Chapter Text
When the multiverse breathed its first sign of life, the vastness of it seemed to be endless. Within the blank space that spread through the area, there was nothing. Between that universe, and perhaps between that of time as well, ruled a council. These higher beings gave way to the multiverse, caringly weaving it together in collaboration with one another.
Time: laying the base of the foundation to bring the universe from a standstill. Fate: spun tightly to hold together the inevitable as the universe matures. Destiny: stitching together with Fate to balance what will, what must, what can, and what cannot. Faith: lovingly stenciled upon the world to motivate and inspire all who may inhabit it one day. Hope: strengthening the fabric of the universe to withstand even the harshest of conditions. Karma: a loose thread, where a single pull to test its integrity may lead to consequences and reactions to all who try. And, of course, Magic: imbibing the material together and giving way to incredible phenomena that gave the multiverse properties and possibilities beyond that of comprehension.
Together, each wove and stitched until the multiverse was perfect. Perfectly balanced and... empty. This did not last, however. From the emptiness, these higher beings encouraged the formation of first life; the first, and only, universe shaped by each of their hands. This universe, the original creation, was simply known as Undertale. The tale of the monsters and humans living together in peace was a beautiful story, but it was merely the prelude to the story.
It was the Destiny of the monsters to be sealed away under the mountain, Mt. Ebott, after a brutal war. Though refugees of war, through their will and with the help of Magic from the monsters, they were able to establish a home. Though crowded and hidden away from the Sun, monsters held tight to their Faith that they would be free. That their angel that had seen the surface would come and free them all. The king and queen took in a fallen human child their son had found and called them their own. The royal family brought Hope to all monsters and humans. The pressure soon bared down upon the two royal children; constantly being told and reminded that they were the future of monsters and humans. The two children perished after taking this responsibility too far; a faulty plan to go above ground to collect human souls. That, of course, was only the surface of the story. The fallen human wished to destroy their village, to deliver Karma to those they had known. Their sibling, who had absorbed their soul, had resisted, and returned back underground, where they dusted soon after. As Time passed, more and more humans fell until six souls rested in wait to be used to break the barrier.
The final human child to fall below marked the maturity of the universe, established stability after flourishing for many years. It came with a few hiccups as well, minus perhaps those that had gotten too curious for their own good. The Void was formed soon after, engulfing those who had fallen between time and space. There only appeared to be one resident, for now. Other than a few minor bumps, it was perfect. Until the deities began to interfere with their multiverse.
The first to do so was Fate, who grew discontent with the way the universe unfolded before them.
As the final human fell, they navigated through the Ruins and killed monsters as they encountered them. They appeared confused and afraid as they encountered them, which slowly eased as they continued their journey. Most monsters were spared after leaving the ruins, but the outcome of the story was unfulfilling. The human left the Underground after killing the king, their subsequent struggle with Flowey causing the remaining souls to vanish. The monsters were left hopeless with no souls, lost family members, and no way out.
Fate was unsatisfied with this, too unsatisfied to allow the story to continue on. While the human, and before them the vessel flower of the prince, had been able to essentially reset time backward, it was extremely limited. Time had closely monitored the limits of this power, unwilling to let the balance tip too far by allowing large skips backward. They had what were essential "checkpoints" that the two had been able to use. This way, there was a set parameter that they could jump to rather than recklessly throwing time in reverse. Seeing that this system would not help change the outcome, Fate traveled beyond the veil separating the universe from their plane. They reached into the world and granted a way for the fallen human to change the Fate of the Underground. They called this a "true reset", where they could begin again from the moment they fell Underground.
The other deities were outraged by the action, condemning them for manipulating their perfect universe. Time had been the most disgusted, having had their timeline unwound and splintered off into multiple directions. What was done was done, however, and the beings could only watch as the human experiment with the world. Exploring, resetting, repeating actions, and trying to find new paths and things they had missed before. The child would show mercy one moment, then kill another just to see what would happen, how things would change. Seeing this spiral, Karma was the next to interfere.
Within the universe, Magic had appointed a monster to serve as a judge for the souls that passed through their world. It made sense to Karma, then, to bless this monster with the power to serve proper justice to those who did not pass judgment. They called this "Karmic Retribution", a power that fed on the sins clinging to the target's soul. This power gave the judge greater recollection of the unfolded events, allowing them a better means to judge actions that the other may attempt to erase. Upon return, Karma would hear nothing of the protests for further interfering with this universe. To them, this perfectly balanced the damage that had been done.
Fate, bitter from being challenged on their meddling, began to structure their own being instead. If the others would not let them create the world as they saw fit, they would make someone who would. They molded this being after the judge of the created universe within a plane simply dubbed the anti-void. It was meant to be unreachable for those who could not pass through planes of existence. Though imperfect and soulless, Fate loved the small monster they had created. They named the being Ink, a testament to the creative abilities they had imbibed them with. As they breathed life into this creation, they whispered their Fate to them in that white void. They whispered his name, his Fate, and cautionary to the limitations of both his power and this multiverse. The monster, Ink, seemed to have only retained his name.
Destiny became jealous of the deity, seeing the blessed monster perfecting the ability to create masterpieces and, eventually, entire worlds. Destiny began to weave their own universe in response, giving it much more care and precision than the hasty hands of Fate. It wasn't too difficult to implement the same structure as the first universe, but the tricky part was altering its pattern of it. Why should it be this world's destiny to suffer under the earth? Though a few deities disapproved of this, mainly Fate and Time, others were more curious or unbothered by it. Hope and Faith even took a special interest in this world, finding joy seeing a world filled with more dreams and optimism. If asked why Destiny spent so much time creating the judge of that universe, they would simply say that they had "such momentous plans" for this monster.
Things began to go wrong.
Fate's little child had begun to make universes as he was designed to do. After encountering the original universe, he became inspired to make alternate realities of them close by. These alternative universes began to appear through exciting strokes of paint and magic. The first few were simple, such as a role reversal universe dubbed Underswap. Then there was the disturbing pattern the creator fell into of creating dystopian realities. Underfell was the first universe that the creator displayed his lack of empathy. With no soul, there came no real emotions other than a faint echo of a feeling from time to time. These could be amplified through vials of paint that he had been created with, but it was no substitute for real emotions.
Perhaps the most unfortunate experiment was the tale of Dreamtale, where the creator created a universe for the balance of positivity and negativity. Though not a god himself, Ink could still give these universes monsters that were very much almost deity-like without truly being immortal or all-powerful. When a universe was first created, Ink would often leave it to develop and grow upon the story he had written for it for quite a while before checking in on it. This was not the case with Dreamtale, as it was almost a personal project. He would observe the universe and the twin beings that guarded the tree of feelings. The bright positive Dream was created to be the contrast to the secluded Nightmare.
Ink favoured the positive being and had made sure the story was always in his favour. Nightmare was often left alone and uncared for by the other inhabitants, who saw no need for the negative feelings he brought. Isolation turned into hostility as Ink began to change the story little by little in a dark fascination of what would happen. Much like their creator, Fate, he too could quickly grow bored of the same story. Perhaps that was why he was always creating. As the torment became worse and worse, he decided to throw in a plot twist. What if he pushed the other to consume the dark apples? What would happen? In the end, as Nightmare consumed the apples out of terrified desperation, he became warped in negativity. He was left screaming and pleading as he drowned in a dark abyss of manifested negativity. Dream managed to secure the last golden apple, keeping the balance from tipping completely. After encasing his brother in stone, Nightmare vanished entirely from the destroyed universe.
To say the deities were outraged would be an understatement.
Through swift action and intervention, the universe gained a new element of balance. The balance between positivity and negativity, of dark and light. Hope and Faith showered their blessings upon the encased monster so he may one day protect this delicate balance. Karma found fault in all parties involved and marked each of them equally. Perhaps not soon, but one day they would each encounter their rightfully earned retribution. Magic had been forced to intervene to keep such a disaster from happening again. Ink could not be allowed to create beings so vastly powerful or in the likeness of a deity, and Magic made it so. To compensate, Magic was forced to create a land of demi-gods to help control the balances made. This was simply referred to as Reapertale, seeing as the main need was for Death to corral the influx of souls from the destroyed universe. This universe was shaped by Magic, Time, Destiny, and Karma. After its creation, Magic vanished. The multiverse was still upheld, and magic still imbibed the beings of the universes, so they were still alive somewhere within it.
The warnings that had been whispered to Ink had gone unheard, as every day the multiverse was filled with new universes and, after time, even copies of already existing universes. Fate began to fear for the stability of this multiverse if it began to overflow. The only obvious solution in their mind was to create a counterpart to balance out the creation. There must be one of destruction to keep the multiverse from filling up. While there was no danger anytime soon of overcrowding, the problem was best solved early. Fate, knowing the mistakes they made from their first creation, decided to simply "borrow" an existing one instead to fill this role. Carelessly, they ripped the judge from Destiny's lovingly crafted world, causing its stability to collapse and, consequently, the universe to end. Destiny quickly intervened, attempting to drag their precious creation back as they were taken. After a power struggle and far too much power fed into this monster to attempt to take control, another intervened.
Karma, disgusted and infuriated by the actions taken, seized the being for themselves. They cast away the two jealous deities and mended the monster they had so viciously shaped. The being was far too powerful to be placed into a new universe, the touch and blessings of three deities leaving this creature virtually a god. Having had a hand in this, Karma took pity upon this creation that was now on the same level as themselves. Karma severed the ties of the anti-void, disallowing access to it for any other being unless explicitly permitted by Karma themselves or the young deity.
Karma stayed with the monster, a skeletal monster much like most of the judges of the universes. The bones of this monster were stained black from the constant touch of celestial beings before being brought to such a state themself. Golden lines wrapped up the arms of the being like ley lines, pulsing and thrumming with the power it held. Robes of blue covered much of the monster, with golden embroidery lovingly stitched into the material. Karma's symbol marked the back of the ancient robe and the frontal bone of the monster.
Through time, Karma helped the monster to discover and perfect their powers while drilling into them the responsibility and implications that came with them. Unlike Ink, the monster seemed to take this very seriously. The tales of the multiverse brought pain to the monster's soul and they wished to help this plane to find peace and balance. Karma felt a warmth of pride in the kindness and mercy of this monster. With a final cautionary warning, Karma withdrew from the planes of existence and left the monster to live their life.
This is how Erratum came to be.