Fiction Primer: Precipice Manifestations

The last fiction primer covered the overall concept of the Precipice. This primer expands upon a key principle of the Precipice: that it manifests uniquely on different worlds. While the world of Arbelos is the focus of much of the discussion, this primer also contains a great deal of information about generalized examples of the Precipice’s many varied manifestations across numerous worlds. I’ll also share some of the earliest art used to help conceptualize the Precipice (be warned, brace yourself for some of Max’s Terrible Graphics)!

The Variable Substrate of the Precipice

Unlike the many realities it crosses, the Precipice itself does not have easily observable features. The only mass and energy to be found within the Precipice seem to have been swept along from other worlds it crosses. Otherworldly objects and energies appearing are often the first sign (or only) sign that the Precipice draws near.

However, on individual worlds, the Precipice itself often has telltale signs particular to that world. An overbearing fog, a rolling storm, or an impossible color spilling into the sky—any of these might be a signal of the Precipice on a given world. If there are any absolute physical signs of the Precipice that can be observed across all worlds, detecting and interpreting them would require extremely advanced and sensitive technology.

Arbelos and “The Drop”

On Arbelos, the Precipice bubbles up through cracks in the foundation of reality. The largest and most stable of these cracks exists in the Icano Disaster Area, also called the Serpent’s Maw.

During the waning days of the Shroud War, the Astiagen Coalition and local Varallen forces fought to push the occupying Herunock Dominance out of the Icano Delta. Key to these efforts were rupture weapons, experimental bombs capable of annihilating matter contaminated by the Herunock biophagic weapons. In the final push, something went disastrously wrong within one of the rupture weapons, igniting a chain reaction that tore a vast crater into the landscape. A mist rose over the delta, shrouding the whole of southern Varall in permanent fog that emanates from the crater. And within the depths of the crater, reality was permanently weakened.

Now, according to some unfathomable pattern, “bubbles” connecting to other worlds push through into Arbelos. These bubbles have been observed to last for mere seconds or for weeks, and vary in size from microscopic to hundreds of meters. Oftentimes, detritus of these other worlds is left behind when the bubble fades. While the bubble persists, it seems to suspend the laws of physics local to Arbelos, but once it vanishes, many of the technologies and objects left behind cease to function under the foreign material constraints. Still, many formations, structures, and objects of unfathomable provenance now litter the crater’s surface, creating a chaotic sprawl.

Worldwide awareness of the situation in the Serpent’s Maw is limited. Even as its agents and proxies venture into the region of greatest instability that it calls “the Drop,” the Astiagen Coalition has worked hard to keep the eyes of its geopolitical rivals focused elsewhere. Some Varallens have observed the area firsthand, including anti-government forces sheltering in the extended wake of the Disaster Area and neutral parties like the research team led by Solanon Etaic.

Awareness of the Precipice on Arbelos is nascent and very limited, but the realm between is better understood on other worlds. Notably, the way that the Precipice intersects with Arbelos makes it hard to understand. However, this is not the only way that the Precipice can interact with a particular reality.

Thresholds

On some worlds, the Precipice tends to gather at consistent points of ingress. A threshold can lead to a constant destination, or to a different place each time one steps through. It might be relatively stable, or its connection to the Precipice might ebb and flow with some esoteric cycle.

A threshold might even connect back to the same world, twisting space upon itself to bind two physically distant locales. Such thresholds can be used as a means of rapid passage, though any trip into the Precipice carries uncertainty and risk. A being who stumbles through a well-hidden threshold is likely to find themself in an alien landscape. For those unprepared for such a journey, it can be deadly, and is certainly disorienting.

In some worlds, it is even possible to create thresholds intentionally through the use of advanced technology or esoteric secrets. Anyone who gains this power faces a veritable Pandora’s Box of possibilities and consequences, and the Precipice is scattered with the wreckage of countless civilizations whose knowledge exceeded their wisdom.

Flows

Sometimes, the Precipice pushes two or more worlds together, fusing the landscapes into impossible views. Larger than mere thresholds, flows are chaotic and often dangerous. As realms unpredictably overlap, new perils emerge.

A traveller in the Precipice who enters a flow is likely to face dangers of all sorts. Incompatible laws of physics, contesting topographies, and disrupted occupants can all imperil travellers. Beyond the risks posed by collapsing terrain and clashing physics, organisms (sentient or otherwise) cast into flows often react in the only way they know how: desperate self-preservation.

Shards

Other times, the Precipice pulls a part of a world away, severing it from the rest of its world. The shard becomes a reality all its own, at least until such time as it collides with something else. Amalgamations of shards within the Precipice can create whole piecemeal worlds, or an individual shard can become embedded in a larger world and thus subject to its reality.

Restrictions of Realities

Because each reality has its own governing rules, a mechanism or technology that functions in one world might be inoperable in another. At the simplest level, some organisms can’t live on other worlds due to lack of critical resources on those worlds. Oxygen necessary for one world’s occupants to breathe might simply not exist, or have different physical properties that make it unusable. At a more subtle level, variances in the laws of physics can make necessary chemical reactions impossible. A material that is stable on one world might become brittle or even volatile outside its usual world. A tool, a weapon, or a biological process that works on one world might simply fail on another.

Beyond the unpredictability of the Precipice itself, the inconsistency of realities makes travel even more difficult. Waging war across the Precipice is possible, but the logistics of occupying other worlds can be crushing if their rules are too distant from one’s own. Some civilizations have attempted to create vast empires using the Precipice as a mode of conveyance, and most of them have collapsed under the weight of these ambitions.