#;notes

; Notes ( pls personals do not reblog! U can copy this and paste this on a separate post if u want but don't reblog from this post thank u! )

I was today years old when I realized that the two arrow quivers A.rjuna has are not a random aesthetic liberty the designer took but come from his Epic as well- 

So you wanna know about that big ol’ hole in the ground where people die, right?

Yeah ok. Let Bondrewd tell ya about the Abyss.

Set in a fictional unnamed world, Made In Abyss is a tale about people delving into a giant death hole located on a small island in the middle of the ocean. Around that hole, there is a town called Orth. 

Orth was created for the sole purpose of exploring this giant death hole, and it has the look of a Seventeenth Century coal mining town.

Now, why do people go into the Abyss? Why would anyone want to ever go down there?

For Artifacts and riches, why else.

Literally all over the place.

Cave raiding became a big then when people found out there was magic shit down there that when you touched it could stop time or shoot laser beams. Sells for a shit ton of money, and that’s the main source of income for Orth. They raise orphans and townsfolk into Delvers, who go into the hole to retrieve relics, which they then sell for money to fund the town, the cycle continuing on forever.

Quick stop, best time here to explain what the Delver levels are. You don’t start out as Rambo and go guns blazing into the Abyss, you start as baby.

Bells: Stupid babies who can’t do nothing but learn fundamentals of the Abyss, can’t even touch the bad hole.

Red Whistles: You can go down to the first layer, congratulations, have fun. 

Blue Whistles: Can go down to the second layer of the abyss; actually helpful and not a burden on society.

Moon Whistles: Teachers, gonna tell you about how to be a Delver. You get to go down to the third layer safely, but if you’re an idiot, you can go to the fourth.

Black Whistles: Actually really cool guys, basically the best most people will ever reach in their lifetime. Can go down to the fifth layer and hang out with Bondrewd.

White Whistles: THE COOLEST OF GUYS AND GIRLS. All you gotta do is have someone who loves you a lot die in front of you and entrust their wishes into you. They then turn into a whistles which only the person who was entrusted with can use. Have fun kids. Can go to the Sixth Layer and below, which is referred to as the Last Dive (Aka the curse will kill you if you try to climb back up, but hey it’s not like White Whistles have anything better to do.)

Alright we got that out of the way.

Big whoop, right? Sounds like a normal good time, but here’s the problem.

There’s a fucking curse in this death hole and it’s gonna fuck you up real good.

You see, the Abyss isn’t just one big hole; it’s separated by layers, and each layer has its own FUN WACKY EFFECT™ When you try to climb back up the hole. Going down is fine, though. It’s a one way trip if you aren’t experienced. 

Alright, lets go step by step, since this is basically the meats and potatoes of this post. 

THE FIRST LAYER,  Edge of the Abyss

Depth: 0~1350 meters

This is the first layer and consists of everything below the entrance of the Abyss up until the second layer. It’s a super easy place to start out, and it’s where most Delvers begin their careers.

Strains of ascent: Light Dizziness and Nausea, not bad, right?

THE SECOND LAYER, Forest of Temptation

Depth: 1350~2600 meters.

It’s a forest located on the second layer. Shit gets real here; there’s deadly monsters and poison plants.

Once you hit around 2,000 meters, the forest inverts and becomes known as the ‘Inverted Forest’. Located there is a base set up by the White Whistle Ozen.

You can go hang out with her. 

Strains of Ascent: Heavy nausea, headache and numbness of limb. Get them vomit bags ready, since you’ll be experiencing that every 10 meters you climb.

THE THIRD LAYER, The Great Fault

Yeah fuck you, it’s about 4000 meters of sheer cliff face.

Depth: 2600~7000 meters.

Literally just a cliff you need to find a way down. There’s holes that rodents have dug into the walls that Delvers use to climb down, as trying to scale down with rope is probably gonna get you killed. There’s a bunch of flying beasts here that will eat you and your family. 

Strains of Ascent: Vertigo combined with visual and auditory hallucinations. Have fun climbing that.

FOURTH LAYER, The Cup of Giants

Depth: 7000~12000 meters.

Not that bad in compare to the Fault, but it’s still incredibly dangerous due to the effects of the curse. The landscape is constantly changing as the Cup of Giants is actually composed of giant plants that form cup shaped heads that are shifting and changing on the daily.

The completely formed ones have water in them.

The ones that don’t have boiling acid.

There’s a lot of stuff here, such as the Eternal Fortunes garden, which is fun. (It’s not. It’s full of flesh eating insects.)

Strains of Ascent: Intense Full-body pain and hemorrhage from every single orifice of the body. Heyyyyyyyyyyy, FUNNY WACKY EFFECTS™

THE FIFTH LAYER, The Sea of Corpses

Depth: 12000~13000 meters.

It’s the shallowest of layers, but it’s also the largest in width (about 10,000 meters). Different from the other layers in that 1. The ground is covered in snow and the tempature is colder than almost everywhere else in the Abyss. 2. It’s also comprised of mostly ocean. 

Once thought to be the furthest Delvers could go, until Bondrewd found a way to pierce into the Sixth Layer.

The location of Bondrewd and his Forward Operating Base, Idofront.

To get to the Sixth Layer, you need to be a White Whistle, as only White Whistles can activate the elevator leading down.

Strains of Ascent: Complete sensory deprivation, confusion and self-harming behavior. Can’t get worse, right?

THE SIXTH LAYER, The Capital of the Unreturned

Depth: 13000~15500 meters.

This mysterious layer is the last stop for many White Whistles. Return from this point on is impossible without the loss of humanity.

Not much is known about the Sixth Layer, but balloons sent up through the Layers have talked about a ruined golden city, and a strange white ring that glows within the Abyss. 

Strains of Ascent: Devastating body alterations that result in the loss of humanity and sometimes death. (This transformation turns people into Narehates, which is the term for those who were affected by the Sixth Layer’s curse.) Yeah it gets bad. At least the next layer spares you this horrible fate.

THE SEVENTH LAYER, The Final Maelstrom

Depth: 15500~????? meters.

Even less is known about the Seventh Layer, except for one thing.

Strains of Ascent: Certain death.

Have fun exploring the Abyss, and remember...

CHARACTER TWEAKS

a/b/o (omegaverse) † aliens † androids/robots † demi-gods † gender bending † genetic experiment † immortals † magical transformation † pirates † reincarnated soulmates † shapeshifting † telekinesis † telepathy † vampires † werewolves

MATURE THEMES (some 18+)

abduction/kidnapping † addiction † adultery † alcoholism † asphyxiation † assault † betrayal † blood lust † chronic illness † co-dependency † cults † death † depression † domestic abuse † edge play † espionage † gore † major character death † murder † night terrors † non-con † one night stands † organized crime † personality disorders † psychopathy † PTSD † religion † sex work † slavery † smut † terminal illness † torture † violence

FAMILY & RELATIONSHIP THEMES

accidental pregnancy † adoption † best friends with benefits † established relationship † first kiss † i have had a crush on you forever and i finally come forward about it † left at the altar † long lost relatives † male pregnancy † pregnancy † we hooked up one time and now it’s awkward † we’re only friends but everyone thinks we’re together so we give it a shot

Bondrewd the Novel

In Orth, if you’re a delver, it’s pretty bad to just up and die in the town. If you’re a Delver, you’re basically expected to die within the hole, it’s an honor. 

Funerals involve mixing your Ashes with Eternal Fortunes and returning them to the Abyss. This might be the more common form of funeral for Orth dwellers who aren’t Delvers, or Delvers who return to the surface and die suddenly [either from an injury or whatever.]

There’s a place called West Beorska in the world of Made In Abyss. Since the author likes to use stylized forms of languages from the real world, you can probably guess what the origin is supposed to be like. (I’m presuming it’s Sanskrit, but I’m not sure tbh. West Beorska might be a desert like place? My best guess.) Also, they don’t use the same writing style as Orth. Orth uses Netherglyphs (A stylized Kanji, as I’ve been told), which look like this.

For you who can not see the image, it says: 

The challenged carried out last year using the airship has ended in failure. This resulted in the taking of 120 lives by the Abyss. The challenge to the second layer via air was hampered by the permanent storm area.

Airships exist in the world of Made In Abyss. How common they are, it’s hard to say since we don’t really see them, but they do exist. They have to be big enough to carry over 120 people, so, rather large. [The Hindenburg (804 feet in length) had room for about 90 people, but this wasn’t considering the maximization of space an entire ship could be, and bunk beds, ect.]

So, how old is the Abyss, and the world its set in?

At least, 4,000 years old.

At most, maybe about 16,000 years old, probably older.

So far, as we know, the people of Orth have discovered through the Praying Skeletons located around the first layer that they died roughly around 2,000 years ago, almost all at once in a stance of prayer. 

Bondrewd has discovered that after every 2,000 years, that there is an event that basically destroys all civilization, and it comes from the Abyss. For him to come to this conclusion, there must be at least evidence of this event happening twice (the crystal city in the sixth layer is evidence of this.) So we can confirm the world is AT LEAST 4,000 years old. Why he’s decided to hide that information might be to stop panic, but he knows that it’s going to happen.

But, what if, working on my current theory, that the abyss grows a layer after every catastrophic event. There’s 7 layers, meaning that there’s been possibly over 16,000 years that have passed in the worlds history. Of course, this is just speculation (aka my personal headcanon since it kinda puts the dots together and connects all the events. Could be wrong, but it’s not off the cuff.) I’m just thinking of it in the way how there’s just ruins from obviously different civilizations in every part of the Abyss. There’s a ship in the third layer, there’s what looks like wind farms on the first. Fifth layer, there’s the sacrificial ruins where Idofront was built upon, and on the sixth layer there’s an entire crystallized city.

Of course, this could’ve all been built by the last civilization, but why not find more skeletons the lower down you go? How did they deal with monsters that have infested the abyss? The people of Orth still struggle with them now to even plant a single foothold into the Abyss. It’s a strange situation.