The Black Pillars (Verse)

WIP. Making a verse page for my main story instead of leaving it all on the Monarchverse page.

Disclaimer: No pictures on this page are mine, and all credit goes to their original creators and owners.

Summary
The Black Pillars is a verse created and owned by Monarch Laciel.

Since before time was born, two worlds existed. Touching each other only in the rarest moments for the briefest instant, these two worlds existed unaware of each other.

But at the dawn of the 21st century, something happened. No one is certain why - though some suspect - but these two worlds, called the Everworld and the Neverworld, were drawn together, connecting as they had never been able to before.

The Gateways between the worlds, so rare in the past, opened chaotically across the planet. And with the Gateways, came monsters. Every day, there was the chance of a Gateway opening, tearing apart space as it did so, and releasing hordes of beings born from human imagination into the world, to pillage, take and destroy. Worse still, these creatures could not be harmed by human weapons - they were Fantasies, living ideas, and ideas are bulletproof ideas cannot be harmed by anything but another idea.

In response to this, a new global organisation was formed. Human Existence Reserve Organisation. Initially failing due to the Fantasies' invulnerability, the tides were turned by the discovery of a method to kill Fantasies using their own weapons against them, and the creation of the Narrators. Newly armed against their foes, H.E.R.O pushed the invasion back to the Neverworld, and defends the planet against the Fantasies' attacks wherever they appeared.

With the threat at bay, H.E.R.O went about covering up the invasions, erasing it from the annals of history. For in their work, they had discovered the true nature of their universe - the Everworld and the Neverworld existed on the two sides of the same coin. The Everworld was the World of Reality, the Dominant World, while the Neverworld was the World of Fantasy, the Recessive World. And if enough of humanity knew that the Neverworld existed, it would become Dominant as well, merging with the Everworld in a cataclysmic event that would reduce the entire universe to rubble.

The story begins with the kidnapping of the as-of-yet-unnamed (called Pro right now) protagonist's sister during an invasion, and his attempt to save her that leads him into the Neverworld. There, he discovers that not all Fantasies are hostile towards humanity, and the invasions have been perpetuated by a group named Mythos. Teaming up with the fae girl Kat, he saves his sister from the clutches of Mythos, and joins with H.E.R.O. As he travels through the many layers of the Neverworld, he finds himself embroiled in the various conflicts of the world, meeting various beings and factions, and comes to learn the story of the Archeans, the truth of the world, and the Black Pillars...

Powers of the Verse
The power of this verse is deceptively high. Although most characters are fairly weak physically (they can become higher with Narratives but are generally glass cannons), the actual mechanics by which their powers work are far higher.

Most (combat ready) characters sit in Tier 9, between 9-C and 9-A, physically speaking. The majority of Mythos troops are capable of casually charging through walls and cutting through metal poles, and H.E.R.O's soldiers are comparable. Narratives can reach much higher showings, with the destruction of a city block (8-B) in a Tale induced explosion being one of their highest feats in terms of physical damage.

However, there are many stronger beings in the Neverworld, as they are the incarnations of characters from myths and works of fiction in the Everworld, and all have power levels reflecting what those legends stated around their power. The Morrigan is 6-C to 6-B, stated to have the power to destroy all of Ireland. Satan reaches High 6-A for causing earthquakes across all of Hell, and there are implied to be various 3-A deities present within the Everworld. Nyarlathotep and Azathoth are 1-A for being vastly beyond the concept of dimensions. Alaya, the collective concentration of humanity's innate Aether is even stronger than Nyarlathotep, and the collectively, the titular Black Pillars are even stronger than Alaya. The World of Nothingness and the Dark Alaya within are debatably superior to Alaya. And beyond the universe lies the Primordial World of Kadmon, and the Ultimate Ones. Finally, beyond Kamon itself, the verse has a Tier 0 and questionable omnipotent, the Zeroth.

In terms of speed, the verse currently tops out at Hypersonic for most characters, scaling from Pro and Anthony Luciano Barone, though there are several beings with omnipresence, immeasurable or irrelevant speeds.

However, most impressive is the hax of the verse, which is extremely powerful. There are three main types of people shown in the verse, each with their own special type of hax.
 * 1) Fantasies, the beings of the Neverworld, cannot be affected by anything that is not also at least partially a Fantasy itself, as they are living ideas and thus can only be touched and affected by anything that is an idea itself (or can harm an idea). Additionally, Fantasies will always be recreated and restored in the Neverworld by Alaya, even if they are destroyed by an Outerversal being, effectively granting Fantasies True-Godly Regeneration that can even undo effects such as Mind Manipulation, Petrification, etc (though the speed of this regeneration varies, with the majority of Neverworld beings taking several months to years to be restored, and only the "strongest" Neverworld Lords being able to regenerate in a few seconds or minutes). All Fantasies can also naturally resist Plot Manipulation (to a degree, depending on the strength of the plot manipulation) if their own natural "story" is stronger than a Tale used on them, can resist Existence Erasure (they can resist Alaya erasing them from the Everworld for a time), and can resist Concept Manipulation (due to being living concepts themselves they can resist changes to their being). Depending on the Fantasy, they also have various different powers based on their powers in legends, such as Excalibur's Scabbard granting regeneration to the holder so fast that wounds heal faster than blood can be drawn from them, the Sidhe being able to make use of Irish Rune Magic, and ghosts having a further layer of intangibility beyond the normal Fantasy non-corporeality.
 * 2) Narrators, people from the Everworld, make use of Narratives to affect the world around them. Narratives work by manifesting their own desired story and overwriting the story of the world, an ability that makes use of a 1-A power source that can even affect 1-A places in enough quantities. This can be used to effectively any effect seen in a story, with showings including Death Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, Sleep Manipulation, BFR and more. Additionally, the nature of Narratives making it so "the plot says you sleep/die/are BFR'd/are mindhaxed" makes it impossible to resist these abilities without being able to resist Plot Manipulation. Their use of Fantasy to create their own Narratives also grants them resistance to Plot Manipulation.
 * 3) Hallows, beings who have absorbed Aether into their souls, have the ability to affect Fantasies even without Fantasy of their own, due to being "beyond both reality and fantasy". They also have enhanced physical abilities and senses, and potent regeneration that can heal them from any effect (lethal damage, transmutation, curses, etc) so long as they maintain their hold on their soul. Due to the nature of the soul, this regeneration is effectively True-Godly. The Hallow's special ability, the Commandment, allows them overwrite the Laws, Concepts, and Information of the world within themselves (and eventually the world around them) in order to achieve various effects, such as Darkness Manipulation, Fire Manipulation, Absorption, Death Manipulation. Hallows also have a degree of Reactive Evolution, where any effect they have "regenerated" from in the past can be regenerated from faster than before, and where their bodies are slowly altered in accordance with their own desires, allowing them to grow stronger and develop resistances as long as they have the desire to do so. Finally, they all have several powerful resistances gained as a result of their existence.

Explanations
http://fcoc-vs-battles.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Monarch_Laciel/The_Black_Pillars_Explanations_Page

Cosmology of the verse
Cosmology Blog to be added. With pictures, quotes and diagrams!

For now, terms to know are:

Emanation: Emanation (with a capital E) is the term for ... almost everything except the Zeroth. All things come from the Aether that the Zeroth began to emanate, so it is called Emanation. Emanation is everything else. Kadmon, Abyss, Void, Grains, Ultimate Ones, Alaya, the Everworld, the Neverworld, concepts, events, physics, magic, souls, minds, etc etc etc. The only thing that is not Emanation are the Zeroth itself (can't be your own emanation).

Grains: A Grain is the term for the infinite worlds that compose the landscape of Kadmon, named as such because they are like the grains of sand of the endless desert of Kadmon. Grains can be created by the Ultimate Ones, or they can naturally form from the coalescing emanation of the Zeroth. Different Grains can be completely different to each other, having completely different sizes, concepts and cosmologies to each other.

The Everworld: The Everworld is the most common name for the "normal" world. Just think of the Everworld as our world. The Everworld is the "dominant paradigm" of reality, existing on top of the Neverworld. Beings in the Everworld are capable of unconsciously altering the Neverworld through their beliefs, creating new layers with from their belief in stories and myths, though certain beings can create their own layers through sheer willpower.

The Neverworld: The Neverworld is an alternate world existing "beneath" the Everworld. The Neverworld is comprised of countless "layers", which can vary in size or even have different natural laws governing them. The Neverworld manifests itself as a twisted replica of the reality on the other side, with its buildings and spaces distorted. Some areas of the Neverworld are beautiful, and other areas are hellish, and in many areas the same reality is layered on itself, creating different versions of the same area based on people's differing perspectives of the same location. Any story or belief that does not fit with the dominant paradigm of the Everworld (things like "fairies exist", "vampires exist", "Zeus exist", etc.) becomes a reality in the Neverworld. Similar layers will merge together, while differing layers will remain separate. The "deeper" the layer in the Neverworld, the less in common it has with the Everworld.

The Sea of Imagination: The Sea of Imagination is the "lowest", and "deepest" layer of the Neverworld. It is a swirling, endless vortex of the Recessive Concepts of the world, lacking any Dominant Concepts to hold it together or give it structure. It is a world that exists free of anything that exists in the Everworld. Concepts such as time, space, light and dark, matter and energy, as concepts that exist in the Everworld, do not exist in this place. It is a world of pure fantasy and fiction.

The World of Nothingness: The World of Nothingness is a lightless "place" beyond Alaya. When the original timeline was erased, pieces of its world ended up here, to be slowly consumed by the endless darkness. When a portal to this world is created, pieces of nothingness leak through and begin to consume the surrounding area. Even now, when areas of the Neverworld are drained of their Phantasia too drastically, pieces of the Neverworld will fall into the World of Nothingness - but more worrying is the hole that is opened to it. The World of Nothingness may be capable of erasing Alaya itself, as while he was there, Pro saw what was implied to be the previous world's Alaya.

Kadmon: Kadmon is a the original world to spontaneously generate from the Aether of the Zeroth, and is the second highest "location" is the cosmological structure of the world, only surpassed by the Zeroth itself. Because of this, it is the purest world, and will always transcend any other to be created, no matter the cosmological magnitude of that world. Kadmon typically appears as an endless desert of silver sands, with the Zeroth in the sky above.

The Abyss: The Abyss is the "space" between the Grain and Kadmon, though it also extends "below" the Grains. It is a lightless expanse that countless beings have become lost within, losing sight of the world and themselves. However, if one manages to find the "path" through its infinite darkness, one can rise to Kadmon.

The Final Shores: At the end of the infinity, on the edge of the endless desert of Kadmon, lies the Final Shores. Here, the fate of the world will be decided.

The Zeroth: Beyond even the final limits of the infinite Kadmon and Abyss, lies God, if God was the highest plane of reality from which everything else stemmed.

Music
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these. All rights go to the original creators

Main Theme

Alternate Theme

The Neverworld Theme

Beasts of the Void

Supporters
Dreaming Serpent

H.E.R.O

 * Adrian Ainsworth Days

The Corporation

 * CEO

Novum Dei

 * The Immutable
 * The Omnipresent

Weapons

 * Weapon 1
 * Weapon 2

Vehicles

 * Vehicle 1
 * Vehicle 2