Outsider Multiverse Wiki

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==Premise==
The Outsider Multiverse Project is a world building project started by ericshaofangwang, covering a plethora of genres from sci fi to fantasy. This wiki catalogues and compiles the progress and information about this setting. The setting was conceived to imagine a space opera setting encompassing multiple universes and their civilisations, with all the implications thereof.
==Introduction==
The Weave. A vast network in the multiverse built by the godlike Transcends and the nigh-omnipotent Outer Gods has finally shattered into countless pieces. A network of countless universes has fallen at the hand of the being known as Adremer Tor. To combat this disaster, the Outer Gods and Transcends temporarily created the Overmind, a being of unimaginable power that slew Tor and shattered what remained of a devastated Weave.
In the wake of this catastrophe, billions upon billions of petty empires have carved a place in the ruins of a once great network, while horrific cults and long forgotten horrors lie in wait at the edges. The remaining survivors of the great multiversal empires are scattered, barely holding onto survival. The tendrils of Tor’s corpse remain, and existence itself is precarious in many places and times; every planck moment and every atom's worth of space is fought over. The Void, the timeless space between spaces, is a Tor scarred hellscape of untold horrors.
In these strange aeons, death has died. Mortals are no more, for all are as gods. But even such gods scurry as vermin, underneath the writhing corpses of titans.
== Timeline of Events ==
== In-Character Primer ==
Welcome, young Transcend, to our bleak multiverse. You have Transcended at an inopportune period, I’m afraid. I am Enmuuth, your guide in these realities where all are as gods… and yet insects all the same. The roiling bodies of titans both living and dead roam the Void between realities, and if one is unlucky enough, those realities themselves. There is much that must be learned and mastered, and so very little time to pass them on. 
Heh, time. A concept meaningless to your new state of existence… and yet so important all the same. It is imperative that you learn what it is you have gained, and what it is you stand to lose. 
Aedentide be with you, young one. 
=== Background ===
Let’s start with something pertinent to the current state of affairs. You and I are in one of countless ruined universes under the purview of the Weave; a gargantuan communications, transport and power network governed by its various Nodes. In a multiverse or universe governed by these reality-warping engines, it is possible to be instantaneously transported to distant Node-governed realities in the Void without the need to travel through the latter. 
We built our civilisations off such powerful technology. When the Weave collapsed, it died with a scream. An entity known as Adremer Tor ravaged the civilisations of the Weave. In an attempt to stop it, the Outer Gods, rulers of the Weave, pooled their power to destroy it in a single strike. This blow shattered Tor, sending its fragments and tendrils careening throughout the network. Under the strain, the crowning achievement of our civilisations shattered; Nodes were either damaged or destroyed while nameless horrors assaulted those in the shattered remains. The pieces of Tor’s corpse haunt us even now, with many more horrors besides that lurk in the spaces where the sane fear to tread.
Now, most remnants of our civilisations are centred around fortified strongholds in the less damaged Nodes, or in Living Mythos; mobile multiverses bristling with defences. Those with an eye for opportunity or more courage than sense live in the frontier, their existence resting on a knife’s edge. The Void between realities is more hazardous than ever. Where before it was largely empty in the region of the Weave, pieces of Tor lurk in the absence between, devouring realities where they go. 
=== The Void ===
This brings us to the next topic. The Void, the Absence Between. It is both formless nothingness and a primordial soup of infinite potential for the spontaneous rise of existence. It is from taking a part of that infinity into yourself that Transcends like yourself achieved true immortality and reality-warping power. Among the ways universes may spontaneously form in the Void is through Pools of Possibility; precursor structures that can be likened to a pre-existence bedrock from which the foundation of existence is built. 
Navigating the Void itself is a confusing endeavour; due to complete lack of laws of existence, it is up to an observer’s senses and understanding of the Void to impose a more ordered view of this infinity on their own perception. As such, an individual's way of perceiving the Void is subjective to each observer. Universes that are adjacent within the Void can often be travelled directly between each other through wormholes or other gaps in space-time that connect these realities. Travel to universes distant within this absence, however, is a different endeavour. One may have to travel through the Void to reach the other reality; a journey that may well be lengthy and dangerous depending on the circumstances. The other is to establish either a physical or metaphysical link between these realities, as the Weave once did for the former and Linelayers now do for the latter.
The Void is also a path to reality warping power and immortality, should one be aware of how to attain it. By being gradually exposed to low level Void presence and having that presence replace parts of the entity, a being or object can be ‘Patterned’, forming a metaphysical construct that allows them to be able to regenerate and restore themselves even after complete annihilation of their physical forms. Performing such a process on consciousness to create a Void Core is what is used to Transcend.
=== The Weave ===
The Weave is the term given to the communications and transportation network used by the civilisations that built it. The Weave was made as a way to link together realities through the Void. The network was centred around Weave Nodes, which were megastructures the size of galaxies. The Weave Nodes that governed the network were each controlled by powerful purpose-made AIs known as Godminds. Nodes contained esoteric technologies that are no longer reproducible due to the manufacturing processes being too dangerous to perform in the current era. At the centre of these galaxy sized constructs sits a reality warping device known as a Reality Engine that were able to manipulate all the universes under a Weave Node’s field of influence. When the network was shattered by Tor, almost all the Nodes were either destroyed or damaged irreparably. Only a handful within the Timeless Eternities remain intact, jealously guarded by the forces of the Negentropic Union.
=== Adremer Tor ===
Adremer Tor, or the Scourge, is the entity responsible for the downfall of the Weave. It manifests as a neon green nebula in universes it is entering, swallowing that reality past, present and future. Tor is suspected to be an artificial entity, due to the fact that its abilities act as a perfect counter against Transcends. Tor itself is invisible to unaugmented Transcended senses and is otherwise hard to detect for augmented ones. As a result, the Weave was unprepared against Tor’s assault before it was shattered. Tor’s fragments infest the Void in the region of the Weave Remnant, and as such travel through the expanse is fraught with danger.
Tor manifestations are extremely deadly to most entities; individuals ensnared in its tendrils are converted into mindless husks known as blightlings. Blightlings are created when an entity becomes melded with the Tor mass they are flooded with. Tor and its fragments are extremely deadly to Transcends in particular, as along with its relative invisibility to Transcended senses is its extreme resistance against Void based reality warping and its ability to undo damage to itself inflicted by such abilities. As a result, only Transcends augmented with an activated Tor Harness are able to combat manifestations; otherwise the fighting is left to Shardbearers and Old Brethren.
=== Beings Within ===
The beings within these realities are usually divided into two categories; the Bound and Acausal. The Bound are, as implied, bound to the laws that govern time and causality in their reality. The Acausal are free from such constraints, able to travel to different temporal and spatial locations with the ease of walking into another room. Acausal beings are also marked by the Spectre Effect, with such beings having no past or future and only existing in their own observed frame of reference. Temporal-spatial locations that such beings have been to and left instead leave an intangible echo of their being present, known as a spectre. These echoes repeat the actions that the being performed there, but cannot be interacted with by most means. Tampering with or destroying the spectre has no effect on the being that left it behind. Below are the most common and/or notable beings in these realities.
==== Transcendent ====
Transcendent beings like yourself, or Transcends for short, are among the most numerous acausal beings in these multiverses. They are as varied as the species they come from, with psychologies both familiar and alien. Any being can be classified as a Transcend if they possess a Void Core; an indestructible metaphysical pattern that acts as the mind and soul of the being. Transcends have three stages of development, with achievement of the third being recognised as a fully realised Transcension. Transcendents are immortal in the sense that while the most potent and even absolute death and erasure based conceptual abilities invariably fail to work on them, they can still suffer ego death/death of personality through certain devices or methods such as the Opal Light or being flooded by Tor.
A Transcend’s Void Core passively projects and maintains a field of Void protoplasm around them that allows forms of reality warping; namely in the form of space-time, matter, energy and conceptual manipulation. This field expands in potency, versatility and range with each development stage from a few hundred km to dozens of AU and light years. Fully realised Transcends can make use of Void Arcana, a system of casting developed for Transcended abilities. The Void Core of a Transcend also grants more esoteric senses, allowing Transcends to more fully perceive the Void, metaphysics and reality in new ways.
==== Old Brethren ====
The second most common beings in the Weave and its remnants, Old Brethren originally hail from the realities of the Timeless Eternities. Old Brethren are, like Transcends, more a state of being than a discrete species. Old Brethren can convert others to their kind through implantation of Brethren Orbs into either the bodies or souls of others. Brethren Orbs are naturally produced by an Old Brethren’s body, and can serve many different functions depending on their creator’s will. Old Brethren mature and develop over several millennia, with a spectrum of developmental stages. Old Brethren possess a lesser form of immortality in that death based conceptual abilities can work in giving them a true death.
The universal trait of the Old Brethren are the Terraforming Fields they emit. Old Brethren are able to bring their own laws of physics and metaphysics with them, in the form of these emitted fields. Terraforming fields have a suppressive influence on other kinds of reality warping within their range, with fully matured Brethren being able to almost completely suppress fully developed Transcends. The laws of existence for the Terraforming Field of each Old Brethren is never exactly identical between any two Brethren.
Being a Transcend and Old Brethren is not mutually exclusive, though the attainment of one makes attainment of the other much more difficult. Due to the suppressive influence of their Terraforming fields on other sources of reality warping, Old Brethren have a more difficult time undergoing the Patterning process. For Transcends, the natural resistance of Brethren Orbs makes the implantation process both longer and more difficult; a Transcend’s Void Core must consciously maintain the implantation process over a prolonged period of time as it integrates the orb into its makeup.
==== Shardbearers ====
The last category that makes up the trifecta of the most common beings in the Weave and its remnants, Shardbearers are those who have fused with a fragment with the metaphysical force known as The Silence. The Silence is a force with abilities related to death and erasure, with Shardbearers inheriting a portion of these powers. Shardbearers are instead strengthened and empowered when death and erasure based abilities are used against them, but are more vulnerable to ego death in turn, lacking the protections innate to Transcends and Old Brethren.
Shardbearers are notably able to punch above their weight in most conflicts, due to an ability known as ‘Resonance’. Resonance refers to the amplification of range and power for Shardbearer abilities when they are in relatively close proximity to each other. The effect is extremely minute, but exponential and thus massed formations of Shardbearers are often regarded among the deadliest forces fielded by the remnant.
==== Necroans ====
Originally a species of psychic superweapons, the Necroans have since moved on from their initial purpose. Most Necroans of the current day are artists and musicians, with works that awe and deeply move their audiences. A splinter exists, however, that retains their original purpose in the form of a horrific assimilating cult. Necroans are able to feed off psychic energy and souls, growing incredibly powerful especially when placed in realities rich in such fuel. It is this ability that makes them so effective against other psychic and spirits, draining their foes’ might and adding it to their own.
==== Shifts ====
Shifts are a type of being who have been modified by Schrodinger Boxes to become conceptual beings. Shifts are created directly from physical Bound beings, where they are disassembled and converted into information and a collection of abstract concepts. Shifts are commonly employed by the Weave Remnant as infiltrators and saboteurs. In their default state, a Shift is almost invisible to the vast majority of senses and sensors, blending into a reality’s background. However, should a being observe through this stealth, the Shift flows into the being and possesses them, bringing the entity under the Shift’s control. This mind control ability, while subtle and powerful, is able to be resisted by strong psychics and immortals like the beings mentioned above.
==== Ulemedi ====
The Ulemedi are an artificial species made for the purpose of being inquisitors and interrogators for their creators, to crush rebellions and make horrific examples of dissidents. Since then, the Ulemedi have thrown off the shackles placed on them and in a reversal of their position enslaved their creators. The Ulemedi are powerful slavers and hedonists, indulging in ghastly pastimes with their countless slaves. The Ulemedi are highly factionalistic, but extremely loyal to the members of their House. Notable is the fact that Ulemedi are largely mortal albeit ageless where many other beings are deathless; a flaw that has been engineered into them by their creators. The Ulemedi are hostile to the Weave Remnant at large, but have been known to back renegade factions when it suits their agenda.
One of the most significant parts of the Ulemedi are their Arish symbiotes. These beings are slaved to their will, and the source of much of their incredible power alongside being a measure to control their most valuable slaves. The Arish grant the power to shape entire realities with enough mastery and control, such that Ulemedi nobility are feared wherever their kind is known. 
==== Arish ====
The Arish were once a deific species that took the role of benign and helpful genies back in their native reality. However, the Ulemedi conquest of their homes has seen an exodus of refugees for the few who weren’t enslaved during the takeover. Some of the latter have found their way to the Weave Remnant, where they are provided shelter in exchange for certain services, including the creation of Patra supersoldiers. Those that failed to escape have become the mutated and stunted symbiotes used by the Ulemedi as their source of power and control. 
Normal Arish are amorphous masses of mist and smoke, which they may shape to their convenience. Symbiotes are crustacean-like in form, with carapaces and compound eyes though otherwise exhibiting  high variability in traits.
==== ‘Web Builders’ ====
The translucent entities that built the Iridescent Web are elusive and mysterious, rarely showing their presence to outsiders. Not much is known about them other than the fact that they exist and abduct those that tamper with the Iridescent Web megastructure. It is suspected that the Sublime Entelechy is linked with these beings, but so far the reclusive power has denied any involvement with them or the Iridescent Web.
=== The Major Factions ===
==== The Weave Remnant ====
The remnants of the Weave’s civilisations are perhaps one of the most varied factions within these realities. Counted amongst our ranks are a wide variety of beings, with Transcends, Old Brethren and Shardbearers being by far the most numerous. The Weave Remnant is governed by the Covenant of the Aedentide, a coalition of all the civilisations of the remnant. Under them is the Negentropic Union, the military arm of the remnant responsible for putting down threats. 
For many, life in the Remnant is a comfortable if risky affair, especially on the frontier. Even in the capitals where uncounted armies of drones and deific superweapons guard the inhabitants, it is common for civilians to be openly armed. Those with a more nomadic lifestyle live either in the aforementioned Living Mythos or Eintithi megastructure fleets. Among the most important occupations within the remnants are the Linelayers and the Unlasting. The former is responsible for creating and maintaining physical links between distant realities while the latter organisation acts as a secure long-range communications network for those in the Weave.
==== Empire of Six ====
The Empire of Six is the faction the Ulemedi fall into. So named due to the Six Great Houses, the Weave knows little of their inner workings. The Six Great Houses are as follows; Ule, Nikti, Okt, Uren, Mifi and Sul. Each Great House is a polity of its own, but against outsiders the houses present a monolithic front. Each House has its own specialties and politics distinct from the other houses. 
Ule is a traditionalist militant house that provides much of the might for conquests and campaigns. Nikti is a more progressive and academically minded organisation that shuns slavery and unnecessary cruelty, albeit while still being an Ulemedi supremacist group. Okt is a collection of independent Houses, each of which wish to have little to do with the other Great Houses. Uren is a more neutral House, often playing mediator between the other Houses and having a diplomatic focus. Mifi is the closest to being a xenophile Great House, with a majority non-Ulemedi leader membership though it is heavily distrusted by the other Houses. Sul is a house of the secretive and esoteric, formed from the remnants of the now-defunct House Malor.
==== Sublime Entelechy ====
The Sublime Entelechy is a mysterious polity beyond the edges of the Weave bordering the Iridescent Web. The species that constitute the Entelechy haven’t yet been observed by those from the Weave Remnant, with the power only having communicated via messenger drones. This opaqueness does not lend the Entelechy to being trusted, though the Remnant largely overlooks this aspect due to its export of vital materials to the Remnant.
The Entelechy sells a material known as Coloured String, a fibre-like substance able to rapidly purge Tor corruption from whatever it is implanted in. The substance is also heavily black boxed, and as such attempts to synthesise it by the Weave Remnant have met little to no success.
==== Necroan Flesh Cult ====
An offshoot of the main Necroan polities that branched off several million years ago, the Flesh Cult has risen as a major power in the years after the Tor Crisis. The Cult is centred around an enigmatic prophet who is said to have been one of the original Necroans back when the species was used as an engineered weapon. Much of the inner workings of the cukt is unknown, other than its hostility to the Weave Remnant.
=== Major Locations ===
==== Creeping Cage ====
The Creeping Cage refers to the region where the centre of the Weave once existed. The location is so named due to the large solid Tor mass surrounding the region, acting as a prison for the Outer Gods of the Weave. Attempts at opening an escape to the prison from within and without are ongoing. It seems that the Tor mass surrounding the region is also growing…
==== Timeless Eternities ====
The home realities of the Old Brethren, the Timeless Eternities hold the scant few Weave Nodes still somewhat intact. With the destruction of the Weave’s centre, the Timeless Eternities is now the capital of the Weave Remnant, forming its administrative and military centre, while the neighbouring Sanguine Forge acts as the industrial centre. The Timeless Eternities are so named due to the large number of realities within this region where time does not exist; moving neither forward nor backward. Certain energy fields from this region are known to have a suppressive effect on reality warping abilities, alongside the imposition of their own physical laws in the area the fields envelop.
==== Sanguine Forge ====
The industrial centre of the Weave Remnant, the Sanguine forge has countless realities dedicated to heavy industry, from creating enormous megastructures spanning thousands of light years to the creation of Living Mythos for habitation and exploration. Most of the universes of this locale are filled with magnificent galaxy-spanning factories weaving even larger threads of energy into immense constructs. 
==== Liminal Gap ====
Next to the Creeping Cage is the Liminal Gap, one of the most Tor infested regions of the former Weave. The Liminal Gap is so named due to its extreme sparseness of inhabited areas, low population count and the abundance of anomalous phenomena and entities. As such, the Gap is not well explored. The region is home to the Order of the Umbral Star, an organisation that explores and maps out the Gap alongside conducting military and search and rescue operations. Roaming this region are the Labyrinths of Night, mobile realities that abduct isolated individuals and communities for some unknown purpose.
==== Dark Forest ====
The Dark Forest is a multiverse created by the Outer God Un-Ruh as a way to trap their rival. While successful, the two guardians created for it were slain in the opening strikes. From their remains Un-Ruh reforged the Dark Forest into countless unique planes of existence, where no two realities within are exactly the same. The location was specially designed to hide its inhabitants and other beings within, offering both security and danger in equal measure to those who venture into the forest.
==== Iridescent Web ====
The universes occupied by the Iridescent Web lie adjacent to the Dark Forest. The Iridescent Web refers to the megastructure built by an unknown species spanning an unknown number of realities. The megastructure itself matches the most resplendent works of the Outer Gods and the greatest multiversal civilisations in the former Weave and its current remnants in sheer physical size and volume, with singular segments spanning multiple billions of light years. The size of the entire construct is unknown, with none knowing where the structure starts or ends, or whether it even has a beginning or ending. The creators of this megastructure are even more enigmatic, and no successful attempts have been made at contact the few times they have been witnessed.
==== Ebon Nexus ====
The Ebon Nexus is, like the Weave, a communications and transportation network. It is distant in the Void, however, and travel by even the best Transcended navigators would take subjective aeons to reach its outer edge. The Nexus is thus regarded by many within the remnant to be the Weave’s distant twin. The Nexus is controlled by an enigmatic intelligence that has thus far only communicated under a specific set of circumstances. At random intervals, the Nexus Intelligence will contact individuals and select them to become Ferrymen; granting these individuals the Ferryman’s Key, a metaphysical augmentation to access to its networks in exchange for performing a one-time task or mission. Most Ferrymen are independent actors who give their service to various powers for payment.
==== Hypnos Stretch ====
The Hypnos Stretch denotes a series of universes and connected pocket realities used by the Weave Remnant to contain high profile criminals; namely those too dangerous to be left unsupervised but also too useful to simply kill or mind-wipe. To ensure their containment, the inmates are kept in a dream state while under suspended animation. Inmates are only brought out of this state to undertake tasks the remnant needs them for, being returned immediately to suspended animation afterwards.
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