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Introductio
Okay so, I want to address a few elephants in the room which have been bothering me for a while, namely some of our current ratings for Twin Peaks. Feels kinda weird to revise a verse which I just introduced to the wiki, but whatever.
The Current Ratings
Originally, I proposed that the higher-tier characters from the series should be placed at "At least High 1-B", while the most powerful entities of the verse would be rated as "1-A". This is due to the fact that The Search for the Zone, an in-universe website dedicated to the cataloguing of a man's research regarding the concept of alternate dimensions and how to travel through them (with the fact that he did manage to access a higher dimension being a plot point in the third season, though we'll get to this in a bit), links to an article of an old website called "The Grant Chronicles" (which is an actual, defunct blog of a conspiracy theorist who used to write about this stuff), that in turn contains an interest statement.
Namely, it states that existence itself is comprised of an infinite amount of Universes, whose nature and relation to each other is actually hierarchical, as opposed to simply being parallel. More specifically, it describes that the Multiverse is comprised of an infinite amount of higher densities, which themselves correspond to higher planes of existence containing greater universal planes that are fundamentally different from our own in both structure and laws of physics, as well the overall way matter and energy behave. Likewise, our Universe pertains to the 3rd density, and an individual can ascend to higher ones by adjusting their own existence along the electromagnetic frequencies and vibrations which underlie all of reality, which in turn form a "Fifth Dimension" that exists apart from Length, Width, Height and Time.
So, based on that, the higher-tiers of the verse would be High 1-B based on the fact that they inhabit extradimensional "Lodges" that lie in a "deeper" state of nonexistence outside of space and time, naturally residing beyond existence as a whole, even in relation to higher layers from which it is seen as a fictional story. Under normal circumstances, that would be fine and dandy, however, people started to get warry over a single thing: The fact that, as I previously mentioned, Grant Chronicles was a real conspiracy website.
Basically, some people started to be unsure if the information in that article was actually meant to be taken seriously in the context of the universe of Twin Peaks, and so the High 1-B and 1-A ratings were left as possible high-ends, and not solid tiers, which were replaced by "safer" low-ends.
I'd like to say that, I think this is absolute myeh and have a few pieces of evidence to back-up why.
Firstly, there is the fact that the information contained in that Grant Chronicles Article is actually referenced in one of the books of the series, specifically The Secret History of Twin Peaks, which was written and published in 2016, and serves as an addendum to the original series, expanding on the events which unfolded in it. The reference happens in a testimony by Major Garland Briggs, a character who himself has had numerous experiences with the spiritual prior to this event. In it, he references this scene from the series, and describes his experiences as he is abducted to some other space by an unknown force.
This fits perfectly with what is stated in the Grant Chronicles, right down to a mention of higher vibrational qualities beyond human comprehension.
Furthermore, as I mentioned previously, The Search for the Zone itself is a repository for the research of a man who canonically had experiences with alternate dimensions before, named William Hastings, and again as I've already said, the fact that he managed to access one is a main plot-point in Season 3. Said dimension is itself implied to be a higher plane of existence by other information present across the series, and was also the place where Major Briggs was hiding for 25 years after supposedly faking his death; So, the fact that the guy managed to access a higher dimension using information from the Grant Chronicles, which is itself supported and directly referenced by statements from the very same guy he found in said higher dimension, definitely reinforces the validity of the article.
Then there is the fact that The Search for the Zone itself also contains several other articles which themselves are direct references to other elements present across the series; One example of such article is this paper by Nikola Tesla, which is a stealth nod to the importance of Electricity as a core element of reality in the universe of Twin Peaks, which I explained in more detail in my blog regarding the series. So, yeah, the stuff linked in it, even if not strictly from Twin Peaks proper, is all in-universe and perfectly usable.
I can also point out that, the information of that article from Grant Chronicles being actually true in the universe of the series is perfectly explainable, considering that the Spirits of the setting are theorized and straight-up show to be the root and inspiration for many, if not all, religions and supernatural experiences ever witnessed by humanity throughout their history. Considering the guy who wrote the article claims to have been granted this knowledge by "God", I wouldn't be suprised if, in the universe of Twin Peaks, he was shown this information by some Spirit of the Lodge.
So, yeah. Bottom line is: Twin Peaks is heavily lowballed as it stands, and should just be straight up High 1-B / 1-A under the current assumptions, in my honest opinion.
By the way, before anyone brings that up: the statement regarding "The Fifth Dimension" in Grant Chronicles doesn't really mean anything to the ratings, as even putting my revisions to the Tiering System aside, it hardly has anything to do with actual spatial dimensions and axes, and is more so just a vibrational frequency which underlies reality.
The New Ratings
So, I've started to believe that the Spirits of the Lodges in general can be 1-A for a while, and I've brought it up in the thread where I introduced the verse to the wiki in the first place, but since that discussion didn't gain any traction, so, I figured I'd bring that up here:
Basically, I originally proposed them to be "At least High 1-B" based on the fact that, while they exist beyond higher realities which perceive the Universe and its context as being nothing but a fictional stories, those realities function very much like normal Universes, and the difference between them is pretty much a matter of perspective, much like in The Dark Tower or Cthulhu Mythos, so due to that I just decided to make them a higher-end of High 1-B and call it a day.
However, I've seen another users point out that, under "relative tiering" that deals with Reality-Fiction Hierarchies with weird perspectives like this one, it is apparently fine to rank higher layers under tiers like 1-A, even if they don't really have the characteristics normally denoted by the tier. I've looked through some other character profiles and found out this is already applied to some extent, such as with The Leviatha. So, even without my Tiering System Revisions formalizing this notion by tweaking 1-A a bit, this sort of scaling is apparently fine.
Furthermore, there are other statements from the books which may help to solidify this rating, namely this one, relating to a character's experiences among an indigenous tribe, which showed him visions of a realm heavily hinted to be some form of the Black Lodge:
So, that's a thing. There are also other statements regarding the Lodges lying in a state of "nonexistence", as well as implications that the Spirits inhabiting them are direct part of said nonexistence, which can all be seen in this sectio of my blog.
There is also a fairly blatant statement regarding the Black Lodge existing fully outside of Time by the aforementioned Major Briggs, who even describes it as standing still as he is taken into a higher vibrational realm once again implied to be it.
So, yea. I propose that, if the High 1-B stuff is accepted as solid, then the Spirits of the Lodges should just be 1-A, as opposed to High 1-B.
one last thing
By the way, when I first made JUDY's profile, I gave it a 9-B key, which is supposed to be for her host, Sarah Palmer, as opposed to the full entity itself. However, after thinking about it for a while, I believe this key is completely superfluous, as most of the feats Sarah does while possessed are when JUDY is acting directly through her, so she would just be 1-A anyways. Best to just remove it.
Okay so, I want to address a few elephants in the room which have been bothering me for a while, namely some of our current ratings for Twin Peaks. Feels kinda weird to revise a verse which I just introduced to the wiki, but whatever.
The Current Ratings
Originally, I proposed that the higher-tier characters from the series should be placed at "At least High 1-B", while the most powerful entities of the verse would be rated as "1-A". This is due to the fact that The Search for the Zone, an in-universe website dedicated to the cataloguing of a man's research regarding the concept of alternate dimensions and how to travel through them (with the fact that he did manage to access a higher dimension being a plot point in the third season, though we'll get to this in a bit), links to an article of an old website called "The Grant Chronicles" (which is an actual, defunct blog of a conspiracy theorist who used to write about this stuff), that in turn contains an interest statement.
Namely, it states that existence itself is comprised of an infinite amount of Universes, whose nature and relation to each other is actually hierarchical, as opposed to simply being parallel. More specifically, it describes that the Multiverse is comprised of an infinite amount of higher densities, which themselves correspond to higher planes of existence containing greater universal planes that are fundamentally different from our own in both structure and laws of physics, as well the overall way matter and energy behave. Likewise, our Universe pertains to the 3rd density, and an individual can ascend to higher ones by adjusting their own existence along the electromagnetic frequencies and vibrations which underlie all of reality, which in turn form a "Fifth Dimension" that exists apart from Length, Width, Height and Time.
So, based on that, the higher-tiers of the verse would be High 1-B based on the fact that they inhabit extradimensional "Lodges" that lie in a "deeper" state of nonexistence outside of space and time, naturally residing beyond existence as a whole, even in relation to higher layers from which it is seen as a fictional story. Under normal circumstances, that would be fine and dandy, however, people started to get warry over a single thing: The fact that, as I previously mentioned, Grant Chronicles was a real conspiracy website.
Basically, some people started to be unsure if the information in that article was actually meant to be taken seriously in the context of the universe of Twin Peaks, and so the High 1-B and 1-A ratings were left as possible high-ends, and not solid tiers, which were replaced by "safer" low-ends.
I'd like to say that, I think this is absolute myeh and have a few pieces of evidence to back-up why.
Firstly, there is the fact that the information contained in that Grant Chronicles Article is actually referenced in one of the books of the series, specifically The Secret History of Twin Peaks, which was written and published in 2016, and serves as an addendum to the original series, expanding on the events which unfolded in it. The reference happens in a testimony by Major Garland Briggs, a character who himself has had numerous experiences with the spiritual prior to this event. In it, he references this scene from the series, and describes his experiences as he is abducted to some other space by an unknown force.
| My memories of the event, to this day, remain a hazy jumble: blinding white light issuing from a suggestion of some object or mass above me, a silent dark-robed figure beckoning. Paralyzed with terror, I seemed to move without volition to some other space. Alone but in the presence of some immense, overwhelming force, as if gravity had increased a thousandfold. A flood of words sliced through my mind, words not my own, nor in any language known to me, a voice metallic, ringing, bitter. This was my knowledge, I sensed through my terror, from some unknown order, of a higher vibrational quality beyond my ability to process, uncanny, perhaps electromagnetic in nature and not in the remotest way human. |
Furthermore, as I mentioned previously, The Search for the Zone itself is a repository for the research of a man who canonically had experiences with alternate dimensions before, named William Hastings, and again as I've already said, the fact that he managed to access one is a main plot-point in Season 3. Said dimension is itself implied to be a higher plane of existence by other information present across the series, and was also the place where Major Briggs was hiding for 25 years after supposedly faking his death; So, the fact that the guy managed to access a higher dimension using information from the Grant Chronicles, which is itself supported and directly referenced by statements from the very same guy he found in said higher dimension, definitely reinforces the validity of the article.
Then there is the fact that The Search for the Zone itself also contains several other articles which themselves are direct references to other elements present across the series; One example of such article is this paper by Nikola Tesla, which is a stealth nod to the importance of Electricity as a core element of reality in the universe of Twin Peaks, which I explained in more detail in my blog regarding the series. So, yeah, the stuff linked in it, even if not strictly from Twin Peaks proper, is all in-universe and perfectly usable.
I can also point out that, the information of that article from Grant Chronicles being actually true in the universe of the series is perfectly explainable, considering that the Spirits of the setting are theorized and straight-up show to be the root and inspiration for many, if not all, religions and supernatural experiences ever witnessed by humanity throughout their history. Considering the guy who wrote the article claims to have been granted this knowledge by "God", I wouldn't be suprised if, in the universe of Twin Peaks, he was shown this information by some Spirit of the Lodge.
So, yeah. Bottom line is: Twin Peaks is heavily lowballed as it stands, and should just be straight up High 1-B / 1-A under the current assumptions, in my honest opinion.
By the way, before anyone brings that up: the statement regarding "The Fifth Dimension" in Grant Chronicles doesn't really mean anything to the ratings, as even putting my revisions to the Tiering System aside, it hardly has anything to do with actual spatial dimensions and axes, and is more so just a vibrational frequency which underlies reality.
The New Ratings
So, I've started to believe that the Spirits of the Lodges in general can be 1-A for a while, and I've brought it up in the thread where I introduced the verse to the wiki in the first place, but since that discussion didn't gain any traction, so, I figured I'd bring that up here:
Basically, I originally proposed them to be "At least High 1-B" based on the fact that, while they exist beyond higher realities which perceive the Universe and its context as being nothing but a fictional stories, those realities function very much like normal Universes, and the difference between them is pretty much a matter of perspective, much like in The Dark Tower or Cthulhu Mythos, so due to that I just decided to make them a higher-end of High 1-B and call it a day.
However, I've seen another users point out that, under "relative tiering" that deals with Reality-Fiction Hierarchies with weird perspectives like this one, it is apparently fine to rank higher layers under tiers like 1-A, even if they don't really have the characteristics normally denoted by the tier. I've looked through some other character profiles and found out this is already applied to some extent, such as with The Leviatha. So, even without my Tiering System Revisions formalizing this notion by tweaking 1-A a bit, this sort of scaling is apparently fine.
Furthermore, there are other statements from the books which may help to solidify this rating, namely this one, relating to a character's experiences among an indigenous tribe, which showed him visions of a realm heavily hinted to be some form of the Black Lodge:
A medicine man in Amazon would take them both at their word, believe the story at face vue and treat it accordingly. Possession. An entity. Why is that any less plausible or relevant than the safe, sanitized, pre-packaged bullshit of an armchair diagnosis made solely from the neck up? What is that but a shield hoisted to protect us from the unholy terror of glimpsing ourselves as we truly are: creatures of unknown origin, trapped in time, pinned to a hostile rock through indifferent and infinite space, clueless, inherently violent and condemned to death? There is more to Laura's story than the facts. More than meets the eye or ear. A third rail lurks here in the shadows that's deadly to the touch. There's only one way to find it. The shamans I've worked with know how to pierce the veil and see beyond the membrane of our poorly perceived and shared "reality." (They'd use the term "illusion.") They've shown me, I've experienced these things with them, I've seen through the veil, and traveled the world in pursuit of that knowledge. Dedicated my life to this search, personally and profesionally. |
There is also a fairly blatant statement regarding the Black Lodge existing fully outside of Time by the aforementioned Major Briggs, who even describes it as standing still as he is taken into a higher vibrational realm once again implied to be it.
But what was it? What was it trying to show me? Whatever I'd been sent into these woods to find had after all this time found me first, roughing me up like a midnight dockside beatdown. Whatever this presence might be, it possessed nothing benign or benevolent in form or content, only a cold, crushing, calculating pressure. Time itself stood still, as if whatever place they'd brought me stood outside it. Throughout the ordeal I clung to one vague hope: If I survived, did this test hold some promise of revelation? I not only feared for my life; I feared the annihilation of my soul. I saw many things I don't remember. I heard other voices I can't recall. All around me colors constantly phased through the spectrum, blue to green, red to violet, black to white. I felt alternately like a ragged empty doll, then nothing but searing pain that rent my flesh with sadistic ease. I saw eyes, watching, felt pressure in my mind, as if thoughts were being forcibly inserted. I'm fairly certain I journeyed back and forth through time, watching it unspool like some immense, omniscient recording. |
one last thing
By the way, when I first made JUDY's profile, I gave it a 9-B key, which is supposed to be for her host, Sarah Palmer, as opposed to the full entity itself. However, after thinking about it for a while, I believe this key is completely superfluous, as most of the feats Sarah does while possessed are when JUDY is acting directly through her, so she would just be 1-A anyways. Best to just remove it.
