Well, folks, now that Book 4: The Voice Highmost is currently in the process of being given a thorough lookings-at by the editors, I’ve come to realize something: this shit’s fuckin’ weird.
Especially in this last installment of the saga, there’s going to be a lot of talk about “The Gallery” and “World-Pillars” and whatnot. Without a little extra help, you’d think you were walking into something the Kingdom Hearts universe would have come up with.
So, here’s the aforementioned extra help.
The way the multiverse is set up is for the following reasons:
- So that the Pale Hawk can dip His fleshy little Demiurgic fingers into a bunch of other non-Neverstone stuff that’s in the works, in subtle but extant ways.
- To create a structure for the multiverse that’s just as chaotic, flawed, and fundamentally human as our own world. There are gods, but they’re less “I AM THE LORD THY GOD AND I WILL PURGE MY WORLD FREE OF NAUGHTY PICTURES OF GIRLS WITH CLEANSING FIRE” and more “Flustered civil servant who ultimately means well.”
That last point – if you’ll permit me to speak for a moment not as Ned Caratacus, but as Dave, the guy who invented him – is the only way God could exist that makes any ethical sense.
Now back to my Ned bullshit. Quack, quack, where’s my peas, et cetera.
So let’s dive in. BEHOLD, A MULTIVERSE!
…that requires a little explanation, doesn’t it?
The Gallery: The multiversal hub world. It was never created at any point, it simply is. The Gallery takes the form of wide, open plains, extending for eternity, interspersed with towering columns of black clay.
(Ever been to this area in Dark Souls 1? Same vibe.)
Perception Level: If the Gallery were a building, these would be different “floors.” It’s nigh-impossible to travel between floors.
They’re called “Perception Levels” because if we saw something from a different perception level, we wouldn’t be able to comprehend it in any way that makes sense – or we’d only be able to see it as fictional.
The Neverstone saga takes place entirely on perception level six. Usually, fictional characters are on lower perception levels — but Bighorn Studios’ accidental use of PrometheOS to make a reboot of For The Light! caused a world to appear on the same perception level as Earth.
(Q: “But Ned, does that mean all stories are real in lower perception levels?” A: Not all but lots.)
(Q: “Does that mean the Shrek universe is real?” A: I am legally obligated to neither confirm nor deny. [Meet me in the back alley at 1 AM. Bring an onion.])
(Q: “But me, reading this at home – hypothetically, what Perception Level am I on?” A: Level Seven.)
World-Pillars: The aforementioned black columns. They’re infinitely high and hollow inside. The walls within are lined with paintings. At the bottom of the pillar is the painting for the “root world” from which all versions of that world in questions were born. After that, the rest of the wall is taken up by an infinite amount of paintings, each labeled “Root + (number)” or “Root – (number)”. Each one represents a parallel universe caused by a different decision made by someone or something in the root world.
Pillar Master: The ruler of an individual World-Pillar and all the parallel worlds within. This is usually whoever embodies that world’s concept of godhead. Some Pillar Masters have arbiters of their will (basically angels or “sub-gods”) who help out in individual worlds.
Antegalleria: A space within an individual world-painting that connects to its World-Pillar – and by proxy, the rest of the Gallery. These spaces are often used by Pillar Masters to store their unused content for various worlds – or in some cases, their personal effects and things they borrowed from the Demiurge.
Antegallerian spaces are the Demiurge’s jurisdiction, and coming too close to them without a clear goal often results in a mortal subject’s mind being taken over by the Demiurge. (This, of course, is accidental on the Demiurge’s part.)
Demiurge: The lawful-neutral supernatural being who rules an entire perception level. They usually let individual Pillar Masters take care of their own worlds and only interfere whenever the safety of the Gallery is threatened.
A Demiurge is omnipotent and its authority is absolute. But in order for mortals to have free will, Demiurges take great lengths to limit their own power. (The nature of these limitations is a huge spoiler.)
An individual Demiurge answers only to Demiurges from higher perception levels. This collective of Demiurges is known as the Infinite Hierarchy, because by definition, there’s no one at the top of the pecking order – only higher and higher authority ad infinitum. That way, there’s always someone to hold someone else accountable.
It’s important to remember that the Demiurges didn’t create the Gallery. They are merely stewards of reality – cosmic janitors, if you will – trying to hold the Gallery together.
Zurvan: The inscrutable homeworld of all Demiurges. It’s the only world that exists outside the purview of the Gallery. Very little is known about it except for the following:
1. It’s older than the Gallery (which, as I’ve said, is already eternally old).
2. It’s mostly a dark ocean.
3. The wildlife is exclusively made of these weird little pterodactyl-things called Amphettes. They’re immortal, about the size of a pigeon, and mostly just scream. The Gallery’s full of them, too.
Lostin: The capital city of Perception Level Six. It exists between World-Pillars. The Pale Hawk Himself is the mayor. It’s the multiversal big apple, where wanderers from all over the Gallery gather to mingle and do business with other worlds.
Ned Caratacus: Author, Scholar, Duck 