Line #77 Main/SpacetimeEater


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16	[[quoteright:350:[[Manga/EdensZero https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edens_zero_chronophage.png]]]]
17
18	->''"That body of light is the sign of a super-dimensional life-form. ... He eats dimensions for lunch!"''
19	-->-- '''Dr. Eggman''' on [[EldritchAbomination Solaris]], ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''
20
21	For this type of being, sustenance goes well beyond organic matter--or any kind of matter, [[{{Pun}} for that matter]]. More dangerous than a HordeOfAlienLocusts and [[OurVampiresAreDifferent those who feed on blood]], LifeEnergy, or even {{planet\|Eater}}s, what it eats does not even exist tangibly, for it feeds on ''existence itself''. Such individuals often are {{Eldritch Abomination}}s or display ThePowerOfTheVoid.
22
23	See also RealityWarper, which is about controlling reality instead of eating it, AbstractEater which is the super trope to this, and ClockRoaches which are guardians of causality that eliminate things that threaten it. The eaters' feeding habit may cause RetGone.
24	----
25	!!Examples:
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
29	* ''Manga/EdensZero'': The Chronophage is an EldritchAbomination that feasts on the time of planets, which reverts them to an earlier state depending on how much time is eaten, ranging from decades to millennia. This essentially overwrites a planet's present existence and history with its own past, creating a sort of pocket AlternateTimeline. What's more is that those who manage to escape the planet will not only avoid getting overwritten themselves, but also won't be affected by whatever changes may occur to their past selves, thus allowing two versions of the same people to co-exist free of any {{Temporal Paradox}}es. Conversely, anyone left behind who wasn't there in the past will be [[RetGone erased from existence]].
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Audio Plays]]
33	* ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'':
34	** The Neverpeople, who consume time, erasing people from existence and almost destroying the Web of Time. Then Zagreus, the personification of [[EldritchAbomination Anti-Time]], who could destroy the Universe if released.
35	** "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoDOTD11TheTimeMachine The Time Machine]]" has the Creevix, InsectoidAliens who are the [[TimeMaster masters of time]] from the next universe along. They consume potential future and in an AlternateTimeline consumed the Universe after entering on 23 November 2013. With a massive TimeyWimeyBall, the Eleventh Doctor influences his previous selves to stop their plan.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Comic Books]]
39	* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
40	** In ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', the Anti-Monitor destroys and absorbs the energies of many universes to become stronger.
41	** ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'' has the Chronovore, a monster that eats time. When it feeds, the surrounding environment and creatures suffer RapidAging.
42	** [[spoiler:Mister Mind from ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'']] almost becomes this in ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', bringing the 52 alternate universes in existence (their main differences being the parts of the respective realities which he "ate").
43	** ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' introduces Mandrakk the Dark Monitor, a normal [[TheWatcher Monitor]] corrupted into a vampiric being that feeds on the Bleed, the dimension between realities that separates and defines them.
44	* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': The Black Winter is a cosmic entity that does to entire universes what [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]] does to [[PlanetEater planets]].
45	* A motif in the latter half of ''ComicBook/{{Seconds}}'' is that falling snow takes the appearance of [[spoiler:consuming the fabric of the current reality]].
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Fan Works]]
49	* ''Fanfic/BlackQueenRedKing'' has one in the form of Oblivion. Discord claims that Oblivion was created to consume all of reality itself.
50	* In ''Fanfic/KingOfKingsRulingOverRulers'', Ayavan is capable of consuming the timeline of living beings.
51	* In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'', Makarov absorbs other beings, which causes them to be RetGone'd. The author describes him as an "Existence Vampire".
52	* In the MagicalGirl CrisisCrossover ''Fanfic/ShatteredSkiesTheMorningLights'', [[spoiler:[[BigBad Joker]] unleashes one of these upon the [[Anime/PrettyCure Precure universe]]. [[NoNameGiven "The entity"]] consumes and [[RetGone ret-gones]] every Precure continuity after [[Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure Go Princess]], and manages to consume all possible futures from the remaining ten continuities before it's finally stopped. It leaves a catastrophic TimeCrash in its wake]].
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
56	* ''Film/TheNeverEndingStory'': The Nothing is consuming the land of Fantasia. If it isn't stopped, Fantasia will be destroyed.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Literature]]
60	* ''Literature/TheAtrocityArchive'' has [[spoiler:an infovore, an extrauniversal intelligence that feeds on quantum information, causing the AlternateUniverse it was summoned into to gradually collapse]].
61	* In ''City at the End of Time'' by Creator/GregBear, the Typhon manifests as this at the end of time, untold trillions of years in the future. The Typhon eats away at the ''logic'' of the universe; within it, nothing makes sense, and the rules of nature no longer apply. The last city in existence, the Kalpa, only just barely holds the Typhon at bay with its reality generators, and they have slowly been failing.
62	* The ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos'' story "The Space Eaters" by Creator/FrankBelknapLong begins with a conversation between the narrator and his friend on such {{Eldritch Abomination}}s:
63	-->''"Suppose there were a greater horror? Suppose evil things from some other universe should decide to invade this one? Suppose we couldn't see them? Suppose we couldn't feel them? Suppose they were of a color unknown on Earth, or rather, of an appearance that was without color?... What could we do? Our hands would be tied. You cannot oppose what you cannot see or feel. You cannot oppose the thousand-dimensional. Suppose they should eat their way to us through space!"''
64	* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', [[EldritchAbomination the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions]] want to invade the Disc because their home is sorely lacking in reality. They believe invading the Disc and consuming its reality will make them more real, though it's stated to be as futile as the ocean trying to warm itself with a candle.
65	* ''Literature/TheLangoliers'' has an airliner fly through a "time rip", landing at an airport with all its passengers but ten disappeared. The ten passengers, who were all sleeping during the passage through the rift, are all stuck in time such that time does not move forward (although they can move within that frame). Eventually, they see mysterious ball-like creatures with sharp gnashing teeth literally "eating" the surrounding existence itself, approaching them...
66	* ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana'': The Denizens of the Crimson World are monsters from another world who consume the "power of existence" of humans. If they eat your power of existence, you're RetGone'd from reality. Interestingly, the majority of the cast are such [[HumanoidAbomination monsters]], and a significant number of them try to find a way to get around their morally indefensible diet. [[spoiler:They eventually find a way, thanks to Snake-Yuuji.]]
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
70	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster The Time Monster]]", the Master attempts to control a powerful being called Kronos, whom the Doctor refers to as a Chronovore, or time-eater.
71	* ''Series/Loki2021'': Alioth is an enormous beast that consumes anything that is sent to the void at the end of time. [[spoiler:He Who Remains originally used it to win the multiversal war by having it eat all of the other timelines.]]
72	[[/folder]]
73
74	[[folder:Multiple Media]]
75	* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': While Unicron ''appears'' to be a "mere" PlanetEater, he actually feeds off of existence itself in his bid to [[OmnicidalManiac eliminate all of reality]] and be truly alone. In every continuity, he's the same individual, at some different point in his existence. Some universes he devours, others are saved from him, and he's shunted to the next one to begin the cycle anew. According to the Transtech Cybertronians, Unicron has successfully terminated 1,176,325 universes so far (out of 15,962,782 catalogued by them). He actually managed to devour all of creation at one point, but it was re-created while he slept. He was rather annoyed when he woke up and realized he'd have to do it all over again.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
79	* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': The Abyss as a whole constantly gnaws at reality, for it is anti-reality made manifest, a realm of contradiction, paradox and negation opposed to existence as we know it.
80	* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
81	** The Eldrazi titans were exactly this before being trapped in a physical form on the plane of Zendikar by three powerful planeswalkers. Now they simply nom Zendikar from the inside, turning everything they meet to dust.
82	** While each variety of atog has its own diet, the chronatog is the most bizarre and is described as feeding on time... somehow. In the card game this is represented by the player skipping his next turn.
83	* ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'': The entrope is an artificial lifeform created by the doomguard, a powerful philisophical faction in the setting which believes in the inevitability of death and decay. It possesses the capacity to consume planar barriers, the results of which can be very dangerous due to the majority of such organisms being located in the [[ElementalPlane Inner Planes]].
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Video Games]]
87	* In ''VideoGame/BluePlanet'', overheard thoughts of {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s reference something they call an "ontovore". The word's etymology suggests that it refers to something which consumes existence. They also refer to the same thing as an "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acatalepsy acatalepsis]] event". Not a whole lot is known about it, and it's implied that even thinking about the subject is [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow dangerous to one's mental health]].
88	* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' has the Time Devourer, the main antagonist of the game and [[spoiler:the fusion of Lavos and Schala from [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger the previous game]]]].
89	* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'': [[BigBad Alduin the World-Eater]], whose raison d'etre is to devour the universe at the end of time to make way for the next world. [[spoiler:In the current one, according to some theories, he jumped the gun: it wasn't time for the world to end, which was why first the Tongues, then the Dragonborn were able to defeat him.]] He also seems less interested in destroying the universe and more interested in ''ruling'' it.
90	* Neo-Exdeath from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' declares its intent to consume all memories, dimensions, and existence, so that it too will disappear, forever.
91	* ''VideoGame/GreyGoo2015'' has The Silence. Little is known about it, but it's capable of consuming literally everything it touches and leaving behind nothing but darkness. That black mass of empty space in the sky at night where there's a gap in the stars? That's The Silence. It eats light, sound, and, well, pretty much everything.
92	* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has the non-canon "Dark Star" skins for several champions that are built off this concept, turning them into {{Cosmic Entit\|y}}ies who annihilate and feast off entire galaxies at a time. The line is codified by [[OmnicidalManiac Dark Star Thresh]], an AnthropomorphicPersonification of a black hole who believes time is a cog in a dying machine, and is already responsible for [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 the cessation of multiple]] ''[[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 realities]]'' by the time he hits Runeterra.
93	* The Maelstrom, a force of pure chaos and destruction itself, from ''VideoGame/LEGOUniverse''.
94	* ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}} Infinity'' has W'rkncacnter, who as soon as it escapes from its prison in the sun screws with reality just by existing, and ''then'' it starts eating.
95	* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' has two:
96	** From ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', there's the god of time and light Solaris, who plans to devour all of existence.
97	** ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' has the Time Eater, a creature that eats holes in space and time and throws Sonic into places he's been to before (including [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 one]] that he has visited before, [[CosmicRetcon but also technically didn't and probably shouldn't be able to return to]]). [[spoiler:It turns out that it's an {{Energy Being\|s}} that Eggman and his past self turned into a cyborg-mech-abomination.]]
98	* The {{Greater Scope Villain}}s of ''VideoGame/StarControl Origins'' are beings only referred to as the Gluttonous Eyes. They are extra-universal entities that somehow consume ''information'' and spread chaos in their wake. How exactly someone is supposed to fight or resist such entities is unclear:
99	-->'''Captain:''' Maybe there's something else we could feed these things?\
100	'''Xraki:''' har/joke/har. you plan plot/scheme/trap. plot/scheme/trap is also order/information. gluttonous eyes feed/consume
101	* {{Superboss}} Culex from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' claims to be this, in his BadassBoast.
102	-->''"I am matter... I am antimatter... I can see your past... I can see your future... I consume time... And I will consume you!"''
103	* In the last level of ''VideoGame/TastyPlanet'', the Grey Goo eats "The Fabric of Space" and "Time Itself". When even this is eaten and there's absolutely nothing left, [[spoiler:the Grey Goo implodes and become the next Big Bang]].
104	[[/folder]]
105	----
106	->''Braaaaanes....''

Context Main / SpacetimeEater