Difference between revisions of "Theme and Setting"

Revision as of 15:47, 7 April 2019

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 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. and Other Worlds

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 the current ruling Council focused on helping citizens of Mabase and preventing crime from running rampant as it's nearly impossible to control the influx of people arriving from other worlds in the multiverse. While typically everyone arriving from other worlds is given a fair chance at being a good citizen, M.C.P.D. has the ability to reach out to neighboring worlds and request information about criminals who may be at large within the city. This is usually only done for specifically bad troublemakers or when additional information simply can't be acquired through other means.

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.

WARNING: Incoming changes! Information below this point may be out of date as we move forward with changes to our setting. Please check back for future updates.

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. For this reason elaborate measures were taken to prevent this. Walking in one direction would /usually/ bring you to the other side of the Street to allow you to keep walking in the same direction. While this disorientates some, it was considered the safest alternative. Going out past the wastelands that surround Twisted City was too dangerous for even the toughest explorers with the best possible equipment.

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.

Staying

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 offer their services free of charge to anyone who enters. Because of this the UR also adopted an open door policy for employment where upon anyone may come in off the street and put on a uniform to be a barkeep or waiter. Wages are paid exclusively from tips.

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.

Economy

Economy is a strange thing on Twisted as something of value to one person isn't necessarily of value to another. Usually people will simply accept currency from anywhere so long as it's obviously legit and not hand-written. Many places are also free establishments much like the Usual Restaurant and the Integra's Arms Apartments. 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.

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 Canary Boxes 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...