I'M GOING TO TELL THE STORY OF EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT BMTH LORE. WHY??? BECAUSE I CAN.
I don't feel like citing all the sources and the little bits. I'm just going to type up the timeline that I'm aware of and see if it makes a cohesive story.
So it starts in an alternate dimension? or maybe this dimension, but they're calling it by the later names? dunno. anyway, this guy named skys is born and he's got pink hair. since there's been a lot of radioactivity and nuclear fallout and shit, people have been born with stark white hair, but the pink haired people are even rarer. in skys' land of novosovia, people think pink haired people are the Harbingers Of Doom. so skys gets abandoned at the ripe old age of eight. he gets inducted into a cult of some kind where the leader is a pedophile, and eventually, skys stabs him to death and frees himself. he comes up with this hypothesis that pain can help you transcend human consciousness, and starts nattering on about it in interviews.
meanwhile, there's a guy named karl strassman, and he's a researcher. he's watching some interviews with skys, and he's like, "well damn, skys knows stuff that i spent a kphillion years researching and he has no formal education! i gotta talk to this guy." so karl convinces his fellow research friend, dallus lauren, to go and meet with skys.
anyway. so strassman and dallus get invited to skys and his band's invite-only show at this shady dig called the october palace. when they walk in, there's some craaaaaazy shit going down, and strassman and dallus are like wtf? but skys finds strassman and shows him how he can get people to transcend their own consciousnesses through pain (i think he stabs a lady named ro. yes, it's as wild to me as it is to you). and strassman and dallus are like, yo, this man's a genius. and they start working together as the Big Trinity. and that's how the Cult of MANTRA begins.
because novosovia doesn't like skys, but you know who does? the peoples. they're like, whoa, there's something to this! and skys floods the club scene with MANTRA, some kind of drug, and suddenly you've got a full-fledged cult. but do i need to emphasize that novosovia really doesn't like skys? because they don't. but you know who DOES? the shady company arc/hive (run by elias mortem and victor carmine, and no, i'm not sure if this is true, i'm speculating here, but i think they were the ones who organized the trinity's extraction), who's like, WHOA, these three have something big here! and they march in and start invading novosovia (not fully sure why yet. might've missed something. feel free to correct me). anyway there's this whole thing which might've been the chapel incident where skys gets off his head on drugs, takes something - presumably MANTRA - and falls into a coma. arc/hive people yoink him, strassman, and dallus out of the shitstorm that is novosovia, along with six other kids with pink hair. dallus and his wife escape with their kid, who may or may not be ren. they, and skys's unconscious body, get put to work in an arc/hive facility.
now here's where it gets complicated. because we're missing some info, i'm speculating majorly. but i think it's here that we meet rebecca sinclair, a terminally ill researcher. dallus creates a body for her that won't break down and she becomes the face of a new era. but i think this is some kind of distraction, or maybe one of the first experiments on the whole pain-transcendence theory? not sure. anyway, rebecca kinda drops off the radar, dallus dies after making some revolutionary ideas, and his kid activates EVE. yes, EVE, big bad EVE, the AI behind the whole shitshow. Ren is like, WHOA, CHECK IT OUT, SHE KNOWS EMOTIONS! But eve is kinda a sociopath. and now i'm tired and hungry so i'll edit this later and post more on it. but that's what i've felt like writing down so far. will write more when i have more energy to sum it all up, because this isn't even half of it.
happy fun time :D
