A transcendental being (超越者, chouetsusha) in the Epic of Zektbach's universe, is a living being who, using their mental capabilities (and most of the time with favorable genetic heritage) manages to "go beyond" the world as a normal person sees it - made of images, feelings, information - and seeing it as it truly is - a string of numbers, giving them supernatural powers and allowing them to escape the influence of the two existences controlling the world, thus choosing on which side they want to align. They are a key factor in the war between those two forces, and only thanks to their action can the world shift between one and the other.
List of transcendental beings[]
Only three characters in the Epic of Zektbach are known to have achieved transcendence. They are listed here in chronological order, as opposed to Chapter order.
Joah[]
Joah was a lead scientist in Project Ouroboros. Condensed, like all humans, in the database that would grant them immortality, a world without meme, which did not allow the slightest action, Joah somehow found himself to utterly reject eternity, for it only meant giving up what had made humans themselves.
It is unknown if the scientist managed to free himself from the database, or if meme itself crept back inside it to interfere with its perfect stability. Either way, Joah, becoming a sort of bug in the Ouroboros Ark's structure, transcended its limits and his own, and broke free. Canceling all of the work he and his colleagues had accomplished, he restored meme to his kin, creating "his angel", now bearing the form of L'erisia. When she was revived, the stability of the Ark shattered, and all of its data collapsed on itself, rolled back to an early state, and reset the world around in a similar fashion.
Joah, as depicted in Ristaccia, seemingly intertwined with the meme of the world.
Through these actions, Joah became the creator of Aria Te'Laria and Ristaccia. After this major act of his, his fate is completely unknown, for he never appears again. He is the sole transcendental being to have aligned with meme, thinking it to be "the one golden key that humanity would personally throw away" to become immortal. Whether he witnesses the events following Aria Te'Laria's creation is a mystery.
Lien Clewing[]
The result of many years spent in careful research, Lien was born from the will of the Rufina race, a superior and incredibly intelligent species living among the other seven, who, after surviving the Ristaccia war, sought the origin and nature of the gem without managing to discover them. Of course, it only was their own dependence on the jewel, preventing them from transcending, that stopped them in their course.
Consequently, the Rufina condensed themselves into a unified form of their beings, with power equal to that of a goddess - a memeplex, called Sigma. Under this one single form, the race was able to watch the sole survivors - the Humina - and try to select candidates to transcendence. When Sigma spotted a few, she slowly made them evolve into a genealogy of geniuses, who, after decades, gave birth to Lien.
The young boy was so talented, and the results of Sigma's actions was so perfect, he solved the seven hardest puzzles she knew with ease once he met her on the right day. That one day, Lien was told his mission - discover Ristaccia's truth - and dutifully traveled to the Skyship Ruins to accomplish it.
Despite the numerous obstacles he met - a door no one but a transcendental being could open, or a slab that would give out seemingly nonsensical words -, he came very close to his goal, finding Joah's memos after multiple steps - memos that gave away what Ristaccia truly was.
However, L'erisia, aware of how dangerous Lien was, and having expected a case like this for a long time, as well as not wanting to give up her control on the world, had an easy solution. Since she had total control of Shamshir Zamouk thanks to her weapon, she invested her with the mission to hunt down all beings who had achieved transcendence. Detecting Lien's intelligence, Shamshir headed to the ruins, and killed him with no resent, just as he was about to reach his goal.
Matin-Nox Catorce[]
Lien Clewing passing on his genetic gifts to Matin and Nox Catorce, as depicted in Ristaccia. Contrary to what the image suggests, this occurs before Matin and Nox are born.
Before Lien's journey to the Olivie Ruins, he took care to preserve his unique genes by carving them onto an unborn baby, through unknown means. However, the baby happened to actually be a pair of identical twins, neither of which inherited transcendence at birth : Matin and Nox Catorce.
While Nox was supposed to be the heir of Noigllado, Matin was chosen instead by the influential members of Agiona as she was found to be able to wield the sword of Trisagion. A military veteran by the name of Adhuk Neuendorf took offense of that decision and fled with Nox, bringing him up in secret.
While Matin's personality developed to be kind and naive, Nox grew to resent Noigllado for its imperialism, corruption and personal persecution of those around him. His thirst for justice degraded into anger and hatred as he became the leader of a rebellion that Matin eventually had to declare war on.
At the decisive Battle of Tetroah, and as Matin was about to succumb to the power of Ristaccia as Nox had, a voice arose inside them to show them they were one and the same, and they ceased to fight. The kingdom was at peace, and the siblings lived together once more ; they later achieved transcendence in unknown circumstances.