Worldbuilding because screw May right now. (Patreon)

The Cosmology of Quintus

Once there was and wasn't.  To clarify this, existence split into everything that existed, could exist, and would exist and into everything that did not exist.  Being and non-being.

The state of being was infinite, as was the state of non-being.  In the state of being, all things are possible.  You can turn into a potato.  Needless to say, this is unhealthy for most sentient life.  This region of instability is called the Maelstrom.  Ever changing.  Ever altering.  Ever mutable.  Infinite.

The state of non-being is inscrutable and unreachable.  Some speculate that it may not even exist.  It is separated by a membrane of reality that, once crossed, can never be recrossed again.  This membrane is called entropy.  This region is called Null.  

There are many theories regarding the relationship between Maelstrom and Null.  Is the Maelstrom always shrinking and the Null growing?  Will existence one day be completely consumed by Null?  Does the Null somehow return existence to the Maelstrom?  Being infinite, are there 'limits' on existence and non-existence?  These are the great metaphysical question of the day.

Because the Maelstrom is infinite possibilities, it must be possible that there are regions in it which are not-infinite.  These finite pockets are universes.  Some are vast, encompassing hundreds of billions of light-years.  Others are microscopic.  Each one has a limited set of variables that are both fixed and finite.  Because the Maelstrom is infinite, every world is infinitesimally small to it, and thus there are literally countless universes inside every world.

The shell separating finite from infinite is the threshold.  This is not a physical barrier, but one of possibility.  What is possible on one side is impossible on the other.  Some thresholds are utterly unyielding, while others are soft and malleable.  Universes with stiff membranes are like our own; trapped by the rules established when they came to be.  Worlds with softer membranes can change as more possibility is added to the world.

Worlds filled with non-intelligent life tend to be stable, with entropy slowly sapping their existences until eventually they collapse with non-possibility.  However, once intelligence arises, it begins to postulate on the world and what is possible inside it.  This searching for meaning and new possibilities causes the threshold to resonate with the surrounding maelstrom, and this in turn causes some possibility to be localized around the universe.

These localisations are called 'realms'.  They are regions of higher stability than the Maelstrom, but lack the hard rules of universes.  Realms are highly sought after by intelligences that populate the Maelstrom, as a Realm affords them the possibility of having an identity.  As humans become more and more intellectually creative and sophisticated, Realms become more defined and complex.  Because the resonation comes from the beings on the far side of the threshold, the realms start to reflect those being's beliefs.  Some of these maelstrom inhabitants purposefully attempt to manipulate the belief of inhabitants in order to get them to resonate more in tune with these being's own existence.

With enough realms, an ecosystem develops around the universe like a coral reef.  The occupants of these realms begin to compete against each other for superior resonation.  These beings then become dependent on that resonation, becoming gods.  In order to maintain their existence, they must maintain the resonance, which means maintaining the belief of the intelligences inside the world.

In order to perpetuate themselves, Gods must maintain a supply of souls.  When individuals die, their souls, their unique being, are separated from their mortal shell and mind.  These souls join a current that is shaped by the topography of the threshold, exiting the universe into specific realms.  These rivers of souls are called necra, and they convey the unique possibility of an individual to the realms.  Faith in beings reinforce the gods's being.  Some realms are simulations, where souls act out various portions of their lives.  Others are psychological deconstructions, in which the self is self analyzed and criticized.  Some suffer due to psychological trauma or angst at the time of death, believing that they must suffer for some crime in their lives.  Others simply are kept as collections of abstract thoughts and beliefs.

While souls are generated naturally from life, sometimes souls are returned deliberately or accidentally to the world.  These souls can shape and change the universe in subtle ways, making the world more resonant with the gods in question that returned them.  The flow of souls from the realms is called Mana.  When a soul comes in contact with a tree seed or gestating life, it can fuse with it and subtily influence it's choices in the next life.  Souls treated thus are enriched and offer more power and existence to the Gods that maintain that relationship.

However, all things come to an end, and universes are not any different.  Some universes contain a fatal flaw, such as expanding at ever faster speeds, requiring more energy than the universe has.  This tears the universe asunder, and it is no longer possible for it to exist.  Other universes simply lose more and more of their being to entropy, and eventually just fade away.  However, occasionally universes are sabotaged by the entities or gods that surround them.  This is usually accomplished by convincing the occupants of that world to alter the rules of the universe such that they can make a breach and allow new possibility into the world.  This new possibility is generally termed 'magic.'

Without magic, it is impossible to turn a person into a potato.  With magic, it becomes possible.  The form the magic takes varies greatly.  It might take a 'spell' or a 'curse' or any number of other rules or conditions.   Magic adds potential to a universe.  However, magic can also add the potential for these beings to directly tap into our existence.  When this occurs, the result is the finite universe coming in contact with the infinite universe.

Such meetings are brief and catostrophic for beings with a limited, finite, existence.  The breach of the threshold results in cataclysmic releases of energy, usually fatal to that universe.  The threshold collapses, the universe disappears, and the realms scatter back into the maelstrom.  Those entities in the realms then migrate to new worlds to repeat the process.