Metasynchronicity

Metasynchronicity, or just Synchronicity, is a concept found within the broader multiverse in which the Wayfarer's Guide is set. It refers to the tendency for different distinct realities to contain representations of other realities within them in the form of fictional media. The phenomenon results from the manner in which the multiverse was created and is expanded and altered by Yaldabaoth and the Outer Powers. It results in an internal Chicken-and-Egg problem for individuals traveling between realities in which it is not possible to discern which occurred first; that the world which the fictional media reflects existed in an alternative timeline, or the fictional media itself existed first as the product of someone's imagination and was then used as inspiration by the Demiurge to create a new timeline.

## Echoes Across Realities

No man is an island unto himself, and neither are realities. All timelines interconnect with others, branching based on infinitesimally small variations. However, not all timelines interconnect with *each other*. Some have no real direct links... and others have diverged so dramatically that they seem as if they might never have been one and the same. However, despite this fact, sentient beings hold an extraordinary capacity to perceive other realities through what is commonly understood as imagination. In truth, it is perhaps not so remarkable. Within an infinite mulitiverse, all things must surely be possible, no matter how improbable, simply due to the unlimited repetition of creation. As such, it's perhaps only logical that anything that a person can possibly conceive of actually exists *somewhere* out in the multiverse.

These imaginings, these visions of other worlds, are often used by thoughtful individuals as a means of predicting the outcomes of their own actions or other events. For more creative types, such insights have a tendency to find themselves materialized in works of fiction. These works are connections, tethers that bind otherwise disparate worlds together... and can be utterly jarring to those who travel between worlds when encountered. Especially when one comes across some form of their *own world* manifested in the new one as, say, a novel or game. It can create something of an existential crisis for the unprepared. After all, if they are a fictional character that was created by an author in another world... were they ever really *real* to begin with, or were they always dancing to the whims of a creator's pen? What happens, for example, when they discover that their world is a game setting in another, one that has particular rules and mechanics that are manifested in the Metaphysics of the reality they originated from?

To give an example, the Cyberpunk 2020 character Morgan Blackhand is played by the setting's creator Mike Pondsmith. So, should Morgan somehow be shunted from *his* Earth to *ours*, one could imagine how he might react upon learning that his capabilities are all boiled down to numbers, to attributes and statistics, that all of his various cybernetic enhancements and weapons are known, and that his actions were seemingly being controlled by someone else throughout much of his life. As René Descartes put it "I think, therefore I am." However, what if one's thoughts were dictated by someone else? And a completely unremarkable "someone else" at that. Is Morgan real, despite having lived his life according to what he understood as his own will? Did he have free will in the first place? Is his reality itself real, or just a piece of fiction? And what of Pondsmith, should he meet the character he created, only to discover he was a real person in another reality?

The nature of fiction and reality blurs within the confines of an infinite multiverse.

As does causality.

## So Which Came First?

As there is no functional time within the Void, and entropy within a given reality is relative to that reality alone, any actions taken on the part of the Creator within the Void are essentially simultaneous. This means that from the perspective of Yaldabaoth, both the creation of a fictional setting within a given timeline occurs at the same time as the Demiurge creates a timeline identical to the fictional setting as a discrete reality.

In other words, *neither came first.*

And, perversely, both are *real*.

What constitutes "reality" is subjective. "Reality" is determined by the particulars of the Timeline in which one currently resides. To shift between worlds is to step into the pages of fiction from your origin's perspective... and *out* of the pages of fiction from the perspective of your destination.

## But... Free Will?

May or may not exist. It is uncertain. By rights, it should not. The Demiurge created the multiverse with the understanding that it should know all outcomes and variables within the infinite multitudes of realities within the multiverse. However, it was proven wrong. The influence of the Outer Powers, or perhaps merely the fallibility of Yaldabaoth itself, have manifested in the form of uncertainties, unintended patterns, and deviations from expected outcomes. The Programmer created the code, but it does not perform as expected. Variations that should not happen create timelines that should not be by the Creator's reckoning. Does this mean that Free Will exists, or is it merely the result of some *other* beyond the Void interfering with the multiverse and controlling the actions of those within?

None can know or say.

Not even Yaldabaoth itself.