Higher Beings

* Pleasure
* Creation
* True Center
* Mushroom
* Dragon

> "*Tp uijt jt uif tqfdjnfo...*"
> ― A Higher Being
>
>

**Higher Beings** are characters in Everhood. After obtaining the arm, they appear during their fight in Peaceful Forest.

## Characteristics

### Appearance

The Higher Beings resemble imagery of Aztec gods. They are composed of rainbow outlines that continuously shift in color.

#### Pleasure

"Pleasure" resembles a smiling head with shoulders. It wears a bird-topped hat.

#### Creation

"Creation" resembles a smiling monkey sitting on the ground.

#### True Center

"True Center" is a round symmetric and intricate geometric pattern.

#### Mushroom

"Mushroom" resembles a double-headed mushroom with smiling faces on its stalk. It spins continuously in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction.

#### Dragon

"Dragon" resembles a dragon with spikes along the top of its head and its back. It has hands with claws. It has a smaller smiling face within its gaping mouth.

### Personality

Not much is known about the Higher Beings since they have very few lines of dialogue. They do not appear benevolent or malevolent, rather just curious about observing Red.

## Battle

The Higher Beings fight occurs after the player obtains Red's arm and travels from the Dance Club and into the Peaceful Forest at the start of the game. The fight does not occur immediately, and the player is able to explore an altered version of the Peaceful Forest on the overworld before it transitions into combat. Killing the Higher Beings will unlock the "Nature loves the fierce and bold" achievement. Dodging all attacks will unlock the "No Hit Higher Beings" achievement.

The fight is one of the more difficult post-arm battles, heavily featuring black notes, rarely presenting the player any opportunity to deflect, and warping the screen at points to reduce visibility.

## Story

After the player obtains Red's arm, they can travel from the Dance Club and towards the Peaceful Forest, where the White Rabbit will lead them to the next area. Higher Beings appear and engage the player in battle, where they are joined by Gnomes, the Sun as a distant star, the Cube, and Frog, suggesting a connection between them. During the beginning of the battle, the Higher Beings speak to the player. Some of their dialogue is obfuscated using a Caesar cipher. Other lines of dialogue must be read backwards, either word-by-word or letter-by-letter. Dialogue during their battle reads:

If the player has not killed any of the 30 souls, or if the player is on a New Game+ playthrough, a cutscene involving Pink occurs while wandering near the paintings in Cursed Castle. Pink wakes up lying in the street of an urban city that resembles earth. As the vision is incomplete, the edges of the area are surrounded by darkness. If the player runs quickly to either side of the screen, they can see either the "Creation" or "Dragon" Higher Being watching from the incomplete areas.

If the player has not killed any of the 30 souls, Higher Beings will speak to them when they enter the Dark Forest, expressing their boredom at their actions:

If the player survives long enough during the Incinerator segment at the Cat God's Lair, the "Pleasure" Higher Being appears and watches Red's demise.

## Trivia

* Although official spritework of the "Dragon" Higher Being depicts the eye at the top of its head to have a pupil, and even though a separate pupil is present internally, this pupil is never utilized in-game.
* Although the "Mushroom" Higher Being has almost perfectly symmetrical outlines, the colors are not perfectly symmetrical due to a small speck of color on the mushroom caps not matching.