Abnormalities

For a list of the Abnormalities seen in Limbus Company, see List of Abnormalities.

Abnormalities (Hangul: 환상체, Hwansangche) are entities that manifested from the mind of humans through Lobotomy Corporation's Singularity, reflecting an aspect of the desires, behaviors, and fears of City people. They are featured predominantly in the preceding game Lobotomy Corporation.

Abnormalities cannot die, and can only be temporarily suppressed. After suppression, they revert into their core, an ovate form that will hatch once enough time has passed.

They are also the source of Abnormality E.G.O, including E.G.O Suits, Weapons, and Gifts.

Overview

Drifting Fox's Abnormality core.

Abnormalities are unique, otherworldly beings that are the driving force of Lobotomy Corporation and make continued appearances across the Project Moon games. In-universe, Abnormalities were created through L Corp.'s Singularity. This Singularity transformed people via use of the Well and the Bucket, physically manifesting humanity's various fears, beliefs, stories, and more in the form of uncanny creatures. When their needs were met, these creatures produced Enkephalin, an energy source which L Corp. would then sell to other Wings and City denizens. As such, Lobotomy Corporation employees were tasked with working with and satisfying the Abnormalities with the goal of producing Enkephalin, all while attempting to prevent the somewhat-unpredictable Abnormalities from becoming a threat. Abnormalities would occasionally become such a hazard, breaking out of their containment units; they could then be combated by L Corp. agents, but not permanently killed. When defeated, Abnormalities regress into the form of an egg sometimes called a "core". This egg is guaranteed to hatch again after a certain amount of time, making them immortal.

L Corp. classified Abnormalities by their Risk Level: ZAYIN, TETH, HE, WAW, or ALEPH. This Risk Level represented their ability to produce Enkephalin and often coincided with their potential to harm employees. Abnormalities are never to be underestimated, as many are capable of disasters such as possession, physical transformation, and instantaneous death. Still, Abnormalities may also offer benefits to employees who treat them correctly. Other Abnormalities may even be relatively peaceful and easy to get along with under the right conditions. Additionally, on top of the Enkephalin which was used and sold as an energy source, Abnormalities would produce PE-boxes unique to each of them, through which their E.G.O could be extracted. Within Lobotomy Corporation, E.G.O took the form of either Weapons, Suits, or Gifts that employees could wield efficiently regardless of ability. Abnormalities were produced entirely in L Corp.'s "hub" facility where Lobotomy Corporation takes place, with Abnormalities of other facilities having been shipped out from the main branch. This can be contributed to the special, unreplicable process which Abnormalities were produced through. Their E.G.O, however, can be extracted anywhere by anyone, given that one manages to produce PE-boxes from the Abnormality.

Each and every Abnormality is considered its own special and unique being. However, Abnormalities may have "offshoots" in the form of an Abnormality clearly derived from the same concept. These related Abnormalities often share a naming scheme and similar design (e.g. Der Freischütz and Der Fluchschütze). This idea was first introduced in Wonderlab under the term "Abberations", although Wonderlab has since been removed from Project Moon's official Postype account at the artist's request, meaning that the word Abberation and its associated explanation exist within a questionable state of canonicity. Nonetheless, the concept of an Abberation is still very much present in Limbus Company, despite the lack of a stated name for the phenomena.

Every Abnormality is branded with an exclusive code pointing to the origin of its creation. However, the games lack an official, detailed explanation for these codes, which also happen to differ between Lobotomy Corporation and Limbus Company.

The collapse of L Corp. following Lobotomy Corporation's true ending meant that Abnormalities can no longer be produced by people. In present day, they form only through rare, natural means upon interacting with the River, or from a Distortion after enough time has passed. Outside of these exceptions, all Limbus Company Abnormalities are remnants of Lobotomy Corporation's work, continuing to live past the collapse of the facilities that had previously held them. Abnormalities may be encountered across the City given L Corp.'s expansive number of branch facilities.

Sub-entities

You Want To Get Beat? Hurtily? is a sub-entity of Have You Become Strong.

Certain Abnormalities demonstrate the ability to produce sub-entities (sometimes known unofficially as "minions") who function to benefit the Abnormality they originated from. They take a form reminiscent of the Abnormality or its concept, but ultimately distinct. While some Abnormalities have a natural tendency to spread their influence through sub-entities, they are most frequently summoned as help during battle.

Oftentimes, an Abnormality will create sub-entities by causing a human being who has interacted with it to undergo a transformation. The process may range from something similar to succumbing to an infection (e.g The Little Prince) to simple physical transformation (e.g. Parasite Tree). Abnormalities may also spawn sub-entities without transforming another party, such as with Dream of a Black Swan's summoning of its "sister," Queen Bee's eggs and pupae being inserted within hosts to emerge once grown, or Drifting Fox's summoning of umbrellas. Sub-entities with the capacity to move are usually violent and relatively mindless in their actions, though not all of them appear to be capable of attacking (e.g. Portrait of a Certain Day's portraits). Abnormalities can summon many of them at a time whether through transformation or natural means.

Classifications

This refers specifically to Limbus Company's method of classifying Abnormalities. For Lobotomy Corporation's, see the Abnormalities page on the Lobotomy Corporation wiki.

Risk Levels

During its time as a Wing, Lobotomy Corporation assigned Risk Levels to each of the Abnormalities it managed. These Risk Levels corresponded to their energy production efficiency, given L Corp.'s role as an energy corporation. The five Risk Levels, from least energy produced to most energy, were ZAYIN, TETH, HE, WAW, and ALEPH. These assignments also tended to correlate to the complexity of the Abnormality's needs and potential danger, but said factors were ultimately not L Corp.'s intended use of the Risk Levels.

Limbus Company also uses these same Risk Levels to categorize the Abnormalities they fight. However, in Season 4's Risk Levels & Classifications mini-episode, the LCD explains that there is a significant disparity between the fallen Wing's standards of categorization (based on how much Enkephalin they produced) and Limbus Company's combat experiences. This is in part due to both the difference in managing and fighting an Abnormality, and Limbus Company's suppression of their strength via the Golden Boughs. As such, Limbus Company would eventually use its own variation of the system and re-categorize the Abnormalities they have encountered accordingly. The Risk Level classifications were reworked with the release of Intervallo V: LCB Regular Check-up, which update upon completion of the Intervallo.

Following this update, Risk Levels are now proceeded by a number indicating their expected strength in addition to the Risk Level (such as TETH-02). Dante's Notes clarifies that the original labels (ZAYIN, TETH, etc.) are unchanged from Lobotomy Corporation's energy-related classifications. Rather, the number is Limbus Company's sole addition, which operates separately from the label and is the only indicator of the Abnormality's combative threat level. As Dante explains, a "HE-5 [Abnormality] presents more potential dangers than WAW-4 in a fight".

Classification Codes

On top of the basic Risk Level, each Abnormality is assigned a classification code to act as a unique identifier. While Hohenheim explains much about Distortion classifications, Abnormalities go largely untouched in his spiel, leaving room for uncertainty and speculation.

During his explanation, Hohenheim mentions the difficulty in identifying and observing the shape of a Distortion, stating it was replaced with a different metric for classifying Distortions. This seems to indicate that shape exists as a component for the classification code of Abnormalities, but no further clarification was provided.

The updated classifications consist of four different indicators (??-??-??-??). Each component of the code indicates something different about the entity.

• Firstly (XX-??-??-??): either F, T, O, or M. It indicates the source or origin of the Abnormality. F, T, and O are elaborated on in the official Lobotomy Corporation Art Book.
  • F: Forgotten tales, folklore, oral tradition, legends
    (e.g. Ebony Queen's Apple, from the tale of Snow White)
  • T: Intense personal experience, horrific fear, emotions
    (e.g. Wayward Passenger, based on the trauma of the WARP Trains)
  • O: Beyond the boundaries between the River and the Ocean, unknown causes, natural occurrence, manufactured, the Well
    (appears to be a catch-all for Abnormalities that don't fit into other classifications, e.g. Ardor Blossom Moth)
  • M: Mythology
    (e.g. Doomsday Calendar, based on the Mayan Calendar)
    This code is unique to Limbus Company, and does not yet have an official explanation.
• Secondly (??-XX-??-??): currently unclear.
• Third (??-??-XX-??): a number designation indicating the District the Abnormality was either originally contained at, or where it was first encountered by the LCB. Which one it actually represents, or if it is even consistent, is currently unclear.
  • Abnormalities such as Blubbering Toad, kqe-1j-23, and My Form Empties were first encountered by the LCB while they were in District 11. However, the third segment of their codes are "23", "20", and "04" respectively, pointing to the former interpretation.
  • Fairy Festival was originally contained at L Corp.'s headquarters in District 12. However, the third segment of their code is "20" which corresponds to the LCB first encountering them in District 20, pointing to the latter interpretation.
  • This code is unique to Limbus Company, and does not yet have an official explanation.
• Fourth (??-??-??-XX): currently unclear. Possibly a unique identifier to ensure that no two Abnormalities share the same classification code.

Additionally, entities that have undergone E.G.O Corrosion appear to use the suffix "TE" (e.g. Corroded Inquisitors with codes like "O-02-04-13-TE"), and sub-entities of parent Abnormalities are given a lowercase, alphabetized suffix to denote types/variants (e.g. Slumber-broken Neighbor with a code of "F-05-10-18-a", Freezing Miner Slave with a code of "F-05-10-18-b").

An Abnormality and its resistances, parts, and skills.

Gameplay

In Limbus Company, Abnormalities primarily function as boss encounters within Dungeons and the Refraction Railway. Abnormality minions and Peccatula also appear in standard Dungeon fights. Each Abnormality fight is a focused encounter where skills must be manually targeted. All Abnormalities lack Sanity.

The weakness and resistances of an Abnormality are unknown until they are tested by the player. Similarly, their skills and passives are not displayed in the Abnormality Encyclopedia until they are used/activated in battle.

Abnormalities have multiple "Parts" that each have their own health, stats, stagger thresholds, and skills. Damage done to an individual part is also reflected in the main body of the Abnormality, also known as the "Core". Status effects, however, are not shared between parts or the core. If a part is labelled as "Destructible", it can be destroyed once its health is depleted. Once a part is destroyed, it can be considered Staggered, taking fatal damage from all damage types. If it is "Severable", it instead becomes unusable and untargetable. In some cases, destroyed parts can be regenerated.

Meeting certain requirements in an Abnormality battle can trigger a mid-combat event to occur, prompting a choice and/or skill check.

A select few Abnormalities incite unique death animations upon killing a Sinner (such as Ebony Queen's Apple and Spiral of Contempt).

Viewing an Observation Log.

Observation Level

All Abnormalities have an Observation Level, starting at 0 and maxing out at V. The Observation Level increases by one every time the Abnormality is defeated a number of times equal to the next Observation Level (For instance, an Abnormality at Observation Level III would need to be defeated 4 times to get to Observation Level IV). Each level increases the damage dealt to the Abnormality by 3%, up to a maximum of 15% (unless in the Refraction Railway, to which no damage bonus is applied, regardless of Observation Level).

Sometimes, certain in-battle actions or occurrences need to take place for the Observation Level to increase. Increasing an Abnormality's Observation Level will unlock more of its Observation Logs. If an Abnormality is suppressed by a Status Effect, gift, another enemy, or event, the Observation Level will not raise.

Lore and Creation

Abnormalities are a kind of creature originating from the people of the City. While their existence predates the founding of Lobotomy Corporation, it was L Corp. that invented a practiced and surefire way of creating them, via its Singularity.

Natural Creation of Abnormalities

Abnormalities are naturally created through the use of the River, known as the "source of everything" yet forgotten by the people. It is said to have flown "at the very bottom of the world for many an age". Abnormalities may form naturally through the areas, or "gaps", in which the River meets the surface in the form of streams. Angela uses the Black Forest deep within the Outskirts as an example of one area where a stream had formed and produced Abnormalities. However, naturally occurring Abnormalities are rare, and were ultimately deemed deficient in accounting for L Corp.'s needs as an energy company.

Lobotomy Corporation's Creation of Abnormalities

Within Lobotomy Corporation, Abnormalities came to be through the Well and the Bucket. The Well refers to the "Well of Humanity", while the Bucket was L Corp.'s source of Cogito, the "fluid of life and death".

The Well of Humanity was something forgotten by Cityfolk, but that could still be sensed by a select few. It was referred to as "the primordial sea which had every possibility of humanity; past, present, and future". Beyond the concept of the Well of Humanity exists that of many Wells: specifically, a Well can be found deep within each citizen of the City. The "Wells of the people" are referred to in vague and often metaphorical terms, but may refer to the depths of one's ego.

The Bucket, or what remained of Carmen.

Carmen was one of those who could sense the presence of the Well of Humanity, and attributed the disease of the mind— an idea of which she established and sought to cure— to it. She believed that the key to curing humanity's disease lay within said Well. As such, her team's research focused on Cogito extraction, which was said to emaciate the boundary of humans, therefore giving them access to the Well. Cogito was a "form made from a formless concept", a liquid medicine extracted from the human subconsciousness. Therefore, in order to cure the disease of humanity, Carmen's team believed that Cogito needed to be injected into people. Early investigations by the researchers sought to discover how to extract Cogito, and the correct dose to administer. Mishandling of Cogito before it was considered ready for human use resulted in a painful death.

The Bucket was invented following Carmen's attempted suicide. Ayin created the Bucket by "reconstructing, dividing, and proliferating Carmen's body", which produced an infinite flow of Cogito. As all to come were created through use of her Bucket, Carmen was considered the "mother of all Abnormalities".

At the main branch, it was Binah's task to extract Abnormalities for all Lobotomy Corporation facilities. Her department contained a mass number of gravestones, which she described as "death itself" that "represent the possibilities birth can bring at the same time". Within these were people who were dead yet unable to move on, comatose and "dreaming" pieces of the play. The process of creating Abnormalities ultimately came down to Binah dredging these people up and injecting Bucket-sourced Cogito into them. This was done without the consent of the other party. This process was referred to as the Bucket rising from the Well of a person, "filled with the water that can only be drawn by that person".

Having been extracted from humans, Abnormalities carry the will of the person they originated from, and are exclusive and unique as a result. Binah describes this as there being "as many worlds as there are people". Adam also describes Abnormalities as the "truer forms" of humanity.

Given that Carmen has dissipated into the Light as of Lobotomy Corporation's true ending (squandering the Bucket), Abnormalities can now only be created through natural means and through failed Distortions.

Similar Entities

Distinction from Ordeals

The Fruit of Understanding, an Ordeal.

Ordeals are not Abnormalities, but a consequence of trying and failing to create one. Specifically, Ordeals are entities that form by administering the incorrect dose of Cogito to a human being. They are considered impurities, representing all kinds of beings that have and will exist in the world. During their first encounter with one, Dante found Ordeals most comparable to Peccatula.

Given that all Abnormalities were created in one place, Ordeals only ever existed at the main branch, and were not spread to other facilities like the Abnormalities were. They were never contained, but simply spawned on their own at certain intervals, to then be taken care of by the employees. Ordeals also came in a select few types: Amber, Crimson, Green, Indigo, Violet, and White, and spawned within time periods classified as Dawn, Noon, Dusk, and Midnight. It is not clear if this is because there are a limited number of results upon creating an Ordeal (similar to Peccatula), or if they are outright unkillable (similar to Abnormalities).

Ordeals are considered ungovernable, but will react to the Qlipoth Deterrence, allowing them to be temporarily put to sleep along with the Abnormalities. Binah describes this as "all we're able to do", however, The 4th Walpurgisnacht depicts the Sinners breaking a Noon of Violet into pieces, and Rodya quotes Faust telling them to "kill them as soon as possible" in the Violet Dawn Observation Log, indicating that they may be capable of being permanently killed.

Distinction from Distortions

While very similar to Distortions, a key distinction between the two is that Distortions are ultimately willingly manifested from their original form's desires (or letting their emotion get the better of their desire), while Abnormalities are in large part created through artificial means. Lobotomy Corporation formed Abnormalities through the use of the Well, Bucket, and Cogito without any conscious agreement from the person involved. On the other hand, Distortions come to be through adverse effects of the Light allowing an agreement between the individual and Carmen.

Distortions are also capable of being permanently killed, and do not temporarily revert to an ovate form like Abnormalities. It is also important to note that Abnormalities themselves are only fragments of the mind extracted from living subjects, unlike Distortions which are the entirety of the person now corrupted by their beliefs.

However, Library of Ruina frequently amounts Distortions and Abnormalities to the same thing. Angela states that "Abnormalities manifested through the Distortion are selves that have lost control…" while Binah tells Roland that "Those may manifest in the form of E.G.O or an Abnormality... the phenomenon has now been named the 'Distortion'". Despite this, the sentiment does not persist into Limbus Company, where they are treated as entirely different types of beings with correlations to each other. In the Risk Levels & Classifications mini-episode, the LCD states that Abnormalities and Distortions are even distinct to the point of requiring different kinds of classification codes.

Distortions Becoming Abnormalities

Abnormalities can also arise from the Distortion Phenomenon, as with enough time, Distortions are guaranteed to "hatch" into an Abnormality. Hohenheim describes this to be when "all preexisting individuality is erased, replaced with the totality of an Abnormality". At this point in the process, there is no hope for the affected individual, as an Abnormality cannot return to normalcy like a Distortion can.

There has been only one shown instance of this, with Jumsoon in Leviathan. In this case, the individual went still and silent, before Schadenfreude suddenly split him open and emerged from within his body. Interestingly, this demonstrates that the process can result in the creation of a second copy of a preexisting Abnormality, and contradicts the established notion that all Abnormalities are one of a kind.

Although both Hohenheim and Ezra credit the transformation to the passage of time, Leviathan additionally suggests that Distortions may turn into Abnormalities as a result of a second shattering of the individual's mental foundation.

Distinction from Peccatula

Peccatulum Luxuriae, representing the second of seven types of Peccatula.

Peccatula arise when an individual tries and "fails" to distort. They are referred to as the origins and byproducts of the Distortion phenomena, and are not directly linked to Abnormalities. Peccatula always come in seven different types (each with at least three "evolutions"), while Abnormalities are unique and take considerable influence from the emotions of the person they originated from. Peccatula, on the other hand, entirely dispose of the transformed's individuality. The only thing that could be considered a remainder of the person-turned-Peccatulum is the type of Peccatula they come to be, which is based on the Sin they embodied in life.

Additionally, Peccatula are considered notably aggressive and beast-like, while Abnormalities are not inherently aggressive and may even attempt to form bonds such as by offering E.G.O Gifts as literal presents.

Trivia

• The names of the five Risk Levels assigned to Abnormalities and E.G.O are taken from letters of the Semitic abjads, more specifically, as seen through the characters used for the Risk Levels, they are from the Hebrew alphabet.
  • Zayin (Hebrew: ז zayīn) is the seventh letter of the Semitic abjad;
  • Teth (Hebrew: ט ṭēṯ) is the ninth letter of the Semitic abjad;
  • He (Hebrew: ה hē) is the fifth letter of the Semitic abjad;
  • Waw (Hebrew: ו vav) is the sixth letter of the Semitic abjad;
  • Aleph (Hebrew: א ʾālef) is the first letter of the Semitic abjad.
• The concept of Abnormalities transforming into cores was introduced in the Legacy version of Lobotomy Corporation, but was ultimately scrapped before the official release.
  • The two cores present in that version still exist unused in the files of Lobotomy Corporation.
• Most cores of suppressed Abnormalities contain a cut jewel at their base with a color corresponding to one of the seven Sin Affinities.
  • Doomsday Calendar, Pink Shoes, Dream-Devouring Siltcurrent, and Schadenfreude do not have gems on their cores.
  • Portrait of a Certain Day, the King in Binds, Hurting Teddy Bear, Rose Hunter and the Knight of Despair have a gray-ish gem not associated with any of the Sin affinities. These may potentially be tied to the "MAD."/"Angst" Sins found in the game's files, as they are represented with Black and White, respectively.
  • The Piece of Crumbled Egg E.G.O Gift and its Story Dungeon event allude to these gems appearing on the cores.
  • Similar Sin-associated gems appear in the Mirror Dungeon as Tier IV E.G.O Gifts.

See Also

• List of Abnormalities
• Lobotomy Corporation
• E.G.O
• Carmen

External Links

• Abnormalities - Lobotomy Corporation wiki
• Abnormalities - Library Of Ruina wiki

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