Charlotte and Elisabeth exist without origin.
Their relationship forms the most perfect example of the closed loop that defines the world of Dark.
The Paradox Itself
The paradox is simple and impossible:
- Elisabeth gives birth to Charlotte.
- Charlotte grows up and gives birth to Elisabeth.
There is no beginning.
No first cause.
They are each other’s origin.
This makes their existence not just unusual, it makes it fundamentally unnatural.
How the Paradox Is Created
The paradox is made possible through time travel and the manipulation of events by Sic Mundus.
Charlotte is taken from her parents and delivered to the past, where she grows up believing she is the daughter of H. G. Tannhaus. Elisabeth, left behind, is raised in a world moving toward the apocalypse.
Both women grow into their roles without knowing the truth, until the moment the cycle demands their awareness.
Why This Paradox Matters
Charlotte and Elisabeth prove that the knot of time is not just a sequence of events.
It is a self-sustaining structure.
Their lives exist because the cycle demands them to.
They are living evidence that the loop has no external source.
The Emotional Cost
When Charlotte and Elisabeth finally understand the truth, the realization destroys any remaining sense of normalcy.
Their identities, their memories, their relationships, all become artifacts of a system they did not choose.
They are not merely trapped in time.
They are built by it.
What the Paradox Reveals About the Cycle
This paradox shows that:
- the cycle is not governed by natural law,
- time in Dark does not behave like time in the real world,
- and existence itself has been rewritten to obey the needs of the knot.
Charlotte and Elisabeth are not exceptions.