Error (Sequence 0)

Error is the summit of the Path, and its definition is frighteningly simple: the bearer themselves is a breach in the rules, the embodiment of all the errors of the world. Hence their power — to correct and create errors in anything, ordinary and extraordinary.

The Path stands beneath the Lord of Mysteries, whose branch handles symbolism better than anyone, and Error is one of the cornerstones of the symbolism of Change: change can be ordinary, erroneous, and unimaginable.

With what this is capable of in practice:

by substituting the false for the true, Error steals part of the authority and rights of whoever it forges;

by creating a breach, it slips away from others' blows — there is simply nowhere for them to land;

it uses the law of similarity, inducing errors and turning lies into truth, and the consequences fall upon all those affected;

one who once erred against Error can hardly ever recover: the breach weighs down and does not let go;

it holds back the Hermit with its power over backup copies — the embodiment of an error against a fallback plan works without fail;

through a breach it wanders through others' dreams;

and if someone extends threads of the spiritual body toward it to make it a puppet, that very connection becomes a breach through which Error itself feeds on the puppeteer.

One more property is noted in particular: amid the confusion, Error is capable of much — instantly finding a weak spot and slipping past any obstacle. And if someone answers its prayer, it will determine their location and simply be right there.

Its second authority is Deception, carried to its limit. The canon here also stipulates the danger: for a master of deception, madness is lethal — having lost his reason, he will act on instinct, and this will be his ruin. Amon deceived Klein Moretti about his own intentions so that he understood it too late, and he likewise deceived the Sefirah Castle, creating the conditions needed for yet another breach.

The Divine Kingdom of Error is arranged as a flawed environment — not direct, like the Red Priest's, but built upon rules, like the kingdoms of the Fool and the Door.

The ritual of ascension is unlike any other: one must substitute for whoever is conducting their own apotheosis ceremony at the zero level. The subtlety is that it is not necessarily the moment when the target drinks the potion — the substitution takes place in the course of the rite itself. Hence a curious consequence: becoming a double god of both Error and the Path whose place has been stolen is by no means obligatory.

And so the entire Path arrives at its limit. The Marauder hauled away purses, Prometheus stole the powers of others, the Trojan Horse of Fate occupied the lives of others — Error steals the very apotheosis of others.

The composition of the step is a match: three beacons drawn straight from the River of Fate. The characteristic, too, has traveled its own path — before it was a crystal monocle, and now it is a black glove.