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Proto-Dimensions
Fragmentary
Proto-Dimensions: The fragmentary
proto-dimensions are the most unnatural of proto-dimensions, and are in some
sense proto-proto-dimensions. They are often quite small and always very
strange. At best, the goings on in a fragmentary proto-dimension defy
most or all physical laws. Fragmentary proto-dimensions are the easiest
to describe, and can usually be summed up in a few sentences. The
elemental proto-dimensions that sorcerers occasionally draw upon are, for the
most part, fragmentary proto-dimensions. Not all fragmentary
proto-dimensions are reflections of the universe in an odd medium. There
are usually no native life forms in a fragmentary proto-dimension, but
occasionally they are populated by life forms of an elemental nature, or
creatures that have been transplanted there from other proto-dimensions and
have managed to survive.
Pocket Proto-Dimensions:
The pocket proto-dimensions or closet proto-dimensions are a subset of
fragmentary proto-dimensions. These extremely small proto-dimensions are
created by "pinching off" a few cubic meters of space-time, and isolating it
as its own separate "bubble" in the seas of the interstices. This can be
accomplished only by extremely powerful empathic or technological powers, and
is not something very many PCs can hope to accomplish. Such pocket
proto-dimensions can normally only entered from one location, usually the
point from which they were originally "pinched off." If the entrance to
such a pocket proto-dimension is sealed from the outside, they make excellent
"prison cells," because once the entrance is sealed, it cannot be unsealed
from the inside. Except for the entrance, such proto-dimensions are
impossible to leave, even using the most powerful Dimension Walk skills (they
are "infinitely sticky). Space-time is so warped in these pocket
proto-dimensions that time inside them passes very slowly (if at all).
The energy available inside them is small, as well, and such pocket
proto-dimensions are usually rather chilly (temperature inside one seldom
exceeds 50ºF/10ºC). These two factors make them useful as "stasis boxes"
for long-term storage (one might consider them to be a very efficient, very
expensive, and very hard-to-get refrigerator).
Halflands:
Halflands are like the fragmentary proto-dimensions, but are less surreal.
They are a better simulation of reality than the fragmentary dimensions, but
even so, they would never be confused with the real universe. These
sub-real qualities will remind many of scenes from their nightmares.
There are often life forms to be found in the halflands but they are virtually
never sentient. Often they are mindless killers (either living or
machine). Other times they are little more than replicas of some Earthly
life form, an exact duplicate physically, but somehow inferior.
Splinterlands.
The splinterlands are consistent, permanent worlds. They are still
inferior to Earth, but are as close a simulation as can be found in the
proto-dimensions. Splinterlands are the most real of the
proto-dimensions. While other types of proto-dimensions can be thought
of as little more than a weird environment, the splinterlands are usually as
well developed and as complex as the Earth. Instead of being defined by
their environment only, as the other types of proto-dimension tend to be, the
splinterlands are primarily defined by the events that have occurred there.
Aeron
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