“It was... it was the world itself... the force of order...”
- ― Ollie, describing the Overseers
The Overseers, also known as the will of the world, are powerful entities created by the Primordial God and tasked with maintaining order in the three worlds. There are three Overseers - the Overseer of Light, the Overseer of Life, and the Overseer of Time - with each Overseer managing the three Transcendents of their domain across the three worlds.
History
The Ancient War
In the beginning, the Primordial God made 365 creations - the sun, the moon, the stones, the trees, the wind, the rivers, the seas, and countless others - each adhering to 365 laws that governed the universe. From these 365 creations that made up the world, powerful beings were brought into existence that embodied these natural laws. Over time, these beings were revered as gods by mortals, and ages later, they would be known as the Ancient Gods.
These Ancient Gods were unpredictable and uncontrollable, each with their own independent aims and goals, causing them to come into conflict with each other. Their incredible power and disregard for the natural order created an age of immense chaos that led to devastation and destruction in the mortal world. Unable to abide such chaos, the Primordial God created three beings known as the Overseers in order to restore balance to the universe.
To defeat the Ancient Gods, the Overseers created a powerful relic known as the World Heart. Imbued with immense divine power, the World Heart had the ability to absorb the power of higher beings. On the planet Grandis, twelve wise and courageous Anima sages became known as the elders, famed for their strong sense of duty and their desire to help the world by sharing their wisdom and knowledge. Their excellent character and convictions drew the attention of the Overseers, who gave them a direct mission to use the World Heart in order to create beings who could stop the chaos of the Ancient Gods.
The elders were given much by the Overseers, including a long lifespan and researchers to aid them in their experiments to create the powerful beings that would defeat the gods. The elders created a large floating laboratory called Odium, where they began investigating how to create mortals that could stand up to the gods.
Using the World Heart as a template, the elders created relics known as the Godspheres and built a large, floating laboratory called Odium, where they conducted brutal experiments in order to artificially create Adversaries through a combination of magic and cybernetics. However, the fatal flaw of the elders' research was that Adversaries created in Odium was that they would lose their humanity and forget their memories and their feelings for loved ones, reduced to becoming an empty shell that existed only to fulfilling their assigned destiny.
Furthermore, the elders also realized another side-effect of their Adversaries - one which had been directly created by the Overseers themselves. The Adversaries' power to destroy higher beings made them a great danger to the world, for while they were working to end the chaos of the gods, allowing such powerful and dangerous weapons to remain in the world was a grave risk, as their mere existence had the potential to usher in a new age of chaos, equal to that of the Ancient Gods. For this reason, it had been ordained that the fate of every Adversary, from the moment that they awakened, was to die soon after fulfilling their purpose. As a result, their Adversaries, after defeating the gods, began falling one by one.
After a long and brutal struggle, the Adversaries succeeded in defeating the Ancient Gods, though at the cost of their own lives. In the aftermath of the war, the Overseers ordered the elders to abandon Odium, claiming that it was the only way to cleanse the sins that had transpired there. To prevent the secrets of the Overseers from falling into the wrong hands, the elders used the World Heart to power a complex defense system built around Odium, which would protect the relic and simultaneously drain its power.
As the elders had been contaminated with the contamination of their Adversaries, they created a magical dimension called Shangri-La, the realm of the sages, where they sequestered themselves in order to counteract the contamination with the natural harmony of the realm's four seasons. There, they became known as the Sinners and remained in isolation as they sent the sages to continue following their mandate from the Overseers to maintain order in the outside world.
The Era of the Transcendents
Though order was restored in the universe, the Overseers were not yet satisfied, as there remained a possibility that the Ancient Gods would rise up again. To create a fixed, predictable universe, the Overseers reorganized the universe such that only three worlds - Maple World, Grandis, and Tynerum - would exist, separated into their own dimensions.
The Overseers also forged chains of law, such that the universe would only be governed by the three laws of light, life, and time. Finally, the Transcendents were created to maintain balance over each domain in their respective worlds and to serve as jailors to the Ancient Gods, with the Overseers monitoring their actions. In this way, chaos was completely eradicated and the future was set in stone.
The laws of the Overseers ensured that the universe would forever remain anchored to a predetermined path of destiny. Though countless futures were constantly written, erased, and rewritten, the predictability of the universe was such that manipulating the finite, fixed variables in the world would allow for a particular desired future to be highly likely, to the point that it could be considered inevitable.
The established laws of time also ensured that the future could not be altered by changing the past, as time-travel mechanics defined by the Overseers made it so that the universe operated on the principle of a causal loop - that the very act of changing the past was what would bring about a predetermined future.
The Overseers also made it so that objects from the past could not be taken outside their respective time if doing so would change the future. Additionally, any beings who traveled into the past would have their appearances modified if their being recognized by someone from the past would affect the future, thus preventing time paradoxes.
Aeona and Tana
On Grandis, the Overseers created two girls in the Radiant Temple. The girl who heard their voice, described as "beautiful yet cold", awakened as Aeona, the Transcendent of Light. The other became known as Tana, a reserve to the Transcendent who held the power of creation, while Aeona held the power of destruction. Over the course of countless years, the Overseers used Aeona as their interface to enforce their version of order.
To this end, the Overseers overrode Aeona's free will and forced her to wipe out over seven races of Grandis against her will. It was suspected that Aeona had also wiped out the Black Nova - a cult of Nova who had gained the power of Malice through the Ancient God, Satiras the Devil Dragon.
Eventually, Tana discovered what her sister had done and, believing that she had gone mad with power, fought and killed her, resulting in her awakening as the next Transcendent of Light. Tana heard the voice of the Overseers commanding her to obey, but her strong willpower allowed her to resist their orders, after which she left Grandis and eventually found her way in Maple World.
The White Mage
On Maple World, the White Mage began studying light and dark magic, hoping to find the ultimate light - the power that would complete their broken world and allow humanity to rise above their endless cycle of suffering. Upon the completion of his research, the White Mage entered the divine realm, where he hoped to find the ultimate light.
Just then, however, the Overseers' chains of law wrapped themselves around him and firmly held him back. The White Mage cursed the Overseers for keeping the world broken and incomplete, vowing that he would do anything to defy their laws in order to deliver salvation to humanity, even if it meant that he had to destroy the world itself and replace it.
Realizing the primal force that he stood against, the White Mage awakened as the Transcendent of Light, believing that he had no choice but to borrow the power of the divine in order to defeat them. He then expelled the light within himself, awakening with the power of destruction. Reborn as the Black Mage, he vowed that he would free the world from the Overseers and their chains of law that anchored the world to darkness.
Believing that the Overseers had left the world broken beyond repair, the Black Mage intended to destroy the world and recreate it. Knowing that the Overseers could only shape the universe by using the Transcendents as their proxies, the Black Mage sought to remove their influence from the world that he would create by destroying the Transcendents. In this way, he intended for life to restart from scratch, resulting in a perfect society created by complete beings, as the Overseers would never have had any influence in its development.
Though he was standing against a primal power, his sole advantage was that the Overseers, in creating a fixed universe, made it so that all possible futures could be calculated based on known variables. While some mortals possessed the ability to see fragments of the future, the Black Mage was able to take advantage of the fixed variables in the universe in order to divine all the countless futures based on those fundamental laws. In this way, he could manipulate events to ensure that his plans succeeded. Because of the laws governing the universe, Transcendents were incapable of destroying each other or themselves. To circumvent this, the Black Mage amassed an army of monsters and gathered seven Commanders to lead them.
With his Commanders gathered, the Black Mage gained the forces needed to battle the other Transcendents. However, the biggest problem that remained was how he would be able to destroy himself. In all possible futures, there was no situation in which he, as a Transcendent, could be killed. He knew that he needed to create a being who could change fate, and so he decided to create an Adversary.
Just as in eons past during the Ancient War, a mortal who bonded with a Godsphere would gain a power greater than that of the Ancient Gods and the Transcendents alike. Though he knew that he could create an Adversary, he also knew that they would be the most unpredictable variable in his plan, as the Adversary needed to be pushed to their very limits in order to gain the determination needed to activate the power of the Godsphere. In order to force the Adversary into awakening that power at the critical moment, the Black Mage planned to subliminally influence their decisions.
As the Godspheres operated on the collective determination of the masses, he made it a priority to push the world into resisting the idea of a fixed future, as their strong desire would be channeled through the Godsphere as the Adversary championed their strongest wish. Simultaneously, he promised his Commanders a place in his new world order, though he secretly intended to have them eliminated before they realized that he intended to destroy everything. In this way, he would force the people into rallying against him, while also keeping his Commanders in line.
To carry out the Genesis Ritual, the Black Mage needed the powers of creation and destruction, along with a high volume of pure Erdas. To obtain creation and to aggregate a high concentration of Erdas, he needed to create a convergence of the three worlds, which would allow him to not only siphon the Erdas generated from the collision, but also steal the powers of creation from another Transcendent of Light.
As a world without active Transcendents automatically sought out another world to merge with in order to maintain its balance of Transcendents, the Black Mage planned to seal the other Transcendents of Maple World, as well as himself. He began a war of conquest with his Commanders and planned to use them to fight against the other Transcendents, while simultaneously drawing out the very heroes who would seal him.
After centuries of careful manipulation, the Black Mage succeeded in uniting the world against him in the form of the Maple Alliance. He then pitted his Commanders against the Alliance, ensuring that their conflict would result in the Transcendents of Maple World from being unable to pass on their powers, resulting in Alicia, the Transcendent of Life, having her life force scattered, and Zero, the Transcendent of Time after Rhinne, being divided and weakened.
The Empress' Bloodline
Shortly after the end of the Ancient War, the divine bird Shinsoo was tasked with protecting a particular bloodline, which had grown intertwined with the Transcendents, such that a descendent of that bloodline would one day awaken to become a replacement Transcendent should the need arise. To this end, Shinsoo used her power to create the floating island of Ereve, which became a seat of power for the Empress of Maple World, whose bloodline held the power of the Transcendents.
After many centuries, Empress Cygnus' innate power was awakened at the shock of seeing Shinsoo nearly killed by Damien. However, as her power had been meant to awaken to replace a Transcendent, Cygnus instead awakened as a Transcendent-in-reserve, as all the Transcendents of Maple World were still active at the time. By the time of the battle of Tenebris, Cygnus reached adulthood and was able to fully claim the power of Shinsoo.
The Adversary
Over the course of his plan, the Black Mage succeeded in creating an Adversary, who then faced him at the battle of Tenebris. However, as a result of being unable to fully account for Tana's influence, the Adversary was drained of their Arcane Power by Arma, a creature inadvertently created by Tana, resulting in a series of cascading events that resulted in their willpower being broken, preventing them from awakening the power of the Adversary during the final battle and killing the Black Mage.
As a result of their failure, the Black Mage successfully destroyed and recreated the universe. However, as he - the last Transcendent - still existed in the new world, his presence meant that the Overseers still held influence over it, meaning that his plan had failed. After looking through the Adversary's memories, he determined that Tana was the factor that he had not accounted for.
Despite the fact that the Overseers' laws created a causal loop, the Black Mage decided to send the Adversary back in time - an action that he described as risky and unrepeatable - in order to have them change the future. The Adversary, after traveling back in time, lost their memories and eventually became a Temple Keeper named Kao.
When the Adversary of the past began their journey in the Arcane River, Kao was successfully able to recover their memories and helped the Adversary retain their Arcane Force, allowing them to successfully kill the Black Mage in the final battle. With his death, the Black Mage succeeded in eliminating all the Transcendents of Maple World. Shortly after his death, Maple World and Grandis fused back into one world, just as they had been before the Overseers had separated them into their own dimensions.
After the death of the Black Mage, the Adversary aided the Alliance in fighting against Gerand Darmoor, Grandis' corrupt Transcendent of Life. During their missions, Darmoor shattered their Seal Stone, taking away their ability to kill higher beings. During the Adversary's journey to replace their lost power, they obtained the World Heart from Odium, which had been drained of all its power, and entered Shangri-La to ask the elders for their help in restoring it.
However, the elders learned that the Adversary was the only one of their kind who had not only been able to retain their humanity, but they had also defied the destiny created by the Overseers for all Adversaries to die upon fulfilling their purpose. The elders realized that Darmoor had saved the Adversary's life by destroying their Seal Stone, which would have killed them if it had remained inside them any longer.
The elders believed that the Adversary was an affront to the will of the world, and that they would one day plunge the world into chaos. However, Kaling - an Apostle of Darmoor - soon attacked Shangri-La with the help of six elders who had chosen to go against the Overseers. After the Adversary defeated her, the elders permitted them to leave with the World Heart. Meanwhile, the six traitorous elders escaped Shangri-La and sought out Darmoor.
Powers and Limitations
Abilities
As the enforcers of order throughout the universe, the Overseers are the most powerful beings in existence, second only to the Primordial God, who had created them. The Overseers have the ability to reshape the universe as they see fit through their supreme mastery over the three laws of light, life, and time, which allowed them to create dimensional barriers to separate the three worlds, and to create new laws of time-travel and causality.
Similar to the Ancient Gods, the Overseers have the ability to create holy relics containing their power, such as the World Heart. The relic of the Overseers had power that far surpassed that of any other being, as it had the ability to strip a god or a god-like being of their powers. Furthermore, the relic was powerful enough that its immense power could be used to create replicas, such as the Godspheres and the Seal Stones, although those man-made relics were weaker than the original, on the same level as a relic of an Ancient God.
The Overseers are also able to create Transcendents, whose powers rival that of the Ancient Gods, as well as to bless mortals like the elders with divine power, allowing them to conduct experiments with extremely powerful relics to create beings as strong as the Adversaries. Using the Transcendents or their chosen mortals, the Overseers command tremendous control over the universe.
Weaknesses
Despite their immense power, the Overseers' greatest weakness is that they are unable to directly manipulate most beings in the universe, including mortals and Ancient Gods. For this reason, the Overseers could not directly interfere with the world in order to defeat the gods, requiring them to necessitate mortal aid in the form of the elders. Though the elders were chosen for their unimpeachable sense of duty, it seems that several of the elders, even during the Ancient War, had been selfish and morally corrupt, suggesting that the Overseers' judgement is fallible.
After the end of the Ancient War, the Overseers created the Transcendents in order to directly interact with the universe. As the Transcendents and their power is tied directly to the Overseers, the Transcendents are the only beings whom the Overseers have the ability to control absolutely. In usual cases, the Overseers are capable of completely overriding the free will of the Transcendents, allowing them to use the Transcendents as puppets to exert their influence on the universe. However, as even Transcendents have free will of their own, it is possible for a Transcendent with immensely strong willpower to resist being commanded by the Overseers, as seen with the Black Mage and Tana.
Because the nature of the universe is such that its inherent state is chaos, the Overseers are fundamentally incapable of exerting true, absolute order onto the world. As a result, the Overseers' only forms of control are through suppression and conservation. This suppression can be seen through the Overseers sealing away the Ancient Gods and suppressing the original 365 laws down to three, which created predictable and manipulable variables.
Conservation can be seen through the Adversaries - beings created with the Godspheres, described by the Black Mage as the power of chaos and the power of resisting control. As the Overseers did not have absolute control over the Adversaries, nor could they create a relic that operated on the basis of true order, the Overseers instead chose to use a controlled form of chaos, creating a fixed number of chaotic beings and then immediately destroying them once their purpose had been fulfilled, allowing them to conserve the amount of chaos introduced into the universe.
Nature
The Overseers are described as formless and abstract, akin to a force of nature, rather than actual beings. Ollie, who saw the Black Mage's memories during the events of Tenebris, described the Overseers as "the world itself", "the force of order", and "the essence of balance", though she added that it was hard to describe. She also mentioned that it "appeared like a fog, formless and twisting", but that she could feel it wrapping around the White Mage like heavy chains.
In the Black Mage: Origin webcomic, the divine plane is shown to be an ethereal space filled with nebulas, where the White Mage stood upon a chessboard and looked up at a gigantic eye-like shape, suggested to be that of an Overseer. Based on Ollie's description and the White Mage's vision, it is highly likely that the Overseers do not have physical form, instead being abstract entities with no specific shape.
Created by the Primordial God to quell the primordial chaos, the Overseers exist solely to maintain absolute order. As beings that transcend the physical plane, the Overseers exist beyond realm of mortal conception and morality, as their actions are methodical and mechanical, rather than being carried out with the intention of performing help or harm.
As such, the Overseers - despite their near-omnipotence - have no interest in aiding mortals beyond maintaining order. This can be seen through many of their actions throughout the story, such as defeating the Ancient Gods by forcing the elders to strip their Adversaries of their humanity and free will, as well as by maintaining order through stripping the Transcendents of their free will and using them to capriciously commit genocide of entire races.
Upon discovering the nature of the Overseers, the White Mage grew furious at their indolence and chose to awaken as a Transcendent in order to destroy their hold on the universe, as he believed that the harm that they were committing on the universe by allowing the world to remain stagnant and incomplete far surpassed any good that they could do by keeping their arbitrary sense of order and balance.
Nevertheless, the Overseers are frequently described as the world itself, as well as the will of the world, as their will is equated to be that of the universe and its laws. Most of the elders of Grandis strongly revere the Overseers and their will, believing it to be the supreme authority for whom it is their duty to follow. For this reason, they believed the Adversary to be an affront to the will of the world, as they had not only retained their ego and individuality, but they had also escaped their destiny to die, leaving them capable of creating great chaos against the intentions of the Overseers.
As the Goddesses are described to be the spirit manifestations of their respective worlds, it is speculated that the Goddesses are the Overseers' interface to interact with mortals, similar to how the Transcendents are their proxies for directly manipulating the world, as the Overseers are abstract beings without bodies to communicate their will. With the Goddesses being the spirits of their worlds, they would therefore be mouthpieces for the will of the world.
The Three Overseers
Overseer of Light
The Overseer of Light is responsible for maintaining the laws of light and all the Transcendents of Light across the three worlds. Unlike the other domains, the power of light is split into creation and destruction. Because the power of light is much more potent than the powers of life and time, the Overseer of Light splits the two powers of creation and destruction into an awakened Transcendent and their reserve.
The White Mage encountered the Overseer of Light in the divine realm shortly before awakening as the Transcendent of Light. The Overseer was shown to be a formless, eye-like nebula, with its chains of law wrapping around the White Mage and holding him back.
Both Tana and Aeona heard the voice of this Overseer, which marked them as an awakened Transcendent. The Overseer of Light was also responsible for forcing Aeona to wipe out over seven races of Grandis. Although the reason for this is unknown, it is speculated by Kain that Aeona may have wiped out the Black Nova. As the Black Nova held the power of Malice, which was given to them by Satiras, it is possible that the Overseer had intended to wipe out all traces of the Ancient Gods from the universe.
Overseer of Life
The Overseer of Life is responsible for maintaining the laws of life and all the Transcendents of Life across the three worlds. Alicia was said to be the mother of life, though she indirectly suggested that most life forms were created by a higher power than her. Because of this, it is likely that many life forms across the three worlds were created by the Overseer of Life, with the exception of certain beings that existed in the time of the Ancient Gods, such as humans, the Nova, and the Karuppa.
Although not much is known about the Overseer of Life, it is possible that Gerand Darmoor met them in the divine realm or heard their voice, similar to how the White Mage, Aeona, and Tana awakened.
Overseer of Time
The Overseer of Time is responsible for maintaining the laws of time and all the Transcendents of Time across the three worlds. The Overseer of Time defined the laws of time to ensure that the future would remain fixed and predictable, which was done through establishing causal loop time-travel mechanics, making it so that objects cannot be removed from their time, and physically altering the faces of time-travelers if it would cause paradoxes. The Overseer of Time also created a limitation for the Transcendents of Time, such that they can change the fate of any being but themselves.
There is no mention that Alpha and Beta heard the voice of the Overseer upon awakening as Transcendents, although this either be because they are imperfect and divided Transcendents, or that this was a plot hole that came from the writers not having created this detail.