THE ESOTERIC
Architects, the- The ancient civilization or race that built Einheit City tens of thousands of years before its discovery by Dr. Frey's settlers. An extinct civilization, no information has been found as to why they created Einheit City, why they abandoned it, or what became of them. Based off of operational relics found in Einheit City during its discovery, the Architects are known to have possessed nearly godlike levels of technology. Most Architect technology and knowledge was collected and assimilated by the Ministry, which has made it by far the most advanced military organization in known history, with the WhiteGear being the most obvious example of the Ministry using Architect ways. Many of the ancient statues that still tand in Einheit City depict members of vague species. For this reason, UniClass archaeologists and educators theorize that the Architects were hybrids.
Chaos Pocket - Said to be a result by some of the rifting footsteps that Seven leaves behind, or (un)naturally occuring from unknown forces as the materials of reality clash and tear. Chaos Pockets are bends in the fabric of space or time that are potentially deadly to pass through or near to. Most common in places in the Undercity (and sometimes the Midcity) that are derelict, or known areas of unexplainable behaviour, these anomalies are capable of a range of bizarre effects, from causing irreversible, violent insanity, to crushing a person down to a singularity. Others manipulate the pull of gravity, or act as windows to haunting alien landscapes. The possibilities are nearly endless, and highly unpredictable.
"Destiny Error, The" - A book written by a canine scientist, Haka al-Sunnah, an associate of Dr. Frey's prior to his death. Its core topic is the theory of The Voice, its symptoms, and its history in relation to Einheit City's timeline of political and technological events. The book saw a very limited underground publishing run in 26 ECE and went almost entirely unnoticed, and most known copies have since then been destroyed by the Ministry, and its possession or distribution is severely illegal, often carrying the death penaltiy. Copies of it are extremely rare, and often have missing pages or entire chapters. Dr. al-Sunnah himself has been missing for years.
Drone - Those unfortunate people who deal with The Red Knight are eventually called upon to repay their debt to the monster in terrible ways. These demi-monsters are servitors of Seven, people who go about their everyday life with a truly dark secret. They are the agents of Seven, working in the areas of manipulation, information, bullying, and even assassination when The Red Knight demands it. Perhaps their most notable, and horrifying, defining trait is the mutations that overcome them anytime they're near Seven or a Chaos Pocket. Impossible, disturbing transformations wrack their body, resulting in monsters that bristle with tentacles, sacks of acid-spit, molten metal, bare skeleton, or even more obscure results like losing sections of body in chaos, resulting in bizarre time jags where limbs will be floating a foot behind where they're supposed to, or even be completely vanished (including, disturbingly, their heads). These transformations are hand in hand with unimaginable agony, as suits Seven's taste for torture and despair.
Drones tend to have a feral response when in their Drone form, as well as when they're near other Drones (whether in Drone form or not). This can result in what seems like completely random fights between strangers who are secretly Drones, or even moments of overwhelming passion depending on what the nature of their instincts are rooted in when they boil to the surface. Drones tend to be short-tempered even if they were peaceful before meeting Seven, growing enraged at small things and seeking to solve problems through might rather than patience. A furious Drone while transformed to their monstrous form is almost as terrifying as Seven himself, and they often will mindlessly destroy until pacified- often fatally- through force. The exception to this rule is when a Drone comes in contact with a Lotus- they may not like the Lotus in question, but instinctually they will never harm them, nor will they allow them to come to harm, sacrificing themselves if need be until the Lotus can escape. Despite this ferocity, Drones maintain full intelligence and memory while in Drone form- they are usually so overwhelmed with emotion that they have a hard time thinking straight.
Fimbulvetr - The period of time since the Sun's destruction; in other words, the current age. The exact age of the Fimbulvetr is unknown. Most estimates place it to be 10,000 years old at the very least. "Fimbulvetr", when translated into Anglic, refers to the long winter and period of wars and hardship which preceeds Ragnarok.
Lotus - A follower/worshipper of the mythos of The Underqueen. They are known for being amazed by mundane things and seemingly innocuous surroundings, finding a deep beauty in everything their Underqueen has gifted into the world. Lotuses often have mental instability, including severe hallucinations, paranoia, lethargy, constant ecstasy and mania, or debilitating depression and dementia. It varies between individuals, sometimes so drastically that one may seem completely sane next to another who's a gibbering maniac. The common ground between them all is a fanatical love and unquestionably eternal bond to The Underqueen- even if their opinions on Her will are varied.
They share a subtle psionic bond with nearby Lotuses, to the point that they often feel fondness for them before they even know the person. Their relationship with Drones (known to Lotuses as "Cousins") is surprisingly friendly-- Drones will never harm a Lotus, and often instinctually protect them over their own wellbeing. Despite this, the two groups rarely interact, and find actual comaderie nearly impossible due to their conflicting natures.
Lotus Cult - Otherwise known as the Cult of the Golden Lotus, this is the group that worships the monster known as The Underqueen. Up to 31 ECE, this group was a widely spread, chaotically shared concept, more of a moral network than a religion. In The Great Parade of 31 ECE, however, the cult was widely demolished, only a very few resisting The Underqueen's inexorable pull. After The Underqueen returned from death, a new cult was slowly formed- however, this new Lotus Cult didn't have the ambiguously binding pull that the last did; they quickly split into different sects (sometimes informally called Petals), each preaching a different standard of worship.
Great Parade, The - The informal term for the mass suicide-cleansing of the Lotus Cult in 31 ECE, where they followed Seven, carrying the comatose body of The Underqueen, down to their deaths from toxic fumes and burning agony in the depths of the planet. A very few were able to either resist the pull, or were purposefully detatched from the call by The Underqueen before The Great Parade began. During this cleansing, both The Underqueen and Seven are said to have died, but they returned in early 32 ECE and began collecting new cult members.
Missing, The - Blanket term given to the many individuals in Einheit City who have disappeared without a trace in the years following Dr. Frey's death, and to the present. Disappearances of seemingly random outer classers are common and go unchecked and uninvestigated by the Ministry, leaving friends and family of the missing individuals at a loss. Some UniClassers are thought to have vanished as well, though exact numbers are difficult to determine due to the Ministry blocking most independant investigations into the matter. Theories regarding this phenomena suggest that the Ministry is either attempting to coverup its inability to protect even UniClassers from going missing, or that the Ministry is actually involved with the disappearances. Other possible explanations connect the disappearancs to cult activity, The Voice, the Underqueen, or Underlord crime syndicates.
Red Knight, The - Another name (or title) for Seven, describing the legends where he is Protector of The Underqueen. See Seven and The Red Queen.
Red Queen, The - Another name (or title) for The Underqueen. Many consider Her colors of red (and sometimes black) to be a direct metaphorical opposition to Unity's colors of White and Gray.
Sector 2 - A realm of ghosts and memories, the green-hued, constantly shifting pseudo-reality known as Sector 2 is the home of The Underqueen, accessible only when She wills it. To back this rumor, any trying to reach the physical location of Sector 2 as shown on Undercity maps will never find their destination. Whether because the myth is true, or there was a simple mapping error, it simply seems to not exist. It is said to be an echo of Her vast mind itself, and travelling there un-creates the person for that length of time. Therefore, to be lost in Sector 2 is to be removed from reality forever.
Seven - Also known as The Red Knight. Though not as widely known or whispered about as The Underqueen, Seven is still a tremendous presence in horror stories, dark rumors, religions, and often used as a scapegoat when disappearances are never explained. He's said to range between 7 and 10 feet tall, though people have described him as even larger, or more of a force than a physical being, like an uneasy feeling or a thick, greenish fogbank. He has a mangled face which is a blend of taut leathery flesh, thick carapace, and mismatched eyes (one large, black, and insectoid, the other small and pus-white, with a cross-shaped pupil). Most surprising of all seems to be the cross-cultural aspect of this mythos- Seven and The Underqueen may have different names or titles, but the shared elements are eerily exact. In the lore, Seven drags naughty people away or eats them alive; most recently, it is said, to transform them into disgusting monsters known as Drones, using them as personal slaves until he grows bored of them and consumes them. He gladly kills any he can lay his hand on, but his bloodthirst will never quenched. He is an actively cruel and evil monster to contrast The Underqueen's aloof, kinder mystique. He's said to be The Destroyer, and he and The Underqueen play an endless game of making and unmaking, with neither the ultimate victor. Since 32 ECE, when Seven returned from The Great Parade, he has grown in power and independence from The Underqueen, being seen as more of a contrasting peer than a servitor or lesser.
Though Seven (and The Underqueen) are considered a myth by the vast majority, a growing number of people swear to have seen the monsters, and there's been blurry photos surfacing recently in increasing frequency. The Ministry doesn't accept these photos as evidence, and often quickly silences those who spread such panic-causing rumors.
Underqueen, The - Also known as The Red Queen. The Underqueen is the stuff of fairy tales, both playful and sinister, that parents teach their children to respect or fear, depending on the culture that person comes from. Some believe Her to be some sort of fae queen from another, magical realm, who walks the planet to grant wishes of unfortunate people. Others say She's a demonic presence which watches you from every reflective surface, waiting for you to say Her name before dragging you away to an eternal hell or mental prison, taking over your body to trick your friends and family. Still others claim Her to be a psychic ghost, a sort of energy echo, perhaps of a trapped Architect spirit who was left behind when the Architects vanished. Another theory is that She and Seven are escaped results of a Ministry experiment to blend the perfect, elite hybrid, which ended in catastrophic disaster. Lore suggests that She's capable of traversing space and time in a heartbeat, and weaves the fabrics of time and fate together, constantly rebuilding the web of destiny as Seven destroys it. There is a cult following for The Underqueen known as The Cult of the Golden Lotus (or simply Lotus Cult). Since 32 ECE, when The Underqueen returned from The Great Parade, She has barely been seen, and her followers are much less certain about their beliefs than back when She actively walked among them.
While the myths and legends are varied and nigh limitless, there is common ground that people can agree upon. She is not a beast nor is she a person, instead some sort of unknown species never previously seen. The Ministry denies both Her and Seven's plausibility as a form of cult activity and typical Outer Class superstition, and this seems to be backed by the fact that Ministry libraries- even the Top Secret ones- have no trace of their presence within them.
Voice, The - A blanket term for the para-psychological and para-physical phenomena said to exist in or around Einheit City. Theories behind The Voice are extremely varied and numerous, though many commonly claim that The Voice is an entity related to Einheit City's decline into social and political turmoil, as a cause or an effect. Symptoms of The Voice can include but are not limited to: audio/visual hallucinations, "prophetic" dreams/visions, unexplainable vanishings, the increasing rate of cult activity and psychological disorder in the city, and possible distortions in reality. A few cases are believed to have resulted in death or irreparable damage to one's sanity, or even physical manifestations of The Voice, described as temporary pockets of pseudo-reality. So far only a few books have been published on the matter, and all are extremely illegal (See "The Destiny Error"), now largely forgotten. Only a tiny percentage of the population is thought to hold any form of belief in The Voice, and are almost always outer classers at that. The UniClass is vastly unaware of anything known as The Voice, due to the Ministry erasing information about it whenever it appears, covering up any possible Voice phenomena, and the disappearances of those who attempt to spread word of it. Because no consensus can be reached between the scattered believers in The Voice, theories relate it to everything from the Ministry, to God, to to the end of the world, to the Underqueen, and any number of other conspiracy or doomsday theories.