Reality-Fiction Transcendence

Introduction

It is not uncommon in fiction for characters to view lesser realities as if they were fiction, in much the same way as a real world human would view fiction. Frequently that comes in the form of almighty author characters which can freely rewrite those lesser realities. The other way around, characters at times find a 'Real World' transcended of their own, which is more fictional in turn.

Characters inhabiting such realities can frequently be viewed as being infinitely more powerful than those they view as fictional as, similar to our own relationship with fiction, no matter how powerful something in fiction is, it can never attack reality. That makes such states relevant for the tiering of characters.

We call the state of existence in which a character is so vastly superior to another due to such a difference between Reality and Fiction "Reality-Fiction Transcendence" or sometimes "R>F transcendence" for short.

What Is Reality-Fiction Transcendence in Detail?

Reality-Fiction Transcendence is a state where a being is qualitatively superior to another world, as a result of seeing the world as fiction and thus being more 'real' than said world. Due to this, the character will be treated as completely superior to the cosmology it transcends, and all characters limited to it, and will thus be granted a higher tier.

For example, if a character were to view an entire space-time continuum as fiction, they would be superior to such an extent that it would be viewed not as a small portion or constituent of their reality, but as trivialized into nonexistence by comparison, such that their higher world is wholly irreducible to anything pertaining to the lower world. This complete superceding of the lower world's nature lands all such characters at 1-A.

The concept is most commonly used to apply to author avatars and other beings in the 'real world'. However, it can also be applied to any character who authors a lower world of existence or even a 'player' who simply consumes the media rather than authors it.

Qualifiers

In order to qualify they must view the world as a some actual form of 'fiction', i.e. to them what happens in the fiction is not real and of no physical consequence to their being and also otherwise is of no greater consequence to their being than an actual fictional character could reasonably be to a real life human. However, the medium in which they view the world as fiction generally does not matter, as it being fiction is enough for a Reality-Fiction Transcendence to be considered.

Potential mediums for viewing a cosmology as fiction include: written media (Books or stories), images (Paintings, comics, or movies), data (Simulations or video games), or mental constructs (thoughts or dreams). All of the above would be considered less 'real' than the person who views the cosmology as such, and can directly imply qualitative superiority. Note that the medium is usually a representation or container for the fiction on a higher plane and not necessarily the fiction in itself.

However, bear in mind that simple visual portrayals of a character viewing the world within some such construct are not enough to qualify. And so, for example, a cosmic entity being depicted as seeing the universe as a computer game "because this is the only way human minds can comprehend it" would not suffice, and likewise, neither would cases where a Reality/Fiction metaphor is simply used as an analogy for higher dimensions. Broadly speaking, it ought to be reasonably clear that the higher world views the lower one as something insubstantial relative to itself, or in other words, that the Reality/Fiction relationship be meant as relatively literal.

In general, such cases can be relatively straightforward, as in cosmologies where conventional reality is portrayed as "not really real," and there are superior, "more real" worlds beyond it. If, on top of that, the higher world is depicted as being one that is inhabited by literal readers, authors and consumers of media, and not simply cosmic beings taking the metaphorical appearance of such (Take this article's image as reference), then that is substantial evidence for a Reality-Fiction Transcendence, in particular if the higher plane demonstrably has its own set of dimensions, so that it is impossible for it and the lower world to be related to each other by dimensional differences.

Particularly in the latter cases, the portrayal of the real world can also play a relevant role in the evaluation. Specifically: While a generic superiority in power to lower-world beings on the part of the inhabitants of the higher world serves as supporting evidence at best, cases where the superiority in question is treated as "size-like" (Not in the sense of being literally correlated with space, but in the sense of the real world being depicted as somehow "vaster" and more immense than the fiction) in some way are also great material to build a case for a genuine transcendence.

However, there are also factors that can speak against Reality-Fiction Transcendence, even if all of the above is given. Those include:

• The realities are portrayed like parallel universes or otherwise as having just a finite difference in scale or having a similar nature.
• The characters from both realities are generally being portrayed as comparable in power
• The author character completely live in the fictional medium themselves. For example the author character might have a book that contains the world, but the author themselves are also a character in it and don't exist outside it any more than other characters of that world.
• The fictional characters being able to attack the real ones without being shown to somehow have transcended their fictional world or having special abilities that allow it by being something rooted in a higher reality. Such instances often have to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis to judge how they are best rated. For more detailed information, see here.

Additionally, the showings should be reasonably clear. On top of the things already dismissed as genuine evidence, cameos of author avatars, hints at a "player" character without further context or similar things should be disregarded. In such cases it simply can't be sufficiently ascertained that the world is viewed as true "fiction". In some cases it's not even clear if it's more than a simple nod to the audience or humorous instance of Breaking the Fourth Wall, which is not to be taken seriously.

Relationship to Reality Equalization

Reality Equalization as a concept equalizes the 'baseline reality' to be the reality that is most prominent within the story, being treated as a normal 3-D reality. For verses that mostly take place in an in-universe video game or story, this would logically allow the characters who exist beyond that world to be Tier 2 or above, even if they are mostly normal humans otherwise.

However, this is not the case for every setting. In certain situations, we would not grant a R>F Transcendence to those who exist in the 'real world' compared to the game. Whether we do or not, it has to do with the perspective of the story.

For the R>F transcendence to be indexed, the portrayal of the transcendence must be taken into account. If the transcendence is treated as sufficiently portrayed and is important to the story (i.e. being the literal author of the world with complete control over it), then it's valid. If it is not sufficiently portrayed as transcendence compared to the fictional world, then we would not index it as such and would simply tier it as if no R>F transcendence was involved.

Examples

Acceptable Examples

Unacceptable Examples

• Earth-33 from DC Comics: A realm that only sees the superheroes of other worlds and the worlds they live in as fiction. However, they have no demonstrated sense of transcendence and the world's inhabitants are treated as equally 'real' to the superheroes they see as fiction as they are both within the same multiverse.
• Metaverse Enterprise Solutions from Doki Doki Literature Club!: They view Monika's world as simply a simulation. However, it's stated in the game that the simulation in which Monika lives in is as real as the real world. Thus, they cannot be considered for an R>F difference as the realms have no existential difference.
• The Real World from Sword Art Online/The Matrix: Despite the fact that the humans in the real world view the baseline realities (Sword Art Online and The Matrix) respectively as fictional simulations/games, they do not qualify for an R>F difference as the characters are never treated as transcendent compared to the game.
• The Real World from The Neverending Story: The real world is just as much part of the story written by The Old Man of Wandering Mountain as Phantasia is and he himself exists within it. Additionally, some characters can pass between worlds, without becoming in any notable way superior when entering the Real World.
• The Original World from Clash of Hexennacht: Despite all other worlds being fictional ones created by the plot manipulation power of the Book of Creation, its user can be fought and harmed by those in these worlds and the citizens of the other worlds can, in the end, travel to the original worlds.

So where does Reality-Fiction Transcendence actually scales to?

The scale depends on the verse's cosmology. Without context, it would be High Multiverse level+. With context via cosmology, viewing the verse (with cosmology) as fiction would grant cosmogy's following tier to the user who views their verse as fiction.

Examples

• Sonic's cosmology is around Outerverse level. Sonic views his verse as fiction, making him Outerverse level.
• Striker views his verse as fiction. However, his verse doesn't have any cosmology, so viewing his verse would be High Multiverse level+ without context.

Notes

It should be noted that despite whatever the author may intend, a characters cannot interact with the true Real World that we all live in. The Real World can be simulated by fiction, but it will never be the true reality. Thus, characters that exist in the 'real world' such as The Player (Imscared) would be fictional representations of real people, and not actual real people who exist.

Finally, one should remember that author avatars are not necessarily omnipotent, and that defeating an author should not necessarily grant a higher tier. Characters like Popeye are capable of attacking their authors but these are generally treated as gag feats which should not be taken seriously. Author avatars are also not necessarily be able to affect other people on their level with abilities unless demonstrated or indicated by the mechanisms, as most author and player characters usually have their powers affect the lower world instead of the one they exist on.