SHATTER STORM

THE SHATTERING.

Time is like a twisted ball of yarn made up of an infinite number of realities. Where these strands of yarn touch, magic, machines, or naturally occurring phenomena can breach the barrier between them.

The ball of yarn ages from the outside in, meaning the outside is older than the inside. New strands form at the ball’s core by splitting off from older strands of yarn. 

Among the oldest outer strands of the ball is universe SX-69-Q (Q=Infinity, so SX-69-69- ETC.). Universe SX-69-Q is a one-way dead-end nexus universe. The strands of SX-69-Q twist and tangle their way through the yarn ball, touching most strands, but the connections to SX-69-Q are one-way. 

Those who cross the barrier between strands into SX-69-Q are stuck there forever. There is no returning to where you came from, no escape.

The Earth of SX-69-Q is known as Shattered Earth. In 2001, an Alien criminal used a strand knot (a nexus of many strands touching in the same place) to flee prosecution. When he jumped into SX-69-Q, he was followed by a storm of multidimensional energy that broke the Earth.

A storm wracked the entire Shattering time, space, mountains, and cities. Atlantis lost to time for eons, was ripped back to earth at a place in Africa called the Eye of Africa. A mile-wide swath of land between the newly emerged city and the Atlantic Ocean sank a hundred feet. The Atlantic Ocean swept across the desert in a tidal wave that broke against the barrier wall of the city and flooded the planes around the city.

Pockets of slightly out-of-phase lands and Islands were violently jerked into phase with the earth, setting off earthquakes, tidal waves, and Tsunamis worldwide. At midnight, seven hours before the Shatter Storm, Earth’s population was 6.25 Billion; just seven days later, it was 3.25 Billion.

But the Shatter Storm wasn’t limited to 2001. It was not even limited to SX-69-Q. The consequences of the Shatter Storm rippled forward and backward in time, yanking other worlders from their home Strands. Imagine if every book, movie, TV show, game, and comic book were just alternative worlds rather than enjoyable entertainment. 

 

On Shattered Earth, those who arrive from other strands are known as Stickers. Why? Because they’re stuck there. From the age of dinosaurs to the far future, they arrive confused, angry and lost. This is true throughout human history, which started exponentially earlier than the sciences of humanity currently believed.

The World of Shattered Earth has a few different Primal laws than IRL. Obviously, there is magic, super science of a sort, superpowers, and fantasy fictional characters come to life. Shattered Earth had magic before the Shattering; whether that is a result of the shattering time ripples or not is too confusing to figure out.

Disassociated balance of actions is a SX-69-Q universal law.