The hyperpaths, also referred to as Paths for brevity, represented routes through hyperspace that were used by the Nihil marauder faction. These Paths differed significantly from standard hyperspace routes because conventional navigation systems were unable to detect them. Mari San Tekka, a hyperspace prospector, possessed a unique ability to find them. Consequently, she was captured by Marchion Ro's family and kept alive for more than a century within a medical capsule. The Ro family had controlled the Paths across generations, and Ro's father, Asgar, employed them after assuming leadership of the Nihil, which was then a minor gang. He supplied the Nihil with these Paths to facilitate their operations. Nihil vessels were equipped with Path engines, specialized devices that translated the Paths into usable navigational information.
The phrase "the Path," like much of the Nihil's symbolism and terminology, originated with the Evereni Ro family, who established the marauder group as part of their scheme to exact revenge on the Jedi. The name "the Path" was used by the Elders of the Path religious order, from which the Nihil evolved. That Path's antecedent was the Path of the Open Hand, an extremist missionary organization in which Marda Ro participated. When Eye of the Nihil Marchion Ro, who shared Tekka's Paths with the Nihil, arrived on the planet Rystan, his cousin Kufa described it as his return to "the Path" before the pair journeyed to the Shrine where the Great Leveler was held.