I've seen people making a lot of mistaken assumptions about Tehom (and the Mandala) because, apparently, if there isn't a 10-minute long cutscene explaining everything, then it's a plothole of sorts. I'll try to explain it as clear as I can: -What is Tehom? It's the void that existed before the creation, as the word "Tehom" means, literally "the abyss". That's confirmed by its Race being Void. -Where it came from? Yoko summoned the very concept of the void and merged with it in order to became Tehom as a demon. Since she advocates returning the world to the primordial state before the Creation, it does make sense she can tamper with that power and it didn't come out of nowhere, as some think. -What about the Mandala? It's currently unclear if it's meant to be the Great Will. Some characters, like Tao, draw a connection with it, but others, like Satan, don't, declaring he was summoned by "transcendence itself" (which could be the Axiom, confirming that, at the very least, the Axiom is different from TGW). Also running counter to that is that YHVH was always an avatar of TGW, yet the Mandala system apparently predates even His dominance, considering YHVH Himself decided to ditch the whole "guiding goddess" system and even sealed Yoko away. Also some people seem to think the Mandala is just a concept. Wrong, because it's heavily implied it has a level of sentience. It straight-up abandons universes that don't bend to the system (as stated by Tao and Goko), and it is confirmed that the True Neutral ending in CoC is, indeed, permanent, but only for that specific universe. Think of it as what Canopus represents in Devil Survivor 2 and you'll understand better what the Mandala truly is.
@@constantinb4592 canon of creation (and CoV for canon of vengeance), the two stories you can select from at the beginning of smt V: vengeance; CoC is the original story while CoV is the new one
What even in the holy mother of fuck is this thing? I know it's not from Da'at/Expanse because we're currently in it, and you don't even kill it. It just fuses together and goes back to whatever fucked up dimension it came from. It's certainly not a demon either since it's not even from the same reality the game takes place in. We know it's not an avatar of YHVH either since Tehom is described the void that existed before God created stuff. Is it part of the Mandala System? Or is it some eldritch abomination that doesn't obey that system either? Is it even a demon at this point? Because so far, the only entities barring the Qadistu in this game that have a unique race are Lucifer and Satan, both being transcendent beings.
I imagine it's called "Tehom" but - like Lilith - it has a Babylonian origin. It's Abzu, I believe. Yoko likely used her power to awaken Abzu and try to win using him as a new self that she commands, much like how she did with Tiamat. But, the game explains nothing.
For this, we have to look for answers in spin-offs. Put simply, I imagine it is an entity similar in nature, but certainly not role, to Canopus- It is the void itself. Space, nothing, a vacuum, everything OUTSIDE/under/not within reality or the Expanse. Canopus is the universe's crash debugger- no real will or mind of it's own, it simply exists to correct errors. I imagine this... NOTHING's place of origin, if not inherent nature itself, would be the universe's recycle bin, metaphorically. Where things go when removed from reality, or if they've existed, but never in reality. It's possibly the same nameless expanse beyond Amala that Noah, the Nameless, came from. TLDR: It's the void. An embodiment of the state of the universe pre-big bang. Before the Horned God of Law said "Let there be Law", there was this.
The name is pretty clear about what it is. It's the deepest void. The void that exists outside anything else, even the Mandala. It can't be the Mandala because you face her in the ending which you're actually enforcing the Mandala will. Just like in Hades, in which there's the Primordial Chaos, you have the void - incarnated through Yoko in Tehom. Not everything in a game needs to be explained in minute detail. Some things can be left to the player's interpretation. It's just that, nowadays, people think that, if something doesn't have an extensive backstory, it's a plothole. FF fails for the reason of trying to explain everything through Ultimanias and retconning a lot of stuff.
