Division

The Division logo, reflecting the seven blacksites

Division is a private military group, and is the only known Earth-based collective currently researching conceptual technologies. They were the employers of Dr Robert Peterson, before the consumption of black-site one within a paradox rift.

## History

Division was formed initially in 1915 under the name "Projet Miroiter", or "Project Shimmer" by the French government after the discovery of a novallis in Calais in response to false intelligence that the Kaiser was constructing a new variety of firearm that could fire seeking projectiles. Studying the stone, they realised that whoever held it seemed to gain the ability to produce short range wormholes that briefly dipped into another universe, and whilst the object was shifted, the state of matter it embodied could be freely manipulated by the holder.

When observing the novallis, which they codenamed "39", they were able to isolate a unique band of radiation which appeared to cause imaginary frequency readings emanating from the centre of the stone. They began to refer to this as a "drift point", and started research on producing their own. But after several failed tests, their group was disbanded, with 39 kept in storage.

When World War Two began, the British government liased with the French on possible technologies to help face the Nazis, and project Shimmer was shared with MI6, who agreed to take over the funding for the operation, on the grounds that it would continue on British soil. When France was invaded, MI6 were quick to sever ties between the project and any mainland European operatives, in the case of spies, and the project was fused with a separate group codenamed "Atlas", studying ancient artifacts to become known as the Shimmerstone Division

Unable to make any headway, and with the war almost over, Churchill signed an agreement to send the Shimmerstone Division's resources over to the US, in exchange for large amounts of funding. The US government attempted to use 39 in project MK-Ultra, though found that exposing subjects to the wormholes had no effect, and as a result, 39 re-entered storage.

Eventually, an educational institute for theoretical physicists was formed by the government, named the Shimmerstone Foundation, dedicated to exploring unexplained phenomena, with the name being a reference to what had now become a legendary item in some underground networks. This was very short lived, however, as on hearing this, a collective of eight individuals related to the original founders of Project Shimmer made an exorbitant offer to purchase the foundation and any resources connecting to it - including 39.

After a protracted negotiation, the group managed to obtain these assets, and named themselves "Division" to preserve the history of 39. Opening eight black sites, they studied conceptual phenomena, and with no laws applying to them; no wars to fight; and almost unlimited funding, they were able to make extreme headway in studying the object for the first time in history.

## Black sites

Division opened several black sites, each with their own dedicated functions. Of these, black sites one and four are the most notable, being dedicated to drift point research and paranormal defence, respectively. Black site one was the research site of the pandimensional wave reader, used to analyse light emissions that have anomalous properties, emanating from extradimensional spaces in the form of gamma rays; the material obfuscation ventricle, which would act as a chamber that could "muddy" matter within it, as though the definition of what was inside would be lost for as long as it was on; the attenuating matter node, which would be able to guide anomalous material without interference; and the summation of all of these devices - the omniversal dibifurcation attractor, or O.D.A, under the guidance of lead researcher Dr. Robert Peterson.

The O.D.A would be used to engineer an artificial drift point within its heart, known to the voidborne as a paradox rift. By passing voltage through the nodes within the ventricle equal to a multiple of crane's constant (-0.135309137 + 0.438645087i volts, a number impossible to reach with ordinary physics). The multiple of this value determining the rift size. After construction, and several tests, a high ranking military official forced Dr Peterson to run the machine beyond its normal capabilities and prevented him from trying to deactivate it, believing it to have only failed so far due to the researchers being too careful and refusing to take risks. The result of this was the entire black site being consumed within a paradox rift, stranding every researcher inside unique unreality cascades, with Dr Peterson happening to fall through with a recording device, allowing him to document his exploration logs.

Black site four functioned as accommodation for multiple highly trained task forces adept in combating paranormal entities leaking into reality. Since the discovery of the novallis, there had been a rise in reports of activity of a wide variety of creatures, attributed to anything ranging from bear attacks to aliens, which Division was able to trace to an unknown force pervading reality, leaking from an unknown point on Earth. Black site four became dedicated to hunting down abnormalities and documenting them, or in the case of squadron Omicron-Chi, either capturing them for study or exterminating them outright.

## Relations to the Io

Division arose as a result of the eight founders purchasing 39, however these individuals (whilst extremely powerful), would not have been able to make this arrangement without external help. Io and Arkane researchers aboard the Celestial Ark had been studying universal collapses, and had noticed a common trend. Periodically, universes would wink out of reality as a result of what looked like a supermassive black hole manifesting and rapidly expanding, consuming everything, accelerating in expansion, until eventually the physical space and dimension of the reality collapses in on itself and ceases all existence within the region. The constant they had noticed was that the black hole always seemed to manifest at the heart of the Therolex system, usually at some point after the system's star had consumed Therolex C, locally known as Earth.

In order to prevent further losses to the unknown cataclysm, Arkane left the Ark to investigate the cause of the anomaly, however they found themselves unable to ascertain the reason. Taking greater risks, they began to approach universes that were in the middle of a collapse event, only to lose the operatives they employed. Io began to be sent alongside the squads in order to provide some measure of protection, though these too were taken by the void.

Unsure of how to proceed, many different strategies were employed to try and slow the consumption, but nothing seemed to work, only accelerating it. Eventually, it was determined that the best route to hopefully cease these events was to attempt to provide the therran with the resources necessary to understand conceptual sciences, as direct Io involvement seemed to only exacerbate the issue. They would cast Novallis formations towards the planet to be uncovered by the therran, and would steer them to forming a dedicated research group, funding as necessary. It was through this process that the eight founders found themselves in the perfect position to purchase 39 and set up Division, as had occurred in many other universes. Once this was set up, the Io could have no more involvement, as doing so was found to trigger a collapse event far sooner.

## Trivia

* Crane's constant is a very important value, as it is equal to φ^(1/φ)e^(iπ/eφ) - a blend of real life constants that, in universe, acts as a "passcode" for conducting Ora into a paradox rift. The implication is that our greatminds produce a massive electromagnetic disturbance on entering into the Weave, and that reversing this process can be used to open a slipgate backwards.
* On 24/09/2022, the first teaser image of the Divine Origins project was uploaded to the official subreddit, featuring the O.D.A project approval documents handed to Dr Robert Peterson. In the documents, a transmission was embedded by an unknown individual, hidden in the fund allocations and the project code. Decrypting this text according to a very convoluted cipher would reveal the text "OPEN COMMUNICATIONS". These transmissions would be present in future content relating to the O.D.A project, always attempting to ensure that the project is completed and that the rift was opened. At this time it is unknown who sent these communications.
	+ The decryption method for this is to be hinted at through the release of further teasers in the project. To decrypt, one must follow the following steps:
		- Take the key and the code (in this case, the key is 53259213247, and the code is 2222#725-0#0-43-0#4327#0-247#0-Z-7#2327#0-2Z2#53-4#7271#2222)
		- To decrypt the key, replace all twos with spaces, and each character with their corresponding prime number, if substituted in alphabetical order, with two as a space, starting from 3. If there is an H/I, or a Y/Z left over, swap them for the alternative. This prevents three digit primes, and primes using the number 2 (53259213247 - 53 59 13 47 - O P E N)
		- To decrypt the key, first remove all of the zeroes from the code. These are appended when a dash is next to a hash symbol (2222#725-0#0-43-0#4327#0-247#0-Z-7#2327#0-2Z2#53-4#7271#2222 - 2222#725-#-43-#4327#-247#-Z-7#2327#-2Z2#53-4#7271#2222)
		- Following this, replace each dash with the corresponding digit in the key, with the hash symbols separating sections where different digits are inserted (2222#725-#-43-#4327#-247#-Z-7#2327#-2Z2#53-4#7271#2222 - 2222#7253#2432#4327#9247#2Z27#2327#32Z2#5324#7271#2222)
		- Remove the hashes, and follow the same principle as with the key's substitution to decrypt (2222#7253#2432#4327#9247#2Z27#2327#32Z2#5324#7271#2222 - 222272532432432792472Z27232732Z2532472712222 - 7 53 43 43 79 47 Z 7 3 73 Z 53 47 71 - C O M M U N I C A T I O N S)
	+ To encrypt in this form, a similar process is used, in reverse
		- Generate a key from any word, using the aforementioned substitution cipher (OPEN - O P E N - 53259213247)
		- Take any second word to encrypt, and use the same substitution to produce a code (COMMUNICATIONS - C O M M U N I C A T I O N S - 72532432432792472Z27232732Z253247271)
		- Starting from the front of the code, append "2" alternating between the beginning and end, until the length of the code is a multiple of the length of the key (72532432432792472Z27232732Z253247271 - 222272532432432792472Z27232732Z2532472712222)
		- Separate the code into segments of equal length, with the number of segments being equal to the length of the key (222272532432432792472Z27232732Z2532472712222 - 2222#7253#2432#4327#9247#2Z27#2327#32Z2#5324#7271#2222)
		- Any time a digit in a segment matches the corresponding digit in the key, replace it with a dash (2222#7253#-43-#4327#-247#-Z-7#2327#-2Z2#53-4#7271#2222)
		- Any dash directly touching a hash symbol must have a zero placed between them (2222#7253#0-43-0#4327#0-247#0-Z-7#2327#0-2Z2#53-4#7271#2222)