Cosmology

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Basic Cosmology

Location

Ouroboros takes place in, what to a being outside of it, looks like a massive circle. This is because each world creates the next world at some point during it's existance. Of course, since it would be impossible for any creature that existed primarily on this plane to leave it in that way (since that would require existing out of time and space), it is impossible to verify that it is actually a circle without travelling through it to it's entirety. Which would be very, very hard. Each universe in the circle is also believed to have a very tiny warp on time, which is not only so slow as to be unnoticable, but also cannot be observed once you have moved, and obviously cannot be measured outside of the universe.

This is one of the reasons for the name Ouroboros, since the each universe is, one revolution around, created by itself.

Movement Through

Although time is mildly warped through each universe until it completely turns around and is then warped back, it is simple enough to travel between two (adjacent!) worlds. All that one has to do is alchemically create a self-repairing rift, and ta-da, you just walk right in. Of course, some older mages created rifts which weren't self-repairing and still stand today... but that's mostly just plot seeds.

A rift stands at a certain point in both dimensions, and this point is fixed. For example, if two rifts are one hundred fifty miles away on a world with a diameter of nine thousand feet, then on a world with a diameter of six thousand feet, they will be one hundred miles apart.

Travelling at a distance, however, it is quite difficult - impossible to any human mages - to move between worlds. Races which are able to are the stuff of fables and legends, until of course, they start chewing up your neighbor's ecology.

Juxtaposition

Two planets that juxtaposed (a fancy way of saying next to eachother) are generally similar in most aspects. The dominant native life forms there share most of the same traits (warm or cold blooded, eggs or live, milk or no, intelligent or not), the type of land is mostly similar, and so forth.

Theories

Mirrored World Theory

Some scholars involved in the studies of the effects of a circular, interconnected universe theorize that each planet has a polar opposite located on the exact opposite end of the universe. they also belive that every person has an exact conterpart who exists in this alternate world. Each action you make is hypothetically being mirrored by your conterpart. Also, the supposed counterpart is belived to think that he is the original, and you the reflection of his actions. However, many people feel that this is simply a strange fantasy that has little or no real evidence to support it.

Time Travel

A long-standing hypothesis is that one can travel backwards in time if they utilize the circular nature of the universe. However the one major flaw in this hypothesis is the lack of knowledge on the effects of time when travelling the universe. If time passes in either a clockwise or counterclockwise motion, then this theory has some merit. However, if time travels in both directions at once and meets in the middle, this theory would merely allow one to travel through time forwards, then backwards to their place of origin. This observation is still in need of serious chronological studies, and should not be deemed as fact.

Universe Tearing

The nature of the rifts created by wizards has always been rather mysterious, but most do not feel that it has any real serious effects. However, some belive that rifting causes damage to the fabric of the universe every time a rift 'tears' a hole in the space-time lattice. If rifting does indeed have this effect on the universe, it could have catastrophic consequences involving the 'mixing' of realities that are particularly close, damaging the life that inhabits both worlds.

Rift Chaotics

This is one of the more hypothetical theories. The situation follows thus: two wizards both create rifts to different places at the same location. What would happen? This question has been the bother of philosophers for a long time. The two most popular explinations are this: firstly, the two rifts would cancel each other out. The second, however, is more radical: the two rifts would create a chaotic turbulence in the space-time continuum and form a rift capable of transporting a person into a random location. This second theory hs far more use, seeing as if there was some way to direct the chaotic transportaion flux it would allow free transport to anywhere in existance effortlessly.

Worlds

Terr

Terr is the name of the main world of a typical story in the universe. While humans or parahumans may travel between it and it's twins, or even distant lands, their home is still Terr. Terr has a large number of arid lands, a large number of lands fresh with grass and trees, and some occasional densely forested areas. There are a few different areas of constant cold, presumably created by a rift that leads to Moch, it's sister. The technological level of Terr is roughly medieval era, though with some slight bobs and bubbles.

Moch

Moch is one of the worlds directly interconnected to Terr. On it, there are little to no life forms, those that do dwell being primarily the hulking Masks and what limited tiny prey exists on their planet. It is unknown precisely why Moch is so cold and so empty, considering that generally a sister planet shares many traits with it's sisters. The case of Moch is mildly interesting to many mages.

Vein

Vein is a planet filled with creatures with mildly rough hides and sharp claws and teeth. It's dominant species are the Corol, who fight in a constant battle with their emotion sucking cousins, the Vios. The topography of the planet is largely rough, with craggy edges, cliffs, canyons, mountains and valleys. Plant life is primarily limited to ferns, flowers and grass.

Cyxon Mox

Cyxon Mox is a large desert planet which exists at a considerable distance from Terr. It is not unreachable, but it is still at such a length that traveling to it is near impossible unless it is done in a series of minor hops. Called 'The Dry World' by those who visit it, it is primarily uninhabited. The few exceptions to this are a multitude of enormous spiders, Mhoro Hor, which create burrows in the sand and snatch up any who walk across their path. They primarily prey on the Ect Naykob, which are a race of winged scavengers. These birds devour the dead Mhoro Hor, which creates a very interesting ecological cycle. Only small tribes of scattered barbarians known as the Koctn still inhabit Cyxon Mox, as most people with a knack for magic left long ago.