The Piropipes

The Piropipes are a series of celestial tunnels that connect planets and their societies across long distances. Large clusters of these pipes may knot themselves under high traffic areas, becoming a confusing and unusable labyrinth over time. They are not recommended for use, as even powerful entities may become lost in their interior and die from their inherent dangers.

## History

The Piropipes can shift and transform over time. This process results in a net growth, as new branches form to distant locations and ingrown branches strengthen. This implies the phenomenon has an origin point: a time when it was a seed from something else. While no one has admitted to being the source of this seed, several entities claim to control or make use of the Piropipes including Propheteer (who utilizes them with a degree of effectiveness) and THE TUBE (who asserts some control over hollow cylindrical shapes in general). Despite the feasibility of either entity being the origin of the Piropipes, the dominant belief holds that this landmark was created - at least initially - by Them, or a sympathizer of the force. This theory is supported by the Piropipe's overwhelmingly hostile nature and the intrinsic hazards it presents to every entity in its domain. Since neither Propheteer nor THE TUBE naturally malignant, it is less likely they were the origin for this hostile system. The Piropipes are virtually never a feasible method of transportation, yet its benign entrances and promise of immeasurably fast travel times lure the unwary.

The Piropipes were originally known as "The Pyro Pipes", due to their weather conditions and loose similarities to hell. The name was later changed to use the Plezmos word for heat (Piro) and grammatically distinguish the entity for english speakers. The Piropipes are far more than "pipes that are hot", or "pipes where pyros might be hanging out."

As of 2023, The Piropipes were recently postulated to be part of a 4-section system. Other newly discovered tubelike networks include The Cold Corridor, The Burgeoning Burrow, and The Urban Underpass. These locations are completely separate from each other, follow different internal rules, and have no points of connection. This makes it unlikely the four tunnel systems are interdependent or even share relation. Nevertheless their elemental alignments happen to form a grid from four cardinal concepts: hot, cold, clean, and unclean.

## Conditions for Entering and Exiting

The Piropipes have invisible, intangible exteriors. While outside the Piropipes, all inner workings cannot be seen or felt by an outsider. Even Caliber 2's may have trouble mapping out the pipe system's network or divulging information about its architecture. The Piropipes are only accessible by their openings (or entrance points), often grown into the framework of other, more benign "doorways". These openings tend to distort the surrounding environment in subtle ways, making it appear more artificial or industrial. In industrial settings, this may be all but unnoticeable. Entrances may include:

-A secluded cave opening, with pipework embedded in the rock.

-A partially concealed hole in dense foliage, with leaves that appear to be rusted.

-A door on a building's 27th floor, oddly polished and well-maintained.

-A soot-stained, gleaming wardrobe.

Upon entering, the visitor becomes attuned to the Piropipe's reality and is afflicted by its ironclad rulesets. Exiting is only possible through an opening, preferably the one that was just used. A visitor (re: victim) cannot simply break out of a pipe and leave the network. If the opening or openings fall out of sight (for instance, through shutting the door, closing curtains, or rounding a bend), they are no longer forced to remain viable and escape could prove challenging. Equally worse is when an opening is only traversable one way (such as a pit in the ground that becomes a hole in the Piropipe's ceiling), as this leads to an instant trap.

## Appearance and Rulesets

The Piropipes resemble clean, industrial sewer systems, with little of the refuse or bio-organic slime present in true sewers. They may also borrow aspects of garages or warehouses, but these are usually equally hygenic. The Piropipes typically form long, circular hallways interspersed with rectangular rooms of various sizes. This layout, and the contents of, can mutate while unobserved, leading to gradual changes that soon result in unidentifiable areas. The temperature is usually warm and dry, but can reach scalding temperatures and encourage spontaneous fires in more flammable sections.

The Piropipes do not respect the laws of the reality they mirror. A few lightyears may be traversed in only a few miles or vice versa. This can lead some to find openings to alien and/or inhospitable environments: technically an escape, but a disasterous one. Still others lose sight of their exit, wander for days, and find an exit 5 feet to their point of inception. Time dilation is also present, but in subtler doses (a minute to 54 second conversion being the extent of temporal difference).

But perhaps most importantly, the Piropipes have a severe physiological effect on any inhabitant. Any entity inside this network has its regenerative abilities completely halted. This includes the healing of cuts and bruises, the duplication of new bodily cells, and the natural recovery from constant wear and tear. Aches do not subside. Soreness and lethargy cannot be relieved. Any damage becomes permanent in a gradual accumulation that inevitably dooms an inhabitant. At the same time, the Piropipes have a peculiar effect on living cells, partially preserving them and inuring them to dysfunction. This means one can live for many years in a crippled state, surviving as little more than a dried mummy. Many of the longest surviving inhabitants of the Piropipes rarely move, existing for decades on end in punishing purgatory.

The insidiousness of the Piropipes is not due to their raw danger, nor any sort of active malice. It lies in their sheer inability to make an entity anything other than a worse version of itself. One cannot "win" in the Piropipes. One will never exit them stronger, or even the same. They will only ever take. They will only ever hurt.

## Cultural Significance

The Piropipes are avoided by more enlightened species, but can also serve as one-way landfills or places for particularly unscrupulous folk to put their enemies. A threat to "stuff someone in the Piropipes" is usually meant as a joke, except when it isn't.