The Doors to the Abyss (アヴィスの
The Doors to the Abyss originally belonged to the Baskerville Clan. But after the Tragedy of Sablier, in which they nearly caused the ruin of the world itself and were thus defeated by Jack Vessalius, Pandora took ownership of the Doors. While one is still with the Baskervilles, the other four Doors were divided up between the Four Great Dukedoms; thus the Keys to the Doors which are the only method of accessing these gateways are also split between the five groups. Every one of Pandora's Legally Contracted Chains emerged from and are accessed by these Doors, making them the prime source of Pandora's power. As a result, the Doors embody the status of each Dukedom they belong to.
The Doors to the Abyss were created by Jury, at the same time that the Baskervilles, the entire world, and the Abyss itself were created as well. Thus, the order of the Abyss as designed by its creator is for all matters of the Abyss to rightfully belong in the jurisdiction of the Baskervilles and their master Glen. This is exemplified in how Glen Baskerville is originally the sole person allowed to Contract with the Black Winged Chains, and own the corresponding Keys to the Doors. It is with these Doors, their Keys, and their Chains that the Baskervilles maintained the order of the Abyss—by keeping it and the material world separate.
However, one hundred years prior to the story, Jack Vessalius plotted to cast the entire world into the Abyss. He ultimately failed, but his actions still resulted in the Tragedy of Sablier and the destruction of nearly everything the Baskervilles once had. The Doors to the Abyss and their corresponding Keys and Chains were stolen and divided among the ranks of outsiders, granting them wrongful access to the powers of the Abyss that were never meant for them. Thus, for those one hundred years after the Tragedy, the Baskervilles slowly regathered their strength and set out their goals to reclaim the Doors to the Abyss.
Description[]
The Doors to the Abyss five gateways situated within the material world that lead into the Abyss. Apart from the Doors to the Abyss there are no other primary entrances to the Abyss, apart from the Path; which can only be opened by Chains temporarily once they have built up enough power to do so. Conversely, in order to remain in the material world Chains would often find a Contractor, through which they would form an Illegal Contract, thus allotting them prolonged passage into the 1st Dimension from the Abyss; however with every exertion of their power their time in the 1st Dimension draws shorter, as their Contractor's Incuse progresses until its limit is reached and the Chain and its Contractor are dragged into the lowest level of the Abyss.
Alongside each Door exists a Key - which takes the form of a small orb of light and can be placed in any object in order to keep it protected. The Keys to the Doors are capable of restricting the flow of power from the Abyss to outside sources, such as Contracts, should the holder perform a ritual involving an offering of their blood. A Key can be destroyed however, thus temporarily severing the Contracts formed through its respective Door to the Abyss, but will later reform alongside said Contracts.
Each Door is protected by one of the five Black Winged Chains—Raven, Owl, Dodo, Gryphon and Jabberwock—each acting as guardians who prevent anyone from accessing the powers of the Abyss. Thus, the only way to access the power of the Doors is through the allowance of an individual possessing a Contract with the Door's respective Black Winged Chain.
A loophole does exist however in the form of the Children of Ill Omen. While the duties of Glen Baskerville dictate that each incarnation must form Contracts with the Black Winged Chains in order to monitor and control the powers of the Abyss in pursuit of the harmony of the Abyss, each incarnation of Glen has a respective Child of Ill Omen. Children of Ill Omen, being the result in a hiccup of power experienced by the Core of the Abyss, are anomalies produced through The Core's tie to Glen. Thereby, each Child of Ill Omen possesses the ability to approach and make contact with The Core of the Abyss, or even wrench open the Doors to the Abyss at will. Due to this fact, Jury made it apparent that Children of Ill Omen were abominations and that it was to be the duty of each Glen to dispose of their respective Child of Ill Omen after their ascension into the position in order to prevent unwarranted incidents from occurring.
History[]
As the 1st Dimension was formed and the principles of its existence as a Tale were set, Jury placed the Doors to the Abyss within the care of the Baskerville Clan, more specifically under Glen Baskerville; being the component that set the 1st Dimension apart from other dimensions across the Dimensional Plane. As such, each incarnation of Glen underwent Succession Ceremonies, during which a successor would drink the blood of their predecessor in order to transfer the joint-consciousness of Glen, and then continue to form a connection and a Contract with each Black Winged Chain through their Door to the Abyss. There would be five of these Succession Ceremonies, all of which took time to prepare and would be undergone over the course of approximately 20 years. After all five Succession Ceremony had been undergone, each incarnation of Glen would then pass judgement on their respective Child of Ill Omen using the Black Winged Chains before one of the Doors to the Abyss; dropping them into the lowest level of the Abyss via the Chains of Condemnation in order to have their existence obliterated entirely for their sins against the harmony of the Abyss.For generations, the Doors to the Abyss remained in Sablier and under the control of the Baskerville Clan. However, when Jack Vessalius tricked a Child of Ill Omen, named Vincent, into opening Jabberwock's Door during the Succession Ceremony of his brother, Gilbert, the Chain the B-Rabbit was allowed stepped into the 1st Dimension and formed an Illegal Contract with Jack. Jack then forced Oz to sever the "Chains" of the World, sparking a calamity that would later be known as the Tragedy of Sablier.
Though the acting Glen at the time, Oswald, would be successful in mending the Chains of the World through the combined efforts of the Black Winged Chains, the Chains surrounding Sablier were irreversibly damaged, resulting in the city's drop into the Abyss. As part of a cover up, Jack portrayed himself as a hero of the Tragedy of Sablier rather than its instigator, and used his position to establish the Four Great Dukedoms as an untouchable noble system, each with possession of one of four of the Doors to the Abyss that had been found and extracted from the ruins of Sablier. The Vessalius Dukedom would keep Gryphon's Door, the Nightray Dukedom would receive Raven's Door - as Jack knew well that Gilbert was the only one capable of forming a Contract with Raven, and he'd dropped into the Abyss alongside Sablier, thus preventing the Nightrays (who'd had a close relationship with the Baskervilles) from accessing the Abyss - the Barma Dukedom would receive Dodo's Door for their role as Jack's accomplices, and the Rainsworth Dukedom would receive Owl's Door as a third party that had been uninvolved in the Tragedy of Sablier. As the Chains of the World had been severed before Jabberwock's Door, it was at the center of the wreckage wrought by the Tragedy of Sablier, and thus remained in the deepest parts of the Hole, where the power of the Abyss often spilled out and mutated those who delved too deep.
For more than 100 years, the heads of each of the Four Dukedoms attempted to form Contracts with the Black Winged Chains in order to access the Doors to the Abyss. However, because of the bond that was made between Gilbert and Raven during Gilbert's first Succession Ceremony - Raymond Nightray, Bernard Nightray, Fred Nightray, Claude Nightray and Ernest Nightray all failed to form Contracts with Raven. Furthermore, Duke Oscar Vessalius failed to form a Contract with Gryphon, as he lacked the proper qualities to form any Contract. Thus, Raven's Contractor was not found until Gilbert was released from the Abyss nearly 100 years after the Tragedy of Sablier. Gryphon's latests Contractor ultimately became Xai Vessalius - Oscar's elder brother, while Owl and Dodo eventually formed Contracts with Sheryl Rainsworth and Rufus Barma respectively. Due to Jabberwock's Door remaining in The Hole at Sablier, it wasn't until Leo was discovered to be the reincarnated Glen Baskerville and brought to Sablier by Vincent in order to undergo his own Succession Ceremony with the Baskerville Door, forming his Contract with Jabberwock. In the events that followed, Jack once again attempted to drop the world into the Abyss, having Oz sever the Chains of the World yet again. At the same time, Oswald took control of Leo's body, and rather than attempt to avert another Tragedy, instead attempted to right his wrongs by using the Baskerville Door in Sablier to go back in time and kill his sister Lacie before she ever met Jack in order to prevent the Tragedy of Sablier from ever happening and thereby reshaping the order of the 1st Dimension and the Abyss. Though successful, Oswald was unable to kill Lacie, and ultimately vanished from existence when he used too much power that had not belonged to him. Instead, Leo mended the Chains of the World from the lowest level of the Abyss to have the optimal effect across the 1st Dimension, while Oz helped to return natural order to the Abyss by destroying himself, Alice and The Intention of the Abyss.
The aftermath of the averted tragedy resulted in the Four Great Dukedoms being held responsible for everything that had happened - thus they were stripped of their political power. At the same time, the Baskervilles would go on to return to their place as guardians of the powers of the Abyss. While the Contracts under each of the Doors were left in place, it can be assumed that once the Legal Contracts with the outside parties formerly involved in Pandora ended, the Baskervilles once again regained control of each of the Doors to the Abyss.
Plot[]
Coming soon!
Appearances[]
- Retrace XIII: A Lost Raven
- Retrace XVII: Odds and Ends
- Retrace XXII: His name is... (Mentioned only)
- Retrace XXIX: Rufus Barma (Mentioned only)
- Retrace XXX: Snow White Chaos
- Retrace XXXII: Snow Dome
- Retrace XXXVI: Sablier
- Retrace XXXVII: Glen Baskerville
- Retrace XXXVIII: Scapegoat
- Retrace XXXIX: Gate of Blackness
- Retrace XLI: Where am I?
- Retrace XLV: Queen of Hurts
- Retrace XLVI: Persona
- Retrace LX: Egg Shell
- Retrace LXI: Demios
- Retrace LXVIII: Glen
- Retrace LXXIII: A note
- Retrace LXXIV: Broken Rabbit
- Retrace LXXVIII: Decision
- Retrace LXXIX: Falling
- Retrace LXXXI: CHILDREN
- Retrace LXXXIII: After the Rain
- Retrace LXXXVII: Starting Point
- Retrace XCI: Juror
- Retrace XCII: A Story
- Retrace XCIV: Blaze
- Retrace XCVI: Disagree
Coming soon!
Trivia[]
- In Japanese, the Doors are referred to with three different terms interchangeably — "アヴィスの扉", "アヴィスへと扉通じる扉", and "アヴィスへと緤がる扉", meaning "door of the Abyss", "door leading to the Abyss", and "door connecting to the Abyss" respectively.