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For the album, see Prospit & Derse.
“Derse Dreamers have personalities marked by a distinct and restless skepticism. Whatever their waking circumstances, chances are they will live in a state of dissatisfaction. Rebellion is in their blood, manifesting whether they are fighting back against a fascist dictatorship, or the most recent trend in casual footwear. Derse Dreamers are cerebral and self-aware; they have a far better grasp on the landscape of their own minds than on the world around them, which they can find alienating and confusing. But as so much of their identity is built on control, they will do their utmost to hide any insecurities, often with false humility or self-deprecating humor. They may be inflexible and pessimistic, but they are also great problem solvers, facing conflicts head-on with shrewd, calculating minds. They see one true path among an infinite snarl of wrong ones. They tend to be introverted, but if you win their trust Derse Dreamers are extremely powerful allies. However, they find sincere vulnerability difficult and will often keep people at arm's length. Letting go and living in the moment is hard for a Derse Dreamer; they constantly look toward the future and analyze the past.”
The Extended Zodiac
Derse's moon flying away

Derse's moon being flown away by Rose and Dave.

Derse, also known as the Kingdom of Darkness, is one of the two kingdoms in the Incipisphere. Derse wages an unending war against the Light Kingdom, Prospit, striving for the destruction of Skaia. Derse has always been destined to defeat Prospit, forcing the players to kill the Black King on their own to prevent Skaia from being destroyed by The Reckoning.

"Derse" is a portmanteau of "dearth" and "terse", which contrasts with the root of Prospit's name. The demonym of Derse is "Dersite".

Derse's chain

Derse's chain

Derse is a shadow-cloaked violet city planet that orbits Skaia from far away, outside of The Veil, and is connected to its single moon by a large purple chain. Derse is ruled by the Black Queen, and the planet is inhabited by black-carapaced citizens who resemble black chess pieces. A series of spires exist on Derse, one for each player in a session of Sburb. The tops of these spires contain the data from pre-entry Kernelsprite prototypes. As the players prototype their sprites, the spires activate and the prototypings are applied to the monarchy of Derse. Only prototypings that occur prior to a player's entry into The Medium are stored in the spires of Derse.

The moon of Derse possesses a series of towers, one for each of the dream selves of roughly half of the players in any session. The other half of the dream selves reside in similar towers on the moon of Prospit. These towers contain rooms that very closely resemble the bedrooms of the players in their home world, except they are portrayed largely in a single color tone associated with the player. While Dersites are opposed to the players, there are rules against harming them before the war begins which Dersites have a natural instinct to follow. It has been suggested that even if these rules are broken, attempting to harm them would be "tricky", suggesting some sort of defense. According to Dirk, the Derse dream selves are treated like "team mascotsHS". Derse has tabloid newspapers that regularly libel Prospit. The Horrorterrors' intents apparently become clear to Derse dreamers during a lunar eclipseHS, when Derse skirts the edge of the Furthest Ring.

Hierarchy[]

Monarchs[]

The Dark Kingdom has a King and a Queen who are the highest in command. The Queen has a Ring of Orbs (one for each prototyped kernelsprite) corresponding the spires on Derse. As long as she wears her ring, she is physically affected by the prototyping of each player's Kernelsprite. With each additional prototyping, the bearer of the ring gains additional power.

Similarly, the King possesses a scepter with orbs around its larger end, like the Queen's ring, and a large orb that resembles Skaia on top. He is also affected by the players' prototyping, with his physical size increasing significantly with each prototyping.

The Black Queen resides within the halls of Derse, overseeing administrative and political duties, while the Black King fights the perpetual war against Prospit off-planet in the thick of The Battlefield.

Officers[]

One very high ranking officer is the Archagent, who is in charge of the most tedious paperwork, for example, handling parking tickets and illegal parcels. He commands various Agents and Underlings and surveils the inciphisphere in his 3/4 Cubicle of Vigilance. Jack Noir is the only known archagent and implied to be the only Dersite to hold the rank.

An Agent is a relatively high-ranking member of the Dark Kingdom, who has a wide range of different duties. While some work as a sort of police officer who writes tickets, others clearly work as the muscle of the place. They work under the control of the Archagent.

Known Agents include:

A notar is a person in the Kingdom whose job is, for example, to notarize Parking Citations.

It is notable that lower ranking agents do not have sharp teeth; rather, they are "blunt [ones] like that of livestock".

Dersites[]

The citizens of Derse have black carapaces and, by default, wear black and dark grey clothing. Their clothing style adapts to feature elements from the kernelsprites as soon as players enters The Medium. However, their physical bodies are not affected by the prototypings, unless they happen to wear a Queen's Ring of Orbs.

Derse has been shown to have a prison system like Prospit which has been used by imps, and presumably also employs Dersites. However, according to CalibornHS Derse's form of punishment for crimes is much more severe, when compared to Prospit's JOKE THEY CALL A SLAMMER. This may be exclusive to his dead session and Derse as run by the Condesce though, since pre-scratch Dad was held in a Dersite prison that could well be considered a joke. Alternately, due to Caliborn's backwards standards (such as viewing even mild affection as disgusting, and finding hateful and disgusting things attractive) he may have assumed that the comfortable room was torture.

Human sessions[]

Pre-scratch[]

Dark Kingdom

Derse as drawn by WV

Dave looking up at Derse's moon

The Derse dreamers of the pre-scratch session are Rose Lalonde and Dave Strider. Rose begins the story asleep, while Dave is already awakeHS without his knowledge.

Dave's dream room is shaded redHS and contains many of the items seen in his room. Like his real room, his bed has been replaced with a cruxtruder . The room is infested with black crows and is inhabited by Dream Lil Cal. There are also brightly colored graffiti of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff on the walls.

Rose's dream room is shaded purpleHS and is only seen to contain her desk, yarn pile, journals, and Mutie. Her room has a copy of the MEOW code used to create Becquerel written on its walls.

John's Dad is kidnapped and imprisoned on Derse, only to be later released by Jack to spite the Black Queen. Later, the Dream Rose from Davesprite's timeline merged with the main Rose and made Dave conscious of the fact that he was already awake with a yarn bonkHS.

Jack Noir, after the Queen attempts to make him wear the harlequin-themed clothing, murders her using the contents of Jade's package. He promptly removes her ring to prototype himself and receive its power. The Black King meets the same fate, and Jack Noir crowns himself Sovereign Slayer.

Derse is the ominous planet that the Wayward Vagabond drew on the Skyship Base's southern wall.

Post-scratch[]

Derse void

Post-scratch Derse has no prototyping towers, due to the fact that it is a void session, resulting in the underlings and royalty remaining unprototyped. The Black Queen's ring of this session is the legendary Ring of Void. The Condesce overthrew the Black Queen prior to the session beginning and is the current ruler of Derse.

The Derse dreamers of post-scratch Derse are Roxy Lalonde and Dirk Strider. Roxy began the story asleep but had a tendency to sleepwalkHS, while Dirk's dream self is simultaneously awake with his waking selfHS.

Dirk's dream room is shaded redHS like Dave's and contains many of the items from his room.

Roxy's dream room is shaded purpleHS like Rose's and contains many of the items from her room.

Hegemonic Brute is sent to assassinate Dirk's dream self, but is decapitated by Dirk, who uses his head to stage an uprisingHS. In response, the Condesce orders the Draconian Dignitary to find and kill Dirk after he launches an uprising against her, giving the Dignitary the Black Queen's ring to aid him on the mission. The Dignitary uses his new power to unleash the Red Miles upon Derse.

Later, Jane and Lil Seb travel to Derse via a transportalizer on the Land of Crypts and Helium, Jake travels to Derse from a transportalizer in the Frog Temple, and dream Dirk meets them both there. Jane is soon killed by DD's Red Miles, and dream Dirk instructs Jake and Lil Seb to transportalize back to the Frog Temple, which they do. Dream Roxy awakens after being kissed by Dirk, who sees Jane and attempts to kiss her. Dream Dirk awakens after his severed head is kissed by Jake, who then kisses Jane to awaken her dream self and travels with Roxy to Jake's Island via Lotus Time Capsule.

Similar to the events before the scratch, Dad is imprisoned; however, this time he didn't escape so easily. He was kept imprisoned in a Very Important Prisoners Cell and kept safe due to orders from the Draconian Dignitary and eventually becomes a celebrity due to his fashion sense. Roxy is later imprisoned by the Condesce after being teleported to Derse by God Cat, and is instructed to do a task she deems stupid and impossibleHS. She then recieves a gift from the Courtyard Droll, consisting of Dad's PDA and the Ring of Void. She then uses the ring to escape prison and snoop around Derse. Soon after, Trickster Jane and Jake arrive on Derse and activate Roxy's trickster form before the three fly off to find Dirk.

After Trickster Mode wears off, Roxy and Dirk end up on the sacrificial slabs inside Derse's crypt. The Condesce uses psionic energy to destroy Derse's moon at roughly the same time Jack destroys Prospit's moon, resulting in Roxy and Dirk ascending to god tier.

Roxy and Jake later end up in Derse jail cells after the events of [S] ACT 6 ACT 6 INTERMISSION 1HS, where Jade instructs Roxy to create a new Matriorb. Roxy attempts to conjure one, but only succeeds in creating Perfectly Generic Objects. Jake, meanwhile, is told by Jane that his only purpose once Jane inherits the Condescse's empire is to procreate with Jane, resulting in Jake beginning to cry.

Jake eventually activates his Hope powers with Aranea's help, resulting in him releasing a large amount of angels in a hope aura. Roxy's jail cell begins to shake due to the aura, and turns invisible and intangible to escape prison and to avoid the attention of both the attention of Jade, Jane, and the angels. As Jade realizes she can't stop Jake's aura/attack on Derse, she swaps the locations of LOFAF and Derse.

Post-retcon, due to Vriska putting Jade to sleep, the kids and trolls were able to craft a plan, and Kanaya, Dave, Rose, and Karkat attacked Derse to break post-retcon Roxy out of jail, only to have Roxy intercept a forking attempt on Rose by Jane and die a heroic death. Derse is also never switched with LOFAF because Jake's hope powers aren't activated by Aranea.

John, Roxy, Rose, and Kanaya fight the Condesce on the moonless Derse in Collide. During the kids' battle against the Batterwitch, Arquiusprite and Cans crash into Derse while in the middle of their own fight, and the Condesce briefly watches them in indifference before returning to her own fight. Cans and Arquius then continue their battle throughout various panels before dropping back on the planet exhausted, when suddenly Dad Crocker bursts out of prison and fights Cans through the use of various baked goods.

At the end of their respective battles, Dad slams Cans into a wall of a building with a cake, making it collapse as Arquius watches in awe of his mangrit. And while the Condesce seemed to get the upper hand against the kids, choking Jane unconscious and landing some good hits on the others, she fails to notice Roxy right behind her, who promptly stabs her in the back with Bro's unbreakable sword, finally ending the fuchsia blooded tyrant's reign of terror once and for all. Nannasprite then heals Jane awake, and all of the kids fly to the victory platform, Dad was left behind, but Nanna brought him there as well.

Troll Session[]

Troll's Derse

Little is shown of Derse in the trolls' session, aside from the consideration of which trolls have a dream self on Derse. The trolls have activated all twelve of their prototyping spires by the time they are trolling the kids from The Veil.

Derse's moon has five towers in this session, home to the dream selves of Equius Zahhak, Nepeta Leijon, Eridan Ampora, Feferi Peixes, Sollux Captor (who also has a dream self on Prospit); Aradia Megido, being already dead, resides instead in Derse's core. Only Sollux's dream roomHS has been seen, painted in the color of his yellow blood and with red and blue curtains. The trolls' Derse is a visibly lighter, more violet color than the humans' deep blue-purple.

After destroying Prospit, The Demon blows up Derse as well. Feferi and Nepeta's dream selves are killed. Unlike Prospitian dream selves, Dersite dream selves don't seem to leave Derse for the duration of the adventure, so it's highly likely that the dream selves of Equius and Eridan also died.

Cherub Session[]

Interestingly, much like Caliborn's half of his room, not a single image of Derse or its moon has been shown in this session. All that is known is that the Dersites wear white clothing, and that Caliborn is a Derse dreamer. Caliborn also stated that at one point, he was imprisoned on Derse jail due to his behavior, and barely survived the brutal treatment there.

Derse presumably remained intact after the First Break, as it would've been much further away from Skaia than Caliborn's planets, and also because Caliborn stated to have killed himselfHS to achieve god tier.

Trivia[]

  • According to views of the center of Derse and the center of its moon, they have hollow centers and are held together by chains.
  • Some of the views of Derse are edited photos of the roof of Milan Cathedral, shared with Prospit.
  • All known human and cherub Derse dreamers leave their bed unmade.
  • Rose and Dave's dream selves sometimes have a black glowHS around them, while the dream selves of John and Jade don't.
Homestuck locations
Frog Temple Command stations
Earth
Egbert & Crocker home
John's bedroom
Jane's bedroom
Lalonde home
Rose's room
Roxy's room
Skaianet Laboratory
Strider home
Dave's room
Dirk's room
Pacific island
Jade's room
Jake's room
Calliope & Caliborn's room
Alternia
Aradia's hive Tavros's hive Sollux's hive Karkat's hive
Nepeta's hive Kanaya's hive Terezi's hive Vriska's hive
Equius's hive Gamzee's hive Eridan's hive Feferi's hive
Incipisphere
Skaia
The Battlefield
Prospit The Medium Derse
The Veil
Ectobiology lab
Trolls' meteor
The Furthest Ring
Dream bubbles
Heroes' Lands
Wind and Shade Light and Rain Heat and Clockwork Frost and Frogs
Crypts and Helium Pyramids and Neon Tombs and Krypton Mounds and Xenon
Quartz and Melody Sand and Zephyr Brains and Fire Pulse and Haze
Little Cubes and Tea Rays and Frogs Thought and Flow Maps and Treasure
Caves and Silence Tents and Mirth Wrath and Angels Dew and Glass
Caliborn's planets
SburbLogotype
NPCs SpritesUnderlingsDenizensConsortsFirst guardiansCarapacians/ExilesLeprechauns
Locations (starting planet) Command stationsForgeFrog Temple
Locations (Incipisphere) The MediumThe Veil/Ectobiology labsSkaiaProspit/DersePlanetsThe Seven Gates
Concepts PrototypingEctobiologyGod tiering (Mythological roles) • Grist/Ultimate AlchemyBoondollarsFraymotifsDream selvesPhernaliaThe ScratchNull sessionsInternet
Related concepts SylladexSkaianetCrockercorp
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