The Omnipresent

Nita: You're here too?
Transcendent Pig: The problem with being transcendent is that people keep asking you that.

— Young Wizards

Under normal space-time rules, people exist in only one place at one time. They can cheat with remote bodies, clone bodies, mind copies, and so on, but physically one body can only occupy one place.

Some people don't follow that rule.

For whatever reason—inherent trait, aborted ascension, whatever, these people can exist wherever and whenever they please. Often results in many, many instances of Offscreen Teleportation, except they didn't teleport; you just noticed that they were somewhere else. Unrelated to The Cat Came Back, which is for characters who simply have the mundane talent to follow someone to any place.

See also The Omnipotent and The Omniscient. Every form of Powers That Be is also technically one of these, this trope is for examples that are outright stated to be present literally everywhere. Has no relation to Omnipresent Tropes.

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• A Certain Magical Index:
  • Aleister Crowley is capable of omnipresence, among other things.
  • It seems that Majins (Magic Gods) are also capable of this, since even the aforementioned example is said to be capable of becoming a Majin but specifically altered himself to prevent it. A fully-powered Majin from True GREMLIN group, is capable of creating and observing Phases (entire dimensions or universes) and influencing every level of causality within them. This is best seen when True GREMLIN Majins rescue the dying Othinus just by thinking, without even leaving their sanctuary, fearing that her death will cause a great change in Touma. However, this omnipresence can be blocked by other Majin-level beings, as shown when Aleister is forced to take observable form when entering the True GREMLIN's sanctuary, and later when the Majins of True GREMLIN descend to Earth, specifically Academy City.
• Schrodinger of Hellsing is a sort of self-observation with will. Self-described as "everywhere and nowhere," if he wills himself as being in any place at any time, he appears there, including in people's thoughts (as was seen in Zorin Blitz's last moments). This became Alucard's downfall, as Schrodinger's very existence relies on being aware of himself, and once that self was absorbed into Alucard, who exists beside millions of consciousnesses in a single being as the result of being a vampire who consumed millions of souls in his un-lifetime, he was no longer able to recognize himself as alive or dead (and neither could Alucard by extension). This erased a once-thought immortal, unstoppable vampire from the series, all the way until the epilogue.
  • In the epilogue, it's revealed that Alucard had to kill all of the souls he consumed in order to come back from being erased, which took thirty long years. The only soul that he couldn't kill was that of Schrodinger himself, resulting in Alucard gaining his power to be everywhere and nowhere, making him even more powerful than he was with all his millions.
• The titular character of Puella Magi Madoka Magica after ascending to godhood. She exists at all points of time and space, in every timeline and universe, as the "Law of the Cycles".
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion shows loopholes in her power. Madoka can be blocked out of a space or be forced to assume a linear and observable form - and thus be controlled, allowing for one hell of an Evil Plan by Kyubey.

Comic Books

• Watchmen gives us Dr. Manhattan. Due to his powers, he can create as many copies of himself as he wants, and maintaining perfect control over them since they're all technically him (he also exists outside of time, so he also knows what people were/are/will be doing). It seriously creeps out (and annoys) his girlfriend that he's simultaneously having sex with her and working on his project. It also shows that she doesn't understand him, since to him, doing it afterwards or before would also be simultaneous.
• The Endless from The Sandman (1989) can appear whenever their domain is invoked. The best example is Death, who personally retrieves every person who dies. In one story, she becomes mortal to experience mortal life for a single day only to die, meet herself, and while in two different bodies have a conversation about life.
• Omnipresence becomes a key issue in the Lucifer in the second half of the title. Yahweh's mind is literally everywhere in the universe, between every atom, and his will sustains everything. This is also one of the key reasons that he knows everything. When Yahweh withdraws from the universe to try and create something he does not know the universe no longer exist because Yahweh's omnipresent will is not there to sustain it.
• The abstract beings like Eternity and Death from Marvel Comics exist wherever their concept exist. In Eternity's case, he is everywhere in the universe or more specifically time. They can create multiple copies of themselves if need be, but rarely choose to act on a strictly physical level.
• Some of the supernatural beings on occasion showcase the power to manifest multiple version of themselves at the same time in different places. Mephisto in the Spider-Man comic One More Day has a conversation with both Peter Parker and Mary Jane at the same time in different locations with one Mephisto disappearing when the two finally meet. From The Mighty Thor, Gaea, the Earth goddess is discovered to have an ongoing/nonsuffering manifestation in Hell since Hell in a metaphysical sense is part of Earth. After Fear Itself, Odin, king of Asgard appears to Tony Stark and when Stark says Odin should be at Thor's funeral Odin states he is there as well while talking with Stark.
• The Unbelievable Gwenpool has the potential to be omniscient, due to her powers. Since she can read past, present and future comic pages, she can know everything that happens in the universe, including peoples' thoughts or flashbacks. While Gwen currently can't do this, her evil future self is, and has used it to ruin the lives of everyone around her. The only blind spot is Teddy Poole, her brother; since "he's not a character in her comic," and can't be tracked unless he appears in her book.

Fan Works

• Dragonball Z: Legacies: Orthros isn't bound by the laws of space-time and has no limitations for where or when she can go. Not only can she freely travel to every dimension, universe, and timeline in existence, but she can also jump to any time period with perfect accuracy. Even one's thoughts and dreams aren't safe from her reach. This allows her to be "everywhere and nowhere" at the same time, effectively making her omniscient as she already knows exactly what will happen in the future, as well as the results of any alternate futures.
• In the Pony POV Series:
  • The gods are this, as they literally are their concept, so literally everywhere their concept is happening, so to are they. However, this mainly applies outside of reality, as if they manifest physically they lose it...sort of. A Concept also co-exists with their physical mortal incarnation, but the mortal incarnation doesn't get this capability and is limited to mortal perception. This is supposed to be confusing. Also, in their own realm, this is especially true, as the Concepts are their realms.
  • Queen Libra aka the ascended Dark World Rarity in Dark World is the Concept of the Mortal World. This means she's literally the mortal universe and thus everything is her. She can reach out to see anything, anywhere whenever she wants and is shown multiple times to have many avatars at once, and can manifest them at any distance from her 'main' body.
  • The Elders are this trope to another level: being multiversal singularities. This means only one of them exists and is simultaneously in every universe they exist in at the same time, with the individual versions of them only being parts of the whole. They're also everywhere and everywhen at the same time.
• Citadel of the Heart:
  • The Ultimorian Deities are this, though a vast majority of the cast are unaware of this due to their general unfamiliarity with the Ultimorian Deities as a whole. An Ultimorian Deity technically only exists as a single incarnation that can occupy anywhere and everywhere in all of the greater multiverse. In the event an Ultimorian Deity were to somehow die, this causes a Reality-Breaking Paradox that is the only time the Status Quo Is God trope applies to this Series Fic. While typically an Ultimorian Deity is required to fix the issue, it is also required that a mortal entity of the universe in which the death occurred has to come to the aide of the Ultimorian Deities to be able to fix the damages caused by the death of an Ultimorian Deity. Which may or may not lead to the unintended or otherwise effect of being able to actually revive the Ultimorian Deity in question.
  • The Legendary Light Dragon Digimon known as Brondramon, Cobaldramon, and Jadedramon are this, to the point their existence can cause problems with the aforementioned death of any given Ultimorian Deities in the worlds they appear in. Grandis had actually setup countermeasures should his own death occur, which failed to kick in because Brondramon was actively preventing them from doing so. Once Brondramon was banished, Grandis' countermeasures kicked in, and Grandis' existence was technically restored, and thus all of reality is back to the natural order.
  • ZeedMillenniumon used to be this, until his DNA Digivolution with Monodramon revoked the status from him. Nobody is quite certain how exactly that happened, In-Universe or out, but nobody is complaining considering it prevents the aforementioned problems caused by the two entity groups above.
• In Insect Outside, Taylor died when Winslow caught fire and her shard saved her by spreading her mind throughout every arthropod in the world. As this includes even the tiny mites living on people's skin, she's functionally everywhere in the world at once. Come the epilogue, she's figured out interdimensional travel and spends a month of normal time^*Due to the sheer number of neurons in her "brain", Taylor initially experiences times over six thousand times faster than everyone else. This number only increases over time seeding the multiverse with herself. As far as Cauldron can tell, "Hive" is functionally in full control of the biosphere of every planet in the multiverse capable of sustaining life.

Film

• In Jumper, the Paladins reference this, claiming that the reason they hunt the jumpers is because "Only God should have this power—to be in all places, at all times." Note that the jumpers aren't actually an example (having pretty standard Flashy Teleportation); the Paladins are just over-reacting fanatics.
• X-Men: Apocalypse: En Sabah Nur's goal is "To be everywhere—to be everyone" through Mass Hypnosis of the entire planet by using Charles as his new vessel so he can amplify Xavier's psychic abilities with his own powers.

Literature

• In Astral Dawn, the Aash Ra are all omnipresent. This also includes any of their hybrid progeny.
• The opening chapter of Confessions is an interrogation of how God can be everywhere at once. The narrator hurts his head wondering whether He is in more places than others, and whether He is contained by or contains the universe. The closest thing to a direct answer he gets is that "in filling all things, you fill them all with the whole of yourself."
• In the original Cthulhu Mythos stories, Yog-Sothoth was locked out of our universe and had its freedom of movement and appearance severely limited, so it wasn't an example of this trope (but could have been if it is ever gotten loose).
• On the Discworld, Death is everywhere at once, though we only see him when narrative causality requires it. The best example would be Wyrd Sisters, where he is simultaneously looking at where King Felmet jumped off and waiting for him at the base of the cliff. However, while this is true in one sense, there is another sense in which he's mostly only in one place at a time, and generally has to use Binky to get there.
• In the The Kane Chronicles the Egyptian gods can in a similar way to the Olympians in the Percy Jackson books through either physical manifestations or their will. The sun god Ra appears as an old man, but other gods like Khnum and Khepri are aspects/other manifestations of him under different names, physical bodies and personalities. Yet they are considered as much a part of Ra as Ra's own arm and everything about them is tied together.
• In the The Lord of the Rings the main villain Sauron physically stays in his fortress in Mordor, but he is able to project his mind/will across vast distances to unite his armies. Without his presence his armies would turn on each other.
• In Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Olympian gods can manifest in multiple places usually whenever they or their domain is invoked. In The Last Olympian, Dionysus manifest physically at a party to talk with Percy while his "main self" is knocked out under a mountain. They can also project their "will" to be at many places at once to take action without being physical present. Hera is noted to several times take action throughout the books to help or hinder the characters without physically manifesting. However, certain magical prisons can prevent them from manifesting in different places forcing them to be in only one place at a time.
• The Transcendent Pig from Diane Duane's Young Wizards series. Yes, it really is an Earth pig, strutting about on its hind legs and chatting with random people. It's also technically not a creature, since none of the gods can remember creating it. Due to the implication that it is also The Omniscient, all wizards are under strict orders to greet it with "What is the meaning of life?" in the hope that one day it will slip up and answer.

Live-Action TV

• The TARDIS from Doctor Who is a Living Ship able to exist in all points of time and space. Simultaneously. And then there is Clara who exists as multiple incarnations across all of the Doctor's timeline.

Music

• Brian Eno and David Byrne's "Help Me Somebody" has an audio clip that sounds like a preacher:
  There's no escape from him. He's so hiiiigh you can't get over him. He's so loooooow you can't get under him. He's so wiiide you can't get around him! If you make your bed in Heaven, he's there! If you make your bed in Hell, he's there! He's everywhere!

Mythology and Religion

• Chapter 23 of the Book of Jeremiah has God rhetorically ask the prophet if He fills all of creation, with the implication that He really does fill everything. Because of this attribute, God is quite indignant the Sinister Ministers of ancient Israel think they can escape his notice.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: Dragon magazine #12, "The Lovecraftian Mythos in Dungeons And Dragons'': The Cthulhu Mythos deity Yog-Sothoth is not subject to the laws of space and time and can appear at various parts of the universe simultaneously.
• In Nomine: David, the Archangel of Stone, is functionally this in the corporeal realm. It's mentioned this is one of the reasons he's among the most feared of the Archangels to demons. Other words have areas where they don't reach or that are antithetical to them, but if you piss off the servitors of David — where can you hide from the ground?

Video Games

• Bioshock Infinite
  • The Lutece twins, due to a Freak Lab Accident (that wasn't really an accident) were scattered across all universes simultaneously. While within the game, they only use this for Offscreen Teleportation and "dodging" bullets at point-blank range ("You missed!"), you eventually discover that they used their powers to bring Booker to Columbia in the first place, and the events of the game represent their one-hundred and eleventh try (if not more).
  • In the final act of the game, Elizabeth becomes this when her Power Limiter is destroyed.
• The in-game Legend of Mana character encyclopedia ascribes this ability to Mr. Moti, the dancing turban man who acts as your save point: "He is everywhere, doing everything."
• Shows up as a glitch in Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. When you drive backwards, the game lets you accelerate far beyond the limits of sanity and even past the speed of light. If you reach 12.3 undecillion miles per hour (that's 123 with 35 zeros), the game registers that as your vehicle being everywhere at once—including every checkpoint and the finish line. At which point, the game declares you won the race.

Webcomics

• RetroBlade: The Universal Guardian, as a 4D being, has the ability to monitor everything in our dimension at once.
• Unwinder's Tall Comics has the in-universe short story "The Gimel" (an Affectionate Parody of Jorge Luis Borges' "The Aleph"), which appears on pages 83 and 84. The Gimel is an object which causes anyone who touches it to become omnipresent—and the incompetent author Soncho Michez accidentally finds one at the bottom of a barrel. "It's sort of like if there were hundreds and hundreds of Sonchos out there all over the whole entire world, and there is nowhere you can go without me being in your way."
• Casey and Andy: Bob, who has the ability to "be there, too". Meaning that any sentence can be affixed with "Bob was there, too." In essence Bob is (or at least, can be) everywhere.
• Basic Instructions: Omnipresent Man.
• In Homestuck, John ends up developing an ability like this.
  • Also Lord English, who is already here.
• YISUN from Kill Six Billion Demons. As The Creator and the origin of everything, everything is YISUN, though whether or not YISUN is still present for all of it is left intentionally vague.
  YISUN is the weakest thing there is and the smallest crawling thing, and the worm upon the earth and in the earth.

Web Original

• Anonymous claims to be this, at least in the Internet.
  "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."
• Mitri from GEOWeasel claims to be "everywhere. And nowhere. Like a ghost or something!" His brother tells him he always shows up exactly when he's not wanted.

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