Megami Tensei Cosmology

# Megami Tensei

## Introduction

Megaten, more commonly SMT, is a series of games, novels, manga, and anime developed by the Japanese studio Atlus, and under the publishing of Sega. The larger Megami Tensei franchise encompasses a bunch of different branches like Shin Megami Tensei, Devil Summoner, Digital Devil Saga, Persona, Majin Tensei, Last Bible, and Devil Survivor.

All of the different offshoots of the series exist within the same cosmology and share a lot of central concepts like "Law and Chaos", "Gods and Demons" and Demon summoners. However, the cosmology of the verse is very complex and ambiguous in nature as it leaves a lot of things vague on purpose to let the player interpret things on their own, as such, this blog will be as short as possible to not over-complicate things

## Humans and Demons

Demons in their physical forms are consistently much weaker than their "Original", and this is pretty blatantly demonstrated in SMT II where Lucifer is pretty surprised that the player is capable of dispatching Astaroth in the expanse, despite the fact that prior to this, Aleph had defeated Archangels in the human world who are otherwise vaguely similar in power to Astaroth due to having similar positions in opposing armies who were at an eternal stalemate. Further reinforced by DX2 where summoned demons not only are stated to be only a fraction of their power but also demonstrated to observe alternative versions of themselves from parallel realities, which implies them being temporal as well in spite of the consistent portrayal of demons existing beyond time itself. Devil Survivor 2 actually elaborates on the nature of summoned demons and says that it is magnetite in space, shaped using the blueprint of the demon which aligns with the assertion made in DX2 of the summoned demons being just an estimate based on a pre-existing image. As such I cannot actually grant summoned demons the ranking that their abstract forms would be defaulted to, so their main scaling comes from even low-level demons like Morax creating universe-sized space-times

Humans at the bare minimum should scale to this as well, as humans with no prior fighting experience are able to fight on par with demons, and this is further consistent as they are able to create and sustain entire parallel realities

## Multiverse, The Expanse and Demons

The Multiverse of Megami Tensei is blatantly stated to be an MWI, which is further reinforced as each observed possibility becomes it's own separate reality, and the multiverse is stated to be infinite and contain an infinite number of realities within itself.

The expanse is a multi-layered structure, where the scaling of the layers differs wildly so this section is only covering the baseline layer. Expanse is a conceptual realm, which is made from the thoughts of humanity, and the notion of it being conceptual is actually further supported by the games, as SMT IVA goes out of it's way to establish that gods and demons are anthropomorphized forms of natural phenomena of the world, and Strange Journey establishing beings like Ouroboros Maia being the concept of infinity. The expanse stands above the flow of time and space, while also being defined as atemporal, and is the homeworld of the demons, who themselves are stated to be beyond time, while being aspatial and atemporal.

## Kadath Mandala, Nirvana, and Atziluth

I will have to do a bit of explaining, as this is probably the most confusing realm in the series due to having multiple names. Vairocana hails from Atziluth and offers humans salvation by allowing them to rest within his domain. Obviously, Vairocana's domain in this context refers to Atziluth, as him bringing salvation was causing Assiah to merge with the Atziluth, and once the merge stops they once again call the Assiah "World of Suffering" and ask Vairocana to let the world stay that way for a while longer, implying that the salvation is referring to the Atziluth. Another figure relevant to this section is Sakya, also referred to as Shaka, who establishes that reality is merely an illusion in comparison to enlightenment, and as he inhabits the Kadath Mandala, we can conclude that enlightenment would refer to it as well, and him wanting to preach enlightenment is something explained by the novels, as once you reach enlightenment you're supposed to vow to bring as many people as possible to it. Of course, the enlightenment/salvation in this context refers to Buddhist Nirvana, as both Vairocana and Sakya are of Buddhist origins. So from the explanation above, it becomes clear that Nirvana, Kadath Mandala, and Atziluth are all different terms for the same general concept.

This whole rant was important, as nirvana is defined as an infinite shore of freedom, free from life, death, and all of causality. A plane of complete nothingness and incomprehensibility where those who achieve it are diffused through all of existence, and become omnipresent over space-time as observers of all things. The realm itself is completely beyond the concept of geometrical dimensions and lacks the distinction between ⟨I⟩ and ⟨Thou⟩, where ⟨I⟩ represents affirmations and ⟨Thou⟩ represents negations to affirmations. This specifically talks about how there can't be any frame of reference in nirvana, ⟨I⟩ and ⟨Thou⟩. It's neither Existence nor Nonexistence, the world we inhabit is confined by logic which is dilemmic so you either exist or don't exist you either exemplify nonexistence or existence. This is a reference to logic, specifically classical logic and its laws, such as the law of excluded middle and the law of identity specifically because with the law of identity you're either P or T or something else you're confined by affirmations as well, the identity relation which is significant for your identity requires frames of reference to become distinguished from other people. There's no frame of reference in nirvana as it is completely outside of them along with the people who inhabit it. The law of excluded middle would say you're either P or ¬P you can't be neither but in nirvana, there's neither P or ¬P it's neither existence nor nonexistence its completely outside and beyond such restrictions.

## Summary

Humans, at least those who engage in combat, and demons should be defaulted to **Low 2-C**

The Multiverse is **2-A physically and High 1-B in its entirety**

Demons within the expanse and the expanse itself should be pretty easily in the **Low 1-A to 1-A** ranges

Nirvana/Atziluth/Kadath Mandala and the beings who inhabit it should be in **1-T+**

This probably isn't the last blog here for Megami Tensei, as this was just the main scale that didn't go over some important concepts in the series, and some minor things that could possibly assist in Hax/Abilities/Equipment department or clear up some ambiguity in the microcosms. But as of now, this is all