Parano

Team Haruhiro in Parano

Parano (パラノ) is another world, where sleep and aging do not occur. As a result, one does not need to eat or drink at all to stay alive. If a person were to fall asleep and dream, a figment of their dream becomes reality. In comparison to Darunggar, Dusk Realm, and Grimgar, this world is the most eccentric in regards to its magic, land, and inhabitants.

Another of Parano's prime characteristic is the strange way time and space works. Time doesn't flow at a fixed rate which combined with the fact one doesn't age, nor need sleeping, drinking or sleeping, make time mostly irrelevant in Parano. Space is also warped, distances being ever-changing, aside from a few unchanging locations, everything in Parano always change, and the space one just cover would likely be entirely different if they were to go back on their way.

Parano is described as dream-like; it has a milky-pink sky with polka dots but does not have a sun, instead harboring a big purple crescent moon. Its unusual winds have a sweet scent that can daze or render people unconscious when inhaled over time. Inhaling the sweet wind is the only way to make a person sleep as fatigue does not exist in Parano The polka dots in the sky are called stars and seems to fall where new people appear in Parano, they're comparable to giant soap bubbles.

Parano seems to be directly connected to earth as multiple persons found themself in Parano after being trap inside a strange fog in multiple places on earth, but as there's no known way to go from Parano to Earth it's probably a one-sided connection.

History

All the information known on Parano history came from Sleeping Man who seems to be the only human left in Parano who had lived here before the civilization fell.

In the past, each of the ruins was a city, and while they communicated, these cities were independent and rival to some extent. One of those cities, Shiguhari, was the by far the largest, most prosperous, and most populated. Shiguhari was so ahead of others due to possessing the Door to Heaven.

However other towns, jealous of each other, tried to steal from one another, and ultimately war broke out, and by the end of it all the cities were in ruins. 

It's unknown when and who or what built the Iron Tower of Heaven.

Landmarks

The geography of Parano is mutable, the landscape and everything it encompasses are constantly changing. However, there are several landmarks that don't conform to that rule.

Ruins No.1:

Once the town of Shiguhari, which was the largest of the 7 towns due to possessing a door to heaven. According to the Sleeping man, this door was unique in all of Parano. Following Sleeping man's advice, the King chose to build his castle here. The castle was built using rubble and was named Elephant Castle. The castle would later be remodelled and extended at the king's whim. Sleeping man, as a reward from the king, was allowed to sleep near the castle which gave birth to the Scarlet Forest and most of the dream monsters within it. The door to Heaven, first placed into the king's room was then relocated to the throne room, where it became the backrest of the king's throne after one of the lackeys crossed it while the King was away. The castle is surrounded by the scarlet forest and can be reached using a tunnel from the Ruins n°7.

Ruins No.2:

Once a town called Inami, it's now called Bayard Garden, likely after the King's vassal who tried to conquer it. This place consists of a number of hills (at least 9), covered with flowers of all colors cross by roads of around 50cm in width. A trickster Haname lives here and tends to these flowers.

Ruins No.3:

Now called Doll Town, because of Nui, a trickster who inhabits the town, spending all her time building the dolls that populate the town. It seems that these ruins are actually in a fairly good condition.

Ruins No.4:

Named Mimic town, it's the home of a trickster named Mimic and a number of dream monsters named Yomus. The town is covered in a thin haze which prevents people from seeing clearly what's inside. It's surrounded by a latticework fence covered in thick ivy. There's at least one entrance, which while not having any door can be closed by the same thick ivy which covers the fence. The town is special in that when someone enters they're greeted by a voice that seemingly comes from every direction, and explained a set of rules in the city: "

1. Rule... One... Be quiet... Don't make a fuss...
2. Rule... Two... Fighting is... bad... Be peaceful... gentle... fun...
3. Rule... Three... You can't... leave this... town... ever...
4. Rule... Four... Imitate... everyone... "

As long as one follows those rules, Yomus won't attack them, however, if one breaks the rules too much, the voice will ask them to leave, before attacking them.

Ruins No.5:

It was built on the side of a hill but now nothing remains of the original ruins as Ahiru used the material to build hundreds of statues of varying sizes, all of them representing Yonaki Uguisu. The higher you climb the better the statues became, at the hilltop is a life-like statue, Ahiru's best piece. Later Alice destroyed most of the statues after Ahiru pushed her to do so.

Ruins No.6:

It's the ruin of a town called Asoka. Prior to Ahiru demolishing almost every building in it, Alice used it as a hideout.

Ruins No.7:

It's the home of Rainbow Mole one of the king's men. it looks like a warped honey cone, and Rainbow Mole can control the tunnel as he wished to prevent people from reaching ruin no°1.

Mt. Glass:

It's a pile of hard, translucent rocks, but while hard the rocks are also brittle and if one stepped on the wrong spot it can easily collapse.

Its foothill is gentle but the incline eventually became steep, and at the border, the sand is mixed with glass shards.

The Iron Tower of Heaven:

As a "navel" of Parano, this huge tower can be conveniently used as a reference point to locate oneself anywhere in Parano. The tower is surrounded by hundreds of ten-meter rusty iron walls with gates that form a maze with some dead ends. Anything (including humans) that stays on that tower for too long, rusts and practically becomes metal. It seems like the tower is either insanely high or endless, has the king's vassals who try to conquer it, were never able to reach the top or even just to see the top.

The Valley of Worldly Desire:

It's a valley with steep cliff cover in bumps which make it hard to climb, facing it, is a slope cover in similar bumps. The total size of the valley or how far it goes is unknown, and behind it, is a seemingly endless flat blue land.

The valley is filled by a mass of dream monsters that move down the slope and climb up the cliff before heading for the horizon behind the cliff, however, it's unknown if they're always here.

The Sanzu River:

It's a great slow-running river, from which constantly formed countless rainbow-colored bubbles which make the shores look hazy. The fountainhead of the river is 10m across and bubbles flew from it at great speed, the estuary is unknown.

The riverbank is covered in small white pebbles, a lot of which are piled in small mounds. Those mounds were likely created by the people who pass near the river in the past, as this place has the power to force people to become entranced in creating those small piles, which requires a strong will to break free of.

Passages

Unlike other words saw so far, Parano isn't reached through a fixed natural passage like the Wonderhole between Grimgar and The Dusk Realm. Three means are known to reach or leave Parano:

1. From Grimgar : by crossing the door inside the Leslie Camp, however, that door can only be crossed one way as nothing exists on Parano's side. It seems like a star fall where new people have arrived.
2. From what seems to be earth: by being shallow in the fog, the fog also is a one-way passage to Parano, and seems to randomly appear on earth those trapped inside it ending in Parano after a time.
3. From Parano (and maybe Grimgar): by crossing the Door to Heaven, that passage leads into Ainrand Leslie's lair which seems to be inside the forbidden tower or connect to it. It's unknown if that passage is also one-wayed like the other.

Id and Ego

Ego is a person's self-realization, self-awareness. It can't be expressed in numbers, but in Parano, a person can sense whether someone's ego is weak or strong. The strength of a person's ego determines the strength of his magic.

Ego can be increased by stealing the id of a dream monster you kill or by stealing ego from half-monsters. One can also eat humans to steal their ego and build up fast.

Ego is inherent only to living beings, and, since dream monsters aren't alive, they have no ego.

Id is in some measure complementary to ego. Intrinsically, id and ego seem to fluctuate to balance each other out. If a person has a certain strength of ego, his id would be at a commensurate "value". The opposite would be also true. Upon killing a dream monster and gaining its id, the person's id would go up. From there, the person's ego would automatically and gradually get stronger until it approached the corresponding "value".

Ego is a strength of self. Whether or not a person is selfish has nothing to do with it. It was the degree to which a person rationally sees himself as different from others, and was definitely aware he is himself and no one else.

In contrast, id is the power of a person's unconscious, instinctual impulses and desires.

When a person steals some id, he would try to suppress those impulses and desires. In other words, ego would rise, and as a result, the id and ego would be balanced again. However, if a person steals too much id, or their ego drops too far, the gap between the id and ego becomes too great and desires and impulses run wild. At that point, it is too late and a person falls into darkness and becomes a trickster.

Ecosystem

Dream Monsters

Dream monster is a broad category of organisms created by humans (and maybe other species) when they sleep in Parano, they are not technically alive as they have no ego only id. They come in a number of forms, sizes, and powers. From what Alice says it seems like a dream monster power is linked to the id of his creator.

Dream monster instinctively attacks any living being who is not part of Parano, most of the time it's to kill and eat them but some times they transform the captured target in half-monster.

While they will attack most people, they will flee from people with powerful magic or if they're loosing. If a star fall, however, they will go wild, converge to the place where the star fell and attack anybody there, disregarding the power of their target.

It seems like dream monsters don't fight between them-self and can work in group.

The list here, list all the dream monster "species" on which we have information so far, keep in mind though that there's likely an infinite number of possible dream monster "species", depending on who was sleeping and the dream they made:

• Human-spider-octopus: they look like a spider with octopus tentacle as legs, their face is human-like but pure white, gender-less and bald, their eyes being black with golden pupils. Their precise size is unknown but they're likely similar in size to a person maybe bigger (half-monster-Kejiman was described as bigger than a person but it's unknown if he was bigger than the regular monster). Their preferred tactic is to attack from undercover using their tentacles to grab and drag victims to them. They are the only type of Dream monster we know for sure is able to produce half-monster from their prey.
• Grotesque-jerks: they look like a completely black human torso, however, the head lacks any features and is split vertically forming a mouth-like structure lined up with thin thorn-like teethes and has a bright lemon yellow interior. They don't have legs but something akin to a giant sea anemone, which forces them to crawl. They appear to prefer to attack by borrowing in the ground to try to grab people passing above them.
• Incubator centipedes: they're the size of a human baby with between 20 to 30 legs similar to human-arms and while the upper-side of their body support a carapace similar to that of a normal centipede the underside is bumpy, cover in eggs-like structures which seem to have some effects on the mind of whoever is in contact with them, confusing the target. They attack by ramming the target, and while their legs are too small to hurt, they can target the mind using their eggs which leave their prey vulnerable to attack from other dream monsters.
• Winged intestines: they look like intestines sprouting several pairs of wings (probably bird-like since Haruhiro wonder if they're birds at first), their body is squishy and the inside contains a hot rainbow-colored semi-liquid substance. They're able to fly and attack by charging from above.
• not-Frogs: they're frog-like organisms, smaller than a fist, with the head of a human baby and a lot of hair. They come in a variety of colors: blue, red and yellow, with black or green stripes. They seem rather harmless only hopping around.
• not-Mole: a mole-like organism but the mouth is similar to that of a starfish with an eyeball deep inside. Like a mole they move inside the ground, it's unknown if they're dangerous but Haruhiro's reaction to the only specimen seen seems to indicate that they could be.
• Haruhiro's Monster: a towering man (describe as likely bigger than Kuzaku), inhumanly muscular, with a face similar to Haruhiro's but deathly pale with no hair or eyebrows. Its blood is a normal red. It's wearing a dirty coat, woolen mittens, and armed with a butcher knife. He is likely the same monster Haruhiro sees as himself during the dream which creates it. When one of his arms was cut off, the arm continued to wriggle on the ground. When the body tries to flee the arm attempts to follow Haruhiro and Alice. According to Alice, the monster's power shows that Haruhiro has a large id.
• Giant baby: they live in the scarlet forest where they're taller than the trees, size aside they have the head of a human newborn baby with puffy lips and a good complexion. According to Haruhiro they're probably naked and likely weight tens if not hundreds of tons. They emit sounds similar to a baby and seem to attack by running then jumping on their target, if the target survives they stomp on it, and if that doesn't work either, they then throw the target away.
• Yomu: They're the dream monsters inhabiting mimic town, most of them look humanoid but some are more monstrous. Unlike usual dream monsters, they only attack those who don't follow mimic town rules, with no regard to how powerful the target magic is. It's unknown if they're a "species" of dream monster of just the name given to all dream monsters who came to live in that town and follow its rules.
• (possibly) the whole scarlet forest: Since it was created by Sleeping Man's dream, the whole forest may be a form of dream monster.

Half-Monsters

Half-monsters are the result of human being taken in by dream monsters, they're rare and unlike Dream-monsters possess both an ego (albeit a small one) and an id, which makes them valuable targets. Aside from that, they seem to mostly act similarly to dream-monsters.

• Dazzler: they look similar to an axolotl and a sahuagin, with fish like mouth and eyes but a strangely smooth peach skin, to which sand doesn't stick, they don't have blood but a thick mucus similar to old oil. They burrow in the ground and attack the mind of people in the vicinity causing delusions and inducing self-harming behavior.
• Kejiman: he looks like a Human-spider-octopus but the head is now that of Kejiman, it's unknown if the size is different from a regular Human-spider-octopus but he is described as bigger than a person. He is fast thanks to his numerous legs and attacks by jumping on his enemies while screaming incoherent sounds. Once the spider-octopus part of the body was destroyed, Kejiman was eject from it, naked and covered in mucus. In that state, his appearance was similar to a regular human and, at first, he was capable of simple speech and had some of his former memories left. However he quickly starts acting strange again: screaming incoherent sounds, his tongue thrust out, eyes rapidly spinning, and his raised blood vessels pulsating. He is most likely dead, killed by the trickster Haname after incurring her wrath when he destroyed the flower of the garden.
• Jam: He was apparently dragged off and transformed into a half-monster in a similar manner to Kejiman, and was then killed by Team Io.

Tricksters

Tricksters are humans who fell into darkness when their ego became too small compared to their id, either by killing too much in a small period of time or losing too much ego. Trickster seems to overall be more powerful than usual humans, and their powers seem to be an enhanced version of the magic they had as humans.

Unlike dream monsters or half-monster, tricksters don't attack on sight and can in some cases be talked to, even if they're troubling entities. Like humans, they also are attracted to the few unchanging places of Parano.

A trickster can be stopped and maybe turn back into a human using resonance magic.

If a trickster is taken out of Parano it will revert back to being a normal human.

• Haname: she lived in Bayard garden which she is tending to. She is described as one of the better trickster personality-wise and is usually a quiet, likable person as long as no one harms the flower. She usually looks like a beautiful woman with no face but when anger she become a gigantic butterfly-like entity able to create tornados and ultrasonic waves which can hurt the ears and throw off the equilibrium of those who near her.
• Nui
• Mimic: Mimic inhabit ruin no°4, is the one behind the rules and probably the one responsible for the haze and ivy.
• Shihoru: It's unclear when she became a trickster since her appearance doesn't seem to change, but her power does become more powerful.
• (almost) Kuzaku: He was on the verge of becoming a trickster after he had killed too much Yomus. In that state, he was becoming more and more narcissistic and his strength, already enhanced by his narci magic, was becoming even greater. He also was considering slaughtering most people who interacted with him including Setora (but was sad to have to kill her). At the same time his body started to hurt (it's unclear but he may also have started to cry blood), his mind was losing its focus and he then had the feeling that another him made of darkness was eating him from the inside. He was saved by Haruhiro moments before he completely became a trickster.

Other

It's unclear if Parano has plants since most of those seen are either the work of a trickster (Bayard garden's flowers, Mimic town's ivy), possibly dream monsters (the scarlet forest) or unclear in their nature ( the coral-like things, the stone like mushrooms, the black forest in which Kuzaku and Shihoru are at the beginning of volume 14, ...), so it's possible that Parano doesn't have any native life forms.

Magic

In the world of Parano, every person can utilize magic, the magic of Parano is limitless in its possibility but most people believed it to be limited to four categories: Philia, Narci, Doppel, and Resonance. Those four types actually don't really exist and are a creation of The King from the 3 vague groups magic naturally fall into, Resonance was created later after The King second-vassal developed a magic outside of the 3 groups. The idea behind the creation of those categories was to limit the power of magic, since magic is linked to the psyche of the user if the user is convinced that magic can only fall into 4 defined and limited categories, it will.

Light magic does not work in Parano.

Parano magic only works in Parano.

Trickster's magic doesn't fall into the categories.

Philia

Philia (フィリア, firia) is the most common magic in Parano. Derived from the Latin word "philia" for love or friendship. Philia uses imbue a specific object (item, weapon) with power. That object called a fetish, becomes the source of strength for the Philia user, making the holder stronger and enabling them to use magic link to that fetish. If the owner loses hold of the fetish, he/she weakens and becoming unable to use magic. The stronger the Philia user is, the stronger is their fetish.

Known users: Alice, Ahiru, Setora, Merry, Tonbe

Narci

Narci (ナルシィ, narushi) increases its user's physical strength. Derived from the word narcissist. Generally, people with a lot of self-esteem use this type of magic. They are their own source of magic. Narci can have large effects on one appearance, both Kuzaku and Kiichi becoming way more muscular and Io was suspect by Alice to be a Narci user because she had become prettier and bigger.

Known users: Kuzaku, Kiichi, Gomi

Doppel

Doppel (ドッペル, dopperu) is a transfiguration magic. Derived from the German word Doppel meaning double. Usually people with low self-esteem, or those who hate themselves, use this type of magic. Overall Doppel allows the user to create one or multiple copy of himself. However, that copy doesn't always look like the user, can have additional powers, and it's also possible for the copy to overlaps with the user.

Known users: Suzuki, Io (presumably)

Resonance

Resonance (レゾナンス, rezonansu) amplifies the magic of others and is regarded as the rarest of the four magic types. Due to its rarity, not many have witnessed a Resonance user and is thought to be only a rumor. Haruhiro describes using Resonance magic as life energy that flows into other magic users.

Amplifying other magic isn't the only use of Resonance, as when amplifying someone's magic, the user and target "become one" which enables the user to know some of the target's history, emotions and to communicate with them even when they're confused or madden. Using that effect it's possible to stop someone from transforming into a trickster, or stop and maybe revert to human a trickster.

Known users: Haruhiro, the second-vassal

Other

The King, and likely Sleeping Man and Rainbow Mole are not limited in what their magic can produce.

The King, for example, can create copies of himself but also disappear at will, steal the life of someone, has superhuman strength, create illusions ...  according to him his magic slowly developed to answer his needs.

Trivia

• The world of Parano itself is loosely inspired by Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Its name itself may be borrowed from the word paranoia.
• Id and Ego seem to come from Freud's structural model of the psyche.
• The sweet winds have vanilla's scent and have effects similar to that of chloroform, a colorless, sweet-smelling liquid that can knock out people within five minutes.
• The magic types of Parano may have been taken from the emotional evaluations of self-esteem.
• One should not look directly at Parano's moon or they will be cursed.
• Parano seems to be the only known world connected to Earth.

References

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