when I first set out to create the story of the dark lord zer0, I wanted the timeloop to be revealed early because the entire point of the plot was learning how to cope with inevitability.
as a response to final fantasy tropes and rpg tropes in general, the dark lord zer0's plot is less about facing the bad guy who is threatening the world and more about the double edged nature of heroism.
what good is a hero in a universe created and run by a villain?
what matters most to a god, a being above death and life?
what is a man? what is he in the context of the last nightmare saga?
when I first introduced the villain, he went by the name and face of dracula for two appearances, this was primarily for two reasons, one, to give you a recognizable, almost offensive face to see, a one-dimensional bad guy you recognized. I wanted you, the reader, to see the use of dracula and roll your eyes and think "wow this writer can't come up with anything original"
and if I did my job correctly, that's precisely what you would have done, it would have intrigued you that I used a copyrighted character in a story like this, is it dracula? what's the point in using a vampire of all things? we just got done fighting a werewolf and this was the big bad? what is this? castlevania?
yes, the dark lord zer0 takes especially heavy inspiration from castlevania, chiefly the lords of shadow sub-canon, but that's just the thing, it's only inspiration.
Later on I reveal that this villain is actually a shapeshifter, he uses concepts, which are the amalgamations of ideas cast off by hundreds if not thousands of people to collect into a source of identity changing power, to alter his appearance and give himself power.
take for instance, dracula and vampirism, people think about it, they imagine it, they create their own idea of this character, in the dark lord zer0 ideas aren't ephemeral, they HAVE to go somewhere, they have to be placed somewhere when you use up the thought.
that's where the ocean of time comes in.
inspired by bram stoker's dracula's quote "I have crossed an ocean of time to find you." the ocean of time, and indeed, the castle the villain resides, is a tribute to castlevania and dracula in general, but the castle on the ocean of time serves a more central purpose.
called castle nihil, it is the source of time control, it's this castle that channels the collected ideas that merge together naturally to become spirits or souls and renders them into tools for the dark lord to employ.
castle nihil is more than just a castle however, it's a symbol of my own struggles with nihilistic views I can never seem to avoid, that it is the seat of the god of time and space's power is no coincidence, the name, the function, castle nihil IS the biggest plot point in the series and will be revisited by the younger zero many times.
and so I get back to my primary point.
why did I make the timeloop story reveal occur earlier in the saga?
because the dark lord zer0 is about coping with inevitability.
the whole story is about zero being faced with an unavoidable, inescapable fact of his existence, his futuremost self is manipulating its own past, zero is that past, he is the thing that will eventually become the lord of time and space.
but zero is a good person by nature, so to look back after his future self reveals the truth, to reflect on the sheer scale of casual genocide, death and destruction, such a revelation is fit to drive any man mad beyond reason.
the dark lord zer0 is basically a deathmarch, the story's happiest, most beneficial ending is the one that sees zero becoming the lord of all evil, time and space.
zer0's futuremost self is literally father time, the god of creation, and the source of evil in the universe.
he created it.
he wrote out how the story would go.
and the entirety of the series focuses on him condemning his past self to the very same fate he consigned himself to in an endless timeloop.
the dark lord's plan is to send his present-time self back to the beginning of creation and time, there he will be exposed to the ether streams in the river of chaos.
and there zero's sorrow will take the form of the universe.
the series's ending is a grim one, one that the main character is being slowly walked into.
it's a fate of powerlessness, of having infinite power and authority and having no freedom to use it.
it's a story about not having choices, not having hope.
but it's not the ending that's important, it's the journey to it, and more importantly, how I'm striving to fool you, the reader, and thwart your expectations.
the dark lord zer0 book 1 is out now, just type it into google or check my earlier posts if you're interested, it's via kindle and can be bought for 3 dollars.
this is a very large project I'm working on, and the previous book was mostly an introduction to the world and universe, the second book, heaven, will explore the themes that drive the plot along.
be sure to check it out when and if it comes out.
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