Physics

The realm is made up of five major components, each serving a role in the makeup of reality and proving quintessential to the current balance of all that exists. The five streams, serving as the home for the vast majority of life, which in turn connect to the Hub, a vast palace that houses the gods and provides the entrance to Heaven and Hell. The streams and the Hub are both located within the Outside, a seemingly endless space of disseminated void that falls primarily under the rule of the Outsiders. And, past the edge of the Outside, lie the Forge of Creation and the Deep Void, polar opposites that serve as sanctums for the primordial forces of the universe.

Of these, the ones of most immediate note are the five streams. A shield of Pure Creation surrounds these five colossal entities, each of which contains a huge number of Omniverses, connected by a metaphysical dimension known as the Labyrinth. Within these Omniverses are Multiverses, and in turn within those are Universes.

Each of these streams converge at the Hub, and at the other end sits the Great Writer, Aeotri, on a pillar made of the substance dubbed ‘Neurodium’, creating upwards of 30 new universes each Outsider Day.

To best explain the dynamics of traveling between the streams, one should come from the perspective of the process necessary to travel from the smallest realmar body (a Universe) to the largest (the Hub, and by extension the other streams).

Once a civilization has attained the capacity to travel beyond their galaxy, and explore their entire Universe, the next hurdle they will face is the cold empty at the edge of their reality, an infinitely expanding space that in actuality is the most reasonable perception of the Universe’s inherent retention field. Only through traveling at 109*C may one breach this barrier and access the Multiversal Labyrinth.

Largely linear, the Multiversal Labyrinth can be visualised by mortals as a series of tunnels through the darkness, vibrating incredibly quickly and shining incredibly brightly, although they are not harmful to the senses. One can theoretically survive outside their ship in the Multiversal Labyrinth, due to a sort of natural statis state that protects all beings from taking major damage when within any of the Labyrinths.

The Multiversal Labyrinth is relatively easy to navigate, with few, static pathways to the various Universes within. While the Multiversal Labyrinth serves as a way for mortals to navigate between Universes, it also serves as a manifestation of the Multiverse’s retention field, with the intensely clumped up energy that makes up the walls of the Labyrinth requiring vessels to travel at [insert speed here] to penetrate them and make it into the Omniversal Labyrinth.

The Omniversal Labyrinth is superficially very similar to the Multiversal Labyrinth, albeit considerably more twisting and confusing, resembling a maze as opposed to simply a set of tunnels. It is also considerably darker, with the energy spread out over a larger distance and thus less intense to comprehend. In order to escape the Omniversal Labyrinth, one must accelerate to [insert speed here], upon which they can enter the Outside and the final layer of the Labyrinth.

The True Labyrinth, as it is often called, is almost a living being. It twists and turns seemingly at random, changing its nature even as ships travel through it. Navigating through the True Labyrinth is a dangerous game, and one puts themselves at considerable risk by daring to travel within. However, if they are properly prepared, one can traverse the True Labyrinth and use it to travel not only to other Omniverses, but indeed to enter the Hub and travel to the other streams (or perhaps, if they are using a Void Engine created in the Father’s Forges at the heart of Cylis, travel into the void itself).

A tiny fraction of mortals are born with the unique ability to attune to the nature of the True Labyrinth, and know its path even as it twists and turns. Known as Navigators, they are considered incredibly powerful, and are valued greatly by interrealmar nations. Rarer still are mortals known as Walkers, those blessed personally by the deity of the Labyrinth, who can manipulate the Labyrinth to their will, and mimic the acts of gods and individually ‘stream-walk’ between realities.

While the exact maximum number is not known, it has been estimated that there are up to thirty Universes within a Multiverse, and up to fifty Multiverses within an Omniverse.