Verse and Dimensions: Stories

First Use

Hellensoerensen was created by the founder of the Supergod Council, Xenixel, as a means of combining the Council's strength into one singular entity. Xenixel demanded complete order and unity from his fellow Council members, and thus expected each would fit perfectly as part of a single functioning being, which he believed would be the Council's ultimate defense mechanism. Hellensoerensen would require six pilots, each a member of the Supergod Council, using six shards of Trosinium as a power source. Standard Trosinium was difficult to extract in large quantities and wouldn't be potent enough to power Hellensoerensen, so Xenixel ordered Empiroxus to search for a rare variant rumored to exist in some far away part of Transcendentem – outside of Beyond itself.

The rare variant of Trosinium proved to be more than powerful enough to fuel Hellensoerensen, so powerful in fact that Xenixel and two other Council members later decided to return to its origin to collect more samples. When they returned to the location however, they found the realm completely destroyed by a powerful apocalyptic event known as the Collapse, which Xenixel predicted was soon to reach Beyond. The three Council members desperately rushed back to Beyond in hopes of preparing it for the impending damage, only to discover Beyond was left in an even worse state than they had believed. A Council member named Peralitus had supposedly horribly destabilized the Council's Beyond Bubble and left it vulnerable to the effects of the Collapse. A furious Xenixel immediately exiled Peralitus, forcing him into the collapsing Transcendentem (an effective death sentence in its current condition), and ordered the remaining Council members to swear an oath of absolute allegiance to his every command.

Events would deteriorate further when an already wounded Empiroxus was attacked by Peralitus outside of Beyond as revenge for his exile, resulting in another Council member (Matharin) sacrificing herself to save Empiroxus. An increasingly mentally unstable Xenixel ordered that the remaining Supergods – a dying Empiroxus, two inexperienced children and the confused Conceptilum and Abstractil, activate Hellensoerensen with him to execute Peralitus. Attempting to pilot the incomplete and dysfunctional automaton with such a cast in the harsh conditions of the impending Collapse predictably greatly damaged Hellensoerensen and made executing Peralitus difficult.

Ultimately, due to various reasons (including the death of Empiroxus), Xenixel was the only Supergod still piloting Hellensoerensen, and was forced to take full control of the automaton to execute Peralitus. Hellensoerensen could only function properly with six pilots and no one Supergod, no matter how powerful, could control the robot alone. While Peralitus's execution was successful, the Collapse had caught up with the Council and Xenixel was left trapped inside Hellensoerensen when the Collapse occurred. Hellensoerensen collapsed in on itself, shredding Xenixel into tiny pieces of Godsmoke.

Hellensoerensen was left greatly damaged and highly unstable by its first use during the Collapse, but was ultimately saved from any further damage by Abstractil. (At the cost of her own life.) Still, the surviving members of the Council would have to take great care when operating it, as the automaton was now so unstable that merely activating it alone could cause severe damage to Beyond itself.

Second Use

After the events of the Collapse, it was agreed that Hellensoerensen should be used as infrequently as possible to avoid damage to Beyond. No situations presented enough of a danger for the Council to agree on activating the automaton until one particularly dire situation caused by a powerful consciousness known as Venrensorys.

Venrensorys was a mixture of a Stage I Seed from the External Hazard and the broken mind of an alternate Hyperman from a different Monocosm whom the Supergod Council had previously thought to be dead. All that was left of Hyperman's mind when he merged with the Stage I Seed was his hatred of the Supergod Council and as such, Venrensorys embodied everything the Supergod Council stood against.

When Venrensorys gained physical form, the Supergod Council were forced to merge into Hellensoerensen to fight him, as separated they stood no chance. However, the sheer instability caused merely by Hellensoerensen's activation was so powerful it allowed Venrensorys's physical form to grow exponentially size and power, making Venrensorys even stronger than Hellensoerensen. Initially it seemed as if the Supergods were fighting a losing battle, but the Council members were able to use the fact that Venrensorys stood against the concepts of unity and concern for long-term consequences (as they were concepts the Supergods supposedly valued) against it to gain an advantage.

After a significant struggle, the Supergod Council were able to trick Venrensorys into throwing itself out of Beyond and into Transcendentem, which had been corrupted by the Collapse to such an extent that it was dangerous to even exist within it. As a result, the unstable physical form of Venrensorys began to rapidly decay and, in human terms, disintegrate. Venrensorys was defeated for now, although his consciousness still remained within Beyond.

The battle greatly damaged Hellensoerensen to such an extent that the Supergod Council initially deemed the automaton to be irreparable, however after some experimentation, they were able to get the machine working again. Very slowly but somewhat surely, the Supergods began fixing Hellensoerensen in the hopes of one day restoring it to full functionality.

Later Uses

During the battle with Venrensorys it became very clear that Hellensoerensen's instability presented serious issues and some members of the Supergod Council believed the automaton was more of a hindrance during the battle than anything else. As a result, later uses of Hellensoerensen were used for tiny instants of metatime and at an extremely low level of power; so much so that on some occasions only five pilots were necessary. Usually, these were for minor tasks that required power the individual Supergods did not hold separately.

The majority of later uses of Hellensoerensen were used to gain access to the Kalyubi Dimension, a strange Monocosm Conceptilum discovered that had the remarkable property to shield itself against Omniscience^3. Even Unthil, who possessed far greater swathes of information than the other Council members, was unable to observe any of the Monocosm's contents, or even confirm that it definitely was a Monocosm. The Kalyubi Dimension could only be accessed with the use of Omnipotence^4, which no one Supergod possessed, and thus activation of Hellensoerensen was required.

The Kalyubi Dimension was not accessed frequently, as many Supergod were wary of it due to its unknown contents, but sometimes it was seen as a useful place to send mortals which the Council could not agree should be erased or left to their own devices. One such mortal banished to the Kalyubi Dimension after such a disagreement was Satoru, who originated from The Barrel. Most Supergods have long since forgotten about Satoru (save for one), but it can only be hoped their life inside the Kalyubi Dimension has been peaceful. Of course, given that access to information about its contents is impossible, nobody can know for certain.

The Broken Supergods

The Broken SuperGods are a group of damaged and abnormal Supergods struggling to survive in a small Beyond Bubble located in a Logical Desert near the local Beyond Bubble Cohort. The five (debatably six) currently surviving Broken Supergods are known as Schematus, Abnull, Monopolum (technically a Pygmy Supergod), Binauris and Peralitus, along with a now deceased Supergod known as Barelitil.

When they were discovered, the Broken Supergods' Beyond Bubble was completely drained of energy, which it could not reacquire due to its location in a Logical Desert. It contained a minuscule number of Monocosms and very little life of any kind. The horribly malformed Broken Supergods survive by collecting small amounts of energy from any Transcendent Ecosystem creatures they could find, along with what little Alom was present in the few Monocosms. Monopolum and Binauris are in such a degraded state that they are unable to fend for themselves and must be cared for by Abnull.

However, this was not always the case. All Broken Supergods besides Monopolum have hazy memories of a time (for lack of a better term) in which their lives were much more comparable to the lives of an average group of Supergods in full health. This is until an unknown event which the Broken Supergods call "The Calamity" in which their Beyond Bubble was heavily damaged, a Supergod known as Barelitil was killed and all other Supergods besides Peralitus were greatly altered in mostly negative ways. Strangely, the Broken Supergods have no episodic memories (memories of concrete events or actions) from their life before the Calamity, nor any memories of the events of the Calamity. Their only recollection of life before the event is through semantic memories. (Facts about life and their place in it, along with their relationships with each-other and Barelitil.)

Schematus is obsessed with regaining his lost memories and figuring out what occurred during the Calamity, conducting an absurd number of experiments and investigations, effectively dedicating his life to researching it. Abnull, meanwhile, considers this to be a waste of metatime. She believes the past is irrelevant now and believes what's more important is to survive. Abnull dedicates much of her life to gathering energy for the Broken Supergods and their Beyond Bubble, along with protecting Monopolum and Binauris, who are in constant need of help and care.

Monopolum has a horrible mental condition known as 'Omniscience^0' which makes it completely impossible for Monopolum to comprehend anything besides his own existence. Binauris, meanwhile, is a combination of two Supergods who have had their Godsmoke spliced together into one being. The two Supergods, named Positev and Negatil, are constantly on the verge of collapsing their shared body, which would result in the violent death of both beings.

Peralitus is the only Broken Supergod who was unharmed by the Calamity, however uses none of his energy to help the other Broken Supergods. Peralitus believes the late Barelitil intended him to become a great leader in his name and dedicates most of his life to fantasizing about the incredible feats he will accomplish once he escapes the Logical Desert and reaches the local Cohort.

Discovery

Logical Deserts are inherently inhospitable places, as they are devoid of many valuable logical liquids which are necessary for life to progress beyond simple mortal forms. As such, few would willingly choose to enter one or search for life within. Because of this, the Broken Supergods remained almost completely isolated from all outside Omniscient^2 life prior to the arrival of a Fourth Wall named [O].

[O] was a Fourth Wall living in a Fourth House near the local Cohort and adjacent Logical Desert. Along with two other Fourth Walls known as [R] and [H], [O] created a device known as a Beyond Scanner, the purpose of which was to collect information about the interior of Beyond Bubbles, areas usually inaccessible to Fourth Walls. The first few Beyond Scanners were incredible poorly optimized however, and could only scan exceedingly unstable Beyond Bubbles. One such Beyond Bubble was isolated in the middle of the Logical Desert.

The strange results from the Beyond Scanner, showing the horribly malformed Supergods clinging to life, shocked [O]. Immediately, he directed many more Beyond Scanners at this Bubble to examine it more thoroughly and see if there was some way he could reach out to these Supergods. [R] had absolutely no interest in the Beyond Bubble whatsoever and considered [O]'s sympathy for these backwards creatures ridiculous, however [H] was curious about them and aided [O] in creating an Elastic-based device that allowed him to transmit messages into the Beyond Bubble.

By transmitting instructions on basic Elastic manipulation, [O] was able to speak to a Supergod named Abnull. Abnull appeared to be the closest thing the group had to a 'leader', though she seemingly didn't consider her own role to be particularly valuable. Abnull explained their unique situation and after hearing about what had happened, [O] quickly began attempting to come up with solutions to their issues. Abnull, however, denied his suggestions, claiming their situation was already hopeless. In contrast to this, Schematus and Peralitus were quick to seek [O]'s help. Schematus thought his incredible technology could help unlock his lost memories, while Peralitus believed they might be able to help him escape and make it to the Cohort. After much discussion, [O] and [H] both agreed they were going to attempt to help these Broken Supergods escape and safely reach the Cohort.

The Broken SuperGods short stories

Schematus

Schematus is an incredibly intelligent yet obsessive Supergod(?) who spends most of his metatime conducting experiments in futile attempts to regain his lost memories. Schematus is utterly obsessed with finding out just what happened to his Beyond Bubble and friends, particularly his own past. Schematus will exert absurd amounts of energy looking for any possible clues as to what happened, along with conducting just about every conceivable experiment possible in hopes they might help him in some way.

None of his research ever actually works, leading Abnull to question why he even tries at all. Especially the fact that many of the results of his experiments and research are utterly incredible and revolutionary in their own right, yet Schematus discards them as 'failures' purely because they don't help him regain his memories. Among his discarded 'failures' have been manipulatable Metaslime, the indestructible compound Delgam and a cure for Omniscience^3. Despite Abnull's great respect for Schematus, she is utterly infuriated at his absurd obsession and complete lack of perspective. Negatil's view of him is significantly less charitable.

Nobody is completely sure what Schematus actually is. While he certainly resembles a Supergod and is composed of Godsmoke, his biology is nothing like any Supergod known and defies more conventions than considered possible. Despite this, he still resembles a Supergod more closely than any other Transcendent Ecosystem creature, and is thus considered a Supergod.

Schematus is classed as Omnipotent^2 and Omniscient^3 on the Omnipotence Hierarchy, however his form of Omniscience^3 acts nothing like the standard Omniscience^3 held by Supergods such as Xenixel, Unthil and Matharin. Instead, his Omniscience^3 appears to act as a wealth of pre-existing knowledge which he does not have to 'tap into' at all but is much more limited in scope than the standard condition. (Although the actual quantity of information is roughly the same.) It is suspected that he has a completely different condition which just so happens to place his Omniscience at a similar level on the Omnipotence Hierarchy.

Schematus's strange obsession with uncovering his past means he very rarely if at all interacts with or speaks to his fellow Supergods. The only one he has any kind of actual relationship with is Abnull. Abnull greatly respects Schematus and considers him the most competent Supergod in the Bubble, though she wishes he would put his amazing intelligence to better use. Schematus neither appreciates nor dislikes Abnull's support, though he's significantly more annoyed by Positev's blind support, which he suspects to be completely disingenuous and merely an attempt to disagree with Negatil.

Schematus's only interactions with Monopolum and Binauris are studying their strange conditions as part of his experiments and often forgets Peralitus exists entirely. Abnull is amazed by his ability to ignore Peralitus, which she considers to be more impressive than any of his experiments and deeply wishes she could learn such a skill.

Strangely, Schematus has significantly fewer memories of his life before the Calamity compared to the others, and is especially lacking in memories related to the deceased Supergod Barelitil. Nobody is quite sure why, though Schematus has done an uncountably infinite amount of research into this detail regardless.

Abnull

Abnull is a horribly deformed and nihilistic but caring and pragmatic Supergod who is the closest thing her Beyond Bubble has to a leader. Abnull was literally torn apart during the calamity, leaving her Godsmoke broken and jagged. Strangely, most Supergods in this state (such as Empiroxus) would quickly fade from existence, however Abnull has remained completely stable for as long as she can remember. Nobody, including herself, is quite sure why.

Unlike Schematus, Abnull really doesn't care at all what happened to her or her Beyond Bubble, and prefers to focus on the present. Abnull spends much of her metatime caring for Monopolum and Binauris, the Supergods most badly damaged by the calamity. (With the exception of Barelitil of course.) Alongside helping them, Abnull is effectively the only one who makes any attempt to maintain the stability of their Beyond Bubble, despite being almost certain the Broken Supergods are doomed to succumb to their circumstances very soon indeed.

Abnull is classed as an Omnipotent^2 and Omniscient^2 on the Omnipotence Hierarchy, however her Omnipotence is highly irregular, presumably due to her physical deformities. Abnull is physically very vulnerable, more so than even Supergods such as Unthil, and many weak attacks from other Supergods could likely kill her. Despite this, she has insanely high attack potency for an Omnipotent^2 and could likely put up a serious fight against some weaker Omnipotent^3 Supergods. Engaging in any form of combat whatsoever for her is a very dangerous balancing act.

Abnull is generally pretty good at coping with her awful circumstances, mostly through how little she cares about them anymore. To her, their situation is so hopeless anyway that the best she can do is make things enjoyable while it lasts. Thus, she is able to remain positive by basically just ruling out the possibility of anything good happening.

Abnull bases a lot of her external personality traits on what will best help the other Supergods. She is much more upfront about her negative outlook when talking to Schematus than when talking to Binauris, for example. Despite viewing herself as the leader, she doesn't have a particularly high opinion of herself and actually considers Schematus the most competent of them, though she is very openly critical of his priorities. (At least, whenever Binauris isn't in earshot.)

Despite her Omnipotence disorders making combat very difficult, Abnull actually finds defending the Beyond Bubble from literally starving Transcendent Ecosystem creatures to be the easier and more relaxing part of her day compared to caring for Monopolum and Binauris, which she considers to be excruciatingly difficult tasks.

Abnull deeply cares for Monopolum and Binauris and fully understands their conditions aren't their fault, but nevertheless finds taking care of them extremely aggravating. Abnull generally thinks highly in some way, shape or form of just about everyone but Peralitus. Abnull considers Peralitus a lazy and selfish child fantasizing over a legacy he can't even remember. It probably doesn't help that she, the horribly deformed one, has to do nearly everything while he, the only Supergod in full health, does nothing but talk to the Supergod equivalent of a piece of dead skin.

Monopolum (The True God)

Monopolum is a small Pygmy Supergod living in one of the Beyond Bubble's only Monocosms who is completely detached from reality around him. Nobody is quite sure what happened to Monopolum during the Calamity, but it left him with a horrible mental condition referred to as 'Omniscience^0'.

Monopolum is completely unable to observe or recognize anything happening beyond his own existence. As far as he is concerned, Monopolum is the entirety of existence. He believes himself to be The True God and believes the -verses that make up his physical form to be The Box in its entirety. One might assume he has a large ego, but when you think about it, from his perspective this is just the logical conclusion. Monopolum is not even aware of the Monocosm he resides in, nor anything else residing in it. Just himself.

Monopolum has rearranged many of his constituent -verses that compose him into Archverses which can harbor life. (All smaller forms of himself, of course.) Effectively, Monopolum has turned himself into a Godverse which he is the god of.

The problem is that these entities and Archverses can and do react to outside events, which Monopolum is physically incapable of observing. This creates severe logical contradictions and paradoxes when, for example, one of his constituent Archverses reacts to an Aphanoverse that has entered Monopolum, yet Monopolum cannot observe the Aphanoverse nor his Archverse's reaction to it, yet can observe the Archverse itself, which will surely be affected by the event. This makes literally any aspect of outside existence a threat to Monopolum and forces Abnull to work tirelessly to keep things away from him so that too many paradoxes do not arise. Abnull finds this work especially aggravating since Monopolum literally doesn't even know Abnull exists, or that he is only alive because of her help.

Monopolum can often be heard talking to himself in his Monocosm, musing and contemplating his existence as the True God of everything. It seems that Monopolum is very interested in how he can have feelings, emotions, strengths and weaknesses despite being the divine deity that embodies all of existence. He will often get into long philosophical discussions with himself, attempting to ascertain the nature of his life. Once or twice, he has indulged the conclusion that he is one of many gods who happens to be incapable of comprehending anything besides himself, however has brushed this off as one of many, many outlandish ideas not worth further investigation.

Not all logical contradictions caused by outside influences are actually dangerous to Monopolum. If minor enough, and executed carefully enough, his reactions to the strange impossible occurrences and paradoxes can get him to reveal much needed information. The reason it's dangerous to inject him with an Aphanoverse or poke him with a sharp logical solid is that those events are wild and uncontrollable, so it's impossible to know just how much damage they'll do.

Abnull uses Schematus's discoveries about Omniscience^0 to intentionally create minor interferences which she knows will lead to Monopolum revealing a piece of information she needs to know. Since she obviously can't just ask him a question, this is the next best thing. Abnull has tried on numerous occasions to use this technique to speak to Monopolum and explain his situation to him, but has achieved no success.

Negatil dismisses Monopolum as a self-absorbed idiot and wishes she were able to slap some sense into him. Positev meanwhile greatly appreciates his philosophical ideas and thinks that even if they were capable of talking to him, they shouldn't, because finding out how average his existence is would be a horrible realization indeed.

Schematus is incredibly interested in Monopolum because he thinks studying his condition could reveal some information about the Calamity, but doesn't care about him or his situation beyond that. Peralitus doesn't think negatively of Monopolum but doesn't really think anything of him at all and would more than happily leave Monopolum to die if it benefited him.

Abnull doesn't blame Monopolum for any of his more irritating traits and feels sorry for him more than anything, but is nonetheless annoyed by how highly he thinks of himself despite the fact that if it weren't for her, Monopolum would've been dead metayears ago. Abnull hopes that if Monopolum's condition ever subsided, he would become a very reasonable individual indeed, but whenever she listens in to Monopolum's theories about himself and philosophical conclusions about his Godverse, she struggles to hold on to that hope.