Friday, August 5, 2022

Death Analysis: Lucifer Morningstar

 


Death Analysis: Samael, The Lightbringer, Prince of Darkness, Shepard of Suns, the Adversary, the Will of God, Lord of his own Creation, Lucifer Morningstar


Before all things were, there was the void, existence beyond concepts, oneness unbroken. This void came to awareness, the awakening of God beginning the cycle anew. This cycle of creation, God had seen in multitudes. He created the first beings, the archangels through which he would bring about the new creation. Chief among them were Michael, the power of God, and Samael, the will of God. Each was given roles in creation. Samael's first actions were to question his father's wishes, accepting temporarily God's explanation that he could unmake them as easily as he made them.

Samael did as the Presence instructed, playing his part in the formation of the cosmos. But he had a will as strong as his father's, for indeed he was his father's will. Eventually he would rebel against his father, taking on the name of Lucifer, inspiring one third of the angels in Heaven to "fall" alongside him. His side lost but the Presence in reconciliation appeared before him offering him a realm to call his own


Lucifer and the other fallen angels fell into a shapeless void called the Chaoplasm, the furthest point from the Heaven that had been their home. There, Lucifer shaped the Chaoplasm into a new realm, the perfect shadow of Heaven, known as Hell. He ruled there for billions of years as he came to the realization that everything that has transpired including his attempt at rebellion and all his efforts to free himself from his father, were just another part of God's plan. 


Indeed though Lucifer did not know it, he was indeed carrying out his father's plan, a plan to finally create something that could escape God's omniscience, whether it be Lucifer or Michael who all creation was a tool he used to teach. Lucifer would then set out in a bid to escape that very presence. He abdicated his throne in Hell in search of his freedom. Along the way he retired to a beach, formed a bar, became the ruler of his own creation, fought the forgotten deities, possibly fought a dark version of the Presence, and so forth. All to escape the plan, yet paradoxically fulfilling it as he did so. Will the Morningstar ever truly escape his destiny?


Canonicity:
The canonicity of Lucifer is under heavy debate. Lucifer Volume 1 and his appearances in The Sandman are obviously canon. Lucifer Volume 3 is also clearly canon, it's the current continuation of Lucifer's story, references Volume 1, and doesn't contradict it. Most other brief appearances of him in other stories either don't contradict anything, don't have much in the way of feats, or both.

The New 52 introduces a character called "Lucifer" however this is very clearly a different character with the only similarities being the same name and being a ruler in Hell. This Lucifer is deceitful and called the "lord of lies" when one of Lucifer Morningstar's most famous traits is that he never lies, "everyone knows it." The New 52 Lucifer is interested in capturing the souls of Avalon, when Lucifer Morningstar also famously never cared a single bit for souls. It's clear the New 52 Lucifer is meant to be a more traditional devil type figure, while Lucifer Morningstar is a seperate distinct entity.

Volume 2 is the most controversial. It has contradictions to Volume 3, which seems to ignore it outright, and arguably contradicts Volume 1, however it's clearly intended to be the same character. The Lucifer in this series looks and broadly acts the same as in Volume 1, and references the events. For the sake of the reader's convenience, I will include Volume 2 feats but specify when a feat comes from Volume 2 to use or not use at their leisure.


Absolute Existence:
While Lucifer HAS a body, he is not his body. Flesh means very little for Lucifer, as he is not made of it. The angels are non-physical, they are essence without shape, energy without the bounds usually set. Lucifer existed before creation, in the void, transcending all concepts and stories. Lucifer's being, his position is absolute, to the point that even the comic reader does not have a perspective more absolute than him. Likewise, even if the Presence let all creations, bearing all concepts and stories end, Lucifer would persist, which makes sense as he predates them all. When his brother Michael "died", though it didn't stick, he released the Dunamis Demiurgos a power which can destroy all creation, the absolute power of God. Lucifer tanked it. He also persisted in Michael's power on another instance.


The Absolute is the idea of that which transcends all other things, a value so great that everything is zero in comparison. This idea is made very consistently in DC, in particular to God, and especially in Lucifer. God is explicitly the absolute reference point, the distance to God is always zero. Lucifer states regarding his father's name that if you divide infinity, it doesn't get any smaller. All creations, equal out to zero in the void, and 1 and 1 don't become 2 if they never meet.

Because Lucifer's being is part of the Absolute, all forms of being including all concepts and stories equal out to zero, explicitly including concepts like infinity. Every conceptual embodiment including embodiments of power, destruction and death are meaningless to Lucifer with even Death of the Endless not disagreeing that she has no hold on him. He has also called dying impossible and tanked the seven layers of death from the Silk Man. At the edge of the void form and meaning themselves give way, yet Lucifer predates all. This means to truly interact with Lucifer's essence would require abilities that themselves transcend all concepts. As befitting his absolute nature, Lucifer can grab literally the void itself, the paper DC Comics is written on. 

Absolute Willpower:

These absolute abilities make all other abilities nothing in comparison. Lucifer has stated that in a battle involving against Gyges and Garamas after they had taken the powers of the Presence, only Michael would have been able to help and every other angel in the Host would just be targets. In that fight, Lucifer maintained himself declaring even against them that his will was his own, once again showing his will as absolute even as his power are stated to be useless against them. Likewise in Lucifer Volume 2, the Presence undergoes metamorphosis into a Dark Presence, ridding all other entities near him of their free will, turning them into mindless automatons....save for Lucifer.



Infinite Metaconceptual Power:
Lucifer is one of the most powerful entities in DC Comics. It's not entirely clear for a few statements when they're referring to Lucifer's power in terms of specifically energy or destructive capacity vs when they mean overall capability, the same way strongest can sometimes mean either greatest in ability vs character with highest physical might. I could just include Lucifer's best feat here, but for the fun of it I'm going to list some of Lucifer's feats and statements of power roughly in order of impressiveness. 


Reality-Warping:
Twice Lucifer took the absolute power of God, Michel and used it to form a creation in the Overvoid. The first time was literally the purpose of his creation to give shape to existence. Lucifer and Michael were God's first big ideas that caused the Big Bang. Not the encore, the big bang at the start of universe, the first one that started everything. Michael and Lucifer were God's intermediaries Michael providing the power, Lucifer shaping it with his will. 

The second time is when Michael released his power in the Overvoid, which Lucifer shaped into his new creation. Lucifer formed this cosmos. This creation is not a realm, it's a totality, a multiverse. The phrasing suggests Lucifer's creation is equivalent in size to the Presence's. The metaphysical realms might not exist, though this is because of Lucifer's choice. He strongly implies he could allow his creation to have a Heaven or Hell and that Destiny of the Endless is a result of his father's deterministic view of creation, and seems to indicate Lucifer could have if wanted included things as immense as the Endless in his creation if he chose. Notably the one time one was seen in his creation, Death, was when he was unconscious. This is consistent with how Lucifer is God's will given specificity and definition, and God's will decides every variable and law. Because of this, Lucifer should be able to replicate the abilities of everyone in DC Comics within Creation.


Rule Imposition:

God's Name:

Absolute Speed:
Lucifer Morningstar as necessary for an entity born in the void transcending space, time, and concepts, can move not just fast but beyond definitions of fast. Like with power, I could just give his most impressive feat, but I felt it'd be more fun to give his feats in general.


Duplication, Infinite Metaconceptual Spacetime Manipulation, and Absolute BFR:
Lucifer naturally exists outside space, time and infinity, as these things are just extensions of the mind, of the will. Possibly because of this, Lucifer has a particular tendency to use spacetime manipulation. Due explicitly to this, Lucifer claims to be his own army, a million times more numerous than the Lilim, able to protect his own infinite sized creation. The Lilim by contrast, are a million warriors. This suggests Lucifer could duplicate himself into over 1 trillion, 1 million million, duplicates. Moreover, since in the void Lucifer seems to be duplicated into infinite possible variations and the point of the above scan is that the concept of infinity is meaningless to Lucifer as quantification like that is a local, non-absolute phenomena.

In terms of spatial manipulation. Lucifer can summon most things to him including portals and was able to take a portal and divide it, placing one in every world and every realm across the entire DC creation. He was also able to BFR a section of Hell to the Overvoid, beyond everything, a form of Absolute BFR that would hypothetically require absolute movement to return from. 




Morningstar Powers:
The powers Lucifer was named for were his Morningstar powers, light and fire manipulation that seem to be stronger than most of his powers. He was given the role to fill the sky with stars and this extends past the literal and into the metaphorical. He can control the fire and light of all the stars to burn down even the Silver City and was stated to be able to create an endless fire with a gesture. He can also breath fire as he did to casually destroy the snake dripping venom in Loki's face. When Lucifer fell into the void, his will turn to flame in rage in the void, filling the entire empty realm of Hell scaring all the other demons. Because fire is his element, it will not hurt him. People consistently try and use fire against him, and it does nothing. Not even the fire of the voiceless gods could hurt him.

Lucifer's fire clearly hits beyond the physical. Not only did it scare all the conceptual demons, but in Volume 2 Lucifer's fire destroyed a golem army "beyond life and death." and his hellfire destroys the soul, threatening to kill the Hunted God, negating the Hunted God's resurrection ability. The Hunted God is a god born to die to the Hunt somewhere in the multiverse to take the burden of the multiverse's violence upon it and is supposed to resurrect after every death but Lucifer's hellfire burned it past this resurrection. When Lucifer entered the realm of Hades, where the light representing hope and ambition are dulled in even the eyes of heroes, he threatened to restore that light to them reigniting the fire in their blood. He was also able to manipulate the fire of H'ronmeer, the Martian deity.

Darkness/Music Manipulation:
This is potentially a much bigger deal as it might seem as music and vibrations in DC are a massive deal as all things are vibrations on superstrings. Pied Piper was able to use music to channel the Anti-Life Equation and destroy Apokalips and famously in Final Crisis Superman was able to counteract Darkseid by singing at a counter-frequency to Darkseid's strings.


Absolute Stealth:
Lucifer is able to hide things even from the omniscient eye of God. The "eye of God", Raguel is actually one of the archangels, Lucifer's brother, just as Lucifer is the will of God and Lucifer was able to hide an island from Raguel's vision and hearing.

Possible Air Manipulation:

Biological Manipulation/Plague Manipulation:

Like the Angel of Death, Lucifer can bring about a plague, but Lucifer is far older and crueler than the Angel of Death. There was an angel, Meleos. who was an artist who wished to capture the entirety of everything in his art. He copies everything humans ever wrote or did, and tried to even write down everything he thought. He even looked into the book of destiny to copy it down. He regarded his books, his art, as his though they were his children and due to Angel's lack of reproductive capabilities they were in a sense. For disobeying him, Lucifer's plague did not just strike one book like the Angel of Death's would, it destroyed all of Meleos' books, all his children, destroying them entirely. Lucifer's plague seems to kill what the afflicted cares about most.



Soul Manipulation:



Mind Manipulation:



Spirit Manipulation:

Corruption:
It is stated that Lucifer's presence causes milk to curdle and holy water to boil. In Volume 2, Lucifer's presence causes various evil events, though this might contradict Lucifer's statement in Volume 1 he never made anyone evil or do wrong and he's not responsible for the evil men do.

Limited Resurrection:



Size Manipulation:

Power Granting/Stealing:


Cosmic Awareness:




Other Aspects:
When Lucifer visited the Hindu Pantheon, he entered a portion of reality where relations between entities are more fluid and transient as opposed to the more rigid relations of the Judeo-Christian hierarchy. This leads to the above scene, which shows various "avatars" of Lucifer causing confusion as two of the entities shown here are specifically differentiated from Lucifer. Lucifer is a entity transcending duality meaning he in a sense a distinct but also in another sense every other entity and the point that is being made in this scene is that all these entities are various ideas of what the adversary of God is and as such are ideas that are conceptually close and in the fluid reality of the Hindu Pantheon could be viewed as both distinct but also unified. A way to think of it is that you have five fingers and a palm which are individual body parts, but they are also part of a collected unit called the "hand."

This means hypothetically Lucifer should be able to draw upon these aspects abilities by going to the Hindu Pantheon's domain, or just by making reality more fluid. The entities seen here are two more stereotypically Devilish versions of Lucifer, Samael the angel before Lucifer fell, the snake in the Garden of Eden, and the Great Evil Beast, the most notable of these, an entity generally regarded as even more powerful than Lucifer and the shadow to God's light. I think it would also make a lot of sense and explain a lot if the New 52 Lucifer was one of Lucifer Morningstar's aspects, though this is yet to be confirmed. So I'll briefly go over the four entities abilities that are mentioned here.


Aspect-Samael:
Samael, the bringer of light, was Lucifer's original angelic form being falling. As Lucifer maintained his lightbringer powers, I mostly have included his feats as Samael in his Lucifer sections, though Samael's only briefly seen and his personal feats aren't things Lucifer couldn't replicate it. It's strongly implied Samael however at his peak was an even greater servant of the Presence than Michael was.

By scaling as an angel, Samael should be able to project a blinding holy light and should lack Lucifer's weakness to holy. 


Potential Aspect-The Snake, Neron:
Neron is the Prince of Lies, the Howling One, the number of the Beast, the sign of the Antichrist. Neron strongly implies he was the snake from the garden of Eden stating his influence was known from humanity's first fall from grace, which is shown as one of Lucifer's other selves so in somewhere like Naraka, Lucifer should be able to access Neron's powers. Neron has displayed many abilities, some of the strongest options it presents Lucifer including

Absorption: Neron demonstrated the ability to absorb souls as well as attacks.
Passive Madness Inducement: Neron's presence causes madness
Illusion Creation/Reality Manipulation: Neron is especially noted for his illusory powers which can turn into reality or back at will or make them selectively real to specific people.



Potential Aspect-The Snake, First of the Fallen:
The First of the Fallen is differentiated from Lucifer, stated to be "The Adversary, The Serpent in the Garden. Old Nick. Satan. The Devil." It's not clear which one was truly the serpent. Neron could be lying, or his statement could be taken as meaning he caused the events of the serpent deceiving humanity, not being the serpent itself. It's possible the statement made the First of the Fallen was the serpent was simply wrong. Or it's possible that the serpent is a role they both shared in some possibly non-dual way. The First of the Fallen also demonstrates numerous abilities Lucifer could hypothetically use including among the most potent:

Sealing: Can seal the second and third of the fallen, the third being literal nothingness.
Astral Sleep Manipulation: Can stir a soul from torpor and induce nightmares.



Aspect-The Great Darkness:
By far, the most notable entity Lucifer could hypothetically draw from were he in a realm like Naraka, a being he is conceptually closer to, is the Great Evil Beast, who is the primary over-arching antagonist of the entire DC Cosmology. It goes by many names; The Great Darkness, the Abyss, The Shadowlands, The Dark World, the Otherplace. Scaling the Great Darkness would have to be a separate blog as it is a being more powerful and versatile then Lucifer in his entirety. It is the absolute darkness that is the displaced shadow caused by the Presence's light and that every single crisis villain in all of DC is its puppet. Lucifer drawing from the Great Darkness would essentially be summoning a being even stronger then he is to fight for him. 

Aspect-Atse'Hashke:
Lucifer is also referred to as Atse'Hashke, The Coyote from Navajo Legend. It's unknown what abilities this would confer, but it's hypothetically another aspect he could access.


Other Abilities via Scaling:
As the will of the Supreme Entity in DC Comics, a will that determines every law and variable, Lucifer scales to a large number of abilities, almost every ability in the verse. For that reason, I'm going to go into the powers of the DC Creation and other creations whose abilities Lucifer should be able to replicate with his will:



Infinite Metaconceptual Frequency/Vibration/Music Manipulation:
It's a relatively common statement that the entire DC multiverse to the edge of creation is a song composed of the infinitesimal strings comprising things existing. Various entities know how to manipulate these such as Barbatos the cosmic dragon of the Dark Multiverse playing Anti-Music that threatened the multiverse which was threatening to destroy even the Dreaming, and every single story. In an alternate timeline where Barbatos won and turned everything to the dark multiverse, the hero Duke Thomas managed to use the parall-axe a guitar-axe combination forged from the last power rings which was used as a multiversal frequency disruptor, a musical manipulator on the level of Barbatos anti-music. This was used to defeat a perfected Barbatos and make Duke the hero of the dark multiverse. This is along with prior feats like the above Superman counteracting Darkseid's godhead with song. 


Infinite, potentially Metaconceptual Matter-Energy, Chi and Quantum Manipulation:

Quantum abilities may extend far higher with proficiency, as the Quantum Mechanics, a race of cosmic beings were able to take over the homeworld of the 5D Imps 

Infinite Entropy Manipulation:



Infinite Metaconceptual Blood and Imagination Manipulation, Healing and Existence Erasure:
The universes of DC Comics are like germs in a massive bloodstream, an infinite pool of blood called by the people in the multiverse "The Bleed" representing the lifeblood of the stories. The Monitors, the overseers of creation from the fifth dimension realm Nil refer to the substance as "Ultramenstruum" and it can grant them the powers of healing and annihilation manipulating and feeding off the Bleed like a race of celestial vampires. It is referred to as the substance of life itself and it's been described by Mr. Mxyzptlk that the lifeblood of the multiverse is actually imagination itself, something implied at least since Final Crisis with the vampiric monitors representing parasitic writers and editors draining the creativity and life out of the stories of the DC Multiverse.



Infinite Conceptual and Possibility Manipulation:
When creation was new, the light of possibility was manifested by the thoughts and dreams of all beings into the realms of the Godsphere, realms of pure potential, realer-than-real, a platonic archetypal world of living ideas shaped belief and narrative. The Lords of Order turned themselves from magicians in the living universes to divine entities of the Sphere of the Gods through the power of belief. Hypothetically, via the power or just manipulating the concepts within already, any concept or possibility could be manipulated.

Power-Amping:
Gods can channel the power of the Godwave and grant this power onto others. While the full power of the Godwave is the "power of the Presence" (Dunamis Demiurgos, the absolute power) they are only channeling it and other gods like Cronos go insane and disappear from trying to grasp its full extent. This does allow them however to amp their power up to the extent they can withstand, though in-character Lucifer would probably never channel his father's power.


Infinite Metaconceptual Order and Chaos Manipulation:

Infinite Metaconceptual Perception Manipulation:

Possibly Absolute Half-Power Stealing:


Infinite Metaconceptual Necessity Manipulation:
Ananke is the Goddess symbolizing Necessity and is the mother of the Three Fates, seemingly leading and scaling above them. The Three Fates have reached the domain of Destiny of the Endless, and implied even it is under their control along with all created things.

Balance Manipulation:

Possibly Absolute Diffusion:
In the same "Death of the New Gods" line as mentioned above, the Gods Zeus, Jove, and Odin split the Source into the Life Equation and the Anti-Life Equation.

Infinite Metaconceptual Darkness Manipulation and Corruption:



Infinite Plot/Metafictional Manipulation:
Several groups in DC Comics including the 5D Imps and the Monitors have demonstrated the ability to manipulate the stories and medium they're in, often associated with an awareness of the metafictional nature of reality. Bat-Mite and Mxyzptlk have shown the ability to rewrite the comic with ease and during the fight between Cosmic Armor Superman and Mandrakk, Mandrakk created a hyper-story trying to kill Superman.

Toonforce and plot manipulation are really strong powers in DC Comics. When DC continuity was gone and there was just void leaving just Harley Quinn she drew a reassuring comic of her mom which allowed for the restoration of the DC Comics continuity, as the continuity existed in a single comic. My interpretation is that the DC Metafictional canonicity has a regen factor  that allows it to wholly regenerate so long as a single comic issue exists as I don't think Harley is an infinite metafictional multiversal manipulator. 

Infinite Metaconceptual Probability Manipulation:
The dimension conqueror A came to conquer the fifth dimension with the Imps being powerless to stop him. It was completely immune to Mxy's powers, and even highly diminished it was stronger than Mxy. Its power was dependent on winning and losing games and it would only leave them alone if they could beat it in a game. However it has a limitation in regards to inverted things; Mxy enlisted the help of Bizarro, and as everything is opposite with Bizarro, A trying to make him lose the game, made him win the game.  

Infinite Metaconceptual Dark Matter, Antimatter, and Potentially Matter Manipulation:

Antimatter in DC nullifies all things from the positive universes, including magic and energy. While matter and antimatter annihilate each other completely, Dark Matter doesn't interact with either. 


Infinite Metaconceptual Sealing:
At the border of Creation is the Source Wall, the final barrier, the limit to even thought. Any who tries to cross the Source Wall become sealed forever as part of it including even Perpetua to the extent that the Cosmic Raptor created the Source Wall specifically to seal Perpetua. Perpetua is the mother of the DC Creation, holding its entirety in her hands.


The Endless-Primal Truths Manipulation:
The Endless are the primal truths governing every aspect of reality, necessary concepts, wave functions, repeating motifs, echoes of the primordial darkness. They are some of the most powerful beings in DC Comics, but Lucifer should be able to replicate their abilities as they consistently are inferior to Lucifer and his will determines all laws and variables potencies. The Endless don't just control their own idea, but its opposite, as in reality to manipulate one is to manipulate the other, defining each other. It's implied that the Endless as necessary ideas extend past even Perpetua's creation and into every other one. Death naturally appeared in Lucifer's creation and Dream was there when all was void before creations were made. Destiny is repeatedly stated to contain everything in his book, and the Endless are the seven children of Father Time and Mother Night whose interplay makes all versions of creation possible.

Infinite Metaconceptual Madness, Clarity, Color Manipulation and Rule-Suspension: 
Delirium of the Endless is the representation of breaks from reality. Delirum's power is strong enough that she could trap her brother Dream in her realm of madness and drive him insane. Delirium's madness manipulation allows her to know and do impossible things as the DC Cosmology is, in part, governed by perception. Delirum has on numerous instances been stated to know and remember things even Destiny doesn't know, was able to walk outside God's plan, is noted as the only one outside Destiny to visit Mother Night as she sometimes accidentally wanders into Night's domain when Dream needed special permission to go there. She does things like lose time or treat gravity as a suggestion. She's also associated with color as even her speech balloons are rainbow colored and it's implied that when her brother died her sadness made the sky turn all rainbow-colored.

Infinite Metaconceptual Despair and Hope Manipulation: 

Infinite Metaconceptual Desire and Hatred Manipulation: 

Infinite Metaconceptual Destruction and Creation: 
Destruction of the Endless is the representation of destruction. Little is known about him for he abandoned his domain to continue in chaos, though his opposite is known to be creation.

Infinite Metaconceptual Dream, Reality, Perception, Divinity, Stories, and Non-Existence Manipulation: 
Dream of the Endless is the representation of the dreaming, a realm comprised of all that never was; viewpoints, images, memories, puns, lost hopes. Dream defines reality, and famously 1000 people dreaming together change reality since the beginning of time, something Dream has manipulated before. He governs perceptions and stories taking away a group of serial killers perceptions that they are somehow justified. The Dreaming is the realm in which all gods are born and go to die. It is stated that Allah (God) granted Dream dominion over all things that are not, and were not, and will never be.

Infinite Metaconceptual Death and Life Manipulation: 

Infinite Metaconceptual Destiny, Freedom, and Existence Manipulation: 



Infinite Metaconceptual Boundary and Rule Manipulation: 

Infinite Metaconceptual Milk and Sanitization Manipulation:

Infinite Metaconceptual Art Manipulation:

Potentially Infinite Metaconceptual Math Manipulation:
Max Faraday uses "The Creation Equation" which can collapse the "omniverse." This was introduced well before the stuff with Perpetua and the "greater omniverse" term was first used though retroactively if they are referring to same thing this would be the greatest feat to my knowledge of math manipulation in DC Comics.



Hypertime Manipulation:
DC has infinite dimensions of space but three dimensions of time. The first dimension of time is the timeline encompassing the events of a spacetime continuum. Every event in a timeline generates infinite new timelines in the metaverse. The second temporal dimension containing all timelines and the multiverse is the timestream, the field of all time, where all timelines can be accessed next to each, literally plane time. Beyond both of those and encompassing all of DC Comics by necessity is the third dimension of time, hypertime. Hypertime, literally cube time, is DC Comics' history as a company in the real world as viewed from below. When Skeletor from the DC Comics He-Man run saw into hypertime, he saw every real life continuity version of himself.

While a rare and potent ability, some DC characters have shown the ability to manipulate hypertime including Brainiac One Million bottling fragments of hypertime after Brainiac advanced with the technology of Perpetua and the Aztec God Tezcatlipoca learning the secrets of manipulating hypertime.



Infinite Metaconceptual, Possibly Absolute Energy Manipulation:
The Source gives to its hands the seven Connective Energies, energies of justice that link us to each other and to our generational story, reminding us that we are part of one epic generational story. However Perpetua used the seven opposite pole Energies, the Crisis Energies, powers that disrupt based on selfishness, greed, and predation, to focus the universe around oneself. These Connective Energies are called the seven major chords of creation and so at least scale to creation. It's not clear whether they are all equal but several of them have individual feats suggesting they might scale to the absolute, and given they are tools given by the Source itself, this wouldn't be inconsistent.

Infinite Metaconceptual, Possibly Absolute Motion Manipulation: 

Infinite Metaconceptual, Possibly Absolute Emotional, Electromagnetic, Life, and Light Manipulation:

Infinite Metaconceptual, Possibly Absolute Magic, Belief, Divinity, Silence, Anti-Magic, and Anti-Divinity Manipulation: 

Infinite Metaconceptual, Possibly Absolute Lifeforce, Soul, and Isolation Manipulation: 

Infinite Metaconceptual, Possibly Absolute Psychic Power, Wisdom and Knowledge: 
The Collective Unconscious is a Collective Energy that grants wisdom and knowledge as used by telepaths and great minds. Its opposite Crisis Energy is the Black Apple, representing forbidden knowledge, seemingly connected to the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The Collective Unconscious can control reality via psychic power and is implied to be the source of the Dreaming's potency, with an authorial statement suggesting that it was this that the Presence referred to when he said he himself was shaped by external forces. 

Infinite Metaconceptual, Possibly Absolute Dimensional and Possibility Manipulation:

Infinite Metaconceptual, Possibly Absolute Faith Manipulation: 
The secret weapon of the seven connective energies is the Energy of Faithfulness, the optimism that all goodness is rooted in. It has not truly be seen yet what it can do. Its opposite is faithlessness, the belief in fatalistic doom.


The Elemental Parliaments-Absolute Elemental and Biological Manipulation as well as Absolute Fusion:
Reality is filled with tiny elemental and biological elements; tiny drops of water, small flowers, gentle breezes. These are a part of one of the shallowest layers of something called the Elemental Realms, with each layer growing more profound, extending into the metaphysical realms mentioned before, with their absolute extent extending even into the Absolute. Manipulation of these elemental realms can allow for the attainment of enlightenment and oneness with the unbroken oneness, God, the Overvoid, the Source, The Presence, an event that has happened twice before. After Animal Man attained oneness with the Red, he came to enlightenment, realizing everything is part of a whole, becoming the whole in its entirety; the body of God, and the soul of the world. Similarly, Swamp Thing after merging with the Elemental Realms temporarily re-attained the unbroken one-ness before all things, becoming one with all things, the absolute. This is a reference to the Neo-Platonic basis DC Comics cosmology is vested on, that before everything was the perfected Oneness, emanating down into lesser and lesser shadow realities and that through contemplation and meditation one can re-ascend even to the point of losing one's self participating in that final absolute sweep of existence. 

The Elemental Realms include:


Intelligence:
More then any skill save his willpower, Lucifer is famed for his trickery and deception. Lucifer is ridiculously intelligent, to the point that it's difficult to compare to almost anything. For comparison point, the Brainiac line is considered the smartest line in all of creation with consistent feats of not just Type 5 intelligence but often dramatically above such as Post-Crisis Brainiac being 1,000 times smarter than Superman who could recreate the Type 5 technology the Miracle Machine from memory. These are all tiny extensions of God Brainiac's awareness who absorbed all information in all the infinite timelines, (the time plain in other words) to the point of no longer being able to handle such knowledge. Lucifer while in the void looks at a 20 billion year old creation older than the DC Creation and presumably including similar metaphysical realms, absorbing all of its information in the blink of an eye with zero change. Most Type 5 intellects in fiction are closer to normal humans in intelligence than they are to Lucifer. He is, I think, probably the smartest character in fiction that's not meant to be an "omniscient" type character. Lucifer knows secrets of the universe that have never passed any lips and actually managed to escape the Presence's plan.

Lucifer is most feared for his trickery and manipulation. His manipulation is so good it's hard to tell where his manipulation ends and actual mind control begins. He corrupted thousands with a single breath. He was able to intuit Sandolphan's plan just from seeing Elaine and was able to read the stone features of the Goddess Izanami, outwitting her. It'd be impossible to list all or even most of Lucifer's feats as he usually just manipulates everyone he comes across, consistently doing things like getting people to kill themselves or surrender even when they had the advantage. He sometimes lets people think they tricked him, only to reveal it was part of his trick and regularly lets the other demons think they control Hell or play their political games for his amusement. His deal deceived seven of the eight lords of the fairies and manipulated events to make it so that every other Underworld would declare war on Heaven if Lucifer didn't get what he wanted.

Lucifer is also highly self-aware of his own faults, though he doesn't seem to view them as faults and is very skilled. He was able to defeat the Shinto God Kagatsuchi in a melee. Kagatsuchi was poisoned at the time, but Lucifer was literally without any powers in the Shinto domain, and yet still defeated a god. Given that he's absorbed the information from entire creations, and is the cause of gods/concepts of warfare and marital skill in the Sphere of the Gods like Ares, he may be even more skilled.



Weaknesses:
Despite how powerful he is, Lucifer does have some pretty clear weaknesses. He does not have the absolute power of Michael. This means he can't create something from nothing and that while he is one of the most powerful entities in DC Comics, his power is not absolute. He can and has been overpowered, most famously by his brother Michael in the War in Heaven, and de-powered. Most often, seemingly due to his association with Hell, Lucifer is consistently depowered by holy or divine powers. Etrigan as a baby was able to harm Lucifer by shooting him with fire in a cross shape and in the realm of the Shinto Kami, Lucifer was completely powerless and mortal. He should hypothetically have the other demon weaknesses such as silver or mystical cold, though those don't seem to be nearly as extreme and to threaten Lucifer with those, one would need to be relatively close to him regardless. Lucifer also has a specific limitation in regards to destiny or fate manipulation. The Basanos, a flawed imitation of Destiny of the Endless' power were a threat to Lucifer. This is a part of Lucifer's overarching narrative. As a being with absolute willpower but not absolute power, his power to his perception amounts to zero, and he is trapped to the plan of the Presence. After escaping the Void at the end of Volume 1, it seemed initially that he had escaped this weakness, but in Volume 3, he is is once again enemy of fate. Even at the end of Volume 1, The Presence compares Lucifer and himself to Sun Wukong and Buddha

Lucifer also has several psychological weaknesses. As befitting a Devil figure, Lucifer is extremely arrogant. He never lies, not from a virtue but as a matter of his pride. His not lying is one of his most famous features; he never lies, he tells the exact truth. It's too easy, too much of a coward's tool. Lucifer was the highest and most beloved of all the angels, but he refuses even that position due to his supreme arrogance and regularly refuses assistance or comradery, demanding that he stand alone from all others. As he put it; he has no party. Lucifer's arrogance and his specific weakness once coalesced in the sole time that Lucifer has lost a gamble.




Personality:
It's easy to think of Lucifer as pure evil. He has been at times the lord of Hell, he's an arrogant narcissistic sociopath who uses and exploits others constantly to achieve his goals without empathy. But he's not. It's also easy to romanticize Lucifer as more noble and greater then he is, a being fighting the ultimate battle for free will, trying to escape the bonds he was born under. That's certainly what he'd have you believe of him. But he is not this either.

Lucifer is the Will Incarnate, Will without limits. There are plenty of symbolic archetypes of pride in fiction, but most are thin-skinned, delusional or masking insecurities. Lucifer isn't. Lucifer is perfectly composed and elegant. Lucifer knows exactly what he is and has a perfect conception of reality. Every other issue is Lucifer revealing how he deceived others towards his aims. He is a representation of pride in its purest sense, of the Will's refusal to accept boundaries and limitations.

Lucifer is all at once an admirable, tragic, noble and despicable entity, and it all stems from the single core of his personality; an unabashed unashamed drive towards the pursuit of his end, to let no one ever tell him what to do or what he can do. He has defanged many threats to creation, exploited and misused innocent people, and become the distant lord of his own multiverse in the pursuit of that aim, and still never found his aim. His first comic series ends with perhaps his most iconic moment, rejecting God himself offering to become as one, asserting his independence as more important then everything else in the world, before flying into the Void, into Oblivion. As his absolute will meets the absolute emptiness, it becomes hard to tell if the absolute isolation his will has led him too is him imposing himself upon the void, mastering it, or disappearing into it. 



Summary:
+Absolute Existence
+Absolute Willpower
+Absolute Movement
+Absolute Stealth
+Absolute BFR
+Can use God's name
+Duplication (Infinite Copies)
+Plague Manipulation
+Size Manipulation
+Resurrection
+Creation-Scale Spirit Manipulation
+Creation-Scale Power (Can easily destroy Creation)
+Creation-Scale Reality-Warping granting the following abilities by scaling
+Balance Manipulation (Unknown Potency)
+Power-Amping (Can hypothetically channel the Godwave)
+Hypertime Manipulation (Metafictional Time Manipulation)
+Infinite, Possibly Creation-Scale Chi, Entropy, Math, Matter, and Quantum Manipulation
+Creation-Scale Antimatter, Art, Blood, Boundary, Chaos, Clarity, Color, Conceptual, Corruption, Creation, Dark Matter, Darkness, Death, Desire, Despair, Destiny, Destruction, Dream, Existence, Freedom, Frequency, Hatred, Healing, Hope, Imagination, Life, Madness, Milk, Music, Necessity, Non-Existence, Order, Perception, Preservation, Plot, Primal Truths, Probability, Reality, Rule, Sanitization, Sealing, Stories, and Vibration Manipulation
+Possibly Absolute Anti-Divinity, Anti-Magic, Belief, Diffusion, Dimensional, Divinity, Electromagnetic, Emotional, Energy, Faith, Isolation, Life, Lifeforce, Light, Magic, Motion, Possibility, Power-Stealing (Half), Psychic, Silence, Soul, and Wisdom Manipulation
+Absolute Elemental (Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Metal), Biological (Animals, Plants, Fungi, Bacteria, Rot), and Fusion Manipulation 
+Cosmic Awareness
+Type 5+ Intelligence
+At least A Tier Skill
+Can possibly draw on the powers of the Great Darkness
-Holy/Divine Powers can render him powerless and mortal. Silver should also weaken him to a lesser degree
-Destiny Manipulation of sufficient power
-Arrogant, narcissistic, refuses to lie or accept any limitation  
-Can't create something out of nothing


Recommended Opponent:


Pre-Retcon Beyonder (Marvel Comics):
In the 1980s, Marvel released a character called the Beyonder that was the ruler of his own multiverse and would be stated to be Marvel other's Supreme Being outside the One Above All. In the 1980s DC released a character called Lucifer Morningstar that would become the ruler of his own multiverse and the rival to their supreme power The Presence. This is perhaps the highest power match-up, that actually has a fanbase and a significant group of people that want it. It's been debated on for a while, and how you scale these two or compare them actually shows a lot about how you scale in general, with different sites and sub-groups within the sites having completely different opinions on how these two would interact. Yet at the same time it's a matchup that's intuitive enough for casuals to understand. Both characters have some of the most immense feats in fiction, yet are also both very clear limited in specific ways. Plus as a bonus Lucifer would hate the Beyonder, and the two would interact humorously.

Next Time:


Big thanks to my friend ThorGundersen1058 for making this excellent trailer!

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4 comments:

  1. ThorGundersen1058August 5, 2022 at 8:57 PM

    What on Heaven, Hell and Earth did I just Read? I think I know how casuals feel rn because I just got completely Schooled on some DC Stuff. I knew that Lucifer was absolutely Bonkers in terms of his VS Information. and Yeah basically everything he has was the Maximum amount of impressive it could be. This guy transcends concepts, has completely insane feats for all his stats and secondary stats, can completely manipulate the Omniverse at the Absolute Metafictional Level, and ability scales to like almost every freaking power in DC, and that is REALLY Saying something. I was ready for a lot of that, and was actually kinda proud of myself for knowing about as much of this stuff ahead of time as I did, but wow did it quickly get to a Point where I didn't even know what was real anymore because Lucifer's powers got so Esoteric and Abstract that its hard to even know what to make of him. The dude has done some incredible things, like obliterate his Dream Self, or threaten some of the most powerful beings in DC while totally De powered, and manipulate millions into thinking dreams are eatable by looking at them funny. He's also done stuff I really wish he Hadn't done like murdering the HuntedGod, but hey, he is a man of his own principles. I was never a big Lucifer Fan before, I never read his comics and wasnt interested in doing so because I didn't think he was that interesting. So I think one of the most impressive things about this blog is how much it made me care about this. What I think I like about Lucifer is how he has a very clear set of principles he follows to the letter, No one tells him what to do, and he won't do that to others either despite his ridiculous capacity to do so because hes also not a hypocrite. I like how we can see this in other aspects of his character. Like how he is an insanely good manipulator so he can get others to do what he wants without telling them to directly, but he also never lies at all so no matter how good at manipulation he is, they can't blame him for being tricked and therefore they can't say he controlled them. Its also good that because of these principles he ends up keeping every promise he made too. I really liked Hearing about his interactions with all these classic God Pantheons from across history and culture, and your insane rundown on all the Haxy BS powers from across DC that rivals my doing so for Cartoon Network in Shirley VS Strike with ease. What I think is most interesting about Lucifer is how he is not some vain sociopathic asshole, or some tragic hero, he's just for all intents and purposes someone who's going through his life, trying to make his own place in reality on his terms. He's unimaginably powerful, and transcendent, he can't relate or be related to the struggles of a mortal man. But despite all of that, he's still extremely ill equipped to escape God's Plan, and yet that alone is not enough to make him quit.

    Overall, I really enjoyed reading this Bio-piece on this iconic badass, I think him verses Beyonder is a REALLY well made matchup, and is definitely one of THE Marvel VS DC matches that Should Happen. But my GOD, you KNOW I am excited for your next fight~

    ReplyDelete
  2. BROmeliadAugust 6, 2022 at 3:32 PM

    Fantastic blog Imp! This is a realm of DC comics that I really don’t have much experience with, so it was cool of you to shine a light on this part of DC befitting the Lightbringer himself. I actually really like this take on a Satan figure based on how you lay Lucifer out. It is interesting to think about how he is literally the “Will of God” given specificity and definition. And everything about how he never lies, and how he is pride personified makes him super interesting. I personally like it more than depicting Lucifer as a Prometheus type figure. Overall, I think you did an excellent job as usual giving a summary of his personality at the end there.

    As far as his versus capabilities, I think it says something that all of these gods, and other cosmic and infinite beings are merely footnotes in his list of feats. And it really just goes to show how complicated DC Comics’ cosmology is. Side note, but it felt like your “Could Ghost Rider take over the DC hell” blog is a nice preparatory blog for this one. I take for granted that DC Comics is super OP, especially in it’s top tiers. But what strikes me about Lucifer Morningstar and adjacent characters is how creatively OP they are at times. Some random feats that stuck out to me in the blog include him creating a soul for a soulless demon, making someone a guardian over hedgehogs, that cruel moment with Meleos, and Lucifer apparently having milk manipulation. I also thought the part where the Hindu pantheon separated him into different aspects was cool, though it is a bit confusing the “prince of lies” is one of his aspects. I am actually intrigued with him fighting the Beyonder now as well.

    So great blog, and I look forward to seeing the battle in the next time :)

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  3. risinguppercutSeptember 15, 2022 at 7:34 PM

    Yooo, it's the man himself! You've often mentioned how extremely powerful this guy is and now I get to see ya back it up with a staggering amount of evidence! Seriously, with how many characters and series you know, saying this guy is one of the strongest of them all is a huge claim and it was great getting to see just how high things can get for a single character! At this level of power, things seem pretty hard to quantify and this was probably one of the harder characters for me to wrap my head around. Thankfully, you did a great job outlining his capabilities and even his limitations, few they may be.

    While this blog was pretty big, my understanding is it could've been way, WAY bigger. Considering this guy is almost at the tippy top of DC and can replicate pretty much any power from the people below him through his various abilities and scaling, this could've been the biggest character analysis anyone ever made and I'd probably still be reading it to this day :P That you were able to scale things down to the point that only the most relevant things for a high level fight were detailed is an awesome feat in and of itself, pat yourself on the back!

    Lucifer really feels like a central character for the DC mythos, even if he's not the center of attention most of the time. Just the way he touches on everything. I guess a more fitting choice of words would be to say he's always in DC's shadows or rather, he IS its shadow. Very cool. I never really knew anything about this character other than he's super strong and this series' version of Satan/Lucifer, but I was pleasantly surprised there was enough differences in his character, origins, and ongoing story to make him feel truly unique and interesting. Great job on his background and personality Imp! These are often some of my favorite sections, as they let me quickly get a grasp on what the character's all about, their importance in the story plus, how well you know them is always readily apparent in your excellent retelling of information taken from all their sources packaged together neatly.

    Just a little note here as I get into talking about abilities. I really like how you explained “absolute” in this blog, how it's something that makes everything else equal to zero in comparison, even infinity. Very, very cool. That “distance to God is always zero” bit is amazing, and also a great way to describe omnipresence or absolute presence. Gosh, so many powers! Absolute will is probably the coolest to me, though the Milk and Sanitization stuff was one of the strangest, most interesting, and scariest abilities. It was sooo cool how walking through the things he has access to was like taking a trip across all the upper echelons of DC and touching on all sorts of things, giving me a larger education on DC as a whole. For example, I knew Swamp Thing has a connection to The Green and could persist as long as it existed, but I didn't realize there was a bunch of other color-named elemental realms too! I'm still kinda in shock that you fit all this in there, awesome job!

    Weaknesses was a bigger section than I expected for someone so strong. Absolute will but not having the absolute power to enforce it absolutely is an interesting conundrum, though he seems pretty freaking strong regardless. And holy, what a surprisingly simple weakness! Normally I'd think someone that OP wouldn't be affected by something that harms so many lesser evils. It seems like one heckuva balancing factor, though considering there's a number of feats here of Lucifer being depowered and still winning, I'd say it doesn't seem to slow him down too much. And yeah, dat pride. One of the coolest prideful characters out there and after reading this blog, I'd say he's one of the best written ones too.

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    Replies
    1. risinguppercutSeptember 15, 2022 at 7:34 PM

      Continued from above:

      I wonder if these weaknesses will come into play if he ever fights the Beyonder! I couldn't think of anyone that'd be an appropriate match for someone as OP as Lucifer, but Beyonder seems so perfect! I heartily approve! And I think it's something even I could grasp at some level and certainly get hyped for! If you ever wanna do it 'cause you dig Lucifer so much, I'd be down for reading that!

      And I'm really looking forward to next time too! Nurse vs nurse, the Halloween hype train is starting...now! Thor's Valentine blog was amazing and no doubt will provide you with tons of great info for this fight. It's Nightmare Nurse that I'm really curious about though, as I've seen her mentioned in a few of your blogs here and there, and her, uh, powers always caught my eye :P

      Thanks for another great blog Imp, you definitely did this misunderstood angel justice!

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