Ebon Nexus

The Ebon Nexus is the name given to both a megastructure and the region in which the central structure is housed.

## Description

The central megastructure that comprises the Ebon Nexus is a crescent shaped metallic construct several million light years in length and width, The material making up the structure is glossy and dark, with bright veins running throught it every couple of light years. The Nexus is so named as it serves as the apparent centre and origin for the Ferryman's Keys and a largely inaccessible travel, communications and power distribution networks. The Pool of Possibility in which the Nexus is located is extremely distant in the Void from the Weave and its Remnants, to the extent that it would not be reachable for subjective aeons of travel through the absence between realities. The Nexus, however, allows itself to be accessed by individuals. Occasionally, large gaps in reality leading to the Ebon Nexus open within the Weave's remains and beyond; the Ulemedi and the Kin have records of such encounters with these spontaneous pathways, alongside those of countless minor powers.

The Nexus bridges locations together seemingly at random, with no clear interval between sightings. The locations themselves may also be highly anomalous, as some of these locales shouldn't or do not exist. Such examples include realities and Pools of Possibility that have been erased from existence, dreams and thoughts of nonexistent entities, abstract/conceptual spaces with laws that shouldn't have allowed them to persist. The two most popular hypotheses for how this happens include the Nexus recreating such locations entirely, or rendering such locales in a superposition of existence and nonexistence after observing them and/or their source.

The structure itself appears to be intelligent, though largely uncommunicative in the majority of circumstances. The exception to these exists when the megastructure bestows the Ferryman's Keys. In these instances, the Nexus's intelligence mostly indirectly communicates with its would be contractor. through actions and written messages.

## History

The first pathways to the Ebon Nexus were not sighted until after the collapse of the Weave. It was early in the Scattering that pathways to the Nexus were reported, with the concurrent appearance of the first Ferrymen in the Weave's remains. These Ferrymen played an important, if somewhat unstated role in the formation of the Weave Remnant, ferrying Linelayers and Unlasting to where they are needed. This quick burst of activity quickly faded once the Weave Remnant was consolidated, with Ferrymen leaving for the frontier to ply their trade with the Linelayers and Unlasting established as the main providers of logistics and communications. Nevertheless, the Remnant was able to sway some Ferrymen to dedicate their service to polity, with a few even becoming special agents of the Negentropic Union. These Remnant affiliated Ferrymen became known as the Spinneret, an organisation entrusted to run extreme-risk operations for the various arms of the power.

The Nexus itself remained an enigma to those of the Weave Remnant. Individuals both affiliated and independent of the power were sent to study the megastructure and to communicate with any intelligence within. The Nexus allowed only a select few to enter the structure proper, and fewer still were granted an actual audience with the intelligence. These individuals were chosen to become Ferrymen and thus indirectly communicated with in the usual ways. Nevertheless, outside of the recruitment the Weave gleaned little in the way of the Nexus's motivations and ambitions. The Remnant's leadership decided to implement a monitoring system for the Nexus; with how little was known of its motivations and the extent of its full capabilities, the Remnant was uneasy regarding the Nexus. Ferrymen within the Remnant are tracked and their whereabouts constantly monitored by Negentropic personnel, often by members of the Spinneret. Outside of the occasional recruitment of Ferrymen, little interaction continues between the Remnant and the Nexus to this day.

## Ferryman's Keys

The handful chosen by the central intelligence of the Ebon Nexus are branded with the Ferryman's Key; a metaphysical augment bestowed on those who have agreed to complete a task for its central intelligence. The Ferryman's Key serves a dual purpose; it grants access to the Ebon Nexus's networks , and allows a being to travel and traverse the Void in a far quicker and safer manner than even the most skilled of Transcended navigators. Once bestowed, the augment becomes permanent and cannot be removed, much like the majority of metaphysical augments.

A Ferryman, as such keybearers are referred to, perceive the Nexus in a different way to those without a key. Those fortunate enough to be bestowed the augment perceive the Nexus as existing in a superposition. The same Nexus appears to exist both adjacent to the reality they are in (or nearby should they be in the Void) and incredibly distant at the same time.

The Ferrymen are able to access the different networks of the Nexus to varying extents. The travel network is one where Ferrymen have fairly limited access. Ferrymen can only freely access previous locations they have been to while new locations are at the discretion of the Nexus mind. The communication network is restricted to being between Ferrymen only, with no exceptions. In constrast to the somewhat limited access to the travel and communication networks, Ferrymen can freely access the power distribution network. The power distribution network allows Ferrymen to both greatly amplify the potency and magnitude of their abilities, and to remotely cast them to accessible locations in their travel network.

Ferrymen fulfill two major roles, one of which is taken after the first role is completed. The first role is that of the troubleshooter, or in more derogatory terms an errand runner. This entails completing the task that the Nexus's intelligence has given them. The other is in their name, in which keybearers ferry troubleshooters to locations where the task needs to be completed. Outside their roles within the Nexus, Ferrymen perform transportation and communication services on the frontier of the Weave Remnant (where Linelayer and Unlasting services are extremely difficult to access) and for powers outside it. Such services are lucrative due to their high demand, allowing easy earning of large amounts of Protean Traces and artifacts.