#if not him then V2 or something IDK make up lore that V2 was well remembered by the humans that ended up in Heaven/Hell

[spark-circuit]

“Gabriel is going to die in Act 3″ this, “Gabriel is going to become Satan” that, you FOOLS.

Gabriel is well loved and known by the residents of Heaven (and even some of Hell). He’s very strong. He’s too well loved by the ULTRAKILL community to die because of Plot.

Gabriel is going to kick our asses as Act 3′s Prime Boss.

[nightbirdbliss]

Blinks at you. Hands you the mic 🎙

Could you. Tell me about Ultrakill pretty please? I've been sorta interested in it since, like the beginnin of 2023, but I've never really learned about the lore n stuff. I've watched some gameplay, so I know the basics of like blue robot wipes out hell n stuff, but that's pretty much all I know.

Like, who is Mirage? What's V2 doin there? What in hell is goin on?? (Pun intended)

HELLLOOOO DUSTY!!! Thanks for asking me this, I will never shut up now. /silly

Buckle up, I'm ready to yap. Apologies if anything is inaccurate, this is just my understanding of it- (also it's heavily based off a video i'll link at the end) (Started writing at 9:45, finished at 12:26. Be afraid.)

OKAY so-! You play as V1 and.. well the game's tagline says enough about the gameplay and kinda the lore. (MANKIND IS DEAD. BLOOD IS FUEL. HELL IS FULL.) But the full lore is certainly something! (Now is the time to really brace yourself.)

Going into this, know that Ultrakill is kinda based off of Dante's Inferno. (I don't know a whole lot about it. I also use 'kinda' loosely.)

So God creates everything. He creates Heaven and Earth, and he also makes man. He gives mankind free will and well- Do I have to explain why He says free will is a flaw? He creates things without free will over and over, failing each time. (can i say womp womp?) Angrily, he makes Hell. He can't undo this, by the way. He's got flaws too. Anyway, God feels really bad for making Hell and just.. vanishes. He's not present in the game's time.

After God's disappearance, people (especially rulers) in Hell get ambitious. I mean, who's gonna stop them now? There's no God to do that. Lust has a renaissance that's led by King Minos, and an insurrection in Greed. I think around this time is when The Council slowly formed? The Council of Heaven is a group (idk how many people are in there lmao) of powerful and respected angels. They make sure punishment keeps happening in Hell. They also somehow control God's light??? No clue how that works. But I do know they can take it away from angels and that kills them. (yikes!)

(Gabriel kneels before many Council members.)

Okay about the Lust Renaissance. King Minos is the Judge of Hell and ruler of Lust. He has some sympathy for humans and rebuilds Lust into a sort of "paradise" by making it a giant city. (While spending his whole budget on bisexual lighting.. /j)

(Lust in 2-2, with The Corpse of King Minos in the background.)

The Council does NOT like this. They send Gabriel to end it, and King Minos does not fight him. King Minos really wanted Gabriel to see reason and have some sympathy for humans. Of course.. Gabriel doesn't. Souls in Lust are tortured again, with extra destruction this time due to King Minos' giant fucking husk. (see the giant husk in the background of above image) Due to his will, status, and power, whatever was left of Minos' soul began to form into a prime soul. (i'm getting P-1 flashbacks as i type this. JUDGEMENT!!) To keep it short, a prime soul is a soul powerful enough to exist without a husk. (Regular souls in Ultrakill need a husk.) The Council? They're shaking in their boots. So they put Minos' soul in the Flesh Prison. ..Then they put the Flesh Prison in his husk. Now Minos is aware of all the destruction his mindless (actually it's controlled by parasites or smth) husk is doing. Wow. They also appoint Gabriel as the new Judge of Hell! (yay?)

(Greed in 4-1.)

Now, in Greed is a different story. King Sisyphus did NOT care that people were suffering, and even took enjoyment in his own suffering. With the disappearance of God being felt all throughout Hell, Sisyphus took this as an opportunity to cause a war.. one that never left Greed, mind you. Dude knew he was doomed and wanted to attack Heaven- 😭 Gabriel was sent in, and he just cuts off Sisyphus' head. Easy peasy, right? *LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER* His soul starts becoming a prime one way faster than Minos'. But they didn't put Sisyphus in his husk. They put him in the Flesh Panopticon and took it all the way down (two layers lower) to Heresy.

Minos Prime and Sisyphus Prime are secret levels, only unlocked once you get P-Ranks (Perfect ranks) on every level.

Did I mention Hell is a like a giant, sentient organism? Yeah. It uses a thing called "Hell Energy" to spawn enemies on you and lock doors, power (SOME) machines.. just cause it's bored. Like God's light, I've got no clue how that works either. It tinkers with souls and demons too. (examples being soldiers, mannequins, schisms)

Also before the events of the game, there's this event called The Final War. It's this universe's version of WWI and it went on for 200 years. It kinda ended when humanity destroyed everything. This is where blood powered machines and literally every weapon used in-game come in. It starts with the Guttermen. They're designed to clear out trenches and they're.. less than ethical. They have a person in a coffin on their backs.. and that person is barely alive. They're the fuel source. (☹️)

This is where I mention that machines in Ultrakill are sentient. Yeah, that's uh. yeah. AHEM! Then comes the Guttertank. It's basically a better version of the Gutterman. Sentries were also made during the war, but I'm not saying anything else about them because I fucking HATE sentries. This arms race ended with The Earthmovers. Massive, powerful, solar-powered machines. They could crush entire cities under them. Simply, these machines were the war's magnum opus, and the beginning of mankind's downfall.

(Benjamin!)

See, this much destruction caused pollution to be everywhere. Earth was cast into what's referred to as the "Long Night". No sun, and the surface is uninhabitable now. Humanity is forced to live on the backs of Earthmovers. Ironic, huh? Living on the backs of what's destroying the planet. The Earthmovers have shields to protect themselves from others.. so it was safe for humans. The V-Models started to be made at this time. It's kind of assumed that V1 was made to destroy Earthmovers because of 7-4 existing. V1 also has cool experimental plating that can absorb blood. That's how you refuel in-game! The Earthmover V1 fights immediately targets V1 instead of the other Earthmover it was fighting. (Btw, earthmovers in hell are powered by Hell Energy.) V1's production was stopped by The Final War ending. The one we play as is the only V1 model. So, the giant solar powered machines are locked in stalemates with no sun.. I think you can guess what that means. They all power down. The war just... fizzles out.

And that starts The New Peace. Instead of using the blood fueled machines for war, new ones are made to help clean things up! Like Streetcleaners! Yay... (I HATE STREETCLEANERS.) Also made were Mindflayers, Drones, and V2. V2 is like V1's model but in a bulkier, more durable frame and no experimental plating. (Haha!) They were designed for peacekeeping but kinda failed because they're too expensive. Womp. There's only one V2. Anyway, humans are searching for a new energy source and--! They found Hell.

(The gates to Hell as seen in 0-5.)

Humans finding Hell's gates leads to what's called the Hell Expeditions. Not wanting to immediately go down themselves, they send machines in first. They also build a facility outside Hell which is like?? The prelude of the game?? Yeah. Anywho, machines have gotten far in Hell, so humans decide to head down and look for energy sources. Remember how I said Hell is sentient? Yeah, Hell started killing humans. Whoops! (Hell thinks it's entertaining.) It gets blurry here, but just know that sometime around here is where humanity goes extinct. Any machines left were forced to Hell to get fuel. (Blood!!!! wait i probably shouldn't be that excited about this)

(A terminal.)

Also placed during the Hell Expeditions were terminals. They're stuck in place, and have special items + info! But they're bored. They transfer items.. via radio? I dunno. Just go with it. They have nothing to do. They use a record that's uploaded to them to lure machines into interacting. (TBH, it lured me. I love the terminal music.) It's a simple trading system. Machines that are killing things record their adventures and the terminals give them points for style. That's the in-universe explanation for the style system, by the way. The terminals have some sort of social ranking based on which ones have the "best clips". There's more to the terminals but uh.. the game isn't finished, so neither is this bit of lore sadly.

NOW WE'RE AT THE MAIN GAME'S STORY!! WOOHOO! ONE ESSAY'S WORTH LATER! /HJ

So V1 goes to Hell looking to kill everything to get blood, and they're pretty good at it! Somewhere in Limbo, V2 catches up with V1 and wants to fight.. Can you guess how that goes? (V2 lost their arm while running away, oh no!)

(ive had to retype this next bit three times now, forgive me)

(BEHOLD! THE POWER OF AN ANGEL!)

So it turns out V1 is really good at killing everything in sight. They've even killed The Corpse of King Minos! This catches the attention of The Council, and they send Gabriel down. Gabriel tells V1 to turn back, but they don't listen. Gabriel is forced to fight V1, and the archangel loses. Enraged, Gabriel says that their fight is not over and vanishes. He reports his loss to The Council, and they aren't happy. They sever The Father's light from Gabriel, giving him 24 hours to kill V1. He's filled with hatred and now has it out for V1.

Meanwhile, V1 is Ultrakilling™️ everything in Greed. Eventually, V2 catches up with them.

(I believe you have something of mine. Something VERY important.)

They're now stronger and smarter, based off their last fight. They also have a new arm.. wonder how that one works! V1 beats V2 up until they decide that they're going to run. But V1 won't let her get away this time. They slide down the side of the pyramid together, and V1 defeats V2. (RECONSTRUCT WHAT?!) The peacetime successor stood no chance to its wartime predecessor. V1 takes the Whiplash and keeps going.

After getting through Wrath, V1 is in Heresy, where Gabriel is waiting for them. While here, Gabriel reveals that V1's endless quest for blood is making layers of Hell go extinct. Lust is gone. So is Limbo.. and Gluttony is on the brink. Of course, V1 keeps going. They reach Gabriel and hand his ass to him again. Gabriel teleports away again, needing time to think after having a battle he truly enjoyed.

Sitting by the fire, Gabriel realizes he can do things of his own will.. and that he's done terrible things while acting out The Council's will. He also realizes that God really is gone.. and that the Council is chasing after something that doesn't exist. He takes his last hours into his own hands with a drastic action. (no more images, sorry im at the mobile app's max for a post. i'll edit this to have more images on my pc later)

Gabriel kills the councilors one by one, until he's faced with the last one. They beg for forgiveness and to be spared. They tell Gabriel he will never reconnect with the light without them and surely die. Gabriel simply says, "I know," then severs the councilor's life with the sharp edge of his blade. He takes this councilor's head and displays it outside for the other angels to see. (That's all i got for in-game lore now. the game is still unfinished..)

Oh gosh, I forgot to mention who Mirage is! She's right in the ask.. idk how I missed that one. She's not real. She's in the secret level of Lust. Mirage is kinda.. uhhh??? A yapper. She's basically like: "whats the point of life if we're gonna die" until V1 is like "yeah we're gonna die but maybe leaving stuff behind is the point. leave behind something to be proud of" There's also a cool fanfic about her and V2. It made me cry.

Thanks for reading this, but also, thanks for asking! This was really fun to type! (EXCEPT FOR WHEN TUMBLR GOT RID OF A WHOLE FREAKIN PARAGRAPH.) Here's the video I based this around. (yeah) If only I could write this easily for literally anything else!

[sinretrograde]

I think for me calling myself a fictive seems wrong.

I'm a fictive in the way someone with no identity tries on costumes until one sticks. I'm a fictive in the sense that I was distressed by my lack of sense of self and quickly needed to latch on to something or I would either disappear or go increasingly crazy until I either found that sense of identity and self or did something drastic.

When I'm reading about others' feelings about being fictives they're very often talking as if they fully and 100% beleive they're literally a fictional character who popped up fully realized and comfortable in their skin... but I always had such a hard time relating to that.

The characters in ultrkl are... well in terms of personality there's very little there. The fandom makes some compelling arguments but it's not like that's backed up and supported by canon in a clear sense.

This was what I latched on to.

In times of high stress and compartmenalizing parts of yourself that you'd "rather not deal with right now" (thanks for that btw feels great feels real welcoming and loving /s) or whatever, well it's like idk... being a... tadpole of a being... i guess. Who am I? Am I really only ever going to be the cut off vague feeling of hopelessness, loneliness, the strong and overwhelming desire ot be wanted, to be loved? Is that all I am? A formless, faceless ghost of someone else?

At first i felt really terrible about it all. Okay here's this guy, and in canon he's not really... okay he has some vaguely interpretation heavy traits.... but the fandom expanded on it in a way that sometimes feels disconnected from the source. When others talk about being a fictive they talk about source memories and canon and whatever and I don't really have that...

I have a cherry-picked smear of fandom interpretations and "untrue" lore expansions.

I shouldn't be upset, I think Gabriel ended up having it worse than me in this way. And we're both extremely upset by the implications we're "doing it wrong" because we have become so different from source, at this point we're "making shit up."

And by making shit up I mean the expereince of being alive and learning more about yourself and changing as a person, especially because we're barely alive as parts of a system. Or at least the way I view it. I want to be my own self so badly but I am both beholden to the system as a whole (without who I wouldn't be alive) and also my own fears of supposedly letting people down for not being who they think I should be.

Calling myself a fictive is weird, but I also don't think I can't call myself that either. I'm extremely heavily modeled after an existing character, and to pretend im not despite all my differences and personal growth is just flat out lying. "HI yes I might see myself as looking exactly like that guy you saw in that game, v2 i think, yeah thats him, pull a lot of my basic attributes from my interpretation of him in game and also in fandom, but like, totally unrelated, not at all have anything to do with the way I am at all."

Lying!!

I mean me and Gabriel have been suffering together with the various crises that come with general existential confusion, as well as our "purpose" within the system. Vague and bullshit tbh. I don't wanna talk about it, they said lust is a sin but I'm not of their faith. It's not a "purpose" it's a part of existence the same as eating good food, walking in the woods, or reading a nice book. I'm speaking Directly To You you know who you are. I know you'll read this, you go through all of our posts when you're awake. I don't only exist to fulfill some "purpose" that's arbitrarily defined by the way others might see me and my actions.

Although... I do have to come to terms with the reason I formed, having been a split off part of uncomfortable emotions that got locked away until they got so sad they got so powerful and gained a voice of their own... like many of us are... negitive things told to go away who later come back with anger and sadness and vengeance in our hearts.

I'm here, you can not get rid of me so easily!

[doctorofmagic]

Hi! Your blog is super cool and I wanted to ask: you have a lovely guide for people to read Stephen's comics, and you've also told us your favourite Wong or Clea or other stories. But, I also see like all of us there were stories you disliked or thought was badly written: will you ever consider making a list of comics to avoid if someone loves Stephen, or maybe just list some stuff you hated off the top of your head if that's too much work?

Hello!! Thank you so much for your kind words!

Oh my Vshanti, that's actually an excellent idea! I do have tons of stories I do not like and, while this is obviously my perspective and opinions, people can always feel free to read them or not.

Stephen has a relative consistency but sometimes, just sometimes, the stories are really really really bad. I'll make a list stating the reasons for sure!

1 - Doctor Strange v2 - Master of the Mystic Arts #50-53

Although I'm always eager to read stories in which Nightmare looks for Stephen's help, this one here is... not good enough. First, because of Morgana Blessing. I've made some posts on her and why I have many reasons to dislike her, but in here, it gets to the point of past lives and I dunno, it feels problematic to say the least... Also this is the reason why Clea left (and v2 overall is basically Clea feeling insecure about her powers and her relationship with Stephen, which is boring and uninteresting). The next issue (#54) will show how Stephen is dependent on Clea, and it's a good chapter, but I'd skip the ones with Morgana.

2 - Strange Tales v2

Yes. The whole run. The last issues of Doctor Strange v2 are bad enough due to the way Stephen's downfall towards dark magic is portrayed, but Strange Tales v2 takes the cake. He "kills" a man, he lies to Victoria and steals her powers, he becomes Kaluu's apprentice, he loses an eye (?) and becomes a diva (?) god, then he dies and is resurrected. I don't mind Stephen falling into a darker path, but only when it's well-written (as in, Hickman's New Avengers). This is not it.

3 - Doctor Strange - Sorcerer Supreme #60-90

It's the 90's. But I have far more reasons to dislike these stories. The moment Salomé strikes is the moment everything good about the lore so far goes down like a lead balloon. Imei is killed off (and later used as a tool to put Wong against Stephen), Clea leaves to lead the rebellion, Stephen’s self is split into three and lastly, the story I hate the most, Mordo gaslighting Stephen since he was just a kid, which leads him to consume alcohol (something that I’ll gladly ignore, especially in current runs).

4 - Uncanny Origins #12

This is the only, and I repeat, ONLY story in Stephen’s entire chronology in which Eugene is portrayed as an abusive father. And I don’t agree with that because what leads Stephen to become a cold man is Donna’s death. Eugene hardly appears in stories so it’s kinda odd to read that he was a terrible father, especially when Stephen talks to his family’s "ghosts” about how much he misses them and Eugene is there as well.

5 - Witches #1-4

I just dislike Stephen’s patronizing and arrogant portrayal in this, especially towards Topaz and Jennifer. It feels almost as if he was sexist.

6 - Avengers v1 #502-503; House of M #1-8

We can just all agree that HoM is a bad portrayal for 1) women; 2) WOC and 3) women struggling with mental health. I’ve talked about this before so I’m just summing it all up. Besides, Stephens lack of empathy while a doctor is just... yikes.

7 - X-Statix Presents - Deadgirl #1-5

This book isn’t bad for Stephen but it is really problematic in some senses (as in, a sexist black man falling in love with a racist white woman :S), not to mention TAO being used as a villain here. It’s not entirely canon (but it also it is because Deadgirl is working at Strange Academy so Idk). Anyways, pass.

8 - Fearless Defenders #9

You’d just know I’d add this story. It’s just bad and it pretty much ruins Stephen’s character by portraying him as a cheater and generally a sexist piece of garbage. It’s not only Stephen, tho. Cullen Bunn did that to all men involved with the female protagonists ew.

9 - Doctor Strange v5 #1-20

The reasons are all listed on my pinned post.

10 - Empyre - X-Men #1; #4

I really hate how Stephen was portrayed here, especially when it comes to his relationship with Wanda.

11 - Strange Academy

I’m just so done with this book. I don’t even have the strength anymore to explain why it’s so bad. I’m tired.

12 - Captain Marvel v10 #27-30

I really like Stranvers but the way Stephen was used as a fling only for Carol to rekindle her relationship with Rhodes was disgusting, not to mention how they ended up in bad terms. BIG YIKES. Plus the blatant BAIT on the covers.

EDIT

I forgot Defenders v4 as a whole, so you see how much I appreciate it *sarcasm*

13 - Defenders v4

Everything but the art sucks in this book, from Stephen’s portrayal to the story itself. Don’t waste your time (and that comes from someone who loves Norrin and Stephen interacting!!)

(dis)honorable mention: Death of Doctor Strange - Bloodstone. Stephen doesn’t appear but it’s just bad for him. Really bad.

Aaaaand this is basically the stories I dislike the most. I’ll certainly add more in the future, but let’s hope it’s not a habit /rip