The Shadow Realm

== Shadow Realm Lore ==
The Shadow Realm Lore is an extension of the The Quantum Realm lore. It is recommended that one familiarize themselves with the story of the Lost Researcher for this story to make sense. 
=== Prologue ===
 “Perhaps it is not a place in space, but a place in time.” - Head Researcher █████████ 
Following their return, the ARD operation team tasked with exploring the Quantum Realm noticed strange happenings while creating their report. First, they could not recall the name of The Lost Researcher. They recalled his face, blue eyes, gray streaks, and arthritis-riddled joints. They recollected his faint screaming as they escaped the Quantum Realm, yet they did not remember his name. All they had was the identification number that his bio-hazmat suit was assigned to. All records of his name were wiped. His wife is just as clueless and his children are too young to comprehend. Researchers recorded images of him disappearing when not observed. As time passed, they began forgetting more about him. A week later, it was as if he never existed. He had become a number with no name or identity.
Yet, within the quantum realm, a darkness grew. Falling endlessly into a void at the center of the Day of Dusk Multiverse, this man began fading. He first lost his sense of direction, then lost his sense of space, and finally, he lost his sense of time. His sanity was torn from shred to shred, till all he knew was his name. He was Dr. ███, pioneer of the ARD Project: Enhancement, creator of the Cure Gun, and a father to his children.
=== Creation ===
While floating aimlessly in a timeless space, the Doctor begins falling into a dark celestial body. “Is this… a black hole?” he thinks to himself as he begins panicking, engulfed by the strange darkness pulling him, an unstoppable current. The black hole was not spinning, and so he was not instantly dematerialized. His body was sucked in instantly, and his soul was next. But it refused. Anger consumed it, and corruption took over. A dark embodiment of rage, created by a simple misunderstanding, now challenged the fundamentals of our very universe. He believed he was forgotten; he hated that he was forgotten. To him, millennia had passed within this void with no one to help him, no one to remember him.
The magnitude of this rage caused disasters throughout the multiverse. On Earth, the Volcano near the border began releasing magma, causing damage to instruments monitoring it. It made the Quantum Realm unreachable and distorted. It began raining in Jell for the first time in a thousand years. His anger manifested clouds of blood which rained down the boiling blood of the cursed on the souls of the damned. It was this thickening rage that alerted Lord Jellus to his presence.
Using machinery developed by Lord Areolon Jelluson ‘The Scientist’, powered by Lord Codias Jelluson ‘The Technomancer’, Lord Jellus creates a rift in space-time and warps to the black hole. He consumed that which consumes and freed the soul of the Doctor. “Thou hath impressed me. What art thee?” Jellus asks. The Doctor’s soul materializes all the memories it has stored. Upon perusing these memories, Lord Jellus is shocked to find out that there are other beings in the multiverse. Having usurped Lord Tartarus in the 403rd Battle of Thorns, he was only just learning about the vast multiverse using what little was left of the Jelluson libraries.
Lord Jellus raises his arms. A reddish-black smoke shrouds him as his blood-red eyes gleam into the lost soul. “I grant thee power. Power to provide a haven for lost souls. Power to revenge upon those who hath forgotten thee. Thy sufferings shall darken the hearts of those who look down upon thee, and lighten the hearts of those who hath lost their way. In the name of Jellus.” He vanishes after saying these words, and the soul immediately begins to materialize a dark world.
The soul visualizes and manifests a world built on the mistakes of the past. That which is forgotten by the present. A shadow of the future. The Shadow Realm.
It forms a maze-like labyrinth of dark caverns illuminated by strands of green light. It remembers the Fedorium ore from his home world, and he creates resources that mimic Vojoite, to show gratitude to his savior, Lord Jellus. The soul was at the center of the lost space. The deep void. All forgotten things ended up here. Achievements of the past, trees made of stone, and unfortunate Jell demons who hadn’t mastered their way entirely out of Jell all spent their final days here. 
Exhausted, the soul finally goes to rest in a pool of darkness within a cavern hidden in this realm, to be awakened in the future by that which he hates.
=== Present ===
An ARD operation, including the same Commander in charge of the Quantum Realm operation, begins the trial runs of their Stargate technology. Defined by the rules of nature, the first test goes horribly, yet not in the way one would think. Instead of a complete system failure, the gate opens a portal successfully. However, in their attempt to access the Quantum Realm, erroneous calculations caused the other end of the portal to be lost. It landed where all lost things end up: the Shadow Realm.
And thus, the ARD had alerted Lord Jellus of their existence by accident. They enter a completely new and unfamiliar world. They attempt to explore the vast yet dark caverns, but due to a lack of resources, make their way back to the portal. The commander notices that something is watching him. He turns around, to find nothing.
They return through the portal, exhausted by the dimensional travel. They have not forgotten anyone, and all four ARD members successfully return. The Commander whimpers, “I- I do not feel too well-” and collapses to the ground, dead as a nail. The dark soul of the Doctor materializes behind them, screeches, and disappears. Reportedly, the entire operation team goes missing shortly after, under ‘unforeseen circumstances’.
Perhaps, some places are better left unseen.
Category:Lore
Category:Metaverse