Homestuck Cosmology

Tiering

Low 2-C & 2-A

• A Genesis Frog is the embodiment of a universe and all of its possible alternate instances, with each choice/not-choice creating infinitely more possibilities, containing infinite timelines into itself.
• There is a countless to infinite number of Genesis Frogs, following an infinite repercussion

Low 1-C

• Lords of Time are implied to be 5-dimensional

High 1-B

• There is an infinite hierarchy of creators
  • Each higher layer is bigger and infinitely greater than the lower ones
  • The higher layers are inaccessible to the lower layers
  • Reality is made of stories/narratives with the lower ones being regarded as nonexistent from the perspective of the higher ones
  • The higher creators can influence the lower layers as if they were pieces of chess

1-A

• The Furthest Ring is the all-encompassing nothingness, the infinite void that divides all sessions, completely unnavigable and unfathomable, untouched by any space and time in existence, the most fundamental layer of the cosmology.
  • It is the canvas that contains the aspects that makes up reality, from which all concepts comes from
    • These concepts are shown to be platonic in nature and are fundamentally linked to all of reality and unreality.

Canonicity Shenanigans

Credits to YuriAkuto for this part.

So in Homestuck canon is a direct part of the cosmology on the same level as fate, timelines, etc... with some characters being "unstuck from canon" , being able to go outside of their "canonical lives" or living either outside of canon or in a "non-canon" realm.

The whole plot of Epilogues is kicked in by the fact that the characters are now outside of canon, with an explanation of what "Canon", "outside of Canon" and "Non-Canon" means. Events happening "outside of Canon" can fit into canon but their "truth" is conditional, as long as they don't contradict the events in the "Canon realm" (the events of the main webcomic), they can coexist without any problem.

"Non-Canon" events are in total contradiction with some parts of the "Canon Realm", which are then entirely put apart from the main continuity/canon realm; however they aren't "non-canon" in the litteral meaning of the term, still appearing in the same story as the "Canon".

As such, a work being "non-canon" or "outside of canon" can just mean that it exists in a separate "narrative construct"/realm akin to an AU, just like how Pesterquest is canon to Homestuck^2 (with the Aradia in it being the same as HS^2 one) despite being called "non-canon".

As such, works which aren't "canon" just mean they follows a different in-verse continuity/canon, in the same way different timelines exist within a multiverse.