The heart is a mysterious thing. Most humans don't know his their heart is immense enough to be a whole universe. Universes that have their own denizens and internal workings. And looming in the darkest recesses of the human heart was the ancient malicious entity Dalvia, feeding off the darkest emotions of humanity. Over 10,000 years ago the great wiseman Lotsan discovered the 24 Lotus words, powerful magical words drawing on the power of the heart. Eager to spread this miraculous discovery he gave this power to his 10 disciples and sent them to spread their power across the word.
Dalvia saw his opportunity and manipulated the heart of one of the 10 disciples into betraying his master. Dalvia created the dark Maram words as corruptions of the Lotus words bestowing their power onto his disciples to serve his bidding. This began the thousands of years long battle between the Lotus Masters and the Maram Masters for the soul of humanity.
Dalvia's stats are difficult to determine as much of the magical happenings of the series take place in the heart, non-physical universes within the hearts of humanity and so do not reflect physical reality. I analogize this to the soul for verse equivalence since soul is the lowest non-physical plane classically meaning just "the non-physical part of a person". If you want to analogize Alice 19th hearts to being emotions or mind you can though it's arguably making him stronger by making it harder to resist his abilities.
Within the heart, Dalvia's power is incredibly strong. The heart naturally reflects the psyche of the person and changes it's surroundings. That said Dalvia is able to reality-warp it further such as separating sections of land in the heart to make it harder for Alice and Kyo to pursue the Maram master they were pursuing and it's suggested he would fill the entire heart in darkness as well as warp it's surroundings. It is said that the heart is a whole universe and that the inner heart (the reality within the heart) is an "alternate world" formed of the interactions between people. This would make this feat universal scale. Given this would happen in days at most this would likely be trillions of times the speed of light. This is somewhat consistent as Lotus Masters traveling to the center of the heart from unknown relative locations on several occasions (equivalent to traveling to the "center" of the universe from unknown positions) in time frames that would be hours at most, more likely minutes.
In physical reality, Dalvia is highly limited in his capacity which is in fact a plot point since his primary motivation is to physically incarnate. That said when taking control of one of the Maram masters as an avatar, he was able to conjure a city-wide storm by his sheer power and warped a large government office building into a dark castle for his followers as well as creating a shield around it so that normal humans could not enter which would likely be town level raw power and at least large building scale reality-warping. When he had partially physically incarnated his true size also dwarfed buildings including his castle. His speed would be completely unknown physically though his attack speed should be at least massively hypersonic as he could command lightning to hit targets.
If Dalvia fully incarnated physically it's likely he would have the same capacities physically as he does astrally but because he never was able too, this can be neither confirmed nor denied and remains speculation.
Dalvia has a large variety of abilities, though many of them can be grouped into rough categories. Dalvia is a natural astral plane entity, existing in the darkness of a human heart. He seems to only exists in one at a time though can freely move between them as the inner heart of a person is formed of their relationships with others meaning he can move between any two connected hearts. If he needs to interact with the physical plane he can temporarily possess any of his Maram masters to act as a physical avatar where he can somewhat use his power on the physical plane.
Dalvia is associated with his darkness which he can spread and absorb things into, particularly with the Maram word for darkness (Karu). He can also reality warp, changing the inner heart to suit his whims and when controlling an avatar warping a large government office building into being a dark castle.
Dalvia is the originator of the Maram words, dark words that induce their meaning. It should be noted that these words don't seem to directly translate to either Japanese or English and some can do what seems to be multiple things or mean multiple things likely due to an unknown esoteric equivalence.
The most common form of the Maram words towards manipulating humans turning them towards malevolence. These include Disuri (Hatred), Jata (Jealousy), Shini (Despair), Sura (Rage) and Vuina (Rejection) which can be used to instill dark emotions into humanity. He also possesses Kasha (Confess) which forces the target to reveal their secrets and Matsu (Obey) which he used when possessing a physical avatar to control the minds of a large part of a city, likely thousands of people. It is heavily implied that if he fully physically incarnated he would be able to control the minds of the whole Earth.
Most of the rest of the Maram words involve manipulating the physical word somehow. Daara (Storm) allows for the creation and control of a storm and Sura (Carnage, also rage above), caused a strange dark fire to emanate from the caster. Ramito (Spoil, Destroy) seems to cause something to break apart where it's weakest physically. Paya (Degenerate) destroys matter, for instance causing a massive hold in the land into a dark pit and Niru (Old Age, Silence) can rapidly age decades in seconds as well as suspend a bunch of glass shards from a mirror in midair. Shana (Starve, Thirst)'s effects aren't seen but likely involve starving a target. Byoma (Sickness) causes sickness and Rajika (Sleep, Death) causes the affected to rapidly become sleepy until they fall asleep where they die.
Beyond these he has Veeta (Hide) which allows him to camouflage into darkness (aiding his ability to shapeshift into a human form) as well as Manu (Barrier) the dark form of the Lotus word Riiya (Wall) which creates a magic shield which is likely the invocation Dalvia used to create a barrier around the dark castle. Finally he has Muduro (Curse) which causes people to die if a circumstance such as someone confessing their love to the cursed occurs. Dalvia has cursed those who he granted the wishes of to die for they had used his power.
Outside of this, Dalvia can physically erase beings as he did to Mayura causing them to only appear in Hearts. His darkness can consume people similarly just as it can consume an entire heart. He also has a form of astral corruption, drastically exaggerating the sins and vices of humanity to extreme (such as making a sister insecure that her younger sister was going to date her ex-boyfriend determined to kill both of them and willing to kill both their parents to accomplish this goal) and binding them to his will, which causes them to become his Maram masters. He also granted power to the Maram masters including Keina trapping the invading Lotus Masters into giant hourglasses which turned back time in their hearts forcing them to relive every trauma they had endured as well as the deceiver Lotus Master who could reflect attacks.
Dalvia compliments his versatile powerset with a powerful intellect developed over the course of more then 10,000 years. He is very good at manipulating people to turn to the darkest parts of their heart, even doing so to one of the disciples of Lotsan. He was the one who formed the malevolent Maram words. Complimenting this is one of his greatest strengths; his patience and penchant for long-turning planning. He has schemed in the darkest part of the heart for over 10,000 years knowing that as time goes on he could slightly adjust things ever more to his side. His influence is the cynicism of the modern world, where significantly more Maram masters exist then Lotus masters proportionally.
In terms of weaknesses, Dalvia's biggest weakness relates to his motivation. He desires to incarnate fully as a physical entity because so long as he remains in the human heart, he will always be a fragile invader in someone else's domain. Technically even a normal human can defeat Dalvia if they have the courage to confront the darkness in their own heart. They can expel said darkness and Dalvia with it, forcing him to some other heart. In addition the purifying Lotus words can make one more resistant to Dalvia's manipulation and other forms of purification would likely work similarly if they can excise the darkness in one's heart. Finally and this is somewhat speculative it's specifically noted Dalvia exists in human hearts and there's nothing suggesting he could enter the hearts of animals or indeed any non-human. At the very least his manipulation has focused on manipulating humans and he may struggle more to manipulate non-human entities.
Name: Dalvia, Daryuba
Origin: Alice 19th
Classification: Ancient evil, Astral entity
Powers and Abilities: Astral Existence (exists in the human heart), darkness manipulation (likely universal within the astral plane), reality-warping (likely universal in the astral plane), can move between one heart to another, can possess a person whose heart is dark, storm creation and manipulation, can incite negative emotions in others, can force people to confess, mental manipulation (at least thousands, planetary if fully incarnated), can disintegrate matter or break it where it's weakness, can induce sickness, starvation, death or sleep, age manipulation (can age an enemy rapidly), can suspect objects in air, can disappear into darkness, dark fire projection, barrier creation, curses, existence erasure (physical), corruption, attack reflection, can trap enemies in hourglasses forcing them to relive all past emotional trauma, power bestowal
Weaknesses: Can be expelled from someone's heart if they can confront the darkness in their own heart, purification, may not be able to enter the hearts of non-humans
Destructive Capacity: Likely universal (can warp a heart and consume it in darkness, a heart being a whole universe). At least large building level, possibly town level with an avatar or partially physically incarnated (was massively larger then a large building, reality warped a large building, created a barrier around a large building, created and controlled a storm across a city)
Range: Universal within a heart
Speed: MFTL+ (At least millions to billions, likely trillions of times the speed of light in the astral plane (scales to Lotus Masters who can travel to the center of the heart, a universe, quickly from a unknown distance. His darkness can encompass a universe in days at most.)) At least massively hypersonic attack speed in physical reality (can control lightning)
Durability: Unknown, potentially Universe Level (Even after Alice gained the Lost Word using the powers of light and darkness together and used it on Dalvia, he did not instantly perish)
Stamina: Likely infinite (has no physical body to tire)
Intelligence: Superhuman (tens of thousands of years of experience manipulating humanity, created the Maram words)
So how would he do in other verses?
In the DC Universe, Dalvia would roughly be a Pre-Crisis Brick Level in terms of raw power, though his speed would be relatively lackluster for that. His mind hax would be particularly dangerous however due to the relative power of the dreaming he could tap into (1,000 people can warp the entire universe) and if he is physically incarnated while he would become hypothetically weak to physical force, his mind hax would be top tier within any individual universe.
In the Pre-Crisis/Rebirth ages, Dalvia would be a tough enemy for most high tier JLA heroes and in the Post-Crisis age, Dalvia would be considered a crisis level event, and would require massive coordination from many heroes to defeat. This effect is compounded if he acted slowly and patiently to manipulate events to his side though this would be more risky then normal given the far vaster amount of supernatural detection to notice him, the amount of purification and non-humans that are running around.
He would still be a massive threat even if discovered, though Zatanna in particular is a really good counter to Dalvia due to having fought similar opponents, having confronted her own heart before, with universal reality-warping, astral travel, and a far more versatile word magic.
Dalvia saw his opportunity and manipulated the heart of one of the 10 disciples into betraying his master. Dalvia created the dark Maram words as corruptions of the Lotus words bestowing their power onto his disciples to serve his bidding. This began the thousands of years long battle between the Lotus Masters and the Maram Masters for the soul of humanity.
Within the heart, Dalvia's power is incredibly strong. The heart naturally reflects the psyche of the person and changes it's surroundings. That said Dalvia is able to reality-warp it further such as separating sections of land in the heart to make it harder for Alice and Kyo to pursue the Maram master they were pursuing and it's suggested he would fill the entire heart in darkness as well as warp it's surroundings. It is said that the heart is a whole universe and that the inner heart (the reality within the heart) is an "alternate world" formed of the interactions between people. This would make this feat universal scale. Given this would happen in days at most this would likely be trillions of times the speed of light. This is somewhat consistent as Lotus Masters traveling to the center of the heart from unknown relative locations on several occasions (equivalent to traveling to the "center" of the universe from unknown positions) in time frames that would be hours at most, more likely minutes.
In physical reality, Dalvia is highly limited in his capacity which is in fact a plot point since his primary motivation is to physically incarnate. That said when taking control of one of the Maram masters as an avatar, he was able to conjure a city-wide storm by his sheer power and warped a large government office building into a dark castle for his followers as well as creating a shield around it so that normal humans could not enter which would likely be town level raw power and at least large building scale reality-warping. When he had partially physically incarnated his true size also dwarfed buildings including his castle. His speed would be completely unknown physically though his attack speed should be at least massively hypersonic as he could command lightning to hit targets.
If Dalvia fully incarnated physically it's likely he would have the same capacities physically as he does astrally but because he never was able too, this can be neither confirmed nor denied and remains speculation.
Dalvia is associated with his darkness which he can spread and absorb things into, particularly with the Maram word for darkness (Karu). He can also reality warp, changing the inner heart to suit his whims and when controlling an avatar warping a large government office building into being a dark castle.
Dalvia is the originator of the Maram words, dark words that induce their meaning. It should be noted that these words don't seem to directly translate to either Japanese or English and some can do what seems to be multiple things or mean multiple things likely due to an unknown esoteric equivalence.
The most common form of the Maram words towards manipulating humans turning them towards malevolence. These include Disuri (Hatred), Jata (Jealousy), Shini (Despair), Sura (Rage) and Vuina (Rejection) which can be used to instill dark emotions into humanity. He also possesses Kasha (Confess) which forces the target to reveal their secrets and Matsu (Obey) which he used when possessing a physical avatar to control the minds of a large part of a city, likely thousands of people. It is heavily implied that if he fully physically incarnated he would be able to control the minds of the whole Earth.
Most of the rest of the Maram words involve manipulating the physical word somehow. Daara (Storm) allows for the creation and control of a storm and Sura (Carnage, also rage above), caused a strange dark fire to emanate from the caster. Ramito (Spoil, Destroy) seems to cause something to break apart where it's weakest physically. Paya (Degenerate) destroys matter, for instance causing a massive hold in the land into a dark pit and Niru (Old Age, Silence) can rapidly age decades in seconds as well as suspend a bunch of glass shards from a mirror in midair. Shana (Starve, Thirst)'s effects aren't seen but likely involve starving a target. Byoma (Sickness) causes sickness and Rajika (Sleep, Death) causes the affected to rapidly become sleepy until they fall asleep where they die.
Beyond these he has Veeta (Hide) which allows him to camouflage into darkness (aiding his ability to shapeshift into a human form) as well as Manu (Barrier) the dark form of the Lotus word Riiya (Wall) which creates a magic shield which is likely the invocation Dalvia used to create a barrier around the dark castle. Finally he has Muduro (Curse) which causes people to die if a circumstance such as someone confessing their love to the cursed occurs. Dalvia has cursed those who he granted the wishes of to die for they had used his power.
Outside of this, Dalvia can physically erase beings as he did to Mayura causing them to only appear in Hearts. His darkness can consume people similarly just as it can consume an entire heart. He also has a form of astral corruption, drastically exaggerating the sins and vices of humanity to extreme (such as making a sister insecure that her younger sister was going to date her ex-boyfriend determined to kill both of them and willing to kill both their parents to accomplish this goal) and binding them to his will, which causes them to become his Maram masters. He also granted power to the Maram masters including Keina trapping the invading Lotus Masters into giant hourglasses which turned back time in their hearts forcing them to relive every trauma they had endured as well as the deceiver Lotus Master who could reflect attacks.
Dalvia compliments his versatile powerset with a powerful intellect developed over the course of more then 10,000 years. He is very good at manipulating people to turn to the darkest parts of their heart, even doing so to one of the disciples of Lotsan. He was the one who formed the malevolent Maram words. Complimenting this is one of his greatest strengths; his patience and penchant for long-turning planning. He has schemed in the darkest part of the heart for over 10,000 years knowing that as time goes on he could slightly adjust things ever more to his side. His influence is the cynicism of the modern world, where significantly more Maram masters exist then Lotus masters proportionally.
In terms of weaknesses, Dalvia's biggest weakness relates to his motivation. He desires to incarnate fully as a physical entity because so long as he remains in the human heart, he will always be a fragile invader in someone else's domain. Technically even a normal human can defeat Dalvia if they have the courage to confront the darkness in their own heart. They can expel said darkness and Dalvia with it, forcing him to some other heart. In addition the purifying Lotus words can make one more resistant to Dalvia's manipulation and other forms of purification would likely work similarly if they can excise the darkness in one's heart. Finally and this is somewhat speculative it's specifically noted Dalvia exists in human hearts and there's nothing suggesting he could enter the hearts of animals or indeed any non-human. At the very least his manipulation has focused on manipulating humans and he may struggle more to manipulate non-human entities.
Name: Dalvia, Daryuba
Origin: Alice 19th
Classification: Ancient evil, Astral entity
Powers and Abilities: Astral Existence (exists in the human heart), darkness manipulation (likely universal within the astral plane), reality-warping (likely universal in the astral plane), can move between one heart to another, can possess a person whose heart is dark, storm creation and manipulation, can incite negative emotions in others, can force people to confess, mental manipulation (at least thousands, planetary if fully incarnated), can disintegrate matter or break it where it's weakness, can induce sickness, starvation, death or sleep, age manipulation (can age an enemy rapidly), can suspect objects in air, can disappear into darkness, dark fire projection, barrier creation, curses, existence erasure (physical), corruption, attack reflection, can trap enemies in hourglasses forcing them to relive all past emotional trauma, power bestowal
Weaknesses: Can be expelled from someone's heart if they can confront the darkness in their own heart, purification, may not be able to enter the hearts of non-humans
Destructive Capacity: Likely universal (can warp a heart and consume it in darkness, a heart being a whole universe). At least large building level, possibly town level with an avatar or partially physically incarnated (was massively larger then a large building, reality warped a large building, created a barrier around a large building, created and controlled a storm across a city)
Range: Universal within a heart
Speed: MFTL+ (At least millions to billions, likely trillions of times the speed of light in the astral plane (scales to Lotus Masters who can travel to the center of the heart, a universe, quickly from a unknown distance. His darkness can encompass a universe in days at most.)) At least massively hypersonic attack speed in physical reality (can control lightning)
Durability: Unknown, potentially Universe Level (Even after Alice gained the Lost Word using the powers of light and darkness together and used it on Dalvia, he did not instantly perish)
Stamina: Likely infinite (has no physical body to tire)
Intelligence: Superhuman (tens of thousands of years of experience manipulating humanity, created the Maram words)
So how would he do in other verses?
In the DC Universe, Dalvia would roughly be a Pre-Crisis Brick Level in terms of raw power, though his speed would be relatively lackluster for that. His mind hax would be particularly dangerous however due to the relative power of the dreaming he could tap into (1,000 people can warp the entire universe) and if he is physically incarnated while he would become hypothetically weak to physical force, his mind hax would be top tier within any individual universe.
In the Pre-Crisis/Rebirth ages, Dalvia would be a tough enemy for most high tier JLA heroes and in the Post-Crisis age, Dalvia would be considered a crisis level event, and would require massive coordination from many heroes to defeat. This effect is compounded if he acted slowly and patiently to manipulate events to his side though this would be more risky then normal given the far vaster amount of supernatural detection to notice him, the amount of purification and non-humans that are running around.
He would still be a massive threat even if discovered, though Zatanna in particular is a really good counter to Dalvia due to having fought similar opponents, having confronted her own heart before, with universal reality-warping, astral travel, and a far more versatile word magic.
In Marvel Comics, Dalvia would be considered a roughly skyfather level entity, being a universal threat. While a number of herald to transcendent level entities hypothetically could kill Dalvia if they detected him, if they don't notice him, he would be hypothetically corrupt them or worse possess them. This is made more likely because as Athena noted in the Chaos War, there is a corruption on a metaphysical level in the Marvel Multiverse that would hypothetically make them more vulnerable to such a corruption.
If given sufficient control, Dalvia could perhaps take on the role and power of a various Demon Lord like Mephisto, albeit one with stronger weaknesses then normal. He would probably lose against any strong skyfather however as they have similar power scaling to feats like Surter threatening to destroy the world tree, speeds far greater as well as haxes on a planetary scale or higher as a rule.
He would be a drastic threat to the Earth, with the best defenses being Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom but likely would not be able to be a threat to the whole of the 616 universe due to the influence of cosmic forces on his level or higher.
Fushigi Yuugi was also written by the writer of Alice 19th. In the Fushigi Yuugi universe would be absolutely and ridiculously above everyone but the god tiers, as most of the verse would only be able to compete with the power of the average Maram master, though both can have very versatility and hax.
That said the 4 Beast Gods would absolutely be able to beat Dalvia as they overpowered universal scale threats and transcend space, time, and dimensions and Dalvia has no feat of hitting things outside spacetime. They are able to seal entities, which would work hypothetically on Dalvia as they did to a intangible universal threat just like Dalvia. He could maybe affect them if they are summoned into spacetime by one of their priests but even then I can only see Dalvia defeating them one on one and against multiple Beast Gods he would be outgunned.
Dalvia in the Fushigi Yuugi-verse would be seen as a nigh-god tier, with his own priests just like the beast gods own priests, his being the Maram masters. Dalvia could potentially defeat a single Beast God if they were summoned into spacetime, but would get outnumbered if he tried to destroy the universe.
In the Mother (Earthbound) series, another series reliant on psychological powers with it's own plot sequences of going inside the minds of characters, Dalvia would be roughly relative to, but not superior to the Top Tiers.
In terms of raw power, Dalvia would be comparable to Giygas who could destroy the universe and Ness who created the Magicant, a whole universe. While both of them have significantly stronger hax then Dalvia, it's possible manipulate them or take them off-guard. As such Dalvia would be a massive threat to the verse, though either Ness or Giygas should be able to stop Dalvia if they are not taken off guards, helped by Ness' psychological resilience (as he was able to defeat the Mani Mani statue which drives people greedy and selfish, completely unaffected)
Disney contains Kingdom Hearts, another series with similar themes of heart, as well as Alice in Wonderland which was an inspiration for Alice 19th.
In terms of pure stats, Dalvia in the astral plane would be comparable to the toonforce users of the prime Disney reality that the Disney universes are aspects of. Dalvia can warp the universe of the heart, while the Disney characters have universal reality-warping feats, albeit on more planes (as well as the potential universal feats of a few other Disney realities like Kingdom Hearts). Dalvia's darkness can spread across the universe of a heart in days at most. For comparison in the other Kingdom Hearts reality, characters like Sora and Mickey can outpace Stitch's ship in Hyperdrive which can travel likely inter-galactic distances in minutes as well as to the reaction speed of Eega Beeva who can react to objects outside his spaceship that can traverse the universe.
Dalvia would likely be similar to The Phantom Blot or Chernabog, a Dark Entity that could lord over a singular universe but would struggle against some of the strongest Disney Universes like Kingdom Hearts which is uniquely well suited to fight him due to the power of the heart giving resistance to his abilities, as well as vastly powerful hax. Dalvia would likely compare to most beings in the prime reality, but would lose against the named entities due to their sheer hax level on a more higher plane then he exists. It doesn't help for him that they are particularly resistant to his form of manipulation from the Kingdom Hearts resistances.
This guy has a confusing and Bizzare number of abilities, somewhat reminded me of Sadako, although hes a lot meaner. Im really impressed a MG Villain of THIS threat level doesnt come frome one of the famous powerful ones like Sailor Moon, Clamp, PMM or Precure, kinda made me wonder how he would do there, but thats not to say the ones you picked werent awesome to see either. He did SUPER better than i thought in Marvel and DC, though or course they have perfect counters, like Zatanna and Ghost Rider.
ReplyDeletethe other three Verses were cool too, I love both learning about Earthbound, a series i know very little about and hearing about Disney, a verse i PAINSTAKINGLY Researched the crap outta once and im happy to say you made a lotta sense there.
thanks for the blog!
Whoa, freaky fish guy! Mako Tsunami? Or cosmic horror? Seems he's a bit closer to home. That's where the heart is, so they say. I've never heard of this character or series but boy did I just get schooled! This is actually a really terrifying villain. He could be in any of us, at any time, and spreads through the connection between hearts. With social networking, that could get him anywhere in the world, and be almost impossible to trace. And that's not even going into all of Dalvia's cruel and terrible powers.
ReplyDeleteI'm coming out the other side of this blog very interested in this series, I'm gonna put it on my to read list. The setting sounds intriguing too, it looks like you did a great job explaining the framework in which this character operates in a relatively short space. I'd also like to give you props for determining Dalvia's stats in his various states of being; it looks like you didn't have very much to go on but you still found every value possible and backed them up.
As expected of such an insidious foe with an unusual nature and wide variety of hax, Dalvia seems to do quite well in other series. You picked some pretty heavy-hitting series like your usual DC/Marvel combo and I was impressed how well Dalvia does. I was very pleased to see the Mother series, I'm a big fan of that trilogy. It's got some very deceptively powerful characters, cool to see that Dalvia could even give them some trouble under the right conditions. And Disney at the end, oh man. Dalvia seems perfect for Kingdom Hearts! Or is Kingdom Hearts perfect for Dalvia? He sounds like he could be a villain in that series for sure, really cool and thematic pick there Imp.
Thanks for the blog, it's always great getting exposed to a new series and character! Feels like I get to enjoy that experience a lot with your blogs, looking forward to it happening again sometime soon!