters even further. While some fragments avoid causing disaster entirely, other fragments cause the death of billions when they exit hyperspace and collide with populated planets. The Nihil draw upon their knowledge of hyperspace cartography to also predict where these "emergences" will occur and take advantage of the panic to attack ships fleeing from the impending disasters.
Thus, the hyperspace paths are the deadliest weapon in Nihil's arsenal. Marchion Ro uses this mapmaking both to create these disasters and to solidify his own power. The Great Disaster is only the beginning, and the Republic and the Jedi will have to increase their own understanding of hyperspace and its cartography to grapple with their new foe.
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