On the History of the Multiverse

On the History of the Multiverse
Date of Scene:	05 April 2015
Location:	IC Radio
Synopsis:	Nathan Hall expounds on some Multiversal history to interested listeners.
Thanks to:	Frederica, for suggesting this be shared on the wiki, and for providing the log.
Cast of Characters:	168, 626, 331, 707, 253, Staren, Ayako Hasekawa, 545

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(Begin log.)

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Regarding the 'destruction of the multiverse', I can explain to some degree."

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "Go on."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "I lack direct awareness of the complicated metaphysics responsible for the incident. At this time, a precise understanding of what occurred is not known, as it is possible that the rules of physics themselves were rewritten as a result."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "However, I can provide something of a historical timeline."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "The first event I will refer to is the creation of Oblivion. This is chronologically the first event as well."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "In the sense that it occurred before any other event that you may be capable of referencing."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Oblivion was, originally, another Multiverse. It is theorized, but not confirmed, that entities referred to as Custodians -- wielding a great deal of power at the time -- were responsible for its formation. What happened between its creation and its destruction is not relevant information. Suffice to say, it was destroyed."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Not annihilated, but it ceased to sustain processes we normally associate with a universe."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Like life."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Some time after, these same entities are theorized to have begun the formation of the Multiverse."

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "So an udead multiverse, effectively."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "However, there were elements of Oblivion that resurged on occasion."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "One could make the analogy that it was the equivalent to an undead multiverse, yes."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Now, several incidents occur, and I will not elaborate on them all. The last was the only one with which I had personal experience."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Materials remaining from the old Multiverse -- colloquially referred to as 'Oblivion Orbs' -- were stored in the Union vaults at the time."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "The Confederacy launched a raid, stole a portion of the materials, and then launched a major campaign to seed the multiverse with them, while endowing them with certain control patterns. Their intent was to influence multiversal Unification to draw in specific worlds and timelines that were more likely to ally with them."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "The Union responded by utilizing our own materials in a counteracting way, for reasons that should be obvious."

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "Interesting. So Unification is actually controllable? Or was with these orbs?"

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "The Orbs were what could control it."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "At least, that particular iteration of the multiverse."

<1X-Supplemental> Xiaomu says, "So less like wedging a cart into a DVD tray, more like hotwiring an arcade board to reprogram it while it's on ..."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "This came to a head in a rather pitched battle that no longer has a name, as the location of the battle itself seems to no longer exist or have ever existed in the first place."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "Think of it more like every Unification rolls three dice. The higher the number, the more likely it ally's with the Feds."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "They were weighting one of the dice."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Himei has the right of it."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "They didn't control exactly WHAT Unified, but they could fudge the odds of what kind of thing unified"

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "Huh. But they were orbs that could /make/ a Unification happen?"

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Now, a battle occurred, during which the Confederacy assaulted our own Or. I was managing its energies at the time, so I had some measure of insight into what occurred."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "What follows is theoretical and abstract. Some elements of this are entirely theoretical, some may not have actually happened, and some may have happened but at this time and in this universe no longer have happened in the first place."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "I got a very good look at someone harpooning the Orb with some manner of lance, after which reality as we understand it ceased to exist. Those at the site of the battle shortly found themselves in an unspace, what we assume was some sort of safety net, and the Union and Confederacy forces on-site unanimously agreed to initiate a restoration process after speaking to the entity present."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Shortly thereafter, each individual mind within the Multiverse was partitioned to a sub-reality. Challenges therein were, I theorize, an abstraction of key elements of the process of restoration of specific universes and the connections between them."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "And then the Multiverse was recreated based on the results of these processes."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Now, we have some assurance that it is no longer the same Multiverse. For example: All of our Pre-Orb maps are complete nonsense."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "The Custodians who built a universal apparatus into our previous Multiverse found themselves much, much less powerful in this one, due to lacking it. I believe many were killed in a Confederate raid."

<1X-Supplemental> Psyber says, "Led by Viridian Sunrise, yes."

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "How many minds rebuilt the multiverse? Any idea?"

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "All of them?"

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "As many minds as there seemed to be in the Multiverse. We have yet to encounter anyone unified at the time of the event who did not experience the reconstruction."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "Realize that this is just one sector."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "And it has billions or trillions of peole in it."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "So... a lot."

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "Oh, it kind of sounded like only those who were stuck in the unspace were responsible for that part, my bad."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "No. Those within the unspace initiated the process."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Now I can get particularly theoretical. As I was managing the energies of the Orb at the time, I had some insight into its behaviors and nature."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "The control patterns imprinted onto the Orb we possessed, and the patterns imprinted onto the Shards utilized by the Confederacy, were psychospiritual imprints."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "They were formed through the amalgamation and application of psychic patterns."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "The Confederacy used suffering, strife and anger, and we used a counteractive imprint."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren sudden gasp.

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Yes, Staren. The power of friendship."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "No, do not."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren muttering, "Even multiverse-rebuilding tech works on a conceptual level..."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Is this why... hmm..."

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "So the psychospiritual imprints balanced each other out?"

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Yes. While tearing reality apart."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Now, as I had some monitoring equipment and was present at ground zero, I was very interested to find that I observed precisely no substantial alteration to readings during the event."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "You guys already told me not to try to make a weapon powered by love or trust in hopes that it would work on some kind of magical girl rules, I'm not gonna think friendship works any better. Except when properly wielded by a magical girl, anyway. That's Twilight's thing."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "The event itself destroyed all my equipment, unfortunately, so precise details, I cannot provide."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "However, in its most basic essence, I would assume this simply indicates that the Orb and the Orb Shards continued to exert their influence on reality."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "In the sense that they induced the Multiverse to be composed of and influenced by our mental processes."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Whereas it was built entirely by Custodians before."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Oh my god."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "It really is concepts all the way down."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "I've had it BACKWARDS the whole time..."

<1X-Supplemental> Lila says, "... what else would it be?"

<1X-Supplemental> Xiaomu says, "Well, there've always been schools of thought that our perceptions and attitudes are what shape reality, from philosophy to physics."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "As such, the rebuilding essentially 'lost the chaff' of our local gods and overarching superstructure of rules."

<1X-Supplemental> Ayako Hasekawa says, "Umm... umm... even now? Our thoughts influence the Multiverse? I mean... really directly?"

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "So you guys got to blow all previous physics completely out of the water. /Awesome/."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Everything is, essentially, new now, and formed based on the hard-restoration by psychospiritual committee."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "LIkely not now, no."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "The Orbs are gone."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "But... but... but... why do some worlds bother with particles and quantum probability space waveforms and stuff? ...Because people from worlds that way /think they should/?"

<1X-Supplemental> Ayako Hasekawa says, "Oh whew..."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "We sought the old Shard sites, and they either no longer exist or no longer are host to a Shard."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Further Oblivion materials appear to have been ejected from the Multiverse, alongside with the superfactional core military bases."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "...I am glad that we never have to deal with Oblivion again."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "We used to have a capital city called New Washington, and I believe it no longer appears to actually exist."

<1X-Supplemental> Xiaomu says, "Here's hoping that we *don't*. But I imagine if something pops up, we'll see it coming."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "Staren, no. Though there are some worlds that operate that way, this isn't a root idea of the Multiverse."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "I believe the collective hard-reset unanimously agreed that multiverse-breaking substances should be kept to a minimum."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Which, Himei? Particles, or concepts?"

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "Your idea that people from worlds with physics work that way because they believe it."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "Laine's world kind of works that way, but most do not."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "More that it was simply the way the world worked at the time of that particular incident, most likely."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "One should not fix what is not broken."

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "Hm, this could be why the physics seems to differ so much from what I'm used to. Nobody was there four years ago with the mental contribution of our stuff."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "In any case."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "That is the rough timeline of the Oblivion Orb incident."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Exactly. When the Multiverse reformed, there were people, /like me/, who thought in such terms, and whose psychic impressions influenced the Multiverse... /to emulate physics that worked that way/."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "Nah. Your world's physics are odd, but there are weirder ones."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "Um..."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei sigh.

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "What WAS this previous multiverse like?"

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "Pretty much like this one, really."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "It was not as good as this one, speaking from a political standpoint."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "My home was on the surface then, instead of in the void."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "We worked with the Feds less often."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Our conflict became much less heated after it destroyed reality once."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "The Union also argued a lot more."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Everyone began to understand that, yes, that is in fact a dangerous thing."

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "Kinda put things into perspective?"

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "We still argued after that. The... /Purge/ came later."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "We argued less in general."

<1X-Supplemental> Himei says, "Dude like, three people got kicked out."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "Things have improved. And this time, there are no world-destroying artifacts from the last one."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren shrug. "Maybe I couldn't tell the difference because /I/ still caused lots of arguments."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "That is less of a purge and more of a slight chip to the structure."

<1X-Supplemental> Xiaomu says, "Hopefully things stay that way ... I'm still worried about some stuff in my world."

<1X-Supplemental> Ayako Hasekawa says, "Hmm... I hope there aren't any still lying around somewhere."

<1X-Supplemental> Staren says, "And I meant a purge of behaviors and radio conducts at least as much as of people."

<1X-Supplemental> Xiaomu says, "Anyway, thanks for the briefing, Nathan."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "We have thoroughly searched."

<1X-Supplemental> Ayako Hasekawa says, "I happen to like this world!"

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "Yeah, this was enlightening."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "In any case, that is why you should assume that those speaking of things occurring or encountered over four years ago are generally speaking of things that were very literally in an entirely different multiverse."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "It obeyed different laws, was arranged quite differently, and it had different masters. Or rather, had masters at all."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "I imagine the Custodians thought of our gesture as a very successful rebellion."

<1X-Supplemental> Nathan Hall says, "If you ever meet one, please do not break that illusion, I would honestly prefer they remain fearful of our collective might."

<1X-Supplemental> Kyra Hyral says, "Sounds like most might be in hiding."

(End of log.)