Final Lexicon

404 Spell: This tremendous curse was placed on the people of the Mushroom Kingdom, and was designed to continually re-activate in weaker forms over their descendants. It erased many of the ancient traditions that had existed before the year 404 ASE and replaced them with myths designed by the Enemy's agents. Not only did this create a fake tapestry of societal memory, but it also left the people in a specifically dulled state— so great that the conspiracies of the Mushroom Kingdom could not be uncovered in even a millenium's worth of time.

Additionally, similar spells were cast in the nearby countries of the Continent: the Koopa Kingdom and the nations of the Oho Sea Ternion.

*Magi's Notes: There's a theme in MC (Mario's Crowbar) of society being "asleep" to certain things— this was most notable early in the story with the appearance of the magical objects the Rigex and Legix, which allowed certain manifestations of societal injustice to continue generation after generation. So, the 404 Spell is the basis for much of the societal brainwashing that happens in the world of MC. However, the appearance of Smithy coupled with the "de-activations" of the Rigex and Legix after the Cataclysm/creation of the Antikythera largely removed the 404 Spell's effects. The traditions of the Mushroom Kingdom pre-404 are lost forever, but after the Cataclysm, the people of the Mushroom and Koopa Kingdoms began to gain a sense of independence and meaningful direction.

Abstract: Powerful spirits from another world, more powerful Abstracts are sometimes called "Asuras". There are only three in all of MC that appear directly: Smithos, the Enemy, and the Tree of Life.

Though Smithy and the Enemy refer to each other as brothers, this is not really accurate. They are brothers just as all Abstracts are "brothers"— inter-related kami made up of the same "hyper-real" material.

Abstracts come from another world. It is a nameless, shapeless place, with no real sense of direction— up, down, left, or right. It's not really three-dimensional, but more akin to a fifth-dimensional space— rather incomprehensible outside of difficult mathematics.

*Magi's Comments: You might say it's all rather… abstract. (Huehuehuehuehue)

Achernar (Family): This family could be argued to be at the root of everything. The name goes back countless centuries as a family of mystics, practicing incredible sorceries that make magic look like card tricks.

Their lineage can be charted as follows: Descended distantly from Abraham Achernar, Procyon Achernar and Capella Achernar were siblings. Procyon Achernar made union with Nyx and begat Eris Achernar I. Eris Achernar I was infertile, but later adopted Eris Achernar II. Procyon Achernar later had another child with Gen Wei. Five generations later the Achernar descendant was chosen for genetic extraction by D.D. in creation of the Reminder. Thus, Penter Procyon can be considered the child of the generation after.

Capella Achernar made union with Vega Betelgeuse. Their lineage was later re-adapted to the Procyon name in a mistaken case of tradition. Eventually, Koji Procyon was born, with Penter Procyon inserted into her family as an adopted brother. Koji Procyon made union with two persons: Markus Arjuna and Kubus Kentaurus, and through indeterminate parentage a child was born.

Achernar, Abraham: The fabled founder of the Achernar lineage.

Achernar, Eris: The cursed child, the first Agent of Creation. Born in 19 BSE, she was made an Agent of Creation in 3 BSE at the age of 16: around 1500 years before the other Agents. —A cosmic accident?

Eris was the daughter of Procyon Achernar and Nyx Thanatos. This coupling merged two legendary magical families, but was opposed by the family heads themselves— and so the incident was kept secret. Thus, Eris and Nyx were forced to leave Procyon and the Mycelium Kingdom to go into hiding, and so escape the wraths of the Achernar and Thanatos families. Eris, from an early age, lived every day in terrible pain— the effect of an incurable genetic condition that worsened with every year.

Thus, it was a horror when she was made immortal by being deigned the first Agent of Creation. Procyon searched for a way to kill her and spare her future agonies… by this time Procyon had already formed a pact with the Book/Enemy of his time, and was seeking a way to defeat Smithos. Becoming increasingly embittered and mentally twisted by the Book, he sees a way to kill two birds with one stone: end the world. He attempts the Spiral Ceremony, but is stopped by the four heroes.

Eris lives on, increasingly wizened, increasingly pained, increasingly twisted—

Acrux, Alago: The name and identity that the duplighost Ai took on after 1490.

*Magi's Comments: Alago's name comes from "Ala-Gold", the prototype name for the yellow toad from New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Adara, Lorelai: Of all the named characters in the story, Lorelai Adara has traversed more timelines than any other. It is thanks to her continual attempts to save her father Kamek that the world timeline was repeatedly altered, piece by piece, until all the right events fell into place, culminating in Wes Sirius being possessed by the Enemy instead of Penter Procyon. Were these events manipulated by the spokes? Maybe— but those names cannot be even whispered... In the end, her slavery to them was rewarded by a sudden and fast death.

*Magi's Comments: The most important character in the entire story. Just kidding. Oh wait, you could make this argument, couldn't you? Erm, well… she's pretty key cosmically, yeah.

(I wonder if she made it to the "dream"?)

Lorelai's pseudonym for the beginning of Part 2, Cassandra, is a reference to the tragic character from Greek mythology.

Agents: The Agents of Creation and Destruction, appointed by the Tree of Life. The Agents of Creation are fated to determine the outcome of one battle, and the Agents of Destruction another. The Agents of Creation work together, while the Agents of Destruction oppose each other. The Agents of Creation, as per their name, are responsible for a creation. The Agents of Destruction, as per their name, are responsible for a destruction. All are connected to the One.

The Agents are: (Name, (Type, Year of Deigning))

Achernar, Eris (Destruction, 3 BSE)

Mario, Luigi/Mario, Mario/Mario, L (Creation, 1470)

Procyon, Koji (Creation, 1480)

R—, Dirge (Destruction, 1490)

(Intriguingly, every Agent has some sort of complication with their name. Eris goes by another name for most of her existence, Luigi had his rightful power divided due to a name-based mistake, Koji avoided using her surname, and Dirge seems to have no last name.)

Agents are made infertile the moment they are deigned. Though they are immortal, they will still age— until they reach 108 years of age, at which they become a "wraith".

"Age of Smithos": Here follows the ancient timeline centered around the turn of the original millennium ASE.

4700 B.S.E.:

Smithos is brought into the World for the first time. He is quickly banished.

19 B.S.E.:

Eris, Procyon's first child, is born.

9 B.S.E.:

Several armies encroach onto the Mycelium Kingdom, including the Hoohooligan Army. Massive slaughter begins.

8 B.S.E.:

Minister Crepe dies from the Wreath Plague.

Arc'Dimentio teachs Arc'Blume and the other Red Cloaks how to bring "Minister Crepe" back to life. In actuality, the ceremony is designed to bring back the demon king Smithos.

Smithos Flashback 1: Smithos is summoned by the Red Cloaks, led by Arc'Blume, in an attempt to bring back Minister Crepe. Smithos quickly takes control of the situation and the group. He promises to stop the Hoohooligan armies, among others.

Arc'Blume (Procyon Achernar) becomes Smithos' Vessel for the time period.

In a meeting between Smithos and the Red Cloaks, Capella Achernar attempts to fight Smithos. The fight goes poorly.

Smithos travels the world for a short time, forcing the people of the world to follow him— from the Dry Dry Kingdom to Squirpia.

Construction on the Endless Castle begins.

7 B.S.E.:

Basic construction of the Endless Castle's first floor is completed.

6 B.S.E.:

Smithos Flashback 2: Smithos talks with Procyon Achernar in the Endless Castle, and then banishes Capella Achernar from the Castle due to her trouble-causing nature. She heads south to the city of Hume to begin plotting revolution…

5 B.S.E.:

Procyon has a secret child (Penter's ancestor). He sends his lover, pregnant, away to the north-western lands.

3 B.S.E.:

Procyon Achernar becomes a Vessel for the Book through the Book's instructions. Procyon believes this will be the key to banishing Smithos.

A secret cult begins to form under Procyon's influence, ensuring a group that will cultivate the Book's return in the next millennium.

Procyon's first child, the bastard Eris, becomes the first representative of Creation and subsequently immortal. The girl continues to live with a painful disease, however, so Procyon wants to kill her…only possible by ending the world. (Secondary reason for ending all) (Eris is 16)

1 B.S.E.:

November: Smithos Flashback 3: Capella Achernar returns with two other heroes, Vega Betelgeuse, and Rigel Agena, in order to defeat Smithos. Smithos reveals he planned all of this anyway, but is then surprised by Procyon Achernar's secret alliance with the Book…

Late November: Smithos and the three remaining heroes are forced to team up to take down the far more serious threat of Procyon. Smithos explains what must be done to defeat Procyon.

December: The final battle occurs between the four heroes (Smithos, Capella, Vega, and Rigel) and Procyon (possessed by the Book). All four are meant to die there in order to seal the Book away permanently, but only one is necessary to be rid of it for sixty generations. Vega and Capella trick Smithos into being the single sacrifice by using Smithos' love for Capella, while Rigel (who has begun to like Smithos) tries to stop them. He fails, and Smithos is "killed".

0:

The Book, shrunken and left with Procyon's body, is taken by the heroes. Vega orders it incinerated, but foolishly hands it to one of the Book's sympathizers. It disappears into the cult. (It could not have been destroyed regardless.)

Spring: The three surviving heroes divide up the land for the taking: Vega becomes king of the Mushroom Kingdom, Rigel becomes king of the Forest Kingdom, and Capella becomes queen of the Koopa Kingdom.

3 A.S.E.:

Capella's child, (Koji's ancestor) disappears in a carriage ambush. The child is (wrongly) presumed dead. Capella assumes this is the work of Vega, who has been making moves to take over her land.

Wes Flashback 4: Vega proves to be an evil, tyrannical king. Rigel, always neutral, refuses to do anything. Capella journeys to stop Vega, and uses magic to seal him in what would eventually be the Crowbar. She herself is sealed into the mushroom charm.

With both Vega and Capella gone, Rigel becomes king of the entire central land.

8 A.S.E.:

Stewing with guilt, Rigel prepares to take his own life. The Book's surviving cult, fully entrenched within the Mushroom Kingdom's government, captures him before he can and seals him into the separate Rigex and Legix, designed to reunite the land for the Book's eventual return.

After 8 A.S.E.:

The Book's surviving cult essentially take control of the land. They install puppet leaders into the Mushroom Kingdom's government and the Koopa Kingdom's, their only real purposes to eventually unite the land completely with the divided Rigex and Legix (similar to preventing monopolies, there cannot just be a single empire— the land must have two competing nations that are eventually united for the Book's return).

In a suspicious war, the Forest Kingdom is razed to the ground and nearly erased from history.

The book's cult destroy a massive number of documents relating to the period, preserving an idealistic, but incorrect and vague version of events related to the Age of Smithos. This work will be completed in 404 with the unleashing of the 404 Spell.

Airship: Flying ships running on a complex series of engines. Due to this complexity, very few airships were produced on the entire Continent— let alone the world. As of early 1500, six airships were in existence on the northern region of the Continent. One was the Pagosu, which was destroyed falling the massacre at Mushroom City on December 10th. Two were in Sarasaland: they were destroyed during the Sarasan Revolution. The other three airships were in the Beanbean Kingdom— they were all destroyed in the Triwar.

Two more airships were constructed in Sarasaland between 1500 and 1508, but the unpredictable series of electromagnetic storms over the Continent resulting from the shifting magnetic poles made it impossible to use the machines to attack the former Mushroom Kingdom.

*Magi's Comments: In case you were wondering why there were no airships in Part 2~

Binaric: A religion focusing on the grand duology of existence, most often simplified to the form of a two-faced god. This really is a gross oversimplification though— Binarists would see the "god" to be the representation of all reality in an endless duel between countering forces, again oversimplified to "positive" and "negative". In this grand state of existence, all are simply part of the overall duology, and thus, no individual person truly exists. …It's difficult to get your head around.

The original site of development for this philosophy is unknown, but it thrived most in Nimbus Land to the east, and for most of history has stayed there. Near the end of the sixteenth century there was some effort by monks to proselytize the religion in parts of the Mushroom Kingdom, Southern Kingdom, and Tribal Lands, but these efforts were largely ineffective until after the Cataclysm, when religion became more popular across the Continent.

*Magi's Comments: Okay, this one is a lot like Daoism, right? I mean, excepting the "god" aspect.

The name of the religion and the god is named after the Binary coding language… the underlying basis of virtually all computer data.

Book, The: See "Enemy, The".

Canopus, Illumus: The head duplighost at Mushroom Castle before Ai/Alago arrived.

Had an affair with a vivacious koopa, whose surname he borrowed. The koopa escaped east before Mercury could find her, and later founded the illustrious Canopus household.

*Magi's Comments: Hmmmm, Canopus… I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before…?

CIPHRA/UNITY: Rival Southern Kingdom crime syndicates whose names refer to the numbers "0" and "1" respectively. In one aspect they unconsciously reflect the counter-forces of the Binary—the Nought and the One—however the groups are actually named after complicated political movements developed in Flora during the early 1430s.

Crissen: The title given by Beanbean researchers for the highly varied set of religious traditions practiced by the humans of the Tribal Lands. The traditions vary greatly in behavior, rules, and ceremonies, but almost all hold a trait in common: references to a being called "Jesus Christ". These beliefs stretch back at least several thousands of years.

Some worship Christ as a messiah figure. But the knowledge of this individual is a bit of a mystery. There is only one "messiah" every thousand years, and this "Christ" does not even exist in the MC Universe. His tradition must have been carried from elsewhere…

The Beanbean agent Ghrea Pollux picked up the habit of using "Jesus Christ" as a curse word. If asked, she'd say she liked the way the name made her mouth feel "trembly".

D.D.: Also known as Uncle, and Arc'Dimentio. The Enemy's right-hand servant, a demi-immortal that's been around since before Smithy's second coming. His many achievements include tricking Procyon Achernar into summoning Smithy, leading the Mushroom Castle duplighosts in their schemes to control the Mushroom Kingdom, overseeing the genetic experiments that created Penter Procyon, and working with Daisy to have Mario come into contact with the Crowbar. It's quite likely he watched over the events leading up to the Cataclysm, but his further participation (and his survival following the Cataclysm) is difficult to determine.

It's probable that he had more than a few run-ins with the spokes— if he is not one himself.

Dharmacakra: There is a legend that no one knows. Within the hub of the wheel—

A long, long time ago, in some far distant place, there were a certain eight individuals. Suffering unimaginable agonies, these eight had craved salvation their entire lives, and, trapped with minds that encouraged endless spells of depression and pain, screamed out to the world. Their agony was so great that they broke the boundaries of time, and, in a roaring rush, caught the attention of the World beyond. The World, guilt-ridden by the tragedy it had inadvertently created, bestowed on the eight a special gift: an escape, a shocking cut through space-time, rendering a new plane of existence. The eight were to be watchers, to make sure that no mortals ever suffered such soul-destroying miseries again. The eight became unimaginably powerful, and outside the boundaries of the mortal world, began to abstract into different sorts of being— and even beyond still.

In time, those eight together would become a force capable of countering the One and the Nought. In words they would be the "middle", the dash between the ultimate forces.

And then, they would vanish.

Duality: One of the conceptual steps towards the infinite. Present in all things.

Duplighost: Spooky deranged sheet-creatures that love to eat well-done steaks, chicken dinners, and people.

*Magi's Comments: Hey! That's a bit unfair, isn't it? I know the duplighosts that appear in the story aren't very friendly, but it's not representative of the species! Okay, okay, so pretty much all the duplighosts by the modern time are a little crazy… Ai and Prometheus and Mercury… but wouldn't you be crazy if you were just a cog in a massive, incomprehensible, probably evil machine? It'd be enough to make you feel like just a bug…

And it's true, every species on the Continent evolved from duplighosts! This is in fact part of a giant cycle… so, in turn, the duplighosts of the first century ASE had evolved some one thousand years before that from a host of different species. The cycle is tied to the flow of time and the tilt of the planet. A few duplighosts will continue to produce duplighosts even in the modern age, but they will be vastly outnumbered. Just the same, when the Continent is mostly made up of duplighosts, different species will be seen as strange mutants.

Eight: The number "8" is said to be an artificial number— an unnatural symbol inserted into the cosmic order for mortals to attempt to understand a certain "strange gear" in the world machine. In fact, some say that every number after "2", or even possibly "1", is artificial in this same way.

…It might now be said that the number acts as a kind-of calling card for a certain group…

*Magi's Comments: As you are probably aware, the number 8 is all over MC. This isn't entirely without meaning…

Enemy, The: See "Zero-Zero".

Epilogue: A tracing of events—

Everyone lies either dead or dying atop Golgotha, except for maybe Blaine and Seigal. Regardless, the world appears to be falling apart, as a result of the Spiral Sacrament.

On the battlefield far below, in the desert of the former Forest Kingdom, there too the world seems to be falling apart. This devastation is the result of Heaven's Door.

As Procyon said, things are too far gone. There is no preventing the event that is to occur next… although, possibly, the end result may be changed. Whether Koji and the others actions affected the fate of the world is the real question. The possibilities are as follows:

STAR HEAVEN: Assume that the Enemy is simply a devastating Abstract. Its defeat has no bearing on the fate of our protagonists, who lay dying in the snow— only that the world is saved. If our heroes (with the possible exception of Blaine and Seigal) have died, with no certainty of the afterlife, then what is the Epilogue depicting? A Heaven— a final reward for those who have suffered. Seigal and Blaine's appearances here would seem to indicate that they too died following the defeat of the Enemy… though it is unclear how much time has passed, or if time even remains a concept in this Heaven. —This ideal is probably Koji's hope.

DYING DREAM: Maybe there is no Heaven. Perhaps this is someone's dream—the dream of a dying person—before they lose consciousness forever. But then, whose dream is it?

BINARY'S DREAM: Assume L is correct. The world exists as the "vision" of the Binary. With the defeat of the Enemy, the manifestation of the Nought half of the Binary, the Binary itself is knocked into a comatose state, into a state of unconscious sleep. Instead of darkness, the Binary dreams, a dream of the same people that made up its "real" vision. This takes the form of a kind-of Heaven, where everyone lives in happiness and satisfaction.

Consider another layer of the Epilogue, here diving into Dharmic philosophy— See "Yuga" below.

*Magi's Comments: What do you believe in?

Forest, The: The vast forest spreading across the Mushroom Kingdom. In ancient times its core sprouted from the area of the Forest Kingdom— that land that was killed, and made into the Desert. In this light, the Forest is like a vast zombie of itself, and indeed, it has seemed to exude some dark energy ever since the destruction of the Forest Kingdom.

*Magi's Comments: The setting of MC being primarily the Forest, as well as the adventures in the woods being a metaphor for life, is inspired by the 1987 musical Into the Woods. You can also trace the idea of a complex plot interwoven by the interactions of characters wandering lost through a vast forest to this musical. (If you're interested I would highly suggest watching the video recording of the original Broadway performance rather than the 2014 movie adaptation. The movie cuts out some parts of the plot, and the music in the original is better imo.)

Forgiveness: At the end of the world/ standing on opposite ends in the desolation/ can you reach out and/ break the darkness?

*Magi's Comments: There's something of an unspoken theme of forgiveness in Mario's Crowbar, I think. Almost all the characters do terrible things, but they find some forgiveness in each other… even if they still act like jerks all the time. Then, somewhere in the beyond, they find a final peace. Personally, no matter how terrible or "evil" a person is, I could never be okay with them going to an eternal hell, or suffering forever. Everyone is already suffering, what satisfaction can we find in more suffering?

Friend: Seigal's mysterious koopa "friend". Originally encountered in the Wrecked Ruins in the southern part of the Desert.

Thought 1: He acted something like Seigal's subconscious, badgering him for his descent into dark behaviors. I am quite certain he isn't really real. See BoomShroom's Chapter 25 review for a detailed summary— I believe it is a fine analysis.

Thought 2: But "Friend" reappears in Chapter 67, along the Stairway to Heaven. He even gives Seigal a physical object— the syringe.

T1: Oh yeah, he does, doesn't he? And that syringe ends up being an integral item in the "final battle". Wow, that's tough… I was really certain the "Friend" wasn't real…

T2: So you'd have to assume Friend was real to some extent. Do you think it was the same 'person' both times? Maybe the second time someone else was using his appearance? But then again, his appearance the first time…? How legitimate was that?

T1: I'm fairly certain it was the same person. If person is even the right word. So he was probably corporeal— which means, that couldn't have been Seigal. …Unless…?

Gaidens, Other: Here are some ideas I had for other gaidens I might have wrote, if I'd felt like it or if I'd needed to delay Part 2 longer:

*Roy Gaiden: This short story would have detailed what happened to Roy Koopa after he fled the Mushroom Kingdom, including his time in the Beanbean Kingdom and how he became a high ranking member of the Sarasan military. Some elements of this were included in "Gaiden Two: Lifelines".

*Seigal Gaiden: A short story showing more of Seigal's backstory— significantly, his home life before he ended up in the Koopa Troop. There were some flashes of this in the final battle, though the gaiden would naturally have been more explicit… and would have directly tied the duplighost Illumus Canopus as Seigal's ancestor.

*Toadette Gaiden: A story showing Toadette's life between Part 1 and Part 2. Did you know she had a daughter in that time? Well, that would have been part of this, as well as some detailed information about Sanctuary's founding.

*Warioware Gaiden: A short story covering what happened to some of the Warioware members who survived the Cataclysm. In the end, this really wouldn't have mattered in the broader picture…

Heaven: The mysterious beyond, that indescribable transcendence that always exists just right around the corner, outside of reach. It's over there—and here—all at the same time.

*Magi's Comments: The conception (and true presence) of Heaven in Mario's Crowbar is based on some aspects of Eastern philosophy— something of a mix of the Chinese concepts of "Heaven", the "Dao/Tao", and the Hindu "Brahman". It is the inexplicable, yet all powerful beyond, and yet just the same the true aspect of the universe. All is one—?

Heaven's Door: Some weapons are plainly physical. Some are chemical, some are biological, and some are nuclear. But only one is capable of the complete destruction of space-time, and that is Heaven's Door. From the very first time it was used, the universe was permanently damaged. After a few more uses in the Southern Kingdom it was decided to be too dangerous, and since it was also indestructible, the weapon was buried in a secret place. Its creator yearned to see it used more, and dug it back up, wielding it for his own means. His actions were discovered, and he was killed by the very gang he had served for most of his life. The whereabouts of Heaven's Door fades from history from this point forward— … —until it was discovered in some desert ruins by a Southern Kingdom trader. Description of the strange device spread, until certain individuals aware of its nature came to find it. These individuals obtained the device for use in a war in the Mushroom Kingdom, evidently unaware of the permanently disastrous nature of the weapon— a weapon that forbade any salvation in victory, the ultimate in pyrrhic.

From outside of the timeline two events were determined as key in the final days: the actions of those traveling the Stairway to Heaven, and the battlefield where Heaven's Door was unleashed for the final time. It was ultimately unclear to the observers which event was more key, so the watchers were divided in their actions throughout time, manipulating and attempting to set-up what they felt important.

Hell's Uprising: MC's aborted sister-story, the first five chapters of which are on Fanfiction. Here's just some fun details about it—all canon—

Hell's Uprising was originally meant to be updated along with MC, continuing on during MC's break between Parts 1 and 2, and eventually tying together at the same endpoint in 1508.

HU begins a few weeks before MC does. The first part of HU (or first "Book" more properly) would have tied together with MC in explaining where Furton's starm shipment originally came from. (If you've read it, then yes: it was the one Lukas was transporting for the Organization).

HU was going to be a more positive story within the MC canon, in contrast to MC's endless pessimism and disastrous circumstances. HU's main characters were going to form a tight-knit team from the beginning, developing strong friendships and even a romance. Each of these core five would be a different species and specialize in a different interest and skill, all cycling around to compliment each other (Interest/Skill):

Lukas Koden (Shy Guy): Reading/Writing

John Wal (Human): History/Tactics

Eleme Eros (Nyololin): Natural Science/Music

Zymech (Yoshi): Mathematics/Mechanical Science

GENO-M (Codomb): Fighting/Nature

In turn, the core antagonists of the first couple books, the Sarasan Council, would have had their own complimentary skills.

The story was to be organized into FIVE parts/books… and judging by the amount of story that the first five chapters completed—(not a lot)—it's quite possible that, had it gone on, HU would have lasted longer than MC.

The books were:

Book One: Genesis (Lukas Koden gathers together his revolutionary army to oppose the Sarasan government.)

Book Two: Exodus (The actual war against the Sarasan government.)

Book Three: Chronicles (The events of the Triwar, where Sarasaland [now made up of Lukas's forces and the Sarasan government proper] fight to protect their homeland against Jewelry Land and the Beanbean Kingdom… ultimately absorbing both to make the Sarasan Empire.)

Book Four: John (After a time skip, the Sarasan Empire's army begins its journey to capture the Mushroom Kingdom. This part focuses on the conquest of the southwestern Tribal Lands, and John Wal's betrayal.)

Book Five: Revelations (The final battle in the former Mushroom Kingdom— from the perspective of the Sarasans.)

Notice a theme from the names? HU would have touched on a number of religious themes, but since it was cancelled, an aspect of that was transplanted into MC's Part 2.

So, the big question: why did I cancel? To be frank, I think this story was pretty good. It could have become even better than MC, I honestly think. But it was a lot of work, especially for a story that I knew almost no one would be reading. This is just about as abstracted as a fanfiction can get: to have no characters from the original (Mario) series! Sheesh. I loved writing it, but I decided I'd save the energy for MC. Besides, I believe that with adjustments, this could become an awesome novel someday.

"Him": Koji's lover. Real name: Markus Arjuna. Held a divine presence around himself. Vanishing on a holy mission to the south, he was thirty-three when he achieved his purpose.

Infection: An odd "infection" that Seigal catches, possibly during the "Odyssey" or somewhere slightly before. The infection warps the perception of the infected, as well as the distinct space and time around them. It is a manifestation only possible in the dying throes of the world— a side-effect of fantasy bleeding through reality.

Possibly related to Mush.

Spreading from Seigal, the Infection reaches Peach (Ch.63), spreads from Peach to Luigi (Ch.64), spreads from Luigi to Smithy (?), from Smithy to Koji (Ch.64), and presumably to Penter and Blaine as well. How long this Infection lasts is unclear, and it may have even lasted through to the very end— potentially resulting in the visions along the Stairway to Heaven.

After some consideration, the origin of the Infection can be traced either to the Mush Seigal used in the Sanctuary, or to Mistress Reydi.

Inquisitor, The: See "Tree of Life, The".

Kentaurus, Blaine: Tried very hard.

*Magi's Comments: Certain Eastern philosophies, some modern Western philosophies, and psychology in general would suggest that "souls" do not exist, but rather that our brains are staffed by several thought processes that pop in and out of our conscious (and unconscious) as necessary. Not terribly fun to think about… and it seems Blaine has become permanently aware, or (if the theories aren't true) subconsciously convinced of it.

His mind is formed by the importance of relationships taken to the extreme: from the idea we only form our identities through our relationships with others. We cannot say anything about ourselves without comparing to another person… in this way, can it be said that all we are are aspects or reflections of other people? Blaine, breaking down, begins to suggest the relational aspects mostly of his sister Eve, his love Peach, and his Vessel-bond Smithy. These subconscious processes fight for control of his soul, and in the battle, seem to destroy it entirely.

…I think the fragility of his mind is fueled by his utter powerlessness throughout the story.

Kentaurus (Family): Perhaps the most famous non-royal family of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Their lineage can be charted as follows: Kaspar Kentaurus was the brother of Kubus Kentaurus. Kaspar had many… partners in his lifetime, including Toadiko Mimosa, sister of Elvin Mimosa (children of the notorious thieves Bienville and Dallas Mimosa). Through Kaspar and Toadiko's unity came Toadette Mimosa. Toadette Mimosa with Ai (whom she believed to be Alago Acrux) begat the twins Gavroche Mimosa and Hitoro Mimosa.

To the significance of the story, Kaspar Kentaurus also came to union with Charyb Dystopika. They begat Diabel Kentaurus. Diabel Kentaurus came to union with Justeaze, and so begat the siblings Blaine Kentaurus and Eve Kentaurus.

As a final note, Kubus Kentaurus (Kaspar's brother) came to an unnatural union with Koji Procyon, and potentially had a child through her— though the absolute parentage of the child is uncertain.

Kentaurus, Kubus: The overshadowed brother of Kaspar Kentaurus. Here is a story about him: Kubus was allotted a certain amount of money by his wealthy brother, which he used to purchase a moderately impressive house in the Mushroom Kingdom's Rose Town. Among his odd interests was a penchant for pink boos. He captured a baby of the species and kept it as a pet in his house.

Years later, Blaine and the Mushroom City mercenary Tevo would have a battle in Kubus's old house. The old man was gone… but his pink boo remained.

*Magi's Comments: I wonder what happened to him? Was he devoured in an unguarded moment, or did a fresh sin catch up with him?

Koji's Baby: Formed for ages, dead in a moment. Despite Koji's insistences, there's two potential fathers for the child: the good and the evil, "Him", and Kubus Kentaurus. Koji Procyon had relations with both within a week of each other— one had her by love, and one by rape.

*Magi's Comments: The death of Koji's baby was the second hit of the "one-two-punch" (to use some situationally inappropriate slang) of the beginning of the world's fall. The first hit was Smithy's entrance into the world, sending out the magical shockwave that destabilized the foundation of space-time: this was a metaphysical incident. The death of the baby was the second hit, for it was the death of a soul that in an "ideal world" would have acted as a messiah: this was a physical incident. The world of Mario's Crowbar could never have borne that ideal world, but the death of the baby was the final confirmation (and a signaling light beyond time and space) of this dreadful fact.

Koji's Language: Koji's thoughts occasionally devolved into seemingly random capital letters slapped together. The truth is, these "censored" thoughts are like a code: a simple reversal of the alphabet will reveal comprehensible speech. The idea is, every letter in the Language is actually the opposite of its place in the alphabet, so: A=Z, B=Y, C=X, X=C, Y=B, Z=A, etc.

L/Luigi: This is a man who transcended his origins… who moved so far beyond his genesis that he lost everything: even his identity. As such, he no longer has a surname.

*Magi's Comments: L is basically the "secret character" of MC. It's not entirely clear if he's actually meant to be participating in the events of Part 2, or whether he sort-of just "pasted" himself in (imagine Kammy appearing in the Paper Mario intro here). How to count the ways: his philosophy contradicts Koji's, who otherwise led the group unopposed (consider Smithy a neutral element here), he's overpowered, and he is the only person in Koji's group (besides Koji) to enter without any kind of invitation. His entrance forced Koji to re-examine her views.

Consider the following: according to Koji, the "eight" were supposed to refer to Koji's party of six and then Wes and Mario. But once L had joined… she, uh, re-interpreted the idea of the eight and removed Mario's significance.

Anyway, L came into the story from another timeline (or at least pretended to) and presented his own view of the universal situation: the idea of Binary. This was in contrast to Koji's more Starism-based view of the Enemy as simply a powerful demon, rather than the Vessel-incarnation of the Nought.

(Annnnnnnnd therefore, since L is the secret character, he doesn't get a character profile in the References. There, excuse provided.)

Magic: There are three primary kinds of magic: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual. These types are named after the sacrifices they require: Physical requires flesh, Mental requires memories, and Spiritual requires aspects of the soul. Physical was the most common in ancient times, although it has largely fallen into disuse— either Mental or Spiritual is chosen based on the preferences of the mage/Magikoopa. Mental may be preferred because with training, a Mage can choose which memories to give up to cast their spells. Spiritual may be preferred because while the aspects of the soul sacrificed cannot be chosen, the spells produced will generally be more powerful.

An example of the Physical would be Wes's relationship with the Book: extremely violent and powerful spells were possible, but they required the loss of body parts— the more important the part, the more powerful the spell.

An example of the Mental would be most of the other Magikoopas in the story— the "natural" Magikoopas that have trained in their professions since a young age. This would include the three killed by Mario near the beginning, including Reene.

An example of the Spiritual would be the magic used by Lorelai Adara. Repeatedly time traveling with her mix of scientific and magical expertise required powerful soul magic, but repeated use drained her ability to feel, as well as her will to live.

Mandala: Seek Circle Cycle—

From the outside, in—

*: Shadow Echoes (2D)

*: Sentients/People/Mortals (3D)

*: Demi-Abstracts (3D)

*: Marvels (4D)

*: Abstracts (5D)

*: Asuras/Upper-Abstracts (5D)

*: God-Breaths (6D)

*: God-Songs/God-Screams (7D)

*: ######## (Tern tern turn…)

*: 01 (∞)

Mario, Mario: The hero of the Mushroom Kingdom.

*Magi's Comments: What happens when the undefeatable super-man goes crazy? Mass destruction, evidently.

Mario was originally going to time-travel with the others from Part 1 to Part 2 and regain his sanity in the process, becoming a regular member of Koji's "party"— but I decided that he'd gone way too far, both mentally and by his actions, and so couldn't just come back as a character.

If Wes is the representation of nihilism, Mario is the representation of death… especially his crowbar. Nothing can conquer death— except, maybe, a transcendental, enlightened world view, reaching beyond time and space to the infinite. Does that sort of wisdom actually exist? Even if L/Luigi represents this wisdom, it's hard to even say whether HE himself exists.

Music: The echoing strands of the seventh dimension. Said to be the most transcendent of all art forms.

The increasing presence of music suggests an approach towards a transcendent state. One might summarize its most powerful effects as an "immanentizing of the Eschaton".

*Magi's Comments: As you probably noticed, every chapter in Part 2, the Gaiden stories, and the titles of the Parts are named after songs. The inspiration came from… (drumroll) a certain series of manga known as "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure". The idea of referencing songs left and right (in the naming of punch ghosts*) delighted me. The references added another layer of soul to the story, and gave me referrals to several soundtracks of new music. Now, it's easy for someone in Japan to reference American songs because of the kind of lax copyright laws Japan works with… such referencing would not ordinarily be possible here. But, if someone was, say, writing a fanfiction that was not being sold anyway…? Long story short, I realized this was my only chance to use song references like this. And it was a blast! I hope you found at least one new song you enjoy.

*Punch ghosts… I'm not explaining this! Go watch Jojos, it's been made into an awesome anime— certified good stuff.

Objects: The magical objects created by the Enemy's followers at the instructions of the Enemy. They each contain the 'soul' or 'essence' of one of the Four Heroes... excepting the Book. Each Object raises a certain "stat" of its possessor: Crowbar = Attack, Charm = Defense, Rigex/Legix = Speed. The Book bestows all these traits to its possessor, while Smithy benefits from the lot as well— though only for himself. (Sorry Blaine.)

*Magi's Comments: There are several hints throughout the story about the ability of the Objects to raise different stats— but it was never stated outright. Consider Seigal and Peach's ability to flee so quickly despite carrying large crystals, Mario's ability to treat his victim's flesh like butter, and Wes and Koji's respective near-death (post-death?) experiences: Wes at the hands of the Mario brothers, and Koji at the hands of Blii.

Peach's Daughter: A mysterious figure that appears along the Stairway to Heaven. A female human with long hair, wearing a shy guy's mask. She claims to be Peach's daughter— but Peach doesn't recognize her.

Well, in a manner of speaking she was Peach's daughter— in a place and time too far removed to deliberate on here. Even before that, the "Daughter" was from the same original place as Smithy— from before the world of Abstracts.

Perfect Timeline: The Book's "perfect" timeline, where all of its plans go perfectly. This never occurs completely, but in Lorelai's earliest timelines it came pretty damn close.

Sixteen Years Ago:

A team of duplighosts attack Wes' mother, snatching the mushroom charm from her.

Day One:

Wes, without the mushroom charm, is killed with all of the other koopa soldiers in the Battle of Blood Grove.

Events are identical to Primary Timeline for Penter, Bowser, Peach, and Mario.

Day Two:

Bowser escapes from Mushroom Castle. Since Wes is dead, Bowser isn't killed. He heads into the Desert, beginning to make his way east.

Seigal, on the Airship, helps Bowser back to Koopa Castle.

Day Three:

Bowser begins to prepare an army to take revenge on the Mushroom Kingdom for his utter humiliation. Qourk and Plack's plans are rendered null with Bowser's surprising (and sudden) return.

Penter, escaping from Mushroom Castle, ends up at the still-standing Duplighost's Hut. He is taken in and forcibly made the Book's Vessel. Now wielding great power, he plans to return to Mushroom Castle.

Peach is murdered by Mario in Mushroom Castle. Succeeding at his purpose, Mario goes into a stupor.

Day Four:

Penter returns to Mushroom Castle to find Smithos/Khad in charge instead of Peach. He fights Smithos, and using his newfound Book powers, is able to defeat Smithos. The Book instructs him carefully on how to fight, only knocking Smithos into a coma. Penter ends up sacrificing himself to the Book. Penter (as the Enemy's puppet) rises.

The New Era Army is immediately disbanded with Smithos' defeat. Alago monitors Smithos while awaiting Penter's return from above.

Koji gives birth without trouble.

Bowser's Army prepares to attack the Mushroom Kingdom.

Day Five:

Penter returns from above, as the Book's Vessel. He secures Smithos, takes the Crowbar from Mario (while killing him), and takes the Legix. The duplighosts present the charm to him—he only needs the Rigex now to complete the Antikythera. He sends a team of duplighosts east.

All of the toads present at Mushroom Castle are killed (including Blaine).

Day Six:

Late at night, the team of duplighosts encounter Bowser's Army. Most of the duplighosts fight while a small team split off to steal the Rigex stealthily.

Not visited by Wes, Kamek goes out into Mushroom City for a walk—disguised. He finds out about Wario's auction and decides to put a stop to it. (A*In some alternate universes, Lorelai prevents Kamek from leaving the tower.)

Day Seven:

Wario's auction takes place. Kamek dies trying to put a stop to it (2nd)

In some timelines, Kamek dies from an accident involving the time machine. (3rd)

Otherwise, the auction goes smoothly.

One duplighost successfully kills Bowser and takes the Rigex, returning to Mushroom Castle.

Day Eight:

The Cataclysm, specifically the mass explosion, still occurs for unknown reasons, Kamek dies (1st)

Once Kamek dies, Lorelai uses the time machine to go back and try to save him (many times).

Penter performs the Spiral Ceremony.

Penter would perform the Spiral Sacrament. (He never makes it this far before Lorelai escapes.)

Pollux, Ghrea: The fabulous Beanbean secret agent. She's obsessed with bombs and dominoes. Loves action. Ghrea may not be her real name? She's what some might call a bad person—

True: Almost all of her interactions with Wes were matters of manipulation. True: She initiated war between Sarasaland and the Mushroom Kingdom in the hopes of Beanbean victory. True: She was responsible for the death of Lukas Koden's father in a bombing incident.

But, she can also be considered a hero— True: Publicly made an honored patriot of the Beanbean Kingdom following her disappearance in 1500 ASE. True: Led a group of refugees out of the Sarasan Empire to the Southern Kingdom and arguably founded Sanctuary. True: Disguised herself, disfigured from the Mushroom City incident, and distantly ran Sanctuary for almost the entirety of its operation, calling herself Riveter, and at the same time cultivating the talents of Dirge R— and Mera Oxford.

Maybe she became a better person after 1500, though much of her history remains shrouded in mystery. It is said her disappearance from Sanctuary was preceded by the delivery of a letter to her tent requesting a duel— from the vengeful son of a criminal she killed long ago.

Is Ghrea her real name? It's the closest thing to one. Growing up as an impoverished child on the streets, she constantly swapped names in order to survive. She happened to be going by "Ghrea Pollux" when, around the age of 13, she was captured by the Beanbean Agency and given the offer to join. (It was shortly after that that the incident that killed Lukas Koden's father occurred…)

*Magi's Comments: Ghrea deserves a novel-length story of her own, but she won't be getting it. If "Hell's Uprising" had continued she would have been either the next-to-last or last antagonist that Lukas Koden would've had to face. Her pseudonym "Riveter" during Part 2 is a reference to Rosie the Riveter— a small hint at her identity, perhaps? The dominoes found in Riveter's chest were meant to be the final indication of her true identity.

Fun fact: Her obsession with bombs is a nod to Nice Holystone from Baccano! In addition, Baccano! was in part an inspirational force for MC.

Pretender, The: A song by the band Foo Fighters.

*Magi's Comments: I found this song one stormy night back in late 2013. At the same time I listened to it I was reading over my old story Mario's Crowbar (2007) and felt a kind of electric energy running through me: an almost delirious excitement, a feeling that "this was right"— to return again to that world.

That feeling is extraordinarily rare. Now that this story is over, I will pray that that feeling returns.

Procyon Siblings: Here referring to Koji and Penter Procyon.

*Magi's Comments: There was some confusion about Penter disguising himself as Marty early on in Part 2. I'll explain that here… however, it requires some deeper observations about Koji and Penter's relationship.

Let's go back to 1498: In a way, Penter kind of abandoned Koji when he went to Mushroom Castle to find Rike's killer. …Umm, well no, it's more like Penter completely disregarded Koji when he went to investigate. Remember in Chapter 42, in the flashback? Penter and Koji's fight is the last time the two talked to each other.

Penter and Koji had no contact for the next two years. Remember that when Penter is fleeing from Mushroom Castle early on in MC that he avoids even going back to Rose Town to see Koji… he would rather go to the Koopa Kingdom and try to make an alliance there then see his own sister! (I wonder what would have happened if he had been in Rose Town when the NEA arrived?)

Penter is always stewing in his bitter thoughts… having weird ideas about how much people must hate him, and how everyone's against him… His friend Rike used to be able to calm him down from that, but… well, you know… now he was dead. So Penter stewed over the next few years about his sister, without any method of relief (he was willing to take).

So, when the siblings happened to run into each other at Mushroom Castle, things were still quite bitter and awkward. And time was running out in the castle with everything falling apart, so Penter disguised himself quickly, and without talking with anyone, stowed away with Peach.

In Part 2, Penter was trying to come up with some way to properly re-approach his sister (after staying hidden around her) but he couldn't figure anything out before she found HIM out. Even by the end of the story, the two didn't really make up at all…

Well, it's hard to say either of them were the same person after they met each other again. Penter had found out he was a duplighost— furthermore, something like a manufactured weapon. He'd become angrier, more bitter, and more determined to conquer the world around him. Koji'd gone through a murderous phase, and was now desperately trying to eke out a purpose in her life. They also both knew they weren't actually siblings… And nah, family love couldn't fix it. It's literally the end of the world.

A large part of Penter remained bitter towards Koji until the very end. Koji, in turn, had some doubts about whether Penter was on the side of the "heroes" or not… He could easily have turned out to be a traitor, allying with the Enemy, based on his behavior.

Queen Daisy: —See "Achernar, Eris".

She is real.

Her influence is so terrible that it seems to shape the reality around her. Could there be a more terrifying "mortal" in the entire world…?

It's hard to say if she's actually mortal or not, for her existence by the time of the story is more that of a "wraith".

Interestingly, she has an adopted human daughter by the name of "Eris II". By 1508, Eris II is 14 years old.

*Magi's Comments: What started as a background joke (fun Mario Party character Daisy is insanely evil and terrifying off-screen) became one of the key pillars to the plot. It was unclear whether she was real or not for most of the story, but in the end, she was extremely integral to the backstory.

The biggest hints for Daisy being Eris are Daisy's apparently ancient nature, and the mention several times that she has a daughter named "Eris"— Eris II.

R—, Dirge: An Agent of Destruction, and the one prophesized by both Merlar Constell and a certain Yoshi tribe for being responsible for the world's end.

…In the end, he may in fact have been responsible. It was his decision to use the weapon Heaven's Door, and it was his final orders that the unknown soldier use it until the end: "Soldier. Take this— Heaven's Door. It is our victory. Hurry to the battlefield and use it. Use it and use it until they've all surrendered. Until it's absolutely over. Do you understand?"

What happens to space-time when poked continuously through with holes? Dare it be whispered?

In the end, the spokes wondered: what was more important, the battle on the mountain or the battle on the field?

On another topic, the two possible spellings of Dirge's surname are possibly shortened versions of two words: Revel = Revelation, Revol = Revolution.

*Magi's Comments: This entry is mostly a commentary on Dirge's role as the destroyer of the world. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not Heaven's Door was actually responsible. Consider this quote from Reydi when Heaven's Door is destroying the battlefield: "My compatriots believe in those climbing the mountain, but this is clearly the more important incident." Reydi is a significantly mysterious character who would have benefited immensely for development had "Hell's Uprising" been finished. But I think from the quote we can understand that she's one of… those people… and that there was a schism within them. Some believed the battle in the Mountains of Loss to be key, while others believed the battle below to be key. Both battles were important, but the question of which would determine the fate of the world never seemed to be entirely decided.

An anonymous reviewer asked where "Yoshi" is in the story. I decided early on that there would be none of the Mario characters that simply had their species name (like Toad and Yoshi)— it'd be too weird in a more "realistic" setting like in the story. I mean, no one's named "Human" right? Er, right? (And yes, Toadette is okay! Just as long as it's not the direct species name…) So anyway, in response to the reviewer, you can maybe, if you want, think of Dirge as the Yoshi from Paper Mario 2.

Revenant: Seven spooky phantom-ghosts that the "King of Death" Wes summoned from somewhere. Their full nature is unknown to almost everyone, although Koji Procyon would claim that each is matched to one of the "eight heroes of virtue". Some did seem to match: Seigal had Ludwig, Blaine had his father Diabel, and Peach had Rike. The pattern appears to match a living person to a dead person whose death they were directly (or indirectly) responsible for. They are not a matter of real reincarnation, but more like phantom images.

Each revenant represents the sin and guilt of the living person it opposes. If each of the main characters was to be appointed a sin, it would be as follows:

Mario Mario/Luigi Mario: Envy

Penter Procyon: Wrath

Smithos: Greed

Peach Toadstool: Pride

Blaine Kentaurus: Lust

Seigal Canopus: Gluttony

Koji Procyon: Sloth

Wes Sirius, in this frame of thinking, is the The Bond, the void that is fed by all the sins.

The revenants matched to Koji Procyon and Wes Sirius are interesting cases. For Koji, it is the giant, monstrous, howling void wandering the Forest— this is LIFE. In her broken state early on, Koji had effectively declared war on life itself, disguising the sentiment as a series of lethal experiments. In turn, her guilt had come alive in the most powerful and terrifying way. Regarding Wes, it could be posited that Penter was his revenant… Wes was technically responsible for Penter's death in the Nihil Timeline.

*Magi's Comments: The concept of the revenants was not properly explored in MC. In a fully furnished version of the tale, each of the main characters would have faced off against their own revenant. Here, the mysterious enemies were not the focus of Part 2, and thus were given less screen time than a better story might have provided.

Rigel (Object): The combined crystal formed from the smaller Rigex and Legix crystals. It's creation (and the removal of the Rigex and Legix identities from existence) signifies the destruction of the ideological nationalities of the Koopa and Mushroom Kingdoms. When Smithy was brought back into the world for the third time (in 1500), the sort-of "magical wave" that subsequently spread across the land effectively broke the magical effects of the Rigex and Legix.

The Rigex and the Legix kept the peoples of the Koopa and Mushroom Kingdoms in near-hypnotic allegiance to their rulers. A fantastic feudal system, with far less of the economic details— while the Mushroom Kingdom and Koopa Kingdom did have vassal lords (in the MK in the form of Crescent Village leaders, and in the KK by various eastern lords)— the MK and KK leaders were able to place extreme taxes on the vassal lords by excuse of the magical allegiance forced by the Rigex and Legix.

People from outside the Mushroom Kingdom and Koopa Kingdom tend to demonstrate much greater streaks of "rebelliousness". Ghrea can be considered a prime example. Because of the lack of a mind-control device in Sarasaland and the Beanbean Kingdom, the people of these nations suffered much more vicious rule as a means of keeping the royal families in place. In Sarasaland this has worked over the centuries. In the Beanbean Kingdom, this has encouraged many terrible wars of succession among the contentious royal family and the bitter subjects eager to topple their leaders.

*Magi's Comments: In Part 2, the area of the Mushroom Kingdom and Koopa Kingdom have entered a sort of "post-state" political landscape, practically approaching anarchy. It's only the threat of the Sarasan Empire that rises the Sanctuary out from the chaos of the Southern Mushroom Kingdom.

It was asked at a certain point if the people of the Mushroom and Koopa Kingdoms would have lead different lives if not for the influences of the Rigex and Legix… I can say with certainty it would be so.

Riveter: See "Pollux, Ghrea".

Rosettan: Alternately known as the "Word of Rosett" or the "Rosett faith". The primary religion of Sarasaland, Rosettan has been officially mandated as the state religion by Queen Daisy since 1503— resultantly, it is followed by something like 95% of Sarasan Empire citizens. The primary entity of worship is Rosalina Rosetta, the so-called "princess of the fiery stars". She represents the absolute truth of the universe, as well as all that is good (truth being directly equivalent to good in the terms of Rosettan). All that lies outside of the teachings of Rosetta is evil, the falsehoods. In sum this falsehood is represented as an evil counter-god, a counter-god that has a number of names depending on one's interpretation of the Book of Rosett. Some directly attribute Eldstar, the primary entity of the Starism religion, as the evil god. This certainly appeared as an element in Sarasan Empire propaganda for reasoning to conquer the former Mushroom Kingdom's land.

*Magi's Comments: To make a comparison to religions in our world, I'd consider Rosettan as most similar to Zoroastrianism. Both focus on two godly entities in an endless battle for truth/goodness, as well as have an interesting infatuation with fire. I think some parallels can also be made between the Sarasan Empire and the ancient Sassanian Empire (the geographical focus of Zoroastrianism).

Salvation: The long-awaited unity between the "Being" and "Heaven".

*Magi's Comments: I think this is the secret "quality" that everyone is seeking— salvation in one form or another. No one can ever really achieve salvation, at least not in the real world. Perhaps deepest, sleeping love, or a complete ecstasy found in the depths of religious fervor? No one in Mario's Crowbar reaches either of these points awake, so they are doomed to wander for the majority of their time.

Shie: Also known more in way of slang as "shy guys". Little masked people who wear cloaks. They rarely take off their cloaks, and even more rarely take off their masks. Only for a person they trust most in the world (usually a lover, usually another shie) will a shie ever take their mask off.

The truth is, there's only an empty space behind the masks…! Or, at least, nothing physical. An empty space extends into the head of a shie, flickering with short snaps of blue light like a small thunderstorm. Shies have strange brains: half is physical matter hidden away in the solid part of their head, and the other half is electrical energy that phases through the empty space behind the mask— this is perhaps the difference between their subconscious and conscious. Although shies can potentially store items behind their masks, they'll start to get really dizzy if there is any kind of physical object present in their electrical thought-space.

An even more hidden secret is this: shies were originally a constructed race, built some 7500 years ago. First robots in nature, they gained an artificial intelligence equal to the intelligence of the other, "natural" races, as well as their own reproductive systems. In time people forgot the nature of the shies, and the species entered the evolutionary cycle along with the others.

It is probable that the Mecha2s could have eventually evolved artificial intelligence as well.

*Magi's Comments: If I ever did another OC Mario story, the two species I would make most certain to use as main characters are shy guys and boos… I love em'! Lukas would have fulfilled that condition for Hell's Uprising, but that story ended up cancelled…

Sirius, Wes: The first point-of-view in Mario's Crowbar. His life was especially unfortunate...or so it seemed to him. It seems he had something of a personality disorder, or maybe just a genetically dour outlook. In any case, it seems all suffering was amplified for him, so that he felt despair at least three times as strongly as others. One might imagine he would have committed suicide then, but he also had something of a survivor's instinct.

*Magi's Comments: The element of sadness in the story, and the first point of view. MC was originally (I mean, back in 2007) designed to show the "common enemy's" point-of-view— like one of the sad, miserable, scared rando koopas that Mario and Luigi stomped on without a second thought. Ultimately, it was those kind of actions (sins?) that contributed to the ruin of the kingdom.

Wes wasn't just a random soldier, though. He was particularly sad, particularly spineless— not that these traits necessarily go together. They just created a bad combination in Wes. The extreme version of this depression and sense of hopelessness is the formation of powerful nihilism. In Part 2, Wes is the manifestation of nihilism in a world that has seen no end of suffering.

Smithos: The World's most popular Abstract!— at least, in terms of renown. He came to the World three times: the first time was around 4700 BCE. Smithy really didn't know what he was doing, so he screwed around a bit and ended up getting banished pretty quickly. The second time (8 BSE) he came back prepared, having spent a lot of time in the Abstract World thinking over what to do. He allied himself with a certain people (the duplighosts of the Mycelium Kingdom), conquered much of the World, and spent eight years largely having a good time. He was killed suddenly in the midst of a battle with the Enemy, however. The third time (1500 BSE) he returned in a somewhat more lax manner— he felt confident he could take over the World again, and now with experience have a chiller time doing it. The appearance of the Enemy (and the realization that the two of them were tied together when it came to the mortal World) surprised him, and he ended up spending the next eight years locked up in a cage.

His knowledge of items and scientific concepts from beyond the World and Abstract World suggest his origins in a third world.

*Magi's Comments: Smithy was pure, joyful, ecstatic, childish chaos. "Chaotic Good" as D&D would have it, put to a certain extreme. Well, I'm sure many would disagree with me, considering the deaths Smithy indirectly (and directly) caused… perhaps we can settle for "Chaotic Neutral"?

He's pretty different from the Super Mario RPG Smithy, isn't he? And the Smithos from the original Mario's Crowbar (2007). Well, on the first count, our guy here is officially Smithos, not Smithy… even if he ended up stealing the name for the second-half of the story. In the end, both the Smith's represent a sort-of infernal figure, a mysterious demon from another world. Regarding Smithos' differences between MC-2007 and MC-2013, I had decided that the Book/Enemy was already floating around as a representation of "deep, dark evil", and that the story didn't need a second in the form of Smithy. Sure, it's fun to have Satan's spawn walking the earth, flowers dying wherever it steps, but I also wanted to try out writing a chaotic entity like Smithy… a trickster character with too much power and too much desire to interfere in the mortal world.

Southern Kingdom: Still officially a part of the Mushroom Kingdom (at least according to MK paperwork) up to the very end of the Cataclysm in 1500. This region was almost entirely known as the 'Southern Kingdom' after that time, and only in an ironic sense, as there was very little governing happening. From around 1100 (when it was first conquered) to 1400, the Mushroom Kingdom held all this territory with a pretty strong fist, so it all could have been considered 'the Southern Mushroom Kingdom' quite easily.

Bordered to the north by the Mushroom Kingdom/former Mushroom Kingdom, west by the Western Ocean, south by the Lychee Kingdom, south-east by Flora, east by the Eastern Ocean and the Crocodile Isles, and northeast by the Koopa Kingdom.

*Magi's Comments: Very wild-west-esque. I had a number of plans regarding a big prequel story focusing on Kaspar Kentaurus having cowboy-adventures in the Southern Kingdom. This would have involved run-ins with CIPHER, UNITY, and a host of interesting characters from some of the locales mentioned above. Unfortunately, Mario's Crowbar was already stretching it pretty thin as a heavily OC-based fanfiction. Writing a story that is entirely OCs would be problematic in the sense that no one would want to read the thing (*cough cough* Hell's Uprising *cough cough*), especially when I should just be working on a real novel. (And thank you to the people who did read Hell's Uprising… I'm not forgetting you, you have a special pedestal in my heart.)

Spica, Qourk: A scheming purple shy guy. By one argument he set off the story, by another he's just another small gear. Ended up becoming the abused king of the Sarasan Empire.

Fun Fact: Qourk is incapable of yelling. Why? When he was a child, he had an illness for a whole year that gave him a really sore throat. By the time he had recovered, his throat had been permanently damaged, and he found he could never yell again. The actual sound of his voice didn't change very much, though…

Qourk's ultimate fate is difficult to consider. Seigal could have been hallucinating, his "infection" might have warped space-time itself, or perhaps the Mistress Reydi was involved.

*Magi's Notes: I think if commoners were allowed to take prescriptive medicine in the Koopa Kingdom, Qourk would have ended up OK. I have a soft spot for him… it's kind of funny to think now, but he probably did less bad stuff than most of the main cast. I don't think he ever really killed anyone…? I guess he can't directly. He did still order the Koopa Kingdom army to take over the Mushroom Kingdom.

Starism: The primary faith of the Mushroom Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom, and the east side of Yoshi's Island. It is so common that many are unaware it even has a name… the people simply believe it to represent the historical and moralistic truth. Of course, many outside of the region would disagree. The primary god is Eldstar, although there are also six minor star spirits that only scholars seem to care about. In addition, according to the oldest texts there is a "traitor star". However, his mentions in the Book of Eldstar have largely been made apocryphal over the years so that it is no longer church canon.

*Magi's Comments: This one is pretty strongly based on the Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Judaism in particular.

Timelines:

Let's sort the timelines in order of their "occurrence", based on the story.

Old Timelines: An unknown number of timelines have occurred before MC began, and as long as individuals anywhere are time traveling, more will sprout up. Here we will focus on Lorelai: she traveled some number of timelines attempting to save her father Kamek, thus beginning her escape from the "Perfect Timeline" described above. Here, Penter Procyon was the one to be possessed by the Enemy and thus end the world. All of these timelines ended on or shortly after December 11, 1500, when Penter attempted the Spiral Ceremony. On the last of these "Old Timelines", Lorelai traveled back in time eight years to 1492 to once again try to find the right manipulation of events in order to save her father.

Nihil Timeline: This is the timeline most of Part 1 took place in, where, strangely, Wes became the Enemy's vessel. Lorelai's time machine was destroyed by Blii, so she was unable to travel back again. On December 11th, 1500, all of the main characters die in Mushroom Castle, and Wes completes the Spiral Ceremony, almost initiating the Spiral Sacrament— Koji travels back in time thirty minutes and so prevents this.

Prime Timeline: Everything occurs same as Nihil Timeline up until the Nihil Koji enters this timeline, replacing her Prime self (note: this is only called the "Prime" timeline because it is the timeline the story ends on). The main characters survive this time around, and a small group (led by Koji) travel forward in time eight years to December 11th, 1508. Because they travel forward in time, there is no timeline shift. Simultaneously, however, due to Koji's conflicted thoughts, her spirit splits in two… one traveled forward, and one traveled back in time eight days to December 3rd, 1500. This creates the "Secondary Timeline".

Secondary Timeline: This timeline isn't seen in the story, but it's mildly important. This is the timeline where Koji attempts to prevent Part 1 from happening. This Koji apparently fails, and in the ensuing chaos, only Secondary L/Luigi travels forward in time and enters the Prime Timeline.

*Magi's Comments: For a short time I debated splitting MC into three parts, with Part 1 remaining the same but Part 2 becoming the story of the Secondary Timeline while Part 3 would be the story of the future Prime Timeline (what ended up being Part 2). The old Part 2 would probably have focused more on the "watchers", and further time travel shenanigans.

Toadstool, Kinoko: Peach's father, the former Mushroom King. He was highly addicted to Mush, but otherwise a fine ruler.

He almost discovered the full depths of the duplighost conspiracy within Mushroom Castle (extending even to mathematical realizations of the Spiral Ceremony), but was killed with a poison before he could finish his research.

Tree of Life: An Abstract. Consider this line, from when Luigi originally became an Agent: "Do what you must to ensure the future. The One, the Tree, and I entrust you." The voice that speaks for the Tree is the Tree's unseen Vessel. The Tree, too, is a Vessel— for a higher authority. This Vessel chain acts as a counter to the Enemy's:

Blaine – Smithy – Zero-Zero (Enemy)

Unseen Voice – Tree of Life – One-One

Zero-Zero and One-One are not the One and the Nought themselves, but rather their closest "real" representatives. (For complicated metaphysical reasons, the One and the Nought cannot be directly present in a Vessel chain.)

According to Luigi, the Binary is far more determined to die than to live, hence its long-form attempt at suicide (during the entirety of the story). But a small part of it—the remaining positive will of the One—desired life. A smaller, weaker, more submissive part.

But then again, was it weaker? It seems possible it won out, or that both the One and the Nought succeeded… if, in fact, they were ultimately placed into an unconscious dream state? If so, truly, their duality was ever-present and ever-balanced.

In the end, the Tree of Life became troublesome beyond his duty, and so was executed among the shadows of the spokes.

*Magi's Comments: Oh, yeah, "Zero-Zero" is the closest thing the Enemy has to a real name. This and One-One are references to the Binary coding language, just as the One and the Nought themselves.

Wingetstein, Pand: Former member of the Sarasan Council.

*Magi's Comments: This character is named after one of the early MC reviewers, Pandwin, and the analytic philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Because… P.W. was the most rational, analytic member of the Sarasan Council. This would have become more apparent if Hell's Uprising had continued. *Cough*

Wraith: The inhuman form an Agent takes upon reaching the age of 108. Only two people in history are known to have taken this form: Eris Achernar and Koji Procyon.

Koji Procyon's condition was only temporary— after being mortally wounded by Blii Fomalhaut. Koji could not have been completely killed due to her nature as an agent, but she did have the potential become an entirely inhuman killer. Essentially, when Blii cut her throat, her life fast-forwarded to the age of death, 108. Thus, Capella's Charm saved her technically not from "death", but from "wraith-life".

Yuga: According to Dharmic philosophy, all of space-time is a cycle of events, like a grand wheel. This cycle is made up of four separate eras, or "yugas": the Satya Yuga, the Treta Yuga, the Dvapara Yuga, and the Kali Yuga. Of most interest here are the Kali and Satya Yugas.

The Kali Yuga is an era of great suffering, where the lives of people is nasty, brutish, and short (to quote a certain political philosopher). Ultimately, the Kali Yuga ends in a grand, tumultuous event that cleanses the evil of the world… perhaps even the world itself. This results in a rebirth, leading to the Satya Yuga.

The Satya Yuga is an age of truth and perfection… of seemingly endless providence. People lead long lives, and all are happy.

Time remains a cycle, however, and eventually, the Satya Yuga too must end.

*Magi's Comments: Our world is said to currently exist in a Kali Yuga. If this philosophy is applied to a certain other world, perhaps a pattern might emerge…? This theory is possible to apply to the defeat of the Enemy, even without the explanations of any of the proposed religions in MC— though it fits within them to a certain degree. Perhaps the suffering and consistently dire fates of the characters was due to their living within a Kali Yuga… I believe you can draw your own conclusions from here.

Zero-Zero: See "Book, The".

Zymech: Formerly known as Carol Maeza. An important yoshi in the Sarasan Empire. She was the primary creator of the Mecha2s, and a major participant in the Sarasan Revolution. She was also involved to a limited extent in the Sarasan Empire's conquests.

*Magi's Comments: This character is named after a reader, Crazy Mecha! (She now goes by C. Mechayoshi. CM, if you're reading this, did you notice?) Early on I wanted to thank some notable reviewers by using their names in the MC spin-off, Hell's Uprising. Unfortunately, that project was abandoned… but, Zymech remains a very important person in the history of the MC-verse. BoomShroom, too, was gonna have a main position, with some rearrangement of his username made to be the "real" name of the A.I. GENO-M.

Until next time—!