Spirit of the Abyss

The Spirit of the Abyss is the leader and god of the Magog in the TV series Andromeda. The Abyss is also referred to as "the Darkness" many times in the series. The Spirit of the Abyss first appeared in the episode "Harper 2.0", where it used a minion to try and get highly valuable information from Harper's mind.

Fictional biography

The Abyss is something of an enigma throughout the entire series. The main protagonists first discover him when they gain access to the information of the All-Systems Library. ["Harper 2.0," Episode #114, February 12, 2001] Originally calling him "Enigma" from the video that they retrieved, they discover the Spirit of the Abyss is the leader of the Magog, an incredibly aggressive race, and that he has sent his minion, Jeger, to retrieve the information, so the Abyss can stay an enigma. Unfortunately for the Abyss, Jeger fails to get the information back and his existence is no longer a secret; he executes Jeger for this failure.

The next appearance of the Abyss is on his own World Ship where the protagonists come face-to-face with him. Due to Rev Bem's false conversion to worshiping the Abyss, Rev learns the simple-minded Magog worship the Abyss as their god and that the Spirit of the Abyss is their creator. Rev is lead by Bloodmist (a high-level Magog) to the Abyss, where he is able to sense hate in the Abyss, but also that underneath everything the Abyss does there is love. In a display of power, the Abyss is forced to absorb all of the energy from the World Ship's miniature sun, when it is destroyed by a Nova Bomb from the Andromeda Ascendant, yet he seems only to have defensive powers, not offensive ones.

He is absent for the rest of the second and third seasons but reappears in the fourth season, in which he possesses a number of characters, including Beka Valentine, and he also survives an attempt on his life by Dylan and Tyr in his home dimension.

On the fifth and final season the Abyss either takes possession of a General Burma or manifests a body in the form of General Burma (the viewer is never told which) to try and kill all the inhabitants of the Seefra system using the Methus sun. However, the General Burma avatar is killed by Dylan, which forces the Abyss to move on to his final plan, this time aimed at destroying the three galaxies which make up the Known Worlds. To go about this, the Abyss uses an avatar posing as the leader of the Lambent Kith nebula (a collection of Sun Avatars) coupled with his plan of using the All Forces Nullification Point to destroy these galaxies; all the while duping the Lambent Kith into thinking they will destroy the Abyss in the process. Dylan Hunt disrupts his master plan by finding out that Maura, the leader of the Lambent Kith nebula, is working with the Abyss. Once discovered, the Abyss destroys the Maura avatar and is lured to the Seefra system by Dylan. Once in the Seefra system, Trance uses her Sun (the original Tarn-Vedra sun) to destroy the Abyss by burning him to death with it. The Sprit of the Abyss was killed and this was confirmed by Trance when she says "It is my sun, The Abyss is dead!"

Appearance and features

The Spirit of the Abyss mostly appears as a red glowing silhouette of a man through the scope of the series but the shape, density, and colour of his body changes over time. For example, in his first appearance he is purple, then in another appearance he is crimson red, and yet another time he is orange with a tightly compressed body. He can also create avatars which take on human form, (Maura and General Burma) but whether or not these avatars are truly a part of him is unknown. In the series finale the Abyss appears as a large crimson red vortex floating in space and it is the most drastic change his appearance ever takes.

It is suggested the Spirit of the Abyss is made out of at least some of the Ten Radical Isotopes; this would mean the Abyss is made out of Negative Matter. This theory is further reinforced when it is stated, "The Abyss has entered the world of matter." The Abyss resides in a dimension where mind is everything and matter is nothing, so it is also possible that the Abyss is a thought or spiritual entity.

The Abyss, as noted above, has the ability to absorb most of the energy from a miniature star. However, the Abyss has never displayed equivalent offensive abilities. The most he has ever done is throw fireballs at Dylan and his crew. He does have the power to possess people by implanting Radical Isotopes into their brains, effectively taking control of their minds and also giving the possessed a sense of euphoria.

Characters relating to the Abyss

Characters appearing in Andromeda who are possessed or taken over by the Abyss:

Characters who work or bargain with the Abyss:

Quotes

*"You cannot defeat the Abyss."
*"The future is mine."
*"Your code against the Darkness."

References