Entity
<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Entity</default></title>
<image source="image"><default>File:Placeholder location.png</default></image> <header>Basic Information</header> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> <header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label> </infobox> The Entities are a race of multidimensional creatures larger than Earth and are the source of parahuman powers.
Goals and Methods
Introduction
In order to evolve and learn a means by which their species may infinitely survive and propagate, Entities disseminate 'shards' across a chosen planet with sapient life. Shards are fragments of the Entities, capable of performing numerous functions, retaining information, and maturing by means of learning from their hosts. Nearly all of an Entity's shards are distributed across alternate versions of the planet, bar a few 'vital' shards that they keep for themselves. These shards are assigned to hosts, who use their newfound powers in various ways that the shard records.
After the shards have gathered sufficient information, they return to their respective Entities, which briefly exchange information between themselves and then siphon energy from all versions of the host planet except one. Using this gathered energy, they detonate the remaining planet, using the resultant force to scatter clusters of themselves across the universe, which eventually grow into individual Entities.
Through repetition of this process, knowledge is acquired across many civilizations across the universe, knowledge which can then be used to grant powers to the next set of hosts, forming the basis of the superpowers seen in Worm. This process of distributing and reacquiring shards in order to propagate is known as The Cycle.<ref name="I26" />
The Warrior and Thinker
Though Entities can vary in their approach to gathering information, there are only a select few Entities shown in Worm. The Warrior and Thinker are the names given to the two Entities that chose to settle on the Earths. The Warrior is more direct and thinks in the short-term, while the Thinker looks ahead past the current cycle, thinking about the goal of the Entities as a whole. The Warrior and Thinker work as a pair, traveling together through the void to seed target planets with their respective shards. During each cycle, the two of them take on subtly different roles in the cycle, such as attacker and defender; warrior and thinker; and builder and destroyer.<ref name="I26" />
As the Warrior and Thinker approach new planets, they simulate the future to observe how shards shed from their mass will interact with the local host species. Modifications are then made to the shards in response to the observed future, in order to make them compatible with their soon-to-be hosts. This is the origin of the Manton Effect, which prevents powers from harming their hosts. Modifications are also made to prevent the shards from being used against the Entities. One such alteration is the inability to remember the trigger vision following a trigger event, and was done using the shard given to Imp.<ref name="I26" />
During the cycle is when the Entities' individual roles come into play.
When the cycle has run its course and the shards are at "critical mass," the two Entities reconsolidate. They then exchange shards, rubbing interdimensional bodies against each other, generating heat and friction that forces shards to intermingle and mutate. Through this, they share information, comparing and contrasting the data they have gathered by way of their differing roles in the cycle. Finally,
Shards
In their distribution, shards are spread across many Earths and are targeted towards specific individuals, the Entities using clairvoyance and precognition in order to assign likely hosts. However, once shards are cast off from the Entity, they are largely independent, capable of finding a host most suitable for them, whether it be the host they were assigned to or another that they deem acceptable. Once a host is chosen, the shard is sequestered into a grouping of alternate, uninhabited Earths, where it saps the planets for energy in order to process and handle the power given to their hosts. By doing so the Shard remains safe from damage, with its only connection to the host existing through the Corona Pollentia.<ref name="I26" /> During a second trigger event, the Shard networks with other Shards and draws on collective information to bypass the restrictions and save its host.<ref>Venom 29.7</ref>
The Shards are capable of maturing and grow through experience and use. Given time and enough new information, shards can split to form buds, as demonstrated by Taylor & Aidan. These enter non-parahumans near to the original and allow access to new powers but retain similar features to their parent Shard. This is shown through Aidan, who -like Taylor- also has Master powers. Sub-Shards explain why parents and children have similar powers.<ref name="I26" />
Dimensions are separated into groups according to their similarity to each other, with Shards capable of accessing parahumans across these similar dimensions. By grouping them like this the Entities maximize the amount that can be learned without re-hashing the same experiences over and over. Dimensions are chosen according to the degree of strife, long-term viability of the host, and population of the planet.<ref name="I26" />
The Warrior and Thinker
They travel through space as multi-dimensional organisms comprised of both organic matter and inorganic matter known as Shards/fragments. Typically traveling in pairs, these titanic beings exist in forms as large as moons or planets, with the sole goal of finding a means of their species surviving the entropic death of the universe.<ref>WildBow on SpaceBattles</ref> The pairs can be broken down into the Warrior and the Thinker. The Warrior is presumably more powerful than the Thinker, whereas the Thinker is capable of abstract thought, imagination and planning. It is stated by the Entity known as Scion that 'he' is incapable of completing his cycle without his partner, as he is incapable of refining Shards by himself. The validity of this statement is suspect, as a third Entity is known to travel independent of a partner -although it is smaller- and Scion implies some degree of individual growth when initiating Gold Morning.<ref name="I26" />
An example of growth can be seen it Taylor's Queen Administrator Shard, whereby initially Taylor's subconscious summons bugs to herself whilst suffering under the effects of Bakuda's bombing. After she has been through several battles her insects are capable of producing tethers of silk- a sign of how her creative problem solving skills have influenced the maturation of her Shard.
Division occurs when a Shard is nearly fully matured, leading to the formation of a sub-Shard, as mentioned above.
Similar Shards exist in the Entities in clusters with similar attributes or functions. When a superpower is given to a human all of the Shards necessary to form the superpower are sent as a group.
Abilities and Powers
Basic Abilities
In their natural form, Entities had an ability to navigate between alternate versions of a world; if they grew large enough, they could extend into multiple worlds at once. They could absorb starlight and radiation for energy, as well as consuming prey for food.
Each of the members of the species was made up of many cells, or Shards. Different clusters of Shards maintained different abilities. They could tear chunks from others of their kind if they were exposed or weakened, absorbing their Shards and thus growing larger.
They possessed some control over heat, cold, electricity and mental manipulations. When they were large enough, they were capable of drawing all the heat and energy from countless worlds at once and focusing it with such intensity that it destroyed a planet, shattering with such force that the explosion echoed through the channels they used to extend into other realities and shattered those worlds as well. They were able to reorganize themselves, forming protective shells so that fragments of themselves would survive this blast and be thrown into space.
Communication
Entities originally communicated by having each of their Shards express the same concept at the same time, with each Shard contributing a different nuance to the message. This was a violent affair involving almost every Shard turning the full force of their different capabilities outward, expressing the message across different wavelengths and forms of energy.
Later, they would transmit similarly nuanced signals across "channels formed of the very foundation" of specific universes, so that it would not accidentally contact the wrong world. This could convey more information than an entire planet of sentient beings might in a century.
One drawback of this primary method of communication was that it grew quieter and less nuanced if an Entity gave up it's Shards.
Another method of communication they used was to exchange Shards coded with memories and knowledge.
A third method was by "rubbing and crushing against one another"; this physically transferred Shards to the other Entity, "bloating" them with new Shards and knowledge. This transfer was less a form of communication than a trade; the knowledge and abilities transferred away in this way was lost, although they could be regained by reuniting with one's partner. It was possible to sacrifice too much of oneself this way.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>
Space Travel
Originally, they would blast fragments of themselves into space, which would fly through the vacuum and hopefully take root on other worlds. Later, Entities employed gravity and space-warping to steer these fragments in a more controlled manner.
By the time they reached Earth, the Thinker Entity and Warrior Entity travelled in pairs, which moved in spirals while maintaining a measured distance from one another.<ref name="I26" />
Abaddon travelled using a different means to the Thinker and the Warrior.<ref name="I26" />
Combat
At full size, Entities controlled all the powers they would eventually give out, plus more; each Shard was capable of producing countless powers, and was deliberately limited; they only expressed anything close to their full abilities in very rare cases. Entities could draw on all this power, as well as those Shards they chose to keep to themselves.<ref name="I29.x">Venom 29.x</ref>
However, Entities were not omnipotent. It would have been a grave mistake for them to allow Artificial Intelligence to be created without strict limitations being placed on it.<ref>Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref> If their Vital Shards were separated from one another, they would die.<ref name="I26" />
History
Origins
The Entities originally lived on a planet of gray sludge, in a strange region of space where normal physics inconsistently applied.<ref name="origin">Wildbow - 05/29/2019
- Kind of like we'll never know how a biological worm like the proto-Entities managed to go across dimensions
My thoughts on it is that it was just the reality on their planet that things were a bit ripped up or torn, and abundant resources and advanced hunting encouraged those that could better absorb or adapt to interdimensional stuff. - Wildbow on Discord, Archived on Spacebattles</ref> There selection pressure gave the species the ability to move between universes to the different versions of that same world.<ref name="origin2">It began at a planet that rotated around a star that was simultaneously binary and solitary because of a tear in space that cut through it, transforming it into a double image. The planet traveled a path that, twice per revolution, intersected a hole in space. When that planet intersected the hole, the writhing species that lived on it could move between. Those that could travel could access other layers of that same world. Other possibilities. Food was abundant, and so was breeding. Those that could see and interact with the tears when they passed by had the advantage.
After a thousand thousand such revolutions, a thousand contests, some began to be able to create and work with their own tears, keeping the subatomic particles with them. - Excerpt from Last_20.e1</ref> Over time, this ability allowed them to breed until they choked out almost all other life on their world in every universe. They would then devour each other as well until there were only a few left, then retreat to a handful of worlds while life replenished. This occurred over a hundred and seventy times without variation, and each time the cycle would be shorter, with some realities left permanently barren.<ref name="I26" />
Then, one of the Entities realized that there was only so much time left before every version of their world had been rendered barren, and proposed the species leave their planet. One last war was fought, and in the end there were only two Entities left, each so large their bodies covered numerous worlds. They formed their bodies into numerous fragments that were themselves smaller Entities, then leached away all the heat and energy from all versions of their world and used it to shatter the remaining habitable versions of their planet and launch their fragments into space like the seeds of a dandelion.<ref name="I26" />
The Cycle
The early ancestor of the Warrior Entity first landed on a small planet with caustic acid rain, filled with plant life. Another Entity landed on the same world. The two parasitized the plant life to survive and reproduce, and experimented, using their abilities to nourish and protect the plants and seeing which ones survived.
The two devoured the plants and took back their Shards, forming once again into two singular Entities. The second Entity suggested to the ancestor that the two attack each other, in small, measured ways, and then recombine their Shards and attack each other again so that they might find the combinations that survived and discard the rest. After experimenting like that as well for a time, they destroyed that world as well, sending out countless fragments of themselves to other worlds.
The Warrior's ancestor landed on a world with advanced technology. The Entities learned of gravity-warping technology, and were studied in turn by the species. Some of them sought to rule; those they had bonded with lost the war, and the Entities were rooted out. They formed three larger Entities, who destroyed the planet and fled, offspring scattering in every direction. This time, they controlled their paths with gravity and warped space.
The cycle repeated over three thousand times, and they grew more powerful each time. At some point, a few hundred cycles ago the Warrior's ancestors began travelling in pairs together. Each had slightly different attitudes and capabilities, so that they could compare different ways of doing things.<ref name="I26" />
Fanart Gallery
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Two Entities travel through space.
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The Warrior creating Scion.
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Entities travelling by MugaSofer.
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In the beginning, a species chokes their gray planet.
Trivia
- Apollyon is a hypothetical entity that showcases the fact that Entities still do eat one another.
References
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