Painted by Rappu
The Rapture Cycle is the framework established by OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING and in which all subsequent stories take place. It is named for the central eldritch horror its stories revolve around: Rapture, the ancient universe-eating abomination, as well as the circumstances leading up to and resulting from its defeat. This page will cover the overall canon of the cycle as well as stories related to the canon, for convenience.
Its main website/blog is the blindrapture Tumblr.
Main contents of the Rapture Cycle[]
The stories of the cycle are written by DJay32 and deals primarily with the analysis, deconstruction, and exploration of Jordan Dooling and the Fear Mythos in general.
- OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING: A 1500-page novel depicting a boy's attempts to survive the terminal coming of Rapture on Earth in 2011, and the life and struggles of Tiresias as he tries across time to adapt to becoming a Fear. Introduces a few dozen Fears and the nature of Rapture. Its second half is currently in editing.
- PLAN 31: RISE OF MCFEAR: An ongoing comedy blog, dealing with a peculiar legal system's accommodation of beings from different canons. One protagonist is Jordan, from the Rapture logs, and his logs here are canonical, continuing where that novel left off.
- Final Rapture: An ongoing illustrated web fic about a Nobody's 2014 voyage from the coast to the mainland as revelations of the 2011 apocalypse come to light.
Other stories[]
These are stories not necessarily in the cycle but in its canon, or playing upon the canon.
"Christmas Specials"[]
- 2011's special, OH GOD THE CHRISTMAS IS JOLLY, retold the apocalypse with a Christmas theme.
- 2012's special, Your Average Christmas with the Rapture Family, had the characters of Act IV get together and exchange presents.
- 2013's special, An Anecdote from the Ceesverse, has The Beast delivering presents to everyone on Christmas in an attempt to atone for his crimes. It is notable for being the first canon Christmas special.
- 2014's special, A Portrait of the Father as a Jolly Merryman, was about a peculiar dream where The Beast challenges a mafia-esque Santa Claus to an epic fight. Appears in Topography Genera and Other Stories.
Stories written without DJay's involvement[]
- Rapture Fanfica Tetralogy : A tetralogy of fanfiction blogs centered around people obsessed with OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING. It is written by MythosWeaver and includes Answer to Rapture, Blogs & Everything, Journal's Journal, Aniland's Land, and Rapture Fanfica.
- Fears of The Man: A blog written by Matsokune. It is a set of logs written by Danny Finnegan. Contents pending.
- Old Man & The Rapture : A fanfic webnovel, painting the events of The Rapture Logs in the style of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man & The Sea. Written by a group of authors including but not limited to MythosWeaver, Pandora & Moomin.
- The Princess of Rapture: A series of narrative freestyle poems detailing the adventures of a young girl through Rapture. Written by Moomin. Contents pending.
Fears in the cycle[]
The Fears are portrayed as something resembling a pantheon of mythical gods and associated eldritch beings, with the exact number changing sporadically over time. New Fears can come either by migrating from other universes, by existing Fears splitting into two, or even by mortals ascending to higher planes of existence. Likewise, the Fear count can go down by means of Fears migrating to other universes, killing each other, or even in some instances being killed by mortals. No official list of Fears can be given as it's questionable within the canon what constitutes a "Fear" in the first place.
Setting[]
The setting of the cycle is referred to simply as "the Totality of existence." Certain powerful beings describe it as a multitude of universes, a science experiment, and a "real-life internet" (with each website as a universe). No one knows exactly where the matter that makes up this Totality came from, not even the "parliament" that exists outside of it and got it moving in the first place. According to one member of parliament, life should have been impossible in the Totality's parameters, so a force or entity that created life has been speculated.
Within the Totality, there are universes with varying rules. Some allow for time travel in movements other than forwards, but in those universes all existence is pointless. Some allow for gods. The Earth's universe, named "Ceverse" by cults for unstated reasons, does not allow for either. The Fears are outside forces, having come to the Ceverse on the run from a much more dangerous entity.
On an even more local scale, the Earth is virtually the same in the cycle as in real life up until May 2011, where the threatening apocalypse changes geography, population, and the laws of physics themselves.