DOLLCORE

When her recently deceased brother returns as an undead monster, a young girl sets out to find a remedy for him at any cost… even if it means becoming entangled with unknown entities beyond a normal human’s comprehension.

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Orphans Andrew and Canarie Graves struggle to cope with the grief of their parents’ passing while aiding everyone in their town simultaneously. One unfortunate day, Andrew is mysteriously killed in a mining incident. However, as soon as he’s about to be laid to rest, he rises from the grave as an soulless being called a Doll. Just as Canarie can put down a berserk Andrew down into his coffin again, they are approached by a mysterious figure who calls herself an “overseer”.

Upon being told of the disease that causes people to to turn into hollow shells- “Nothing”-, Canarie and Andrew are then put under a contract with the Lady in the Hat. With this contract, they are to find a method of banishing the entity; which would mean finding a possible remedy for Andrew- if he manages to put back together the pieces of his memories and hang on to his remaining humanity.

Supernatural, Action, Horror, Comedy, Psychological

Millions of years ago, immortal beings known as the Curators came into existence in order to preserve the world. With their combined efforts, they created different havens for humanity and each took up a role to "curate" concepts of the universe, such as death, creation, time, light, fate/destiny- and to diminish the chances of chaos and destruction. Back then, humans were able to manifest their Souls more frequently because of corrosive forces like the Nothing didn't delay awakenings. The Dollmaker crafted a machine known as the Everything Machine which blocked the Nothing from entering the human living.

In order to prevent incoming attacks and destruction, the Dollmaker created the World Beasts- giant creatures who protected their respective nations. Later, the Dollmaker was killed by the Puppeteer and the Everything Machine was destroyed as a result, its parts scattering around everywhere but unable to be found. The Machine was unable to be fixed as the Dollmaker was the only one who knew how to, and therefore it was left abandoned as the other Curators searched for other ways to stop the Nothing, with the exception of Lady Death.

One thousand years before the events of the main story, the Death Doll, a prototype of a Grim Reaper created by Lady Death which was deemed a failed creation, went rogue and killed the World Beasts and several Curators. The aftermath of these battles resulted in the remains of the deceased coming together and forming a massive cyclone-like disarray called the Rift that absorbed everything in its path into an abyss of Nothing, including the city of Tlentonatlan. The disaster that ensued would extend to other nations and later escalated into world-wide chaos; the souls of various people being devoured and their bodies transformed into mutated, hollow shell monsters, known as Dolls. This event was known as the Great Calamity.

In order to prevent the Rift from opening even further, the Curator of Night used all of her power to close it before she was killed by the Death Doll as well. As another consequence, the Nothing repressed the Soul Art of people, only awakening if people experienced a major event that would scar them for life. The Curator of Souls finally managed to take down the Death Doll after 500 years of fighting each other, later taking his Doll's Core.

In the aftermath, humanity was almost completely exterminated and Dolls ran rampant, causing humans to try and reach peak human condition in order to survive. Without the Curators who helped to keep the balance, the time and reality became distorted. The remaining Curators, the Curator of Light and Curators of Souls, began to seek the reconstruction of humanity and led a group of survivors of Tlentonatitlan, later known as the founders of Zenpatlan, to safety through candle-lit paths that warded off Dolls and Nothing. The Curator of Souls, disguised as a mortal, taught humans how to dispel the Nothing from dead bodies through rituals. These rituals would slowly be abandonded by other civilizations as they thought killing Dolls and burning them was most effective, but the people of Zenpatlan/survivors of Tlentonatlitlan, who had a great love and loyalty towards the Curator of Souls because she saved them, were the only ones who followed through with these rituals.

Through their teachings, the humans learned to grow independent and established government-led cities, with other civilizations such as Kreigspfad following after. Satisified with humanity's growth, the Curator of Light disappeared off to somewhere, his existence becoming a myth, making people, the people of Zenpatlan at least, believe that the Curator of Souls was in fact the last Curator in existence.

Soul Art is the primary source of power in DOLLCORE. The physical representation of a person’s soul, it is used by both Soul Art users and Enforcers alike. Usually, a person gains a Soul Art once they reach peak human condition and merging their 'heart' and 'soul' together. They can also use Soul Art on any tool or object they're close to, subsequently transforming them in a weapon of sorts. It is also the only known form of power that can destroy the cores of Dolls, effectively killing them afterwards.

DOLLCORE is set in around the 1900s, with some bits of futuristic aspects. Humanity was forced to evolve faster after the events of the Great Calamity, and so their knowledge on technology advanced further.

Methods of transportation are trains, horse-drawn carriages, and 1900-50s style cars. People communicate through letters and, more recently, telephones.

Creator's Notes
- I wanted to make DOLLCORE start out relatively light-hearted as if it was a typical battle series and then delve into the characters' traumas as it progressed. For example, Andrew and Canarie's backstories. I kept it as vague as possible while describing the outline of what happened while giving subtle hints of something darker underneath the surface. For example, Andrew and Canarie. In the beginning of the story, their past is simply described as a tragic event that changed them irreparably and got them under a contract with Lady Death, and that's that.
- As the story progresses, small glimpses of the past reveals their inner "forgotten" trauma, like Canarie's sleepwalking and Andrew's encounters with the Enforcers makes them acknowledge their psychological issues directly.
- Basically DOLLCORE is a story about two siblings in a cycle of forgotten trauma. And basically what happens when you don't grieve properly.
- Furthermore, the series' central themes are about the "core" of a person and how absolute perfection leads to dull soullessness.
- The Nothing as an antagonist is the embodiment of the phrase "Everything comes from nothingness and goes back to nothingness. Nothingness is the basis of existence."
- The three main protagonists have three respective roles: to erase (Canarie), destroy (Andrew), and create (Rin).