Throne

The Throne (座, Za), also known as the Divine Throne (神座, Shinza) or the Taikyoku Throne (太極座, Taikyoku Za) among many other names, is the most important device in the Shinza Banshou series. The Throne is the core of the series' story, the nucleus around which all events in it revolve around. It is the root of the universe and the source of all phenomena, upon which the God ruling over all of creation seats. This special space, thought of as a higher dimension lacking the very concept of time, stands above all of God's domain, acting as the nucleus of past, present and future, as well as that of an infinitude of parallel universes (after the Fourth Heaven's takeover).

The main conflict of the main games spanning the Shinza Banshou series (be it Paradise Lost, Dies irae, or Kajiri Kamui Kagura) usually revolves around the crisis that ends the current God's reign and replaces it with another, leading to a very different Law and universe, with different rules, taking its place.

Origins

Despite what appearences may suggest, the Throne is but an artificial construct created by humans, a machine designed to bind the universe to one's will. The Divine Throne System (神座システム, Shinza Shisutemu) was created during an era of Interstellar War as a byproduct of theories involving the binding of the universe and time leaps. It was a completely accidental creation, and not what its creators had originally intended.

At the culmination of the Interstellar War, one of its most notorious warriors, a woman named Mithra, took hold of the machine and became the very first God to possess the Throne, thus giving birth to the endless cycle of strife and fighting that is the struggle for it.

Functions and power

Being the nucleus of the universe, the Throne is the place the ruling God inhabits and, therefore, acts as the source and control device for all the phenomena and souls in creation. The Throne stabilizes the utmost Craving of its ruling God, giving it direction and allowing it to paint over its domain. This turns it into a new Law that dictates how things will work from the new God's ascension onwards. It is also a support device that allows the universe to continue existing as, without it, the spiritual pressure of its owner would destroy everything that exists.

As their Cravings paint over their inner universe and not the outside, Trascendence-type Gods are not eligible candidates to take over the Throne. Therefore only Hegemony-type Gods, who subjugate the outside world to their will through their Craving, can take on the Throne for themselves. Thanks to this, even if the highly unlikely event of the ruling Hegemony God being taken down by a Transcendence God were to happen, their world won't be washed away due to there being no God to emanate his, leading to the dead God's world's permanence until a new Hegemony God takes the Throne.

The device's main defense mechanism is refered to as the Judgement of Mortality (必滅の審判, Hitsumetsu no Shinpan). This mechanism, thought of as a trial to see if the aspiring God is worthy of challenging the Throne's owner, hits the challenger with a blast of the Throne's very killing intent, which annihilates any existence it hits, leaving absolutely no trace of the target. Naturally, to take over the Throne, the challenger must be able to overcome this defense system.

Recording of defeated Gods

Upon defeating the previous holder of the Throne, the new ruling God takes over all of their domain. Not only are the souls under the loser's control passed on to their successor, the Throne also records the loser's Law and stores its vestiges into itself, allowing the one who controls the Divine Throne to reproduce and call upon the power of their predeccesors. These "recordings" within the Throne manifest as replicas of the defeated Gods when called upon by the ruling God. This feature is not limited to storing recordings of those who've held the Throne, it can also store records of those challengers who, even if they have not taken the position of supreme deity, held a strong connection to a God who did. That way, the Principles of both the Golden Beast and the Eternal Moment, who were only challengers with no chance of taking over the Throne, were also recorded, as they held abnormally strong connections to the Fourth and Fifth Heavens.

Naturally, even when normally this faculty of the Throne should be able to be used by anyone controlling it, there are numerous variables that can affect its overall performance, or its ability to be used at all. That way, the Mercurial Snake couldn't possibly have used this feature, as he was a "distortion" of his predeccesors. The Sixth Heaven, Hajun, couldn't use this feature to its maximum capability due to his utter disrespect of his predeccesors, whose records he considered "shit staining his body". This way, he could only reproduce their Principles to a limited extent, and couldn't deploy their full power. However, the Goddess of Twilight, who craved to "embrace everyone and everything", and the Seventh Heaven, who faithfully reproduces the Laws of nearly all of her predeccesors, can deploy these recordings with their full power.

Observers

The figure known as "the Observer" is a constant in the struggle for the Throne, who always appears near the time the crisis that kickstarts the change of ruling starts, and spurs the numerous actors into action. Even his involvement is unknown to most parties involved in the change of Throne God, though the Samsara Vartin of Anima Entelecheia appeared to be vaguely aware of this figure's involvement while still not knowing of its motives.

In truth, the multiple Observers across the many worlds the Throne has served as a basis to are reincarnations of Zurvan, a derivative of Varuna, a warrior involved in the War that spiralled into the Throne's creation, as lieutenant to Mitra, who'd go on to become the First Heaven, and whom he had a lover-like relationship with. After his beloved took over the Throne, Varuna and Mitra's other companions, calling themselves "Naraka", inserted themselves into it, fulfilling a role similar to "hardware", while the ruling God is the "software" reality runs on. This way, the Naraka ended up becoming the Throne's consciousness itself. Varuna himself acts within the world through the multiple Observers, reincarnations of his Sensory across the ages (though they are often unaware of being mere prolongations of Varuna's being), to further Throne change in order to stop civilization from achieving advancement superior to that of the era he was born into, which would allow them to create a superior system to the Divine Throne System. By instigating a change in the God who currently owns the Throne, he ensures civilization never reaches that point. The Observers' involvement, unaware of being following a pre-established plan, is normally very subtle. All of them share the common characteristics of being supernaturaly good in the use of firearms, dressing in flamboyant styles, as well as hatred (or contempt at least) for the Gods.

While the Naraka's agenda is still unknown at large, they seem to desire the gathering of ten Hegemony Gods for an unknown purpose, as of now. Mitra, upon her resurrection by their hand, declared however that "the history of the Throne had being predetermined". By Dies irae: Pantheon's prologue, the Naraka are shown to inhabit the innermost layer of the Throne. None of the Gods, with the exception of Hajun (who uses his Heavenly Eye), can perceive it.

These are the Observers of each world:

• Ahura Mazda: Zurvan.
• Paradise Lost: Judas Strife.
• Zoar: Unknown.
• Omega Ewigkeit: Shirou Yusa.
• Anima Entelecheia: Officer persecuting the Samsara Vartin.
• Mahamara: Sukuna Tenma.
• Amaterasu: To be determined.

Territory

When it was first created, the Throne's domain was barely that of a single universe which, depending on the Law of the current God, could even branch into multiple higher dimensions. However, upon the appearence of the Mercurial Snake and its takeover of the device, his Law added the principle of "parallel universes" to reality. This way, the Throne came to encompass an infinite number of parallel worlds, its domain turning into a multiverse. Furthermore, the device itself was changed from a machine to something different, divine in nature.

The Mandala of the ruling God is synonymous with the territory under the purview of the Throne.

Accessing the Throne

The Throne is not a place one can arrive to through walking or flying. It is a hyperdimensional space that cannot be described by language. As such, the only way of truly accessing it is by opening a Singularity, that is, tearing the canvas of reality asunder, and diving through the newly made hole. This event can normally only be brought about by the clash of two conflicting Laws coming from Hegemony Gods, though very special circunstances can also allow Transcendence Gods to open up a Singularity.

The depth of the Singularity changes with the power of the ruling God: the stronger the God holding the Throne is, the deeper it will be (thus, it will be harder to open in the first place). Diving into it and reaching the Throne itself is also a real trial of endurance for any challenger.

Throne Gods

The following list of Hegemony Gods have taken the Throne, and established their Law, at some point:

• The Truth, the First Heaven. Established the world of Ahura Mazda.
• The Remorseless, the Second Heaven. Established the world of Paradise Lost.
• The Morningstar, the Third Heaven. Established the world of Zoar.
• The Mercurial Snake, the Fourth Heaven. Established the world of Omega Ewigkeit.
• The Goddess of Twilight, the Fifth Heaven. Established the world of Anima Entelecheia.
• The Hajun, the Sixth Heaven. Established the world of Mahamara.
• The Dawn, the Seventh Heaven. Established the world of Amaterasu.

Aside from this, two aspiring Hegemony Gods also exist:

• The Golden Beast, the Fourth Heaven's Apoptosis. Despite having no real chance of ever holding the Throne, he'd have originated the world of Du Söllst-Dies irae.
• The Eternal Moment, the Fourth Heaven's shadow and the Fifth Heaven's foremost guardian. He'd have originated the world of Also sprach Zarathustra.

The Throne in the games

Paradise Lost

The Throne, called Keter: the Crown (王冠, ケテル; Oukan, Keteru), is the highest Sephira of the Tree of Sephirot that forms the structure of Paradise Lost, and where God resides. Reaching it in order to overthrow God, and replace him, is the objective of the main antagonist of the story, Nerose Satanel, who carries out Project Paradise Lost in order to achieve it. Having failed in causing God's intervention into the world by instigating Armageddon 3,000 years before the story begins, Satanel instead decides to follow the prophecy granted by Astaroth as a result of his failure, which leads him to erase himself from the universe in order to rewrite his existence as that of God. Therefore, he arrives at Keter, and overthrows the Second Heaven.

Judecca (ジュデッカ, Judekka), the deepest part of Cocytus, is also synonymous with the Throne. This Hell is the place from which Belial originates and draws his power from. In his last stand against Lyle, Satanel forces Testament to drill even deeper than Judecca itself in order to draw out Lucifer, the manifestation of Satanel's very own sin of Pride. However, the calculations for this to happen take too long, and Satanel is struck down before it does.

Dies irae

Even though the existence of the Throne is known since the ending of Marie's Route, the device itself remains unseen until Rea's Route. The main goal of Reinhard Heydrich is to take the Throne in order to end the current world, a "ghetto" in which foreknowledge of anything that might come to pass torments him, and to create his own world of eternal strife, in which he might be able to fight and "love" everything the best he can. In the same vein, his accomplice Mercurius, truly a Sensory of the Mercurial Snake, plans to use his sworn friend and his very own substitute's clash to open a path to the Throne, so he might get Marie's embrace in order to die and leave the burden of being God to her instead.

For an unknown number of time loops, Mercurius has been defeated time and again, most of the times by his sworn friend Reinhard Heydrich, awakened to his role as the Snake's Apoptosis. However, due to the special nature of Mercurius' Law and Craving, the world's always reset to the start, to allow its originator to achieve his grandest wish. In Marie's Route, finally, all of Mercurius' plans come to fruition and Marie takes over creation, painting over Omega Ewigkeit with her very own Law, Reincarnation. However, she refuses to embrace the Snake, leaving him within the Singularity, outside of her radiance.

An incredible amount of time after all of this happens, the Samsara Vartin, a group that, tired of the dullness of the Goddess of Twilight's world, tries to end the Divine Throne System itself, manage to turn one of their objects of worship into the most abominable Hegemony God, Hajun. The newly born God, confusing the Goddess' embrace with something that has been touching him since the moment of his birth, violently tears a path into the Throne and clashes with her and her three guardians, either annihilating them all with the exception of the Eternal Moment (which gives rise to Kajiri Kamui Kagura's events) or being defeated with great effort, and with the Snake as the fight's only survivor. Taking the Throne once more, he emanates, resetting the world of Omega Ewigkeit to zero, all the while erasing from its timeline all the factors that gave rise to such an abominable enemy.

Now in Rea's Route timeline, upon Reinhard awakening as the Fourth Heaven's Apoptosis thanks to Isaak, he traverses the Singularity that his fight with Ren opened to reach the Throne itself, and fight his sworn friend to the finish. In the midst of such a battle (one that might have included the Eternal Moment and his Legion), Marie finally embraces Mercurius, prompting his final death, and her definitive take over the Throne, which is restored from all the damage it sustained during the final fight. Both Ren and Reinhard's existences, depedant on the Snake's, vanish, to be reincarnated as perfectly normal people under the Goddess' reign.

In the unreleased aftermath story of Kei's Route, Ren managed to achieve Atziluth, using his newfound Craving to become an Hegemony God, ascend to the Throne, and defeat his creator, which causes the timeline to reset once again.

Kajiri Kamui Kagura

The Throne, taken from the Goddess of Twilight, is the place where Hajun resides for the whole game. Upon Yatou Tenma's revitalization, he aims to completely open the Singularity in Shinsuu's border with Edo, so as to reach the Throne and use Hajun's discarded souls in a desperate attempt to overthrow him, completely disregarding his previous aversion to establishing his Craving as the Law that rules the world, which would mean turning it into a frozen hell. Upon his defeat at the hands of Habaki Sakagami, he entrusts the future, alongside the creation of a new Principle with nothing to envy the Goddess of Twilight's, to Habaki and his friends.

With the completion of Hajun's Principle and the transformation of all the inhabitants of the world in blood thirsty Srgalas, he becomes an enemy of the remaining members of the Eastern Expedition, who aim to reach the Throne and overthrow him. Upon achieving their Taikyoku, most of them becoming Transcendence-type Gods, they decide to take Hajun down. Using Soujirou and Shiori's power, they manage to completely open the Singularity and reach the Throne, where they manage to defeat the recordings of the previous, defeated Gods that Hajun throws at them, bent on riding himself of all the "trash staining his body". Due to his bad compatibility with Habaki, who is his twin brother's Sensory, and the crack in his Law represented by the Kyougetsu siblings, the apparently invicible Hajun is defeated. After this, the Tumor within Hajun is reborn as the Dawn, daughter to Habaki and Rindou, and the new God to take the Throne, giving birth to a world where the multiple principles of all previous Gods, bar Hajun's, can coexist in perfect harmony.

Dies irae: Pantheon

The Throne, during the Dawn's reign, takes the form of Takamagahara (高天原, Takamagahara), the town in which Hirume, daughter of Habaki and Rindou, as well as the Sensory of the Dawn, lives alongside her attendant Yomi, her parents and the other Transcendence Gods of the Dawn Mandala, who act as her teachers. The nucleus of Takamagahara is a huge sakura tree, which is the main body and true form of the Dawn.

Naraka, in order to fulfill his mysterious plans, resurrects all of the fallen Hegemony Gods (including those who did not take the Throne) and gathers all of their Divine Thrones, putting up restrictions to prevent them from killing each other, while he stays within the deepest layer of the device, alongside 5 other mysterious entities.