Cosmic Keystone: Difference between revisions

[[File:TriforceALttP.jpg|link=The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)|right]]

[[caption-width-right:320:[-In a realm beyond sight<br />The sky shines gold, not blue<br />There, the Triforce's might<br />Makes mortal dreams come true.-] ]]

 

Oh no! The world is in danger! Happiness, sunshine, puppies and ice cream will cease to exist! Why, you ask? Well, it seems that the villains have stolen, corrupted, or destroyed the [[Mineral MacGuffin|Four Orbs of Fate]], the [[Plot Coupon|Pillars of Reality]], the [[Tomes of Prophecy and Fate]] or [[The Lifestream]]. The loss of even ''one'' of these is enough to [[World-Wrecking Wave|make the world spiral]] into a [[Mordor|hellscape of torment]] that would make [[Satan]] weep molten tears of envy and pride. It seems that for some unfathomable reason the [[Powers That Be]] or [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]] who created the universe saw fit to make its continued healthy existence contingent on these [[MacGuffin|poorly guarded, easily found, delicate, carry-on-luggage sized objects.]] Obviously they never heard of redundant systems and [[Failsafe Failure|failsafes]]. These are also poorly designed, allowing less than scrupulous individuals to abuse them for personal gain.

If the villain ever gets the cosmic keystone, expect him to try and use it to destroy and/or remake the world in [[Utopia Justifies the Means|his own twisted image to rule over.]] If he even realizes the reality-central nature of the item. Sometimes the villain has a smaller goal in mind for its power; he just doesn't believe it'll destroy everything if something goes wrong, or else has an overinflated opinion on his ability to prevent that from happening. If he doesn't have it he'll [[MacGuffin Delivery Service|tail the hero, let him do the hard work of finding it, and snatch it from the heroes' grasp]] at ''just'' the last second, only to fly away cackling. One would think they'd know better than to tamper with the underpinnings of reality, but [[Sanity Has Advantages|villains aren't the sanest lot]]. When the changes [[World-Healing Wave|can be easily reversed]], there is obviously [[No Ontological Inertia]] in that cosmos.

 

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* In the ''[[Pokémon 2000 (Anime)|Pokémon 2000]]'' movie, three of the Legendary Birds maintained the balance of the world's climates. Capturing just one quickly threw the whole thing out of whack, turning a tropical area downright arctic. This is a massive change of theme from the [[Gotta Catch Them All]] mindset of the games; More like "Catch 'em all... except these three!" It's unknown whether this applies ''just'' to those specific three, or whether the capture of ANY Legendary Bird would have the same effect (or whether it would make a difference if the Bird went willingly).

** When Ash meets one of the Frontier Brains, him and the others tell the Brain how impressive it is that he caught Articuno (although he didn't), showing that, at the very least, one CAN catch the birds as long as they aren't from the three islands. Either that, or Ash suffered from amnesia after that movie.

** One could make a very valid argument that except for the first, none of the movies obey the continuity of the show. The first movie had a lot of setup in the show, and is partially based on a plotline from the game, so it has to be canon. Plus it would get around the "how can Ash keep saving the world and yet nobody knows who he is" question.

*** One could make an argument, if it hadn't been Jossed by [[Word of God]] many, many times.

 

== Video Games ==

** The Pillars are technically more of a representation of the state of Nosgoth as a whole, and they are maintained by their nine guardians, whose states of mind the pillars reflect. Alternatively, the player can choose to save the pillars by killing himself (him being, unknowlingly, the last pillar guardian), but canon says that he chose not to, condemning the pillars to eternal ruination.

*** Later games reveal that {{spoiler|Kain killing himself would have doomed Nosgoth anyway. As the last true vampire, Kain's existence is connected to the Pillars since they were originally created by the vampires prior to their corruption. This makes ''Kain himself'' a [[Cosmic Keystone]].}}

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series has many of these.

** ''[[Final Fantasy III (Video Game)|Final Fantasy III]]'' (the ''real'' one) had four elemental crystals, fairly standard stuff. Much like the elemental crystals of ''[[Final Fantasy V (Video Game)|Final Fantasy V]]'' (see below), they give the heroes jobs. Unusually, they are neither destroyed, stolen, nor tampered with. They ''are'' losing their light, though, which is why the Wind Crystal summons the Onion Kids (or Luneth in the [[Video Game Remake|remake]].)

** ''[[Final Fantasy IV (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IV]]'' had not just four crystals for the elements, but an additional four dark equivalents for the underworld. While these crystals are never threatened within the time-frame of the game (merely used as tools to reach villains' goals), it is strongly implied that they are just as vital to the world as similar crystals other installments in the series.

** It's very much like that as well in ''[[Final Fantasy XI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XI]]'', as the Mothercrystal is the basis for all of Vana'diel. It was also absurdly hard to get to, originally, but when the thing trying to destroy it is a [[Cosmic Horror]], that kinda doesn't matter.

** In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]'', {{spoiler|the Cocoon Fal'Cie Orphan}} is the keystone that holds Cocoon together. Without it, all of Cocoon's Fal'Cie would die and Cocoon along with them. {{spoiler|The Fal'Cie ''want'' this to happen. They miss their creator and hate working for humans that much.}}

** In ''Ocarina of Time'', Ganondorf makes a grab for the Triforce (whole) and it shatters: Power is given to Ganondorf, Wisdom goes to Zelda, and Courage goes to Link. The ''real'' Ganondorf has been with Power in almost every other game (''A Link to the Past'' is a notable exception since the Triforce is actually all in one place for once), while Link is often on quests to retrieve Courage and Zelda almost always has Wisdom innately (with the original game being exception for both).

*** Which in turn explains his incessant desire to kill or otherwise "deal with" Link and Zelda, since the death of either will release their part of the Triforce, making it up for grabs -- exactly what Ganondorf wants.

* In ''[[Zork Grand Inquisitor]]'', the world will stay a world oppressed by the technological dictator The Grand Inqisitor if the player doesn't find three object with massive magical power: a Cube of Foundation, the [[The Zeroth Law of Trope Examples|Skull of Yoruk]], and the Coconut of Quendor.

* In ''[[Nox]]'', the player must find the Halberd of Horrendous, the Heart of Nox, the Weirdling, and finally The Orb.

* ''[[Golden Sun (Video Game)|Golden Sun]]'' features the Elemental Stars, which when removed from their hidden chamber cause a calamitous volcanic eruption. Placing these stars in their respective elemental lighthouses will destroy the world. {{spoiler|But in ''Golden Sun: The Lost Age'', this is inverted: If the Elemental Lighthouses are not lit, the world will definitely be destroyed, and the only danger otherwise comes from what humans might do with the power of the activated lighthouses. Oh, and just lighting a few of the Lighthouses will upset the climate.}}

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] IV: Oblivion'': Inverted in that the player goes around entering small hellish dimensions stealing their cosmic keystones in order to collapse them and prevent the demons within from attacking your world. Of course, the reason the demons are able to do open up the portals is because the Cosmic Keystone on your side (The Amulet of Kings) was stolen, and you need to get it back.

** ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] III: Morrowind'' features the heart of Lorkhan, who is also the creator of Mundus and Nirn, in which the TES series takes place. Additionally, after having powered the massive golem Numidium once, the golem breaks reality each time it is turned on.

** Oblivion revolves around three cosmic keystones: the Emperor's bloodline, the Amulet of Kings, and the Dragonfires. The Dragonfires maintain the barrier that separates Mundus from the {{spoiler|(other?)}} Daedric Realms as long as they remain lit. They were created through a bloodpact between the Emperor's ancestor and the leader of the Aedra, the dragon god Akatosh. Due to this, the fires only remain lit so long as the current Emperor is still alive; if the Emperor dies, another of the bloodline must relight the fires using the Amulet of Kings (which holds Akatosh's own blood) or else the barrier weakens and eventually vanishes. By the end of the main campaign {{spoiler|all three keystones are lost. Mehrunes Dagon shatters the barrier and enters Mundus, rendering the Dragonfires useless. Martin Septim, the last member of the Emperor's bloodline, shatters the Amulet of Kings and sacrifices himself to become an avatar of Akatosh in order to fight off the Daedra Prince of Destruction. Dagon is sent back to Oblivion, but the dragon avatar is mortally wounded as well and turns into a statue that replaces the Dragonfires}}.

* Averted/Inverted in ''[[Suikoden]]'', with it's 27 True Runes. The runes are major parts of the world, and at least one is required for the continued existence of it's domain (The Dragon Rune allows dragons to exist) and the destruction of the 5 True Elemental Runes is Not A Good Thing. In fact, it's implied (and the [[Big Bad]] of [[Suikoden III]]'s plan is predicated on this premise) that the destruction of any one of the True Runes would destroy the world. However, the Runes are rarely in danger as they have wills of their own and generally control their bearer FAR more than their bearers control them.

** And this makes more sense if you take into consideration [[Blind Idiot Translation]]: Ray Line = ''[[Ley Line]]''. Indeed, it was translated as Leyline in the [[Video Game Remake|remake]].

* In ''[[MOTHER 3]]'', the {{spoiler|Seven Needles sealing away the [[Sealed Evil in A Can|Dark Dragon]], although subverted somewhat by the fact that not just anyone can pull it - you have to have a certain special PSI power. It also helps that if a good-hearted person pulls the Needles, the Dragon wouldn't so much ''destroy'' the world as ''upgrade'' it.}}

** Said [[Cosmic Keystone]], named 'The Gran Grimoire', is the source of all magical energy in the world. And, in the Final Fantasy games that tie in with Vagrant Story, normally manifests as a book that created, and is holding together, the entire world.

* The [[Infocom]] [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''Spellbreaker'' has its protagonist traveling the world in search of its Cosmic Keystones, which in a borderline subversion manifest as featureless white cubes that are utterly indistinguishable from one another (but can be written on to differentiate them; this was considered a neat feature when the game first came out). {{spoiler|It turns out that this is all part of a [[Xanatos Gambit]] executed by the protagonist's evil magical doppelganger: you've been playing [[MacGuffin Delivery Service]] for him all along, and once you unwittingly bring all the cubes to him, he magically paralyzes you and uses the cubes to build a tesseract - a ''hyper''cube - at the center of which is the Cube of Magic. Once he enters the hypercube, reality will reconfigure itself around him - essentially [[A God Am I|turning him into a god]] - but the protagonist can use his [[Heroic Resolve]] to shake off the doppelganger's spell just in time to replace the Cube of Magic with something nonmagical, erasing your evil twin from existence... [[The Magic Goes Away|as well as magic,]] unfortunately.}}

* ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' and ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'' have a few of these -- the Time Egg (the "Chrono Trigger"), the Frozen Flame and the Chrono Cross. In the [[Fan Game]] ''[[Crimson Echoes (Fanfic)|Crimson Echoes]]'', the Frozen Flame is the prominent [[Cosmic Keystone]], while the Time Eggs have become more easily manufactured and used (with both Balthasar ''and'' Lucca constructing them), suffering [[Badass Decay|Keystone Decay]] by virtue of this.

* The Seven Seals in ''[[Darksiders]]'' are essentially a countdown to Armageddon. Breaking the Seventh is the signal for everybody to engage in the massive cosmic winner-take-all power struggle that is the Endwar, with the Horsemen ready to clean up the mess when everything is resolved.

* The Stone-Like in ''[[Radiant Silvergun]]'' and ''[[Ikaruga]]''.

* [[Demons Souls]] has the Monumentals and the Archstones in the Nexus. The Monumentals, willingly transformed into half-living magical statues, [[Sealed Evil in A Can|sealed]] away the [[Eldritch Abomination|Old One]] the last time it went on a soul-devouring world tour, and created the six Archstones to bind together the remaining fragments of reality. If the Monumentals completely die out, or the Archstones get destroyed, cue [[The End of the World As We Know It]].

 

== Web Comics ==

* The five Gates in ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' are somewhat more reasonably founded than most examples: they were placed over flaws in space-time in order to keep the Snarl, the local [[Sealed Evil in A Can]] [[Containment Field|canned]]. And the gods could indeed fix it, in the same way you can fix a horribly screwed-up computer by formatting and reinstalling... (which is to say, by [[The End of the World As We Know It|starting over with a fresh world]]). The gods would do that if the Snarl is ever freed, so the protagonists are working to prevent it from being freed in the first place, for obvious reasons.

* In ''[[Emergency Exit]]'' the main cast was assigned to collect "artifacts" in order to save someone's world from destruction, but it turns out to be a flat out lie and now nobody seems to know what they are for. It is shown that each artifact has a minor power, but implied that they do something far more spectacular when put together (hence an alternative collective name for them, "The Puzzle").