#ABH lore rants

[wasnt-always-there]

Lore explaination post (p1 - world building)

This is probably gonna be so long

So.

My OC's world is split into 4 dimensions 💥💥

1. Base reality, the one we know.

2. The Corridors. This is a "glass reality/dimension" as I call it.

3. The Fields. This is also a "glass reality/dimension"

4. The void, Limbo, nowhere, etc. This is a place you will escape from, but most likely not alive, and certainly not the same.

Here's the explainations of them all :DDD

1 - Base Reality

This is where people are, as well as animals, buildings - humanity, basically. This is where you and me are.

The story is set in a made-up Danish town I have yet to fully name, but it's basically a small, half-abandoned town with like one store that's almost bankrupt and a few mini-stores under the one apartment complex that exists there. The place is known to be "haunted".

2 - The Corridors

A glass reality, which basically means it's sort of like an overlay to the base reality. Where the sky is blue, it shines bright red. Where there is color there is dull teal. People from the base reality can be seen as transparent husks, deprived of personality and identification.

The inhabitents of the Corridors are called "Marrings". These are entities born from inherent negativity. They live in the corridors, they cause negativity in order to spread themselves, and contradict the Viewers (will say who they are in a bit). These entities have no real form, and exist merely in energy form. They know and communicate with each other through mutual understanding.

Marrings can transfer their consciousness into a human body if they want, although it is not common. Most often, they want to spread turmoil by manipulating base reality in extremely miniscule ways, and causing heavy butterfly effects.

If a Marring transfers their consciousness to a human body, their hands will appear bright red, though not to a normal human, only through the eyes of a Marring or Viewer.

Example of a Marring:

^This is my OC, November :DDD Their hands aren't red here because idk who's looking and also it ruins the aesthetic sometimes lmao^

3 - The Fields

A glass reality, which I'm kinda still figuring out how to visualize.

Every tree is a birch tree with golden leaves. The sky is clear, no matter the season, and is almost blindingly blue. The sun shines and looks somewhat like a giant iris. People from the base reality are seen pretty much how they would look in the base reality, but they're sort of glowy and blurred. Everything that is broken down and ruined in base reality, here, is just nature.

The inhabitents of the Fields are called "Viewers", which are entities born from inherent positivity. The Viewers strive to make the world positive, but also balanced, and natural. The flow of reality should not be hindered, which is why the Viewers despise the Marrings (although they'd never say that because unconditional love and all that) for using the butterfly effect to their advantage, hereby manipulating the natural flow.

Viewers CAN transport their consciousness into a human body, but no respected viewer would. That is prohibiting natural flow. Although, Viewers need to see the base reality, to make sure the Marrings aren't manipulating it too much, because then they will gladly stop that, no matter the cost of 'normality'. So instead, Viewers use any eye shape in base reality to inhabit and spy through. Statues, posters, birch trees, butterflies, moths, anything. When a human feels as though they're being watched, that's because they are.

When a Viewer DOES transfer into a human body, their eyes will be golden and their clothes white and gold. Their appearance will be neat and composed. They will keep their hands on their backs, as to not show association with the Marrings.

Example of a Viewer:

^My OC, Enzo‼️‼️‼️^

Finally, The Void/Nowhere:

In the rare scenario of a Viewer or Marring interfering so much with the base reality, as to create a pocket dimension using part of the real world, the void will eventually consume it. Whatever place that was taken from base reality will disappear from the presesnt, the past, and the future, creating a paradox that fixes itself by altering memories and reality itself. This obviously, heavily disrupts natural flow, which is why it practically never happens. And if it does, it's usually the doing of a Marring. There's only one account of this being the doing of the viewers. (*cough cough* Kaylus in a courtroom *cough cough*)

This pocket dimension and the void in general doesn't effect time in base reality.

When viewers/marrings stop spending their energy holding up the facade of the pocket dimension, the void will start to consume it and anything or anyone within it. However, if a Marring or Viewer reside while the facade drops, their body will be consumed, but their consciousness will be forever trapped in the void. If a human is there, their "consciousness" (Which is just a brain and cells, which it isn't just for Marrings/viewers, because their consciousness is purely in energy form) will either be "recyled" or consumed, too.

The atoms that the void consumes will be put back into the base reality to rebuild what they took. However, neither the void, the viewers or marrings know how to make it look right again. It will look jumbled and like a poor imitation of real objects and shapes. This will also implant into every human's brain, to not question it.

If a person is consumed by the void, their atoms will return to base reality, most often as building material (a wall, the floor, a growing tree, etc.), but there is a chance of the person returning as themself with their consciousness intact, but their mind jumbled, a messy memory, and something just slightly off about their appearance.

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Some extra notes:

"Switch" -

A "switch" occours when a Marring or Viewer is found to not fit into the glass reality they were born into. It doesn't take any discussion, just a knowing that the Marring/Viewer is different in some way than the rest.

For example:

Angie was born a Viewer, from positivity, but witnessed enough general negativity after watching and spying on humanity for too long, that they became more pessimistic than optimistic. So although they still had good values at heart, Angie was a source of negativity, now, and couldn't continue to exist in the Fields. Angie was switched to the Corridors, where they certainly did not fit in any more, but that was the only "place" they could be, other than humanity. This also, in turn, led the to be more outwardly mean and cold.

^Angie‼️ my personal favorite character of mine theehee^

Field/corridor symbolism -

Viewers are represented using eyes, and Marrings are represented using hands.

This is something I decided using the trolley problem💥💥 like the two options being "Don't do anything" and being forced to watch 5 people die, because you don't wanna be a part of it, to put your name in the equation, essentially ridding yourself of the blame and wiping your hands clean - and the second option being "pull the lever", essentially putting the death of an entire person on your shoulder, but savning the majority. It's observation and action, eyes and hands.

Because the vast majority of people, despite what they may say, would turn a blind eye. It's too much to handle, and too big of a decision to make in a few seconds - to kill an innocent person. So, you pretend you never saw, and you can go back to your own life, where you can make good choices, and present yourself as someone who did not just neglect their ability to save 5 people from the horrific death they have endured. That's the essence of the Viewers. Toxic people pleasers, who will say what they need to, but also do what they need to.

Marrings are reckless, with their own lives as well as others'. The truth is, a Marring could not care less about their choice, because either way there would be suffering. 5 families suffering and burying a loved one, and one person traumatized from screams and dealing with survivor's guilt, or the other way around. However, what Marrings love is action, it's influence and it's annoying the hell out of viewers. So in the end, a Marring would kill someone, just to get their hands a bit more directly bloodied.

Possession (TW - brief su*c*de mention) -

A Marring or Viewer can "possess" an already existing person, but the body will then be shared between two consciousnesses. Normally, when a Marring or Viewer goes to the base reality in a body, they will create one from nothing. Possessing someone is a level of influence that is rarely even done by Marrings because of how severe it is. It has a possibility of the person afflicted knowing of these paranormal entities after literally sharing body with one, and Marrings and Viewers neither want people to know of their existence, because for Marrings is would diminish their negative impact, and for Viewers it would make people more aware of truth, which would also in turn create more negativity.

An example of possession in ABH is when Kaylus possesses Damien in order to talk to Angie and then kill off Damien, which is very much not successful.

Damien here, has already started to spiral since meeting Angie, because a lot of the facts that he used to ground himself with, to feel more real and present, is all turning out to be doubt-worthy. When Kaylus possesses Damien, he is unable to move for a long time, because the signals from brain to body are both contradicting and Kaylus is trying for a bit to get him run over by a car or something.

Then, Damien is taken to a mental hospital for a short bit, where Kaylus decides just to not engage through Damien, because it's only really here that they realize they could use Damien to talk to Angie like they want to so bad. Kaylus then starts using Damien's friendship with Angie against him, to make him think he's still in full control of himself, when he asks Damien's sister, Maja, to find Angie.

This whole thing, though, leads Damien to try to off himself, which is what Kaylus was intending, and even encouraged throughout his possession. Luckily, he gets to a hospital in time.

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^Might add more notes or edit some things as time goes on, but we'll see!!^

If anyone reads this far THANK YOU SO MUCH lmao I love talking about this universe it's my favorite thing. i love anyone who made it to the end forever <3<3<3

Also if any of it didn't make sense, or something or if i should add more to it let me know please i love this universe so much its so awesome to me arghhh

[romance-club-daily]

Why do many find the HS universe disappointing? I LIKE IT (no shade to those who don’t like it). Astrea’s broken heart being a part of the universe is mind-blowing! It adds such depth and complexity to the characters. Like, they could’ve kept the spoiler after Diamond Rush (which I’m patiently waiting on, lol)

I look at it as an exciting evolution of the story. It opens up new possibilities for character development and plot twists that we might not have anticipated. It feels like the author(s) is inviting us to explore a more expansive universe, where the stakes are higher and the stories can take unexpected turns. I’m excited to see where this journey leads us next!

I wish I could agree with you anon, but I can't, not for now (at least).

Ranting incoming! Sorry in advance! I have some points and you can feel free to disagree with me too.

Everything you brought up as an argument could work precisely because Astrea's Broken Heart (ABH) is not from the same universe as Heaven's Secret (HS).

I'm not against stories that are set in the same universe, given the post on the connections between contemporary and mundane stories that I pointed out a few days ago (7 Brothers, Garden of Eden, The One, Vying for Versailles and Elite Tag). I think these are easier because the lore is grounded in reality, nothing supernatural or anything like that. The connection between Chasing You (CY) and HS doesn't bother me either, precisely because CY is a story with completely different themes, the HS plot wouldn't directly affect the CY plot (they all die in the 1st apocalypse?. Probably. Nobody cares because that's not what the story is about). And honestly, it seemed more like an easter egg than something really thought out.

But ABH deals with precisely the same theme as HS (the same mythology in this case), except that before we learnt about the joining of universes, the way this theme was being dealt with was different from what we had seen in HS and was, in my opinion, a breath of fresh air compared to HS. The way the hierarchies were beginning to be dealt with, the interaction of the then angels with the Father, the characters' relationship with the subject and so on. New things (and better in my opinion).

But as soon as you say that this story takes place in a universe of an already established story (which already has 2 stories, 3 in fact), things start to go wrong. Because in order to subjugate a story to a universe, things start to become limited at certain points. There are things you can't do, and if the aim is to keep the universe cohesive in the writing, adding lore here and there like the issue of angels in Heaven's Secret Requiem (HSR) is valid and doesn't affect the story, but what about Mikael being the Father's right hand (because they call him Father), Raphael being that important to Him, but in the HS universe there's no mention of them, or the treatment isn't even the same?

The Beast also seems to be an important figure in ABH, a supreme evil. But putting it in HS is going to be what? Because we know that evil is the Shepamalum, the first Satan presented in HS1 was a minion and honestly, hell looked more like a corporation with a CEO taking part every quarter of a year? Is the beast going to be Satan #546465? Will it be antichrist #7894646? Or will it be Shepamalum? Or demon Larry who made a revolution calling for better working conditions and decided to sacrifice some people as a form of rebellion?

Jokes aside, I can't see how a story that's just starting its second season suddenly (because I don't know to what extent this was planned inside, but as an audience we only know about it now - another problem) has to subjugate itself to an existing universe with its most important hierarchies and lores that have already been established. The number of plot holes is going to increase a lot.

Which brings us to the point of how this was passed on to the public. How do you announce something important like that after the second season of a story, already established, and via Facebook of all places???????? Like?

I have theories. Firstly, the two stories were released on the same day. HSR as a direct spin-off. nice. ABH as something completely new, interesting, unusual. ok. Announcing two spin-offs of the same book, on the same day, would be insane and the accusations of capitalising on every drop of HS's popularity would be off the charts (we've only had that with the HSR part, but it would probably be worse). But doing it afterwards, the way it's being done, isn't much better, the backlash is there and I think it's fair.

They probably waited to see if the book was going to be a success on its own, so that they could talk about it and people wouldn't get too outraged (from the reactions it didn't do much good). They could have done this much more organically. This month's update would finally introduce us to the agency's superiors, and what better way to announce that a story is part of an existing universe than by mentioning existing characters! They could take advantage of this and introduce already known characters, or just mention them by name. It would be much more organic and we would see the connection in the story, not in a random Facebook advert.

Another point is that it could be that they didn't want to create a story of similar mythologies that rival each other. HS has its own fanbase, ABH is also creating its own, the way it's constructed is different, and I think the latter is better. Then, to avoid problems, they put everything in the same universe and that was that. But I don't really believe that because Alice herself (HS) is Elena's (ABH) editor in the story. Which leads me to wonder, was this planned from the start or did they see the potential later and change their minds in the middle of the first season? How serious is this for them to announce it on Facebook and not in the story itself? They had to have the guts to admit it on launch day, why hide it?

So as not to be too long-winded, and to summarise my opinion, I don't think it's an advantage for ABH because it limits the development of the lore too much, since what is going to be dealt with already exists in a certain way, the plot and the development of the plot worry me within this universe. On the other hand, it's advantageous for HS because the popularity of ABH joins it. I don't like the decision at first, I'm going to continue treating them as separate things. I really hope that they have a plan up their sleeve that is spectacular, that things work out and no story is harmed in the process, because ABH has become one of my favourite books. And I must emphasise that I also don't like the way they're trying to squeeze every last drop out of HS, the way it's been done has its ups and downs, HSR was a good decision, HS2 not so much. As well as having other stories that deserve continuation and an exploration of the universe (such as Moonborn with the werewolf and vampire clans, Sails in the Fog with other pirates, Heart of Trespia with the unexplored lands beyond the sea…).

I guess, that's what I think about it. And sorry for the long text again!