Well Hello There

So to give context for the hierarchy, I gotta give an extra lil lore detail that there wasn’t always an order to the group. It was chaos, no one true leader or rank in charge. But that changed during a conflict, a war spanning the many timeless eons before even Lostlor’s time. A war that ended with Dark Matter as a collective unified and the stars left with very few left to defend them. And with this collective, it stole from their origin, stole patches of Void to infect and turn into kin of their own to better ensure their own survival in the case conflict arose again.

So it’ll make sense why then, in this hierarchy, there’s void aspects. But that’s beside the point. Now to the actual rankings.

The order from weakest to strongest or at the very least in terms of authority goes: Spawnlings and Voidlings, Spawns, Champions, Lords, and Elders. Let’s start us off with the lowest rank.

Spawnlings and Voidlings:

Spawnlings and Voidlings are the smallest and weakest of aspects, ranging from those just created to those who are too weak to gather enough energy to raise in the ranks. These little creatures will flutter around their larger kin, obeying any stronger without hesitation in fear of being consumed and assimilated. Most tend to manifest either during combat when summoned by others or from magic shed to willingly create one.

They may be weak and frail alone, but in swarms they can and will infest someone and puppet them around to protect themselves.

Spawns:

Next in rank, Spawns are normally the scouts or drones sent out to investigate potential stars or planets to target. Most are normally trusted to be sent off alone, but a few are known to cluster in groups of three or four at most and can fully possess a being in order to gain control of a population until their leader or leaders arrive.

Spawns are capable of fully assimilating a being in order to either steal enough aspects to become a completed being of their own. (Though, most cases tend to leave the collective and hide away or in even rarer cases are able to stand up against those above them and lead by conquering their own leader.)

Champions:

Here’s an interesting scenario now. Champions themselves are not directly Dark Matter themselves but rather are a rare scenario in which someone is either claimed by a Lord or Elder into becoming a champion to serve them or are something created by a Lord or Elder using magic and an unwilling being into becoming a champion to serve under them. Most unfortunate champions rarely survive the process, and those who do either retain little to no memory of their past lives or are allowed to keep their memories purely to feed into their own misery.

Champions cannot typically rise in ranks nor lower, and most are unable to die or cease existing unless they’re allowed to by the one ruling them. Most Lords or Elders tend to send these in place of Spawn in order to scout out and directly control power in a location since Champions hold more power via either strength or magic their previous forms once held.

Note: While not drawn or listed here, Nightmare and Hyness would be classified as Champions in this ranking. Those two are examples of those not directly created by a Lord or Elder but rather as experiments to see if a living being could retain such power. The experiment partially was a success, though both beings were driven mad over time by their warped immortality due to their ‘creator’s’ doomed fate affecting their own.

Lords:

To get a Lord, rather than the normal process of ascending in power, an Elder itself has to grant power to a Spawn, Champion, or create a Lord itself in order for one to exist. Lords are the second in command, with the most personality allowed into them (not including Champions). Primarily ruthless in their demands, they typically each hold enough power to strike down armies and warriors on their lonesome. Though whether they obey orders from their Elders or not is debatable at times, as many will either flee first chance upon creation or are banished due to an Elder’s dissatisfaction in their existence.

Lords are some of the few capable of directly challenging Elders and succeeding in claiming their ranks, due to how much energy is required to create one. Whether or not they DO succeed though all depends on their own desire to, and many have been felled as a result of boasting upon their believed victory rather than finishing the job.

Note: While not drawn or listed here, Lostlor herself would’ve been ranked as a Lord by her friends’ will. However, due to circumstances regarding her own downfall, she never fully could claim this rank and instead had her fate warped and splintered.

Elders:

The ones in control, the highest in power and rank. Just one is capable of conquering and devastating an entire planet and star on their own, and in some cases are even capable of defying their own death. For a long while, there had only been one Elder, but it had been torn apart and dethroned by Lostlor’s friends in defiance of their orders and the two reigned as dual Elders until one had been sealed away and the other had been forced to pick a new champion and bide its time to recover its strength after losing its first.

Elders have final say in all orders, and in direct presence of one most if not all those beneath must obey or risk suffering their wrath. Though not invulnerable, they are effectively immortal in terms of age and existence and can even force immediate and absolute control of a vessel should they see it necessary for their goals.

Note: While not drawn or listed here, should she had succeeded in her goals, Lostlor would’ve ascended to this rank alongside her friends. The closest a part of her has gotten to this role was the Tree Crown, though it was not for long.

Secondary note: Zero Two itself, while mostly gone, lives on within its latest champion after having been forcibly reformed by Nova. It currently does not retain enough of its strength to overpower its champion for control, but is still very much a powerful being growing in strength by the constant flow of negative emotions its champion carries.

So yeah, that’s basically all of it mostly summarized! As always, if you have any other questions just let me know! As a treat for making it this far, here’s a doodle of Zero’s Spawn form aka form before it was forced to shed its outer layer after the fight that forced it to lose its previous champion prior to Swordsman. Aka, the form hinted at in the Lostlor doodle of her meeting her friend.