The Cross×Verse

The [Cross×Verse] is a persistent timeline of multiple universes.

## **Universe 0**

### **Description**

Shakti, through her body and power, created the universe and set it in motion, then created the Gods to govern it.

### **History**

Brahma and Saraswati together reshaped the universe. At the end of the universe's lifespan, Shakti allowed Rudra to kill her, destroying the universe so that she (and the universe) were reincarnated.

## **Universe 1**

### **Description**

Universe 1 is a non-Euclidean space with planets, stars, and outlandish structures created by the gods.

### **History**

#### **Origins**

Universe 1 was created out of the remains of Universe 0, formed and shaped through the machinations of Rudra. Rudra placed the stars in the sky, created the Manifold Garden, and set the planets in motion.

### **~Chaos Arc~**

#### **Ransacking of Earth || Raji: An Ancient Epic**

Eons after the universe was formed, on the day of Rakhsha Bandhan, the demon lord Mahabalasura and his demons invaded Earth, kidnapping the children and destroying human society. Corruption spread across the land as the world shook, reducing much of the Earth to ruins. Raji, having her own brother kidnapped, was tasked by Durga to stop the demons, purge the corruption, rescue the children, and save the Earth. But Durga chose unwisely. Early into her journey, Raji fell to the demon queen Rangda, succumbing to poisoned water and being consumed by hostile fish. Earth was left a shadow of its former glory. Durga, in her failure to protect humanity and Earth, travelled to Mondas (a planet of her own creation similar to Earth) to protect the Mondasians instead.

#### **Tragedy of the Constellations || Starchaser: Priestess of the Night Sky, Astronomia**

While Rakhsha Bandham was taking place in India, the Rite of Starchasing was set to take place in Japan. That night, a village priestess named Kineto was to recite the names of each constellation, reifying their existence in the universe. During her ritual training in preparation for the rite, Kineto forgot the constellations' names and was astrally transported to the Celestial Labyrinths to remember them. In her out-of-body experience, she traversed the labyrinths and challenged the constellations in combat. But after defeating and naming Leo, her village was ransacked by demons. The ritual never took place, and the other constellations faded out of existence. The Celestial Labyrinths lay empty, devoid of life.

#### **Rescue of the Odd Gods || TRI: Of Friendship and Madness**

In the Realms of the Odd Gods, a hidden region of outer space beyond humans' reach, a temple guardian summoned a mortal to help rescue the Red Fox from madness. The mortal (aka. the Planeswalker) solved puzzles and navigated warped, non-Euclidean structures to descend into the Odd Gods' realms. In the deepest recesses of the Odd Gods' space, the Planeswalker stunned the Red Fox and allowed the temple guardian to capture him. The temple guardian healed the Red Fox of his madness, then revealed himself to be the Blue Fox--the Red Fox's old friend. With their immortal friendship restored, the Odd Gods returned to their previous joyful, innocent play throughout the realms.

#### **Destruction of the Antichamber || A long Time, Antichamber**

Left alone in the uppermost realm of the Odd Gods, the Planeswalker wandered about the land, arriving at a trail of clocks. Accompanied by a disembodied narrator, they navigated the strange terrain as these thoughts were projected into their head:

"It's been A long Time. But we're still not done yet. Or are we? The clock is ticking... And maybe It will never stop ticking."

At the end of the trail was a massive clock, which the Planeswalker stepped inside--the entrance to the Antichamber.

Inside the Antichamber, the narrator continued to project shallow philosophical thoughts, communicating through images and signs inside the chamber. The Planeswalker observed the messages but was ultimately more intent on solving the puzzles and escaping, hoping to return to their life before the Blue Fox's summons. By obtaining several guns, they chased a glowing black blob to the Antichamber's core, and upon trapping it, absorbed the blob into their gun. The blob's absorption destroyed the Antichamber.

#### **Manifold Garden || Manifold Garden**

As the Antichamber was destroyed, it revealed a different realm full of tessellated architecture and a mysterious dome with a broken gate. The Planeswalker released the blob into the gate, restoring it. It came together to form a black hole--a portal into the Manifold Garden--sucking the Planeswalker inside. They solved the puzzles within and unlocked the garden's many manifolds. At the core of the garden, they unleashed transcendence and leaped off of a dead-end path, plummeting toward the edge of the garden's space pocket. The Planeswalker, through a cascading of the released transcendance, pierced through the the edge of the space pocket tearing a hole in the fabric of reality that reconnected the region to outer space. The Planeswalker died in the void of space, but Rudra's perfect, hidden garden and the Realms of the Odd Gods were exposed to the rest of the universe.

#### **Earth's End || Marco & The Galaxy Dragon**

10 years after Mahabalasura's invasion, Earth was still being invaded by demons and aliens. Marco, a treasure hunter and one of the children kidnapped during the first invasion, returned to Earth looking for her mother. With her she brought the Lizard Stone, a powerful object that granted the user's wishes, which she intended to sell. She found herself in Gold Cord, her hometown and the last surviving human population on the planet. But she wasn't the only one who wanted the Lizard Stone, and her presence on Earth escalated the invasions.

Astaroth, (later revealed to be Mahabalasura) the destroyer of worlds and self-proclaimed "Ruler of the Galaxy," returned to Earth to claim the Lizard Stone and this time destroy the planet itself. He succeeded in destroying part of Gold Cord and capturing the Lizard Stone. But Marco, Gold Cord's defense force, and the Galaxy Dragon, Marco's powerful companion born from a black hole, successfully destroyed Astaroth's fleet, destroyed the Lizard Stone, killed Astaroth, and saved the Earth from destruction. After the victory over Astaroth and the destruction of the Lizard Stone, Marco returned to space. Gold Cord started to recover from the damage, but the invasions of Earth continued.

#### **Alice in Wonderworld || Balan Wonderworld**

On Mondas, 7-year-old Alice fears her family's staff only like her to her face and are talking behind her back. After she spots some of the maids turning away at the sight of her, Alice runs away, leaving her mansion and heading into the village. In the village square, she spots a Tim and follows it into the Balan Theater. Balan, the maestro of the theater, inspects her and puts on a show, whisking her away into Wonderworld to help her find her "heart."

Under the watchful eye of Durga, Balan's kidnapping of a child enraged the goddess. Mondas and its Mondasians were under her protection, and Balan had committed the same act that had doomed Earth. She sent her divine wrath through means of the Negati and Lance to Wonderworld, tasking them with destroying Lance and rescuing Alice.

As a new inhabitant in Wonderworld, Alice explores different realms, manifestations of the other inhabitants' fears. At the core of each realm, she encounters the inhabitant, twisted by their fears into grotesque monsters. By defeating their fears, she helps them find their hearts. When she's made a number of friends, she no longer fears that she's unlikeable and returns to her home on Mondas. As she comes through the Mansion doors, she apologizes for running away and is surprised to learn that her maids were actually planning a surprise party for her. They all enjoy the party together.

When Alice returns unharmed, Durga calls off her assault on Balan's Wonderworld and allows Balan and his Theater to operate on Mondas.

#### **Liddell Mansion Fire || American McGee's Alice**

During the night after Alice's party, the mansion library catches fire and the entire mansion burns down, killing both her parents and her older sister. Alice is taken to Rutledge Asylum to process her trauma, where she is to be kept until she reaches adulthood.

#### **Shady in Wonderworld || Shady Part of Me**

Shortly after Alice and the other inhabitants' departure, Balan takes in a Shadow Person he sees wandering Mondas: Shady. Shady was a Mondasian who over time had become a Shadow Person. She lived in the light and traversed across the shadows cast by Mondas. In Wonderworld, Shady's past self manifested as a young confused child afraid of the light, and Balan helped both Shady and her past self as a therapist. Together, Shady and her past self worked through their fears of the light and dark, and Shady's dissociation with her childhood. Like the other inhabitants Balan had guided, Shady returned to Mondas a more whole person, where she continued life as a Shadow Person but no longer restricted to just the shadows.

#### **Corruption of Wonderworld || American Mcgee's Alice**

Due to Alice's extended time in Wonderworld, her connection to the strange land had grown stronger than other visitors. Just like Balan, the land changed to reflect her mental state even when she was outside Wonderworld. Over time, Alice's personal region of Wonderworld, Wonderland, became more and more warped by Alice's enduring trauma. The Red Queen, a manifestation of Alice's survivor's guilt much stronger than Balan's influence took over and spread her influence throughout Wonderworld until all of it was corrupted. Balan and his Tims eventually succumbed to her influence too, becoming warped versions of themselves--the mechanized Hatter and the ankle-biting Snarks, respectively. Hatter, obsessed with machines and times, stopped travelling to Mondas to help people, and his Theater went abandoned.

##### **Alice in Wonderland**

11 years after her institutionalization in Rutledge Asylum, Alice turned 18 and was released back into London. Still wracked by survivor's guilt and now years of trauma from the asylum, Alice promptly returned to Wonderworld. In Wonderland, she quickly discovered the state her mind had warped it to. Now ruled by the Red Queen, all of Wonderworld was corrupted. Only by confronting her survivor's guilt and the Red Queen directly could Alice and Wonderland heal. Alice dismembered her old mentor Hatter for attacking her and took down the Red Queen. Wonderland returned to the much brighter atmosphere of her childhood dreams and so she returned to Mondas to try and live as an adult.

#### **Sorceress and the Shadow Children || Iris.Fall**

Shortly later, a sorceress discovered the abandoned Balan Theater and took up residence inside. Within its walls, she practiced the latent magic it possessed--rearranging its non-Euclidean interior, transmuting the world to black and white and creating portals--and honed some magic of her own. She discovered the Shadow Realm and a hooded girl--Shady--inside it, immediately becoming obsessed with entering it. She began creating effigies to cast children's shadows, creating the Tome of Shadows to try and enter, and practicing spells to possess the dolls.

One night, she successfully sent a cat into the Shadow Realm, but she still couldn't enter; she could only send others. The sorceress then lured local children into her theater and captured them inside the effigies, ordering them to find and capture Shady. The shadow children, upset by being kidnapped, didn't obey the sorceress. So she locked them up inside a crystal ball and started work on a new plan: Iris.

Iris, one of the sorceress's wooden dolls shaped into the appearance of a Mondasian child, came to life. The sorceress placed her inside a house in London, letting her get accustomed to living on Mondas and worldly experience, until one night, the sorceress projected visions of the theater and the Shadow Realm into her dreams. Iris returned to the theater and entered the Shadow Realm, all according to her creator's plans. When she found Shady, however, the girl led her to the kidnapped children and together they freed them all. Iris and the girl then tore apart the Tome of Shadows, sealing off the Shadow Realm and collapsing the theater on top of the sorceress. With the sorceress dead and both hers and the theater's magic gone, Iris too reverted to a doll.

#### **Alice of Wonderland || Alice: Madness Returns**

1 year later, Alice was still undergoing therapy. Wonderland, still under the control of Alice's subconscious, had begun warping again from its brighter self. Alice found herself intermittently passing between London and Wonderworld. She discovered its disrepaired state and began searching for a solution. Partway through her journey, the Infernal Train was set loose and starts to destroy Wonderworld. Alice, fixated on the night of the mansion's fire, continues to visit manifestations of it as she explores Wonderland, slowly piecing together her recollection of the events. She discovers the Red Queen, now looking like her older sister Lizzie who burned alive, survived Alice's first attack because like the rest of Wonderland, she's part of it too. But the Red Queen is no longer destroying Wonderland.

Instead, this time it's Alice's therapist who created the Infernal Train in Alice's head, causing it to manifest in Wonderland. Shortly after, Alice remembers that her therapist is the one who started the fire that killed her family, and realizes that he's trying to make her forget everything--her past, Wonderworld, and his evil deeds--so that he can control her. Alice boards the Infernal Train, finds her psyche's manifestation of her therapist, the Dollmaker, and destroys him and his train, purifying Wonderworld of his existence. Then she returns to Mondas to confront her family's murderer himself. At the train station, Alice finds her therapist and accuses him of the arson, claiming that she'll take him to justice. When he says no one will believe her because of the insanity he's inflicted upon her, she dons her Wonderland attire and pushes him onto the tracks, where an oncoming train tears him to shreds.

As Alice turns around to leave the station, she finds herself back in Wonderland, this time for good. She's spent so long in her fantasy world that she has become a part of it, and she can never return. She lives out her days in the paradise of her mind, surrounded by the many friends that populate her Wonderland.

#### **Wonderworld Aftermath || GRIS**

Restored to a much brighter, calmer place, Wonderworld again became a place for the lost and weary to face their problems head-on. One such weary soul was Gris, a young Mondasian woman who was dealing with depression and a broken relationship with her mother. In Wonderworld, she slowly learned to bring color back into her life and keep on going even when it felt like it was impossible to move forward. Her final boss, a Shadow Person mirror of herself giving her self-doubts was slowly put at bay as GRIS kept going, even as it tried to consume her. When her time in Wonderworld had come to an end, Gris returned to Mondas to make amends with her mother.

#### **Rapture of Mondas || Everybody's Gone to the Rapture**

Rudra, destroyer and reincarnator of the universe, warns Durga that the time for Mondas to be destroyed has come. The universe is about to enter oblivion, and Durga can choose to end her chosen planet herself or wait for the death to come. Durga, caring for her people, begrudgingly heeds Rudra's warning and begins spiriting people away.

On Mondas, the people bear witness to the mysterious illness then sudden disappearances of their friends, family and neighbors. Mysterious lights that beckon them to follow and give themselves up to the Rapture flood the planet. World governments induce quarantines to try and contain what they perceive as a threat, eventually bombing towns with bioweapons. Much of the population, Mondasians and wildlife alike, go willingly while others panic and start killing each other. All until there's only one person left. They explore the empty remains of Shropshire, following the lights and listening to the stories of people already raptured the lights show them, until finally the let give in to the Rapture too. Mondas is dead.

#### **Invasion of the Moja || LocoRoco**

The Moja Moja invade LocoRoco Planet and start eating LocoRoco. The LocoRoco, a species of prey, explore the world, trying to survive and pushing back the Moja. When they reach the Moja Boss, a massive Moja Moja that rules all the others, they get eaten and have to defeat him from the inside. The Moja Boss shrinks and the invasion returns to space.