Charasverse: Osmose

From Charas Project

The following Charasverse entry is about the fictional story created by the member Osmose, mainly to supplement his character, known by either the same name or as "Moose".

The Continuum

The story begins with the creation of the Continuum, an organization stemming from the discovery of the ability to travel between possible universes. The organization was created in order to control and manage travel between alternate realities so that any problems that could possibly stem from this would be able to be handled efficiently.

The specific method of traveling between one reality and another is never explained. However, a few things are known about it:

• Travel is done in large ships that range between 100 meters and 400 meters long.
• Ships capable of traveling between realities are referred to as "Dimensional Ships" for convenience.
• Although it is not required for travel between realities, nearly every dimensional ship is equipped to operate in the air, in a vacuum, under water, or any other circumstance that the ship may find itself in (exceptions include molten rock, due to limitations on the ship structure and hull thickness).
• Not all realities can be traveled to - although they can be detected, the Continuum is of the habit of sending an unmanned probe to test whether travel will succeed or fail. This is only done if initial scans indicate that a reality is viable for travel. This is another reason why travel is so closely regulated, so that people do not attempt travel and end up dead.
• Any source of power may be used for travel, as long as it meets the massive energy requirements for travel. Some power sources work better than others and require less power, however.
• Each reality has various points of entry that an arriving ship may appear at, although there is a limited number of them. Once a ship has arrived at a certain entry point, it may plot the point and send the data to the Continuum, who can then distribute the data and allow other ships to choose their point of entry based on specific ship settings given to them by the Continuum.

The Continuum regulates travel and issues ships that are capable of travel on a limited basis to pilots employed by the organization. Generally, any sort of government or collection of governments is kept autonomous, and merely negotiations terms with the Continuum, such as limits on travel or no-travel zones. It is a commonly accepted theory that there is no reality currently more technologically advanced than the Continuum (Based in the first reality that achieved inter-reality travel), due to the fact that there is only one Continuum. However, this conflicts with the equally-common theory of infinite universes. Scientists working at the Continuum have long given up on attempting to figure out the true nature of alternate realities.

Of the realities the Continuum has discovered and made contact with, only 78 of them have agreed to allow unrestricted travel; 31 more have restricted travel limits, and 45 of them have requested no-travel status and been granted it. Several of the various realities have been the basis for stories in other realities; Halo, a story concerning a reality dominated by war, is one of the most popular.

Project Sparkslide

During a routine analysis of a reality that was a possible travel candidate, probes sent to scan the area around the initial entry point detected a huge amount of energy emitting from a planet near the entry point. Further scans indicated that the energy appeared to be emanating from a single being. Visual scans described the being as humanoid, with a blurred figure - the skin on the being appeared to be constantly masked in shadow despite ambient light. What appeared to be the eyes of the being appears as luminescent, oversized circles on the being's face - no other facial features were observable, although a rough nose shape could be gleaned from the profile.

The planet on which the being occupied was inhabited with a human-like species (Besides various slight internal differences, a large amount of alternate realities contained races very similar to humans, so much that they were dubbed "human-like" instead of simply humanoid). First contact was made successfully, and the being was soon brought to the Continuum for an interview.

The being called himself a "Black Mage," referencing his ability to manifest the energy he contained within his body as various forms of matter and energy, most easily being able to emit fire, lightning, and ice, although other, more complex effects were possible with concentration and training. It was discovered that he (He possessed a masculine frame and human male genetalia) was not a fully biological being; he was created by a scientist in his home reality during an experiment with gene splicing and DNA construction. A notable feature of the being was that he had been "alive" for 60 years (his creator was an extremely old man at this point) and showed no signs of aging - he had also achieved what could be roughly equated to maturity 10 years after his creation. The source of his internal energy could not be easily determined, but one thing was apparent to the Continuum - he had a massive amount of energy that was renewable and clean.

The technique of creation was described by the scientist, and soon enough the Continuum began attempting to recreate a similar creature. Most attempts failed outright; a few creations survived initially but died later due to imperfections in the creation. These experiments continued in secret; the moral implications involved were a threat to the possible rewards of what was now called Project Sparkslide, in a homage to a popular video game that contained a move called "Shinespark," which allowed the hero to fly through the air at high speed and power.

Over the course of 40 years, the Project slowly progressed to the point that 3 Black Mages had survived into adulthood (Age 10). At this point, it was decided that the first serious attempt at creating a "perfect" Black Mage should be attempted. The three current Mages were imprisoned and reportedly killed as a part of Continuum protocol.

It was agreed upon by the project heads that an external environment would be most amicable to the Black Mage's development, and a reality was selected. The location selected within the reality was Ice-type planet (It had been discovered that in some realities there were planets that contained a singular climate throughout the entire environment; an Ice-type planet had what was analogous to Winter all year long). The Black Mage was created and sent immediately to the planet along with a trainer who would act as the father of the mage. The mage himself was named "Osmose" by the project heads; the name symbolized the hopeful goal of the project: a being who would be able to travel between realities (As, say, water moves through various membranes via osmosis) and eventually be able to fuel Dimensional Ships.

To Be Continued