Editor’s Note: I was walking through the Library, high on mnestics, when I stumbled across this research paper. It was extremely damaged by extensive antimemetic corruption and exposure to unreality, rendering all but the title and introduction nigh unreadable. I took the time to transcribe what I could, but much is missing. The original author is unknown, and quite possibly does not exist. I will, however, attempt to recover and transcribe more of it, and while this may prove impossible, I believe it's worth a shot. –F.G.
Introduction: The 5 Types of Non-Existence
For the rest of this paper to make sense, one must first understand that there are different types of Non-Existence, with each of them representing different levels of erasure and unreality.
Anything in the first two types, while still retaining the ability to interact with baseline reality, have had such ability greatly diminished. The next three types lead to the affected being unable to interact with baseline reality in all direct, and most indirect, ways. Interestingly enough, all types can be both forced onto or removed from an entity, with the exception of type five.
1. Perceptual Filter
This is the lowest form of Non-Existence, and contains entities that cannot be correctly perceived. These beings appear to be completely ordinary, regardless of what they are and the context involved. For example, an entity made up of a mass of black tentacles would be seen as normal, even in a human city outside the veil, because of the filter. If a being were to have a perceptual filter, they would still be able to alter the world around them, but the alteration would often be unable to be attributed to them.
2. Antimemetic Filter
This is the second form of Non-Existence, and describes the entities that erase the memories of themselves from others. Any antimemetic entity of reasonable strength will have a sort of perception filter, as any observer who is not under the influence of mnestics will instantly forget about them as they observe them, causing the observer to perceive empty space. This effect can also extend to any actions that antimemes take. For example, people will "forget" that a door is open if an antimeme was the thing that opened it. In the most extreme cases of this type, it goes both ways, with the antimeme not being able to perceive baseline reality. In these cases, even when sharing the same physical space, they may as well be in different universes.
3. Existence Erasure
This type describes when something is removed from reality after the fact. This could be a person, entity, location, item, or even concept. This differs from retrocausal erasure, as it is not clean, and the wipe may fail to erase some aspects. Imagine someone were to erase a pencil drawing: While it had been erased, there would still be lines, smudges, and marks remaining. This allegory continues to hold true, as the more impactful the "drawing" was, the more imprints remain. This can occur if a reality bender were to erase a specific person, place, thing, or idea. This can be stopped by using paratech, such as the Foundation-made Scranton Reality Anchor.
4. Retrocausal Erasure
Type four is a significantly more complete erasure than type three, because the entity has never technically existed in the first place. To continue with our drawing analogy, this is if the pencil had been taken before the drawing was created. While there have been advances in paratech able to prevent this sort of erasure, such as XACTS, the existence of these devices has not been popularized.
5. True Non-Existence
Type five, the most severe form of Non-Existence, is made up of all beings that have never existed, don't exist, and will never exist. This is the home of the Neverwere, as well as the purview of the Court of Winter. This is the closest to Non-Existence that anything described can be. Anything less extant cannot be described without losing some facet of its own unreality, pulling it into at least type five.
It is important to first understand the definitions of these five types, as they are the basis for the Theory of Unreality, and the discoveries in the related field. This paper details my research into the fifth type, and
