[The following sections are in chronological order unless otherwise stated.]
[Astro note: this is editied to fit the character limit lol]
-[Earth Events]-
The Final War
In the early 20th century, for various reasons, the nations of Earth became locked in an era of trench warfare. Called the "Final War", this event is implied to be an alternate outcome of World War I in the real world. Early in the war, the first machines to be deployed in wide-scale conflict were known as the Guttermen, one of the first successful experiments in using blood as a fuel source. Guttermen were capable of very efficiently clearing out trenches, and their creation single-handedly ended the trench phase of the Final War. In retaliation, the Guttertank was developed as a direct counter to the Guttermen, spiraling the conflict into a global arms race between the world's industrial powers. Every machine created for use in the Final War was designed to counter the last. As machines quickly dominated the battlefield, human soldiers became obsolete. While at first they celebrated coming home, they soon found that the war left little in its wake. Civilian populations were wrought with shortages as most resources were poured into further war machine development. The widespread poverty and ensuing chaos meant nowhere was safe, with the home front becoming just another battlefield. The Earthmovers were the pinnacle of the arms race; so immensely powerful that a single one could level an entire city. They were colossal machines, so large in fact that their backs became the new battlegrounds upon which war was waged by smaller machines. The surface had become so hostile to all forms of life that the remaining human survivors had to settle down in cities built upon the backs of the Earthmovers. It is implied that the player character V1 is a prototype machine designed to combat the Earthmovers. In the aftermath of the Final War, soot, ash, and debris clouded the skies, blanketing the Earth in a global darkness that became known as the "Long Night". Without solar power, the Earthmovers could not sustain themselves and shut down one by one. As war had become dependent on Earthmovers, their death made any wide-scale conflict impossible. The Final War finally drew to a close after more than 200 years of war without reason. Mankind was obligated to cooperate to resolve the ongoing climate collapse, brokering a new peace.
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The New Peace
With the Final War concluded after over two centuries of fighting, humanity realized their mistakes and cooperated to end the Long Night. Machines such as the Streetcleaners were developed to assist in purifying the effects of the Long Night, and were successful enough in their endeavors to become obsolete. Various systems from Earthmovers were repurposed in order to establish communication between communities. With the end of the Final War, V1 had no purpose, and its development was abandoned. V2 was developed as a peacekeeper, and to justify the time and money that had went into designing V1. Demand was low, however, so only one prototype V2 model was ever made. Drones were also developed during this era for security purposes. Though initially signified by extreme scarcity of resources, eventually various communities succeeded in the cloning of animals such as cows and pigs.
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The Hell Exploration and Excavation Project
At some point during the New Peace, the entrance to Hell was discovered. A mining complex meant to extract and process minerals was built around it, and old war machines were repurposed to explore it. Many new technologies were invented to aid in this process, such as the transportation of physical material via the Terminals. Terminals were able to convert physical matter into radio signals, which could then be picked up by another Terminal and be rebuilt into an object. However, this was a lengthy process. The only recorded use of teleportation between the surface of the Earth and Hell was a test which used a 78rpm vinyl record of the single Were you Foolin' of the Russ Morgan Orchestra. The connection between the surface and these Terminals was cut before another transfer attempt was made. Eventually, employees at the mining facility began to notice strange occurrences, such as doors closing and locking on their own, machinery going missing, and "creatures" (likely husks and/or demons) being teleported into rooms with employees. One unnamed employee concluded that Hell was sapient and attacking those in the complex for its own entertainment, and urged the higher-ups to evacuate the facilities and abandon the project. The Hell exploration project and mining facility were indeed abandoned, due to fear that Hell would find a way out and spread to the surface, leaving many machines, including the Terminals, trapped down there. The same group of researchers who worked in the project later attempted to reconnect to the Terminals, and discovered that they formed a symbiotic relationship with other machines in order to entertain themselves, as without new inputs from human users, they grew bored.
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Death of Mankind
Eventually, humankind became extinct. It is unknown how, when, or why it happened. The influx of new souls in Hell was noted to be sudden and widespread, enough to shift the current of Wrath's Ocean Styx, so it is assumed this extinction was global. After the death of humanity, machines became the main inhabitants of the surface. Without humans, blood quickly grew scarce, resulting in machines fighting each other for fuel.
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Hell Events
Disappearance of God and Chaos in Heaven
At an unknown point in history, God suddenly disappeared, resulting in panic and chaos in Heaven. All angels were recalled back to Heaven, leaving Hell unsupervised and catalyzing numerous events in many of the layers simultaneously. Notably, a statue of a gargantuan humanoid figure and a miniscule Earth entitled "GOD" can be found in 8-1: HURTBREAK WONDERLAND. Its origin and significance are unknown.
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The Lust Renaissance
With the angels absent, Minos, the Judge of Hell, set out to reform the Lust layer; he did not believe people deserved eternal punishment for the crime of loving another. Rallying the inhabitants of the layer, Lust was completely transformed from a windswept wasteland to a thriving city, ushering in a time of peace, civilization, and prosperity with Minos as their benevolent king. This effort to thrive within Hell even extended beyond Lust itself, with infrastructure and attempts to rescue husks documented at least as far as Wrath.
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The Greed Insurrection
Like Minos's Lust Renaissance, King Sisyphus took advantage of the absence of the angels in Greed. However, in contrast to Minos's peaceful revolution, Sisyphus trained the husks of the layer and led a militant insurrection to take it over by force, before subverting Heaven's tyrannical rule entirely. Sisyphus and his army killed the demons of the layer and trained any husk strong or intelligent enough to fight against the angels in anticipation of their inevitable return.
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Retaking Hell
In Heaven, the angels finally decided to establish a holy council in God's place, using force and fear to rule both Heaven and Hell with an iron fist, in an attempt to follow their own increasingly twisted, obsessive, and dogmatic interpretations of God's will. The Council soon learned of the many changes in Hell designed to end the eternal punishments they believed the damned souls deserved. Outraged, they ordered the archangel Gabriel to lead an army to Hell and restore the status quo.
Gabriel first encountered King Minos in Lust amongst a peaceful cityscape. Minos attempted to reason with Gabriel but the archangel slew him without a thought. Weeping and grieving over the death of their great king, the citizens watched as Gabriel gloated on his divine mission in the name of justice and the glory of God. Gabriel then inherited the title of Judge of Hell.
Minos's snakes, once aiding him as the Judge of Hell, became grotesque parasites commandeering their previous master's corpse. The Corpse, controlled by the snakes, began to destroy the now-decrepit city, dismantling what Minos and the damned of the Lust layer had worked hard to achieve. The husks were presumably forced out of their homes to endure the winds once again.
Gabriel continued through the layers and entered Greed, encountering Sisyphus and his army of insurrectionists. A war of biblical proportions began. Gabriel, noting the insurrectionists' idolization of Sisyphus, focused on Sisyphus himself. He unsheathed his swords and decapitated him, shattering his warriors' morale and leading to the downfall of the rebellion. The body of Sisyphus was entombed inside a large chamber inside a massive pyramid, decaying, headless, and held up by outstretched arms.
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The Hell Invasion
After a period of routine, machines from the surface discovered an entrance to Hell through an abandoned mining facility. With blood growing more and more scarce on the surface, they began pouring into Hell to consume the blood of the creatures inhabiting its layers. So many machines entered Hell that they pose a serious threat to all life within it, capable of clearing out entire layers in days, according to Gabriel.
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Inhabitants
Husks. Husks are the remnants of humanity, their souls reformed with accurate representation in Hell to endure their unending punishment for their sinful, unholy lives. When an unrepentant human dies, their soul manifests in Hell in the form of a husk. A husk's appearance depends on the soul's value - their willpower and status in the mortal world. The more important a soul was during its life on Earth, the bigger and more powerful the resulting Husk is. The husk's intelligence also scales with its appearance, with the worthless Filth only feeling primal hunger, while Minos and Sisyphus were able to revolutionize an entire layer and rally an insurrection against Heaven. All husks (with the notable exception of the Corpse of King Minos, the former Judge of Hell) do not have eyes or are blinded. The significance of this is unknown.
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Demons
Demons are the natural fauna of Hell. Demons act as wardens of Hell -- supplementing the torture of sinners, ensuring they stay in their proper place, and protecting their area from potential invaders or rebels. Demons are smarter than most husks, but both are still incapable of rational thought and communication. Most demons, with the exception of the Leviathan and Mannequins, are created by Hell Mass coagulating into a stone-like shell. It is unknown if this is natural or if there is something or someone controlling this process, though the Minotaur and the Deathcatchers are noted to have been deliberately sculpted by an unidentified individual.
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Machines
Machines are biomechanical constructs created by humanity to carry out specific tasks. Every machine has its own purpose it was created for, such as Sentries acting as bipedal snipers and Streetcleaners burning away contaminants in the air during the Long Night. All known machines use blood as fuel. Machines generally require a separate refueling process, with one glaring exception: V1 is capable of absorbing blood directly through its outer plating. Machines show the ability to adapt to the environments they are in by using parts of other machines and random pieces of metal to improve themselves, such as V2 creating a new arm by kitbashing parts of other machines and the Mindflayer and Drone somehow managing to wield Hell Energy. Curiously, machines are often described to have prevalent personality traits similar to most other creatures. The Swordsmachine's imitators exhibit a possessive hoarding behavior as well as admiration for the original Swordsmachine, Drones are curious by nature, Streetcleaners are described as having an "urge to clean and purify the world", Mindflayers create fake plastic bodies for themselves for purely aesthetic purposes and will protect said body with their lives, and V2 will enrage if punched with its own arm. It is implied by the Prime Terminal at the end of P-2: WAIT OF THE WORLD that this has something to do with the machines being fueled by blood, or otherwise incorporating biological components in their mechanical systems. A lamenting poem left behind by a Gutterman in a secret room in 7-2: LIGHT UP THE NIGHT implies that the conscience it possesses is different from the conscience of its living fuel source, albeit the exact reasons why are unknown. Whether or not machines were designed with sapience and high-level reasoning in mind is likewise unknown: the code poems found in the game's title screen and death screen imply V1 is programmed to call upon its limbic system (a part of the brain that manages emotions and memories, likely as a means of increasing performance by inducing various emotional responses i.e. fight or flight), however, the aforementioned Prime Terminal is written by researchers whom seem to be documenting and discovering the idea of emotions within machines for the first time. A projector in 8-2: Through the Mirror shows a table comparing various types of blood-based machinery. Machines running SmileOS 1.0 (found in various interactable screens throughout the game) is described as being cumbersome but sustainable by a single person with little adverse effects, SmileOS 2.0 (found on Terminals) is described as being far more capable than its predecessor but requiring more blood which must be periodically attained from multiple people. "Nocturnal" Systems is compared to the iterations of SmileOS. Machines related to "Nocturnal" Systems are considered unsustainable due to the required harvesting of living beings (such as how the Gutterman Gutterman functions, and how other machines need to kill to survive). Despite being described as self-adaptive with unknown potential, "Nocturnal" Systems seem to have ceased production given the events of the New Peace. The listed use case for such machines is simply described as "NEVER."
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Angels
Angels are inhabitants of Heaven, also known as Paradise, with Lesser Angels being formed from human souls. The basis of a Lesser Angel's forming are similar to that of Husks, wherein the physical manifestation of the soul is dependent on its value, though unlike for Husks, virtuousness also acts as a factor for angels. Lesser Angels are recognizable by the abstract shapes of their bodies. Greater and Supreme Angels have a more human-like form, being created in Heaven by God personally. However, Greater Angels, like Powers, appear incomplete, with missing body parts, whereas Supreme Angels, such as the archangel Gabriel, have a complete and powerful form. Greater Angels are frequently disciples of Supreme Angels and strive to be like them in appearance. All angels are connected with, contain, and survive off of a power known as Holy Light, which grants them an eternal lifespan, although they are still prone to getting killed. If an angel is separated from the source of this Light, it slowly diminishes over the course of 24 hours, after which the angel finally dies. All angels, even the archangel Gabriel, are vulnerable to this. Some angels, like those who make up the Council of Heaven, have the power to sever an angel from the Light themselves.
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Lesser Angels, like Virtues, are known to have a multitude of eyes. However, when they (sans Providences) are sent to Hell, they are either hidden or removed due to an oath promised to the Father. In Hell, angels act on the behalf of Heaven as wardens to ensure that sinners stay in their places of torment. After the events of Act II's Intermission, more angels, like Providences and Powers have been sent to Hell to find Gabriel and bring him back to Heaven. Several angels do not appear directly, but are referred to in the game's lore: Lucifer - Described in Testament IV as "an angel so bright and beautiful", Lucifer was cast into the deepest pit of Hell by God after questioning Him over its creation, believing that the punishments within were too extreme for humanity. He is also addressed in a book found in 8-3: DISINTEGRATION LOOP. Council of Heaven - A group of angels who established rule over Heaven following God's disappearance, using fear to sway the lesser masses. In issuing orders to Gabriel, they are indirectly responsible for most of the history surrounding Hell, including the deaths of Minos and Sisyphus. After Gabriel's first defeat by V1, the Council punishes him by removing his Holy Light, believing he deliberately lost the fight. They give him 24 hours to try defeating V1 again, but upon engaging a second fight with it and losing, he realizes that their rule is tyrannical and unfit for Heaven and kills all of them. A painting in 8-1: HURTBREAK WONDERLAND depicts four archangels: Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Phanuel. The image of the fifth archangel has been torn off, with the name sign below it being scratched out. Whether any of those archangels are members of the Council or not is unknown.
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Prime Souls
Prime Souls are an incredibly rare occurrence and are the most powerful phenomena, both in hell and the physical world. Prime souls pose a severe danger to heaven and it's inhabitants; even prideful angels see them as a threat and will use any means necessary to stop them from forming. They are manifestations of pure will that occur when a soul amasses so much power that it no longer requires a physical vessel to manifest: when a physical vessel (such as a Husk) possessing such a soul is killed, the soul exits its vessel, and will begin transforming into a Prime Soul. The forming of a Prime Soul can be halted, though the only known method of doing so is trapping the unformed soul inside a specific type of flesh construct powered by great amounts of angelic and demonic power. It's assumed that once a Prime Soul begins forming, it cannot be stopped; it can only be paused indefinitely.
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Alchemy
In real life, alchemy is a medieval speculative chemical science. However, in the world of ULTRAKILL, it appears to be intertwined into the cosmology of the universe.
Below is the list of references to alchemy within the game:
Blue and Red Skull Keys have symbols of Mercury and Sulfur respectively engraved on their foreheads. Upon being placed on the matching color's altar, they fill the altar with those substances. The torch has a similar effect, but with salt pedestals. Salt Skulls, while not used as Skull Keys, are found present on various skeletons with the Salt symbol etched into the forehead. Altars themselves are decorated in a way to resemble their respective alchemical symbols. The altars' materials, being Mercury, Sulphur and Salt (blue, red and white respectively) reference the concept of Tria Prima, or the three Primes, which are the principles used to describe substances in alchemy. Virtue's attack is an alchemical sigil, however indeterminate as of the time being. Various mechanisms in 4-3: A Shot in the Dark use alchemical processes. Some bonefires are filled with copper sulphate, giving their flames a distinct color, and they are used to heat up magnesium powder, noticeable by sparks it starts to emit. The final arena features a generator filled with salt. Title screen's "code poem" uses terminology related to alchemical operations, such as transmutation and exhalation. The statue titled "Creation of the Tree of Life" in 8-1: Hurtbreak Wonderland depicts a lion devouring the Sun. The green lion devouring the Sun is an alchemic symbol representing purification, and the dissolution of gold. The lion is also depicted on Phanuel as a brooch on a painting in the same level. The final arena in 8-3: Disintegration Loop has the symbol of the Squared Circle with the Tria Prima on the floor below the blood tree, representative of the Philosopher's stone, the end result of the Magnum Opus or "Great Work".
pmc username: Astro_the_moth
online name: Astro
Tumblr username: Sensoryscorpio
commonly uploads: skins or the occasional blog,
uncommon stuff: maps, capes, art, anything that requires me to download something on my computer.
free time: from 3 PM-9 PM weekdays, and whenever I wake, whenever I go to bed on weekends
Bad times to ping: 5:30 AM to 2 PM on weekdays: I'm at school*
Fandoms: Gravity Falls (team "let bill be president side 2026 is already going bad"), A Hat in Time, Splatoon 2/3 (non-competitive), Billie Bust Up (fantoccio and Barnaby enjoyer), Hollow Knight (where are my resting grounds enjoyers at?), Undertale (the non-horny/ non-insane side, Deltarune (same as UT), Welcome to Night Vale, Subnautica+Below Zero**, The Magnus Archives****
certified dark mode user who can't hear sometimes
likes: nice users, music, the occasional sweet treat
hates: rude users, loud people, grits***
*Sometimes I'm on break, I'll put if I'm on break in my status (and if i remember)
**Not gonna play Subnautica 2, normal Subnautica is barely playable as-is plus the controversy around Subnautica 2's development isn't a good look
***not a good mouth feel.
**** I just started. Be nice if I didn't get a joke
beloved prince (the princea hat in time)HD Bedrock Minecraft Skin
the world looks white/the world looks red ULTRAKILLHD Bedrock Minecraft Skin
my lvr is an alien from outerspace >:3HD Bedrock Minecraft Skin
stanford pines (college/pre betrayal)HD Bedrock Minecraft Skin
