Undertale Cosmology Blog

WIP-ish

SAVE System

This system is essentially the basis of the cosmology and how it will work.

SAVE and LOAD

Anytime a DETERMINATION user feels an incredible will to live, they can SAVE those points in time, with their SAVE file representing their current control over a timeline, LOADING goes hand and hand with SAVE points, allowing the extremely determined user to go back to their save point, which essentially works as time travel. The time warping abilities of the SAVING and LOADING is emphasized even more by the statement made by Sans, causing the timelines to 'jump' left and right.

RESETS

RESETs are the more large scale option of the three and the most important part of this. RESETs create new timelines by 'stopping' the current timeline you are in than creating a new one. This does not exactly have to mean that the 'stopping' of a timeline would mean that the previous timeline stops existing, just because you stopped a car doesn't mean it would stop existing for example, and Sans still acknowledging the timelines and Alphys arguably acknowledging them as well (more in-depth explanation in the Alphys section) should be enough to prove that they still exist in some shape or form. Another thing to note is that you are still able to load a SAVE from a previous timeline if you RESET (example), which wouldnt exactly be possible if the previous timeline ceased to exist, as if the timeline ceased to exist the SAVE would as well due to there being no timeline to go back to.

Timelines 'stopping and starting' also goes along with what flowey says at the end of the True Pacifist, stating that "Everyone will be ripped from this timeline... and sent back before all of this ever happened.", which is pretty much saying that the old timeline 'stops' and the new timeline 'begins'. Sans also talks about the other "sans-es" after trolling frisk in the genocide route, which wouldn't exactly make sense if there is one timeline as he would just be talking about himself here, but would make perfect sense if there is multiple timelines.

Extra Information

FUN Value

Fun Value is a random number in Undertale between 1 and 100 selected on RESET. Depending on the number a random rare event can occur independent from player choice, one specifically we should take note of is Goner Kid, with them stating that they are distraught about the thought of a world where they dont exist, which is seen in the case of the many timelines where he doesn't spawn in. I'd like to note that each Fun Value does not represent its own timeline, the values themselves are just numbers in the game data that determine certain events which make timelines more unique than others, more on this will be explained below in the misconceptions section.

Alphys Statement

This is a rather interesting case, not just due to the character not being the most trustworthy source but also because of the existence of Deltarune. Due to the already mentioned reasons it is not really fully known if she is being serious here or not, and while alphys referring to 'Alt. Universes' could definitely mean that she actually has seen other timelines, this could also be referring to separate game worlds entirely, like Deltarune. Either interpretation is possible I feel, but I suppose we gotta wait and see if Deltarune gives us anything about this.

Size of the Cosmology

Considering we have established how the mechanics of the cosmology work, I suppose the question now is, well, how big is it?

As Sans states in the Genocide route, it is heavily implied that a new timeline starts and a new one begins via RESETS, with there being no actual limit on how many timeline there could be. Flowey alone has RESET and LOADED so much that he has done everything the Underground had to offer (every 'line of dialogue', every 'set of numbers', etc), with Sans alone causing Flowey to do a fair share of RESETs. This also brings us to how many RESETs the player can do, of which, as said, is no limit, with Flowey even saying to chara that he expects that they have heard the Post-True Pacifist dialogue a 'hundred times already'. Due to these points, and it being evident that the game can host all the possible amount of timelines without there being an actual cap to how many RESETs you can do, I feel it is safe to say that this makes the Undertale verse in the Countless or 'Ad-Infinitum' range.

Who Scales?

Chara

I feel it is rather evident that Chara scales to the cosmology, they have the most blatant feats for such after all, but I will list em here.

• Seems to be the 'Everything Ends' Sans refers to in the Genocide Route (See below.)
• Destroyed the entire game in one strike, with the original purpose of chara's destruction being that of the game entirely deleting itself.
• Was able to restore the entire game after completely destroying it from existence.

TRUE RESET

The TRUE RESET is one of the more game changing systems in the game, acting like a RESET but on a much larger scale, almost acting like Chara's restoration of the game world itself and RESETs you all the way back to the point where you name the fallen human, thus it should probably scale to the cosmology, of which will make Asriel Dreemurr and The Player scale in return, Asriel wanted to and was probably capable of doing a TRUE RESET if frisk wasn't disabling him from doing so, and the player is capable of doing a TRUE RESET at the end of the True Pacifist Route

Possible Misconceptions

"'Everything Ends' refers to RESETS."

I do not believe this is exactly the case.

“

our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting… until suddenly, everything ends.

„

While sans seems to speak as if 'everything ends' has happened before, which may imply 'everything ends' refers to a RESET. It is more likely that this 'everything ends' is a prediction in the reports, as he is not exactly fighting for resets, as will be shown below.

“

heh heh heh… that’s your fault, isn’t it? you can’t understand how this feels. knowing that one day, without any warning… it’s all going to be reset.

„

He is aware of the resets happening evidently, so it is noteworthy that it is only in the Genocide Route he would try to stop frisk from completing it. which brings us to this here.

“

to be blunt… it makes it kind of hard to give it my all. …or is that just a poor excuse for being lazy…? hell if i know. all i know is… seeing what comes next… i can’t afford not to care anymore.

„

The line 'seeing what comes next' implies that sans saw something in the reports than pushed him to the limit. It is not frisk reaching the surface and finishing the game that has sans worried, he allows Frisk to reach the end in pretty much every neutral run, leaving a voice message with details of the aftermath of Frisk’s journey and actions. Completing the Genocide Route however is a much more final and longer lasting effect, which is Chara's destruction of the entire game world.

Due to this, I feel 'Everything Ends' refers to Chara's destruction of Undertale itself, rather than a simple RESET.

"There is only one Timeline."

This is explained more thoroughly in the RESETS text of the first section.

Another thing to note, if there was only one timeline, the characters having vague deja vu and nostalgia from the previous timeline wouldn't be possible, as if everything was happening on a singular timeline, RESETing back would've prevented those actions they remember from happening at all.

"Each FUN Value is its own timeline, meaning their must be only 100 timelines max"

The FUN Values are merely numbers in the games data that determine certain events that happen in a timeline, which does not mean that there is only 100 timelines, but just that a newly born timeline could have certain variations unbound by the player's influence. Timelines having the same events occur in them doesn't exactly mean they are the same timeline, just that they both share the same features, just as every timeline shares certain similar features to each other.

The values themselves are never actually acknowledged in the game either and are only found in the games data. With that I don't think we should consider the values themselves canon, as said they are merely numbers in the game data which determine certain factors that make certain timelines more unique than others with no other thought put into it other than it being a thing that generates a number from 1 to 100 on reset. We disallowed using certain game data stats and the dirty hacker ending for similar reasons, that reason being they are generally not really considered canon to the game whatsoever due to having to manipulate/reach into in-game files to find them.