How Realities and Time work in the FOG (Science) (Possible)

## Disambiguation

This page outlines how time, realities, and dimensions work in the Face of God series.

## Introduction

The Face of God is a fantasy series with science elements. Often the stories bend into sci-fi, such as when the 16 go to space in the God Saga; even in Eli's story within *Day* and the *Gems* books, the technical side of the powers and technology presented are explored. This wiki page will outline how time, realities, and dimensions work in the Face of God Saga.

## Time

In the Face of God saga, time is exactly what it is in real life (or perceived to be). However, the technicalities of it are quite different. This page will not make many if any comparisons to current theories and hypotheses (including but not limited to Einstein's theory of Relativity and Quantum Theory), but will simply present how time works in the Face of God series works in plain English.

As stated, time passes as it does in real life within the book cannon. Eli has the ability to "step through time," and there is a reason the word step is used: whenever someone goes backward or forward in time, **a new instance of the universe is created.** This is not a new concept in fiction. Basically, if Eli were to travel to, say, 2001, the world he enters into is not the same one he left. Let's assume that he left the world/instance (used interchangeably) where the book *Day* takes place initially. If he goes back to 2001 (which he can do instantaneously with his ability), a new instance has been added to the universe that started in this universal year of 2001. Even though the instance started *just then* the entire history is exactly the same as the initial world up until this point.

The main explanation of how time works in cannon is described in the following illustration:

Imagine that time is a dimension and is represented by a geographical plane, or a piece of paper. Now imagine drawing a line horizontally through the entire paper. At one point on that line we would find the year 2001, which is represented by a single point. In the Face of God cannon, time is neither the point of the line, but the piece of paper, the *plane.* However, each point on the line--in out example that would be the year 2001--moves across the line at a constant pace: the rate of time. Now imagine a second point, the current year: that being the year 2017 in the book *Day.* At one time, Eli's world, presented as a point, was where the year 2001 is--and that's when he and everyone in his world were in the year 2001. Not his instance has moved constantly across the line and he's in 2015. If Eli goes back to 2001 from his home instance, he is in a *new world* which starts on the line, in 2001. In fact, he has **created a new instance of the world by traveling back to this point.** So, now there are two instances or world (you could also say "existences") of his reality: one that's in 2001, and another in 2015.

Now let's say Eli goes back to 2015. Will a new instance be created? Well, it depends: The only way to *not* make a new instance of existence is to go back to the *exact* point on the line where another existence already exists. (Currently, it must be the exact moment to the smallest measurement of time). So if Eli left at 12:00 PM on June 1st 2015, and came back on 12:01 PM on June 1st 2015, a *third* instance would be created in our example. So now there are two instances of existence in 2015, and one in 2001, and neither of them will ever cross--which is another important matter:

For in the Face of God, timelines don't cross each other because **the instances move across the plane of time at a constant rate.** Recall from above that in our example, time is the *plane.* It isn't a point on the line (one existence), not the line itself (just a visual image for illustration), but the plane on which instances travel across; time does not pass in the Face of God, **existences pass through time.**

Because of this, you won't have a situation where your actions in the past affect your own instance of reality. Now, you could affect *a different* existence. If the Eli from the first 2015 instance goes back to 2015, he could shed some knowledge to someone or do something small, and the 2001 existence won't be exactly like the first instance where he came from. But when Eli goes back to his original instance (located at the exact time on the plane of time), his world won't be affected in any way. Another thing, since instances move constantly across time, Eli would have to consider any time that has passed while he stayed in 2001. So, if he stayed in 2001 for 5 days, he would have to jump five days ahead from where his home instance was originally located; elsewise he could create a brand new instance if he were to jump back to the exact point in time from which he came.

This rule includes several diversions from the time travel commonly seen in popular media, particularly movies. In fact it creates both issues and solutions.

One solution as described above is that there can be no timeline convergences or mix ups. If you happen to drastically screw up another existence, it will never be yours.

Something else that hasn't been mentioned yet which may change is whether or not you can meet yourself or a younger/older version of yourself in another instance. Here's where the FOG also diverts from popular ideas: you can't. At least that's how the cannon sits for now. The idea behind this is that, in the FOG universe, humans are eternal beings, and unbound by time or space. So only one instance of any person exists at any one time, place, reality, or instance. So in the previous example, if Eli went to 2001, he wouldn't meet himself. In 2001, Eli would have been about 20 years old. The Eli from the 2017 instance would replace the 20 year old one, and the 20 year old one would cease to exist. So, in this one instant, whatever effect would be expected from a vanishing young Eli would immediately come in to effect; say, if 20 year old Eli was driving a car, the car would crash, possibly injuring others. Obviously, this rule may create immediate problems for that instance if someone appears who was already living in that instance. Going further, if there were, say, 100 Eli's who came to the same exact instance, they'd each be erased as the next one came.

### Plot Issues

In one part of the Cycle, which is a metaphysical loop which all of humanity is trapped in, the humans become all powerful and essentially turn into the Silent. Soon after, though it's not known how, a new breed of humans comes into existence, and then the Silent seek to make an agreement with the 16. However, according to the above rule, the 16 and the Silent can't exist in the same universe, because they are the same beings.

One way to remedy this is to draw on another plot point of the end of the Cycle. On the page which describes it (see here), it's said the the Silent represent basically the opposite of what the 16 represent. Stacey, for example, represents life, healing, and peace/harmony. The Silent called Death would seem to be her true antagonist; however, when the Cycle ends, the 16 work with the Silent to stop it. In Stacey's case, she works with the Silent of death so she now has the ability to send out or remove death *and* send out a remove life. This effectively means the same thing. But in the FOG universe, death is an actual instance, rather than just the absence of life as is generally thought in real life. Again, removing death is essentially the same as adding life even in the FOG universe, so the author will have to think how this absorption of dualities affects each of the 16.

Going back to the issue at hand, instead of the Silent actually being the 16, they may simply be the one half of a duality. ￼

## Realities

In the Face of God, the word reality is used to define one of two instances: either the real world, or the fictional world of the FOG saga.

Basically, it's only used for the 4th wall idea of the Final Understanding (see page), where the idea is presented that storytellers are gatekeepers to other realities. In this case, the only other reality, the real world. In *Heart,* Stacey us writing a novel whose main character is actually the author of the FOG series. The idea is that Stacey is writing his life story, and he is writing hers.

In the FOG, both realities are, well, real.

## Universes

In the Face of God, currently there are two universes. A universe is described as an instance of reality that is completely separate from another instance of reality. Narratively, there's the reality that all humans, and everyone in the initial story exist in, and then the reality or universe where the Dreamers exist. This is why the Dreamers remain undetected until the end of the story.

You could also say the there are the universe/universes of the real world; however, since no one understands how the universe (s) work in real life, the FOG cannon just assumes real life as a completely separate reality and that's it.

Whereas an infinite number of instances or existences can be inside one universe, universes cannot; or rather, they don't initially. The god form of any of the 16 could create a new universe, but due to the rules of the FOG science (or pataphysics if you will) there's no benefit or reason to create another universe unless you were trying to hide something from beings who had no knowledge of these rules (as the Dreamers did). Universes are effectively pockets of existence with a reality. Because they are separate, they are physically impossible to travel to and from. You need a metaphysical component to travel to another one.