Fractured Eras (The Time Walkers)

This was a write-up for a faux-MMO concept I was challenged to make by a friend. His proposal was to "make an MMO where every server was in a different time period of the world, and major events happening in one server would have a ripple effect in others."

This was the second of three concepts I came up with, and while he said I way missed the mark with this one, I still think it was by far the best of the ideas. In hindsight, this would work much better as a Table Top RPG. In fact, I recall I took some influenced from Mage: The Ascension for the magic mechanics and the idea of Paradoxi.

FRACTURED ERAS

Some theorize that time is ultimately just another dimension, akin to distance, depth, and length, that humans interpret as an irreversible linear progression. However, if it were possible to shift one’s perception and see time as merely another measurement of distance, one could theoretically “walk” from one second to the next. Each moment of time would essentially be its own separate reality; in order to time travel, one need only “step” into another dimension. In short: time is an illusion.

The Wyld Hunt

The Wyld Hunt was one of many post-Old Multiverse series concepts that sort of uniquely evolved through the background of several other setting and series concepts. Many of these characters were either background characters in the supernatural side of various hero settings, or were intended to be the "magic-themed" members of various teams. At some point, they just sort of developed their own continuity independent of whatever other hero stuff was going on, and I realized that didn't really fit in a standard superhero universe.

Ergo, this sort of became my first dedicated urban fantasy/modern fantasy type world, with no connection to a superhero universe proper. Although, rechecking these notes, I see that I still had them be tangentially related to an version of Tabitha Cain universe, which sort of still fits, given that at the time , given there were a couple figures in the Wyld Hunt lore that were part of the Tabitha Cain stories at the time. Eventually, however, I realized I didn't actually want to write a bunch of tedious "monster of the week" short stories, so, like most of my series concepts, this never really got off the ground.

I did, however, use several of these characters in co-writes and forum RPGs, so I can at least say some of these guys got some actual mileage in the written word, unlike a lot of characters I made concepts for, but ended up never using.


BACKSTORY

In the two thousand years since Tabitha Cain forced the Elder Gods to remove much of their influence, as well as most of their creations, from Earth, humanity has moved on. Technology brought power to the masses and the horrible creatures of the night were driven back by increasingly deadlier weapons.  Magic was left behind due its difficult and often impractical learning curve. By the time the later 1800s rolled around, the only authentic practitioners of magic were those who were innately born with magical talent or empowered by accident, and monsters had become virtually extinct. Humanity was on the fast track to a bright future ahead of them, with science as their new beacon. Soon enough, by the mid 1900s, people practically dismissed the supernatural as little more than an archaic notion.

This, however, suited the monsters and mages of the world just fine. Humanity was letting its guard down. Their technology was making them soft and lazy, easy pickings. And though they spread like wildfire across the world, there were always nooks and crannies in which the predatory forces of the supernatural could hide. Some simply tucked themselves away in dark allies and sewers or in the increasingly shrinking wilds. Others insinuated themselves into human society, hiding in plain site.

Thankfully, those with ill intent were not the only ones who retained their supernatural power. Over the decades, empowered champions and defenders rise to protect humanity from the shadows they have forgotten to fear.

Apocryphal Earths

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:

Mystic Missouri

Note: A work in progress, this may be subject to change.

A near-copy of the state of Missouri, which for unknown reasons, got bounced off into its own pocket dimension. In actuality, the state was copied over on a conceptual level, but the original is still back on Earth. Everyone inside the state was likewise copied, as was all flora and fauna. No one on Earth is aware that anything happened at all, while those within the pocket dimension know only that three years ago, the state of Missouri was suddenly sealed off by a mysterious and deadly mist.

The land is accosted by mutants and monsters created by the Mist Wall. However, the rise of superhumans has been a boon to keeping civilization going, both to defend against supernatural threats, as well as provide ways to compensate for the lack of resources and failing technologies.

After the first chaotic year of this event, civilization has stabilized for the most part. The country holds a total population of about 4 million. Unfortunately, the only resources available to the survivors are those that were within the state when the Mist Wall appeared, meaning that resources are now incredibly scarce.

Other Worldly Magic Systems

AUTHORS NOTE: This is an older document that I believe was part of a shared universe project that never really even got started. I found it buried in one of my back-up folders, and looking it over, I'm a little surprised at how familiar some of this stuff is. The Other World is clearly a prototype for later similar concepts of mine like the Fae Realm and the Roil. This isn't really a setting, but a power system that could be applied to different projects.

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THE OTHER WORLD

Everything we know of as “magic” is derived from the Other World. The Other World is another reality, closely touching the Physical World, but still operating on different laws. Those who are able to use magic simply draw upon the essence of the Other World and allow its laws to override those of the local area of the Physical World. Essentially, so long as the essence (call it a force or energy if you will) of the Other World is sustained, a person is able to essentially warp the Physical World’s reality by directing the effects of the Other World upon the Physical World. In a way, think of the Other World as a sort of fifth fundamental force or an often unseen state of quantum reality which some can directly utilize through their will.
 
Only those who have a connection to the Physical World, usually by means of possessing a “dual nature” through hybridization, Other mutation, or proper exposure to Other World forces and energies can properly wield magic.

Ethyrium Universe

For years, I've had the idea of making a sci-fi setting involving artificially created solar systems that join myriad worlds together, often existing in a pocket dimension. This would give me the option of a myriad different settings, even a cosmic-scale scope, yet not have to have the characters span galactic distances just to get to the next planet. I always kind of liked the idea that the characters could just look up into the sky and see all the worlds they could visit, and that technology didn't necessarily have to be Faster-Than-Light levels to go from world to world.

However, not really being into hard sci-fi or straight space opera, I never really got fully into the concept; it was fun to make up some alien races and some planets, but really, I didn't really come up with anything that really stood out to me. Likewise, this was more or less just a blown-up version of what's become my own personal cliche of an ideal adventurer setting: a bunch of different cities or small countries with vast wilderness scattered between, and I didn't necessarily want to depend on space ships for the characters to get places, when you could just set them all on a large planet instead. (We'll be coming back to this sort of thing later, I'm sure.)

But then, a year or two back, I discovered a Savage Worlds RPG called Slipstream. A Flash-Gordon inspired pulp sci-fi universe with a familiar twist: a universe within a pocket dimension, where the properties of space and planets aren't quite the same as we know them. Intrigued by this setting, I was inspired to go back and refine my "pocket universe system" concept some more with a more out-of-the-box approach, and I came up with this little gem. While as usual I don't really know if anything will come of this, I rather like the basic concept.

ETHYRIUM UNIVERSE

The Ethyrium Universe is an artificially constructed pocket dimension left behind by the destruction of an old solar system. A rough sphere 150 million kilometers across (approximately one astronomical unit), the universe is host to 1000 planets, most of which are claimed as the home world of at least one intelligent species. The Ethyrium Universe is built around physical laws that simulate our own, but use a different mechanical baseline.

World of Barson/Therus

As well as writing stories, I also enjoy building up settings and super-power systems. Some of these were intended for possible story settings, but others were ideas for role playing games I never got around to doing. While I've only played a few Table Top or Forum RPGs myself, I nonetheless have always loved reading RPG books for the awesome worlds and concepts therein. As such, sometimes I like to just start building worlds and see what I can come up with. You could consider these to be sort of "systemless settings" or "series bibles" of a sort.

And without further adieu, here's the first of many such worlds:

BARSON/THERUS

THE SETTING

The setting is Earth, nearly 250 million years into the future. By now, the moon is almost 30% farther from Earth, resulting in weaker tides, and the continents have re-merged into two main land mass. One is a Pangaea-like super-continent formed from the merging of the Americas with Africa and Eurasia, creating the great land of Barson. The second is a “regular” sized continent formed from the merger of Australia and Antarctica. The game takes place on this smaller continent, known to the natives as Therus (pronounced Thay-russ).

Humanity either died out or left Earth so long ago that nothing of their civilization remains. Even the numerous satellites and space stations fell to Earth and crumbled to dust millions of years ago. In their absence, millions of new species evolved and died out. And eventually, new sapient races emerged, and built new civilizations. The game begins in an era when technology is in the earlier stages of steam power and gun powder.

Elemental Keys, Series Overview

The Elemental Keys was one of the first major post-Old Multiverse series I did, the concept starting back when I first got into college. Along with series ideas like the Intrepid, the Dream Wars, and Galea, this was one of many attempts to “start fresh”, and build up series set in self-contained worlds, independent of what had come before. Ironically, this was also one of the earlier examples of the cascade effect of characters and concepts from previous stories being brought in and retooled. Initially, I had the idea for the E-Keys as just the artifacts, but lacking series to use them in, I combined some characters and concepts from earlier works to flesh the concept out as a series unto itself.