The concept of this setting was to consider that most
science fiction stories dealing with multiverses almost always show off
realities where the changes to history are extremely recent (within a couple
centuries at most), and are almost always in regards to differences in human
civilization as a result of human actions. That’s interesting and all, but I
wondered about a story where, instead of finding other human-inhabited Earths,
it turns out the changes across the multiverse were a lot more drastic.
OUR EARTH, circa 2145
A.D.
Dimensional-crossing experimentation is discovered, and believed to be a much more “practical” means of expanding humanity off-planet, since Faster Than Light technology never developed. Tenuous explorations using probes sent to several alternate universes confirm that habitable versions of Earth do exist, but the typical view of Multiverse Theory involving Infinite Timelines doesn’t seem to hold up. In no other version of Earth thus far found is there any form of humanity, save a couple of worlds where they no longer exist. In fact, most versions of Earth are not even hospitable to Earthly life.
If the more traditional idea of alternate timelines are at
play, where all known worlds branched off from a prime world at some point in an
otherwise similar history, then the divergences across the multiverse seem to
have occurred in wildly different eras, which change Earth into what may as
well be entirely different planets in these alternate worlds.
The Earths found initially are colloquially called:
DINO-EARTH
Presumably, the Extinction Event that killed the dinosaurs never happened, or the evolution of life occurred millions of years later than on Earth Prime. And as such, mammals never had the chance to develop beyond the synapsid phase. The most intelligent creatures on the planet appear to be a species of Grand Velociraptor, a five-foot tall variant of our real-world velociraptor, which demonstrate intelligence on the level of a dolphin or gorilla, and the Hexapus, a six-armed cephalopod living in the shallow waters of a “submerged continent”, which regularly use simple tools, but otherwise appear no more intelligent than Earthly octopi.
FROZEN-EARTH
This version of Earth is almost completely frozen over, with only a thin “slush band” around the equator of icy-cold liquid water rife with icebergs. The only life found are forms of ice algae, tube worms, a type of star fish, and simple microscopic organisms. It is unknown if this version of Earth is in the midst of a relatively new Ice Age, or if it has been trapped in one for millions of years.
CLOUDED-EARTH/VENUS-EARTH
This version of Earth has the same lethal environment as the planet Venus, with a crushing toxic atmosphere and lead-melting surface heat. Even the toughest probes are easily compromised under these conditions, leading to a lack of proper exploration. Speculation is that this version of Earth suffered the same runaway greenhouse gas fate as Venus, or that this might in fact be this universe’s Venus, and that planet formed in place of Earth, or replaced it. Probes are so far unable to escape the brutal atmosphere fast enough to observe the situation above the clouds to study these theories further.
BARREN-EARTH/MARS-EARTH
A dry desert world with only the barest of atmospheres. Explorations of the surface show the raised lands of a super continent in the process of breaking apart, with its components resembling theoretical forms of our own Earth’s ancient super continents.Readings
MARINE-EARTH
A hot, but livable world where no ice caps exist, and continental land forms never quite rose up to break the surface of the oceans. The largest confirmed mass of dry land is a chain of sizable islands not much bigger in total area thanNew Zealand ,
located in what on our world would be Antarctica .
All remaining islands are little more than the peaks of underwater mountains
forming rocky outcroppings rising only a few dozen feet above the surface.
So far, the only land-based life forms found are primitive
plants and several amphibious species of arthropod. However, beneath the waves,
this world is positively seething with life, the vast oceans holding
populations of Earthly sea-life many times greater than found on Earth. Aside
from familiar species of fish, arthropods, cephalopods, etc, there are still
pockets of remnant species of ancient sea-dwellers like troglodytes, as well as
a whole genus of water-breathing reptile. Likewise, plant-life in the ocean is
massively more wide-spread. This is thought to be due to the overall relatively
shallow depth of most of the world’s oceans, being only half a mile deep on
average, lacking continents and the plethora of island and trench formations
that lend our world its greater depths.
No sapient life is thought to exist, with octopi appearing
to be the most intelligent creatures, though no more so than on our Earth.
LOST-HOMINID-EARTH
One of only two other Earths where it appears humans may have existed. Ancient stone and fossilized wooden ruins found in the Mediterranean region hint that homo sapiens, or something close enough to them, were beginning to develop on a world that is nearly identical to our own Earth. However, for unknown reasons, the species died out before it could advance further than the most basic of tool making and construction. Scouring the entire planet, there does not seem to have been the sort of wide-spread early migrations that led to different peoples appearing in different parts of the globe. The most advanced tool appears to have been a stone axe, a sharp rock tied to a stick using vines.
There are no remains of any language or even basic art, no
hints of reliable fire making, agriculture, or the domestication of animals.
This leads some to speculate if this species was truly sapient, or if they were
simply slightly more intelligent beasts that had just barely managed to figure
out the crudest of tool-making skills. Only a few scant and scattered fossils
remain of the people, as no form of funeral rituals appear to have been
observed. Bodies may have been simply tossed into the wilderness or buried in
shallow graves that were then dug out and eaten by wild animals. Tiny fossils
of bone fragments found in the region hint at a hominid life form, but not
enough pieces of even a single skeleton remain to give a clear picture of what
this species was like.
MOON-EARTH
Earth in this universe appears to be a Moon of a gas-giant that formed inexplicably close to the sun. Moons resembling Venus, Mars, Mercury, Luna (our Moon), and several other unknown worlds also orbit this gas planet, which appears to be this universe’s version of Jupiter.
While this version of Earth retains a partially cloudy
atmosphere like our own, no life appears to have developed, possibly due to the
combined radiation from Jupiter and the Sun overpowering Earth’s magnetic
field, leaving the planet lethally irradiated. Likewise, the planet’s
atmosphere has very little oxygen, since no plant life emerged to generate the
oxygen levels our Earth has.
SHATTERED-EARTH
Earth and its Moon do not exist in this reality. Instead, a second asteroid belt dominates the space between Venus and Mars, which both have numerous tiny moons thought to be captured asteroids.
OOZE-EARTH
Something went horribly array early in the formation of life on this world. The entire planet is covered, on both dry land and floating atop the oceans, with a vast sheet of slime composed of countless bacterial colonies. Banks of what appear to be low smoke or mist wafting across this slime are actually dense clouds of airborne bacteria. Sexual reproduction appears to have never developed, leading only to an omni-present, self-consuming mass of single-celled organisms.
An atmospheric balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide has
formed as half the bacteria in the global slime mold produces oxygen, while the
other half consumes it. A byproduct of this process is that oxygen composes
nearly half the atmosphere, which vastly increases the formation and
devastation of wild-fires caused by lightning strikes, creating explosions in
the atmosphere, and igniting flammable oily sections of the slime-mold.
Country-sized swathes of the slime can be consumed by the flames before
guttering out, temporarily allowing existing bacteria colonies to grow
themselves larger to refill the gaps.
Humans from our Earth cannot survive in this world. The
combined risks of hyperoxia (oxygen toxicity) and immediate massive multi-bacterial
infection means a quick death. Only a completely sealed and self-sufficient
portable environment would allow a person to survive here, and even then, some
of the bacteria managed to chew through sealing materials in the probes sent to
explore, meaning no permanent residence could be established.
SUPER-EARTH
A lifeless world with an acidic ocean and constant storms, the most interesting feature of this world is that it is 50% more massive than our world, and nearly 30% larger in diameter. It also noticeably lacks a Moon. If the theory of Theia is true, wherein a Mars-sized proto-planet slammed into the Earth, causing the formation of the Moon (one of several possible giant-impact events), then perhaps in this reality, the Moon never formed, and instead the Earth simply absorbed Theia, and possibly other proto-planets, increasing its overall size.
TRIPLE-MOON-EARTH
As the name implies, the major difference of this world is that Earth has three moons: one is clearly identifiable as Luna, but the other two surprisingly appear to be Mars and Mercury, respectively. Mars is twice as far as Luna, while Mercury is four times farther, causing them to experience orbital resonance. Venus, meanwhile, appears to have vanished, or perhaps never existed.
How this happened is anyone’s guess. The prevailing theory
is that a rogue planet passing through the solar system disrupted the inner
planet’s orbits. Assuming Venus existed, it may have been destroyed, or was sent
spiraling off into the outer system. Mars, Mercury, and Earth, meanwhile, ended
up on a collision course, but by some miracle, all clustered into the
Goldilocks Zone, fell into a careful gravitational balance, forming a
three-moon system with Earth at the center.
Due to tidal forces from the combined influence of the three
moons, this Earth has noticeably stronger and more frequent tides and storms,
and longer days (32 hours). Nonetheless, the planet is hospitable, and life
thrives, though the course of evolution appears to have been delayed. Dinosaurs
are gone, but ancient mammals and giant birds dominate the land.
What’s more, Mars in this reality has an ocean and denser
atmosphere, due to being closer to the Sun, and it’s iron core presumably still
being hot enough to generate a proper magnetosphere. The one probe that managed
to reach this Mars detected only basic single-celled organisms similar to amebas,
but this has still been an amazing boon for the scientific community of our
Earth to study the possibly of life on other worlds.
CATACLYSM-EARTH
This world appears to have been extremely similar to our own world, including the rise and development of humanity, save for one critical factor: a Mass Extinction Event appears to have wiped humanity out in our equivalent to the 1920s. While nature has subsumed much of the infrastructure, a plethora of historical knowledge has been recovered about this world from a wide variety of print records that managed to be preserved in vaults or other sealed areas, as well as some intact models of machines. Going by these, the world had reached and was still developing through its first major Industrial Age, and carbon dating puts the time of the Cataclysm at around our own 1920s, a little over two hundred years ago.
The languages are all different; their versions of America and Britain
used a Cuneiform-style script, while their version of China
The true nature of the Cataclysm is unknown. It would appear
as though, all at once, nearly every animal life form on land and in shallow
waters just died. Only creatures found in deep waters, or deep underground, as
well as a few strains of microorganism, persisted. The lack of animal life has
taken its told on some species of plants as well. Nonetheless, the world
remains habitable and whatever wiped out the previous inhabitants doesn’t seem
to have any lingering presence that is dangerous to life forms from our Earth.
Scouting drones indicate higher traces of background
radiation than normal, including an unusual, heretofore unknown frequency. It
is theorized that an intense burst of radiation, either from this world’s sun
or perhaps a pulse from distant, dying star, struck the Earth, inducing a
lethal electromagnetic pulse across the planet. This is born out by signs of
damage to machinery through intense electrical surges.
Dimensional-crossing experimentation is discovered, and believed to be a much more “practical” means of expanding humanity off-planet, since Faster Than Light technology never developed. Tenuous explorations using probes sent to several alternate universes confirm that habitable versions of Earth do exist, but the typical view of Multiverse Theory involving Infinite Timelines doesn’t seem to hold up. In no other version of Earth thus far found is there any form of humanity, save a couple of worlds where they no longer exist. In fact, most versions of Earth are not even hospitable to Earthly life.
Presumably, the Extinction Event that killed the dinosaurs never happened, or the evolution of life occurred millions of years later than on Earth Prime. And as such, mammals never had the chance to develop beyond the synapsid phase. The most intelligent creatures on the planet appear to be a species of Grand Velociraptor, a five-foot tall variant of our real-world velociraptor, which demonstrate intelligence on the level of a dolphin or gorilla, and the Hexapus, a six-armed cephalopod living in the shallow waters of a “submerged continent”, which regularly use simple tools, but otherwise appear no more intelligent than Earthly octopi.
This version of Earth is almost completely frozen over, with only a thin “slush band” around the equator of icy-cold liquid water rife with icebergs. The only life found are forms of ice algae, tube worms, a type of star fish, and simple microscopic organisms. It is unknown if this version of Earth is in the midst of a relatively new Ice Age, or if it has been trapped in one for millions of years.
This version of Earth has the same lethal environment as the planet Venus, with a crushing toxic atmosphere and lead-melting surface heat. Even the toughest probes are easily compromised under these conditions, leading to a lack of proper exploration. Speculation is that this version of Earth suffered the same runaway greenhouse gas fate as Venus, or that this might in fact be this universe’s Venus, and that planet formed in place of Earth, or replaced it. Probes are so far unable to escape the brutal atmosphere fast enough to observe the situation above the clouds to study these theories further.
A dry desert world with only the barest of atmospheres. Explorations of the surface show the raised lands of a super continent in the process of breaking apart, with its components resembling theoretical forms of our own Earth’s ancient super continents.
A hot, but livable world where no ice caps exist, and continental land forms never quite rose up to break the surface of the oceans. The largest confirmed mass of dry land is a chain of sizable islands not much bigger in total area than
One of only two other Earths where it appears humans may have existed. Ancient stone and fossilized wooden ruins found in the Mediterranean region hint that homo sapiens, or something close enough to them, were beginning to develop on a world that is nearly identical to our own Earth. However, for unknown reasons, the species died out before it could advance further than the most basic of tool making and construction. Scouring the entire planet, there does not seem to have been the sort of wide-spread early migrations that led to different peoples appearing in different parts of the globe. The most advanced tool appears to have been a stone axe, a sharp rock tied to a stick using vines.
Earth in this universe appears to be a Moon of a gas-giant that formed inexplicably close to the sun. Moons resembling Venus, Mars, Mercury, Luna (our Moon), and several other unknown worlds also orbit this gas planet, which appears to be this universe’s version of Jupiter.
Earth and its Moon do not exist in this reality. Instead, a second asteroid belt dominates the space between Venus and Mars, which both have numerous tiny moons thought to be captured asteroids.
Something went horribly array early in the formation of life on this world. The entire planet is covered, on both dry land and floating atop the oceans, with a vast sheet of slime composed of countless bacterial colonies. Banks of what appear to be low smoke or mist wafting across this slime are actually dense clouds of airborne bacteria. Sexual reproduction appears to have never developed, leading only to an omni-present, self-consuming mass of single-celled organisms.
A lifeless world with an acidic ocean and constant storms, the most interesting feature of this world is that it is 50% more massive than our world, and nearly 30% larger in diameter. It also noticeably lacks a Moon. If the theory of Theia is true, wherein a Mars-sized proto-planet slammed into the Earth, causing the formation of the Moon (one of several possible giant-impact events), then perhaps in this reality, the Moon never formed, and instead the Earth simply absorbed Theia, and possibly other proto-planets, increasing its overall size.
As the name implies, the major difference of this world is that Earth has three moons: one is clearly identifiable as Luna, but the other two surprisingly appear to be Mars and Mercury, respectively. Mars is twice as far as Luna, while Mercury is four times farther, causing them to experience orbital resonance. Venus, meanwhile, appears to have vanished, or perhaps never existed.
This world appears to have been extremely similar to our own world, including the rise and development of humanity, save for one critical factor: a Mass Extinction Event appears to have wiped humanity out in our equivalent to the 1920s. While nature has subsumed much of the infrastructure, a plethora of historical knowledge has been recovered about this world from a wide variety of print records that managed to be preserved in vaults or other sealed areas, as well as some intact models of machines. Going by these, the world had reached and was still developing through its first major Industrial Age, and carbon dating puts the time of the Cataclysm at around our own 1920s, a little over two hundred years ago.
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