By: Ryan R. Brumund
Posted On: April 9, 1998 17:32
Some people where talking awhile about the mirrorwall and stuff so I dug this out of my files.. lemme know if there are any gaping holes.. general comments and critisims are welcome.
Time, Dimensions, and all of reality started from a point. Then something happened. A photon of energy moved at an bundle of matter. The photon can do two things: it might hit the matter or it might miss. Reality splits, A new dimension is created. One dimension where the photon hits the matter and the other where it doesn't.
"So Big deal" many people think "It might hit, it might not". Well what if I was to tell you that the bundle of matter was the entire universe before the Big Bang and that one photon of energy is what set the whole thing off. Now that IS a BIG deal.
Each decision, each change, each thing that happens creates a new reality and/or a new dimension. These Dimensional Realties branch off of the point in many directions. Each one of those realities branch, and the new realities branch until you have a very complex megaverse.
The best way to look at the whole thing is in a sphere, but a circle is easier to visualize. In the middle you have the beginning of all. Now put a circle around the point. This circle represents a certain time across all of the dimensions and realities, lets say the present time. Now put another circle further out, this represents the future. If you put a circle more towards the middle this is the past. The further the circle is away from the middle, the more time has passed.
The distinction between realities and Dimensions are thus. A new reality is created when a small or minor change occurs. i.e.: having eggs instead of cereal. A new Dimension occurs when a massive change happens. i.e.: Hitler is killed before W.W.II or the cold war escalated into a full nucular war. Another difference between these two is that Realities merge back together faster and more frequently then Dimensions will. The bigger the event tthe more time it will take for it to merge back with other dimentions or realities. Dimentions don't always merge back together, sometimes they become so different that they cannot merge, OTOH realities always merge back over time.
When a Rift is created it is either jumping Dimensions or Space. Now a rift can only has so much power so it can only go to dimensions that are fairly close to yours. If you take the circle description again and pick a point on the circle. A Rift can only go so far to the left or the right on that circle. The same thing applies with Dimensional teleport. However, rifts cannot jump realities they are not accurate enough to do that. It is possible however to jump realities with Dimensional teleport though almost impossible. It is like trying to move your whole body forward one millimeter, it is nearly impossible.
There are basically two ways to create a hole or "rift" from one dimension to another. You can either punch a hole through the space-time continuum or you can warp or "fold" space and time. The first method, punching a hole, takes a lot of energy and pure mystical force, even though it is the easiest and therefore the most commonly used method. Folding space on the other hand takes a lot less energy, but is very hard to do. It is easy to bend or warp space-time if you know what you are doing. This is one of the reasons if takes the shifter less energy to travel back home, because he is more tuned to the space-time than most other wizards and mages.
Another way to travel dimensions and realities is to time travel. This is extremely hard to do and currently only the Time Wardens (soon to come) and the god of time are able to do this. The temporal Raiders and prometians have come close though. In this type of theoretical travel you can travel back in time to the point where the dimensions split then travel back forward on the other time stream. This is very dangerous and hard to do because if you mess up you could end up in any of a million dimensions or realities, with no way back.
Trying to travel in time or to another dimension to meet yourself is almost impossible to do. The nature of time doesn't like this to happen. You will never accidentally run into a dimension or reality with another you in it. Only great acts of magic can bring you to another you or another you to you. (you got that??). i.e.: the temporal Spell ID Self. Another thing is if you do get to a dimension where another you exists reality will do one of two things: try to stop you from meeting yourself and/or eliminate one of you. Maybe the other you will get in a car accident and die or something else like that or the other you goes out of town when you show up. Time doesn't like people meeting themselves.
One more item that needs to be addressed is Paradoxes. Things that can't happen. Things that wouldn't happen unless someone screws with time. i.e.: Time Travel. The biggest example of this is kill your ancestors. If you kill you ancestors then how can you be born?? How can you go back to kill your ancestors if you were never born?? And while it seems that this would be a really complex answer, it is really quite simple.
When you go and kill your ancestor another reality is created where you never exist. If you go back forward in time from this point you will go to a dimension where you never existed. All it really does is scews you over and creates some new dimensions and realities where you and the descendents from the ancestor you killed existed. If you go back forward on this stream you will never have existed. All your ID cards and info becomes really cleaver forgeries. So in essence all a paradox does is creates new Dimensions and realities.
"The Mirrorwall is the barrier which separates every plane and universe from every other. According to some, the Mirrorwall is what keeps the megaverse from just crashing into itself in one big mess of contradictions."(Through the Glass Darkly, pg. 150) This Mirrorwall is an infinitely thin thing that keeps everything separate from everything else. This wall holds realities and dimensions apart from each other and the main reason why everything works the way it does. When two realities or dimensions essencially become the same the wall between them dissolves and the merge harmlessly.
Sometimes this wall can be weakened or even shattered. An example of the wall being weakened is rifts earth, the apocalypse was the result. When the Mirrorwall was weakened reality became a little less stable. This flooded the earth with mystical energy and increased the abilities of psychics and mages, because all they really do is shape reality to their wills. Not only did it increase the amount of energy it made several holes in reality, thus the rifts. The weakest points in the mirrorwall are in the "triangles" (ie: Bermuda) and in the Yucatan Penninsula.
Now, a few people time traveling has little or no effect on the stability of reality. A few things change some new dimensions and realities are created, but nothing really massive happens. The problem is when you get large quantities of people time traveling. Lets say for example we take a whole society where time travel has become very accessible and common, this society has about a million people in it and they all time travel at one point. This time traveling creates a millions of millions of new dimensions and realities. At first it doesn't seem like much of a problem. A few people get lost in the time stream, but nothing major.
After a little while longer , after more and more realities and dimensions are created, the problem starts showing itself. More and more people get lost in time stream and sometimes when people come back they are not the same person that had left, because the time stream in this area of dimensional-reality has become very twisted and complex. Contrary to popular belief reality is NOT infinite, while as close to infinity as possible, it is not infinite. Meaning you can only fit so many realities in one area. That why similar dimensions and realities will merge together over time.
What happens when you get this giant influx of realities and dimensions created they tend to merge more readily. What can then happen is two dimensions which are not so similar merge together. This usually kills the majority of senciant beings in both dimensions. Utter chaos and confusion result. When 2 realities merge it is nowhere near as sever, just a little confusing. ie: the 1st reality, where you had eggs for breakfast, merges with the 2nd reality, where you had cereal for breakfast. While not detrimental can cause great confusion. You would remember, with equal clarity, having eggs and cereal. Not together but as two separate incidences happening at the same time. Confusing huh?
Another reason for this breakdown is the Mirrorwall. When all these realities and dimensions start taking up all the space they start to push against each other weakening the Mirrorwall. The more realities and dimensions that are generated the more force is put onto the walls that separate them. Eventually the wall begins to crack, causing small discrepancies and some minor confusion, and eventually breaks. When it breaks all hell breaks loose and the shit hits the fan. All the realities and the dimensions in the area merge. People can actually survive in this chaos, but the human mind, and most other sentient minds, are too fragile to comprehend the madness. Most people go insane and die shortly after.
Dimension-and-Time-Theory.php -- Revised: January 27, 2021.