The Pearl-Chain Multiverse: An Introduction
All that exists and all that occurs in all the worlds is created from 3 base forms of energy, and the various interactions between them. The energy of substance, the energy of thought, and the energy of life. These energies go by many names across the many different worlds, and it is the flow and movement of these energies that allows all things to be.
These three energies are in a constant flow through the multiverse as they run through a series of flows and eddies in the vastness of the void between worlds. It is within the large and expansive eddies, like large lakes on this river or like pearls on a chain, that worlds are able to condense and exist. Each “pearl” or “eddy” along the stream can have millions upon millions of worlds. Nobody can even comprehend the true vastness of this void or the great flow along which these three energies flow.
Within this great flow, we focus in on one particular “pearl” on the “chain.” Near the center of this “pearl” is a world called Earth. That is what the locals call it. However, the great deities and beings who live on the other worlds simply call it “The Great Sealed World” as it is surrounded by a nigh impenetrable barrier that has existed for as long as the great world-eating elementals. No one truly knows how long it has been like this as even the flow of time can differ from one world to another, often slowing down the more powerful a world becomes.
This is the most prominent feature of this particular pearl, one that sets it apart from many others on the chain. Before one can get into the rest of the worlds though, it is important to further grasp the properties of the three primary energies that form the existing multiverse.
The energy of substance
The energy of substance is the energy that manifests itself in a manner that can be experienced with the physical body. The physical body is, after all, also made from the energy of substance. One of the primary rules is that substance can only act upon other things that have substance.
There are few who truly understand how exactly the energy of substance functions, but all explanations of how it functions always seem to follow a similar theme. As it begins to manifest in a large enough quantity to become perceivable, it always does so by clumping together several small particles which then join with other similar particles to form larger and larger clumps. The smallest unit of the energy of substance is often referred to as an “element.”
Less educated worlds will speak of the “elements” in reference to earth, water, wind, and fire. There is some debate as to what causes these backward cultures to keep coming up with the same mistaken impression. A common theory is that it could be a confusion with the 4 states of matter, sometimes called solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. However, without a doubt, the energies of thought and life have imparted some form of significance into the energies of earth, water, wind, and fire due to how long they have been held as important by the less educated.
The energy of life
The energy of life goes by several names throughout the worlds. It has been called Mana, Anima, Vita, and several other names among the sentient creatures of the multiverse. For now though, we will use Mana as our term.
Mana is the force that gives power to the energies of thought and substance. It is created by the energy of thought, and has the power to bring the things born from thought into existence.
Due to the afore mentioned significance of the elements of earth, water, wind, and fire, mana has a very unique interaction with the energy of substance. It will often interact with the energy of substance in order to manifest itself in these 4 forms, or by mixing in ways that create other sub-elements.
Examples of this would include earth and water making ice, thus lending credence to the idea that it is the four states of matter that serves as the true origin of these 4 so-called elements. Other examples would be fire and wind making lightning. There are other strange sub-elements such as magma which can be made in 2 different ways depending on how educated the individual creating it is. An inefficient way would be combining earth and fire, but the combination of earth and water would be a far more energy efficient method that a better educated individual could use. Likewise, wind and water can also make ice but this also is far less efficient than combining earth and water.
Aside from these other elemental manifestations, Mana, the energy of life, can manifest in several more ways by combining with the energies of substance and thought. These other manifestations, as well as the elemental manifestations, are often referred to as “magic.”
The energy of thought
The energy of thought is the energy that gives direction and driving force to the other two energies. It is thought that is used to form and manifest the energy of life, and it is thought that can change the form and direction of the energy of substance. In areas thick with the energy of thought, it can almost become substance and life on it’s own.
In truth, although there are three acknowledged base energies in the world, the energies of substance and life both stem from the energy of thought and are slaves to the whims of the energy of thought. Thus, in effect, it can be said that the other two are mere aspects of this master energy.
It is often said that life, mana, and magic are manifestations of chaos. Meanwhile, substance is a manifestation of order. These two energies are said to then be distillations of the order and chaos aspects of the energy of thought.
The energy of thought is often called “spirit” in most worlds, and has the power to shape entire worlds and all that is in them. Thought or spirit energy is at it’s thickest among sentient beings with a rich and vibrant imagination. However, lacking one’s own powerful imagination does not result in an inability to accumulate spirit energy. It is often the case that the most abundant amounts of spirit energy can be gathered only by those who fuel and focus the imaginations of others. Those who manage to sway the minds of entire nations or even worlds worth of individuals can accumulate unimaginable power.
This focusing of power produces a phenomenon in the world known as ‘avatars,’ beings that are greatly empowered by spirit energy. In a strange twist, individuals being empowered by spirit energy are actually in the minority among the avatars that exist in the multiverse. The overwhelming majority of all avatars that exist were actually created from nothing but stories that captured the imagination so well that the entities from the stories came to life and manifested in the real world as avatars.
Gods are also creatures of spirit energy as they are nothing more or less than avatars that have been granted additional power by way of reverence and being held up as divine by the same people who grant them the spirit energy that allowed them to become avatars in the first place.
Beings who accumulate enough spirit energy can even use it to empower themselves in a manner similar to how a group would empower an avatar, building up the spirit energy within their body and using it to grant the substance and life energies of their bodies new power beyond what it was capable of before.
Living beings
The living and sentient creatures within any given world are comprised of all three of these energies, and manifest them in a manner where they interact with one another in an inseparable manner, and yet are still somehow distinct and apart from one another.
The energy of substance manifests itself as the physical body, often with a processing center, an outer shell, and some manner of various vital organs and pathways within the body.
Spirit, the energy of thought, is contained within something known as the soul which usually interacts with and feeds upon the processing center of the physical body without ever actually coming into contact with it.
Mana, the energy of life, acts like the veins and arteries of the physical body, except it holds the function of channeling the energy of thought between the physical body and the soul. It is the animating force that allows the spiritual energy to flow freely between the two, and it is also the energy that allows those thoughts to manifest into actions.
When the energy of thought requires mana to manifest in a way that exceeds the capabilities of the physical body, this is what is commonly referred to as “magic.” This magic can manifest in any number of ways, from a mere temporary or occasionally even permanent increase in physical abilities to manifesting extraordinary phenomena outside of the physical body.
Worlds
A world is really nothing more than a large clump of particularly dense substance in the middle of the void. However, in order for a world to remain stable, it needs to establish some rules to govern it’s laws of physics and the manners in which the energies of life behave within it’s boarders. These laws are defined by the energy of thought, and in order for the energy of thought to form this barrier it is necessary for living beings to exist in this world.
Without the energies of thought to bind the energies of life, the energies of life would run wild and tear apart this clump of substance.
A world is said to be more powerful by how strictly it’s laws restrict the energies of life to act in a predictable manner. Little to no magic being manifested within a world is an indicator of particularly powerful laws governing it. Some of the most powerful worlds even gain the ability to generate their own pseudo-voids, often called “space” within those worlds, which can be expansive enough to have additional planets within the same world. This can occasionally become a virtuous cycle in which some of those planets may also contain life, which can then generate more spirit energy for that world.
Earth, which is protected from the influence of outside energies, has been able to expand within the seal that is around it at a rate that seems to be constantly accelerating. Meanwhile, the sentient populations within this world have grown to have such firm laws that the practice of magic was abandoned. This has then lead to a vicious cycle where magic is suppressed even more, thus causing the laws to become even more restrictive.
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