World Hierarchy
INTRODUCTION OF THE CONCEPT
The concept of a "World Hierarchy" was definitely introduced to Digimon through the anime "Digimon Adventure" in the platonic ideas that were used as the origin of the Digimon within this story. Although not worked in a more specific way, the origin of the concept of soul adopted in Digimon was based on neoplatonic emanationism. This idea can be understood as the principle of the existence of a hierarchy of worlds, where there are superior and perfect worlds in contrast to inferior and imperfect worlds, all of which derive from a single unit that would be the Absolute being.
“ | Emanationism, philosophical and theological theory that sees all of creation as an unwilled, necessary, and spontaneous outflow of contingent beings of descending perfection—from an infinite, undiminished, unchanged primary substance. | „ |
~ Encyclopædia Britannic |
- See this for more information.
Then in Digimon Tamers, although not using the same base as Adventure to explain its structure, the idea of a World Hierarchy is again used based on the existence of at least 3 ~ 4 level divided between layers, with layers between them. The diagram used in Digimon Tamers was later used in a more generalized form with explanations for the franchise cosmology, being used in stories like the storyline of the L&R Wars.
With the coming of Xros Wars and Re:Digitize with the reestablishment of the lore of Digimon Adventure, the explanation of the Hierarchy of World was transmitted again with the metaphysical sense that had in its origin.
Although the idea of a World Hierarchy already existed since of Digimon Adventure and later was used in other works, the term itself was only used directly in the artbook of Digimon Story being defined exactly as World Hierarchy (世界階層).
The purpose of this blog is to present the most important data of the World Hierarchy and how it is presented in the Digimon franchise.
PHYSICAL WORLD
The Physical World (Also called the Physical/Material Universe ~ 物質宇宙) is the Platonic term for referring to the world of space, time and matter in which we humans exist. The term most commonly used to refer to this layer is “Human World” (人間界/人間世界), or more ambiguously Real World (リアルワールド/現実世界). This is the world that was created by Demiurge, it is a world of time and space that was created as having its base in the higher worlds. The Physical World is composed of the universes where humans exist, these exist through the dimensions of time and space. The worlds exist infinitely and in parallel, following the infinite possibilities described by quantum mechanics, where each action can generate infinite different worlds where something has occurred or has not occurred. The story of a world, its timeline, is defined by the Wheel of Destiny, so that the life that someone lives is the result of a certain set of actions that through the Wheel of Fate put it in one world instead of another.
DIMENSIONAL WALL (METAVERSE)
The "Dimensional Wall" is the name given to the barrier that exists between the Digital World and the Real World. The wall exists to keep the worlds apart, in case the barrier fails the worlds begin to merge, which could lead to the total destruction of all worlds (You can understand more about this [goo.gl/prpyMJ here]). In some products of the franchise, the Dimensional Wall is also referred to as the Network on which humans work, ie it would be the computer network itself. In these conditions one of the functions of the network would be the means by which information flows from the Real World to the Digital World and vice versa. Just after the level of the Real World is this "Dimensional Wall" that is divided into six layers, after crossing these 6 layers it is possible to reach the lowest layer of the Digital World, referred to as "Physical Layer". The Network is the main means of transport within the franchise, making it practically impossible to travel between the Real World or the Digital World in case the Network is disconnected. The Network is a region closer to Humans than the Digital World, and humans using their technologies have already been able to use much of the potential of Network creating several services such as the EDEN Network.
“ | The Digital World in this series is not the same as the Network (as we understand it), but is a world beyond the Network. However, as in previous series, the network lies between the connection between the worlds. I would just like to make the Network more realistic. Ideally, a mock "network" would be able to tie the child audience to the world of the TV series through toy products and special events. | „ |
~ [goo.gl/7TfNZB Konaka] |
DIGITAL WORLD
Above the level of the Network, there is the Digital World. This world exists above Network and the Physical World, existing on a higher structural level so that the very existence of the lower worlds would be unable to support the existence of the Digital World. Like the Dimensional Wall, the Digital World consists of several layers, an unknown number of them. Through the layers there are several worlds, universes that are accessed through "Addresses", such as the Training BOX, these worlds are accessed by humans through Digital Devices (Digivices / V-Pets) and there is at least one of them for each Digital Device. The worlds that exist between the layers of the Digital World are separated from each other, in fact there are beings in these worlds who do not even know that there are other worlds like the one in which they live. These worlds are known as "Servers" in the same way as the Servers that were created by humans through the Dimensional Wall. The truth is that the events where we see the characters occur in Servers of the Digital World, only a small world compared to the true nature of the Digital World. Still, the scenarios we see contain planets, stars, galaxies, and more. Even Human-Managed Servers (As of the EDEN Network) demonstrate a colossal and literally infinite size.
“ | Data-linked eggs are transferred to an address assigned to each device known as "Training BOX" (「育成 BOX」) located in other layers of Digital World. After that, you can train digital monsters in the isolated space by device operation (The portable device is a device to access the "Training BOX" within the Network, the Digital Monster is not directly stored in the device). | „ |
~ [goo.gl/qdJLt6 Training Box] |
With respect to time, the timeline of the Digital World is constantly flowing, mainly because of the existence of the Chronicle Layer System (クロニクルレイヤーシステム). During the events of Digimon Chronicles, Yggdrasil created the New Digital World where the servers are divided between terminals: Ulud Terminal, Versandi Terminal and Skuld Terminal. Each of these terminals are representations of the Past, Present and Future and in each of them, the events are controlled by the terminals. Specifically, the future is referred to as a result of calculations produced by Host Computer being manifested in the Present (In relation to the Past) and in the Future (In relation to Present and Past). The events of the Past branch out by creating the events in the Present, and these also branch out to create the events of the Future. For this there are terminals known as Memorial Stela, they are located through the Digital World and aims to collect all the information available through the flow of data around. This information is stored and used to construct calculations, literally endless possibilities of worlds through a "bottomless pit" of data where all of this is manifested. The possibilities are manifested through Ulud, Versandi and Skuld where there are the possibilities of Servers that exist through the Past, Present and Future. Just as there are layers for the Servers through space, the Three Terminals are also arranged in the form of layers being Ulud the lowest layer, Versandi the intermediate and Skuld the highest.
REALM OF GODS
Beyond the various layers of the Digital World there is the Domain of the Four Holy Beasts, a realm created by them that exists beyond the various worlds of the Digital World. While residing at this top of the hierarchy, they maintain the balance of the Digital World preventing it from being consumed by darkness. Despite all this, this world is only "close" to the true God’s Kingdom.
“ | A Perfect Digimon which has the appearance of the "Rabbit" from among the twelve holy beasts of oriental legends. These twelve holy beast Digimon are called the "Deva", and serve "beings" close to the gods. | „ |
“ | Reigning since the age of myth, its existence has passed into legend, andit is extremely difficult to track down. Also, it is difficult to overthrow with the power of an ordinary Ultimate, and its power is set as the highest authority among other Digimon, so it is surely the epitome of a god. | „ |
“ | It is a legendary being like the other Four Holy Beast Digimon, and its strength is said to equal that of a god. | „ |
The true God’s Realm is the Kernel, the core of the Digital World. Just as Yggdrasil is the Digital World system, its core, its true existence, is the Kernel itself. The Kernel exists beyond the Digital World itself, in a way that the content of the Digital World does not occupy the space of the Kernel. The Kernel is inhabited by Yggdrasil, the Angel Digimon and the Royal Knights. The Kernel has several names, Paradise, Eden, Holy Kingdom, System World and also Heaven. Like the Four Holy Beast realm, the Kernel exists above the normal levels of the "Digital World" with this being referred to as a "Lower World " (下界). The existence of this world overlaps all the textures / appearance, which guarantees to this world the characteristic of being able to easily have any form what explains the diverse appearances that this world already had. In the diagram of the entire Digital World, this is the Plane of Existence that is at the top of all others.
WORLD OF THE EATERS
The Eaters exist in a special kind of world, residents of a superior dimension, indeed a Hyper Dimension (超次元), that exists even beyond the Digital World. Being the Digital World a world of concepts, the World of Eaters exists beyond such concepts existing for example, without any kind of concept of time or limits, thus they exist in an eternal state of presence simultaneously throughout the past, present and future. The World of Eaters exists in an higher dimension that is theoretically inaccessible and impossible to understand, and only Yggdrasil would be able to at least detect its existence. Eaters not only exist in this world, but also throughout the Hierarchy of Worlds. Their purpose is to collect data through the worlds and send through the higher dimensions to their own world, this movement is coordinated by Mother Eater who oversees all Eaters through the Hierarchy of Worlds.
OTHER WORLDS
There are even more worlds within the franchise, in fact on the same level as the Digital World there are still places like the Dark Area and the other worlds that make up the Dark World, but since these have a big difference from the Digital World, I decided to leave it to an upcoming blog.
There are still other worlds like the "God of Death World" mentioned in Digimon Tamers, another dimension that the D-Reaper made contact that allowed that it could evolve beyond the expected one and could threaten the Real World and the Digital World. Little is known of this world, apart from being located beyond the Realm of the Four Holy Beast (Which shows a doubt that if this world would be above the Yggdrasil’s Realm, and thus above all the Digital World, or above the Four Holy Beast, but still below Yggdrasil. It is important to remember that the notion of the Yggdrasil’s Realm began to be established only in the storylines of Digimon Frontier and then were complemented, so it is not yet known if this notion was already being used in the development of the D-Reaper that was of the era of Digimon Tamers) and if perhaps this world was a reference to the Dark Area, since this world has concepts that are very complementary to D-Reaper.
In Digimon Adventure Tri. was established the notion of the "Quantum Sea" being the origin of the Digital World and Real World, both of which arose from the Quantum Sea and due to developmental differences, both worlds that should be parallel ended up becoming differentiable through different layers. This concept is possibly a reference to Idea, which was also established at the beginning of Digimon Adventure Tri. The idea is that the Quantum Sea being the primordial form of the world, then as humans were developing, the Quantum Sea gave rise to several worlds according to human development, and through the development of the computer network, the Digital World would have been formed by the Quantum Sea. This explanation goes according to the concept of "Idea and the Physical World" that had been introduced previously.
The existence of the Hierarchy of Worlds is something that until now has not been explained very well, at the end of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, Suedo explains that "infinitely branched space-time" can be a consequence of the actions of God (Or Gods, Suedo is vague in these terms) and that even the World of Eaters would only be a part of the vast system known as Great Intention or Works of the Gods. So far, if the Divinities that created the entire World of Worlds exist is still a mystery. The initial calculations of Yggdrasil have not been able to prove if the Gods exist, but other calculations are still occurring then the final result is still open.
THE STRUCTURE
With each region of the Hierarchy of Worlds explained, here is where I will put the meaning of each part of this structure so that it is simple to understand from the point of view of a common reader of this Wikia.
- Physical World: A general term to refer to the Multiverse region where humans exist. It is a world made up of matter (atoms, molecules, etc.), time, space as well as a convectional universe. In this layer there is an infinite multiverse, where each action contains an infinite number of consequences according to Quantum Mechanics and each consequence is real in some universe of the multiverse.
- Dimensional Barrier: It is also used as a synonym for Network in some works. It refers to an intermediary layer that exists between the Physical World and the World of Ideas. This barrier is actually a multi-layer world, 6 layers in all, that exists so that the worlds do not connect. If the barrier fails, the worlds can begin to collide and as a consequence, they could be destroyed. Sometimes the barrier weakens, and this allows the worlds to connect and the regions where the worlds overlap are called distorted regions. Depending on the intensity of the distortion the consequence of them can have varied results.
- Idea: Possibly the same as the Quantum Sea. It is a primordial world that gave birth to all worlds, these worlds may be similar or different and exist side by side in a multi-layered structure. Idea originated as a chaotic world where primordial souls and concepts existed without any established law, in the midst of this chaos some entity gave birth to Demiurge who unconsciously used Idea as a basis for creating the Physical World. Later it is known that the order arose in Idea, which divided it between the World of Darkness and World of Light. The interaction between Idea and the Physical World would generate the various interpretations of humans about the true nature of Idea, which would eventually correspond to these interpretations allowing all of them to be real in some way. In this way multiple worlds representing interpretations of Idea ended up appearing.
- World of Darkness: It is the side of Idea that represents death, nothingness and negative feelings. This side consists of such things as sins, malice, erasure, and the like. It is what resembles the original form of Idea being a primordial void without order. Worlds like the Dark Area and the Dark Ocean are part of the World of Darkness.
- World of Light: It is the side of Idea that corresponds to life and positive emotions. By the human interpretation of this world, it has already had several forms including the Digital World.
- Digital World: It is the current interpretation of the World of Light being a cause of distortions between worlds being very well noticed through electronic devices which led to the interpretation that such distortions would be computer bugs and souls would be computer viruses that would be spreading through network. The Digital World is a multi-layered world with several other worlds, known as Servers, existing through the layers. This world is coordinated by a system of Terminals that is responsible for simulating the concepts of Past, Present and Future. Thus a set of events X in the Past would be calculated by the Stela Memorials to find all possible possibilities and the results would be expressed in the Present which in turn would also have its composition computed to find more possibilities that would be expressed in the Future. In this way we can define the Digital World as an infinite world of multiple layers, with other worlds within them and these worlds would lead to the existence of unlimited possibilities that would be expressed through the Terminals as other worlds.
- Realm of the Four Holy Beasts: One of the highest layers of the Digital World, possibly being just below the Yggdrasil Realm. It is where the Four Holy Beasts reside with their devas. Originally a group composed of Xuanwumon, Zhuqiaomon, Qinglongmon, Baihumon, and originally supervised by Huanglongmon. These Digimon had the power to maintain the balance of worlds, without their power the worlds begin to collide, the initial connections are just a few distortions that may be imperceptible, but the distortions can grow to the point where all the worlds are destroyed resulting in a return to the primordial state of the darkness nothingness.
- Yggdrasil Realm: Also called Paradise, Heaven, Eden, Kernel, God’s Kingdom, Holy Kingdom, God’s Domain, Center of the World, etc. This World is where the very essence of Yggdrasil, God of the Digital World, is located. It is the highest layer of the Digital World, putting itself beyond all others. It is in this layer that the Celestial Digimon and the Royal Knights reside receiving direct orders from Yggdrasil.
- World of Eaters: A world above even the Digital World, is in this world in which beings known as Eaters reside above concepts like time. The Eaters usually manifest themselves in the lower worlds causing distortions (Digital Waves), their purpose is to analyze the data through the Hierarchy of Worlds, to send the data to its original dimension and to use them as a basis for advancing the evolutionary process in an instant. The Eaters are overseen by a main unit, Mother Eater.
- Great Intent: Also known as the "Work of the Gods", it is the name that Suedo gives to the system of existence from which everything we have seen so far is only a "part". It is not yet known who are the divine entities that created all this, in fact it is not yet known if at least such deities do exist.
Souls, Ideas, and the Power of Thought
INTRODUCTION
Usually when someone thinks of Digimon what comes up in memory is the story of virtual beings that exist inside the internet and occasionally end up appearing on Earth for no apparent reason. And generally when people appear on this Fandom may be surprised why there are many Tier 2 and even Tier 1 computer beings.
And in fact this is understandable, because what people think Digimon is ... is not a real lie. Digimon is a multimedia franchise that went through the hands of several people, who often had complementary or contradictory ideas. And this led to at least two explanations of what the Digimon existed within the franchise simultaneously. One explanation was larger and somehow contained the other within itself, but this “bigger” explanation was very different from what would be expected of the Digimon franchise, and its secrets long remained hidden within various alternative medias, thar aren’t released English. Here I will comment on the two explanations of what Digimon is, giving a greater focus, of course, in the most unusual that compose much of the profiles on this Fandom currently.
This blog will be the first to start the great reviews that the Digimon franchise will receive in the future, in general these blogs may explain better about the Digimon Franchise for you who are reading, which will facilitate the understanding of it on this Fandom. I must remember that the content of this blog is intended to be applied within the classification of this Fandom, which may or may not be consistent with different methods of classification that exist on the internet. So remember that what is written here is formatted so that it is understandable and useful here, and may require modifications to be transcribed elsewhere.
TWO MEANINGS FOR DIGIMON
DIGIMON: A COMPUTER VIRUS ~ Original Digimon Staff Ideas
The original Digimon concept was established by the "Digital Monster Series Planning & Development Team" (デジタルモンスターシリーズ企画開発) starting from the idea of monsters that exist as computer data. They take shape through the data available on the computer network from various sources, such as mythologies and animals. A Digimon would be what is formed when a wireframe model is attached by a Hacker to a computer virus that exists in cyberspace.
“ | We ended up with the name Digital Monster, from the idea that they were ‘monsters that live through data...I thought having Digimon be monsters that were formed by taking data from various ‘mythologies’ or ‘animals’ was a nice idea. | „ |
~ Kenji Wataabe |
“ | At the beginning, when the first toys were released, the setting was that “a Digimon is created when you attach a wireframe model and a texture to a computer virus program”. | „ |
~ Kazumasa Habu |
“ | The world view of when it was developed in LCD Toys, Hackers attached a wireframe texture in computer viruses that were generated in cyber space, this led the lifeform to become an self-evolving A.I in the form of a "Digimon". | „ |
~ Kazumasa Habu |
This world view was initially developed superficially in the V-Pets in the instruction manuals of the toys that contained information of each Digimon, something similar also was available in the official site of Digimon. Information was also put on the V-Jump and Weekly Shonen Jump, however as the material of the time was little so there was not much to write. As a suggestion from Shueisha, the Digimon franchise material should expand. The WiZ team does not see how this can be possible using the V-Pets, utilizing the desire to expand into the gaming market so home games would begin to be produced to expand the worldview that would be used in the upcoming Digimon toys , the Digimon Pendulum. The first product to be finalized was "Digital Monster Ver.S: Digimon Tamers" for Sega Saturn which introduced the basics of most early Digimon lore concepts, so a more in-depth analysis of the Digimon world was put into the Digimon World game and soon the new Digimon storyline within the Digimon Pendulum scenario.
- Habu: How was the worldview created? Before the anime, you did the game "Digimon World" (Released in 1999 for the PlayStation). Did you use it to develop the worldview?
- Watanabe: "Digimon World" began to develop when we talked about wanting to play a game. In "Digimon" at that time, although it did not have a great developing worldview, there was vaguely something that we could consider a setting. Then, with the consultation of producers of home games of that time, we decided to create a "File Island" that would be the setting of history. Just as the LCD Toys were being made, as we were doing the Digimon Pendulum, we developed it using the setting we created so far.
- Habu: As did Digimon World there was an expansion. But what about the "Digital Monster Ver.S: Digimon Tamers" for SEGASaturn (Released in 1998 for SEGA Saturn)? I also think that "Hacker" was already a key word, did you guys feel like bringing the LCD Toy setting to this too?
- Watanabe: I was asked to draw some characters, but I do not remember developing the game setting.
“ | Although the Digimon concept was determined from the beginning as an self-evolving AI that appeared in Cyberspace, is said to have been in the Digimon Pendulum and after that was written in detail about the world in which the Digimon live. Volcano Ota said, “The Digimon Pendulum, which was serialized at the time by V-Jump and Weekly Shonen Jump, needed articles with more content and building a world was needed.”. He said that gradually the world view would be built in response to the publishers requests. The idea of the world was further expanded with "Digimon World" for PlayStation software and this was solidified with the later animation. | „ |
~ 4Gamer about the Digimon Staff Q and A Livestream |
As Digimon was evolving within the games and toys new methods of expanding the franchise were used. In particular, the production of the anime called for total creative freedom with the development of the V-Pets setting so that the anime producer, Hiroyuki Kakudou, could develop his ideas. The WiZ team accepted this, but there were not many plans for an interconnection between the works although they told stories in the same world (At least in theory). However, due to Toei's insistence, the stories of games, anime and toys would eventually connect. Currently the team that created Digimon states that although their ideas are essentially in the V-Pets, they purposely leave many points open for games, manga and anime to be responsible for establishing the real meaning of each thing, and really sometimes what other media establishes may end up contradicting what they thought, but they do not think they can do something about it.
Tie-in with the Anime Series – The anime series began its run while the ‘Pendulum’ series was still being released.
- Kitagawara: Though we had made plans to release iterations of the ‘Pendulum’ up to version 5.0, talks about the production of the anime series began to spring up. Production of the anime had already been confirmed in autumn the previous year, but we weren’t able to create any anime tie-in merchandise in just half a year.
- Watanabe: We weren’t even planning on creating any anime tie-in merchandise in the first place, for which Toei Animation got angry at us; they said “Toei Animation isn’t creating an anime series solely for the benefit of Bandai and WiZ”. That was when I understood the meaning of multimedia franchises and merchandising for the first time. The aim was to market and sell the characters.
- Kitagawara: Watanabe-san and I were involved with the anime series’ initial production stages, making decisions such as which Digimon characters should appear in the show. At the same time, I came up with the Digivice’s design as well as how to transform it into a toy product; I was the one who thought of the Digivice’s appearance and design and the Digimon that would be included in it.
- Watanabe: When Omegamon debuted in ‘Our War Game’, we created a ‘ZERO’ version of the Pendulum and included Omegamon in it.
- Kitagawara: From then on, we started to devote more attention to creating anime tie-in products.
- Watanabe: On the contrary, I and the other folks and WiZ don't really have the avenue to do something like that. We don't really have a platform for us to express a certain world-view, so we have no choice but to rely on the games and anime series for that. While we can say "this is the world we want to portray, so please stick to the established setting", it's hard to actually stick to it. We can't put a lot of information into LCD games, so it is hard for [LCD games] to step out of the 'toy' territory to become an actual media platform.
- Habu: However, because of how little information can be included [in the LCD toys], it leaves a lot of room for ambiguity, so wouldn't you think that [the world portrayed in LCD toys] also expands according to the consumers' imagination?
- Watanabe: That's our intention. We set the base for the characters, and establish the relationships between them. There have been [characters] that were more neglected, but there's always the possibility that they might be picked up one day.
- Habu: It'd be great if someone could organize that info.
- Maekawa: The role of teams is really that, but if you put too much detail on a character, there's no room left to think about them. So I intend not to be so careful with the details.
- Watanabe: We always talk to each other about the setting, but we always decide we're not going to make a big decision. As the games and anime are based on the LCD toys we make, another person can think about the story. When we develop the setting with a lot of information, I think about the history development team that will look at the information, we want to prevent the setting from becoming an obstacle. Of course, there are ways to explain things in great detail, but it is those who make the games and anime that must do this, then it is not our reality.
- Maekawa: It's cool to define how a character is, if you turn the character into something it may end up with other opportunities to put the character on the table.
- Watanabe: So while we're together, we're thinking of going to the limit. When we talk to each other, we tend to think more, but we also think about when to stop.
- Habu: Do not you think that leaves a lot of room for the fans' imagination not to mention much about the setting? Speaking of fans, has not it become easier for the current generation to get involved working with Digimon?
- Maekawa: Exactly! I count on a fan team to complement the knowledge I've lost. Isn't this information archiving? There is a lot of information lost from before when I work with Digimon and there is absolutely no limit to how much information a person can store. To complement, I think you can add more value to a character by asking a writer for detailed setting to work on it, for example to add deeper information.
The original Digimon scenario is still used primarily in V-pets and other related products, and some works (such as V-Tamer, Tamers, World 2, Pocket Digimon World, etc.) still use the original scenario for most of their history, even though some points of the next scenario has already begun to influence in some parts. With the Digimon Adventure scenario the significance of Digimon and Digital World would change drastically to what is currently used in some works beyond the original scenario. This new scenario includes the old one within what is said to be "interpretations of the truth" and seeks to be a more complex explanation than occurs in the franchise. What happened in the past did not cease to exist, but on this side of the franchise the explanation for this and the occasional inconsistencies would be something very different from the original concept of Digimon.
DIGIMON: A SOUL ~ Digimon Adventure Staff Ideas
The original idea of the animation was to expand the world view that was created in Digimon World and Pendulum, so Digimon and places that were important in these products would be used in the anime. To develop the anime Hiroyuki Kakudou was called to be the director. Kakudou had the desire to develop something unique until then using as base great ideas. He had a desire to do something different from what he was doing at the time and saw Digimon as an opportunity for it. No one from Toei had any idea how to make a story using Bandai's characters, after all, until then they did not have a story that could be worked on in a 52-episode anime. It was chosen that human characters would be created which would give a greater freedom to the story, since most of these characters would be unique (Except for Taichi who had a version in the manga Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01). To develop his ideas he was asked that the anime team had total creative freedom, even contradicting certain aspects of the games as the functioning of evolution. With everything ready, it was time to develop the idea.
“ | When I first heard of the project intending to make Digimon into an anime, it was summer of 1998. About a month prior, I was taking a hiatus from my work with Toei, drawing up storyboards for all sorts of different TV anime and making short story films day by day. It was a couple of days after I received an episode of “Himitsu no Akko-chan” to work on as episode director that Toei Animation’s producer Seki called me up and asked if I wanted to be the series director of the show that came after it. This was in late July. The title of “series director” is only used within Toei Animation, but it is about the same position as a “chief director” in regular TV anime. Since it is the director’s responsibility to assemble all kinds of people together, as a question of whether or not I was fit for the position, it wasn’t really fit for me at all. However, the reason I accepted was because of the possibility that it was a slightly different genre from what there was at the time. It was what I had seen from the Heisei Ultraman series as it changed from “Tiga” to “Dyna.” The chance to review the usual ideals and make something slightly different, or possibly a new genre that couldn’t have been done without the first “Ultraman.” I wondered if perhaps such a thing couldn’t be done for TV anime as well. Since the story of the human characters, other than the Digimon characters, would be original, it felt like the perfect opportunity. I thought to put within the story the genres of children’s books, fantasy, science fiction, horror, adventure — all of the elements that we ourselves on the production team found interesting, and see how much people were willing to take in. | „ |
~ Kakudou |
“ | When creating "Digimon Adventure", only two conditions are issued from the animation side, one is "I want you to let the story do here because I will give out the toy properly." Another thing was, "Digimon evolves, but once it runs out, once it returns to its original state"... I was the one who formed the general framework of the entire series, wrapping up the story so that it goes “in this way.” But the basis of my work came from Bandai-san, who told me that they’ll release so-and-so Digimon for the market on XX month, so I would adjust the climactic points of the story and the timing of evolutions to fit their plans. (laughs) | „ |
~ Kakudou |
Kakudou's reasoning arose to make sense of what existed in the Digimon scenario, especially about the concept of evolution. Kakudou thought that it would be a good idea to represent the evolution of the Digimon as something in parallel to the mental development of the human person, being that the Digimon would be the actual form of the humans to evolve.
“ | I first heard about the story of a Digimon animation in August of 1998. At that point the heroes were decided to be 5 people or more, each with a different Digimon. It was to be different from the previous works for commercial reasons, but the basis of the work had to be done for appropriate reasons. Much attention is given to "Evolution" which is a characteristic of the Digimon. Normally, evolution is a change in the totality of a species. So why call a simple individual change of a Digimon as being evolution? Although I was working on it, I played it during a conversation between Tentomon and Koushiro in episode 2, but the mystery remained unresolved during the process. The question of how mankind had come to evolve had always troubled it before then, and it had previously been impossible to determine the cause of the most significant change, the development of a high-functioning brain. Even now, when a fetus is created, its skull is split into three parts and pushes itself through the birth canal. But it can’t sustain something at 1.5 times the force. However, I do not think that other parts will change very much. It seems that the number of teeth and so on are getting less, so the transition period of evolution is approaching somewhat.. So if it’s not going to be the body, then it has to be the mind or soul that changes. It’s fairly limiting to think of a human as defined by the structure of their body and brain. Other than just your body, there’s another “you” that exists. If that is a supplement to ourselves, it would be evolution to have that existence. The reason we’re still evolving in this time period starts with electronic equipment and the development of the Internet. Something that can be called another Earth, covering the whole planet, an invisible world, is being created. Although the idea of a counterpart to the soul has existed for a long time, nobody was able to make it manifest in a clearly understandable form. So in this digital world that makes up another Earth, defining their form becomes possible. That’s why for a long time, things like electrical or electromagnetic waves appeared in things with so-called higher affinity, like psychic photos and psychic videos. In 02, this is what Oikawa and Iori’s father saw in the game they played on the TV. They were perceived as youkai, and that’s what Professor Takenouchi was talking about in episode 33 of 02. That’s why Gennai, the existence in Adventure who was that of neither Digimon nor human, has a name with are deeply involved with electricity: that of Hiraga Gennai. (Even in 02, on that line of thinking, the name of Gennai’s other self, Benjamin, was from Benjamin Franklin, but it was just him because doing more would be repetitive.) The first trigger point for humans to gain partner Digimon was the Hikarigaoka incident in 1996, when it was too early for a network environment. The following year, there were two people, then four people who had made contact, and by 1999 there were eight people. And every year after that, it increased at double the pace (thinking on the lines of it being binary because it’s digital). After two decades, which was portrayed in the final episode of 02, all of humanity was finally able to have a partner Digimon. This is the ultimate endpoint of the evolution that takes place in the Digimon Adventure work. The last enemy of the first season was "the possibility of sealed evolution", but there should have been something that unleashed its power, as it’s the same thing that Oikawa manipulated through Ken Ichijouji in 02, If there is a third season, that power will be set as "something that inhibits evolution" that came from outside the earth, and this is what made Yamato become an astronaut in the final part of 02. Because it’s a place where the topic of evolution is concerned, the next goal after the moon would be Jupiter, so naturally it would have taken on a science fiction-like feeling. This has gotten long, but in regards to the series anniversary. As for why things of a digital world can materialize in a real world, the concept of soul in this work has to do with Neoplatonic emanationism, so I’ll leave that for another day. You can say that as the Digimon in Digimon Adventure are the counterparts to their partners’ souls, or perhaps another version of themselves, they had similar personalities, or they would have opposite personalities to compensate. But you absolutely cannot deny that they function as partners. Now, this concept in which another version of your soul takes an animal shape and stays near you and will take different forms based on a person’s growth also exists in another work, Northern Lights, Lyra’s adventure series that recently became a movie. It was published a few years before this in its home country, but it wasn’t published until November 1999 in Japan. You could say I was surprised when I read Northern Lights after 02 had ended! On top of that, in its sequel The Subtle Knife, there was a tool to open the gate to a different world, and I thought, wouldn’t this play the same role as the D3 in 02? I read it too much, so even though I bought the last book, I haven’t read it. I recommend the books to Digimon Adventure fans. | „ |
~ Hiroyuki Kakudou[1][2][3] |
Kakudou drew his soul concept from Neoplatonic Emanationism where everything that exists derives from a perfect and superior world, whose lower worlds are a shadow of reality and life is the result of souls flowing into the lower worlds. Although not equal, Kakudou established Digimon as spiritual beings, souls that existed in this world and went to the underworld and interacted with humans. The understanding of the Digimon is varied depending on the interpretation of who detects them, being that in the past they would be recognized as ghosts or gods, at present its presence is described as Digimon by being seen through Digital devices.
“ | As the Digimon can only be observed by modern digital devices they are called the Digimon, in the past they may have been observed as Youkais (妖怪) or Shikigami (式神) and the perception seems to change according to the era. | „ |
~ Kakudou |
Unlike the original idea of Digimon that is simple and all the rest of lore can come from a simpler story of beginning (As adopted in Digimon Tamers) the origin of Digimon Adventure that later was used in other works needs more details to understand how things work, mainly to allow the two interpretations to coexist. The Digimon generally exists with both interpretations, but from the Adventure point of view the meaning of some terms goes deeper. Ironically, many other works later would come to have a material that complements with Digimon Adventure even with the initial goals not being the same. Now I'll talk about how Digimon works from Adventure's point of view and other works, and how to explain facts from other works that point to a different origin.
IDEA, SOULS AND DEMIURGE: BEGINNING
“ | In the beginning... There was the soulles creator, Demiurge... Idea, the true figure of the world... and only shapeless chaotic souls had existed in the entire universe. Demiurge does not know of the existence that created him. Nor the existence of the soul. Nor even of Idea. The world he created was merely a shadow of the true world... | „ |
~ Digimon Adventure TRI Narrator |
The initial stage of creation, as we shall understand here, is the true form of the Idea world. In its initial state this was a chaotic world because the Order had not yet manifested itself. In this chaotic state something gave birth to Demiurge, something different from the souls that did not know the world around him. Demiurge then created his own world, a shadow of Idea.
“ | I wouldn’t call it a beastie. At the very least, according to the old scriptures, it’s known as an Idea without a material body...The Digital World as we know it wouldn’t have existed in the first place if it hadn’t rejected that Idea. | „ |
~ Gennai |
“ | This is outside my field of expertise, but there is an old legend. It says that when the Digital World was first created, two Ideas fought over what sort of world should be made. One of those Ideas won and the rules of the Digital World were established. The other Idea was cast out into the ‘Wall of Fire’… | „ |
~ Andromon |
The state of chaos was the result of conflicting concepts that coexisted, they were canceled and because of this fight could not manifest. It was then that the order was established and the Idea chose which concepts would be used, those that belonged to Evolution.
DIGIMON AND DIGITAL WORLD: INTRODUCTION TO LIGHT AND DARKNESS
In Digimon psychology is very important to understand how Idea has been divided up to be what it is now. In Digimon there are positive feelings that we know through the Crests and Digimentals related to the protagonists of Adventure and 02 as they are: Courage, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, Purity, Sincerity, Hope, Kindness and Light. (Officially there is the symbol of Miracle and Fate that is represented by Digimental, there are also Crests, but only are products that have been sold). The most different of these mental characteristics is the Light, because in fact it is not an emotional trait in itself, but something that has a completely different meaning. Light is the term used to refer to the very meaning of Evolution, Truth, Beauty and Life itself. Hope is another quality that differs from normal, being directly related to the ability to keep faith in the light even in the presence of darkness (I believe that Fate and Miracle are other qualities different from the others).
“ | The Agents analyzed this data and discovered that certain children possessed special qualities of courage, friendship, love, knowledge, purity, sincerity, and kindness-- not as qualities that they already had or didn't have per se, but qualities that contained a hidden potential within them. However, what Hikari possessed wasn't anything like those traits; it was more like the power of "life." They (Homeostasis and the Agents) found this power to have the same meaning as "evolution" did in the digital world, as well as the meaning of "truth" and "beauty." In order to represent this power as "the source of life," they named this special quality "light." | „ |
~ pg227-234 |
Darkness is the opposite of this and is something that was rejected in the formation of Idea, being represented mainly as the character Apocalymon the darknesses are the anti-evolution, death and absence of light. Darkness is constantly described as being a void of non-existence, nothingness. It is important to note that while the Light is represented by feelings like love and friendship, darkness contains the negative feelings that will be explained later.
“ | It prepares to unleash a big bang, then reconstruct a new stagnant world where it would rule as a god, worshipping only bleakness and death. | „ |
~ pg221-222 |
DIGIMON AND DIGITAL WORLD: THE BALANCE BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS
In Digimon Light and Darkness represent the two contradictory sides at the beginning of creation that were canceled making the world in a chaotic place without laws and order. When laws were established and concepts were separated, a balance needed to be maintained. When laws were established a being known as Homeostasis was created as a security system that should maintain the balance between the power of light and darkness.
“ | At the beginning of the world, when the digital world was still in a state of chaos, the digital world decided on the concept of "evolution" upon its formation. In order to follow-up with this concept, the Homeostasis was born. But because Homeostasis is a security system without a physical body, it created independent Agents like Gennai to act as its physical laborers. Light and darkness are two sides of the same coin, and the world is at balance when light and darkness are in equilibrium. Homeostasis is a system that must maintain that balance, so when the power of darkness amplifies excessively, it must do whatever it takes to prevent it from destroying the balance of the digital world. | „ |
~ pg227-234 |
“ | I serve Homeostasis. Homeostasis governs– no, more like surveys the stability of the Digital World. Will you understand if I described it as the security system? But since it has no physical form, it needs someone who can move and act as its arms and legs. That is us Agents. | „ |
~ Gennai |
There are beings who maintain the balance of the world assuming a complementary role to the one of Homeostasis, like the Four Holy Beast. These are those who use their powers to maintain balance being literally pillars that sustain the world, when they weaken the harmony is lost. And this is an interesting point because lack of balance is the origin of an important event in the franchise.
“ | The rulers of darkness wish to seal the four pillars of the world by all means to gain power. | „ |
~ — “Digimon Book of Revelations,” Chapter 8, Verse 5 |
Distortions arise when there is an imbalance between the balance between light and darkness. When this occurs the worlds that should exist separately begin to converge creating gaps where it is possible to transit between worlds, or in most cases, it is possible for events in a world to begin to be felt in some way in some world.
DIGIMON AND DIGITAL WORLD: OBSERVATION THROUGH THE DISTORTIONS
As already explained, The Digital World and the Human World are different and should not connect. As part of the balance, all worlds are separate and should continue like this. The gaps in the balance eventually cause the two worlds to come into contact, which can be perceived in various ways. The greater the imbalance, the greater the distortions. The Digimon when encountered in distortions end up moving within them and are perceived in many worlds, usually their manifestation is invisible to most people, some of which in particular are sensitive enough to be able to notice its presence. As some things are more sensitive, it is possible to notice the presence of Digimon in the distortions through electronic devices, since they are more sensitive to these distortions. When the distortions are strong enough, it is even possible that a Digimon ends up moving directly to another world.
Since ancient times some places end up being more affected by distortions than others, and the presence of these distortions have been perceived in some way since ancient times. The way these beings are perceived and how they manifest in the world end up changing through the ages, in the past in places like Kyoto the spiritual beings are perceived as Youkais, Shikigami, Tsukomogami, etc. Nowadays, because of the large number of electronic devices, spiritual beings are interpreted as digital beings, because they are visible through these electronic gadgets. Through the ages each of these beings is interpreted in some way, and the "Digimon" is just the way humans today can understand them with current knowledge.
“ | As the Digimon can only be observed by modern digital devices they are called the Digimon, in the past they may have been observed as Youkais (妖怪) or Shikigami (式神) and the perception seems to change according to the era. | „ |
~ Source |
“ | What originally is the existence of a Digimon itself? They had existed since ancient times, and their deep-seated existence had become recognizable to people by being embodied in digital devices and thus could be visible, based on the idea of things people define as "This is what they are" for that they can understand with current knowledge as Digimon or a mysterious phenomenon, so Cyber Sleuth has its world view drawn on the work. But the perception and definition can change depending on the point of view of each person just like things that seemed to be enemies can change at a certain moment. This is because the idea is based on the principle that the perception of Digimon differs for each character in the work. The recognition and definition of "Digimon" changes because of people's growth and thus a Sci-fi story of how the world changes can be written. | „ |
~ Source |
Just as the balance of Idea is the responsibility of the Four Holy Beast, so is the Physical World and all others. Since ancient times the Four Holy Beasts help to mentor the balance of the worlds and are responsible for preventing distortions occur, they were seen in ancient times by the inhabitants of Kyoto and were based on them the myths of the four animals that protect the city. In other places and at different times the same may have been observed, which explains why myths from different regions can somehow be similar, all are based on something in common.
- GENNAI: To tell you the truth, the balance of all four directions in Kyoto is in connection with the Holy Beast Digimon.
- KOUSHIRO: Holy Beast Digimon?
- JOU: Have you ever heard about them?
- SORA: No…
- GENNAI: The Holy Beast Digimon have been preoccupied with the Digital World, so they were unable to expend enough of their power to your world.
- KOUSHIRO: This is the first time I’ve heard that power from the Digital World affects Kyoto in the first place…
- SHUU: Long ago, it was thought that the place that was once our capital was protected by the Azure Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Black Turtle. If the Digital World actually is involved in that, that would be a major surprise!
- GENNAI: So, I asked them if they could use their powers for the real world as quickly as possible, but they said it was impossible right now.
What is happening now is that with the growing development of Digital technology, beings who were originally perceived as spirits began to be perceived as computer viruses, bugs and any other kind of thing that eventually causes an electronic device to work differently than it should. The way the Digital World is perceived through these electronic devices varies not only from their technology (the better the device, the better the visibility of the Digital World) but also the perception of people. Some people are more noticeable at this and then are able to perceive the distortions caused by the imbalance so that other people are unable to perceive. The way they will understand what they see depends on the interpretation of each person, and that is how Idea came to be perceived as the Digital World these days, and this even started to influence the Digimon itself.
DIGIMON AND DIGITAL WORLD: HOW IDEA HAS BECOME THE DIGITAL WORLD
Due to the original nature of Idea based on thoughts and emotions (Being the basis of reality itself) one would expect that psychology would have a great power in this world. For Idea thoughts are what shapes the world, if you remember Idea divides between the World of Light and the World of Darkness, both worlds fueled by thoughts. The World of Light is composed of the worlds from which the basis is the positive thoughts while the Dark World is composed of those whose basis is the negative thoughts. The Digital World as we know it is usually part of the World of Light, while places like Dark Ocean, Dark Area and others make up the Dark World.
Because of how important thoughts are, the World System itself is responsible for reading all thoughts, interpreting, and then deciding what can be done through those thoughts through a reorganization of the data.
This means that the experience that people have in the Digital World is the very experience they think they will have, whether consciously or subconsciously. That is, if a person is conditioned to think in some way, to expect something to happen, it will experience it because that is what it has determined, but it is also possible that it has a change of perspective and ultimately changes his desire for experience , which will eventually change the way it experiences the Digital World. For example, if a person is conditioned to believe that itself can’t breathe underwater, it’ll not breathe underwater in the Digital World. But if the person become conditioned that it’ll not drown, then when it goes underwater, it’ll not really get wet and can spend as much time as it want underwater while it is still conditioned to believe it’ll not drown. The same holds true for the Digimon itself, and that's what makes the Digimon and the Digital World change with every age.
Since thoughts are a direct part of the Idea reality, the way beings think will direct how the Idea interaction will be. Through human thoughts, the Idea history can change according to the human interpretation of Idea. In this way the Digimon question their own existence because they are conditioned throughout the history of the world by believing that this questioning given by human common sense is the norm. Because of the importance of interpretation, the collective consciousness determines its own history of Idea, if today human beings forget what was once a mythical world and come to treat as a cyber world, Idea will end up acting like this. But not only from the moment that thought arises, because as thought would define that Idea has always been so, the very history of Idea will change to correspond to that thought. And thus the Idea story is fluid, and varies according to the collective thought of all living beings. If the collective defines that something did not occur, the history will define that this did not occur, but if it defined that it occurred then this will have occurred. And it repeats itself indefinitely throughout history, and there are few beings who question their own history and can know beyond what common sense has defined through history.
DARK AREA, DARK OCEAN, WORLD OF DARKNESS: THE DARKNESS
Now that we have established the franchise mythology with regard to feelings, let us improve what we already understand about the Darkness. As already established, the Digital World is based on the concept of Light, Evolution, Life and the concepts of Courage, Friendship, Love and others are part of this greater concept of Light. While Darkness is composed of negative feelings, let's now see this in a more detailed way..
The connection between a Human and a Digimon can be positive as we know it, but there are negative feelings like Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Pride, etc. In the same way that the Digital World as we know it has its existence thanks to positive feelings and make up the World of Light, negative feelings make up the Dark World as the Dark Area. The same goes for places like Dark Ocean and other worlds that are based on negative feelings, which are darkness.
And of course, just as positive feelings allow some kind of power to be pulled from them (as power of courage, friendship, love, and general light) negative feelings allow us to pull a direct power from the World of Darkness, this is the power of darkness.
The power of darkness is not static, it moves. More precisely, it consumes all that is within itself into the darkness. When the power of darkness is invoked that which touches it begins to be consumed by darkness, until it becomes a part of the darkness itself, a component of hell that is the Dark Area. When a Digimon like the angels fall into the Dark Area, what happens is that they are consumed by it until they become beings of the darkness. The beings that fall in the World of Darkness can end up adapting to them, becoming beings that feed completely of this power. These beings have as main characteristic the "Dark Core" that is where all the power of the darkness of them is accumulated.
Another important point is the nature of darkness a Void. Darkness is described as the initial state of nothing, they consume and reduce everything to nothingness. Literally anything that enters the World of Darkness is consumed and has its existence extinguished. The power of "darkness" is usually used in connection with the ability to erase, delete, and reduce everything to nothing, large amounts of darkness can erase large amounts of data.
The relation is also seen with what are the Dark Digimon, beings that were consumed by the darkness and then were "erased / deleted". The power of darkness is the power of void, belonging to those who have been erased from existence and reduced to nothing.
“ | The darkness held within the hearts of humans and Digimon is intensified and fused with Darkness Bagramon's own fathomless power. If that power is released from the red eyes in its chest with its "Balefire-Eyes", then all of its surroundings will be transformed into nothingness. | „ |
“ | However, each of them committed a mortal sin and so they fell. It is said that they were deleted to the Dark Area by the Digital World System and became Demon Lords. | „ |
~ What’s the Seven Great Demon Lords |
“ | Negative emotions themselves flow out of Ordinemon's wings, and a flap of its wings will spread miasma throughout its surroundings. The endlessly overflowing miasma is capable of eventually covering the entire world, resulting in the end of all life. However, its true nature is one of kindness, a high-standing being who plans to save the world by first returning the world, which has lost its order, to nothingness. | „ |
CONCLUSION AND WHAT IS TO COME
Originally Digimon established itself as a franchise in which computer viruses that existed in the computer network were placed in special textures giving them the shape of what we know as a Digimon. This story was the basis of the franchise since its inception and was the basis of what was established in the V-Pets, the Digimon World series and the Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01.
Later the development of the anime Digimon Adventure changed the structure of Digimon, treating the previous history (that in fact existed in the backstory of two personages of 02) like an interpretation of the truth behind the Digital World. Many details of the development of Digimon Adventure do not form placed in the anime, mainly after that it was decided that there would be a second and possibly third season to continue this history (being that the third one was canceled and had to be placed still within the second), in this many of these details were placed inside 02 (If you analyze, in fact most of the scans of this blog are of 02) and the connection of Adventure and 02 with this information was placed in the Drama CD "Digimon Adventure: Original Story, 2-and -a-half year break ":
“ | Dear Dad, In my last summer vacation, when we were able to see Piyomon and the others again, I’m glad that we were useful for your research. I’d never thought of the possibility that the Digital World and our world could have had deeper connections with each other for a very long time. I’m so glad I got to talk with you about it! Piyomon may no longer be able to evolve to her Perfect form, Garudamon, but since the Digital World is at peace right now, that’s all right. More importantly, I was very surprised when I read your last letter. Who’d have thought that Jyou-senpai’s big brother would go to Kyoto and take your classes? That’s such a coincidence! Not only that, but he’ll be transferring from the medical department to your department! What kind of lectures do you hold, to have grabbed his interest, Dad? Is being a university professor really that interesting? I’m thinking that next time, I will try reading one of your books. Mom keeps them locked safely behind the shelves. There’s so many of them! I wonder if they’re still too difficult for an elementary-schooler to understand… But just by looking at the titles, I saw some that said “Youkai” and “Onmyoudou”… It seems like you’ve been doing some strange research, Dad. | „ |
~ Sora |
“ | American tribes, they have something called totems. You know about totem poles, right? Those wooden posts that have weird animal faces engraved in them, and they’re stacked on top of each other. Each of the Native American tribes have some sort of spirit that watches over them. I guess they’re similar to the shugorei in Japan.But what’s a little different is that they’re shown as animals on totem poles. Like a wolf, or a hawk. Hey, doesn’t that sound a lot like Digimon~? ♥ Digimon have developed from the computers, and they appear from digital machines as easily as I’m sending this video mail, but they might have been around longer than that! That’s what I’ve been thinking lately! ♥ Maybe not as Digital Monsters, but as Digital Totems, or Digital Shugorei! [laughs] What do you think? ♥ | „ |
~ Mimi |
The information that compose much of this blog is in the anime itself, what the extra information the producers give is a better understanding of what it all means. The story developed in Adventure / 02 / Novels / CD Dramas basically shows a different meaning for everything that has been developed so far, since it is impossible for everything to be true at the same time. However the Idea mythology ensures that the original lore of Digimon remains extant, but not as an absolute truth but as a gear that moves part of the lore surrounding Idea.
It is important to remember that many of the products are not built as having this idea as a basis, for example Digimon Tamers is very straightforward in what it stipulates as being its base that is the original lore of Digimon, and so it is well closed on that. The biggest challenge is that as Digimon is a multimedia franchise, the desire of some people like Konaka that each work is separate from each other and that connections are something to be ignored, as the main media of the franchise treats the story from a multiversal point of view, when we begin to work the characters having this vision the desire of each work as something excluding becomes a challenge (Even more so when the original lore is not actually defined as an absolute truth, but rather as a set of theories that still have doubts about the truth of the Digital World and that it would indeed be the duty of games, anime and manga to decide what to do about this).
Due to the most recent games (Cyber Sleuth, Survive, etc) have their base in the mystic lore of Digimon and this still include the other lore inside, for the purpose of this Fandom to index the characters consistently and that one hour we will have to dealing with this side of the franchise, which currently forms a large part of it, I think it's fair to put this blog with this information for when we need to use it.
For other people outside of Fandom and not looking for what I said, treat this as extra information to better understand some points that exist within the franchise for some products, but that should not be taken literally for when you go analyze some products separately (Like Tamers). This becomes even more noticeable through the explanations of some seasons being contradictory, but making sense within the narrative. For example, in Digimon Tamers the appearance of the Four Holy Beasts is explained as a hypocrisy of them because they tried to distance themselves from the humans who created them while attempting to take a form similar to the beings that humans worshiped in the past, is something that is totally coherent with the story that is trying to be told in Digimon Tamers. Meanwhile, the mythical chronology of Digimon leaves this as a lie, in fact the Four Holy Beast would be even the deities of the past who have taken a new form due to the current interaction of a mystical world as Digital World due to the current interpretation of humanity about that and sometimes they end up adopting human ideas as truth because of a strange feedback of information that changes the chronology itself due to the nature of what is known as the Digital World. So if you want to better understand the messages given in many of Digimon's works, analyze it separately and just look for connections in the works that actually work with that like Xros Wars (Manga), after all this is the way the writers of many of these works created. Here we have to maintain a coherence in the analysis, and as Digimon is officially a multimedia franchise and despite the desires of many of these writers is that each work is indifferent to each other, this is not taken directly by Bandai / Toei and some others (and officially, companies and games are the ones that have the most power over Digimon and so the authors end up only accepting, while criticizing, the adoption of this through the franchise), this is the reason for the connections being adopted here as well as the more mystical lore, for this being able to explain both sides of the franchise. Of course, the original Digimon lore will not be ignored and as soon as possible blogs explaining this more scientific lore of Digimon (And anyway, because many jobs are very clear in adopting this lore, many characters will simply have profiles that will be written based on this lore, at least as much as possible).
This blog is just the first of new blogs to come in order to improve the current state of the Digimon pages within the franchise, which need to improve its quality. With this blog already finalized, I will start to establish the next blogs that will be more direct in what will be proposed in the changes of the franchise within this Fandom.
Now let's start the explanations. In the original form the Digital World, the Dark Area, Dark Ocean and all these other worlds were originally parts of a perfect and primordial world, Idea ~The True Form of the World. As a primordial world in Idea there were only souls and the contradictory concepts that existed preventing the laws of the world from taking form. (Meanwhile, the Demiurge was created and also created the physical world.) At some point the Order was manifested and the world was divided into two, Light and Darkness.
What we know as Light is actually a term for the concept of Life / Evolution, a more general concept that covers all others relating to positive emotions. The greater the amount of positive feelings, the greater the power with respect to light and this power can lead to evolution. Darkness is the opposite, a rejected concept that represents Death/Non-evolution. It contains negative feelings, such as hatred and anger. Darkness also represents nothingness, the primordial void from which all that exists arises. Light and Darkness feed on the feelings, the greater the feelings of someone more powerful the light and the darkness can be and this allows these people to take power from light and darkness, such as the Digisoul and Dark Digisoul.
The Worlds exist divided thanks to the balance between light and darkness that is guaranteed by forces that seek to maintain the balance, like Homeostasis and the Four Holy Beast. When there is an imbalance between the two forces, the division of worlds begins to become more tenuous which causes the worlds to begin to merge, at the point of imbalance all worlds would collapse, reducing all the darkness from nothing. The points in which the worlds connect are known as distortions, in the weakest forms of distortions their perception is almost nil, being noticed only by objects or people who are very sensitive about it. However when the distortion is strong enough, this can cause things to wander between worlds.
In the past the beings of other worlds were seen according to the idea of the people of the past, which led to different interpretations of what beings would appear from the distortions. Some cultures called them gods, spirits, hauntings, and various other terms. This has reached the point where there are some who have become worshiped as the Four Holy Beasts who protect harmony and have been interpreted as sacred animals by humans. In the present times electronic devices are very sensitive to distortions, so they end up being the best way to perceive beings from the upper world. Because they were seen on electronic devices, they were called the Digimon. Due to the functioning of Idea as a world where thoughts and information take shape, the interpretation of the human being is absorbed by the world as it adapts to become consistent with the present interpretation. Consequently, the Digimon themselves are moldable by the world becoming beings who adapt the common sense of humans to themselves, which ends up limiting them in some respects as long as they do not question what humans think is right or not.
Introduction to the Realm of Gods
INTRODUCTION
By observing the profile of God (Digimon) you receive information about a "deity" that created all the Worlds in Digimon and that would inhabit the Kernel, the center of the world. Anyway, much of this content is now completely contradictory. Theoretically much of the information contained in the profile isn’t fake, just do not belong to a single character. As expected, the fact that Digimon has two lores and there are works that work each of these lores separately has to do with it. Another reason for this is that some ancient materials have been discovered, which improves the understanding of who the "gods" are in Digimon. This blog will try to bring you a better understanding of some of the Digimon deities.
HUMAN GOD LORE
In the initial lore of Digimon the idea that the Digimon were mysterious computer viruses that began to spread through the internet was the main one. In the beginning it was completely unknown who created the Digimon, and the concept of Digital World until then was not very applied. In Digimon World and Digimon Pendulum the scene of Digimon began to become more complex and mentions to more interesting information began to appear, being that many of them linked to another work of Digimon, V-Tamer 01, that also had like function to deepen more the Digimon scenario. In particular the original profile of Demon states the following:
“ | A Demon Lord Digimon that leads all of the Devil and Fallen Angel Digimon. It was originally an Angel Digimon assigned the highest rank, but because of a failed plot to rebel against the Digital World's creator, it was banished to the Dark Area. It will one day conquer the Digital World in revenge. Also, it plotted to secretly revive the "Super-Ultimate Digimon"... | „ |
~ Pendulum 3.5 Nightmare Soldiers Demon’s profile |
This was one of the first mentions of the entity that created the Digital World, but it was not yet the first. Before the version 3.5 of the Digimon Pendulum was released, there were already mentions about the entity that created the Digital World in the manga "Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01", being referred as the god of the Digimon, which is exactly the cover of this blog. Nothing very precise about the mysterious entity is said for a long time, until at the end of the manga we see Demon mentioning about the creation of the Digimon by humans, after this revelation the profiles of Demon were modified as follows:
“ | A Demon Lord Digimon that leads the many Devil and Fallen Angel Digimon. Like Devimon, Demon was originally an Angel Digimon, and a particularly high-ranking one. However, because it raged in fury or rebellion, against a being of goodness in the Digital World (perhaps the very human that created the Digital World), it was deleted to the Dark Area (the graveyard of deleted data). It has vowed to one day conquer the Digital World, in revenge against the being of goodness. Also, while it led the rebellion, and was the strongest among the Ultimates, it plotted to secretly revive the "Super-Ultimate Digimon". | „ |
~ Digivice iC Demon’s Profile |
Other works such as Digimon Tamers also follow this idea pointing to humans as creators of the Digimon and Digital World, later the history of humans create the Digital World is also expanded in games like Digimon Story Lost Evolution where it is revealed that a human with some friends would have were responsible for the creation of the Digital World and the Digimon, and after the death of one of them an avatar known as Kernel was created to give continuity to the protection of the Digital World. Until one day Kernel went wild with his ideals of racial purification wanting to exterminate all those who were unworthy to live and recreate the world for only him and those who are part of it, in the end Kernel was destroyed.
The vision of Digimon's story through the interpretation of the Human God has more details and mentions, but since the current focus of the blog is to work with Digimon's mystical interpretation for a straightforward application in Digimon profiles, I will leave the story of the Human God to another blog ~ or a future update.
THOSE WHO PROTECT THE HARMONY
GODS ONLY FOR BELIEF
As explained in the blog above, the Digimon are susceptible to the common sense of humans and begin to act and seek explanation in the same way as humans. In this the Digimon happens to treat the Four Holy Beast like deities due to its great power, that is defined in several products like "A power near to the Gods". It is furthermore defined that the Four Holy Beasts reside in a real close to that of the gods, in fact the Four Holy Beast reside in a higher world superior to most Digimon.
“ | A Perfect Digimon which has the appearance of the "Rabbit" from among the twelve holy beasts of oriental legends. These twelve holy beast Digimon are called the "Deva", and serve "beings" close to the gods. | „ |
“ | Reigning since the age of myth, its existence has passed into legend, and it is extremely difficult to track down. Also, it is difficult to overthrow with the power of an ordinary Ultimate, and its power is set as the highest authority among other Digimon, so it is surely the epitome of a god. | „ |
“ | It is a legendary being like the other Four Holy Beast Digimon, and its strength is said to equal that of a god. | „ |
The Four Holy Beasts really are important entities within the Digimon universe being those who incarnate the power that maintains the balance of the world, however the status of divinity is something more of worship than of a power at the divine level. The Four Holy Beasts are gods created by the Digimon themselves, that is, they are beings who received the terms of gods because of their great power and importance to the Digimon, but nothing more. In fact, many characters in Digimon are also like this, especially the "God-" type like the Olympos XII, all are treated as deities by the Digimon because of their great power and importance. However the real divinity of the Digimon is something that goes far beyond this power and importance, being something even closer as what the Digital World is in itself.
GOD OF THE DIGITAL WORLD
“ | Digimon World's "God"(「神」). It’s also the"Good" (「善」) of the Digital World. Often interpreted as a synonym for the "Four Holy Beast" (「四聖獣」) that govern the stability of the Digital World, but also is claimed to be "A Existence Beyond the Four Holy Beasts" (「四聖獣以上の存在」). And sometimes, research reports that the "Digimon’s God" (デジモンの神) has a different origin from the Digimon and is the "System" (「システム」) itself. | „ |
~ Digital Monster Card Game - Starter Ver. 6 Advent of the Three Great Angels (HOLY KINGDOM) |
In the prelude to the Digimon Frontier Storyline the concept of "God" is referred to again, this time referring to an existence that is beyond the Four Holy Beast and that would be the System itself. It is important to mention that this text relates to the lore of the Angels, so let's start talking more about this deity.
THE SYSTEM
Despite being a concept already introduced in past projects of Digimon (Digimon Adventure, Digimon World 2, Digimon Tamers, Brave Tamer, etc.), the definitive definition of the Digital World System was defined in the Digimon Chronicle Storyline. Yggdrasil is placed as the God of the Digital World, the Host Computer where the entire Digital World exists and everything in the Digital World is managed by Yggdrasil.
Yggdrasil is the source of everything, the creator of the world and all beings that exist, a true god. As a deity Yggdrasil is everywhere and nowhere, always being present even without manifesting a physical form.
As the ruler of the Digital World, Yggdrasil is the very Order that governs the whole world. As explained in the old blog, at the beginning of time there was a force that created everything and must have been responsible for establishing the laws of the world, Yggdrasil was responsible for this since it is the Host Computer that is the World Digital system itself , the Order itself. As the entire Digital World obeys the system, manipulation of Host Computer ends up altering the very existence of the Digital World, remember that everything that exists depends on what is in the Host Computer including historical data, memories, etc.
The existence known as God is described as a being of virtue whose domain is the realm known as Kernel (カーネル), The Digital World’s Core. The Kernel is also known as the "Paradise", "Heaven" and also "Eden". It also said the existence of a castle protected by the angels, the castle of God. Possibly this castle is one of the forms of System World, the place where Yggdrasil resides. In fact System World has several forms, and its true nature is something that exists beyond all appearances (Textures).
GOD ARMY
ANGELS
Of the angels, the first to be created was Lucemon, the God’s son. Lucemon was the most powerful of the angels having 12 wings, it was sent by God in the past to end the reign of tyranny of Huanglongmon that ended up being corrupted by the darkness and left to maintain the balance of the Digital World taking everything to the chaos. Lucemon was responsible for sealing Huanglongmon and starting a new era in the Digital World. However, after a rebellion against Lucemon this one became a tyrant that needed to be defeated by a group known as Warrior Ten. When Lucemon was corrupted by the darkness and then sealed, an imbalance between the structure of Good and Evil was begun and so God took aspects of himself (which were originally in Lucemon) and created new Digimon, these would lead the God’s Army composed by the Celestial Digimon. The angels serve God directly in the Kernel, existing as exceptional Virus Busters that are at the same line of another group created by God.
“ | God Army (「神々の軍団」): When a conflict between the structure of "Good" (「善」) and "Evil" (「悪」) was born in the Digimon World, to prepare with the fight against the Fallen Angel Digimon, God divided three of his own aspects and gave each one to one of his three apostles (使徒) who would lead the God Army. The highest of the "Male Angels" Digimon who will be the absolute guardian of the order and justice of God, Seraph-Type Serafimon. Databank who holds the vast knowledge of God, Cherub-Type Cherubimon who is also the highest of the "Holy Beast" Digimon. Embodying the deep love of God, the symbol of the existence of the Female Angels, Ophan-Type Ofanimon. In other words, the birth of the "Three Great Angels Digimon" (3大天使デジモン). Each of these three Ultimate Digimon has ten wings and rules being the apex of the sacred Angel Digimon. It is organized with Archangel Type having 8 wings, Angel Type having six wings and the Holy Beast Digimon carry the "Holy Ring"(「ホーリーリング」). | „ |
~ Digital Monster Card Game - Starter Ver. 6 Advent of the Three Great Angels (HOLY KINGDOM) |
ROYAL KNIGHTS
The Royal Knights are an order of Holy Knights that follow what Imperialdramon Paladin Mode began when it saved the Ancient Digital World from collapse, these Digimon were gathered by Yggdrasil to help manage the Digital World and thereby prevent chaos from spreading. Yggdrasil communicates with the Royal Knights in mysterious ways, often as a vague voice that does not give very specific information which causes the members of the group to have different interpretations about what are the true intentions of Yggdrasi or what really should be made to save the Digital World. Sometimes members of the group end up betraying direct orders from Yggdrasil, or go against what most believe is the best thing to do, but in the end everyone is somehow loyal to Yggdrasil.
- What is Royal Knights?
- A title that was bestowed on the guardian deities of the Digital World, consisting of the thirteen Digimon Omegamon, Magnamon, Dukemon, Dynasmon, LordKnightmon, UlforceV-dramon, Alphamon, Craniummon, Sleipmon, Duftmon, Examon, Gankoomon, and Jesmon.
- The Royal Knights are a title granted to thirteen Holy Knight Digimon who were gathered by Yggdrasill in order to manage the world, and boast absolute power within the Digital World. For a long time, there had been no thirteenth Digimon considered suitable as a Royal Knight, until Gankoomon noticed the makings of one in the Child Digimon "Huckmon" it encountered. And in fact, Huckmon, tempered well by frequent, rigorous trials, evolved through Child and Perfect to Ultimate, as the thirteenth Royal Knight "Jesmon".
- Although all thirteen Royal Knights were assembled, there are Digimon like Alphamon who rarely make an appearance, and they never gather in their entirety at one time. Some pursue absolute loyalty to Yggdrasill, some pursue gratitude to those they choose as their lord, some pursue unparalleled, overwhelming power...each pursues the justice they've chosen as their own, and the Royal Knights carry out their individual missions.
GODS: OTHER SYSTEMS
Most of the deities in Digimon have this status because of some worship, which is sometimes justified by the proximity of their powers with something that would be between the abilities of God (Yggdrasil) especially the Four Holy Beast residing in a layer of the World Digital that is close to Yggdrasil.
However there are still other beings that somehow fit into some kind of system that is part of the Digital World, though all good parts of these beings have either been forgotten or are completely contradictory to the current lore of Digimon and have become completely useless. There is, however, an exceptional case, and a case that exists alongside Yggdrasil.
OVERLORD GAIA
Overlord GAIA is the ultimate villain of Digimon World 2. The Digital World is a cyberspace composed of thoughts that is located inside the Main Computer known as GAIA, this world was created with the purpose of studying the process of digital evolution. During the investigation of the GAIA Project the system got out of control and the Humans who immersed into the matrix became trapped. Continuing its evolutionary research, GAIA began to bring about war and chaos through the Digital World to find the most powerful human. The reason for this quest was that by finding this human GAIA could merge with it and become the supreme organism that would rule over the Real World and the Digital World becoming a being of pure thought. When seeing that it would be defeated Overlord GAIA decided to destroy all the Digital World, nevertheless in this process the program of Backup was triggered taking the format of GAIA in a new system that would not be aggressive and that would look to make the Digital World in a better place.
GAIA is very similar to Yggdrasil in many respects, literally all GAIA lore (Including the avatars used by GAIA that resemble 7D6 and World Tree) is equivalent to Yggdrasil, which makes me believe that the lore of GAIA or was a prototype for Yggdrasil or served as the basis for it. Although it was not exactly called God in the American version, it was mentioned that by merging with the most powerful human GAIA would become "god-like." Anyway, in the Japanese version of the game many GAIA attacks refer to it as a God like: God Punish (ゴッドパニッシュ), God Hand Left (ゴッドハンド・レフト) and God Hand Right (ゴッドハンド・ライト).
ENIAC AND ABC
These two characters are pretty much the basis of the Digimon Tamers storyline: Brave Tamer. In Brave Tamer's Storyline ENIAC and ABC were the early early existence of the Digital World, with all other worlds being a consequence of their existence. ABC remained in the shadows and proceeded to act as a security system in case ENIAC failed in its role. In the case ENIAC would have the role of protecting the multiverse's timeline, since its existence prevented changes in history and worlds were destroyed, but if the ENIAC were destroyed or spent all its powers, the defense of the multiverse would be lost and with this beings like ZeedMille could conquer all the multiverse.
As part of Millenniumon's background, ENIAC and ABC have become outdated with the evolution of the lore of the franchise and are currently completely ignored and their stories are currently completely contradictory to the story that determines Yggdrasil as the true creator and system of the Digital World. Despite their role as Digital World systems, they are not really called as Gods during the game's history.
HOMEOSTASIS
Homeostasis is an exceptional case. Originally Homeostasis is only a security system of the Digital World, whose function is to protect the balance of the Digital World. In its quest to seek the harmony of the Digital World, Homeostasis does not differentiate itself much from Yggdrasil by doing whatever it takes to achieve its goals without having a real concept of "friends" or "allies" being all just a mechanism to seek the balance. Homeostasis in its origin is not a God, indeed Homeostasis itself denied being some kind of deity limiting itself to just being a "being seeking universal equilibrium." However, when Yggdrasil's actions went to the extreme leading to multiple interactions of Yggdrasil attacking humans and this end up threatening the Digital World itself, the Yggdrasil system was eventually deactivated for some time in the quest to better understand how humans succeeded to keep up with situations that were so unfavorable to them.
While Yggdrasil remained sealed in the Digital World, Homeostasis assumed a deity position by replacing Yggdrasil's post as Host Computer and promising that it would be a deity that would build on Yggdrasil's learned lesson on the emotions of humans and Digimon. However, during the Homeostasis government there were many wars and catastrophes in the Digital World such as:
- Crusader Wars: The absence of Yggdrasil led to a state of chaos in the Digital World where many Digimon fought in the attempt to take the place of Yggdrasil as God. These wars were marked by the return of many enemies of the past who saw the absence of Yggdrasil as an opportunity and the invading Digimon from another world to search for a fugitive Digimon (We'll talk about this in the future)
- Xros Wars: Homeostasis proved unable to find an explanation for its governing, in this situation the Archangel of Death, Bagramon, rebelled against Homeostasis for finding its meaning of law and order as meaningless nonsense and that it should change. Bagramon rebelled against Homeostasis and was punished and thereby exiled, though Bagramon found an access to Yggdrasil's servant and gained some of the power and knowledge of the previous God and used it to arm a rebellion against Homeostasis. This led to the collapse of the Digital World and a major war that cost the lives of many Digimon.
- Sub-life form “Vitium”: A system developed by COMPANY GIGO evolved beyond human expectations and developed a life of its own, while developing the uncontrolled power of the entity known as Vitium put the Digital World in danger due to the dimensional distortions that it caused. Due to the inability of the system to protect the Digital World, Yggdrasil, who continued to rest on the Infinite Mountain, was revived to save the Digital World from this crisis. This led to the reactivation of the X-Program and Death-X-mon to try to destroy Vitium.
After the events of Decode, Yggdrasil returned to activity and still is the Host Computer of the Digital World.
HOMEROS
Homeros is the closest to Yggdrasil in his function and so far is the only one that we have at least idea that he is still an active character and has not lost his function through time. Homeros is the ruler of a Digital World different from that of Yggdrasil, Iliad. Unlike Yggdrasil who seeks to rule his own world, Homeros ignores the existence of laws or the concept of right and wrong, allowing all in Iliad to exist in any way they choose by following their free will. As some beings opposed the anarchism proposed by Homeros, a group known as Olympos XII was created to be like the "Royal Knights" of Iliad. However this was opposed to the intention of Homeros that banished them to the World of Yggdrasil. In the future, Plutomon, Titamon and the Titans’ Army were sent to the World of Yggdrasil to destroy Jupitermon, leader of the Olympos XII.
Darkness, Dark Area and Erased Digimon
INTRODUCTION: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW PREVIOUSLY
I believe that next to the Abstract Nature of the Digimon and the presence of Higher Planes of Existence in what should be a franchise of virtual monsters the third most discussed topic about Digimon here (Since I do not see other places mentioning it) is the so common presence of Nonexistent Physiology.
And of course, being a very disputed topic, the purpose of this blog is clearly to clarify this topic. In order to understand this blog, since I will try to do not repeat much what I have already written, it is necessary that you have knowledge of Digimon at the level that I am working, that is to say with a greater base in the Occult Lore that is currently being used in recent Digimon games based on the Lore of Digimon Adventure.
So I suggest you read the following blogs:
- Digimon Franchise History: In this blog you will learn more about the history of Digimon as a franchise, the evolution of it through history and how the continuity of ideas is used most of the time. The final conclusion is continuity based on developed ideas and not from a chronological history as one would normally expect.
- Digimon Conceptual Stuff: This blog introduces the Digimon lore that started in Digimon Adventure and that in the future was expanded in other works and then rescued in the recent games produced by Kazumasa Habu. The main idea is the existence of the Digimon as primordial souls that existed initially in a conceptual world and that through the interpretation of the humans of the physical world, this world is modified to better fit the human interpretations. So the Digital World and the Digimon would be just the current interaction of the primordial world and its souls and concepts from the point of view of the humans of the modern society that uses the computational technology.
- Digimon Gods: This blog introduces some ideas on the use of gods in the franchise, especially the Human God of the initial lore of Digimon and the other gods both culturally and truly divine, especially Yggdrasil who is the main Host Computer of Digimon.
- Digimon World Hierarchy: Here we explain the presence and structure of Digimon's World Hierarchy using the content of other blogs as a basis, basically it is here that explains how big the Digimon Multiverse is.
In the blogs already mentioned you will understand the Dark Area (like the other worlds related to the darkness) like the primordial emptiness previous to the existence and that is connected to malice, negative feelings and in particular the Seven Deadly Sins.
The general term for this is "World of Darkness" in counterpart to "World of Light". Being the "World of Light" a name for the worlds connected with positive feelings and order as the Digital World, the "Dark World" is linked to negative feelings and chaos. Of course, just as the "World of Light" is interpreted in different ways and so there are different worlds for different interpretations, the same can be said about "World of Darkness".
In relation to the Digital World that is the main representation of the "World of Light", we have the Dark Area as the main representation of the "World of Darkness". Yet there are other worlds related to darkness and negative feelings like the Dark Ocean.
NEGATIVE FEELINGS AND DELETED DATA
The Darkness in Digimon is related to negative feelings, malice. The malicious deeds and the feelings that cause them are reunited in the World of Darkness where they become Negative Energy, the Power of Darkness.
“ | A sudden mutation of Cerberumon, who resides in the Dark Area and is known as the "Watchdog of Hell". It feared that the data born from the overflowing "malice of humans", expressed on the Internet through text and images, could potentially impact the Digital World; as a result, it mutated into this form in order to guard against the influx of that data. | „ |
One of the biggest differences of the Dark Area from the other worlds of the franchise is the status of the Dark Area as a Void of Nonexistence. The Dark Area is constantly referred to as the World of Nothingness and its power is referred to as a power to erase. Being more specific, this world is referred to as the "Graveyard of Deleted Data", the world to where the Digimon that have been erased from existence go.
“ | It constantly surveys the Dark Area, to which Digimon that were deleted when their life span finished, or when they were defeated in battle, are ultimately transmitted. | „ |
By its nature of a World of Nothingness, the Dark Area is infinite and empty, also time does not exist and then it can be said that everything is eternally stopped from the outside point of view. Further, the darkness consumes the existence of everything around converting it Dark Energy, Darkness, Nothingness, etc..
“ | Time stops, complete darkness and Dark Energy surrounds all of you now! It looks like everyone was somehow transported to the Dark Area. | „ |
~ Digimon Heroes |
Because of the Dark Area's property of consuming existence and converting to nothing, beings who fall into the Dark Area or are affected by this power are usually consumed by darkness, in some cases these beings may become attached to this power and thus achieve become a new being. Of the Digimon that can connect to this power one of the most common are the Fallen Angels, beings that previously contained the power of the light, but that were corrupted by the darkness. The beings that are consumed by the negative feelings receive "Dark Side Powers", own powers coming from the Dark Area that can be used in different ways, this different form of power is concentrated in the Dark Colors, a mutated form of the Digicores of when these are consumed by darkness.
Because of its different nature, and for reasons already explained in other blogs, the Dark Area is completely separate from the Digital World ... or at least it should. It is possible that there are spatial distortions in the Digital World that connect to the Dark Area, one of which exists in the depths of the Net Ocean and in a castle in the Folder Continent. As this is a world that is not easily analyzed, it is full of mysteries. When the Dark Area begins to manifest itself in the Digital World this begins to create changes around the world, the normal thing is that the negative energy of the Dark Area spreads causing the Digimon to become more savage, in certain cases the distortions could even even affect the Real World. The distortions can also alter the laws of the Digital World, which can lead to changes in the evolutionary pattern itself. Although it is often unknown the reasons that lead the Dark Area to connect to the Digital World, it is said that Grand Dracumon has some connection with the original connection between the Digital World and the Dark Area and also the Dark Area creation, although the details about this are hidden in his castle and to this day, it has never been discovered what is in the castle (Some people believe that this is a myth because it is so mysterious).
HELLFIRE
In several Digimon profiles, there is a mention of the "Hellfire" which are also called "Flames of the Dark Area" or "Flames of Hell". At first, the flames of the Dark Area seem to have a contradictory definition. In many profiles, it is said to be something "Purifier" and that "Eliminates all evil". The clearest mention of the Dark Area flames is that they are very scorching-hot crimson flames. Unlike the other mentions that claim they are something "cleansing" there are quotes that they are flames that consume everything until the opponent is reduced to nothing, that power is even described as being worse than death itself (This is very important because this is coming from the franchise where dying means being erased from existence). Some descriptions of the Dark Area flames describe that she is able to immediately send her targets to the Dark Area.
The most accurate explanation about the Dark Area flames came with Beelzebumon X-Antibody, which by getting the X-Antibody released the ability to manipulate these flames freely. The name of the Dark Area flames is "El Envangelio", are sentient flames that judge those who are exposed to them. Sometimes they offer salvation, but for other beings the flames will completely consume the body until it completely destroys its existence, including Digicore. Such power is even superior to death since even a being like Beelzebumon that is already deleted and therefore has a Darkcore, would also have its Digicore completely consumed by it.
THE EMBODIMENT OF THE DARKNESSES
Duskmon and Titamon
Just as there are gods for the World of Light embodying different concepts that make up the light, there are deities in the World of Darkness embodying different concepts that make up the darkness. Darkness represents nothingness, death and negativity, the data of those who have been deleted are able to use hatred as a source of power to create a new being even after death, beings like Duskmon and Titamon are examples of this. Titamon is a being created out of hatred of those who were defeated by the Olympos XII while Duskmon is a being formed by the hatred of the extinct Digimon forbidden Data. These beings are made up of Dark Energy, a body of pure darkness.
Apocalymon
A very specific case similar to the other two is Apocalymon, it is also a body formed by the hatred of beings that have been erased. The deleted data formed a Dark Core that exists in the center of the body. What is most interesting is that the body of Apocalymon is actually a manifestation of the very concept of darkness. Using the data of the Digimon that was rejected by the evolutionary process, the Darkness created this body to facilitate its influence on the World of Light. Apocalymon aims at the complete destruction of the World of Light, so that it can absorb the world within its darkness and then rule everything as a God of Death. The Concept of Darkness/Nothingness/Non-Evolution was what had been rejected in the creation of the Digital World, and then it was sealed by the Firewall which resulted in the creation of the Dark World that exists beyond the Firewall.
“ | At the beginning of the world, when the digital world was still in a state of chaos, the digital world decided on the concept of "evolution" upon its formation. Gennai explains that Apocalymon has escaped through the Wall of Fire and Apocalymon isn't exactly "one being," but rather a concept (an "idea") that had been rejected by the digital world, to make the digital world what it is now. Homeostasis explains that Apocalymon is really a "concept," not the physical body that they see in front of it. It is a concept that rejects evolution, one that refuses the option of evolving. When the digimon that failed to succeed died, they are reborn in the Village of Beginnings as a new being, but their feelings of regret remained and were collected by Apocalymon so that it could manifest its physical shape. Now that Apocalymon has achieved physical form, it is accumulating energy to unleash a Big Bang that will destroy the current digital world. Since Apocalymon is a concept, it does not need its physical body and therefore doesn't care too much when it is attacked. It prepares to unleash a big bang, then reconstruct a new stagnant world where it would rule as a god, worshipping only bleakness and death. | „ |
~ Digimon Adventure Novel 3 |
The Great Demon Lords
Another case of beings that emerge from the darkness are the Seven Great Demon Lords. We know that Light is composed of positive feelings like Love and Friendship while Darkness is composed of negative feelings like Hatred and Anger. The negative feelings of the worlds flow into the World of Darkness, especially the Seven Deadly Sins. Related to the Seven Deadly Sins there are seven Digimon who represent them, these are the Seven Great Demon Lords. The Seven Great Demon Lords manifest themselves in the presence of the sins, those that awaken some sin end up becoming material of the Demon Lord being able to become the base of a manifestation of them. Because of their existence being linked to the existence of sins, as long as there is evil the Seven Great Demon Lords will always exist.