The Merge

The Merge is the event where the forces of chaos in both Earth-24800 and Earth-24 attempted to merge both worlds to achieve their aims. They failed due to the efforts of the heroes (and some villains) of both worlds, though afterwards the two worlds were joined at the edges with bridges and pocket dimensions allowing travel of goods and beings between them.
==The Merge at a Glance==
* When did it Happen The events that set in motion spanned billions of years but the time the worlds almost merged happened in August 2013
* What Happened The borders between Earth-24 and Earth-24800 broke down causing the two worlds to start to become one in a very, very messy fashion. It did trillions of damage and caused millions of casualties before it was stopped by both world's heroes. 
* How Did it Happen The forces of chaos tried to tear down the border of both worlds and were opposed by the heroes of both worlds.
* Why Did it Happen Back in the First Universe, Chaos had the upper hand before the Source split itself into the multiverse, locking chaos and order on more or less equal terms throughout all the dimensions. When the Phoenix Force (a force for order) was believed destroyed on Earth-24800 it opened the door to the forces of chaos to try and overwhelm the forces of order on both worlds and in bringing them together weaken all the boundries of the multiverse.
* Who was Responsible? A number of personifications of chaos such as Hawk and Loki took part. 
* What happened afterwards? The two worlds were stopped from merging but ended up crossing a little at the edges, so that people could travel easily between both worlds. The governments of both worlds have been scrambling to study the effects of this partial Merge and a group of "heroes" from both worlds led by Doctor Fate and Doctor Strange have formed in secret to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
==History of the Merge==
See the timeline of events here Merge Timeline
==The Metaphysics of the Merge the OOC Edition==
Okay the worlds of Earth-24 and Earth-24800 are merged at the edges but what does that mean for the game? It means there are places where both grids meet and characters from other worlds can interact as well it is possible to cross over to the other grid and for plots to impact both worlds.
Places Where the Worlds Mingle
As a result of the Merge various pocket dimensions have been trapped between Earth-24 and Earth-24800. Some of these dimensions are huge like Hell which has completely merged and exists between both worlds, others are smaller like the World's End Tavern that exists between New York City (24800) and Gotham City (24). 
These places follow these rules:
* Native denizens (people in the pocket dimension before the Merge happened) can go to and return from both worlds. 
* People can enter the pocket dimensions from their own worlds and return but cannot use them to cross over to the other world. 
* Inanimate objects can be passed through the worlds at these locations, but not living matter (blood and organs can cross however).
Locations
Waypoint One - 24: Star City 24800: LA 
Waypoint Two - 24 and 24800: Washington DC, serves as the cross-world embassy between the two United States. 
World's End Tavern - 24: Gotham City 24800: New York 
Midnites - 24: Metropolis 24800: New York
Warp Closet - 24: LogInn, Gamorra 24800:LLL Madripoor
Crossing Over
Bridges
There are two ways to crossover from one grid to the other. The first is to use a Bridge, basically an interdimensional portal between the worlds. These portals so far seem to be temporary and move about randomly meaning they are basically plot devices. Characters who want to cross over between worlds for a bit can put in a +request to staff for plots involving them.
People who cross over by Bridge only have a limited time in the other side, around 2 weeks. At the end of that time, the membrane that separates the worlds snaps them back to their own world rather violently, so it is best to be avoided. The 'clock' can be reset by crossing back over within those two weeks but that can prove difficult given the random nature of the Bridges appearance. 
Magic, Powers and Science
Some characters have the powers or the technical and magical know-how to cross over on their own. In general characters who can cross worlds on their own can do so without the 12 day limitation, but check with staff when applying to get the full details and conditions of their abilities.
The following groups/characters have the know-how and resources to cross over with superscience. Any machines able to make a portal outside of a Motherbox, tend to be large, expensive and rare. These characters will either need to have built at the time of their application or do a +request one to add one to their sheet if they build one ICly.
Reed Richards - Has an active portal device in the Baxter Building. 
Anthony Stark - Has the know-how and resources but hasn't built one yet. 
Emp and WildCATs - Has the resources and know-how but neither Emp or the team have built one. 
Planetary - Have the multiverse computer which can allow them to travel between the worlds. 
STAR Labs - Have a working portal machine in their Metropolis facility. 
Green Lantern Corps - Guards the Rift in deep space, and can the Guardians have long had an ability to cross worlds.
Asgard - The Bifrost can be used to travel between worlds but its use for these purposes has been forbidden by Odin.
NPC groups and characters
Darkseid - Darkseid's Boom Tubes are capable of being adjusted to cross worlds. 
Kaizen Gamorra - Capable of building one.
Victor von Doom - Capable of building one. 
Lex Luthor - Capable of building one.
Helspont and Daemonites - Capable of building one.
On the magic side of things the following characters have the ability to cross worlds.
Raven
Zatanna Zatara
John Constantine
Brother Voodoo
Billy Kaplan 
Artemis of Bana-Mighdall 
Jason Blood
And finally Blink and Nightcrawler can cross dimensions if they have line of sight (ie in sight of the alternate dimension's portal in a pocket dimension. While Miss America can cross over to Earth-24 the same way she crosses over to other dimensions.
Deadpool can also crossover, but that's because he's ICly set himself to @tel all.
==The Metaphysics of the Conjoined Worlds==
Properties of our Shared Dimensional Space
August 1st 2014
Dr. Reed Richards
Over the last year I have been studying the dimensional dynamics of our conjoined universes dubbed Earth-24800 (my home) and Earth-24 based on their dimensional resonance on the Kirby-scale. It is my determination in that year of study and is supported by the independent research of notables such as Dr. Hank McCoy, Tony Stark, Alexander Luthor and Jacob Marlowe that the process which eroded the dimensional barriers at this point cannot be reversed and that our two dimensions will carry on in a conjoined fashion until the heat death of one or both universes provided some other catastrophe does not occur. One such catastrophe would be the further eroding of the dimensional barrier which is possible, but hindered by the stabilization methods taken on both worlds during the Merge. At this point I would render that threat as unlikely, but definitely something the best and brightest of both worlds should be aware and watchful of.
In addition to the worlds being conjoined, there are some secondary effects to the weakening of the dimensional barrier. The first of these effects is the phenomenon called ‘bridges’ in the common parlance. These are naturally forming weak points in the barriers between worlds much like the ones formed during the Merge that randomly sucked in artifacts and people and catapulted them into the opposing world. Fortunately, the stabilization effects have removed the troubling tendency of these ‘bridges’ to simply grab people and throw them into the other dimension, instead these portals form but remain inert until passed through by objects or beings. The laws that govern the formation of these bridges have not yet been fully defined by science and so at this point predicting their formation remains beyond our ability however we do have the technology to detect them as they form and can then react to direct people away from these hazards to prevent accidental transfer to the opposite world.
Multiple studies have also indicated that the stabilization effect has altered these portals in another fashion. During the Merge people thrown into the opposite dimension were stuck there until they could be transported home by another portal or through other means such as advanced energy manipulation (magic) and technology based dimensional travel. Since the Merge was averted these portals now have what we are calling a dimensional membrane across them. This means when people cross over they are surrounded by the energy field of this membrane which remains with them in the opposite world. This energy field aligns itself with their over-all dimensional resonance over the course of approximately fourteen standard Earth days and when full alignment is achieved the person is returned to their home dimension. The return seems to be random as far as the location returned to, and presents a serious danger to those who use portals to travel between dimensions. Myself and others are working on devices to counter this effect but as yet have been unable to come up with one that has worked reliably.
It should be noted the membrane effect does have limitations. The first is that it only impacts living beings, we believe this has something to do with the membrane needing a bio-electric field to latch on to however this is far from conclusive. The end result is that dead organic matter and other inorganic material may pass through the bridges without a time limit on how long they stay in the opposite dimension. The second limitation is that direct teleportation through magic or detouring through another dimension to reach the opposite dimension circumvents the membrane effect allowing for long term stays in the opposite dimension. This may also explain why the portal in the [redacted] system to the Negative Zone and through to Earth-24 seems to be immune to this effect.
I have been asked by a number of parties to posit on the existence of permanent or non-mobile bridges and at this time they are theortically possible but we have not encountered one.
The second effect of the conjoined dimensions was the creation of pocket dimensions called ‘pockets’ by most. These dimensions were not actually created by the Merge but were simply naturally forming dimensions dubbed ‘mayfly dimensions’ by most dimensional travelers that became trapped in-between Earth-24800 and Earth-24 when they were conjoined by the aborted Merge. While mayfly dimensions as their name suggest are notoriously unstable by virtue of being trapped between two dimensions these pockets have become stable and in all of the examples my colleagues and I have studied their access points in each world is stable and while the size and shape of the pocket dimension can vary from example to example each dimension seems to be of stable special properties. Further, the pockets that have been studied seem to be governed by rules similar to the bridges in that they respond to dimensional resonance. It has been shown that visitors to these dimensions may enter them and leave back through the portal to their own dimension but not to the opposite one. The prevailing theory on why this occurs that the pocket dimensions act as an echo chamber for dimensional resonance increasing the impact of the membrane effect to the point that it will not allow anything with an opposing dimensional signature pass through. However as with bridges dead organic matter and inorganic matter is immune to this effect making pockets one of the most reliable ways to pass goods through the dimensional barriers at this time.
Currently we are working on the technology to detect the openings to new pockets from long range but for now they are only detectable at short range and the exact number of pockets in existence is currently unknown. However some extremely powerful energy manipulators such as Doctor Fate can create these pockets or create openings to existent ones. This methodology is currently under-going study and should not be considered reliable at this point.
In closing, the situation as of this date seems to be that the conjoined state of our dimensions will persist until the deaths of one or both dimensions, and in that time it will be possible to pass beings and objects between Earth-24800 and Earth-24 through the use of bridges (beings and matter) and pockets (matter only) barring large-scale dimensional shifts.
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