Ink realm/novel
- This article refers to the ink realm from the novel series. For the setting from the main canonical series, see Ink realm.
- This article refers to the realm created with the Ink Machine. For other uses, see Ink (disambiguation).
"Every edge had a black border to it, wood grain was drawn on with pen scratches, even the view out the window of the city had that cartoon appearance of an exaggerated approximation of reality. And of course it all looked yellow." |
The ink realm, also known as the inky world, is a nightmarish alternate reality styled after the world of early 20th century animation. It was created by Joey Drew using the Ink Machine in an attempt to recreate his old studio for a currently undecided purpose.
History
During the waning years of Joey Drew Studios, Joey began to blame everyone around him for the mistakes that had led to his company's downfall, including the failure of the Ink Machine to literally bring his characters to life. Still resentful over the resignation of his friend and business partner Henry Stein in the early years of the company, Joey began to hallucinate Henry being by his side as he attempted in anyway possible to keep Bendy and himself relevant following the studio's closure. After reclaiming the machine from Joey Drew Studios, the Gent Corporation conducted experiments to further its own agenda, until 1952.
Joey would regain ownership of the Ink Machine after the closure of Gent, and with the help of Evan he would create a set of experimental glasses that would mentally transport those who wore them into the cartoons using the ink. Working at Kismet Production Studios, Joey would create a show where, after an introduction in a recreation of his office, old Bendy cartoons would replay after being remade with the ink. He gave out a few of these experimental glasses to test families, including the recently hired Rose Sorenson. After the first show in January 1953, Joey wandered and discovered a door that led him to an inky recreation of his old office.
Remarking that wandering is a terrible sin, Joey quickly left the inky world (as he called it) and began to experiment with it. First, he found a way to safely interact with the world from a distance. Upon finding one, Joey would use the Ink Machine to add more rooms to the inky world and would blame his hallucinations of Henry on the inaccuracies in its layout. The first rooms added were the work lobby, the recording studio, the projection booths, and Heavenly Toys. As these rooms were added, the souls within the Ink Machine began to exist within the inky world as well. Among the first creatures to exist in the inky world were the Lost Ones, Projectionist, and the Ink Demon. Either through his own deteriorating mental health or the influence of the Ink Machine, Joey's hallucinations began to become more vivid and he would demand the assistance of those not currently work for him, like Grant Cohen and Abby Lambert.
Eventually, the test families would wander as well and find themselves trapped within the inky world. As a scientist, Joey would watch over them. After his death to the Ink Demon in the real world, Archie Carter would be reborn in the inky world as an human-like ink creature and safely guide the test families to Heavenly Toys, where Joey would communicate to them using an audio log. Eventually Rose would enter the world to save her brother Ollie, and Joey would reveal the origins of the place and his goal to fully recreate the studio within it. He initially remarks that he isn't sure what purpose it will serve, but upon learning from Archie that those within the inky world are forced to die and be reborn in a perpetual loop he begins to form an idea. All but one of the test participants manage to escape using cartoon logic and their imaginations.
Background
The Ink Machine acts as a bridge between the real world and the ink realm, allowing for transfer of matter both to and from the inky world; with the 3-D glasses being another way to enter the ink realm, mentally transporting the wearers into a cartoon version of their body within the ink realm.
The ways of escaping the ink realm can either be; going to the ink realm's version of Joey Drew's office and taking the glasses off, or using their imagination to return to the real world. The people inside are also able to reshape the environment using their imagination, these changes only exist in the person's mind and disappear when they lose the vision. They also can't be seen or interacted with by others.
Environmental design
The ink realm is a massive complex of rooms, corridors, and areas that are meant to be a recreation of Joey Drew Studios. All of the environments within appear to be sketched, giving the entire realm a cartoon-like appearance. To that end, the world's color is entirely yellow.
Society
The ink realm is populated by a distinctive race of sentient beings that do not belong to the real world, including ink humanoids called the Lost Ones. Within the ink realm are also corrupted monsters born from the ink that stains the world, including versions of Joey Drew Studios characters. All of the creatures inside are trapped in never-ending loops of their own, always returning to the ink to be reborn if they are destroyed.
- Lost Ones - The ex-human ink entities and one of the main populations of the ink realm.
- Demons - Cartoon entities based on Bendy. The Ink Demon and a physical Bendy are the only known individuals.
- Wolves - Cartoon entities based on Boris. Known individuals include Buddy Boris.
- Caricatures - Sketched-out entities based on the individuals of the real world who enter the ink realm. Known individuals include Rose, Ollie, and the other test families.
There are also creatures that do not resemble any specific thing and have their own identity. They massively vary in form, some resemble ink-made humans and some resemble hybrids, such as the Projectionist, a humanoid creature with a projector for a head.
Landmarks
Structure
Cycle
- Main article: Cycle § Apocryphal information
The cycle is a looping series of events were everyone is forced to die and reborn over and over again, experiencing the same thing for all entirely. Each characters have their own cycle.
Void
- Main article: Void
The void is an outer darkness that exist outside of the ink realm, sometimes as unfinished areas.
Colors
The only known colors in the ink realm are black and yellow. The black is usually used for borders of the items, walls and beings; it is the color of the voids and unfinished areas. It's also the color of the ink within the ink realm. Yellow is the only color for the things and beings that exist in the ink realm that aren't made of ink.
Behind the scenes
The ink realm is a setting that appears in the Bendy: Fade to Black novel whenever Rose Sorenson wears the 3-D glasses.