Overview
A Black Ring is the source of all Mania in the physical world and the ultimate form of a Mania crisis. A Black Ring functions as a cross-dimensional gate to the Deep Mania, creating an area of widespread, severe mental contamination so thick that it creates a pocket of distorted reality where the laws of time and space no longer apply. This also throws magnetic fields into chaos, damaging electrical equipment and cutting off conventional communication to the outside. Above the area floats an enormous reddish-purple glowing ring in the sky, from which the Black Ring gets its name. Inside this space, ordinary humans without the protection of Hypercubes or a White Cube instantly turn into Corruptors, and Sinners not under the protection of the Shackles risk going Manic. Above and beyond the danger to people within them, Black Rings can cause contamination in people just by looking at, discussing, or even thinking about them (5-8). Every time a Black Ring appears, the number of mental cases in DisCity skyrockets, and just seeing the appearance of BR-004 through the window of her studio was enough to cause Enfer to awaken as a Sinner.
A Black Ring can result from two known scenarios:
- The first scenario is an S-rank Sinner's M-Values reaching critical levels and collapsing. This Sinner is referred to by the FAC as the Black Ring Ground Zero (5-8). From the first appearance of Black Rings during the DisSea Explosion until N.F. 112, this was believed to be the only scenario.
- The second scenario, discovered by the Chief of the MBCC during their investigation of BR-001, is Maniacs going Manic en masse in large scale and high density such that their combined Manic power equals that of an S-Rank Sinner.
Either of the above scenarios also needs to be catalyzed by the presence of a Corpus, often in the form of an Inheritance, in order for a Black Ring to form, and may further require a "wish" or desire for the Corpus to grant, such as Zoya and Earl's wish to destroy DisCity in BR-004 or the Carnival attendees' desire for their suffering to be eased in BR-001. Even after a Black Ring is well-established, events within it may cause them to "erupt", expanding the size of the Ring and outputting more contamination. (7-1)
A Black Ring is described as a "dark desire in its most extreme and purest form," and the inside of a Black Ring is the spiritual world of its host. The Corpus takes on properties of its hosts; it is said that they sacrificed themself to the Ring, and so the Ring listens to their voice and responds to their wishes. Every rule, including the laws of physics and spacetime, are governed by their will. (6-4) The minds of all Monsters and Corruptors in a Black Ring can be controlled by the Corpus as well. This spiritual energy creates Ring substance, a form of physical contamination with especially potent properties. Unlike regular contamination generated by human Maniacs, the Ring substance seems to draw its power from some otherworldly or extraterrestrial origin. Once it appears, a Black Ring's existence is rooted in its Corpus. Just as its appearance requires the birth of a Corpus, it disappears when the Corpus or its Corpseborne are destroyed.
Information about what goes on in Black Rings is extremely rare, since few have ever escaped from one alive. Until BR-004, there was no known way to eliminate a Black Ring once it appeared. Thus, the Framework Against Catastrophe was charged with preventing Black Rings, containing their expansion, and lessening their effect whenever they appear. Although the rest of the world suffers from frequent Mania disasters such as the Tide of Ashes, Black Rings have only ever appeared in DisCity. Nevertheless, the appearance of a Black Ring causes such profound reverberations through the Deep Mania that effects are felt in the form of cataclysmic natural disasters around the world.
However paradoxically, Black Rings are also critical as a lifeline for DisCity and the rest of the post-Nightfall world, as they are also the source of Hypercubes. Even after a Ring is destroyed, Hypercubes will continue to precipitate in the area where the Ring once existed. Thus, control over Black Ring sites is the root cause of much of the conflict in DisCity.
Known Black Rings
BR-000
Various sources in the game conflict regarding the meaning and origin of BR-000. Characters with diegetic knowledge refer to the appearance of BR-000 as the DisSea Explosion of N.F. 84. It is believed that this event marked the beginning of the Mania plague, and it resulted in over 87,000 deaths and more than 200,000 Maniacs (5-8). Other sources, which may reveal information not known to any characters in-game (such as the Year One: Perishing Star Crimebrand) state that BR-000 was born from the wreckage of the Perishing Star sometime between N.F. 1 and the Nightfall Declaration in N.F. 14. It is likely that the Black Ring existed in the impact crater of the Perishing Star beneath DisSea for decades, and was simply not discovered until it expanded during the DisSea Explosion.
BR-001
BR-001, also known as the Endless Carnival, appeared in N.F. 89. Three years later, the contamination spilling out of BR-001 formed the Isolation Belt in the Rust. Sinner Hamel is believed to have been the Corpus of BR-001, but in actuality it was caused by the simultaneous mutation of thousands of Maniacs in a single place, catalyzed by a wandering Corpus. It was ultimately eliminated by the Chief of the MBCC.
BR-002
BR-002, also known as the Oblivion Pit, appeared in N.F. 104 when Nirvana betrayed and slaughtered members of Rustfire attempting to rebuild the West District by returning to the Hypercube mines in the Inner Bay of DisSea. The Ring was quickly neutralized, but its Corpus survived. A decade later, BR-002 reappeared in Syndicate during the chaos of the Ten Days of Rustfire. It quickly became the largest secondary Black Ring ever recorded, but was ultimately eliminated by the combined efforts of the Chief, Paradeisos, and the collective will of the people of West District.
BR-003
BR-003 is also known as the Navigator Observatory. Nothing is known about it except that it appeared in N.F. 106, but Langley awakened as a Sinner during the incident.
BR-004
BR-004 appeared briefly in Keylan Square in N.F. 112 when a Corpus consumed Zoya. Its defeat by the Chief after only 7 days marked the first known time that a Black Ring has ever been eliminated.