Shin Megami Tensei Cosmology


"Shin Megami Tensei"

The Megami Tensei franchise refers to the entire franchise of Megami Tensei games and spin-offs, primarily developed by Atlus and currently owned by Sega. The series began with a series of novels written by Aya Nishitani, the first of which is Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. The franchise has crossed many consoles genres, and forms of media, and is the one of the most popular Japanese RPG franchises. Although less popular, Megami Tensei or simply called "Megaten" by fans, contains more games and spin-offs than almost any other franchise.

Ever since Shin Megami Tensei was released as a spinoff of the original Megami Tensei series of video games, the Megami Tensei franchise has made multiple spinoff series. Although they might deviate game-play wise, various recurring elements will show up, such as names of Elemental Spells, the various Demons that appear, the Moon Cycle system, and so on.

Currently, the two active series are the Shin Megami Tensei Series, considered to be the "main" series, and the Persona series, which has outsold the Shin Megami Tensei series. Recently however the the Soul Hackers series has been revived with a second game, implying more franchises from Megami Tensei could come back.


Multiverse


Megami Tensei Multiverse collectively refers to the multiple worlds and universes included in the Megami Tensei series. Nearly all Megami Tensei games heavily feature connections to other worlds and universes which suggests that the games may not occur in the same "universe" but that they still take place in the same over-arching multiverse. However such games as Persona 3, Persona 4, & Persona 5 are in a separate multiverse, Last Bible being in it's own separate multiverse, and Maken X being in it's own multiverse apart of the overall collective Megami Tensei franchise but not in Shin Megami Tensei's multiverse.

A basic rundown of the multiverses' size at the moment shows us there are infinite universe.


The Human World

is notable to be made only by data



And all concepts made the Multiverse, its past, present and the future


Everything in the Main Multiverse, even the humans is metaphysical


There are abstract and platonic concepts


Everyone is unbound by forms, making them following Plato’s Theory of Forms



All things are reduced to nothing but an undifferentiated, infinitesimal substance that can only be described as information, more akin in nature to human thoughts than anything physical


There’s also infinite possibiliteis in each timeline


And concepts are literally meaningless, but every concept is still related to its thing



Concepts and matters are less related



There’s the Triangulum, a form of existence in Devil Survivor 2, has 2 forms of existences: The physical form and the data form, where their data form is used to attack the Akashic Record



The Astrolabe : The Astrolabe is the tool that controls the Akashic Record, which is a tool used by both the Adminstrators and Canopus to organize the data inside the Akashic Record, effectively shaping all the worlds to their liking. When choosing an example to further identify The Astrolabe




if the Akashic Record is a disk drive that contains all the phenomenons of the world in it, The Astrolabe is simply the ultimate super computer where the disk drive is plugged in, where this would mean that as long as it is within the realm of the Akashic Record, The Astrolabe can make anything possible.



The Multiverse does also have Qualia.

"As described by Stephen "observation" (sometimes described as "understanding") is the ability humans possess to give structure to the formless. In this instance, "observation" has nothing to do with sight, but rather human perception. It is an extension of the philosophical concept of "qualia," or individual, subjective experiences. For example, the sensation of seeing color is not easily communicated, yet something humanity possess a shared understanding of. Likewise.  YHVH only exists because of this shared observation.

Of course, forms of communication are necessary in order for humans to share their observations with one another. But once framed by language, these concepts change in nature. In effect, they become bound by language, much like the shared understanding of YHVH. What Dagda and the Divine Powers seek to do is free themselves from the limiting existence forced upon them by language. Because YHVH never revealed himself to humanity, he is not bound by language the same way they are.

SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI IV APOCALYPSE NOTES, ENTRY - "OBSERVATION"


There's a barrier that separates between The Human World and The Expanse.



Amala Network :


This construct has appeared in Shin Megami Tensei III and hasn't appeared since. In SMT III, we learn that The Amala Network is a seperate world that is sustained by Kagustuchi

The structure is infinite in size and construct.


Universes in Megami Tensei works on the Gnostic view of the universes. 



These universes expands infinitelt into higher dimensions


And millions or billions of universes are created, destroued or reborn in an infinite cycle of conceptions ( all of which are in a blink of an eye ).




The Conception: A phenomenon in the Amala Network, it is an event that creates worlds depending on Reasons, and that is by destroying the former oness inside the Amala Universe, a universe that is not only infinite in size, but also contains infinite amounts of universes, where "time and space meld together and flow as one"



The Amala Network a truly interesting construct is it follows the concept of Sangai, which is a Buddhist concept that represents the three aspects of time - past, present and future, which means that each Universe that resides in Amala possesses infinite different iterations.

"I speak to my disciples--

In the future I see the destruction of the Sangai.

When the sound of the revolving drum reaches the ends of the universe, the Eastern Palace will enter into the Taizo with glory.

The people of the world will become as red souls through Daihi, and the throng of demons will follow this transformation.

The secret master will stand before the souls' Renge and announce a Kotowari. This will become the Law of the Creation of the world".

From Book 4, Section 24 of the Miroku Scripture

Each Reason is a concept that creates a reality in the Network. 

Reason: The main setting and goal in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. A Reason is a concept and an ideal of sorts made by humans to shape the world through a Demonic Sponsor. Kagutsuchi gave this unique ability to the surviving humans in the Vortex World after The Conception affected the whole world. Due to this power being given to only humans, Demons, and beings that shouldn't have existed that are made by Magatsuhi, such as the Manikins are banned from having their own Reasons, with The Demi-Fiend, a human-Demon hybrid, being no exception in this. However, due to his great power, each Reason holder relies on The Demi-Fiend to make their Reasons reach Kagutsuchi. Depending on the nature of a Reason, the world is reshaped on its own basis:

Shijima: Hikawa's Reason. The Reason of stillness, which is based on the suppression of desires, where individuality, passion, self, conflict and destruction are nonexistent. Its Demonic Sponsor is Ahriman.

Musubi: The Reason of Isamu Nitta. The Reason of solitude and isolation, which is based on having every human living in its own isolated world, without fearing of the consequences of their own actions, where the self is the most important thing, and any human can shape their own paradise to their own liking. Its Demonic Sponsor is Noah.

Yosuga: The Reason of Chiaki Hayasaka. The Reason of elitism, which is based on the survival of the fittest, where the strong can live and shape the world to their liking, while the weak have no right to live. Its Demonic Sponsor is Baal Avatar.

So therea are infinite concepts within one multiverse.

Magatama gives Protagonists like Demi-Fiend and Raidou Kuzunoha this:

Magatama: The source of Demon powers which is created by Lucifer, and was 1st introduced in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. By inserting it inside a human's eye, it can turn them into a Demon, where said human turns into a human-Demon hybrid of sorts, or a Demon with a human heart, as it was shown to be used on Naoki Kashima, who proceeded to turn into the Demi-Fiend. A Magatama holds its own unique stats, as it acts as a combination of armor, weapon and a spellbook. It gives its wielder several affinities, ranging from Physical attacks to Healing spells to Elemental attacks, and depending on each Magatama ingested, the user of said Magatama would be provided with not only resistances, immunities, absorption defenses and reflective immunities, but also weaknesses to certain opposing spells and aliments. At times, the Magatama that is ingested may act upon sensing that its wielder is becoming even stronger, where it can either invigorate, induce a statistical increase, inflict a harmful aliment, or even curse its wielder with the inability to use its techniques, as well as the inability to un-ingest the Magatama until its wielder is cured through outside sources.

among these concepts there are the concepts of infinity, eternity and duality



Ometeotl


The dualistic creator of all in Aztec lore. Ometeotl's male aspect is Tonacatecuhtli and his female aspect is Tonacacihuatl. They are known as the creator, but the world's actual creation was done by their four sons.

Schwarzwelt

This is a location that only appears in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. It's basically the main setting for the game and we learn many things about it through both Zelenin and Arthur.

What we know is that The Schwarzwelt consists of various layers laid on top of one another. 


Each one of these different layers are akin to their own space-time continuums.


and this is also suggested by the fact inter-dimensional technology is needed to even traverse them.

But if you know anything about Strange Journey you should already know this. So why is this important? Well, exploring the Schwarzwelt necessitates moving from one sector ( universe ) to another. As seen in the screencap atop this picture , there are gaps between the universes.


Another thing to note is that demons are capable of creating these different layers and close them off through quantum tunneling.


It's also again proven these layers are universes as one needs to shift planes of reality to reach another one and this again suggests they are full on universes.

Read these:



This isn't particularly related to the cosmology, however, it's another instance of demons showcasing their power. In Strange Journey, Demiurge was able to swat away Metatron akin to a fly. Now, I must remind you that Metatron is the same entity who's voice rivaled The Amala Network. The idea that Demiurge can swat him away in the same way a human would do a fly shows just how vast the difference in power some demons can hold between one another ( including YHVH's own aspects )

Schwarzwelt has Manifolds.





Each Manifold is infinite in size and hold infinite dimensions as well as mathematics


The Schwarzwelt has quantum tunnels and infinite layers too, where each layers platonically transsnds the latter. 






The Quantum Sea

In Quantum Devil Saga (A series of novels based on the Digital Devil Saga duology, essentially meant to encompass the story as originally envisioned by the author, Yu Godai), more specifically the fifth and final volume of the series, we are introduced to a new realm of [non]existence, whose descriptions and associations with the rest of the franchise's cosmology are very interesting, to say the absolute least.

In summary, this state is identified as being the dwelling place of Gods and Buddhas who have heightened their own spirits and attained the state of Nirvana, as spoken of in the Mahayana branch of Buddhism. It is a higher realm of absolute emptiness and incomprehension, where the only dominant substance is pure information, beyond any form of spacetime, or cause and effect, and representing a state of freedom from all worldly affairs




"It was like a flower, like a bird, like a butterfly, like fire, like water, like light, like thunder. Oh!
It was like everything else in the world.
It was like a butterfly, and like fire, and like water, and like light, and like thunder. It burned, it flowed, it danced, it flew.
And then it wailed. The sound, which was not a sound, spread out as a kind of vibration of time and space.

Released from its cage, it was still bewildered and confused by its new acquisition, writhing against something that felt like a thorn in its flesh. Wearing something painful and intense, something new and completely unknown to it, it fluttered back into the vast space of the higher dimension where it had originally resided.

The radiance of the enlightened one is high and radiant, and its divine form is more precious than anything else.
None can reach that light
The sun, the moon, the radiant jewel
Like lumps of ink, they are lost before it.

'Welcome, Mithra....'

'...Mithra?'

Slowly, they awake from their slumber. For the first time, they became aware of the tightness of their body, stretching and spreading their chest out to breathe in the fresh air, as if they were infants waking up from a comfortable slumber. Then they spread their arms and legs and swayed in place.

It was a place where there was no heaven, earth, life, and death. It was a shore of freedom, unrestrained from all of causality.

'Thou in a single step can walk through all worlds, thou in a single glance knows the beginning and the end of a thousand ages, thou on a single finger can play with ten thousand stars, long live thou, O Trimurti of creation, preservation, and destruction.'

They were aware of each other's existence, and at the same time, took it as their own. They had no difficulty in doing so, for they had already learned to share each other when in physical form. They accepted themselves as one body in three, three bodies in one, with mild surprise and joy.

„

“

'It's bright. I can see the stars.' The silver-haired young man who had once been known as Serph looked around. 'I thought this place was pitch black, just an empty plane. But now, it's bright. There is light. There are stars. There are ripples on the shore. And then there's the music...'

'That's because you've changed the way you look at things. Everything has many facets and takes on different forms depending on the direction you look and how you look at it.' The silver-eyed black cat said.

"Because you have changed, what you see has also changed. Now you can feel the light and twinkling here, and the music they make. Those twinkles you see in the stars, they are a world of their own. See, the world you were in is there, too."

It was right under my feet, as beautiful as a stone washed by the waves, I could have picked it up and rolled it around in my hands. As far as the eye could see, one such world was shining, scattered countless times over thousands, tens of thousands, and even hundreds of millions. The brilliance of the infinite world filled the area with a faint brightness, as if it were a sea of stars.

„

“

'What's that sound? It's coming from somewhere...'
The red-haired man who had once called himself Heat stretched out his head as if he could smell it.

'That's the sound of existence,' said the cat. 'Every particle has its own frequency. When they vibrate correctly, matter is created and annihilated. But the vibrating particles themselves do not disappear, they move into another frequency and another substance is born. Thus, space is filled with the eternal music of existence, which changes, but never ceases.'

'Are we a part of that music?' The girl asked.

'Yes, you were once part of the music. But now that you've passed into the next stage of existence, you are no longer a sound in the chorus, but a performer who sets up an instrument for the music to be played. Or perhaps a tuner who adjusts its pitch, so that it sounds right. It is the same in either case. You have finished tuning the instruments that comprise one note of this symphony in one world. How do you feel?'

'I am not sure."

There was a fluttering in the hearts of the three of them. They remembered what they had done, how they had lived, but they were not convinced that this had anything to do with what was being said in front of them.

The cat purred a laugh and cleared its throat.

Upon accessing it, individuality ceases to exist entirely, and both ego and self-identity are lost amidst the torrent. Due to that, the "place" as a whole is stated to lie at the quantum scale, and those who return to it become omnipresent, inert observers of all space and time, being scattered throughout all realities, dimensions and possibilities, and partaking in a state of pure uncertainty at one with all existence, which emerges out of fluctuations occuring within this sea.



'You're watching, are you? Yes, I'm certain you are.'

A voice of silence whispered. Within the silence and darkness, in the complete emptiness where those who do not belong to the world would immediately lose their minds due to the vastness of nothingness and incomprehension, the voice spread out like a wave, as a sound that is not a sound.

It did not weaken or disappear like normal sounds, nor did it mix with other sounds. Each sound was established as ⟨information⟩, with sharp edges like that of a cut jewel. Just like sparkling jeweled necklaces on a string, they never lost their clarity and brilliance, simultaneously reaching out to every moment in the vast nothingness.

"Buddhism is divided in two main categories: The Lesser Vehicle, and The Greater Vehicle. The Hīnayāna and the Mahāyāna. You are now, so to speak, in the realm of the saints in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Here, the practitioner, aiming for personal enlightenment, achieves liberation and reaches Nirvana..."

"In Mahāyāna Buddhism, however, the goal is not to make the realm of the enlightened yours alone, but to guide ordinary people into reaching Nirvana alongside you. You must vow to bring as many friends as possible to Paradise."

"You can see them, can't you? You can see your friends. Not only that, but you can also see everything that is happening in the world. There is nothing that you cannot see and feel. Your flesh has regained its original quantum attributes by being stripped down to the smallest unit, below the molecule. You are everywhere, at all times, and observe all possible worlds simultaneously. However, the macroscopic laws of the material world do not allow for such an existence, and so you continue to exist only in this imaginary space, merely as an observer of all things."

There was a faint movement in the space of nothingness, and it "moved" only because there was something that perceived it as movement. But the reaction still belonged to the realm of the unconscious, like the tossing and turning of a person in sleep.


"You know that it is a nano-sized semi-organic quantum computer assembly, but ⟨Ardha's⟩ ability is to break the power that makes the computers assemble with each other. It has the ability to break down the essentially indestructible body of an ⟨ASURA⟩ into its smallest fragments, sub-molecular sized particles, and cause it to cease to exist."

"I don't understand," Cielo stirred restlessly, sitting next to Serph. "Are you saying that his body disappearing like a mist is what we saw? So, is that what happened to you, big brother? Or rather your consciousness, at that time? Was it decomposed or something?"

"The ⟨ASURA⟩ body defines its existence by the self-awareness of the installed AI," Serph replied. "Ardha's ability to disassemble the body also included the ability to disassemble the ⟨ASURA-AI⟩, the subjective consciousness that controls the body's variability, self-repair, and form. Rather than decomposition, I should say it was dispersed. The human consciousness cannot recognize a body that has been broken down to the size of a particle as 'self'. On the contrary, the components of an ⟨ASURA⟩ body that has been broken down to the size of particles regain their original quantum nature and diffuse everywhere, in all dimensions, and across all possibilities. As a result, the self-consciousness also diffuses, and the unity of personality cannot be maintained. In very simple terms, the personality and the body will disappear, at least from this material world."

They glanced towards Sera, who was scrunching up the blanket in seriousness,

"Perhaps Sera's diffusion inside the self-enclosed ⟨EGG⟩ was similar to this. I, Serph, a personality, was like a fragmented hologram, a faint shadow on the particles of the diffused ⟨ASURA⟩ body, but still maintaining the whole image. However, each fragment did not maintain a clear enough outline to have a will or act as a personality. They are purely 'observers'--omnipresent in time and space, who see everything and all possibilities, but cannot act on their own accord due to having no ego."

Breaking off, Serph looks at Sera. She was biting her lower lip invisibly and pulling a blanket over her shoulders. A kind of understanding ran through both of them. In the world of the Goddess, the omniscient and omnipotent being that Sera had once been, Serph was there too. Sera turned her head and averted her gaze.



'Who are you? Why do you appear before us?'

Said someone who was once a girl. The cat laughed once more and purred.

'One who has escaped existence and is no longer bound by causality. Someone who has transcended space-time, appearing infinitely and present in all times and places.'

The cat's figure seemed to swell, fade, and gradually lose its shape. It was still a cat yet was simultaneously something else. Just as they were three people and one thing at the same time, the cat was a cat and something else at the same time. Moreover, they seemed to be extremely close to each other. In the midst of their ever-changing appearance, only their silver eyes remained unchanged.

'So, the tuner can appear in any place and at any time. In any form, shape, person, cat, or demon...'

Now they found themselves looking into a mirror, relative to their own likeness. It smiled welcomingly and held out its shining white hands.

'Welcome, Omnipresent over time, Attainer of Nirvana, Ruler of the World, Lord of Light.'

It said in a soft, resonant voice. The music of a hundred billion worlds played over it.

'I've waited a long time, a very long time. But here, a moment is the same as an eternity. So the present overlaps the next moment, and the past becomes the more distant future. Do you know who I am?'

They do. They understood everything. They stepped forward and took their own hands. As soon as their hands overlapped, they became one, as if they had never been separated.

„

“

They stood on the shore and looked out over at their present, past, and even their more distant, future selves. Everything was here at the same time, as uniform as a bead ball threaded through a string. It was always here, in different forms, at different times, in different places, just as the thread running through the bead ran through the center of every bead, no matter which one it was. All that was needed was a choice.

'Everything begins here and ends here. But the end is also the beginning of the next,' the cat part of them said happily. "So what now?'

They looked down at a world filled with light and music, where the old world had regained its proper resonance and was singing brightly. They knew that the time to return to it would come sooner or later, but for now, and always...

--To Nirvana!

Three voices in unison said it.

They soared away from the shore, away from the world. Light and sound rushed through the echoing space.

Their laughter rang out like a bell. Praise be to the victorious one, the one who knows the state of great freedom, the one who was born from distortion, the tuner, the lord of light. They flew--laughing and hugging each other with the sound of silver bells, eternity in front and behind them.

„

As such, the godly world lacks any notions of existence entirely, and even basic spatial concepts are absent in it, with Serph noting that it has no directions whatsoever: No up or down, heaven or earth. Even after he returns to the material world and the memory of the quantum sea starts to rapidly fade away from his mind, he considers the possibility that it is not simply a higher-dimensional space (As previously asserted in the story), but something which transcends the concept of dimensions altogether.


"I understand the feeling. This is the eternal resting place that every spirit yearns for. All of the pain and suffering of existence is not here. It is not here because existence itself is not here. You were born a demon of war, went through bloody struggles, and have groaned under the weight of your fate. It is understandable that you don't want to leave the peace of mind that you have finally found."

A cat... a black cat with silvery eyes sat with its tail wrapped around its matching limbs. Its mouth didn't move, yet it was certainly talking. In this <Place> where there is no up, down, heaven, and earth, the cat's ears twitched calmly and its silvery eyes blinked unhesitantly

'There is no existence here, and so there is no distinction between ⟨I⟩ and ⟨Thou⟩. Though at the very least, they are necessary for dialogue to take place. Even when we ask ourselves questions, the mind creates within itself an ⟨I⟩ to assert one's opinion and a virtual ⟨Thou⟩ to oppose it. This space is, so to speak, one giant ⟨I⟩. You are but a grain of foam floating for a moment in it. To such an ⟨I⟩ like you, I will be claimed as a ⟨Thou⟩. It's just another tentative word, but it is a necessary step before dialogue can commence.


After I disappeared, I could see everything that everyone was doing," Serph continued. "For Sera, the diffusion stopped within the ⟨EGG⟩ due to the shell, but for me, it was much more vast than that, expanding across dimensions (次元); for a Quantum Being (量子的存在), the third dimension is nothing more than a very narrow, limited, lower dimension. Or perhaps it was a completely unknown space, beyond even the concept of dimensions.

I don't know, nor do I have the words to explain it. Just as Sera can only roughly describe the contents of her interaction with ⟨God⟩, now that her existence has converged into a three-dimensional physical body, she can only handle three-dimensional words and concepts. Anything beyond that is beyond the ability of the hardware to conform to the physical laws (物理法) of this material world (物質界)."

Given all of those descriptions, it's blatantly obvious that, in the context of the overarching cosmology of Megami Tensei, this quantum sea of nonexistence is one and the same with Kadath and Atziluth, seeing as it is outright called a realm of the unconscious where there is no concept of an "Ego," with all actions taking place therein being akin to those of a sleeping mind, and described as the dwelling place of transcendental spirits who achieved the state of Nirvana, much like the former two.

Metaverse and The Palaces

A Palace is a manifestation of "distortion", strong negative or corrupt thoughts that warp the perceptions of people into a hazard for themselves and others (for example, seeing all other people as living ATMs).


They're located on the Metaverse one of the cosmological structure that exists in Megami Tensei.

The metaverse is a separate reality to the real world which consist of a finite number of cognitive worlds called palaces. They are the mental desires that people have which manifest in these palaces and their desires become real.

In these worlds if something is perceived as real it becomes real.









There is no such thing as a "real world," only a subjective, mutable universe holding infinite potential.










The Collective Unconscious

The realm of subconsciousness, which maintains the distortions of humankind. Naturally, a distortion of a person can manifest a dimension parallel to the world itself, basically their view of the world around them. 


where in the Collective Unconsciousness, there exists countless parallel worlds, as it works on "The Many Worlds Theory"




And there are infinite realities within the Collective



where in the Collective Unconsciousness, there exists countless parallel worlds, as it works on "The Many Worlds Theory" 




The Collective Unconsciousness, as a whole, is based on Carl Jung's Jungian Psychology, which is described as a dimensionless realm. 


where Archetypes are things responsible for the construction of the Collective Unconsciousness. 


Persona 4 Gold and Jungian Psychology dictate the CU being made up of archetypes, showing how the lore and psychology is related once again.

which allows said dimensionless realm to transcend space and time, being trans-spatial and trans-temporal.



Persona 4 Gold states the Collective Unconscious transcends time and space. It also supports the fact that Persona is going off the basis that Jungian Archetypes are platonic concepts since it's stated they transcend time and space, and the Collective Unconscious is made up of them.


Here it states it again.

In the Persona games, several places are considered parts of the Collective Unconsciousness, like the Tower of Tartarus, The Midnight Channel, The Metaverse and Mementos. Additionally, the masterminds behind all Persona games are the embodiments of the Collective Unconsciousness, responding to the negative wishes of mankind, which would eventually mean the inevitable destruction of all creation should there is not any kind of external interference.

Here’s mora about the Collective Unconcious. 


All of this is modeled after

Tree Of Life 


Added to the fact that Atziluth, too, was defined as a world of archetypes even back in Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, which is corroborated by Vairocana's own entry in Shin Megami Tensei II's Demon Encylopedia, where his domain, the Diamond Realm (The "kon-go-kai"), is described as the place where the original forms of all things exist abstractly, still being nothing but ideas emanating from his meditation, and which are the instantiated as realiity within the Womb Realm (The "tai-zo-kai"), the physical world.



The great king of the Asuras and Supreme Buddha of the Shingon sect, Vairocana. In conjunction with the adjective "great", he is referred to as Mahavairocana which means "Great Illuminator".

In short, he is the Great Buddha of Nara, depicted as a figure sitting on a white lotus flower, quietly meditating. As he meditates, there are various manifestations of himself around him in accordance with the order of the universe.

In Shingon Esoteric Buddhism, the truth of Vairocana is expressed in the Vajrasattva Mandala: In the Vajradhatu (Diamond Realm), the manifestations that rose up from Vairocana's meditation are of the World of Ideas. It is in the Garbhadhatu (Womb/Matrix Realm) that these ideas become reality.

This is, of course, taken straight out of Shingon Buddhism, where the Diamond Realm is defined as follows : Vairocana

Dainichi-nyorai is depicted as seated in deep, serene contemplation on a white lotus; around him are ranged his emanations, stretching outward through bodhisattvas and saints to the myriad beings which comprise the universal order. These emanations are, as it were, the ideal forms, indestructible potentialities destined to manifest themselves in the dynamic aspect of the universe. They are kon-go-kai, ‘elements of diamonds’, and their manifestations occur in the tai-zo-kai, the unrefined, ‘primitive element’. By means of elaborate ritual, according to the Shingon sect, it is possible to evoke magical powers that allow Dainichinyorai to realize his presence on earth

The Dragon Stream

Tied to the subject of the Collective

Unconsciousness in turn is the concept of the "Dragon Stream," which has popped up a fair share of times in this franchise, and as such deserves an explanation as one of its notably recurring mechanics.

To explain that, it is first necessary to establish that, in Megami Tensei, the Earth itself is a living organism: It has a consciousness, a will, which exists as a vast spiritual body inhabiting a "Dimension of Information," formed by the outflow of the thoughts of all intelligent beings.

First of all, I would like to know about the fundamental worldview of "SJ". Please tell us about the origins of that world as you see it, including the parts that are not explicitly stated in the game.

In the early stages of "SJ," it was set up that a huge spiritual/informational body would be created on Earth, which we could call the "Earth's Will". It is an existence that consists of the accumulation of various thoughts (spirits) that flow out from the "intellectually active people" on the earth. As the "intelligent beings" flourish, the "will of the earth" also evolves. Naturally, the "intelligent beings" include human beings. Normally, humans cannot perceive this "will of the earth." This is because it exists in an imperceptible realm.

This imperceptible realm is a different place from the Schwarzwelt in the game, right? What kind of place is it?

The place where the Earth's will exists is tentatively called the "Information Dimension," and it is a realm that is mainly based on information.

~Schwarzwelt Reminiscences

The nucleus of the Schwarzwelt, the Will of the Earth, has existed for a very long time, while the Schwarzwelt that engulfed the earth was born at the South Pole when that space in the form of a pillar appeared. Is this right?

If a human observer were to observe the time the Schwarzwelt appeared, they would say that it showed up on Earth all of a sudden. However, if you look at it from the point of view of the Will of the Earth, it is an internal mechanism, so it would be something along the lines of “to us, it feels like having the function of creating scabs through leukocytes and plasma” and “it existed before that”. …A summary of the things we have had until now is…
⩥The world is comprised of the “real dimension” and “data dimension”.
⩥The data dimension uses the data sent by the “conscious beings” from the real dimension in order to give shape to the “Will of the Earth”.
⩥Schwarwelt has the Will of the Earth shaped by the data dimension as its nucleus and, going back, it encroaches the real dimension. So now we can’t help but wonder – what was first? The Will of the Earth or the conscious beings? If we choose the beings, it would mean that humanity’s history is older than the Will of the Earth and we’d conclude it is recent history, but
1) the alternation of generations of the conscious beings takes place on the Earth of the real side
2) the same causality doesn’t apply to the Earth of the real side and the Will of the Earth on the data side
The chronology of humanity and the Will of the Earth should be crammed into the link of space-time continuum.

And this is where the Dragon Stream comes into play: To put it simply , it is basically the underlying energy that courses through the planet.


as well as the path through which this energy flows, acting much like a cardiovascular system does within a human body, but in an environment based around spiritual energy instead.

More than that, it is also directly stated to be a manifestation of humanity's collective unconscious, filled with its will for both good and evil


and its power can turn humans into demons based on their desires and aspirations, which coincides perfectly with Isogai's descriptions.


The game in question, Liberation Dx2, also introduces a realm fundamentally tied to the Dragon Stream known as the Aura Gate, which exists apart from reality and as a fragment of "stagnated will" steming from it that eventually coagulated and gathered into a whirlpool, divided into several "floors" that bring one increasingly close to the Dragon Stream proper


Having already mentioned the "Will of the Earth" in the context of the Gaia Hypothesis

the game also points to the existence of an entity that lies at the true end of the Gate, whose power was responsible for the aforementioned demonic transformations, and which was initially identified as being "God" by a group of soldiers that encountered it, although their testimony is obviously unrealiable, since they went insane as a result of exposure to it.






Echoing the notion that this flow of energy is akin to the Earth's blood-flow, it is important to note that the name "Dragon Stream" is a product of the games' localization, and a more literal translation of it would be "Dragon Veins" (, 龍幕 ), which, as mentioned in the scans above, is a concept borrowed from Taoism and the practice of Feng Shui, defined as a manifestation of concept that, since the Tao, the underlying unity of all things, is instantiated in every object in creation, then all things are in harmony with one another, and reflect themselves and each other in a vast interconnected web.

There are other ways in which paintings convey Taoist concepts more directly than verbal description, especially that the entire cosmos is formed of spirit. The voidness of the non-void is hinted at by vast expanses of ocean, snow, cloud and mist, and by solid objects which seem just on the point of emerging from or melting into the void.

Man's triviality in relation to heaven's vastness is suggested by rolling landscapes in which mortals and their dwellings appear insignificant against the grandeur of their surroundings. Mountains appear cloudlike; clouds resemble mountains; rocks and tree trunks appear strangely animated; the contours of men and animals are so united with those of natural objects that they appear to be of a single substance.

Apparently trivial objects - say, a dragon-fly perched on a twig - arouse a sudden intuition that each tiny creature is a particularisation of avast and holy universality, an embodiment of the inconceivable immensity of the Tao.

From all this one is led to understand that the cosmic vitality sweeping down through the dragon veins spreads out and infuses the entire creation.

Following this principle, the practice of Feng Shui is then basically the principle of constructing things in accordance to the geography of the planet, as the lay of the land dictates the paths by which the life energy of the Earth itself runs, and thus abiding to that by placing constructions in positions considered "auspicious" can infuse them with spiritual power and good fortune.





I am the Yellow Dragon of the cosmos... This world consists of 5 elements... Learn that the Taikyoku reflects all...

which reflects all, but the concept is brought up again in slightly more detail during Shin Megami Tensei V , where main gameplay devices are Leyline Founts , explained to be points overflowing with the Earth's spiritual energy that hold incredible power, able to be used for both healing and quick teleportation between several points of the map. The name itself, for the matter, is also a product of the game's localization, and the term used in the original japanese is "Dragon Hole" (, ryuketsu), or Dragon Wound, if you prefer, which going by the above, would be akin to ruptured arteries, where the blood of the Earth itself is constantly leaking out.

The Expanse

is the natural home of all the demons


the beings from the expanse are above the concepts of space-time

Heh... Looks like I've been killed again. I had originally thought that we were superior to you, I am starting to realize that may have been a mistaken assumption on my part. We and you are just...different, that's all. The more I think about it, the more that seems to be the case... It was definitely that way before, but you're the main players in this world. The world may be ours but you are the ones at its core. Are we nothing but supporting characters? Hmm....

Everything has a back and a front. This is true for all matters. You may have thought that you killed YHVH, but on a larger scale, that is just for an instant, a mere blink of an eye. Don't get me wrong, you definitely did kill him, but one could also say that it's impossible to kill him as well. This is the flow of time, the front and the back. Using YHVH as an example, existences like my own...in a way I always exist, and YHVH also exists everywhere. The end result for this time around...well, let's just say I remain inside you. It feels kind of good here. I think I'll stay here, just for a little bit. Oh, don't worry, I won't be here forever. It'll be just an instant, a mere blink of an eye. 

Soon the next main player will appear. And so will I...And also....




Kadath Realm.

kadath realm who scale above ( and contains mandalas )



nyarlathotep is an archetype. 




the yog-sothoth's gate


and beyond the yog-sothoth’s gate there is the monado mandala



Mandala were thought to represent the world depicted in esoteric Buddhist scriptures and are commonly seen in the form of drawings.

Mandalas are often created in India, where esoteric Buddhism was established, as well as in China and Tibet. Mandalas themselves are said to express all the structures of the universe, and are the subject of extensive research. In addition to paintings, there are stone carvings, three-dimensional works, sand mandalas, and other forms of mandalas.

I had to abandon the idea of the superordinate position of the ego....

I saw that everything, all paths I had been following, all steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point - namely, to the mid- point.

It became increasingly plain to me that the

mandala is the centre.

It is the exponent of all paths.

I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self I had attained what was for me the ultimate.

"

" 

The mandala is an archetypal image whose occurrence is attested throughout the ages. It signifies the wholeness of the Self. This circular image represents the wholeness of the psychic ground or, to put it in mythic terms, the divinity incarnate in man.

In the World Guide for the original Persona duology, the Jungian view of the Mandala was also explained in detail, and laid out in much the same way I outlined above.

"
A mandala is a picture in which a large number of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are depicted in a pattern, according to Buddhist doctrine. The psychologist Jung was deeply interested in mandalas, believing that they project an essential image of the self (自己). Jung also discovered that mandalas exist throughout the world, regardless of religion, and that patients who did not even know of the existence of mandalas in the East would draw pictures that strangely resembled mandalas. In other words, mandalas are thought to depict a fundamental self-image common to all humankind, regardless of religion, culture, or education.

And Lucifer used the Tree of Life to create the Expanse

Narisawa : Kabbalah is a secret formula that belongs to humans, so how do you explain Lucifer using it to design the Abyss?

Itou : That is why we have opposites. I think we can consider the possibility of humans being the ones who were influenced. We don't know whether they saw the Abyss's design after a near-death experience or were telepathically struck by some waves, but if pushed to say, then the Kabbalah that's transmitted through the world right now could be a representation of what they "saw".

Narisawa : It's a reversal of situation.

YHVH'S Universe


YHVH's universe is "More infinite and more vague" than everything before it, which includes the entire Amala Network, an infinite Multiverse, and The Expanse, the space in-between all universes.

However, that is only YHVH-Space's 1st Brane. In truth, YHVH's Universe is divided into 4 Brane-Layers, each being a higher-dimension. 


As if that wasn't enough, YHVH's Throne is located in an even Higher-Layer, called Non-Euclidian Space. 


And as YHVH himself states, all this exists only because he exists, as all there is is a part of him.



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