The Rift

## Description

The rift is the interconnected backbone of time and space created during the first battle between Yina and Yan at The Collossus. Not bound by normal laws of reality and physics, the rift allows users to travel great distances in short amounts of time. In rare cases, certain individuals can also use the rift to travel in time.

## Places Within

* **The Collossus-** The beginning of the rift (and thus time and space itself). The rift was formed during the Battle of the Speck between Yina and Yan at the Collossus, otherwise known as the original fight zone. The Collossus is located at The Beginning.
* **Buffer****-** The center of the rift on the main timeline. Buffer is a small realm (no bigger than a football stadium) that has no substance save for a floor, walls, and Earth's model of physics. The only way to reach Buffer is via rift jumping, and rift jumpers often use the realm as a pit stop to rest during long jumps. Because of its seclusion, non-rift jumpers can become imprisoned here.

## Rift Usage

### **Distance**

Some individuals, referred to as "Rift Jumpers," are capable of accessing breaks within the rift known as "Rift Gates." Rift gates act as doors to the rift in the present and often only exist in one spot, though, talented rift jumpers can move nearby gates towards them to allow themselves and others access (this requires time and focus and can be very difficult). Due to the nature of the rift, the distance between doors from within the rift is generally much smaller than on the outside of the rift, thus allowing for rift jumpers to travel great distances in a short amount of time. Rift jumping requires a lot of power and focus, and can prove to be quite tiresome. Rift jumping activity can be monitored by devices known as "Rift Trackers." These devices give insight into the jumper's destination. Rift jumping can also be neutralized in a number of ways:

* **Rift Barriers-** Rift barriers are devices that prevent access to rift gates in a given radius. They are often used to protect valuables from theft by rift jumpers, or to imprison rift jumpers without fear of escape.
* **Plasma Shackles-** Plasma shackles attach to a captive's hands and siphon the power out of them. This prevents the captive from building enough power to summon a rift stop.

### **Time**

Time travel via the rift is very rare and can only be done by a few number of individuals in an even fewer number of ways. The methods for time travelling via the rift are:

* **Collosal Entrance-** If a person enters the rift via the Collossus, they have access to the major rift gates in important historical eras. Nic, Bigsby, and Smokey are the only 3 mortals known to have done this. In the case of Yan, the dark god was flung into the rift and sent to a gate that had not formed yet, thus having him emerge when time had caught up to the gate's location.
* **The McGuffin****-** As the Rift Artifact, created by the combined essence of the rift and one of the 7 pieces of the Speck, the McGuffin grants its user complete control of time, allowing him or her to travel to any rift gate in time at will.
* **Time Barons**- The Barons of Time can travel to the Rift Gates in the eras in which they control at will.

## Known Branches

The rift has split off into several branches. Most of these branches end in dead ends on parallel planes of existence (see Planes of Existence), but some represent major ongoing parallel timelines. There are three major timelines, all of which originate at The Beginning.

### Major Timelines

* **Main-** This is the main timeline and the central timeline of the Rift. All places in the present, including Buffer, are on this timeline. Various eras of this timeline are controlled by Weevil, Woosh, and Oliver Saevtheewoerld.
* **The Edge-** The newest timeline created using a paradox via The McGuffin, the Edge timeline breaks away from the main timeline during the events of Arc 1 and before the events of Arc 2.
* **Negaverse-** A dark timeline travelling in reverse to the main timeline, the Negaverse is on the cold, unforgiving edge of space. The Baron of this timeline is Nega.

## Rift Thinning

Due to the nature of the rift, the rift is subject to a process known as "Rift Thinning." Rift Gates appear in direct proportion to activity, thus are often found in busy places, such as cities. Because the rift is ever-growing (as time advances), most gates are bound to the end of the rift (referred to as the present). Some stops, however, maintain their positions in eras of extreme importance, allowing for time travelers to access locations not only on an axis of where but also when (they can enter locations at a specific date and time, rather than only in the present). These gates are often the sole access to the particular era in time, as the other stops continue to move forward in the present, thus creating a thinning effect on the rift the closer the era is to the Collossus. In a sense, the rift forms a tree shape with an ever-growing, narrow stem, and its widespread branches only occurring in the present. The Fuckbois reach every stop on the main timeline during the events of Fuckbois in Time.