“That diamond dragon, that you said didn’t exist, can only be destroyed with blades made of a harder diamond.” observed the android. “And where in the ‘verse do we get that!?” shouted the human. “Make,” the goblin replied excitedly, “we make a harder diamond!” The human looked back at his crew while carefully averting his gaze from the mesmerizing view of the infinite facets of the dragon “Ok, where, and how, do we make a harder diamond?” The newest crew member straightened his cloak and began to cast a spell to return them to their craft and asked “Are you ready to believe me about Hyper Eternia and other dimensions?”
Welcome back to Terraforming, I am Randal. I asked the Discord for something to write about, and Harold Nichols asked if I had written about supernovas yet, and so I went off in search of information I could use about them. I was hoping to be able to write about some sort of civilization on the fringes of one, or perhaps use magic to shield from the blast and mine the gas clouds. I didn’t really find what I thought I was looking for. But as I read about the various shock waves and the collapse down to a black hole, I started wondering about the passage of time for those inside and outside the core, the blast, the shock waves, all of it.
GM Note. I mentioned previous that I felt black holes should have enough gravity that they can almost be used as beacons while inside the Drift, especially when I had multiple black holes dancing together. The addition of the Witchwarper is letting me have all sorts of fun with Sliders style ideas, and so I thought I would combine the Sci-Fi and the Fantasy in as epic a way as I can think of. With time working differently near black holes, I figure magical access to the space between a forming black hole and the cloud ejected during the nova would enable all sorts of pseudo-scientific phenomena.
Shadow of a Black Hole. Black holes collapse in less than a second, but it takes hours for the shell to be affected by the shockwave. That null/shadow space is where one finds Hyper Eternia. The fabric of reality is torn for that split second, allowing that empty space to become occupied by entities with the knowledge and power to do so. It seems to be a realm that moves from one dimension to another, existing for moments at a time in any one universe within the shadow of a collapsed star. Perhaps it exists between realms and powers itself from the null space or perhaps tapping into a star for power collapses the star. Either way, untold eons can be spent living in that short time between collapse and explosion.
Hyper Eternia. Once there, time can be warped and bent to one’s will given the right means. Nobody knows how long Hyper Eternia has existed or where it truly exists, but there are those that say it has always existed and that it exists between dimenions and planes. It exists as a mutable thing, both a creation of the will of the occupant while sometimes enforcing alternate realities upon those that occupy it. It is most often seen as a vast tubular landscape of land and water and life while once within a city the distant reaches take on that of an endless city. It is governed by a council of sentient AIs that exist as college computer systems that interconnect via a series of never ending weather systems.
Inhabitants. Creatures from all dimensions and timelines can be found in Hyper Eternia. The most interesting, studied, and confusing fact about this is that everybody in Hyper Eternia speaks some form of common language that becomes encoded in them upon entry. While it was first thought to be a form of telepathy or overlapping dimensional hive thought, it was proven to be a distinct language that has been dubbed Hyper Common. An entire linguistics college was founded and still operates with the intent determining just what and how Hyper Common came to be. Thought to be linked to Hyper Common is the fact that almost all grudges, hatreds, and other forms of inter- and inner-species conflict seems to just go away while within the realm. This has enabled to most bizarre and amazing collaborations of knowledge, love, and cross-speciation to occur. One fact that everybody seems to just accept is that it is possible to encounter creatures and ships that have yet to evolve along with those that died out during the early eons of the universe. This is likely due to the fact that brains from standard three dimensional space cannot handle the concept of infinite time.
Mutability. Gravity can be manipulated through convincing one’s self of down, allow creatures to jump to and from their spacecraft, which all just “park” by hovering above them. Flight takes little fuel, as the pilot can simply trick the vessel into falling by changing its gravity. Powers of the mind as well as mystical arts all seem to behave differently, some consistently and others not so much. Terrain altering powers work with ease the further away from “civiliation” one gets. Likewise, teleportation powers can be manipulated to harness time with the right ingredients just as powers that manipulate gravity can be enhanced to ungodly levels.
Unfortunately, that is all the time I have today. Let me know what you think! Please continue to join us at our Discord server https://discord.gg/Rt79BAj.
