“There are beings of great power that aren’t gods, but are simply consequences of a shard-touched Earth.”

The following are known manifestations, ascendant entities, and other anomalous phenomena that can be found throughout the world of Apocalyptica Arcanum. They are not unified by origin, allegiance, or purpose, nor are they reliably categorized by existing religious or arcane doctrine.

Some of these entities arose through deliberate mortal action, while others emerged unintentionally through belief, obsession, trauma, repetition, or prolonged exposure to Shardisite. Still others appear to be consequences of the world itself behaving incorrectly after The Meteor. They are not gods, though some are worshiped; not monsters, though many kill; and not myths, though surviving evidence is often fragmented, disputed, or incomplete.

Scholars remain divided on whether such beings should be understood as individuals, archetypes, or symptomatic expressions of a damaged reality. What little consensus exists holds that they cannot be dismissed as isolated curiosities. Their repeated appearance across regions, cultures, and centuries suggests a persistent instability in the fabric of the world itself.

Attempts to impose strict classification upon these entities have consistently failed. Some manifestations have been encountered only once, while others recur in altered forms across generations. Several appear dormant, suppressed, or geographically bound, and a small number may no longer exist at all. Whether such absences represent destruction, containment, or transformation remains unknown.

What *is* known is that manifestations reshape communities, alter historical trajectories, and leave scars that do not fade with time. Entire settlements have reorganized belief systems, economies, and laws around the presence, memory, or anticipated return of a single entity. As a result, many institutions quietly monitor reports of new manifestations, while less prudent individuals actively seek them out. Both groups are rarely prepared for the consequences.

Ascendant Entities are a class of beings whose existence cannot be attributed to deliberate creation, intentional summoning, or divine intervention. Unlike angels, demons, or conventional manifestations, ascendant entities were once mundane people, places, or objects that exceeded their original bounds and now persist in the world as supernatural forces in their own right.

In most recorded cases, ascendance appears to occur when something is influenced by Shardisite and subjected to prolonged, concentrated pressure, obsession, or trauma until it acquires persistence beyond its original limits. What emerges is not merely empowered, but capable of exerting lasting influence upon the world around it. Ascendance is therefore best understood not as transformation, but as escalation: the point at which something becomes too potent to remain ordinary.

Ascendant entities continue to behave according to their original purpose, albeit in exaggerated, distorted, or unnatural ways. Some demonstrate intention, strategy, and adaptation, while others remain bound to a narrow function, repeating a single act or pattern regardless of consequence. Attempts to classify ascendant entities as benevolent or malevolent have proven largely ineffective, as their behavior tends to reflect the conditions that produced them rather than any coherent moral framework.

Notably, ascendant entities do not appear to require worship to persist. Many predate organized recognition, and several have been observed to grow more powerful when denied, suppressed, or rationalized away. They are neither anomalies nor singularities. They recur, they spread, and once established, they are exceedingly difficult to erase.