- 6,196
- 16,487
To quote my summary of the revisions:With a lesser world, there must be a higher world existing beyond it that’s ”more real”. Additionally, there must be no continuity between them (so like you can‘t get there via Dimensional Travel or something?).
For an illustrative example of this, take this scene from Mike Carey's The Unwritten as a reference point, where the Leviathan is described as "too real" and "too solid" compared to the world below it. Another way to think of it is to picture the following: A character with Nonexistent Physiology, except their nonexistence is depicted as making them intrinsically inferior to things that exist. That's how a character with a R>F Transcendence ought to see things below themselves.
The matter of "continuity" is basically what I said above. The higher realm can't be the sum (Or be expressible as the sum) of things lesser than itself.
That applies largely to the more "normal" types of would-be R>F Transcendence, where the "real world" is depicted as just some place where authors and readers and whatever else live.2) “Realer” character has to be transcendently more powerful than the “lesser real” world.
In those cases, it's important to have something suggesting that they're being treated as something utterly dwarfing the "fiction" world. The Superman Beyond scene I've used as an example is one instance of it being treated as such. In contrast, take this scene, where, although there is fourth-wall breaking, the readers of the comic are clearly treated as just regular humans, and as inferior to the things they're reading about.
Yeah.3) The “lesser real” character can never be able to interact or harm the “realer“ character on their own. If they can, it’s gotta be through a valid outside mean (like an amp from a “realer” character or some kinda artifact?), otherwise, you’re faced with a contradiction.