Continuity needle

The needle was a "continuity weapon" utilized by the Order of the Weal, evidently designed and bequeathed to them by the Imperator himself. It looked like thin metal "wand," but once an individual was stabbed with it, their biodata would be purged from the Spiral Politic entirely, and they would never have existed. It required a secret code to operate. The Order's chatelaine, Thessalia, considered the needle one of the Imperator's many mistakes. After the chatelaine's death, the needle became Larissa's possession, and she planned to use it to destroy the babel.

Using the needle seemed to create more danger than it was worth, perhaps explaining Thessalia's attitude towards it; when Larissa stabbed Doctor Bendo with the needle, the Spiral Politic had to rewrite itself to compensate for his absence, like "patching a hole in a bucket to stop it leaking." When the needle nearly erased Jeova Unus Sanctus from history, time actually began to unravel.

After the babel was destroyed and Larissa joined Faction Paradox, the needle fell into the hands of Nate Silver, who threw it into the Thames. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep)