The Forbidden Zones

These zones, known as Formless, Unreality, and Nowhere, are worlds that are highly dangerous to be in, and though they are thankfully extremely difficult to get into, they are also incredibly hard to get out of without help from Doña Sapphira or from a Celestirit or deity. Fortunately, usually it seems anyone who gets in will be let out in the nick of time. These locations seem more ‘alive’ than other worlds in the Nothingness, though they are definitely not Miranim, nor are they their own Stories. Them seem to simply be planes of existence that are both outside of and within the Nothingness at the same time. Each location also houses three immortal beings each, who arrived at the locations through various means.

Formless
This is a place made up of 'nexuses’ of various disjointed places floating in an 'ether’. This ether is semi-solid liquid, seemingly made up of stardust and seawater, somehow. Moving around in this ether can become quickly confusing, especially since you can’t tell what direction you’re going in. Most of the nexuses in the Formless seem to not correlate with any known locations in the Stories, while others seem to be at least vaguely familiar. Home to the Witch of Atrocities, Bob, and Dr. Tr’panat’n.

The Witch of Atrocities
Resembling a gigantic Mari Lwyd with an actual split-mouth horse head instead of a horse skull, spider legs, carrying a honey wand and crab hammer, as well as wearing a witch hat with a poorly-made cardboard crown. She often speaks in verse, and will engage people in what are effectively rap battles. The Witch will admit defeat if the person is skilled enough to impress her, or otherwise if she gets bored and just quits. Anyone who loses against her will be eaten or worse. She sticks to a nexus in the Formless known as the “Cathedral Citadel”. She wanders about in this nexus, not bothering to leave. She also talks to herself in seemingly nonsensical conversations. When successfully beaten in a rap battle, she will grant the winner one wish. Most people will use the wish to go home, the known exception so far seems to be Bob. When asked about who or what she is, the Witch gives several different backstories, including but not limited to:


 * She was a horrible monstrosity resulting from an illegal magic experiment, and a group of priests managed to banish her (along with their former city) into the Formless.
 * She was once a human witch who ate other witches to absorb their magical powers, until she got to her current appearance. Practicing forbidden magic with her new power caused her to vanish into the Formless.
 * She was once a little girl who got lost in the Formless due to a ‘glitch’. Upon spending centuries there, she eventually turned into her current form.
 * She is a 'representative’ of the Formless itself, judging intruders to determine if they are worthy of leaving.
 * She was an old lady who was just trying to knit based off of an old pattern she found, but the pattern turned out to be an ancient and forbidden spell. Once it was completed, she was transformed into her current form, and actually managed to banish herself out of grief and shame.
 * She was an ordinary Welsh woman who somehow got lost on the way to getting a snack from the fridge. Somehow that also turned her into a witch.
 * She was an actual horse who took a very wrong turn at Albuquerque.

Bob
Besides being immortal, this guy seems to be a normal human. He somehow got lost in the Formless, and managed to beat the Witch of Atrocities. For his wish, he wished to be able to enjoy his favorite anime series forever, without needing to worry about bodily functions nor the outside world besides the Internet. Thus, he was made immortal, gave an infinite Internet connection and everlasting-computer, and his own set of nexus rooms in the Formless for him and his collection. He uses the Formless to get merchandise from across the Stories. Once he gets bored with a series, he actually dumps out any merchandise into the Formless, which sometimes drops them back into some Stories.

Bob has no regrets about his decision. He is not really a danger to anyone, besides getting upset if you question his life choices and try to make fun of him. Even then, he has no special powers besides being immortal. Doña Sapphira and Bob send each other postcards, mainly to make sure Bob is doing alright and hasn’t somehow turned evil.

Dr. Tr’panat’n
His name comes from the oldest know type of surgery, trepanation. He is a creature who is obsessed with medical sciences, especially surgery. He says he "fell" into the Formless by accident, and seems to be stuck there, but is otherwise doing fine. However, he is rather fanatical about his medical studies, and he takes any opportunity he can get to experiment on anyone else he manages to come across in the Formless. His species seems to be a combination of a bobbit worm, centipede, and lamprey, with very many eyes and humanoid arms along his body.

Unreality
Best described as “a place that is also not a place”. This location has a very disorienting and dream-like quality to it, with the laws of physics and reality constantly changing at random. Objects and locations will morph before you eyes, and even your body may be shapeshifted into something else in order to adjust for the change in the 'rules'. Only very powerful being will retain their forms here. For weaker beings, they will return to normal once they get out of the Unreality, but they risk being permanently changed if they stay there for too long. Home to The Duke of Insidious Implications, The Perpetual Hive, and The Nephilim Anteater.

The Duke of Insidious Implications
A sharply dress gentleman who exudes a sleazy and sickening aura. He claims that he is the master of the Unreality, though no one is sure how true that is. At the very least, he can use magic and summon demonic entities seemingly made of flesh, bone, and mold. Highly dangerous, he tends to stalk people lost in the Unreality, and attack them once they have their guard down.

The Nephilim Anteater
This creature is neither half-angel nor an anteater, but its title is the closest thing to describing it. It is very gigantic, and has a large snout which houses an even larger tongue. It slurps up anything and everything that sticks to its tongue. Apparently this creature was once part of a Story, but became so hungry and powerful that it managed to eat the entire Story (including all of its Storylines), and then itself, which combined together had somehow made it immortal. Doña Sapphira banished the Nephilim Anteater to the Unreality, and has now put rules in place to destroy any other possible “Story Eaters” as soon as they are determined to be a problem to the stability of any Story. In the Unreality, the Anteater is still hungry and eats anything that manifests near it. It also keeps moving through the Unreality to eat more. Since this location is completely infinite as well as constantly changing, it seems the Anteater won’t be running out of food anymore.

The Perpetual Hive
A genuine hivemind of bug-like creatures, they form a immortal collective mass that has managed to survive in the Unreality. The individual creatures seem to be a mix of various different arthropods. The workers are a cross between ants, bees, and termites. The soldiers are a mix of spiders, wasps, and beetles. The various queens are a mix between caterpillars, roaches, and millipedes. The hive forages for food in the Unreality, seemingly immune to this location's reality-changing effects. They are highly deadly if they manage to swarm their prey, even against very strong beings. The only thing they fear is the Nephilim Anteater.

Nowhere
A place where everywhere seems to exist at the same time. Different settings and buildings from various Story worlds exist here in an ever-shifting mess, and even connections between locations (doors, archways, etc.) seemingly change where they actually lead to at random. Home to the Crow Queen, Araquiel, and ???. Formerly home to Mz. Goldenwool.

The Crow Queen
A dried out and dark grey corpse with empty eye sockets and golden stitches across her shriveled body. She seems to be a highly dangerous reality warper and shapeshifter. She says she got ‘stuck’ in Nowhere one day, but seems very content with staying there due to its chaotic nature. Whether or not she ends up hurting someone lost in Nowhere completely depends on her mood. She is named for the fact that crows and other corvids are her favorite animals, and she often uses them as part of her warping and shifting.

Araquiel
A being with both angelic and demonic qualities: a burning crown bolted to his head, horns out of his forehead which are surround by an infinity-symbol halo near the tips, bleeding eyes, seven wings, an arrowhead tail, deathly pale skin with ashen palms, and golden glittering hair. Araquiel claims to be the first being to ever exist, and tries to insist he’s the Ruler of Everything. This is definitely false since even Sapphira is much older than him. He seems to still be a threat to any normal beings that come across him. He views Nowhere as a prison and is constantly trying to find ways to get out. He wields a burning sword with an eagle emblem, and a sparking staff with a lion emblem. Araquiel is also constantly at odds with the Crow Queen, who loves to mess with him whenever she gets the chance.

Mz. Goldenwool
Her full name is Chrysanthemum Mary Goldenwool, and she often goes by Chrys as a casual nickname. She is a former tenant of Nowhere. She is a minotaur-like humanoid, with an extra mouth on the side of her face. Due to a birthmark she has (not the extra mouth, surprisingly), she was cursed by her whole village with incredibly bad luck and a “misfortune aura” to perpetuate her bad luck onto her surroundings as well. Eventually this got to the point where her unluckiness made her slip into Nowhere. Doña Sapphira was able to not only save Mz. Goldenwool, but also separate her from her misfortune aura. Mz. Goldenwool now happily lives with the Doña as her adopted granddaughter.

???
Also referred to as The Unknown, appears to be a mass of what can be described as “glitches” and screaming/pained faces. Seems to be a manifestation of the ‘misfortune aura’ that Ms. Golden left behind, though it doesn’t appear to be sentient. It simply wanders around Nowhere, spreading unluckiness and misfortune. Avoid this entity at all costs!