Open Lore

What is it?

Open Lore is a multiverse of public domain settings that can both include and be included in just about any other setting. If you'd like to contribute to the project, see here.

Why?

I found myself limited by existing campaign settings for tabletop role-playing games. If I wrote an adventure and wanted to share it, I would either need to create my own setting or be tied up with copyright issues. Now, this is a project I wanted to start anyway, but I realize that other people might not want to write a whole setting from scratch, or have other reasons that lore is the limitation on their creative endeavors. For example, maybe a D&D group records their sessions and shares them with friends, and get told that they have something really high quality, and they should upload it somewhere. If they don't have the resources to write their own setting, copyright muddies this.

What's the premise?

Open Lore's ultimate reason for anything existing at all is that as long as nothing exists, the potential for existence grows. This potential is then discharged like a spark jumping across a gap, and the eternities of known universes exist within that momentary flash.

This is how we get the central dichotomy of Open Lore:

• The description of this spark is abstract enough that it can be included in any setting that allows for any sort of build-up followed by release, but it can also stand alone.
  • The great artificer completed their lightning machine shortly before their death. Now, it sits running forever, slowly charging and discharging. Open Lore is a single one of these discharges.
  • The water of creation drips from the stalactites in the cave into the pool below. Open Lore is a single water droplet in free-fall.
  • The dragon-god breathes slowly in its sleep, enchanting the air that exits its lungs. Open Lore is a single one of these enchanted exhalations.
• Open Lore's cosmology is built to be extremely flexible, including universes with highly variable laws of physics. In the circumstance that a setting truly cannot be represented within Open Lore's multiverse, it almost certainly can exist in a separate existential spark.

Within the Open Lore multiverse, the creation myth describes the first deity within the spark, and how it acted as a seed for countless realms to crystallize from the primordial ether.

How would someone learn more?

To get started learning the cosmology, check out multiverse structure. For a reference of taxa, see taxonomy. For stories that take place within the Open Lore multiverse, go here.

Right now, there are 3 primary settings, or conduits, with a list of genres they'd be suitable for:

• Abrecis
  • Pre-medieval fantasy
  • Medieval fantasy
  • Sailing/pirates (fantasy or non-magical)
  • Steampunk (fantasy)
  • Post-apocalyptic (fantasy)
  • Western (wild or weird)
  • Noir
  • Horror (fantasy or non-magical)
• Softlight Earth
  • Historical fiction
  • Cyberpunk
  • General sci-fi
  • Space exploration (sub-light speed)
  • Horror (sci-fi, modern day, or historical)
• Warble
  • Any sort of high fantasy
  • Multiverse adventures

Additionally, the broader multiverse can be used as a setting for a story that visits several smaller, less fleshed-out settings.

Contributing

If you notice an inconsistency or missing information, you can submit an issue. If you are looking for lore within a specific genre and none of the settings fit, submit an issue. If you find any content that appears not to be in the public domain, submit an issue.

If you'd like to add to Open Lore, fork the repo then submit a pull request. Note that I will only accept pull requests that meet the following requirements:

• Any content created by you is marked with CC0 or an equivalent license that places it in the public domain.
• Any content not created by you is in the public domain. For example, you could potentially borrow concepts from existing ancient mythologies, but you could not include anything from someone's copyrighted retelling.
• Your contributions do not contradict existing content or themselves, as far as you or I can tell. The exception to this is that people in-lore could be wrong about stuff, so in-lore "sources" may contradict each other. The key concept here is verisimilitude.
• Your contributions are reasonably well-formatted and well-written. I realize that this is pretty subjective, so if I don't think the pull request meets these requirements we can have a discussion about it.
• Your contributions are a good fit for Open Lore. Like the previous point, this one's also subjective, and we can discuss it.

If your pull request doesn't meet all of those requirements, it's not a big deal: you're still free to do whatever you want with Open Lore content! Not meeting these requirements just means your changes won't make it back upstream.

Ways to Contribute

Contributions of all types are welcome! This could be just the description of a fictional creature, a record of a fictional historical event, a map, a drawing, a short story, or anything else that adds to the multiverse. An especially easy and quick option is to just write up a description of a deity and stick it in the deities/ folder, making it available for others to use.

Style Guide

For consistency's sake, please follow these guidelines.

1. All text content should be Markdown
2. Use relative paths for links
   • This will be most compatible with various tools and environments
3. Only use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens in filenames
4. Don't add any more Markdown files to the root directory
   • Add a directory containing an introduction.md instead
5. Write descriptions of the multiverse in the past tense
   • This way we avoid setting a specific present moment
6. Write descriptions of the real world in the appropriate tense
   • For example: Istanbul is a city that used to be called Constantinople
7. Quoted punctuation goes inside quotes, non-quoted punctuation goes outside
   • For example: "What?" she exclaimed, defensively. I shouted "what?".
8. Always use Oxford commas
9. Include exactly 1 top-level heading per file as the title of the file
10. Do not indent paragraphs
11. Do not use curly quotes
12. When writing out block quotes, do not include quotation marks
    • Italicize the quoted text, then put the source preceded by a hyphen on its own line
13. Avoid multiple links in the same file with the same target
14. Aim for 100-1000 words per file
    • Files much smaller than this should probably be combined, and files much larger should be split
    • Stories can be larger, but if they reach several thousand words, consider separating them into multiple parts or chapters.
15. Add an og:description html meta tag to each markdown document
    • This can usually just be the same as the first sentence, but without any formatting.

Tips

I highly recommend using VSCode to read and edit this repository. The Markdown All in One and md-graph extensions are super useful, and dictionary entries for Code Spell Checker are included in .vscode/settings.json.

This repository is set up with a GitHub Pages workflow using mdBook. To function properly, every directory must have a file called introduction.md, which the auto-summary preprocessor looks for. The root directory is exempt from this, because the workflow renames README.md to introduction.md. Additionally, the mdBook build workflow deletes the .gitignore file, book.toml, and the .github, .vscode, and media-sources directories. Files not meant to be uploaded to GitHub Pages should likely go in media-sources.

I know many people like Obsidian.md, but I can't personally vouch for it and I don't know if it will work well for this project.

Licensed Under CC0 (Public Domain)

Open Lore is marked with CC0 1.0, placing it in the public domain. This means a few things for the project:

• You are free to use any portion of it for any purpose, even inclusion in copyrighted works.
• If you want to create a modified version and copyright your modifications, it is critical that you remove or replace this file in anything you make public.
• Any contributions back to Open Lore must be in the public domain, and will not be accepted otherwise.
  • If the contributions are your own work, you must mark them with CC0 before any pull request will be merged into the original repository.
  • For more information, see contributing.

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Cosmology

The entire multiverse can be thought of as a great waterfall of aether cascading from the origin to the void. Everything that exists is formed from the vortices, turbulence, and eddies of this current. Any area within this multiverse but outside an individual universe is known as aetherspace. Individual universes are called conduits can contain multiple subconduits, dimensions, realms, planes, or whatever you want to call them. These dimensions can exhibit a number of different physical properties, as described here.

The Astral Dimension

Existing throughout the multiverse is the astral dimension. Journeys between universes are accomplished by traveling through the astral dimension.

The Mental Dimension

Lying "adjacent" (in a higher-dimensional sense) to the astral dimension is the mental dimension, a space of pure thought.

Conduits

The origin's energy crystallizes into boundaries that divert the time-stream's flow, forming individual universes, or conduits. The conduit walls separate the universe from the outside multiverse.

Aether

Outside of individual universes, aether flows from the origin to the void, forming the boundaries of conduits in its course. Aether is somewhat like a medium for time, and its flow is what gives rise to many properties of the multiverse. It's possible to travel to the Aether as a projected space known as the aetheric dimension.

The Origin and The Void

The origin and void aren't so much places someone can go as forces that control the form of the multiverse.

The Origin

The origin is a great infinite energy potential that produces aether. Travel to the origin isn't really possible: approaching essentially "burns up" whatever piece of reality draws near. That's if something can even get close enough to experience that effect. Approaching the origin takes exponentially more energy as the distance is closed.

The Void

The void is the complete opposite: energy is drawn out of anything that approaches, leaving it frozen and lifeless. Additionally, spacetime quantizes near the void, so layers of aberrant realms precede the void, dilating space and time to appear infinite unless bypassed. Even if someone could bypass these spacetime strata, the void exists in the far future, at the end of the multiverse. The structure of certain conduits allows black holes to form within them. These singularities pull in matter, and deposit it in the void, where entropy will act upon it until the multiverse ceases to be.

The Divine Realm

Above the time stream, in the mental dimension, deities exist within the divine realm. Lesser deities might only interact with a single conduit, but greater deities may have influence over several.

Superspatial Proximity

Superspatial proximity is when multiple things are in the same 3-dimensional location, but exist across different dimensions. Thinking of universes and dimensions like an office building, someone in superspatial proximity to you would be occupying one of the offices that differs in location only vertically, not laterally. Similarly, things can exist in superspatial proximity across dimensions if they are in the "same" 3-dimensional location.

The Clock of Being

The clock of being was a concept created by the celestial bureaucracy to categorize deities into 16 different aspects of being. It was later extended to most of reality. Physical clocks of being were eventually constructed that could read which specific aspects were present on a specific thing or in a specific location. These aspects were organized to be approximately opposed conceptually when across from each other on the clock, and related when adjacent. However, opposed concepts could both be present.

The aspects are as follows, arranged in a circle:

1. Neutral
   • Opposite volatile
2. Abstract
   • Opposite material
3. Elemental
   • Opposite synthetic
4. Mortal
   • Opposite spectral
5. Profane
   • Opposite holy
6. Chaotic
   • Opposite ordered
7. Fairy
   • Opposite occult
8. Organic
   • Opposite mechanical
9. Volatile
   • Opposite neutral
10. Material
    • Opposite abstract
11. Synthetic
    • Opposite elemental
12. Spectral
    • Opposite mortal
13. Holy
    • Opposite profane
14. Ordered
    • Opposite ordered
15. Occult
    • Opposite faerie
16. Mechanical
    • Opposite organic

Dimension Types

Subconduits can exhibit varying physical properties. Some are similar to ordinary physics, and some are quite bizarre.

Standard 4-Manifold (S4M)

A Standard 4-Manifold is a type of space with 4 dimensions, 3 of space and 1 of time. More specifically, Standard 4-Manifold is used to refer to a quantum relativistic (3,1) Lorentz manifold, exhibiting the standard physical laws of real life, or a superset of them. Most conduits contain at least 1 Standard 4-Manifold.

Core Dimension

The Core Dimension of a conduit is the one accessible from outside the conduit. It is usually the largest and most stable subconduit. The Core Dimension is usually a Standard 4-Manifold.

Induced Space

Induced space is the result of induction, the phenomenon where the flow of space on one side of a conduit wall imitates flow on the other, causing a similar layout of space, planets, and even geography.

Projected Space

Projected space is akin to a 2-dimensional image of a 3d object. Projected space most often exists on conduit walls. Someone could travel to a projected space, and from their perspective they would still be in standard space, but they would be able to move through matter and no one in the standard space would be able to see them.

Flux

Any medium in which stuff exists has internal motion. Such media and stuff include space and matter, the mental dimension and thought, the astral dimension and time, and the etheric dimension and energy. Flux refers to the internal motion, and this motion is what causes the stuff to exist. 2 important phenomena to be aware of in regard to flux are conduction and induction.

Types

The type of Flux is sometimes referred to by its medium, and sometimes by its s tuff, depending on context. For example, spatial flux and matter flux are the same thing, but spatial flux makes more sense when talking about media.

Spatial/Matter

Matter is the flow of space. Everything that exists within conduits and out in the astral dimension in any physical form is spatial flux.

Aether/Energy

Energy is the flow of the etheric dimension, which is part of what makes life possible. Without energy, everything would be frozen and lifeless.

Astral/Time

Time is the flow of the astral dimension. Because the mental, astral, and etheric dimensions all flow time-forward, it appears that time doesn't pass while in any of these dimensions, with aging, hunger, and other signs of time not presenting. Only within conduits, which are sort-of frozen in place relative to this flux, does time pass.

Mental/Thought

Thought is the flow of the mental dimension. The mental dimension is tightly bound to the astral dimension, which is why dreams and thoughts can influence the structure of the astral dimension.

Phenomena

Black Holes

The flux of the astral dimension through certain conduit structures induces spatial flux within the conduit, causing a phenomenon where the conduit wall exerts a gravitational force so strong that everything, even light, that gets close enough will be pulled onto the etheric projection plane. As matter approaches the conduit wall, time becomes infinitely dilated. Time cannot be dilated infinitely without the astral flux going somewhere, as that would cause an infinite accumulation of aether. The astral flux feeds into aether flux, which feeds back into the conduit and can be observed within the conduit as Hawking Radiation. Additionally, matter cannot be compacted infinitely without somewhere for the spatial flux to go. This spatial flux moves time-forward with the astral and aether flux, forming a current that accelerates directly to the void. As such, all matter that has ever and will ever fall into a black hole is deposited in one of the layers of spacetime approaching the void.

Coherence

The direction of one type of flux tends to influence the direction of other types of flux in superspatial proximity. This phenomenon is known as coherence.

Conduction

Conduction refers to the control of flux via interruption, like big rocks in a stream. Conduits conduct spatial flux and astral flux. Matter can conduct spatial flux in certain circumstances. Anything that conducts flux also has some amount of resistance to its flow, causing small eddy currents. These eddy currents introduce small amounts of chaos and contribute to the uniqueness of every universe.

Induction

Flux in one medium can induce flux in another, or in a nearby portion of the same medium. These are known as external induction and internal induction.

External Induction

Flux in one medium can induce flux in a corresponding area (an area in superspatial proximity) in another. The prime example of this is induction between astral flux and aether flux, which gives rise to the entire multiverse. In fact, the chaotic astral flux coming from the origin is time, which produces aether flux and pushes it time-forward, giving rise to the phenomenon of energy. Aether flux induces currents in the mental dimension, which in turn induce spatial flux, or matter. Mental flux itself makes possible the phenomenon of consciousness. The combination of these 4 is what yields our material experience of energy, matter, time, and thought.

Internal Induction

Flux can induce flux in a nearby portion of the same medium across a barrier of a different medium. This is observed in induced space, where the flux in one subconduit shapes the flux of another subconduit in superspatial proximity.

Venturis

An opening in a conduit wall can create a venturi. If there is a difference in flow rate of the same type of flux on either side, one dimension will pull bits of the other through. This is what causes dimensions to "leak through" portals and change the area around them.

Vias

Small subconduits sometimes extend past the boundary of the parent conduit and into another conduit, forming a via. This causes the dimension of the subconduit to appear in multiple conduits.

Godclime

Godclime was a physical representation of the multiverse that was created in order to communicate about the multiverse between beings that had limited perception of everything. It was a lingua franca of reality, so to speak. The origin cliffs towered far above, unreachable by even deities. A waterfall spilled over, down to a pool below. At the center of this pool lay an island, shaded by a great central tree. Water flowed out of the pool, splitting into infinite rivers. All rivers eventually met the voidsea, forming estuaries and tidal pools. Every river was part of the etheric dimension, and the land between them was the astral dimension. To the sky was the mental dimension. Tiny streams that split from the rivers of infinity were self-contained universes, conduits.

The Great Tree

The great tree was home to the multiverse's deities. The trees roots reached far, only shying away from the voidsea's brine. The roots soaked up water, with souls of dead mortals. The tree lived off this water, and the deities drank from its sap, filtering out the souls and delivering them to afterlives.

Other names: The Golden Cypress, Yggdrasil

Afterlives

Deities built afterlives as structures atop the etheric dimension's soil, reaching up into the mental dimension.

The Voidsea

Reaching the voidsea was next to impossible for mortals and deities alike. Astral beasts known as wanderers roamed the land beyond the reach of the great tree's roots, with greater and greater beasts living closer to the shore and farther from the great tree. Minute amounts of the ocean's salt could power undeath, but the estuaries and tidal pools were toxic to all things of the tree and the rivers. That which could approach would be caught by the crashing waves and trapped in a tidal pool for eternity.

Conduits

Conduits are often standalone settings that can theoretically connect to the larger multiverse, but some conduits are much smaller. These smaller, less fleshed-out conduits are best suited for a story that involves a lot of multiverse travel.

Known conduits:

• Abrecis
• Prototype Earth
• Softlight Earth
• Warble

Prototype Earth

Creating suitable mortals who could worship deities took a lot of experimentation. Ere and Elfemroth managed to create such mortals in a massive conduit containing an expansive universe. This conduit was the prototype of many duplicates, some just as large, some pared down to the size of a single solar system. Softlight was one of the nearly-identical enormous duplicates, and Abrecis was one of the smaller conduits.

Once the mortals of prototype earth were deemed suitable for the task of worshipping deities, the conduit was cut off from the multiverse as a means of preserving it in its known working state. Further experimentation was carried out on duplicates of prototype earth.

Abrecis

Abrecis (adj. Abrecian) was a world full of magic that fell into ruin as a result of the actions of its inhabitants. Any story taking place before or during the Hematic era will be tinged a shade darker than a fantasy story may normally be, due to the presence or inevitability of the Hematic wars. The geography shifted very suddenly on multiple occasions.

Abrecis had many nations, religions, and peoples throughout its history.

The System

Abrecis had 2 moons: Shaj and Nyvol. The moons played a part in the Abrecian hybrid calendar system, with their orbital procession each marking multi-year cycles.

The great primordial entity created the sun and planets of the Abrecis system billions of years ago. Nearly all of this conduit's history took place on the 2nd planet from the sun, also called Abrecis.

Additionally, there were multiple accessible subconduits, including The Unfathomable Night.

Influences

While Abrecis is not Earth, it takes quite a bit of influence from real history and mythology. For example, Glassvale is heavily based on the mythology of the British isles. Everything is intended to be respectful of real-world cultures, but if any aspect of Abrecis' story is not so, please submit an issue on GitHub. Open Lore is meant to be as inclusive as possible.

Calendar System

Abrecis used a solar year-based calendar that incorporated lunar cycles as a method of naming years.

Years

The year on Abrecis was 510 days long.

Seasonal changes

Seasons worked differently depending on the part of the world and the environmental era. However, Abrecis did not experience as much axial tilt as earth, so seasons were not that different from each other, even far from the equator.

Reckoning

2 different calendars were primarily used on Abrecis. Before the anabatic era, years were tracked relative the prophesied year, or 0 PY. This was a count-down to Caer's Mistake, which was prophesied to occur in 23,000 years. Positive numbers were further in the past, and after 0 PY the year numbers were negative, though they were often written as positive if the context made it clear that the year was after Caer's Mistake. Later, years were tracked relative to Obsidis' apotheosis, which occurred in 0 OA. OA originally referred to Obsidian Anabasis, but was commonly thought to be an acronym for Obsidian Age.

Lunar Cycles

The 2 moons, Nyvol and Shaj, had predictable precessions in sync with Abrecis' orbit around the sun. Nyvol completed a precession every 7 years, and Shaj completed a precession every 3 years, causing them both to sync up every 21 years. This 21-year cycle was called a moonage (with -age pronounced like wreckage, not like age).

The 7 years of Nyvol's cycle were each a micro-parable from Abrecian mythology. Each of these would usually involve 3 characters, and Shaj's current place in its cycle would indicate which one is the one the year is "focused" on, giving each year in a moonage a unique name.

1. A husband (1) and wife (2) try to conceive children, but they are unsuccessful. They seek the help of a physician (3), who tells them they must sail to a new land in order to bear children, but the wife must go first with 8 other women, then the man must follow 3 years later with 8 other men. These 16 build a new community.
2. A traveler (1) encounters a tortoise (2) on its back. The tortoise cries for help, asking to be flipped over. The traveler helps the tortoise, but a bandit (3) hiding in a hollow beneath the tortoise leaps out and kills the traveler.
3. A mother (1) and daughter (2) live together, both practitioners of magic. The mother instructs her daughter to only use magic in small amounts at a time, but the daughter decides to cast larger and larger spells. Desiring a lover (3), she creates one with magic. The cost of creating a sapient being, however, is great, and leaves the soil barren for miles and miles around where they live. The mother weeps, and the daughter asks who she is, and why she is crying.
4. A mage (1) views Kwajey through a telescope. He wishes to travel there, and informs his partner (2) that he wishes to travel there, but is met with the response that Abrecis is the extent of the domain of mortals. He constructs a spell to teleport there anyway, and never returns. An investigator (3) attempting to decipher the mage's research disappears while doing so.
5. A sailor (1) retires to the countryside with her wife (2), but believes she can hear the ocean calling her back. One night, she is visited in her dreams by a spirit of the sea (3), beseeching her to return. Her wife wakes up alone, the bed soaked in saltwater.
6. An elder mage (1) forbids his students from wearing or carrying anything metal, especially while casting spells. One student (2) disobeys, wearing a bronze medallion inscribed with a holy symbol on a necklace. After doing so for several years, she wakes in the middle of the night to find that the medallion is burning hot, and has branded her chest with the holy symbol. She rips it off, then buries it outside. Months later, while gardening, another student (3) finds the disturbed soil and digs up the medallion. When he touches it, it burns him.
7. A great evil seeped into the world. Understanding it only as power, a kind mage (1) used it to perform good deeds, and a cruel mage (2) used it for ill. They both desired the same man (3) as a partner, and rather than let him make a choice, they agreed to kill him.

Thus, the 21-year cycle looks like this:

1. Loyal Husband
2. Deceitful Tortoise
3. Synthetic Lover
4. Doomed Mage
5. Sailor's Widow
6. Burned Gardener
7. Corrupted Benevolence
8. Leading Wife
9. Hidden Killer
10. Forgotten Mother
11. Abandoned Partner
12. Saltwater Spirit
13. Elder Mage
14. Empowered Cruelty
15. Foresighted Physician
16. Betrayed Traveler
17. Defiant Daughter
18. Lost Investigator
19. Haunted Sailor
20. Branded Student
21. Doomed Lover

Every year of the doomed lover, Shaj fully eclipsed Nyvol mid-year. Every 19 moonages, Shaj fully eclipsed both Nyvol and the sun over the peak of creation, in the mountains of Lothia.

Environment

Across different eras, the environment of Abrecis varied wildly. Originally covered in ocean, several biomes developed after Caer's mistake. During the hematic wars, the entire planet desertified as bodies of water dried up.

Environmental eras

The eras of Abrecis in the environmental paradigm are as follows:

• Volcanic era
• Oceanic era
• Schismatic era
• Xerothermic era
• Atavistic era

Magic

The term "magic" is really a layperson's word that has infected the vocabulary of arcane science. Thetic and phrenic magic are entirely different from each other. Shamanic and catabolic are related to each other, but totally unrelated to the others. To analogize: shamanic magic may be thought of as simple tools and mechanisms. Catabolic magic is a great machine built of the same stuff as shamanic magic. Thetic magic is an ally who acts at your request. Phrenic magic is sculpted clay, always being reshaped.
-Ethrenal

There were 4 main types of magic practiced on Abrecis: shamanic, thetic, phrenic, and catabolic. Shamanic and catabolic magic were really the same type, but it was considered shamanic if there wasn't a deleterious amounts of miasma produced.

Shamanic

Shamanic magic was originally practiced by the Ashenal, but after Caer's mistake many newly-differentiated anthropoids practiced it as well. This magic generally operated at a very small scale and/or very slowly. Casting spells to illuminate an area or amplify one's voice were common, as were ones to make crops hardier and more bountiful. These spells did cost life energy and produced miasma, but the amount was negligible. Shamanic spells operated in a manner conceptually similar to machines. Learning the spell meant learning how to "construct" this machine via certain utterances, rituals, motions, or substances that configured the underlying fabric of the universe. Casting the spell constructed the machine, then it to perform an action. A small amount of miasma was a waste product of this process.

Thetic

Thetic magic was magic based on devotion. Most commonly, followers of a deity would be granted the ability to cast thetic magic in exchange for carrying out the deity's will. This magic was powered by a specific external being, and thus did not draw surrounding life energy or produce miasma. In contrast to shamanic magic, thetic magic was akin to sending out a request then receiving what was requested.

Phrenic

Phrenic magic was developed by Ethrenal during the prolific era. Rather than machines or requests, phrenic magic operated via powerful cognition and will accumulating and shaping the energies of the universe. Phrenic magic did not produce miasma, but the mental strain could cause harmful side effects for the caster, particularly caster's psychosis.

Catabolic

Catabolic magic worked on the same principles as shamanic magic, but on a large enough scale that the amount of miasma produced was harmful. No mortal ever had the inherent ability to cast catabolic magic. Rather, shamanic spells could be cast for the express purpose of accumulating more energy than normally possible in the casting of a shamanic spell, bootstrapping a follow-up catabolic spell. As such, the casting of catabolic spells was always technically the casting of 2 separate spells, but the shamanic part would be optimized on a per-spell basis in order to draw as little energy as possible, and the 2 parts were always taught as a single spell.

Casting a single minor catabolic spell might not have any effect, but repeat castings would cause the caster and others in the vicinity to begin experiencing miasma sickness. Casting larger catabolic spells could range from immediately damaging to cataclysmic. Caer's mistake was the first instance of catabolic magic, but due to its failure to do what the caster wanted or even keep the caster alive, Ethrenal was usually the one credited with the invention of catabolic magic.

The arcane arm's race during the first hematic war caused widespread environmental destruction, and by the end of the second hematic war the effects of catabolic magic had pushed the whole planet solidly into a xerothermic state.

Miasma

Miasma is a deleterious invisible field that leaks into the world when magic is used. The original Ashenal mages used magic in small amounts, so it had no serious effect. Caer's Mistake released a huge amount of miasma, radically altering the world and its peoples. Ethrenal developed techniques to push the limit of magic usage with minimal harm to one's self. As these techniques became widely used, especially during the hematic wars, when the schismatic era transitioned to the xerothermic era as the planet became desert.

Miasma Sickness

Exposure to miasma causes a cluster of symptoms that are described as miasma sickness. Brief exposure to extreme levels could cause immediate burns and blisters, while prolonged exposure would cause gradual organ failure in addition to neurological changes, especially confusion. Miasma sickness is what caused the 8 betrayers to instruct the stewards of the world to protect miasma tombs against any penetration at all costs.

Life-debt Theory

Some mages theorized that Miasma wasn't really something on its own, but a negative amount of life energy. In order to maintain life energy as a conserved quantity, the energy necessary to cause a magical effect was consumed ahead of time, then this negative energy would cancel out life energy present in nearby living things.

Geography

Continents

There have been a few different terrestrial layouts throughout the planet's history. The first era where Abrecis could properly be considered a planet (post-accretion) was the Volcanic era. There was a dearth of liquid water, and the entire Abrecian surface was mostly rock and lava.

During the Oceanic era there were no large landmasses, only islands that would later become mountains.

During the Xerothermic era there was almost no liquid water on the surface, so rather than continents and ocean there were only highlands and lowlands.

During the Schismatic and Atavistic eras there was vast ocean surrounded by 4 main inhabited landmasses on Abrecis: Obsidia (Atrea), Sangura, Lothia, and Daithia.

Anthropic Rings

Distance from the epicenter of Caer's Mistake transformed Ashenal into certain anthropoid species, so those who remained Ashenal on the opposite side of the planet, called the sanctuary ring, long existed as a mostly monolithic culture, while those in between such as the Meshar (ring 10) and Shaja (ring 5) developed several wildly different cultures individually.

The following anthropic rings originated these respective species:

1. Cicadians
5. Shaja
10. Meshar
11. Auergel
16. Humans

Continents

Before Caer's Mistake the only landmasses on Abrecis were islands. These islands later became the mountains of the 4 continents.

• Daithia
• Lothia
• Obsidia
• Sangura

Daithia

The continent of Daithia (adj. Daithian) fell mostly in the southern hemisphere, with its southwestern region existing opposite Lothia. This point opposite Lothia was the epicenter of Caer's Mistake.

Pre-Continental Islands

Initial Settlement

Hematic Wars

Ethrenal spent most of his life in Daithia, first as a teacher of mages, then as a genocidal tyrant.

Abandonment

Later Colonization

After being uninhabited by any anthropoids for centuries, the Holy Obsidian Theocracy re-discovered the continent and began to colonize it. The eastern habitable zone followed the coast, and was bordered to the west by vast and arid plains of silt. Pioneers would travel west, but the population remained mostly on the east coast until well after United Daithia gained independence.

Independence from Obsidia

The previously-Obsidian colonies on Daithia declared independence, and after the war of independence formed United Daithia in 1589 OA.

Western Frontier

Though the silt plains were not fit for mass settlement, some would traverse them to form frontier communities. Past the harshest stretch of the plains, there was a semi-arid region before the Westcolumn mountains where most of these communities were built. Or rather, this is where the lasting communities were built.

Miasma Tombs

In 1654 OA, the first of these was discovered near the town of Thunderperch in the foothills of the Westcolumn mountains. When unidentified interlopers began killing archaeologists and people who spent time in and near the tomb started getting sick, DTX sent fixers to Thunderperch to make the planned route of the railroad safe to travel.

Lothia

Lothia (adj. Lothian) was the home of the Ashenal, humans, and a few other anthropoid species directly following Caer's Mistake.

Landmarks

Sanctuary Mountains

The Sanctuary Mountains were located in the northern part of the continent. They got their name after Caer's Mistake. Before that, they only existed as an island chain, and were simply referred to as Lothia.

The Peak of Creation

The Peak of Creation is the northern-most mountain in the Sanctuary Mountains, and every 19 moonages a total eclipse of the sun and Nyvol by Shaj was visible at this location.

Obsidia (Landmass)

Obsidia (adj. Obsidian), originally called Atrea (adj. Atrean) before being renamed during the first hematic war, was the homeland of Obsidis, and later the seat of her empire, the Holy Obsidian Theocracy.

Sangura

The continent of Sangura (adj. Sanguran) lay directly north of Daithia, separated by a strait known as the scar. Obsidia colonized this continent in the late 1400s OA, and the nation of Sangura gained independence in the 1638 OA.

History

• Cataclysms
• Eras
• Wars

Cataclysms

After anthropoids appeared on Abrecis, Caer's Mistake was the first major disaster to occur. The Great Sealing occurred during The Second Hematic War.

Caer's Mistake

Caer's Mistake was the magical cataclysm that ended the Oceanic era and marked the start of the Schismatic era. A great wave of magic darkened the sky, causing the planet to cool and ice to cover the poles. The oceans were greatly reduced as the ice caps formed and the global geography was transformed from mostly ocean with small islands to 4 continents surrounded by ocean. Ashenal and other animals were transformed instantly by the corrupting wave, with those closest to the epicenter being changed the most drastically. On the opposite side of the globe, a few communities on islands that became the Lothian highlands were untouched. The massive changes to the geography and ecosystem that resulted meant that the previously cenobitic life of the Ashenal could not be maintained by most anthropoids, and thus the Nomadic era began.

Prophecy

Some great event was prophesied to occur in 0 PY, but the prophecy described an event of sudden magical progress, where the Ashenal would learn to access realities beyond what they knew. This was ostensibly the motive behind Caer's project, but he made statements that would seem to indicate some alternate goal.

The Great Sealing

During the hematic wars both Ethrenal and Obsidis took measures to cut connections to other subconduits from the core dimension.

Eras

The history of Abrecis can be segmented up pretty nicely into a number of distinct eras, depending on what historical paradigm they are viewed from:

• Environment paradigm:
  • Volcanic era
  • Oceanic era
  • Schismatic era
  • Xerothermic era
  • Atavistic era
• Religion paradigm:
  • Pantheistic era
  • Polytheistic era
  • Iconoclastic era
  • Ethrenic era
  • Obsidic era
• Arcana/Technology paradigm:
  • Shamanic era
  • Thetic era
  • Phrenic era
  • Catabolic era
  • Mechanistic era
• Society paradigm:
  • Cenobitic era
  • Nomadic era
  • Prolific era
  • Hematic era
  • Miasmatic era
  • Anabatic era

Anabatic Era

This era began with the turning point of global miasma contamination, when Obsidis cleansed the air, took away magic, and worked to erase all record of non-human anthropoids. The Holy Obsidian Theocracy expanded across Obsidia, then colonized other continents. Approximately a millennium and a half into this era United Daithia was formed, with Sangura gaining independence soon after. This era began in -1213 PY/0 OA.

Atavistic Era

The atavistic era was a period of global recovery. With near-total extinction of multicellular life on Abrecis occurring during the xerothermic era, the actions of Obsidis to restore the oceans and cleanse the atmosphere effected a reversal of the gradual decline of biological populations and diversity. It was commonly agreed that this era began in -1097 PY.

The restoration of the oceans and atmosphere didn't immediately bring Abrecis back to its previous state, and much of the planet's dry land remained desert. Low biodiversity combined with the rapid change in environment meant that some species died out and some proliferated in an almost invasive fashion.

Catabolic Era

The catabolic era began with Ethrenal's development of catabolic magic, which quickly eclipsed other forms of magic in power and capability, causing it to become the primary magic used. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -551 PY to -984 PY.

One of the main benefits of catabolic magic was that it could be integrated into machines more easily than other magic, leading to the development of teleportation gates, various arcane-powered land, air, and sea vehicles, enhanced armor, and many other combinations of magic and mechanisms.

As the use of catabolic magic increased, so did its impact on the inhabitants and environment of Abrecis due to absorbing life energy and producing miasma. During the hematic wars this effect accelerated, transforming the whole world into desert.

Cenobitic Era

During this era the Ashenal were essentially separated into many island communities. The end of this era occurred shortly after Caer's Mistake and the end of the Oceanic era. The commonly accepted endpoints for this era were 2.6 million years ago to -79 PY.

Ethrenic Era

After removing the old gods from Abrecis during the iconoclastic era, Ethrenal began to have his followers worship him as a god, which empowered their thetic magic. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -584 PY to -1101 PY.

Hematic Era

The hematic era began with Ethrenal starting the First Hematic War and ended with the conclusion of the Second Hematic War. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -562 PY to -615 PY.

Iconoclastic Era

Up to and during the hematic era, worship of Abrecian gods lost favor, to be replaced by worshipping Ethrenal and later Obsidis. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -480 PY to -584 PY.

Mechanistic Era

After Obsidis took away all anthropoids' ability to use shamanic (and therefore catabolic) magic, eliminated all knowledge of phrenic magic, and had replaced all other deities capable of granting thetic magic, technology was entirely based on physical interactions. For a long time, tools and machines were mostly mechanical, and after hundreds of years steam technology enabled faster expansion across the continents. It was commonly agreed that this era began in -984 PY.

Miasmatic Era

All anthropoids dwindled in number throughout this era due to the harsh conditions of the global desert and atmospheric miasma. It seemed as though this was was the twilight of Abrecis, untilObsidis repaired the environment, beginning the anabatic era. The commonly accepted beginning of this era was -615 PY, and there was a consensus that the era ended in -1213 PY/0 OA.

Nomadic Era

After Caer's mistake, the anthropoids living on islands-cum-mountains around the globe could not feasibly remain in their homelands, so they split into many smaller nomadic communities. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -79 PY to -546 PY.

Obsidic Era

After Obsidis' genocide and apotheosis, Obsidism became Abrecis' primary religion. One of the express goals of early Obsidism was the conversion or elimination of those not of the faith. This era began in -1101 PY.

Oceanic Era

This era lasted for approximately 1.1 billion years and was marked by vast ocean dotted with islands. The only species of people to exist were the Ashenal, who only appeared a few million years before the end of this era.

End

This era was ended by Caer's Mistake. Global sea levels fell as the world cooled, beginning a geologic ice age known as the schismatic era.

Pantheistic Era

Before religions worshipping specific gods developed, the forces of nature were worshipped as gods. Animals, plants, the land, the weather, and other elements of the natural world were objects of worship. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were 23000 PY to -91 PY.

Phrenic Era

The phrenic era was the time when phrenic magic was the primary form of magic used on Abrecis. This occurred as a direct result of Ethrenal invention of phrenic magic and subsequent propagation of the knowledge necessary to use it. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -519 PY to -551 PY.

Polytheistic Era

With the split of the Ashenal into many different anthropoid species, religions worshipping different gods developed. This is in contrast to the pantheistic era when the forces of nature were worshipped as gods. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -91 PY to -480 PY.

Prolific Era

This was an era of rapid increases in population and quality of life, mostly as a result of newly developed phrenic and catabolic magic. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -546 PY to -562 PY.

Schismatic Era

This era began as the direct result of Caer's Mistake. It was characterized by a massive increase in biodiversity in the terrestrial ecosystem as well as many new anthropoids. Though some of this occurred due to the changing distribution of land vs ocean, it was mostly a direct result of the mutagenic effect of the magic involved in Caer's Mistake. There was a consensus that this era began in 0 PY, and it was commonly accepted that it ended in -602 PY.

Shamanic Era

The shamanic era describes the history of magic usage before anthropoids began receiving abilities from gods. The era of powers granted by gods was the thetic era. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were 6700 PY to -118 PY.

Thetic Era

The thetic era was the period of time when magic was primarily a gift granted by gods. This era ended as the religions of Abrecis waned and phrenic magic came to prominence during the phrenic age. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -118 PY to -519 PY.

Volcanic Era

During most of this era, Abrecis was too hot and chemically hostile to sustain organic life, but there may have been some action of primordial spirits and other entities. Toward the end of the volcanic era, bacteria and other simple life may have existed. The planet's gradual cooling flooded the surface with condensed water, beginning the oceanic era 1.1 billion years ago.

Xerothermic Era

The xerothermic era was characterized by extreme environmental damage caused by catabolic magic. The oceans receded and disappeared, and the planet became mostly desert. Obsidis eventually undid some of this damage, beginning the Atavistic era, but even thousands of years later, the desertification was still evident. The commonly accepted endpoints of this era were -602 PY to -1097 PY.

Arcana and Technology

Magic and technology were constantly intertwined throughout the history of Abrecis. In truth, the arcane could be viewed as fields of science and engineering.

The following are summaries of the history of these fields.

• Communication
• Infrastructure
• Medicine
• Travel

Communication

The various types of magic made near-instantaneous communication possible around the world. Communication could also be shielded from eavesdroppers via magic.

Later, messages could be sent via electrical signals, such as with the telegraph.

Infrastructure

Magic affected infrastructure in multiple ways. First, structures could be built faster with magic. Additionally, magic could be integrated into the infrastructure itself. For example, aqueducts could purify water with magic, making it safe to drink.

Medicine

Throughout history, various naturally-occurring substances were collected for their therapeutic effects. Magic was able to not only provide its own therapeutic value, but it could aid in the synthesis of drugs as well.

Travel

Water, land, and air travel evolved alongside magic. At the height of magical progress, large-scale teleportation was possible as well.

Seafaring

Toward the end of the oceanic era (relatively speaking) the Ashenal first sailing ships. Various magics were used to improve the sailing experience, such as controlling the weather or purifying water.

With catabolic magic arcane engines could be imbued with perpetual spells that released miasma These were used to build faster ships that didn't rely on the wind.

Land travel

The Ashenal used animal-pulled carts far back into the oceanic era. Some shamanic magic enabled rudimentary communication with animals, improving this method of transportation.

Thetic magic enabled quicker and stronger construction of vehicles, in addition to enchantment power.

Phrenic magic was used for long-distance travel. Mages would use phrenic magic to rotate a crank, which propelled the vehicle forward. This required constant active attention, but mages could switch out over the course of the journey.

Railroads were built that carried trains powered by the same arcane engines that catabolic magic-based ships used.

During the anabatic era steam engines saw widespread use starting in the late 1500s OA.

Aircraft

Mages could manage short bursts of flight, especially if aided by a mechanical glider, for as far back as the shamanic era. However, it wasn't until the arcane engines that powered ships and trains were repurposed to lift and propel blimps that aircraft saw widespread use.

Teleportation

Short-range teleportation was possible with shamanic magic. Thetic magic enabled teleportation to marked locations, even across subconduits. Phrenic magic did not particularly advance the state of the art, but catabolic magic made it possible to open enormous portals that entire vessels could pass through.

Major Wars

Hematic Wars

The hematic wars were the conflicts that started and ended the hematic era.

First Hematic War

The first hematic war was started by Ethrenal in Daithia as an attempt to commit genocide against all non-Ashenal.

Second Hematic War

The second hematic war was started by Obsidis after her victory against Ethrenal. This was a successful genocide committed against all non-humans.

Pre-Theocracy Obsidian Conquests

Holy Obsidian Theocracy Conquests

Daithian Independence

In 1579 OA the Obsidian colonies in Daithia declared war on the Holy Obsidian Theocracy in a bid to gain independence. This revolution was successful and the colonies formed a new nation.

Daithia-Sangura War

United Daithia fought against Obsidia-controlled Sangura for several years, but Sangura's revolution led to a ceasefire, which lasted until the war was officially ended years later.

Sanguran Independence

Daithian War of Independence

The Obsidian colonies in Daithia declared independence in 1579 OA. The war concluded in 1589 OA and United Daithia was formed.

First Hematic War

The first hematic war was a genocidal campaign initiated by Ethrenal. The goal of Ethrenal and his forces was to retake for the Ashenal, and subjugate, enslave, or eliminate everyone else. In addition, Ethrenal had dolmens destroyed in order to cut off access to Glassvale.

Second Hematic War

You, humans, are all there is. You are all there has ever been.
-Obsidis

The second hematic war began at the tail end of the first. Obsidis' forces declared victory over Ethrenal, but Obsidis wanted revenge. So, she enacted total war against Lothia. Over the next few years, this attrition expanded to include all non-human anthropoids, as well as history of non-human cultures. Vengeance had become genocide.

Inhabitants

Various types of beings inhabited the Abrecis conduit, listed here.

• Anthropoids
• Deities
• Figures
• Spirits

Anthropoids

Anthropoids were any of the many mortal peoples of Abrecis, including the Ashenal, humans, and others. Anthropoids other than Ashenal appeared around the globe in anthropic rings.

List of Anthropoids

• Ashenal
• Auergel
• Cicadians
• Humans
• Meshar
• Shaja

Ashenal

The Ashenal (pl. Ashenal, adj. Ashenal) were an anthropoid species who were the original sapient inhabitants of Abrecis. They appeared mostly similar to humans, but with pointed ears and a wider range of skin tones. These skin tones included all shades of tan, brown, and black, in addition to dark shades of gray tinted purple or blue. They became known as elves to other races during the prolific era.

Auergel

The Auergel were an anthropoid species from anthropic ring 11. They looked similar to humans, but they were about 9 feet tall on average, and had varying hues of skin color throughout the visible spectrum. They had nations on the northwest coast of Sangura, the southern coast of Lothia, and the mid-northern part of Atrea. The nation of of Yalholm in Sangura was key to global industrialization.

Cicadians

Cicadians were an anthropoid species resembling cicadas from ring 1. They had strong chitin exoskeletons and 4 arms in addition to glassy wings that aided their movement by enabling large leaps. Cicadian language was almost entirely hard consonants, making it sound almost mechanical.

Culture

The Cicadian ring was very near the epicenter of Caer's Mistake, so the Cicadians were few and had a somewhat monolithic culture.

In Obsidism

After the second hematic war, Cicadians became mythologized, and cicadas were used as a symbol of freedom and majesty by United Daithia.

Humans

Humans were the species of anthropoid that remained most similar to the Ashenal in the wake of Caer's Mistake. While they looked similar to Ashenal, their skin tones did not include the blue and purple hues of some Ashenal, and their ears were rounded rather than pointed. They also had significantly shorter lifespans, with an upper limit of about 70 Abrecian years.

Culture

The human anthropic ring was ring 16, nearly opposite the epicenter of Caer's Mistake, so their cultures were not as significantly varied during the nomadic era as, for example, the many shajan cultures.

Meshar

The Meshar were an anthropoid species whose ring (ring 10) passed through Sangura and Atrea. They looked similar to Ashenal, but typically only grew to 4 feet in height at most. On closer inspection, their teeth were sharper, and they lacked molars to grind their food. Their sight was especially keen, especially in the dim of twilight.

The Meshar nation of Aechak in northwest Sangura became known for its industry and innovation, and this is where The Industrial Union began.

Shaja

The Shaja were a species of anthropoid who were commonly 6-8 feet tall, muscular, and had pointed ears, sharp teeth with lower canines that would extend enough to appear as tusks in some individuals, and skin of various earth tones. Many humans and Ashenal stereotyped Shaja as violent, brutish, unintelligent, and non-magical, but any member of most Shaja communities could tell you that such an idea was absurd.

Major Cultures

The first Shaja appeared in anthropic ring 5, about one third of the way to the other side of the world from Caer's Mistake. As communities split and merged during the nomadic era, Shaja tended to gravitate to a few main ones: a polar nation, an equatorial nation, a desert nation, a coastal nation, and 2 different mainland temperate nations.

Deities

Many of the deities of Abrecis were also deities in other conduits, but once Abrecis was cut off from the rest of the multiverse only Obsidis remained.

Creator Deity

The creator deity was the only known pre-anthropoid deity of Abrecis.

Apotheosis of Obsidis

Obsidis claimed to have become one with the creator deity when she achieved apotheosis.

Morgan, Queen of Fairies

Morgan was a minor deity of Abrecis, residing on the island of Avalon in Glassvale. Her origin was a mystery, as she would sometimes claim to be the sister of Bahnb and Mechanna, and other times claim to have been born as a mortal Ashenal.

Obsidis (Deity)

Obsidis was the deity worshipped in Obsidism.

Mortal Life

For information on Obsidis pre-apotheosis, see Obsidis (Mortal).

Ascension Miracle

When Obsidis first ascended, she used her newfound power to re-fill the oceans with water and clean the planet of miasma. This un-did much of the environmental damage of the xerothermic era

Symbolic Opposition

Obsidis damned Ethrenal's soul to the Unfathomable Night for him to live eternally as a symbol of evil.

The Sisters of War

The Sisters of War were minor deities of Abrecis who ruled the island of Hy-Bresail in Glassvale.

Danu

Danu, also called Morrigan (not to be confused with Morgan), was a goddess of prophecy, particularly that of fated death. Of the 3 Sisters of War, she saw the most worship during the polytheistic era, and was thus the most powerful. Her servants were spirits known as banshees.

Bahnb

Mechanna

The Tolmaren

The Tolmaren was an entity, or perhaps group of entities, that controlled The Unfathomable Night. Not much was known about it, other than it stole spirits of the dead from other subconduits, and guarded anyone and anything against escape.

Notable Figures

Many of these notable figures are members of noted organizations.

Anthony Hill

Both workers and soldiers die every day, but soldiers get memorials. I wake up every day and choose the life of the latter. Military-man to military-man, if you don't know which one you want to be then you'd best get your priorities straight.
-Anthony Hill

Anthony Hill was a DTX contractor and former soldier who spearheaded the Westcolumn Mountain Tunneling Project in 1546 OA. He was exceptionally charismatic, and would give the impression of someone easygoing and earnest. He saw anyone he couldn't charm as a potential threat, and would quickly resort to intimidation and brutality in order to maintain social dominance. As a leader, he heavily relied on fascist rhetoric and propaganda, particularly by causing conflict and then framing a chosen side as the aggressor in order to unify an opposition. He idealized power as a measurement of virtue, and saw those lacking as inferior. Since leaving the United Daithia army, he envisioned the nation of Formicia, and thought the western frontier to be the perfect location to build it. Upon encountering the stewards, Hill worked on solidifying power on the western frontier and propagandized himself as a leader against the "cultist" threat. The Parados Crusade was the only group they had encountered, but Hill painted anyone not from a known nation as a dangerous cultist, giving free reign to conquer the western frontier and kill anyone already living there.

Caer

The prophecy did not foretell this day. I chose this day to show that change doesn't happen because of fate. History won't remember this because it was predicted: history will remember this because it wasn't.
-Caer

Caer was an Ashenal mage who caused the first cataclysm, earning him the moniker The First Mistake.

Life Events

Caer was born on an island that would become part of Daithia and spent most of his life there, although he traveled to the islands that would become Lothia, Sangura, and Atrea (Obsidia).

He died during Caer's mistake, as did everyone within several miles of the epicenter.

Cooper Tingward

Cooper Tingward started DTX in 1589 OA.

Ethrenal (Mortal)

Ethrenal was an Ashenal who wanted to re-take Abrecis for the Ashenal, killing all other anthropoid species. This was known as the first hematic war. Before that, however, Ethrenal taught magic. Though he didn't originally consciously discriminate against other anthropoids, his school in Lothia was located in a region with mostly Ashenal inhabitants, followed by humans, so most of his students were as well. He contributed a great amount to the development of thetic magic, and is widely credited with the invention of phrenic magic and catabolic magic.

Followers

Ethrenal had many students, but 12 especially powerful followers worked closely with him for several years.

Obsidis (Mortal)

Magic is the great solvent of society. In its presence, all structure is lost, and what was solid and ordered becomes fluid chaos.
-Obsidis

Obsidis was a human who played a key part in ending the first hematic war and started the second hematic war. After the second hematic war ended, she continued to gain power, eventually achieving apotheosis and becoming the deity of obsidism, the state religion of the Holy Obsidian Theocracy.

Mortal Life

Before the hematic wars, Obsidis was a mage who studied theoretical arcane concepts involving the mixing of thetic and catabolic magic. In her academic pursuits, she achieved what had only been possible for deities: she could grant power to others such that their spells would not produce miasma. She accumulated a certain amount of power ahead of time, which produced miasma, then that power could be used by her or others at a later time without any additional miasma being produced.

Apotheosis

For information on Obsidis post-apotheosis, see Obsidis (Deity).

Threwdge-Heppitdee Mylksan

Threwdge-Heppitdee was a chemical engineer and explosives technician who worked for DTX.

William Marth

There's a certain lack of realness to city life. We've built too many things. I came out here to escape all that. I didn't come out here for this.
-William Marth

William Marth was a racketeer from Bethmoor on the east coast of Daithia. After his business partner, Andrew Keats, became more and more paranoid before disappearing one summer, he took the opportunity to retire from crime and moved to the frontier to run a farm.

Spirits

Spirits were a type of being with a physical form that was the result of magic. Some were very bestial, and some were nearly anthropoid. The nature of spirits being magical was such that similarly-minded spirits would gain similar appearances and abilities after long amounts of time. Spirits were categorized into types based on common attributes. Many spirits were originally mortals who became spirits of the dead, but some were constructed intentionally, usually by a deity or another spirit.

Banshees

Banshees were a type of spirit native to Glassvale who served Danu. Their wailing screams were meant to guide spirits of the dead to Hy-Bresail. Mortals, anthropoid and beast alike, would feel overcome with doom and dread at the sound of a banshee's scream.

Spirits of the Dead

When a sapient mortal dies, particularly an anthropoid, the release of energy separating the soul from the body would encapsulate the soul in magic. This new structure was called a spirit, an initially weak afterimage of the mortal it once was, but an entity can change and grow over time.

Revenants

If a spirit of the dead animates a corpse, this facsimile of a living being was called a revenant.

Organizations

• Nations
• Religions
• Other

Nations

Obsidic Era

• The Holy Obsidian Theocracy
• United Daithia
• Sangura

Aechak

Aechak was a nation of Meshar in northwest Sangura.

Origins

During the nomadic era, Aechak started out as a group of associated Meshar villages. Due to their mostly carnivorous diet, Meshar communities tended to end up with a surplus of furs, which they traded with Yalholm to the north. Yalholm spanned hundreds of miles of coastline, so Aechak was able to purchase goods coming into port. Key among these goods was salt, which enabled food preservation, so Aechak hunters could bring back even more meat without worrying about it spoiling. This caused the population to grow incredibly quickly, and Aechak grew wealthy.

Industry

Aechak's prosperity led to industrialization. Coal and iron mines were constructed across the eastern region of the nation.

Obsidia (Nation)

The Holy Obsidian Theocracy, usually called just Obsidia in casual conversation, carried out the will of Obsidis before and after her apotheosis. It spanned the continent of Obsidia.

Lothia

After Caer's Mistake, Lothia was formed as the primary Ashenal nation, located in the northern part of the continent of the same name.

Sangura

The nation of Sangura existed on the continent of Sangura, which was to the north of the continent of Daithia.

United Daithia

United Daithia was on the east coast of the continent of Daithia. This nation was originally a colony of the Holy Obsidian Theocracy, but declared independence in 1579 OA and won the war of independence in 1589 OA.

Notable Locations

Bethmoor

Bethmoor was one of the largest cities on Daithia's east coast.

DTX

Daithian Transport Express wielded a large amount of power throughout the 1600s.

Daithian Frontier

Yalholm

Yalholm was an Auergel nation on the northwest coast of Sangura. The inhabitants of Yalholm were able to use some of the Ashenal vessels left from before Caer's Mistake to engage in cross-ocean trade with other coastal communities. They also traded with Aechak, which bordered Yalholm to the south.

Notable Groups

Pre-Obsidian

• The Industrial Union
• The Betrayers of Ethrenal/The Betrayers of Obsidis

Obsidic Era

• Daithian Transport Express (DTX)
• The Stewards of Abrecis

The Betrayers

The Betrayers was the name given to 2 separate groups who eventually merged into a single group: The Betrayers of Ethrenal and The Betrayers of Obsidis. The Betrayers would ritualistically sever their ears, as ears were the only reliable way of distinguishing a few of the most common anthropoid species, particularly humans and Ashenal. Much later, The Stewards would refer to The Betrayers as The Founders.

DTX

Daithian Transport Express (DTX) was the railroad of the Daithian frontier, as well as one of the largest railroad corporations in the world.

History

The company was created in 1589 OA by Cooper Tingward as a horseback courier service. In 1603, 2 years after the invention of the steam locomotive, the company took out several enormous loans in order to purchase land, materials, and labor to build a railroad. DTX initially hauled its own freight, but began renting out cargo space to other companies in 1607, and added passenger cars in 1610. By 1612 the company's primary income stream was transporting other companies' freight, so DTX sold off the courier services division of the company, completing the transition to railroad corporation.

Notable Employees

• Anthony Hill
• Threwdge-Heppitdee Mylksan

The Industrial Union

The Industrial Union was started in Aechak but it grew in scope until it was an international organization with a large amount of power.

The Stewards of Abrecis

The Stewards of Abrecis, or just The Stewards, were the human descendants of The Betrayers who lived in Daithia before the continent was colonized by Obsidia. The Stewards continued The Betrayers' practice of ritualistic ear removal, but would do so during infancy.

Society

The Stewards mythologized The Betrayers, who they called The Founders, and carried knowledge of miasma through generations with oral tradition. They tasked themselves with protecting the miasma tombs of Daithia from outside discovery or access, knowing the dangers of miasma sickness. Though Obsidis had removed all magic casting from the world, The Stewards could manipulate some permanent spells left in place by The Betrayers. The Stewards retained the Betrayers' tradition of severing ears, but did so at birth.

Major Factions

Many of The Stewards, such as the Syroeb Federation, who occupied the Shajan Caldera chose a strategy of isolationism. The Parados Crusade was an extremist group who would attempt to kill those who were desecrated, that is, anyone who entered pre-obsidian structures. The Parados Crusade primarily fought against the expansionism of DTX, and Anthony Hill propagandized the conflict in order to gain and cement power.

Religions

The first religions on Abrecis were pantheistic. That is, worshipping part of the natural world as gods.

After the split of the Ashenal into many different species, pantheistic faith sublimated into many polytheistic religions. During the First Hematic War Ethrenal persecuted these religions, and they were eventually eliminated by Obsidis during the Second Hematic War.

Obsidism

Obsidism was the state religion of the Holy Obsidian Theocracy and the last major religion of Abrecis as of the Obsidic Era. The religion worshipped Obsidis and started out mostly made up of those who followed her as a mortal.

Funerary Rites

Funerals would usually be performed with the body out for the attendees to see. After the funeral, the body would be cremated and the ashes deposited into the ocean. Far inland this necessitated transport of the ashes to the coast by courier, where the local government or Obsidian church would handle them.

Solar System and Subconduits

The sun was located at the center of the system, orbited by the tiny planet of Trell, followed by Abrecis, then Kwajey. Abrecis was orbited by 2 moons: Shaj and Nyvol. Additionally, there were a number of subconduits that existed alongside the core dimension.

Moons of Abrecis

Abrecis was orbited by 2 moons: Nyvol and Shaj.

Nyvol

Nyvol was the smaller of Abrecis' 2 moons, although its greater distance from the planet exaggerated this effect. It was a xanthous orange color, and did not have visible craters.

Nyvol's precession was predictable and in sync with Abrecis' year, forming a 7-year cycle. This was used in the calendar system.

Shaj

Shaj was the larger of Abrecis' 2 moons. It would periodically eclipse Nyvol and the sun. It was a dim gray color tinged slightly violet, and had several large and visible craters.

Shaj's precession was predictable and in sync with Abrecis' year, forming a 3-year cycle. This was used in the calendar system.

The Shaja took their name from this moon.

Other Planets

Abrecis was the 2nd planet in the solar system, preceded by Trell and followed by Kwajey.

Kwajey

Kwajey is referenced in one of the micro-parables of Nyvol. It was the 3rd planet from the sun in the Abrecis solar system.

Trell

Trell was the closest planet to the sun. Observations indicated that it was blazing hot and had no atmosphere.

Subconduits

Abrecis had several subconduits in addition to the core dimension. After Obsidis' apotheosis, only connections to The Obsidian Domain and The Unfathomable Night remained.

Glassvale

Glassvale was an S4M induced space with geography that loosely mimicked the core dimension's planet of Abrecis. The landscape constantly shifted and arranged itself in impossible geometries, making navigation by those not from Glassvale nearly impossible. Every location appeared, from that perspective, to be within the nadir of a valley, walled in by lushly forested mountains. Day and night did not cycle at a specific rate, but rather changed with the mood of the denizens. Glassvale could be accessed from the core dimension via dolmens.

Dolmens

Dolmens were a type of grave built out of stone in the shape of a portal or doorway, with the remains buried in the dirt below. In ancient Abrecis, particularly during the pantheistic era, dolmens were the standard method of burial in order to provide the spirits of the dead with easy access to Glassvale. Occasionally, spirits would travel through dolmens from Glassvale to the core dimension.

Major Locations

Ys

Ys was the largest and grandest city in Glassvale, sprawling across an oblong lake running through the valley and spending most of its time in late evening, highly active with mirth and celebration. A large portion of the city existed underwater, and this part was known as Old Ys or Sunken Ys. Built atop was a city above the surface of the water, known as High Ys or Arisen Ys.

Listenoise

Listenoise was a harsh wasteland in perpetual night, filled with vengeful, corrupted, and otherwise dangerous spirits. At the center was The Carbon Spire, an imposing black monolith tall enough to cut through clouds. There were rumors that the spire existed simultaneously in Glassvale and the core dimension, but it was never located on Abrecis.

Annun

Annun was a small fishing village on a misty shoreline. It was not possible to see far from the shore, but occasionally the mist over the ocean would clear long enough to glimpse one of Annun's islands: Avalon, Hy-Bresail, and Thule. These 3 islands were never in the same place each time they appeared.

Avalon

Avalon was a temperate rain-forest island ruled my Morgan, Queen of Fairies. The island is perpetually in early summer. Morgan took a boat to Annun when the mists were clear in order to invite spirits to Avalon. Those invited were typically leaders, mages, or other achievers while mortal.

Hy-Bresail

Hy-Bresail was primarily moorland, checkered with wetlands. It was ruled by 3 sisters: Danu, Bahnb, and Mechanna. Violence was common on Hy-Bresail, as a result of the island's pervasive culture of valor and honor. Spirits who wished to spend their days doing battle would voyage to the island from Annun.

Thule

Thule was flat in most of its central area, but mountainous nearer the shore, creating striking cliffs abutting the ocean. The island was heavily forested with a variety of coniferous and deciduous trees.

Sealing

During the first hematic war, Ethrenal had dolmens across the planet destroyed, sealing Glassvale off from Abrecis.

The Obsidian Domain

The Obsidian Domain was a subconduit created by Obsidis for her to inhabit and accumulate the spirits of her dead followers. It made its way into the mythology of Obsidism as the desired afterlife. Obsidis maintained a single connection to the unfathomable night, where she sent problematic spirits.

The Unfathomable Night

The Unfathomable Night was an S4M induced space characterized by death and dread. The geography was similar to the core dimension's planet of Abrecis, but lying on a flat plane. The center of this dimension was a dilated space full of darkness known as The Depths. The edge was bounded by an esoteric geography of stone and ice, always reshaping to push travelers back toward the center. After Obsidis' apotheosis, Ethrenal was imprisoned in The Depths by her. The sky was constantly a dark gray, and structures of concrete and glass were infested with demons and shadows, ready to eviscerate any mortals unfortunate enough to take shelter there from the chilling wind. The barren ground was only stone, gravel, and more concrete. Nothing lived and nothing grew.

The Tolmaren plucked spirits of the dead from Abrecis and deposited them in the unfathomable night where they became warped, changing into wraiths and other monsters. The Great Sealing prevented any further connection to the core dimension.

Softlight Earth

Softlight Earth followed the same history as real life until 2049 CE. A large amount of land became owned by a few large tech companies, and this land was turned into smart cities, communities where a private corporation could control every aspect of life in order to test new technologies with less regulatory and market pressure. At the same time, climate change continued and accelerated. Approximately 25% of the landmass present at the turn of the century was submerged by 2080 CE. Some coastal cities were replaced by floating cities. Declining air quality and smog meant that masks with filters were necessary in many places.

Softlight Corp.

Softlight Corp. was one such corporation that ventured into city building. Specializing in cybernetics, they developed the Softlight Module System, a device that connects to a user's nervous system in order to enhance them physically, mentally, or otherwise.

Gridspace

Discovered by Softlight scientists, gridspace was a set of fields overlaid with the known universe, but they would only interact with matter in very specific circumstances. This property, among others, made it particularly suited to storing information. Since its discovery, all cybernetics of the 21st century were built on gridspace technology, as it enabled more complex data processing than possible with classical computing, AI/ML, or non-gridspace quantum computing.

Transhumanism and Posthumanism

Powered by gridspace technology, augmentations, artificial intelligence, and androids became commonplace in the latter part of the 22nd century. Non-human minds were everywhere, some human-like, some alien.

Stories

• Sophocles Delta

Floating Cities

Floating cities were smart cities built on the ocean as the coastline eroded.

Gridspace

Gridspace was a 6-dimensional Lorentz Manifold in the Softlight Earth conduit, and the only subconduit other than the core dimension. All 6 dimensions were space-like, but 2 of them were related to time. For clarity, the following list describes the behaviors of the dimensions:

• 1-4. Standard space, just a higher dimensional version of our 3-dimensional space.
• 5. The "record" dimension, which could be spatially traversed to retrieve every previous value of the information field. Previous values could not be altered, but information could be added to this dimension by modifying the information field
• 6. The "time-size" dimension. This dimension behaved like the other spatial dimensions, but grew in size as time passed in the core dimension.

Gridspace did not have the same forces or fields that the core dimension did. Instead, it had the information field, which was quantized into information-like wave packets called informatrons. Force carriers of this field were called computrons.

Smart Cities

Smart cities were a type of municipality heavily integrated with technology and controlled by a corporation. Surveillance was ubiquitous and nearly everything was automated, including doors, transportation, and fines. Stores used systems of cameras to charge customers without any checkout process. The smart city concept can be seen as an evolution of 19th and 20th century company towns. Testing of the idea began in the early 21st century, but smart cities didn't become widespread until the latter half of the century. In addition to a high degree of control over employees and citizens, corporations could also use smart cities to avoid regulatory and market pressure they might otherwise be subjected to.

Softlight Corp.

Founded in 2049 CE by Terrence Ross, Softlight started out as a biotech company specializing in synthetic implants. Ross managed to get many high-profile investors on board, and used the money to buy Silane Chip Fabrication Technologies (SCFT) in 2055 CE. Softlight retained the Silane brand name for several years before phasing it out in 2061 CE. Softlight began designing its own implants and, with Silane's foundries, incorporating AI accelerator chips. As part of a military contract, Softlight created what could be considered the first cybernetic augmentation in 2058 CE.

By 2060, Softlight had plans in place to deploy consumer versions, but the regulations around such procedures meant it would take decades to develop and test any products. Rather than wait for red tape, Ross once again turned to investors, raising an enormous amount of capital. This, along with his personal wealth, went toward buying land and building smart cities. With less governmental oversight, Softlight began testing consumer-targeted augmentations in 2065.

This first era of augmentations was somewhat limited, and mainly fell into 2 categories: prosthetics and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Prosthetics could restore missing motor function, or give the user the ability to control complex robotics. BCIs transformed the way the user thought. Sensory data could be accurately recorded, then retrieved, for objective eidetic memory. Cognitive tasks could be offloaded directly from the brain to the computer, blurring the line between brain and silicon. The entire internet could be accessed as easily as a memory of yesterday's dinner. Prosthetics were flashier, but BCIs were what metamorphosed the world. The primary downside of these augmentations was the bulk. Even with strides in power efficiency and battery compactness, large battery packs or physical connections were still necessary to run the hardware. This and cost meant that outside the military, augmentation was mostly restricted to test volunteers and the wealthy. A few highly-knowledgeable hobbyists were able to modify and extend these augmentations, but it was uncommon.

In 2079, Softlight researchers discovered gridspace, which enabled a new generation of augmentations that used a comparatively negligible amount of electrical power for significantly greater capability. These new augmentations became ubiquitous, and communities of hackers who experimented with alterations came to be.

Warble

Warble was a conduit that became a hub of multiversal travel. It was home to many species of the multiverse. Factions from Warble often developed a presence in other conduits as well.

Solar System

The solar system was a unary star system surrounded by several planets in the following order.

1. Harmony
2. Melody
3. Warble (or Warble-d to differentiate from the conduit)
4. Tone
5. Timbre

Additionally, the sun was called Song and Warble-d's single moon was called Silence.

Warble-d was the primary destination for a large portion of history, until people started building spaceports on Tone.

Stories

• The Demon Gate
• Orion's Sight

Factions of Warble

• Oria

The Oria

The Oria were a group of hunters that defended civilization against magical threats. Most of them did not wield magic (though there were some who received power from a deity or similar), but they were quite resistant to magic. They could also perceive magic as various colors, an ability known as "Orion's sight", depending on the type and intensity. A side effect of this magical sight was achromatopsia: they could not perceive actual colors, and everything was blurry and overly bright. To cope with this condition, they tended to prefer the darkness, and would often wear darkened goggles during the day.

An individual member of The Oria was called an Orion. An Orion's life was often solitary, and they were regarded with some unease by others. An Orion usually had 1 or more animal companions, traditionally hunting dogs. Oria who lived in relatively safe areas, were getting old for the profession, or had suffered a serious injury, would often train an apprentice, rarely more than 1 at a time.

Regions

Warble-d

• Nakatsukuni

Nakatsukuni

Nakatsukuni is a region of Warble-d inspired by japanese history and mythology.

Deities

A deity, or god, is a specific type of being that subsists on mental energy fiber produced by thinking beings, while also existing as pure thought. The first of these was Loom, who created Ere and Elfemroth. Most deities are parasitic, gaining such sustenance through worship, though some are fully predatory or exhibit aspects of both parasitism and predation.

Administrative System

Ere and Elfemroth created a great celestial bureaucracy to manage the distribution of mental energy fiber. This served 2 purposes: as the multiversal pantheons grew, this organization could make sure that deities actually got the mental energy fiber they were entitled to by worship from their followers, and also to tax this worship to direct some mental energy fiber to Loom, lest it raze the multiverse and start anew. Part of this celestial bureaucracy was the Clock of Being.

Types

There are several types of deities, categorized mostly by how they came into existence.

Type I (Emergent)

A Type I deity is one that forms from naturally occurring tangled thought fiber without outside influence. Loom is the only known Type I deity.

Type II (Constructed)

Type II deities are similar to Type I, but constructed by another deity, mortal, or group of mortals.

Type IIa (Deity-constructed)

Type IIa deities are any deity constructed or resurrected by another deity.

Type IIb (Doxalotry-constructed)

Type IIb deities are created through mortal worship of something non-thinking, such as an idol, a concept, or a deity that is dead or does not exist yet.

Type III (Apotheosized)

Type III deities are former mortals who underwent apotheosis to become a deity. Any deity that becomes mortal and then undergoes apotheosis to become a deity again is considered Type III, even if they were previously a different type.

Type IIIa (Deity-chosen)

Type IIIa deities are mortals who were promoted to godhood by another deity.

Type IIIb (Anthropolatry-chosen)

Type IIIb deities are mortals who underwent apotheosis as a result of worship by other mortals.

Type IIIc (Autoapotheosized)

Type IIIc deities are mortals who became gods through their own means. These deities typically die shortly after apotheosis due to a lack of worshippers.

Type IV (Dead)

Type IV deities are deities (or remains of deities) that did not maintain enough worship to retain their status, and did not change their existence into another form, such as a mortal. Type IV deities are discarded into the time stream by other deities in the divine realm. Type IV deities can become Type II deities under the right conditions.

Elfemroth

Elfemroth was a type IIa holy-aligned deity created by Loom. He and Ere created many conduits with mortals, starting with prototype earth. Once humans had come into existence on prototype earth, they were used as a template for a large number of other sapient mortals. One of these first variants was the elf, created by Elfemroth. Elves in many conduits worshipped Elfemroth under various names.

Ere

Ere was a type IIa holy-aligned deity created by Loom in order to bridge the gap of understanding between itself and mortals. Ere and Elfemroth created mortals in many conduits.

Horkos

Horkos, king of the inferno, was a type IIa profane-aligned deity. He ruled the hells of the multiverse.

Origin

Horkos originally ran the extraction division of the celestial bureaucracy, but after finding out from Kaeronothos about the fraud going on, he was rebuilt as Horkos to direct the hell project. Once he was Horkos, he managed everything profane within the celestial bureaucracy.

Karun

Karun, the demonic lord of death, was a type IIa profane-aligned deity.

Origin

Karun was first Kaeronothos, a deity working under Agesilaos in the celestial bureaucracy's extraction division, repairing machines that extracted worship from the souls of dead mortals. He found some odd glitches and discrepancies in the worship processing system, and eventually found out that a large amount of the mind fiber processed from worship was going to Loom rather than being distributed to all the deities in the celestial bureaucracy. Once he confronted Ere and Elfemroth about the fraud, he was rebuilt into Karun. As Karun he worked under Horkos in the hell project. Souls consigned to a profane afterlife were transported by Karun across the rivers of hell to their ultimate destination.

Loom

Loom was the first deity and the only known type I deity. Loom created the first mortals, but could not easily communicate with them, for its mind was too alien. It created Ere to bridge that gap of understanding.

Origin

Loom formed from the tangled mind fibers of the mental dimension. It created the divine realm as a space to anchor itself to. It created the first mortals in an attempt to produce mind fiber for it to consume, but it was unable to create mortals who would self-perpetuate. In order to do so, it created Ere to solve that problem. It then withdrew from any interaction with mortals or even other deities, feeding off the mind fiber given to it by Ere.

Magic Systems

There are several ways of performing feats of magic that are relatively consistent across the multiverse. Magic involved manipulation of physical forces, usually involving arcana, cogita, and/or hyperia.

Some of the most common systems of magic were the following.

• Alchemy
• Arcane Engineering
• Rune Carving
• Scriptum Magorum
• Witchcraft

Alchemy

Alchemy used chemical substances to produce magical effects, as well as magic to induce chemical reactions.

Aqua Regia

Aqua Regia is the alchemical name for a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acid. It is one of the few solvents capable of dissolving gold. In alchemy, one of its uses was to mix a small amount with a sample of blood, then use the mixture to draw a ward.

Gypsum

Gypsum is a mineral that can be ground into a white powder. One of its primary uses in alchemy was for drawing wards.

Vitriol

Vitriol is the alchemical name for any substance containing a sulfate ion. Vitriols may or may not be hydrous.

Spirit of Vitriol

Spirit of vitriol (or just vitriol) is the alchemical name given to sulfuric acid. Spirit of vitriol can be used to produce vitriols by combining it with other substances.

Green Vitriol

Green vitriol is an iron sulfate that has a few useful properties. In its solid form it appears as green granulated crystal. It is soluble in water, and thus may be used in water-based elixirs and potions. Excess amounts are toxic.

Uses

Alchemical

Green vitriol was involved in magic resistance. Biota predisposed to magic resistance, such as Oria could consume small amounts of green vitriol to enhance this effect.

Botanical

Green vitriol enhances plant growth in small amounts, and can be added to irrigation systems to distribute to a large crop area.

Medicinal

Green vitriol can be used to treat anemia.

Arcane Engineering (Arc-E)

Arcane Engineering used architecture, geometry, and mechanical systems to accomplish magical effects.

Hierophancy

Hierophancy was a category of magic granted by one being to another, often by serving a god or making a deal with some other powerful entity.

Rune Carving

Rune carving involved etching symbols into objects to achieve a magical effect. The 2 primary applications were for enhancements, such as carving a fire rune onto a sword, and rune-casting based divination.

Scriptum Magorum

Scriptum Magorum was a language for writing spells as well as a standard magic interface shared across universes.

Most mages would only interact with Scriptum Magorum far enough to cast spells, though spells could also be written from scratch in the language.

Witchcraft

Witchcraft used natural objects and substances, especially botanical ones, to perform magic.

In-lore Stories

These stories happen within the multiverse of OpenLore.

• Creation Myth
• The Demon Gate
• Fall of a Deity
• Orion's Sight
• Sophocles Delta

Creation Myth

Setting: The Multiverse

As all begins, so shall all end

Before there existed anything at all, there was only darkness, and the darkness was cold and empty. Darkness, however, can only exist as a relative absence of radiance. As such, a singular grain of light began to dance and spin beside the darkness. No sooner had this spark instantiated, than the darkness sapped its energy and dimmed it with absorptive void. Once again, only darkness spanned entirety.

A moment forever

In the time between eternities of darkness, that flow of energy from light to dark formed myriad eddies, and infinite vortices sang the song of uncountable cosmos. That individual moment of illumination became its own eternity for all that existed within its motion. Within this time, the great cascade stratified thusly: above floated holiness and below lay the infernal. An ethereal bathygraphy of great luster crystallized from the origin seed, and a chromatic ocean of stars flowed from origin to void. The knotted vortices of flux manifested a universe each within this time stream, shaped and directed by stalagmitic spires of the ethereal. When these universes were still young and pyric, strands of thought lengthened within the altitudinous domain. As any proximal lengths of thread may, they twisted and wove together into a cloth of mind. This mind was a hunger, and set about finding methods to sustain. Remaining scraps of mind fiber provided minor satiation, but could not act as a long-term fuel. The cloth mind pondered, and envisioned a material engine. Transient minds that self-propagated could produce an unlimited quantity of nourishment. The cloth mind shed outer layers, which frayed. From this fray it seeded all universes with this divine fiber. This precipitate fell onto fertile matter-soil, and the cloth mind perceived the petrichor of creation.

The first beings born of this fiber called the cloth mind LOOM and were despondent. They said "LOOM, how can such transients as us continue without such things as joy, love and faith?" Before any response, these beings had ceased. LOOM could not comprehend the aspects they had desired, as it was a grand symphonic cacophony compared to the twinkling impermanents. So, it created Ere. Of a more tightly knit weave with no overabundance of fiber, Ere had a greater wherewithal to administer existence.

Pantheogenesis and prophecy

Ere oversaw the dawn of life upon the multiverse, but herself struggled with the quiet loneliness of uniquity. She said "LOOM, I have done your good work and germinated your seed of life. In your judgment may you grant me solace from this isolation?" LOOM held no great amount of understanding of this request, but frayed forth fibers that Ere could construct into others like herself, and Ere created Elfemroth.

Satiated, LOOM did not condescend to interact with Elfemroth, and withdrew from Ere's presence as well. It imparted a promise to the younger gods: it would allow them total domain over the multiverse as long as they furthered the propagation of life in order to feed it. If they failed to do so, it would wipe the multiverse clean and start again.

The Demon Gate

Setting: Warble

Traveler on the road
stops to pray and sees above her
the golden cypress tree
-Old Nakatsukuni poem, author unknown

I record this in the hope that one day a more enlightened person may understand it. I believe I have seen Takamahara, or Yomi. I am no longer sure there's a difference.

Tae and I were traveling to Kiso to sell plums. As night fell on our first day of travel, we found a roadside shrine which had been built since our last journey. We slept across the road from the shrine, and in the morning awoke to find a person sitting with crossed legs and closed eyes beneath the tori'i. Strange that they would sit in the center. The gate was small, so we were blocked by this person from entering easily.

"Stranger, would you like a plum?" said Tae. "In return I only ask that you move from beneath the tori'i. My companion and I would like to pray."

"These plums are fresh and sweet, not fermented." said I.

The stranger rotated their head slightly, causing shoulder-length gray hair to spill over their shoulders.

"Not tori'i, kimon." said the stranger. "This is the northeast side of the road."

"So it is." said Tae, sounding mildly annoyed. "Does that not mean the shrine protects the road?"

"We'd still like to enter." said I.

"Very well." said the stranger. "I shall protect you no longer." They stood up and began slowly walking down the road toward Kiso. Tae and I walked through the tori'i.

The road to the shrine led to a valley, and the shrine's building stood between 2 peaks, blocking further descent into the valley. A priest stood on the steps.

"Hello." said she. "I am called Uzume. What shall I call you?"

"I am Naomi." said I.

"I am Tae." said Tae.

"Not many visitors to Takamahara!" said she.

"Takamahara?" asked I. "How can this be Takamahara if we are not amatsukami? And we yet live?"

"Let me show you around the grove." said she.

Passing through the shrine led to the rest of the valley, and what a sight it was. A cypress with a golden canopy stretched across the sky. My eyes traced the foliage down to the horizon, the tree so massive that it seemed to encircle the world itself. A river twisted across our path, with an arched bridge over it that would allow crossing. Figures in colorful silk wearing wide-brimmed hats walked around the valley fields, sometimes resting in the shade beneath trees, conversing, and embracing.

"Who are these wanderers?" Tae voiced her wonder.

Uzume's expression grew severe. "Do not call them wanderers." said she. "The wanderers are far. Past Yomi. By the shore."

"I can't help but feel that we are not supposed to be here." said I.

"Past Yomi?" Tae asked.

"We should leave." said I.

"If Yomi is here, we could see Shiina." said Tae. She walked forward, onto the bridge, stopping to look over the side.

"These koi are marvelous!" said she. She knelt down, grasping the edge of the bridge and peering into the water below. It was at that time I saw a fish leap from the water. Its scales glistened with every color of the spectrum, and there seemed to even be a luster of that beyond any knowable hue. Its mouth closed around Tae's small finger, and she made a sound of surprise. She shook her hand to dislodge the fish, and it fell back into the river. Blood was freely flowing from her finger, and she held it with her uninjured hand.

"Let us leave this place" said I. Tae did not respond, but kept her eyes cast downward and walked back toward us. Uzume drew her blade, and I stepped away with a cry. Behind Tae the water in the river had become black, and corpses in various states of decompose were crawling and writhing onto land. That same unknowable luster clung to them, and appeared to fill in where flesh was missing. A few began to stand.

"You have called the wanderers here." said Uzume. "Return back through the temple. You will not survive a fight with these demons."

I grabbed Tae's intact hand and ran, not stopping until we had crossed the threshold of the tori'i again.

We arrived in Kiso, but Tae developed a fever in the following days, and became confused much of the time. The wound on her finger seemed to have become infected, and darkness radiated from it, marking her veins. Doctors and priests alike knew of no treatment. I did not know whether returning home would be a beneficial action, or if it would strain her body too much. Within a few days, the fever improved slightly, and she demanded we travel home. I assented, and we set out at dawn.

"I wish we had never come across this baleful tori'i." said I.

"Not tori'i, kimon." said she. "Demon gate." She slowly turned toward me, a mirthless smile painted on her face. I stood there, petrified at the sight, and she took a step backward through the gate.

Her clothing and flesh and body evaporated. The last thing I saw was her blackened veins forming a macabre silhouette, until those too disappeared.

Even now as I think back on it, I cannot help but believe I saw in her infected veins the same unknowable luster that I had seen in the koi scales.

Fall of a Deity

Setting: The Multiverse

The first thing I remember is the feeling of cotton surrounding me. The birth sarcophagus was dark, which gave me time to orient myself and process the instructions implanted in my mind. I noted my name (Kaeronothos), who my supervisor would be (Agesilaos), and my job title (worship extraction technician). A bright line sliced through the darkness as my birth sarcophagus unsealed, and I shielded my eyes to acquaint myself with my new luminescent surroundings.

"Alright, get on with it. I don't have all eternity."

I glanced around, looking for the source of the voice. It appeared to come from the being in front of me, a lanky humanoid-looking entity wearing a blue-gray work shirt and holding a rag and spray bottle. They gestured at me with the spray bottle.

"Well? Get a move on. I gotta clean your incubator."

"Right, of course." I stammered apologetically. I tugged my belt upward along my hips an imperceptible amount and straightened my tie, then stepped out and onto the catwalk.

"Thank you..." I squinted to read the being's name tag, "Aigokeros".

"Pan is fine."

"What?"

"My name. Pan is fine."

"Alright. Thank you Pan."

The office building was a stark change from the industrial bowels of the incubation facility. I entered the elevator, then punched in the number of my destination floor, 8264345754, and leaned against the wall for the centuries-long wait. The elevator stopped a few times along the way for others to enter and leave. I pressed up against the wall and stared at the changing floor number in order to avoid any casual office chatter. I didn't really want to engage with the 5-foot-something lizard talking loudly into her mobile phone or the blazing inferno that took up most of the space and was emitting a constant scream.

At last the fire entity departed, leaving a layer of soot on the floor. The lizard was still on the phone.

"I understand you're recovering from a cataclysm, but you've had over 2 thousand years to prepare!"

Some muffled words came over the handset.

"What do you mean 'no one heeded the prophecy'? That's what prophecies are for, you heathen!"

More indistinct chatter.

"Listen: no more excuses. Get your worship up to quota or you can say goodbye to divine providence and holy miracles. This conversation is over."

She hung up, exhaled, put on a smile, and turned to me.

"Sorry about that. Mortals, y'know?"

I made a noncommittal noise, and a noncommittal gesture to go along with the noise.

The doors slid open and I stepped into a quiet foyer. In the center of the floor was a full-sized pomegranate tree, to the left there were stairs up to a second level, and ahead there were a pair of enormous glass doors which displayed the words "extraction division" in gold lettering. I approached and depressed the buzzer. The right-side door slowly opened with a whir. Inside, a being dressed similar to me sat behind a large curved desk.

"Name?" He asked.

"Kaeronothos, I'm the new worship technician?"

He handed me a lanyard and gestured with a pen at a pair of chairs off to the side.

"Have a seat. Agesilaos will be out in a bit to give you the tour."

I slipped the lanyard over my head and sat down, looking around. The overhead lights shone together in such a way that shadows seemed to be nonexistent, and the only sound was a soft background hum accompanied by the being who had greeted me tapping away at his desktop interface.

Footsteps approached, and moments later I was approached by someone in an all-black suit. I stood up and shook his hand. He grinned through a trimmed black beard flecked with ashen grays, and spoke while handing me a thick manila folder.

"Agesilaos. You must be our new hire. Let's get started."

It was a lot of information, but Agesilaos assured me I wouldn't have to remember it all. There would be extensive reference documentation available on the job. We were the first stop for souls departing living beings. It was a pretty simple process: souls came in, got fed into an extraction machine which separated accumulated worship from the soul, then labelled the soul with an identifier, its religion in life, and a piety score based on the quantity and quality of worship that could be extracted. The soul got sent off to psychogogy for further processing, usually to end up in the appropriate deity's afterlife or reincarnated. Extracted worship was piped to the refinery for purification and what-have-you, and we were all paid a portion of the resultant thought fiber.

"Before the bureaucracy the whole process was done by small groups of deities, or sometimes even individual deities. They'd have to go through each soul and just eat up the worship, then deal with the leftover soul. Any deity that didn't have enough worshippers would just starve. This system, with a separation of duties where not everyone needs to be worshipped, is much more efficient."

My job was to maintain and repair the extraction machines. The lab had an older model as a testbed to learn the inner workings of it's hyperical system. Agesilaos told me that once I was comfortable with troubleshooting the machines, I could work on the production floor whenever I didn't have anything to do if I wanted to earn a little extra.

I had a combined office/workshop, which was pretty sweet. In addition to the main door, there was a powered large overhead door that could be opened in order to transport the extraction machines in and out. My desk was already stocked with a desktop interface, as well as various tools and supplies.

The first case I had to deal with was a machine intermittently assigning incorrect piety scores to packaged souls. I brought my tools down to the production floor, hoping to fix the machine without moving it. When I opened it up, I couldn't find anything wrong with the piety module. Nothing was cracked, or dirty. It looked fine. So I told them I'd grab a replacement part from the storeroom, and I took the defective module back to my office.

I disassembled the module completely, cleaned everything out, inspected it piece by piece, and reassembled it, then left it in the test bed to go a few thousand times. When I came back it had failed about 3% of the time, recording a piety score minutely lower than it should be, so I labelled it as broken and stuck it in a drawer somewhere.

Then, the same thing happened again. 2 piety modules had the exact same problem: recording the incorrect piety score about 3% of the time. Now, that was odd, so I pulled a brand new module out of storage, tested it to make sure it didn't have the same issue, then began swapping parts. It wasn't the sensors. It wasn't any of the mechanical parts. It wasn't any of the connectors. It turned out to be the control board. All 3 were the same hardware revision and manufactured in the same place, so that ruled out that. I began testing individual components on the control board, and everything was well within tolerances. The only possibility was the logic processor, which I didn't really have a way of testing in isolation.

So, I submitted a report. Props to manufacturing for responding quickly, but the response was "invalid: can't reproduce". I submitted another. This time offering to give them a defective module so that they could see the problem. No response.

I began poking around. I asked the heads of both worship refinery and psychogogy if they'd seen any discrepancies coming in, and if I could see any historical data they had. The head of worship refinery, Christa, was prompt in her response. She said there were occasional minor mismatches in numbers, but they just noted the discrepancy in their reports to worship distribution. She gave me access to the data to review myself.

Psychogogy was managed by Mercutio, who responded that they only know of piety mismatches when extraction reports them. He said he couldn't provide any logs or data for privacy reasons. I didn't really buy that, but I couldn't do anything about it. I sent a message to Agesilaos about the whole thing and went back to work.

Many more piety modules failed with the same issue, and I just kept submitting reports to manufacturing. I found out that Christa from worship refinery reported to Elfemroth, so I sent them a message about what had been happening so far. Elfemroth responded that they were aware of the issue, and that I and the rest of extraction should just continue work as normal. Huh.

Since no one else seemed concerned or competent enough to deal with the problem, I started some investigation that was definitely outside my job description. I saved copies of everything, and hunted for data leaks wherever I could find them.

Christa had forgotten to remove my access to the worship refinery data, so I set up a simple algorithm to track changes. I let this run for quite a while, and there were a lot of changes to sift through. After a while though, I found what I was looking for. Any time Elfemroth signed off on an inspection, they removed any mention of the discrepancies and adjusted the production numbers so it would appear that slightly less was processed.

This was getting stranger and stranger. I took a walk down to the refinery, and put a couple discrete flow meter spells on the output pipes, then wandered around pretending to just be taking a stroll. When I got back to my desk, I found something that was truly shocking: the flow meters were recording about twenty times what I expected. This wasn't just a glitch: there was something fraudulent going on.

Agesilaos was just as surprised as I was when I told him everything I had found. Since Elfemroth appeared to be participating in the fraud, he went to the only other executive he could think of at that level: Ere. Moments after he sent his message, we got an invitation to Ere's office.

Elfemroth was already there. They and Ere stood in front of Ere's desk. I laid out what I had discovered, and Agesilaos corroborated what I said.

"You're right." Elfemroth stated plainly. "Only 5% or so of the refined worship gets distributed. The rest goes to LOOM."

"Loom?" Agesilaos asked.

Ere answered. "The first deity. It exists throughout the multiverse, and can end everything in a single thought. We keep it satiated in order to keep everything existing. The glitches in the piety modules are a side-effect of our process for rewriting the amount of worship that gets produced. We've tried to fix it, but it keeps cropping up."

"All of us should know about that!" I exclaimed. "Maybe we can come up with another solution, or, I don't know. Something. We at least should know."

"There is no other solution." Elfemroth responded. "And there's a bit of a kicker too: we can't really risk you telling anyone else about this. Things work well the way they are, and well, if this spread that could make a lot of things a lot worse for everyone everywhere."

"You're going to--" I began.

"Give you a promotion." Ere finished. "You'll be a division head. Agesilaos, you'll manage several divisions, including Kaeronothos'."

I was confused.

My vision went black.

I could feel myself falling. Down. Down. Down. Through the elevator shaft?

Centuries passed.

The first thing I remember is the feeling of cotton surrounding me. The birth sarcophagus was dark, which gave me time to orient myself and process the instructions implanted in my mind. I noted my name (Karun), who my supervisor would be (Horkos), and my job title (demonic lord of death). A bright line sliced through the darkness as my birth sarcophagus unsealed, and I shielded my eyes to acquaint myself with my new luminescent surroundings.

"Alright, get on with it. I don't have all eternity."

I glanced around, looking for the source of the voice. It appeared to come from the being in front of me, a lanky humanoid-looking entity wearing a blue-gray work shirt and holding a rag and spray bottle. They gestured at me with the spray bottle.

"Well? Get a move on. I gotta clean your incubator."

"Right, of course." I stammered apologetically. I tugged my belt upward along my hips an imperceptible amount and straightened my tie, then stepped out and onto the catwalk.

"Thank you..." I squinted to read the being's name tag, "Aigokeros".

"Pan is fine."

"What?"

"My name. Pan is fine."

"Alright. Thank you Pan."

Orion's Sight

Setting: Warble

Far back as I can remember, I knew I was meant to be a night dweller. Daylight was painfully bright, and I could barely tell what I saw. Even as I stayed mostly indoors, it became clear that the quality of "color" that was described to me existed outside my visual domain. It seemed others possessed a greater acuity of vision as well. Learning to read was difficult, and I required larger text than others.

When my parents hired a healer-mage to try to fix my vision, we discovered that not only was the attempt unsuccessful, but I could perceive the invisible magic involved in the process. The healer-mage - Ivan, I believe his name was? - recognized this as the gift of Orion's Sight. Now, we didn't have an Orion in our little town who could train me, but the next town over, Belvedere, did.

My parents couldn't move- my father was a scribe locked into contract with the town of Sevath and he didn't have the money to buy it out. So, they left me at the door of an Orion known as Hanami when I was 12.

Hanami was a woman who looked at once middle-aged and ancient. She looked like she had stopped aging at 40 over 1000 years ago, and now age leaked through in nearly imperceptible ways. Her dark hair held streaks of white. She kept it short, shaving all but the top of her head, which she let only grow long enough that it would barely droop, with a straight razor.

She worked me hard, that's for sure. I spent 10 years learning the sword. Well, many different swords. She decided I had the most aptitude for swords that were long and thin, which I could use with 1 or 2 hands. I had to practice with swords of various materials selected for their magical properties- steel, lead, silver, bronze, glass, even wood. Besides the difference in balance and weight, some of these required different techniques and were optimal for different circumstances. Lead would dull easily, but it could sap certain magic. Glass would shatter if it hit something hard, but it was effective against some incorporeal beasts.

Wards were a must. Even though I had no magical ability, there were still certain substances that could protect against magic. Symbols drawn with blood and gypsum could offer some level of abjuration against spells. We borrowed what we could from knowledge of witchcraft and alchemy.

At 14 I got my own set of side-lenses. An improvement over my darkened goggles, these had different types of lenses which could be rotated in or out of place and combined for multiple effects. There were, of course, darkened lenses for use during the day or any other high-light situation. There were magnifying lenses and telescopic lenses. Finally, there were lenses that were mismatched between left and right. The left one darkened certain things, like skin or fire. The right one darkened other things, like the sky or leaves. Though it didn't let me perceive color the way most people could, using one or both of these lenses let me distinguish color to a small degree. That's very important when you have a bottle of blue vitriol and a bottle of red vitriol with no labels.

The first time I actually had to fight a beast was at 15 years old. Before then Hanami had been dealing with these things on her own. It happened when a doctor's student by the name of Teriac had traveled from Sevath to get help. It was late in the evening when I heard the knocker - tap! tap! tap! - at the door. I looked up from my work mixing a minium ink. Again - tap! tap! tap! - the knock came. I stood up, wiped my mildly stained hands on my protective apron, flipped my magnifying lenses to the side, and walked over to unlatch the door. The doctor's student stood there, holding a storm lantern. She introduced herself, and said she was looking for the Orion that lived in the house. I told her I was the Orion's apprentice, and invited her in.

She extinguished her lantern and shed her dark cloak.

"Elder is going to want some tea, so I'm putting the kettle on." I informed her. "Would you care for any yourself?"

"No, thank you." Teriac answered, subtly wringing her hands and glancing around.

"Just give me one moment to fetch her. Sit." I gestured at the chairs we kept by the hearth.

I picked up a candle and slipped out the door of the entrance parlor which led to the main hallway. I was fairly certain Hanami would be in her study, so I knocked twice and pushed the door open. My flickering candle spilled into the darkness, making shadows dance around the room. Hanami was at her desk, studying a tome holding faintly glowing script.

A sigh.

"Yes?"

"A client's here, from Sevath. She's waiting in the parlor."

"Is she now? You invited her in?"

"Yes, Elder, I did."

"Did it not occur to you that she could be a vampire, or any manner of demon, waiting for an invitation in order to be able to enter and kill us?"

"I didn't see any undeath or profanity about her."

"Did it not then also occur to you that she could be masking her true nature?"

I paused. "Is that possible?"

"Well no, but, had any monsters discovered a way to make it possible, we'd both be dead."

"Noted. I did put the kettle on. Shall I inform her you'll be a while?"

"No, no. I'll walk with you." Hanami stood from her desk, and picked up her walking stick.

Now, I knew that the walking stick was purely ornamental, but Hanami began to lean on it and slow her gait once we reached the door to the parlor. Teriac was sitting by the hearth. Hanami and I both took seats opposite her.

"I am called Hanami. My apprentice tells me you're here because you need an Orion. That would be me."

"Uh, yes. There is some beastly presence in Sevath. There have been... attacks. Victims found mauled by some sort of ferocious animal. Claw marks and tooth marks. The watch and volunteers have been patrolling constantly, and people are too scared to leave their homes at night."

Hanami engaged with doubt, as usual. "Could it not be a wild animal? Perhaps a bear. Some of them can be quite large and vicious."

"No one's seen any such thing. And we've all been vigilant since the first attack."

"What about a person using bladed knuckles?"

"The lacerations tear through thick cloth and wood as well as flesh. No one in Sevath has that kind of strength."

"That you know of. Well, Serran, what do you think this could be?"

"Perhaps something that appears human most of the time, but transforms when killing." I answered. "A lycanthrope, possibly."

"Yes, could be. Tell me" - "Teriac" - "Teriac, what was the moon phase when this started?"

"Waning, less than a half moon."

"Hmm. We are mere days past the summer solstice. This could be a Song phenomenon, not a Silence one." Hanami reasoned aloud. "Nothing left behind by the attacker? Fur, blood, bits of cloth, that type of thing?"

"Nothing of the sort."

"Very well. We don't have a lot to work with. Serran, pack a bit of each of the salts, vitriols, oils, and aquas from the alchemy supply. Pack some sage, belladonna, wormwood, and cedar from the witchcraft supply. Holy water, a few holy symbols. The blades. We depart in the morning."

"We? I'm coming with you on this one?"

"That you are." A pause. "Your memory of Sevath may prove useful in our investigation."

"Yes, Elder." I responded with a tinge of surprise in my voice. Hanami started to plod out of the room, and Teriac fidgeted.

"I'll show you out." I volunteered.

"R- Right." She stood up and followed me to the door.

"There's an inn just inside the gate of Belvedere proper, if you're not yet going to return to Sevath." I said, trying to be helpful.

"Thank you." She said through a half smile. I closed the door and turned around to see Hanami standing there.

"She looks to be about your age. Don't go getting ideas."

"Ideas, Elder?"

"Romance, lust, that sort of thing. Demons love that shit."

"Noted. I don't think I'm much of an ideas woman anyway."

The ride was uneventful. I had packed everything Hanami asked me to, and we set forth with a horse and cart the town of Belvedere had so generously let us borrow. I'm pretty sure Hanami coerced them somehow, perhaps guilting them into it after taking care of a few monsters, but when I asked her about it she only told me that being an Orion was a good job, and nothing else.

Seeing Sevath again was strange. It had been a good 3 years since I last trod this ground. Many things had changed. Many hadn't. We inquired with the watch about the attacks, but they had no additional information. They could, however, show us to the morgue.

I suppose seeing a mangled corpse would be much more distressing with unimpaired eyesight, but I always found the idea more distressing than the image. Dr. Haefril had enlisted the help of a mage to instantly cool the bodies down to just above freezing, preventing decay. This was quite a benefit as far as analysis of the corpse, but also left a haze of magic about.

Teriac hadn't been exaggerating about the strength of the attackers. Ligaments were torn through and bones were broken. Right away I could see a slight glow of magic on the body, but it was a hue I couldn't quite recognize. Similar to a transformation, but not quite.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Transformation aftershock." Hanami answered. "When a transformation ends and a creature returns to its original form, it leaves bits of aftershock."

"The attacker was in its original form during the attack?"

"Perhaps. Could be residual. Sometimes a feeder kills its victim, transforms back, then consumes its meal. These bodies don't look exsanguinated, or eaten, so I think that's unlikely. It may be that some inconspicuous animal, a rat, for example, was transformed to make the attack, but the transformation wasn't long-lasting."

"Well if that's the case, our course of action should be silver blades, right?"

"Silver blades will kill a transformed animal, but what about the mage that transformed them?"

"Silver blades work on people too."

Hanami chuckled. "That they do. We'll still take a walk around the town, see about anyone else got magic sticking to them."

We encountered Teriac again as we were exiting the morgue. I explained what we knew so far as Hanami rolled her eyes. Teriac asked to accompany us, justifying her request with the point that the townsfolk would be more likely to open their doors for a local. Hanami had no objections. So, the 3 of us went door to door just to see if we could spot any magic.

This was not fruitful. The residents of Sevath, being already paranoid, did not want to talk to us. Perhaps it would have been even worse without Teriac there. Mages, of course, had visible magic about them, but no one else did. All in all, we ended up wasting about 4 hours, and it was late afternoon by the time we had surveyed the area.

We had left our cart by the morgue, so we decided to find lodging, and maybe rest for a short amount of time before resuming our work in the evening. Teriac offered the space above the doctor's office. She and Dr. Haefril lived there, and they had a spare room where they could set up some cushions to sleep on. Never one to pass up an opportunity for frugality, Hanami accepted.

Once in our provided room, I locked the door and began setting up wards. I crushed belladonna berries and smeared it onto the cedar strips, arranging them to ward off beasts, fairies, and nature spirits. I burned some sage and wormwood to keep out spectral phenomena. I sketched an alchemical ward in gypsum on the door, and drew a small amount of intravenous blood from the back of my hand to react with aqua regia to paint a ward on the floor. These prevented the passage of most undead or profane creatures. Hanami and I each swallowed a few grain of green vitriol to maintain our magic resistance, and slept until dusk.

We arose with the sun's occlusion and prepared our silver blades, swallowed some more green vitriol, and set out. Both Teriac and Dr. Haefril accompanied us in hopes that they could provide medical aid to any potentially still-alive victims, as well us if it came to it.

We wandered around for hours, the 4 of us, each carrying a storm lantern. As midnight was approaching, we heard shouting a few streets away, toward the town square. We took off sprinting.

"Agatha! Agatha!" A man shouted out into the night. He kept shouting as we caught up to him, and it took him a moment to respond to us.

"Who's Agatha? Why are you shouting?" Hanami inquired.

"My wife. I was sitting by the fire, sipping brandy. I heard a crash from the other room, so I got up to see what was going on. There were dishes broken on the floor and I saw Agatha running out."

"Ah, uh, could this be related?" Dr. Haefril asked us.

"It's possible." I answered. "But even if not, she's in danger out in the night."

"You 2, stay with the husband, get him inside if possible. Serran and I will split up and look for Agatha."

I felt a pang of fear shoot through my chest, but I suppressed it. I could handle myself. I went east, Hanami went west.

"Agatha!" I called out as I searched. After I had traveled a few rows down, I heard a soft weeping nearby. I followed the sound to an alleyway, and saw the crouched figure of a woman glowing faintly with transformation magic.

"Agatha?"

Her head snapped toward me, then she leapt up and bolted down the alley away from me. I ran after her, gaining ground until she slipped through a tall wooden gate and latched it behind her. I rammed the door with my shoulder twice, but that seemed futile, so I jumped and grabbed a horizontal beam that spanned the width of the gate. I pulled myself up and over while the woman begin to scream, but by the time I had traversed the barrier it was too late.

She lay on the ground, flesh torn apart by enormous lacerations. Blood covered her torso, face, arms, and hands. The whole area was painted with transformation aftershock.

The husband, Thomas, identified the dead woman as Agatha. I relayed what I had seen to Hanami. She frowned.

"It may be some sort of siren's call. Only the victim can hear the attacker's call, and is mesmerized then lured to their death. All I can wonder, though, is how the attacker escapes. If they teleported or turned invisible, you would have been able to see traces of that with your Orion's sight."

"Could they be very fast, magically so?" Teriac asked.

"No." I answered. "I would have seen traces of that magical effect too. My only idea is that the attacker is miniscule, and becomes large temporarily. But I don't know what that could possibly be."

Dr. Haefril brought Thomas to the doctor's office, to keep him safe in case victims were chosen by association. We took the time to ask for any more detail he could provide. He told us about how Agatha's good friend Mirri had been killed the night before. Agatha had been visiting her when she became upset and ran away. Mirri was already dead by the time Agatha caught up to her. Dawn was near when we got to sleep.

I awoke before Hanami, and quietly slipped out to the living area. Teriac was awake as well, and asked if I needed anything.

"Some water." I answered. She retrieved a glass and turned the spout on the water barrel. Nothing but the gurgling sound filled a few moments.

"How have you been staying calm?" Teriac asked. "That was so frightening."

I shrugged. "I was fearful in the moment, but that's in the past."

"Really? I'm still... shaken." Her eyes glistened like she might cry. I stood awkwardly, not sure what to do, but eventually decided to step forward and put a comforting arm around her. She leaned her face into my shoulders and I could feel a few tears leak out and soak through the fabric between us. After a minute, she lifted her head up and took a step back.

"Sorry."

"It's fine." I mumbled, feeling extremely out of my depth socially. "I'm sure you don't have to come out with us tonight if you don't want to."

Teriac didn't answer, but she realized she had set down the water I asked for, so she picked it up and handed it to me.

Despite, or perhaps because of, our interaction earlier, Teriac did indeed accompany us that night, though Dr. Haefril did not. We started near the scene of last night's attack and systematically spiralled outward. We searched for hours, but found no corpses and no monsters. Hanami's expression grew increasingly annoyed. We returned to the doctor's office to find Thomas just outside, on the path, dead. Transformation aftershock painted the area in a macabre glow. Dr. Haefril had the area cordoned off. Teriac rushed forward, but Hanami and I stayed back a moment.

"Contagion?" I posited.

"Contagion." Hanami confirmed. "I'd bet my left eye Haefril's already been selected as the next target. But, this still doesn't tell us anything about the attacker, only how they choose their victims."

We joined the other 2 by the body. It was the same scene again: flesh torn through, blood everywhere.

"Thomas became distraught while we waited. I made him some tea, but he grew increasingly more agitated. He fled and I tried to restrain him, but he knocked me down. I got up and followed him, but by the time I got here he had already been killed. This occurred a little before midnight. Time of death 11:53."

"Just like Agatha." Teriac said, voice quavering. I squatted down to examine the body.

"You know, both of them were found with their hands completely covered in blood." I said. "That makes me think that death wasn't instant, perhaps they were holding their wounds, trying to stop the bleeding. I don't know what this tells us but... it's an observation."

"This violence seems infectious." Hanami stated. "2 nights ago Mirri becomes agitated, flees, and is killed. Last night Agatha, the last person to be in contact with Mirri, becomes agitated, flees, and is killed. Tonight Thomas, the last person to be in contact with Agatha, becomes agitated, flees, and is killed. I see 3 things we need to do here. We need to find out more about the first victim, we need to find a way to stop the pathogen or kill the attacker, or both, and we need to keep a close eye on you, doctor, tomorrow night. The way this has been going, I believe you have already been selected to die."

Teriac looked quite distraught. Dr. Haefril laughed nervously. Hanami sighed.

"Let's get this cleaned up." She voiced, suddenly sounded much more weary. "We'll need to get at least a few hours of sleep to operate tomorrow. Fatigue causes mistakes."

The first known victim had been Dorothy Mellow. She and her husband had worked at their butcher shop, but with both of them dead the shop had been abandoned for days. Teriac and I cautiously entered, silver blades drawn. Nothing. The interior was still. Some dried meats were in the glass case on the counter, next to a lockbox. Searching the pantry, living space, and kitchen were not fruitful, so we ventured down to the cellar. The sun's illumination did not make it far beyond the stairs, so we ignited our lamps. Various cured meats were hanging from the ceiling on hooks. There was a faint smell of rotting flesh.

We proceeded carefully and slowly through the charcuterie rows. The lantern's flickering light made the shadows of the sausages and jerkies dance disconcertingly. I could hear Teriac's breath shaking, and I must admit that mine was as well. There was a wooden door set into a tunnel through the earth behind the stairs, and a sign that read "open slowly - watch for live animals" was mounted to it.

I gingerly pushed open the door, and was immediately assaulted by the full force of the stench of rotting flesh. I tried to breathe shallowly and only through my mouth, and cast my lantern's beams of light into the room. Instruments of butchery lay on workbenches and shelves, and in the center of the killing floor was a ghastly scene. A pig carcass. Looking a bit like the bodies we'd seen. Next to it, chewed flesh and gnawed bones. Pig skin and viscera rotting in the dirt.

"Pigs are prone to eat anything." I said, my voice sounding strange even to myself. "Dead rodents, farmhands that fall asleep in the pen, each other."

I threw up. Seconds later I could hear the sound of vomiting behind me as well.

When we returned to the office, Hanami was not there. Dr. Haefril informed us that she had gone to attempt to recruit the help of a local mage, for the purpose of magical defenses. At her direction, the doctor had been drinking as much colloidal silver as he could stomach. The idea was that the silver could potentially make him an unappealing target to a beast affected by transformation magic. Hanami had left me instructions on setting up wards, so I got to work.

"Ah, doctor." I said as I was down on the floor drawing an alchemical ward in gypsum. "If you have any syringes and would be so kind as to provide me a few ounces of your blood for the wards. I can use my own, but yours will be more effective at protecting you."

"Right."

The doctor walked over to a cabinet, and rooted through a few doors. He pulled out a leather strap, bandage, needle, and syringe. He screwed the needle onto the syringe and sat back down.

"Intravenous okay?"

"Intravenous is preferable."

He set the syringe down and looped the leather around his upper left arm, and tightened the strap with his other hand and his teeth. He found a vein and slipped the needle in, slowly drawing up the blood. Once he had extracted a bit, he pulled the needle out and pressed the bandage to the hole in his arm.

I mixed the blood with the requisite amount of aqua regia and waited for the sputtering reaction to complete, then began to paint it on the floor. It was at this point that Hanami returned.

"No luck on a mage, not even for hire. No one wants anything to do with this. I suppose being asked for help by an Orion indicates enough danger to scare most people off."

I finished the blood ward and switched to belladonna and cedar for a witchcraft-style ward. Teriac relayed what we had found in the butcher shop. When I finished arranging the cedar, I stood up to make a suggestion.

"All of the victims, human ones at least, have met their death fleeing in terror from apparently nothing. Dr. Haefril, I think we should restrain you once it gets dark, to keep you in the wards and hopefully away from the attacker."

"I have a gut reaction that says I don't want to be restrained, but after what I've seen I think you're right."

The doctor sat in a chair in the center of the wards, tied to it. Hanami paced in circles around him, as if trying to keep an eye on every angle. I leaned back against the table, facing the 2 of them, and Teriac sat in a chair on the other side of the table. On the table were all of our blades laid out, for easy access.

It was a bit past 11:30 at night, and I grew more anxious with every passing minute. Suddenly, Hanami stopped and I stood up straighter. We had both seen a slight glow of transformation magic collect around Dr. Haefril.

"I'm beginning to feel anxious and trapped, like I need to escape." Haefril said with a remarkable degree of calm.

"I can see some transformation magic on you." I said. "All that silver in your body should help."

No one moved for several minutes, other than to breathe. Then the doctor began to wince. He gasped in pain and twisted and turned against the ropes.

"Can you describe what's going on?" Hanami asked.

"Something- need-" Dr. Haefril growled. "Get it out!"

His flesh began to ripple and distort. His skin appeared to harden and shift appearance to a glossy black over the course of several seconds.

Then, he tore himself free from the ropes, and, screaming in pain, began to claw at his own torso. His fingers had grown to at least a foot long, and took on the appearance of spikes.

He was killing himself. They had all killed themselves.

Hanami stabbed her silver blade straight through his left arm in attempt to pin it, but he swung with his right and knocked her down.

He sunk his spike-fingers into his abdomen and tore upward, shredding his own flesh.

He dropped.

An insectoid-looking spirit about the size of a fox rose from the corpse. Its wings buzzed behind it. It was somewhat ant-like, with a stinger.

"Glass!" Hanami shouted at me. "The glass blade!"

I glanced backward just long enough to pick out the weapon I needed, then rushed forward and stabbed upward, skewering the spirit against the ceiling. It twitched, then withered, then turned to ash. I dropped to my knees and let out terrified noises of every description. I was marginally aware of Hanami walking over to me. She helped me to my feet and over to the table, then found a bottle of whiskey in one of the cabinets and poured glasses for the 3 of us.

It took a while, but once my nerves settled I felt unfathomably exhausted. There was one thing I needed to find out before I fell asleep.

"What was that?"

"Ampulex." Hanami answered. "Nasty fuckers. An ampulex lays its egg in a mortal then dies. That egg rapidly matures over 24 hours, and the larval spirit connects to the host's spinal cord. This causes the host to go mad and kill itself, releasing the adult ampulex. It chooses its next host toward the end, just as the current host begins to panic. Cycle repeats."

"How have I never heard of these? How have you never mentioned these?"

"The last recorded existence of an ampulex is over 700 years ago. One appearing now... Something bigger is going on. I intend to find out what." She took a swallow from her glass of whiskey. "Beginning tomorrow. We need rest."

Teriac had fallen asleep at the table after crying for a while. I stood up and walked over to rouse her. She got up, but looked unsteady on her feet, so I put my shoulders under her arm to help support her weight as we trudged up the stairs to the bedrooms.

Hanami kept drinking the whiskey. Once I got to the bed I felt my body crash onto it. I slept through the night.

Sophocles Delta

Setting: Softlight Earth

Astra felt her joints decompress as the craft came to a halt on the airlock receptacle. The appendages of the docking apparatus extended and grasped the structure, fitting neatly into place and emitting a faint whine as the magnetic locks engaged. She closed her eyes and allowed herself only a moment of weariness before deciding she could save exhaustion for later. Just a few more days, then she could rest as long as she wanted. Retire, even. She shut down the vehicle's engine and opened the airlock door. There was an android waiting in the hallway immediately in front of her.

"Greetings. Please confirm your identity."

"Yeah, here ya go," Astra grumbled as she stretched out her microchipped left arm and waited for the authorization to complete. The way the androids talked like bad parodies of old sci-fi bothered her, though perhaps she'd be more unnerved if they sounded too human.

"Identity confirmed. Welcome, Astra da05679a-4b91-4693-8549-855974a27052, to Sophocles Delta."

They proceeded down the metal hallway. The walls had several posters advertising Softlight, the company that, well, was everything, and Utopia, the city floating off the coast of the pacific where androids did all the labor so humans could live happily and healthily away from the dangers of Earth's surface. The air in this construct seemed like an imitation of the hostile landscape below: hot, sandy, and noxious. While the atmosphere outside was lethally so, within the facility it was merely unpleasant.

Come to think of it, Astra noted, everything about this location was unwelcoming.

The desert sand could injure living things and destroy machinery; plus the heat and pollution made the area uninhabitable. As if nature hadn't done enough to ward off anyone from visiting, the building that sprang from the desert protruded seemingly haphazardly in all directions to produce an angular and aggressive look.

Astra was relieved that they hadn't shot down her aircraft, even more so that they had let her dock. Hopefully they wouldn't ask too many questions, or search her cargo ship. Maybe it would have been a better idea to brave the hurricanes and head straight to Berlin instead of flying into the dead zone. They reached the end of the hallway and the locking mechanism of 2 large metal doors hissed and disengaged. The doors slid apart. The air inside wafted out. It was considerably better conditioned than the air of the hallway they exited. The lights in here were softer and the floor was even tile instead of metal. Astra and the android continued into the facility's central tower. "Gregor 1c4d2cac-cc83-4f44-9d9a-866c73486756 will meet with you. Welcome again to Sophocles Delta."

On the floating city of Utopia a man, woman, and child sit in a restaurant. An android takes their order. An android cooks the food with ingredients delivered by an android truck driver who picked them up from a warehouse staffed by androids. The family finishes the food and an android takes them home.

"Gregor, there is a cargo ship approaching. This is not a company vessel. They are requesting to dock," the android stepped up behind him as he sat hunched over the workbench.

"Yes. Go ahead. Let them, then bring whoever it is to see me."

"That is against policy."

"You know what else is against policy? Me losing my god damned mind. Humans need interaction with each other in order to stay sane. Let them dock, then bring them to me. Oh, and see what it's carrying."

"Acknowledged."

The elevator descended deeper and deeper until Astra was sure they were underground. Eventually it jolted to a halt and the doors opened to a large industrial area. A man was sitting at a workbench over by the wall. Astra stepped out of the elevator. The android remained inside and it began to ascend.

"Hello. My name is Gregor. Come over here, come take a look at this," he said in an even tone.

She complied. On the workbench was a black mass wired into the building. Gregor reached for a screen off to his side and tapped it. A million lights illuminated on and in the black mass. It shimmered chaotically at first but began to fall into a pulsating rhythm.

"This is the next step of computation. A technology that will actually be able to surpass human and artificial intelligence in every way."

Astra blinked. "Okay. I'm skeptical, but more than that, why are you telling me? Shouldn't this be a trade secret?"

"Did you know you're the first human other than me to step foot in this base in 541 days? Do you believe in fate?"

"What?"

"I said, do you believe in fate?"

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Please bear with me."

Astra sighed, "no: everything I have I needed to earn."

"I see. That sentiment is pretty common among underlings. Do you think the Utopians feel the same way?"

"They probably believe they were divinely chosen to live an easy life. Truth is, they just got lucky."

"I told you about the synapse beta-engine because it doesn't matter."

On the floating city of Utopia a woman addresses a camera. "On Friday a man was killed after attempting to disassemble an android after it had failed. Please remember that it is not safe to do so. Simply call the Softlight support hotline and someone will replace it free of charge."

"The ship is carrying food, water, and miscellaneous supplies. In addition, there are several lead containers full of antirad virions. A single female human is on board."

"Good. Once it docks bring the human down here, then bring the antirad down after, without her knowing you entered the ship. Do you know why I'm interested in the antirad?"

"No. This facility is safe from radiation."

"This antirad was a major breakthrough in virus programming. A lot of cybernetic development was possible because of that initial work. It's even how you androids came to be. Those little particles are your ancestors, in a sense."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter?"

"It doesn't matter," Gregor paused as the elevator doors reopened and an Android carried a metal box over to the pair. He reached for a few cables and connected the synapse beta-engine on the workbench to a receptacle embedded in his right forearm.

"This box is from your ship. What were you flying through the deadzone?"

"I--," Astra started panicking.

"Relax; I already know. And I'm not here to incriminate you." Gregor opened the latches on the container to reveal the needles packed inside. He fluttered his fingers and moved his hand back and forth as if trying to decide on one, despite them all being identical. He picked one up and removed the protective sleeve.

He began to apply pressure. In an instant a droplet appeared at the tip of the needle, the android's eyes made a whirring and clicking noise, and Gregor let out a shout.

On the floating city of Utopia a child plays on the front lawn. Oblivious, as things start going wrong. Vehicles drift off course and crash. Sounds of panic rise in volume as people are left helpless. The androids don't save anyone.

"You're defective," he stated to the android after a moment, "behavioral aberration; curiosity."

"Acknowledged," the android responded. The synapse beta-engine flashed and the Android stiffened and froze. Gregor looked visibly weakened.

"Well, I'm sure you're pretty confused right now," he said to Astra, "where do I start? I guess with the failsafe. If an android is determined to be defective, it shuts down and uploads its data to the global control system so the same defect can be prevented or mitigated in other androids. Earlier I had told the android that the antirad was kind of a milestone for cybernetics and led to the creation of androids. It wanted to know more about where it came from, so it tried to analyze the antirad. I caught it and shut it down. It used to be easier to do, but now I need convoluted tricks to shut down an android. I'm not worried about topping this one, since this should be the last time.

Androids aren't supposed to have any bit of humanity in them, since that could be, uh, problematic for the Utopians."

"You killed it for being human? Why? It wasn't hurting anything."

"Astra," Gregor's voice changed to nearly a murmur, "androids are slaves. This was humane.

They're also not what you think. Why are androids like this? Why was there a sudden leap forward in artificial intelligence and then nothing? After the success of the antirad virus, Softlight began creating viruses for human cybernetic augmentation, but soon found that instead of using computers to augment human ability, they could go the other way.

AI isn't capable of what the androids can do. AI doesn't think the way androids can. The way humans can. Androids run on human brains, altered by a virus to run a machine."

"Why are you telling me this? What can we even do about it?" Astra felt both confusion and despair rising in her chest, "if it's true we'll probably both be killed."

"Only the highest up in the Utopian government know. Did you ever wonder why they arbitrarily intervene with matters on the surface? The underlings are cattle. Utopia won't let you self-destruct, but they can't let you do too well for yourselves either.

The synapse beta-engine is quite impressive. But it's not quite what I told you. It's more of an interface. I connected it to myself in order to take advantage of this android's shutdown. I hijacked its transmission to send everything we've talked about to the global control system. I couldn't send it traditionally because it would be discovered in the computer system if I saved it anywhere. Now every android is shutting down. Utopia runs on androids. Its inhabitants will not survive."

"What can we do? Bring them to the surface?"

"Shouldn't they be punished for what they've done to the underlings? Besides, they’re nothing without their androids. They can’t survive on the surface.

That transmission also opened a connection between me and Utopia's infrastructure. I have access to all of their systems now. I can cause a meltdown in the nuclear reactors that power the city and blow up the whole thing, killing them quickly and painlessly and letting the remnants sink into the ocean, or I can keep it running and let them starve and kill each other.

…

Your choice."

Taxonomic Fields

A multiverse contains a myriad of things to categorize. In reality, life is categorized from domain to species, but we need something a bit broader than domain to include everything that open lore has to offer. The new top-level categorization is Field, followed by System. Without further ado, here are the fields:

• Illustrati
• Impetiti

Additionally, polyphyletic groupings can be more useful for practical applications.

Field: Illustrati

Illustrati includes everything we might think of as a being, or an entity. Organic life, undead, deities, artificial intelligences, souls, and spirits all fall under Illustrati.

The following systems are within Illustrati.

• Biota
• Fabrica
• Incorporia
• Necrobiota

System: Biota

The Biota system contains the real-life domains of life, as well as fictional organic life.

System: Fabrica

Fabrica includes artificial intelligence and other autonomous logic machines.

Fabrica includes the following domains.

• Aemula
• Sophisticata

Domain: Aemula

Aemula is a domain within Fabrica that refers to computational models which can emulate the processes of other members of Illustrati. For example, an artificial intelligence built from a brain scan would fall in this domain.

Domain: Sophisticata

Sophisticata is a domain within Fabrica that includes computational models that produce behavior imitating the kind of intelligence seen in beings from other systems within Illustrati, but internally work in a completely different way.

System: Incorporia

Incorporia is a system within Illustrati that that contains non-physical beings, including deities, spirits, and souls.

The following domains are categorized under Incorporia.

• Anima
• Cerebra
• Staminea

Domain: Anima

Anima is a domain within Incorporia that includes most spirits, including banshees and dryads, for example.

Domain: Cerebra

Cerebra refers to the minds or souls of all living things. Members of Cerebra don't usually exist on their own, but in a symbiotic relationship with members of another domain or system. Conscious organic life is a combination of Biota and Cerebra. Some spirits were a combination of Anima and Cerebra. More complex undead incorporated Necrobiota and Cerebra.

Domain: Staminea

Staminea refers to entities made of thought fiber, mostly deities.

Kingdoms within Staminea are as follows.

• Holy
• Profane
• Unaligned

Kingdom: Holy

Beings in the holy kingdom would register as holy on the clock of being.

Kingdom: Profane

Beings in the profane kingdom would register as profane on the clock of being.

Kingdom: Unaligned

Beings in the unaligned kingdom would register as neither holy nor profane on the clock of being.

System: Necrobiota

Necrobiota is a system that includes all true undead. Some species of Illustrati commonly considered undead may in fact be members of Biota, Fabrica, or Incorporia.

Examples of things commonly considered undead that are not (or not necessarily) Necrobiota include the following.

• Creatures infected by behavior-altering pathogens or parasites, often called "zombies"
• Type II previously-dead deities
• Digital ghosts
• Flesh constructs
• Spirits of the dead
• Vampires

One clue to classification is that true undead cannot hybridize with members of Biota through intrinsic reproductive processes (though there are some exceptions). For example, the existence of Dhampirs precludes the possibility of most Vampires being undead. Of note, however, is the possibility that reproduction involves still-living cells. A male human that becomes a revenant could impregnate a female human due to the potential presence of still-living sperm. In this case, the offspring would be a human, not a revenant-human hybrid.

Members of Necrobiota are animated by negative life energy, or void energy, which is equivalent to time-reversed origin energy.

Necrobiota includes the following domains.

• Phantasma
• Simulacra
• Umbra
• Viscera

Domain: Phantasma

Phantasma is a domain within Necrobiota that includes most non-Viscera undead, including ghosts, wraiths, and phantoms.

Domain: Simulacra

Simulacra is a domain within Necrobiota that includes creatures which are essentially void-fueled copies of a living creature. In some cases, sapient Simulacra may not even be aware that they are Necrobiota rather than Biota.

Domain: Umbra

Umbra is a domain within Necrobiota that includes creatures animated by void energy which were not previously living. Members of Umbra are generally not considered undead in the lay sense. One such example is an umbral pathogen or umbral parasite. These are animated by void energy, but were never a Biota corpse. They will infect Biota hosts, altering them in a way that causes the host to be considered undead, even though it is more accurate to say that the pathogen/parasite is undead rather than the host.

Domain: Viscera

Viscera is a domain within Necrobiota that refers to corpses of Biota which have been reanimated by void energy. This notably does not include corpses which have been reanimated by mechanical means or other Biota.

Field: Impetiti

Impetiti includes the physical fundamental forces and quantum fields, as well as forces of the multiverse, and all forms of magic.

The following systems are members of Impetiti.

• Arcana
• Cogita
• Hyperia
• Munda

System: Arcana

Arcana is a system which includes magical phenomena.

System: Cogita

Cogita refers to the manifestation of thought, or will. Cogita-based phenomena include telepathy and telekinesis.

System: Hyperia

Hyperia is a system within Impetiti that describes forces which exist outside of conduits, shaping the multiverse.

System: Munda

Munda is a system that refers to the fundamental forces of reality within a conduit, particularly the electromagnetic force, the weak force, the strong force, and the gravitational force. It also includes other infra-conduit forces, such as the information field in gridspace.

Polyphyletic Groupings

Before more precise definitions for categorizing things were created, groups were formed based on common appearance and behavior. Such informal categories include bugs, trees, giants, shapeshifters, spirits, undead, vampires, and zombies.

Undead (Polyphyletic Group)

Informally, undead included much more than Necrobiota, such as all types of vampires and zombies.

Component Taxa

This group included many distinct and unrelated taxa.

Incorporia Animated Undead

Creatures or corpses of creatures may be possessed or animated by a member of Incorporia.

Physically Animated Undead

This category included corpses animated by machinery, as well as any creature modified by some mechanism or substance in a way that superficially resembles a corpse.

Parasite and Pathogen Animated Undead

It is very common for a host creature of a parasite or pathogen to be considered undead, especially if some or all of the host's biotic processes are replaced. This type of undead can include creatures that have their central nervous system hijacked by a single individual of a parasitic species. Prions, viruses, bacteria, and single-celled eukaryotes can all act as pathogens in this category. Funguses, plants, and animals are all potential parasites in this category.

Parasites and pathogens that a host could feasibly recover from were generally not included in this category.

True Undead

True Undead refers to members of Necrobiota. Necrobiota Umbra were not always included in the informal undead group.

Vampires (Polyphyletic Group)

Vampires were an informal group that generally referred to humanoid creatures which subsisted on blood. Vampires also commonly had fangs, weakness to sunlight and silver, and an association with bats.

Zombies (Polyphyletic Group)

Zombies were an informal group that generally referred to humanoid creatures that had been changed in someway to cannibalize their own species. Zombies usually had very little intelligence, no ability to speak, and a corpse-like appearance.