Umineko Explanation Page

For all Umineko fans, this explanation page details the story at each point. This article is not based on opinion or personal belief, but rather on hundreds of scans evidenced in the series. Therefore this is the overall cosmology of Umineko.

For instance, here's a map for a guide while you're reading.

What is Umineko?

“	Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a murder mystery series set on the island of Rokkenjima, where the wealthy Ushiromiya family finds themselves the targets of a series of mysterious murders. A mysterious figure claiming to be the Golden Witch Beatrice takes credit for them via letters, but Battler, who refuses to accept the existence of witches, is determined to find a human explanation. Umineko is divided into eight main story arcs and is the second story in the overarching When They Cry series, after Higurashi. The visual novel is currently available in English on Steam, GOG, and MangaGamer.	„
	– 07th Expansion Wiki

Umineko's summary and what history shows during the first episodes of the novel. However, the more the story takes place, the more we will find ourselves with a meta-linguistic plot twist. For example, when the first episode ends, all the characters die by the golden witch, and the soul of them all goes to purgatory. But when we get there, we are shown that their own experience was a story created by the Golden Witch Beatrice and that they were just pieces within a chessboard/gameboard created by Beato and played by her in a Higher Dimension.

Cosmology

Higher Layers

Higher narrative dimensions: Umineko is one of the greatest foreshadowing written in humanity, if not the greatest. There is certain information that if you don't have a good memory of the whole novel, you need to have it since the beginning, to organize certain things. One is that each embroidered debate between the characters, and not those that are delusions like Ange talking to Maria because she was reading Maria's diary, are layers of reality or what we call a higher or lower dimension.

According to Ryukishi himself;

“	there’s the Chessboard, then the Meta Room, then the Witches World and it goes up like that. Different worlds are hierarchically piled up. Sometimes the critic may be aimed at the characters in the world below, sometimes at the readers, but he’ll leave it at our imagination to guess when.	„
	– Ryukishi07 Interviews (Epitanime 2012)

Even in moments that should be only a common debate, we can realize that we have situations where the characters discuss from a higher dimension/world about events in a lower one. And hence dimensions are quantifiable and infinitely superior to lower ones. Since objects mostly of a lower dimension that is infinite, they will not be infinite in a higher dimension.

At first glance, this quote from Ange seems to be hyperbole to hit Beatrice talking nonsense of being an Endless Witch. Nevertheless, at the beginning of Episode 5, Ushiromiya Battler as the Detective decides to mess with the Chess Board in the same way Beatrice did as the Game Master in the Chess Board's Multiverse through the past fours episodes. He recreates all the past four episodes to understand the reasonings and why Beatrice killed the white pieces through these games/episodes.

Even though Battler was a human soul who had no extraordinary power like being "a finite, endless, witch or a demon, etc." Just because it exists in the meta-world, it already could affect the entire chess-world, being infinitely superior to the point of being able to recreate past worlds (episodes) just to analyze Beatrice's decisions.

So from that moment on it's not just about being a higher dimension superior to something from a lower one, but it's the point that something that has an infinite volume in a lower dimension is nothing/non-existent for those in the higher dimension.

Caveat #2: Fragments

Fragmentsカケラ in the When They Cry series are prisms representing parallel universes with different possibilities. The Sea of Fragments is filled with an endless number of these and thus represents a multiverse sort. The different decisions taken by the characters, circumstances, environment and various other variables pave way for the story to play out in particular ways in different Fragments (like the Many worlds theory). Fragments play different roles in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Umineko no Naku Koro ni but have fairly consistent uses.

Willard saying that fragments are parallel universes

Willard showing a fragment for Lion, with countless alternative realities where Lion was notraised as the head's heir.

Jessia talking about the infinite fragments within the chessboard

Same scene, but in the manga

Poles of Umineko

Umineko consists of a metaphysical evolutionary journey of being from where all beings are placed somewhere between two poles: The side that creates fate, and the side that follows it.

The first pole: The bottom "side" of these limits is the Human Domain, humans are the ones tossed by Fate, since they're stupid, helpless, and can't create anything worthwhile. However, unlike the world of witches, the Human Domain has a ground to hold on to that will not betray them if they take a wrong step in their journey.

The domain between them: The Witch Domain (魔女たちの領域), or the world of witches is the 2nd domain and is in the middle of these two extremes, different from the world of the Gods and the Human World, the witch world create fate and play around with it, and fun what that freedom, however, they have certain limits and restrictions since the world of witches is made up of only thoughts the beings here are also purely abstract, and if they lose their meaning of being they fall down into the depths of Oblivion.

Indeed, the world of witches is like an infinite ladder, therefore is an infinite layered world, where those layers are called steps of "endeavors" or as we will see in the next sections the famous "fragments" or "territories" that lead to the bottomless depths, and any witch who takes a wrong step here falls into these depths at the bottom of the sea of ​​fragments.

努力というステップを確実に踏みながら、徐々 に全能なる世界への気圧に体を慣らしていくのも 必要かもしれない

私たちの世界は、底無き深遠へ続く無限の梯子 を降りるのに似ているかもしれない。臆病にビクビクと降りてもいいし、どこまで深 みに至れるのか、ワクワクと急いで降りてもい い。

しかし踏み外せば。...底無き奈落への永遠の 墜落。

• 1st scan: A human would need to gradually get used to the pressure of being almighty, making short steps with their endeavors
• 2nd scan:Perhaps, our world is like an endless stepladder going down into the bottomless depths. You can go down fearfully and cowardly, or you could hurry down wondering to see how deep you can go.
• 3rd scanBut if you make a misstep, you will forever fall into the bottomless hell below.

The Last Pole | The Last Domain: While not literally a "boundary" but rather the highest possible domain, it is described as one of Umineko's "extremes", and is the "side" that creates fate are the gods and the creators, they're omniscient and almighty, and they create everything and have no restrictions placed upon them while there is no kind of "ground" to limit their greatness. Unlike beings of the Witch Domain who fall into the Depths of Oblivion for losing the meaning of their very beings, a God or a Creator loses the restrictions of "meaning", and the very concept of life and death disappears for them, and they reach the limit of zero, or you can say that their existence is so great that doesn't even exist.

運命を生み出すのが、神々。そして造物主。全 知で全能で、全てを生み出す。- The ones who create fate are the gods. And the Creator. Omniscient and omnipotent, they create everything.

The Human Domain | The First Boundary

The human domain is the lowest realm in the mystery of Rokkenjima when we are talking about the worlds hierarchically piled up.

Quantum Structures: Schrodinger's Cat Box, often simply referred to as the Cat Box, is a reasoning technique that asserts that multiple truths about an event can exist in parallel when the event itself has not been observed. It is a loose metaphorical application of the real-life quantum physics thought experiment Schrödinger's cat. In Umineko, Schrodinger's cat box is used to describe the state of Rokkenjima from October 4 to 5, 1986. The physics of the original thought experiment has little bearing on its use as a metaphor; what is important is the idea of an unobserved entity with multiple possible states.

In Umineko's reality truths are treated as physical constants, they can be particles, wave functions, and they can be conflicting forms at the same time, and any of them are abstract theories that can only be refuted when you open the catbox, or a very simple way of understanding this is; When the work shows the only and single truth about two or more, or even endless suppositions that conflict.

Truths can even be an entire universe; after all, each episode is a truth created as a tale by the game master in a chessboard, a kakera. Multiple Catboxes exist throughout Umineko, like Beatrice's Catbox, Bernkastel's (that you will see likely at the end of this cosmology).

Netherworld

Netherworld is the world to which the island of Rokkenjima always goes when it is cut off from the human world by Beatrice, this universe is a parallel world to the physical world

Fifth Dimension: Furthermore, we haven't just a "generic" space-time continuum; going further, we have the fifth dimension presented in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

五次元の壁を越えて現在の世界に移り住むようになった。 「リューンの民」の入植状況を見守り、先住民への危害など 違反行為を行う者に対して制裁することを任務とする 「監視者(ジェダ)」のひとり。 高位分子生命体のため、分子結合を操作することで、 肉体を実体・虚体に変換することができる。

She have crossed the walls of the fifth dimension to live in the current world. One of the "guardians (Jedah)" whose mission is to monitor the settlement of the People of Lune and sanction those who commit violations such as harm to indigenous peoples. As a higher-level molecular organism, it can transform into an entity or an imaginary form by manipulating molecular bonds.

Higher Layers of the Gameboard

6-D Layer: This dimension happens through a higher narrative dimension. There are hundreds of examples of this scene, such as Virgilia explaining what the game board was to Battler. Eva-Beatrice questioning why Beatrice was not so bad as in what Ronove told her. Battler after getting annoyed with Beatrice entering the game board, and staying in a higher layer where no one saw him. The narrative saying that Battler's piece could not see Beatrice's piece while she was in a higher dimension.

Magic World

7-D Layer: According to Beatrice the magic world and the human world are two sides of the same coin, and later in history, Erika Furudo says that this layer is a parallel world and compares it to a meta like space. Therefore this is not just a parallel world; it is a meta-narrative space, which means that it is infinitely higher than the previous layer.

The Underside of the Gameboard

8-D Layer: The Underside of the gameboard is a timeless realm of darkness, the realm is also known as the border between the human world and the other. This place is described as a place of endless silence, and there are several other important properties about the existence of this reality; This place is the border and a gap between the human world and the other world, is also an upper world and therefore is a higher world or often a background that serves to store all places and times (universes and layers). However, no place can be reached because it is a place containing only darkness.

The Witch Domain

The Witch Domain (魔女たちの領域), or the World of the Gods, is the 2nd domain in the cosmology. Here is where being creates fate with their own hands. This domain is purely abstract, a metaphorical realm of pure thoughts, where the only limit is the imagination of the beings that resides here. The battles between supernatural witches and detectives are decided by conceptual debates, conceptual combats, and even conceptual reasoning, in other words, in the most metaphysical way. The one who has more thoughts or "reasoning" or thinks more than the others, has power levels according to its ability to think. Strictly speaking, the Witch Domain fits into Plato Aristotelian Universalism.

The tip-top of the Gameboard

Umineko no Naku Koro ni uses the concept of game boards and pieces as a game played between beings on a higher dimension, the Meta-World around the mystery of Rokkenjima. The Human Domain and it's higher layers is like a Gameboard to the higher domains. The White Cells on this Gameboard represent the normal human world, while the Black Cells represent the supernatural aspects of the Human Domain.

Purgatory/Meta-Room

9-D Layer: The Purgatorio, also named the Meta-Room or the Smoking room, is a higher layer inside the Local Sea of Fragments, from where the worlds of the Human Domain appear as a gameboard. This is the primary reality that higher-order beings use when playing their games.

The Cathedral

The cathedral is a realm that is not known precisely where it is, but it is not said to be, and neither is it portrayed as a higher dimension, but just something on the same level as the Smoking Room. It is a place that acts like a courtroom for the Witches and Pieces.

During the fifth game, Lambdadelta was the gamemaster, and she put together all the pieces from the lower plane in the cathedral, making a total of 38 pieces, and the number could even have been higher if she had picked up pieces from the first to fourth games.

10-D Layer:

At the beginning of episode 6, we see a new higher-layer superimposed over the normal layer where his lower self and Beato can be seen in the background. Battler go to a higher layer to scream why the chick younger Beato was not like the original Beato, and in the end, Genji follows him to that higher narrative layer:

The Golden Land

11-D Layer: There is also a dimension connected to the Smoking Room, it is the Golden Land of Maria and Beatrice, which was created in the name of the Mariage Sorcière. The golden land is made up of the crystalization of Maria Ushiromiya and Beatrice's thoughts and feelings and is a universe outside and is universally above the Smoking Room and the Cathedral.

Unlike other worlds and layers, Golden Land was never mentioned to be a layer above to the Smoking Room and the Cathedral, however, it is worth remembering that while Theory Goats were eating the game board and the upper realms of the territory in episode 8, Kinzo said that Golden Land was the only way for them to escape, as it was the most impenetrable realm in the territory. So even though it was not said to be a higher layer, episode 8 portrays the Golden Land as being the last and impenetrable layer of the territory before the Game Master, hence by the nature of Umineko is a higher layer.

Sea of Framengts of Beatrice's Catbox

12-D Layer: This is the first sea of ​​fragments presented in the work in episode 5. It exists inside the Territory, and below the boundaries of the catbox.

1. In the following scene, Lady Bernkastel begins to look at various fragments of parallel worlds (previous episodes) to figure out how to solve the epitaph. Moreover, these episodes (worlds) are regularly treated as a scenario within the board itself as a story created by the Game Master.

The local sea of fragments is described by Battler as a pitch-black universe, with a space cloaked in endless darkness in every direction, and like an infinite space with countless fragments.

This sea has always been portrayed as the background where the worlds within Beatrice's catbox exist. For instance a few instances:

• Episode 5: Bernkastel takes Battler from the Smoking Room to the Sea.

• Episode 8: Theory Goats invade the catbox, mainly dominating the Territory.

• Episode 8: It is shown that Beatrice's catbox is composed only of fragments, and the sea is the background. This agrees with Bernkastel's lines, claiming several times that the Smoking Room was a fragment.

The Game Master’s existence

13-D Layer: As previously said, the level of existence and the level of power of a meta-being in the world of witches is determined by his imagination. At the end of the fifth game, Battler reaches the truth of Beatrice's game and ascends to Game Master, receiving a golden longsword which he uses to spin blue and red truths at will. Battler also obtains the power of Gold Truth, enabling him to guarantee certain aspects that would be impossible to prove prior. Taking on the name Lord BATTLER (バトラ卿 Batora Kyō) and the title of Golden Sorcerer, he is able to create game boards of his own and manipulate the pieces within. Because he was able to reason all the mysteries through Beatrice's game. Truths, thinking, and reasoning as previously said in the world of witches are "raw power", and because Battler knows all the truth, the plane on which he exists is higher than those previously in the hierarchy of worlds.

Bernkastel's Catbox

This is the catbox that was made at the request of Featherine Augustus Aurora at the Witch Tea Party of episode 6 for the 7th game, where Bern should be the gamemaster and show the truth about Beatrice’s witch illusion without any hiding, concealment, or tricks.

Unlike the previous planes, it is a much bigger world than Beatrice's catbox, and it is necessary to sew several kakeras to place certain pieces, like Ushiromiya Lion.

Bern's Chapel

14-D Layer Since this plane takes place in a catbox much larger than Beatrice’s, which covers her entire territory, the chapel is a layer higher than the previous ones. The chapel here was cut from the fragment and locked in a maelstrom of compressed time,

Witches' Theatre

This realm is portrayed as the chapel itself, superimposed on another frequency, not necessarily on an upper layer, but two realities that exist at the same place and level since the scenarios of the chapel and the theater changes while Beatrice is talking the truth about her gameboard, and which serves for Witches of Theatergoing to watch the tales more than once time.

Sea of Fragments of Bern's Catbox

15-D Layer: This sea of ​​fragments is larger than the first, as it serves as the background for the entire Bern's catbox. Leaving the theater of the Witches of Theatergoing, Lion found an incomprehensible world of blackness, and it is a place that looks like a Sea of ​​stars, or perhaps you can call it the bottom of the ocean with stars scattered around it.

Heaven

16-D Layer: Heaven is the home of the Eiserne Jungfrauアイゼルネ・ユングフラウ which is located at the 7th District Repentance Enforcement Agency of the Great Court of Heaven. And the home of the SSVD which the area of jurisdiction is the 8th District. This realm is assumed to be above Bern's catbox because it is described as Willard is assumed to be a higher plane of existence, and he even says that the catbox of episode 7 is a lower plane.

Realms of Lambdadelta's Friends

From those realms onwards, we no longer have a measurable number of layers, because Lambdadelta's friends are in the middle of the infinite ladder of the Sea of ​​fragments, they are in the "middle" of the infinite higher realms.

The City of Books

After countless territories, fragments, or higher worlds, we find ourselves with one of the highest reality of the Witch Domain. The Great Witch of Theatergoing, Drama, and Spectating's Noble City of Carefully Selected Books, also referred to as the City of Books図書の都 or the Library, is a sacred realm under the supervision of the Witch Senate.

There is also a gameboard here that sees all previous realities as pieces.

However, the City of Books is more impressive for containing books showcased being whole universes that dwarfs all lower realms shown thus far.

All of these books are fragments in every possible form, parallel fragments (universes), territorial fragments (territory of witches, nobles, heroes, etc.; Hence higher layered worlds that build the infinite layered world of witches), that are filed in the city only as books. However there are tales that do not turn into books, the best tales have their best protagonists selected by the great Auaurora, and they are transformed into "the cat overloads", which are Featherine's personal guard, and they are from higher gameboards than Beatrice's one.

There is also an extra layer in the City of Books, it is called Spectators Row, and Featherine sent Lambdadelta to that place when Ange unconsciously revived Lambdas.

During the interview of the booklet for episode 8 "Shinsou Kaimei Dokuhon", there is a translation which implies that Aurora's Study is inside the City of books, but it's just a mistranslation since the right one says only that the city is like a castle where Featherine keeps her books.

広大な虚無の海の中に、可能 性や幻想、妄想の数だけかけらが浮いてい て、そのかけらが島や領地と呼ばれている。 『O●E PI●CE』で言うところのグランド ●インみたいな感じですか(笑)。何とも言えない不思議な空気感がありますね。そこに 世界政府ならぬ元老院と呼ばれる組織が存 在する。組織に関しては、謎めいた雰囲気 を楽しんでもらえるだけでいいかなと思いまし た。図書の都は、ネーミングセンスも含めて 気に入っています。本がぶわっと置かれてい るフェザリーヌの悪の居城は、最初の開発 コードネームはベルン城だったんです(笑)。

• Translation: In the vast sea of nothingness, there are as many fragments of possibilities, illusions, and delusions floating around, and these fragments are called islands and territories. It's like the Grand "In" (Grand Line) in "O●E PI●CE"(laughs). There's an indescribably mysterious atmosphere there. There is an organization called the Senate, which is not the world government. As for the organization, I thought it would be better if people could just enjoy the mysterious atmosphere. I like the City of Books, including its naming sense. Featherine's evil Castle, where the books are laid out, was first developed under the code name of Bern Castle (laughs).

There is a difference where the sentences are positioned

1. The wrong interpretation

• Featherine's evil residence, which is located in the City of Books
  • It can be interpreted as "The place where Featherine resides, is within the city of books", which is against the raw.

1. The right one

• Featherine's evil Castle, where the books are laid out
  • which means that it is just a castle where Featherine keeps her books, and not even in subtext is it said that it is where she resides.

Hence, the city of books doesn't encompass Aurora's Study

The Senate

The Senate is the highest reality of the Witch Domain, and this realm provides a sacred barrier that prevents all sorts of non-senate witches from entering the City of Books.

The Depths of Oblivion

The Depths of Oblivion or the Sea of Nothingness, is the endless void at the bottom of the Sea of Fragments and encompasses the Witch Domain, this realm is like the world of Gaap, however, this is the Underside of Featherine's Chessboard in Third Domain. The main difference is that it is the background for the infinite ladder that is the world of witches, and have no concept of life or death.

If you lose your will, emotion, or form, you will go into the depths of the sea.

Featherine at the end of the story uses this realm to bury the Magic Ending | Meta-World Side.

the notion of "time" here is used to refer to the real world, not the Depths of Oblivion within Ikuko and Battler's light novel, for more information see our page about Umineko's epistemology.

The last Pole, the Third Domain

This is the last pole of Umineko, it is the domain where Great Witches lives. And is in a far, far higher plane than the city of books, from the perspective of these Great Witches (Gods and Creators) the tale of beings from the Witch Domain | Meta-World Side are just worth little more than a single book.

Aurora's Study

It is the first step in the world of Gods and Creators and is the world to which Featherine returned after reaching the lofty heights of a creator, in order to not lose her sense of self.

The study, as Erika said about the world of Great Witches, is a higher reality and is outside the entire Witch Domain, from which all tales of the Witch Domain are also merely just fragments in form of books or scripts. And it's totally outside of the witch domain.

Beatrice's Untapped potential

Here is the realm where Beatrice was stepping on the position of a Creator like Featherine was one, according to Bernkastel's letter. There is also Kumasawa saying that this is not the first time Beatrice has stepped there. And therefore the reason why Featherine brought her back, for Chick Beato to see her past "Endeavors"

Beyond Aurora's Study

Beyond that realm is the nature of the Gods and witches who have reached the position of a Creator, they're omniscient and almighty, being completely boundless beings.

Regarding Creator

Many of you may have the conception that the creator is a unique and supreme entity, that he is actually a singular God, and that in truth the witches of origins are only strong enough to become a part of the Creator, and the Creator being one panentheistic entity. The problem with this is that it comes from the premise of attempting to translate scans through the translator tools, assuming that the Witch Hunt or MangaGamer translations are wrong only because tools like google translator, or deepl, showed something that compacts with a singular vision about the following kanjis 造物主

Translation tools can help many times, you can even translate certain texts ​​almost perfectly, however when we are talking about Nihongo, the accuracy rate is very low, and I’m sure you’ve noticed that each translator phrases the translation differently. You may notice that the majority of translations you do with one of these tools, the entire sentence comes out several times without context, different from the refined translation done by the translation group of that media. However, this is not a text to say that these groups are absolute, after all, they make mistakes since the interpretation of Nihongo is based on the context of the art in sync with the text, and sometimes this interpretation does not happen, even with the person knowing as much of Japanese, sometimes some of those people doesn't have the knowledge to understand an abstract scene for example. And we have a big problem around the translation of "Creator" being plural or singular, but here it will be answered;

• The Japanese language lacks plurals in the normal English sense. Plural words are usually either preceded with a number and a counter or simply made understood through context.

Besides that articles as "a," "an," and "the" do not exist in Japanese. In Japanese, the definiteness and plurality of a noun are implicit. That means you can't tell without context if a noun is singular or plural, or if it's definite or indefinite. A single Japanese noun can be translated in five different ways; For further explanation, read this.

This is the main problem when you're losing your head organizing kanjis and their meanings in translation tools are 90% wrong and a waste of time because 90% of times you will have a self-translation that does not translate the context because Nihongo needs context to translate most of the language itself.

Therefore, any translation that tries to put the "creator" as a singular entity is wrong, because other scans almost unused present the creator as a being that can have several in this position, and a state of Witches who can reach this place/plane of being.

航海者より高位の魔女は、造物主と呼ばれる。- Witches of an even higher rank than Voyagers are called creators.

造物主について 造物主は、無の海に１を生み出すことの出来る神聖な存在。０より１をも、無限をも生み出し、瞬きするように０に戻せる。あらゆる制約から解き放たれており、航海者たちは特に、神とさえ呼ぶという。その意味では、原初の魔女マリアは造物主となることを約束された、選ばれし少女なのかもしれない……。航海者たちは、自らの旅路の終は、造物主になることだと恐れている。なぜ、上位の存在に進化することを恐れるのか、当事者以外には理解できない。

Here is the context of the tips. At the end of the witches' tip, as well as the previous tip that talks about voyagers at the end, it is described that the next tip is about high-level witches who are called creators. Translating the tips isolated from the context is the only way to acquire "Creator" in the singular. After all, as we have seen, the plural in Japanese works through the context or if we have a numbering. Therefore translations of Witch Hunter and 7th mod that puts "creators" in the tip is correct, because the previous tip announces the next tip in the plural, not singular.

Going further, "creator" is referred to besides a number to demonstrate that it is a class of being, and not an entity. In Willard's conversation with Maria in episode 7, she uses 1 in front of "creator" to specify the term. And then she says she would become the greatest creator, even if it’s just a possible delusion of her (in the same way that she thinks the Holy Spirit is her father).

「ベアトは私を原始の魔女と呼んだ。そしてやがては、1人で全てを 生み出せる造物主になれるよと言ってくれた。私が1人で、無から有 を創造する! それをベアトが無限に膨らませる! 縁寿はそれを受 け継ぎ、語り広げる魔女の使徒だった!」- "Beato called me a Witch of Origens. And she also said that eventually, I would become a Creator, who can create anything into being all by myself. All by myself, I will create something out of nothing! And Beato will expand it to infinity! Ange was the Witches' apostle, who would spread the word far wide!

「一と無限は大きく違う。だからベアトは偉い。でも、無と有の前に は、一も無限も同じ有でしかない。私は世界で一番の魔女、ううん! 世界で一番偉い、造物主になることを約束されていた子...!」- "There's a huge difference between one and infinity. That's why Beato is so great. But compared to the difference between something and nothing, one and infinity are both just 'something'. I am the greatest witch in the world--No! The Greatest Creator in the world...!

And finally, Beatrice as well as in the tips says that "Creator" is a position of a very powerful witch.

• あるいは そなたが言う ように...: Or as you say...
• ぞうぶつしゅ: Creator Furiganas
• 造物主の座にさえ 上りつめるだろう: You might even rise to the position of a Creator.

Given the context of how "creator" must be translated, we conclude with the famous appearance of Featherine described by Lambda.

フェザリーヌ・アウグストゥス・アウローラ。......伝説の大魔女。魔女の域を極め過ぎて、造物主の域にまで達し、 ......至ってはな らぬ境地に触れ、死の病に没したと伝えられていた

1. Fetherine Augustus Aurora, ......The legendary Great Witch. It is said that she surpassed the limits of a witch, reaching the level of a Creator, ......and that, upon reaching this forbidden plane, she was cursed with a deadly ailment.

The Creator a.k.a The Writer

For the following section, we strongly advise that you read this page, and only if you have already read the entire work of Umineko, because it contains the strongest spoilers of episode 8.

• Translation
• raw

About Featherine being a creator and the strongest characters:

• Question 1: Since Featherine has the ability to make what she writes come true, is it feasible to interpret that the entire story of "Ep 08" was written by Featherine?
  • A: That's one way of thinking about it. She's the closest thing to a god in that world, the author of the world. So there is no doubt that she is the strongest of all the characters. At the same time, it's pretty embarrassing. I'm embarrassed when I put myself in my work and say, "I'm so strong~!" (laughs). It's like a fantasy novel with the author as the strongest protagonist.

Lambdadelta vs Featherine scene interpretation

• Question 2: When you look at it from that perspective, the fight between Fetherine and Lambdadelta is interesting, isn't it? (laughs)
  • A: I wanted to make it so that I would defeat Lambda, but I didn't know how to do it, so I just wrote that I defeated her. This scene strangely turned out to be a bit like "Sho●o" (laughs). In reality, it became a subjective question of "Who is writing that world? (laughs). I don't think there are many people who think that far ahead when reading.

Auau type of existence

• Question 3: What kind of existence is Featherine anyway?
  • A: In the tips of Ep6, it was said that Featherine "constantly repeats a cycle of life and death." When Featherine herself was a piece, she realized that she was a character being written by someone, and what she had believed to be free will was being written by someone else. That's why she died. But she came back as a writer herself and found true free will by drawing herself in her own work, without shame or embarrassment. She may now be in a world of relay manga. She may exist in a world where she writes her own characters, but other characters are written by several writers.

Fear of the Voyagers becoming a creator, and why Maria is the promised witch to being the strongest creator

• Question 4: Is that where the Voyager's fear of becoming a Creator comes from?
  • A: That's right. Manga is interesting when you read it, but eventually, you get tired of reading it. But if you are given a blank notebook and write in it yourself, you can play with it endlessly, which is much more interesting than reading manga. However, if you run out of ideas or get bored with the act of drawing, it's over. Moreover, you (the artist) will not be able to create characters or developments that you do not want. A Creator is a boring creature because they can create anything they want.

• Question 5: ---You won't be able to read interesting stories made by others
  • A: It's easier to not be a creator, just like it's easier to sit in front of the TV and watch more and more stories. Humans are the most comfortable because they don't even know they are characters in someone else's work, and they believe they are acting of their own free will. On the other hand, Bern, Lambda, and the rest of the hierarchy can intervene in the story by changing the channel at will and occasionally giving orders to the scenario writer. However, they pretend not to know this fact until the very last minute, because it would change the story. I think that's what killed Featherine. It's fun to fantasize in a blank notebook, but it's very hard to keep writing stories in it, so the witch dies. Witches are those who have begun to realize that they are someone else's creation, and they are in a position to view different creations. The reason why Maria was called "the Witch of Origins" is because she can expand her ideas and world from scratch without ever getting bored.

About Featherine being a creator and the same time the strongest characters:

• Question 1: フェザリーヌは、書いたことを現実に する能力を持っているということですが、「Ep 08」の物語全体がフェラリースによって書 かれた物であるという解釈は可能ですか?
  • Answer: 竜騎士07 そういう考え方もできますね。フ ェザリーヌはあの世界における神、世界の 執筆者に限りなく近いんです。だからフェザリーヌが登場人物の中で最強に近いのは 間違いないですね。それと同時に結構恥ず かしいヤツなんですよね。自分の作品に自 分を登場させて「俺、超強え~!」と書いてい るわけですから(笑)。作者本人を最強の 主人公にしたファンタジー小説みたいなもの じゃないですか。

Lambdadelta vs Featherine scene interpretation

• Question 2: -----そういう目線で見ると、フェザリーヌと ラムダデルタの戦いは面白いですね(笑)。
  • A: 自分がラムダをやっつける展開 にする、でもどうやってラムダをやっつける か分からないから、とりあえず「倒した」だけ 書く。このシーンは不思議と『ジョ●ョ』っぽ くなってしまいました(笑)。実際には「誰が あの世界をライティングしているのか?」とい う主観の問題になるんですよね。そこまで 考えながら読んでいる人は、少ないと思い ますけど。

Auau type of existence

• Question 3: そもそもフェザリーズとは、どういう存 在なのでしょう?
  • A 『Ep6』のTipsで、フェザリーヌ が「生き死にを繰り返している」とあったのは、 フェザリーヌ自身が駒だった頃、自分たちも 誰かにライティングされている登場人物であ るという事実を知り、自由意志と信じて疑 わなかったことが、誰かにライティングされ ている物だと気づいたために死んじゃったん ですよね。でも彼女は、自らもライターとな って帰ってきた。 そして恥も外聞もなく、自 分の作品の中に自分を描くことで真の自由 意志を得た。彼女は今、リレーマンガのよ うな世界にいるのかもしれないですね。自 分のキャラは自分で書くけど、それ以外は 複数のライターが書いているような世界に 存在しているのかもしれません。

Fear of the Voyagers becoming a creator

• Question 4: 航海者が造物主になるのを恐れるとい うのは、そのあたりに由来するのでしょうか?
  • A: そうですね。 マンガって読んで いるときは面白いけど、いずれ読み飽きち ゃう。でも白いノートを与えられて自分で書いていれば無限に遊べるので、マンガを読 むより遙かに面白いかもしれない。ただし、 自分のアイデアが枯渇したり、描く行為に 飽きたら終わりますよね。しかも自分(作者) の望まないような展開やキャラクターは生ま れてこない。造物主というのは何でも生み 出せるが故につまらない生き物ですよ。

• Question 5: ------ 他人が作った面白い話を読めなくなる んですね。
  • A: 造物主でないほうが、TVの前 に座っていればどんどん物語を見ることが できるのと同じで楽なんですよ。人間は、 自分が誰かの作品の登場人物であることす ら自覚しておらず、自由意志によって行動 していると信じているので、一番気楽な存 在です。

一方でベルンやラムダたちは、チャンネ ルを自由に変えたり、ときどきシナリオライ ターに注文をつけて、話に介入できる階層。 ただし介入すると物語が変わってしまうの で、その事実はギリギリまで知らないふりを している。 フェザリーヌは、そこに踏み込ん で死んでしまったんでしょう。 白紙のノート に妄想するのは楽しいけど、そこにずっと話 を書き続けるのはかなりしんどいので、魔 女は死んでしまうわけですね。魔女というの は、「自分たちは、誰かの創作物じゃないか」 ということに気づき始めていて、なおかつ 異なる創作物を閲覧できる立場にいる者で、 上に行けば行くほど執筆者の立場に近づい ていき、本当に執筆者の域まで到達すると 終わってしまう。真里亞が「原初の魔女」と 呼ばれた理由は、飽きることなく、ゼロから ドンドンとアイデアや世界を膨らませていけ るからなんです。

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Therefore, Featherine is the strongest character in the world of Umineko, and is a representation of Ryukishi himself, as the creator of the Work, and she writes the script for all episodes, being in the position of a creator (writer) of those episodes that are authored by Hachijo Tohya (herself outside the tales, in the real world). Featherine doesn’t have the same disease that affects the witch domain, she has the disease (boredom) of not knowing what to write, and maria is fated to be the strongest creator because she will never get bored in "drawing" the world.

Quenstion & Answer

• Q: Why is Higurashi being used as a cosmology factor?
  • A: As everyone knows Higurashi is quoted within Umineko several times, the first time quoted is when Battler says in episode 1 that he had read Higurashi. From this single factor, and the concept of fragments, we can say that Umineko and Higurashi follow the "parallel fiction reality" logic, like several other fictional works, where an alternate universe is just fiction within another alternative universe. One example that can be taken into consideration is that very famous DC Comics, where Superboy is reading the comic about himself to take spoiler from what happened to him, or the justice league being a comic story in an alternate earth. And at various times Umineko practically spite it in your face with subtexts.
• Q: What about Berns's gameboard being in Aurora's Study?
  • A: As Erika says, the tale of beings like her or Ange have placed there only as simple books, so Bernkastel's gameboard being summoned in there does not change the position of the realm, after all, it was an act of Auau itself to take this spectacle there. Besides that Beatrice's adventures are shown as several different books archived there, so the totality of the bookshelves is the totality of the Witch Domain represented only as of the "archive" there for Featherine.