Theme and Setting

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Twisted and the Nature of the Multiverse

In the beginning, there was Darkness. An infinite expanse of black. Then an event happened and that Darkness was engulfed in light. It was from this that Chaos was born. The two engaged in a constant conflict until a being pierced the veil and poured untold power into the Chaos creating a world. That world became known as Twisted.

For millennia it was believed that the world of Twisted acted as a hub for the multiverse. A place where worlds connected. It was believed that this is why the being that created Twisted chose to create the Twisted Street - a road that when traveled would cross between every world that existed. This was later found to be incorrect. Twisted wasn't a meeting point, it was a place where the veil between worlds was thinnest. From here anyone could pierce that veil and cross between realities. From one world to another. From Heaven to Hell. The Twisted Street only acted as an anchor.

Some beings arrived in this world on accident but few came here deliberately. Many never found their way back to the worlds they originated from. These early settlers expanded the world from that ever reaching street and lived here in this strange nexus of realities. Another fact that was unknown to most was the influence of a specific other world which chose to help those who lived here. Using the name and the imagery of "Medical Mechanica" these influencers had a specific purpose in mind for this Twisted World, and it was from their hand that actions came to pass that would come to destroy it.

Twisted is no longer a world. It is the remains of a city suspended in that darkness that it was created from. All around it are fragments of the world it was to become and locations that bled through from other realities. Some of these smaller floating fragments would be pulled into the city, others connected by bridges of varying quality. Each of these pieces are still bound to their original worlds and because of that they have their own skies, air, and even time (as time itself is a quantifiable resource in the Darkness.) The more stable of these fragments can even be used to enter and leave these worlds as easily as one would once have walked down the Twisted Street.

The City of Mabase

While it can be confusing for newcomers given the long history of Twisted and the cities that have been built upon it, the current name of the city is Mabase. Mabase exists on the remains of the world called Twisted. Mabase was built from pieces of the former Twisted City and the island city of Neo-Edo.

At one time, several years ago, ruins of a displaced chunk of city was pulled onto Twisted along with Nowhereto Park. It was eventually discovered that those ruins where from a city named Mabase. While this information was not common knowledge, it does make for a very fascinating bit of trivia. Could this have been from a future version of the current city of Mabase? An alternate reality? Who knows. Some secrets are never meant to be uncovered.

The Council

Since Twisted was colonized, there have been those who've sought to bring order to this world, and some who have tried to control it. Currently control is held by a ruling Council who reside in a floating palace above the center of the remaining city. They act in place of the missing woman who was elected to govern Twisted, the Lady Setsuna. She vanished a year after being chosen leaving behind the AI Synth, Bishop 3.2, who was already brought to Twisted to maintain its stability. Because of this Bishop himself chose the Council which now governs. It was shortly after this that the Twisted Street was destroyed. Through their valiant efforts peace has been maintained in the newly rechristened city of Mabase. But how much longer can that peace last?

M.C.P.D.

The Mabase City Police Department, or M.C.P.D., was founded by Rayne Hurris after the previous peace keeping entity TASK was disbanded. TASK was originally put in place to prevent "contamination" from reaching worlds which found themselves connected to Twisted - a futile effort as other worlds where simply another layer of Twisted and portals where simply an easier means of passing between them. Already stretching themselves thin trying to maintain stability and order as TASK - the recent discovery of the veil of worlds was decided enough to finally clean the slate of the organization so that a proper police force could be put in its place. The M.C.P.D. is now a respected institution run independent of any current ruling Council and is focused on helping the citizens of Mabase and preventing crime from running rampant.

Random Monsters and the Bounty Office

Since the shattering of the Twisted Street a Bounty Office was established to deal with any random monsters spotted in or around Mabase. (Usually these are tied to specific events or plots being run by staff and not something that just happens all the time.) Typically, despite the damage, the world of Twisted is considered a stable place in it's current form and because of that random monster attacks are considered rare. The only place where these monsters might appear any other time are out in the wastelands of Nowhere or on one of the undiscovered fragments floating outside of the city. When monster attacks should occur, their heads can be turned into the Bounty Office for a cash reward. Likewise the coordinates for discovered land masses outside the city can also be turned in for a reward as long as they have not been previously discovered. (Please speak to staff about these situations before acting upon them.)

The Usual Restaurant

Noteworthy in the city of Mabase is The Usual Restaurant which was the first structure ever connected to the once great Twisted Street. As multiple realities are simply another layer to each other some constants, like the UR, become nearly indestructible permanent features of Twisted. This means that while a location like the Usual can be damaged or destroyed the influence of its multiverse counterparts tend to repair the damage much like a rising tide. There are a few constants like this across multiple realities, but the UR is a very unique example. Because of its nature people from other worlds can find themselves entering their own world's Restaurant but step out finding themselves on Twisted or vice versa. Usually such events are attributed to Chaos as they cannot be prevented or controlled. Luckily such occasions are extremely rare.

The Twisted Street

Twisted is the name given to the planetoid which the city was built upon. Likewise Twisted Street was the first street built on Twisted and depending on whom you talk to, the road existed everywhere at the same time. The world was originally a chaotic, uninhabitable landscape which few where willing to attempt to visit let alone build a settlement. However, necessity being the mother of invention, enough people found themselves here that a city was built and the chaos was pushed back.

The Twisted Street mostly built itself in this chaos. It was formed from pieces of roads from all those overlapped worlds and had it not been destroyed one could have chosen a direction and walked it only to find themselves deposited on any of those possible worlds purely at random. Currently the road appears to end just past the current edges of the planetoid and fragment off into the darkness. However in reality the street still continues on and the broken pieces are all slowly attempting to pull themselves together...

People

People on Twisted are usually lumped into two groups. Natives and visitors. Natives of Twisted have either been here their entire lives or have been born here over the years that the settlements have existed. Visitors are the standard fare who find themselves uprooted from their home world and deposited somewhere in the habitable areas at random. Many times they aren't even aware of the transition. For this reason people are assigned specifically to greet newcomers and most citizens are happy to explain the situation to confused visitors or at least point them towards a place where they can get settled in. Currently these greeters can be found in the M.C.P.D. Courthouse Welcome Center.

Housing and Economy

For new visitors places like the Integra's Arms Apartments and The Usual Restaurant exist where people can find food and shelter for free. Abusing technologies which exist only because of the multiversal nature of Twisted, these locations generally offer their services free of charge to anyone who enters. Because greed still exists there are still shops who demand payment of some kind for services rendered. For these shops any form of currency is accepted as long as it's obviously a real one.

This is one of the many smaller details about the world that generally we turn a blind eye to. Some people enjoy making characters work at jobs and keeping track of how much money they have and what the value of that money is. That's fine. Most do not. As always just do whatever feels most appropriate to the scene.

Technology

With the overlapping realities which make up Twisted most businesses operate in a state somewhere around 20th-21st century Earth in terms of layout and technologies. This was chosen partly because of the ready familiarity to them, but mostly because many of the buildings themselves where uprooted and deposited into the city whole. That being said it's not considered out of place to find a holographic informational kiosk nestled between two vending machines offering goods from whatever world they originated. Despite the recent destruction cars and other vehicles are still a fairly common sight. Luckily there seems to be a surplus which have fallen through the cracks between worlds over the years.

Exploration

While there are many ways a person could conceivably obtain money on Twisted a new addition is exploring the surrounding void for the most valuable resource - land. Chunks of the old cities and pieces of lost worlds drift in the darkness waiting to be rediscovered and somehow pulled to be reconnected to the main land mass for a hefty profit. Talk to staff if you're interested in running or participating in one of these types of plotlines! Having your own transportation is a must.

Overlapping Alternate Worlds

Traditionally other worlds where accessed by portals, as is standard with most MU*s. However, after the destruction of the Twisted Street this changed for Twisted. When a large enough portion of a world is brought through (for example, a few city blocks worth) enough of that world solidifies that traveling down those streets causes an overlap with the original world. The farther you get from the areas connected to Twisted, the harder it is to get back until eventually characters find themselves stuck there.

Luckily the Usual Restaurant is largely the same across the multiverse and entering the establishment in one world will drag a character back to Twisted. This isn't immediately apparent at first, but if a Twisted character should go into a UR with a group on one world they would leave the Restaurant alone back on the Twisted Street upon trying to exit. Something that makes remembering the way back very important.

Portals to other worlds do not randomly appear on their own and as such passage to unconnected worlds is restricted to staff-approved plots.

Entertainment

Being a multiverse setting, the options for entertainment are pretty unlimited - which is why certain things are in high demand. Video rental kiosks called Canaryboxes exist randomly around the grid and stores are likely to always have that one unique item that only someone from a particular world could identify. It is assumed that the television and radio stations are handled in much the same way with a rather ridiculous assortment of shows from various universes. This, however, poses a small problem since everyone is in a form of media in another universe it seems. Typically people try not to make a big deal of it. If it's logical for your character to have watched a TV show about another character that's fine. Just don't be a fanboy about it unless both parties are OOCly okay with it. Don't use knowledge about a character's on-screen weakness against them.

Normally if a character is active on the grid, that character's "original media" just-so-happens to be a rare thing at the time. This is out of respect. That being said, be careful when leaving Twisted as characters might just end up where they don't belong or worse - someone might make a TV show out of you...

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