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Ambrosia was and Galvyria will be in an objective sense. Taking advantage of Amaranth, both the past and the future are guided by a facet of reality so real as to exist beyond even logic. Currently, in the interim between these two objective phases of reality, exists Cosmoria, which is fundamentally different. In the absence of direction, Cosmoria emerged as a sort of illusion, a dream, taking place as a single particle endlessly interacts with itself, playing the roles of every particle simultaneously. Without any narrative or fate, Cosmoria's history is in no way determined, the various inhabitants of this realm are truly free.

What they are free to do, however, is to act on a universe that was fundamentally indistinguishable from nothingness. Cosmoria's net energy is zero, its positive mass-energy directly equal to the negative mass-energy flowing counter to it. To put it simply, Cosmoria is null - a fluctuation in a quantum field. While Cosmoria is indistinguishable from the nothingness it was born from, on a local level it flourishes, appearing to spite the ceaseless void whence it came.

History[]

The Stage[]

"Chaos" is not the best word to describe the state of affairs before the formation of Cosmoria. Perhaps a more fitting word is "disorder," but such a word can describe normal states, such as a cluttered room or poorly-run society. A word describing both concepts is ultimately meaningless. The most fitting word, then, is "madness." There was no logic to it in a literal sense, meaning that something so fundamental as the laws of reason could not exist in that state. Really, only one thing existed, and that was madness. Just as a shattered mind commits all kinds of affronts against reason in their thoughts, the universe simply was, ignoring the distinction between existence and non-existence.

This contradictory state of existence, brought about by the collapse of Imagindarium, the guiding force behind the previous reality, existed in its rawest form. The building blocks meticulously ordered by Imagindarium broke down, shedding all rules that bound them. These building blocks, both physical and metaphysical, were ultimately dependent on Imagindarium and were directionless without it. In a sense, they became one, forming into a universal state of affairs as the very concept of boundaries did not exist.

What Imagindarium left behind, in other words, was like an empty stage. This deific force created its story and had it play out only to leave its actors behind. Thus, the potential for another story to take place remained, the force never actively dissolving reality.

As time itself finally began breaking down, an infinite number of potential actors attempted to take the stage, similar to an audition. These actors told their stories in mere instants, simple affairs such as two subatomic particles interacting or the concept of "goodness" existing in a vacuum for the briefest of time periods. As time wore down, at this point interchangeable with the concept of change itself, the "rate" at which these stories began playing out increased. None of these directors, or "Providences," as they are now known, were capable of creating a self-sustaining reality, each one telling their story at the same time creating a cacophony, the madness as previously discussed.

The Monad[]

The final, or close to final, Providence was a particle known as the "Monad." Its story was simple. It was a little automaton that would follow the rules that bound it, in this case the laws of reason and mathematics. Thus, the particle made its way across six billion years of subjective time, following the rules which, from its perspective, meant interacting with nothing. It was only capable of interacting with other particles like it and, alone on the vast stage of reality, it simply existed until the end of the time allotted for it.

However, at the end of this time, it did not simply fade away as the others had done, but "turned around," moving backwards in time. It was capable of interacting with its past self, but the encounter was a gentle gravitational pull, the space between the two iterations too great for any meaningful change to occur. Once it got to the beginning it would reverse course once more, moving forward again and spawning what was effectively another copy of itself. Back and forth the monad would go, interacting with other iterations of itself as they moved through space.

The final loop, one in which the monad is once again moving forward in time, is modern Cosmoria, the complete story. However, unlike the deterministic story of Imagindarium, there is no plan or direction. The Monad simply follows the rules it emerged with, rules that allow for true free will.

Earliest Moments[]

In the ferocious fire of early Cosmoria, the countless number of monad particles manifested in much the same place. Before any time could pass, these particles each displayed the full range of behavior afforded to the monad. In a sense, they were both physical and meta-physical, equally bound by the laws of physics and the laws of reason. Even so, each particle began shedding their properties one by one. The first to be shed was the meta-physical. The "temperature" of early Cosmoria had to decrease by the smallest fraction below "absolute heat," more a concept than an actual quantity, for this process to begin. At once, the Noosphere formed, the realm of forms, ideals, and thought. At this time, however, there were no beings to think, leaving the realm in a similar state to the rest of early Cosmoria, incoherent.

Next to split off was the Thaumic Force, most of the particles losing the ability to interact with Thaumaturgy as the Noosphere took from them this ability. Shortly thereafter, gravity solidified. Then the strong force and finally, the electromagnetic and weak force split apart. Thus Cosmoria was filled with the actors that would perform on the stage of existence for the next six billion years.

Splintered Realities[]

Similar to the physical part of Cosmoria, the Noosphere started made up only of simple elements, called "Ideals." As it "cooled," more complex structures were able to form, yielding the first concepts. These oldest concepts, however, were not products of minds but effectively a part of reality themselves. Containing large amounts of energy, these concepts split off from the Noosphere to form "planes," or small partitions of the wider part. The planes, the remainder of the Noosphere, and Cosmoria were now recognizable at least in some ways, but still remarkably dissimilar in what all three actually contained, which was still in all ways primordial.

The First Celestial Bodies[]

From the veritable forge that was early Cosmoria, came mostly hydrogen gas. The gas did little by itself, but it remained solitary for only a short time compared to Cosmoria's lifespan. 100 million years would pass and the first stars would form, behemoths that took advantage of a nearly unlimited supply of hydrogen. After this first generation quickly squandered their fuel, a series of large supernovae filled Cosmoria with the elements created in their cores. The first planets would form about six billion years ago. By about five billion years ago, the stars organized themselves into a roughly disk shape. Some semblance of arms took much longer to form, first becoming recognizable roughly three billion years ago.

Formation of Life[]

Before the formation of galactic arms, life had already sprung up on worlds across Cosmoria. Lifeless amino acids, dead bits of charged aluminum, inorganic silicates, and other substances formed themselves into the most primitive forms of life. Everything from plasma to cryogenic hydrocarbons became the mediums for this phenomenon, which established itself across the majority of stars in Cosmoria.

Unlike the organic beings evolving across Cosmoria, beings similar to this life also emerged. Since they formed fully-formed, were often incapable of reproduction, and were also incapable of evolving, calling these beings "life" would be a stretch. The Cerulean Kings and High Warlock are examples of "Aberrant Life," or "Strange Life," that would greatly influence the course of Cosmoria's history. The history of Cosmoria is defined by the interactions between this life and itself, the phenomenon shaping Cosmoria more than any other since its creation.

Dawn of Civilization[]

While there are "civilizations" much older than about 10 million million years ago, most are either unconfirmed or hardly fit the definition. The oldest confirmed civilization to have much of a presence in space was the Moridian High Command. It was followed by numerous smaller states such as Erlas, Yarla, the Rukelian Empire, and eventually the truly enormous Lareas Alliance which expanded across most of Cosmoria before falling to one of the inhabitants of one of Cosmoria's planes, wiping it clean and temporarily expunging civilization from Cosmoria. This has only happened once in history.

Ever since the reemergence of civilization in 5.41 million BCE in the form of Ectabana, civilization has not left Cosmoria. Disasters of all kinds have failed to remove them. Sometimes, it was even the Aberrant Life that tried to destroy them with little success.

Thaumic Revolution[]

Father Zaphenim, who many would consider to be a part of the Aberrant Life, spontaneously manifested in 3.5 million BCE. With his entrance into the universe came the gift of Thaumaturgy, the ability for the mind to interface with the Lux Aeterna. It was this gift that would define the galactic landscape for the rest of history. Dozens of civilizations, mostly within Aylathiya, devoted themselves to this art and exploited its potential.

Contemporary History[]

5 million years of continuous civilization has resulted in the formation of a number of interstellar civilizations.

Physical Properties[]

Of the six fundamental forces, gravity remains the dominant force for the structuring of Cosmoria at the largest of scales. On smaller scales, gravity gives way to two competing aspects of the universe, the quantum and the metaphysical. The emergence of intelligent life in Cosmoria, hybrids between quantum and conceptual beings, forced these two very different forms of energy to clash.

Structure[]

In the center of Cosmoria lies the Lux Aeterna, a field of unstable space and increased Thaumic Energy. It is the source of most Thaumaturgy. Surrounding this core are three arms, Florathel, Aylathiya, and Zalanthium, bands of stars, dust, and other matter orbiting this center. Beyond these arms are a handful relatively dense patches of stars: Azurullya, Lowiras, and Sinister. Much beyond the dense core of Cosmoria are stray stars and matter, dust, ruins, space-borne life, and all manner of other phenomena. The vast majority of Cosmoria beyond its central galaxy has not been explored, its vastness simply too great for any comprehensive mapping to be carried out.

The density of matter falls off with distance to Cosmoria. After a certain distance, matter becomes incredibly rare. Even farther and matter becomes impossible to sustain. As one moves away from the center of Cosmoria, its forces become increasingly weak. Soon, reality becomes increasingly unreal. To put it another way, the universe becomes increasingly unstable in both form and concept. Eventually, even the laws of logic break down, giving way to nothingness in its purest form.

Beyond logic itself is likely the boundless potential energy that first gave rise to Cosmoria. This void, of everything save for potential, is known as the Void of Creation. This region can be thought of as a slurry of constantly changing laws and constants that, on a macroscopic scale, is indistinguishable from nothingness. Matter constantly attempts to take form and energy constantly tries to coalesce into quanta; however, the Void of Creation has no stable set of rules, even contradictions are thought to be possible. Particles never have a chance to form as even the concept of formation has no place in the Void of Creation.

Metaphysical Properties[]

A chart of the metaphysical and how it interacts with the physical universe. The Lux Aeterna is represented on the left while the Noosphere is on the right.

Noosphere[]

The Noosphere is the realm of forms as well as the realm responsible for free will. In the dualist Cosmoria, intelligent life is made up of two substances, physical atoms and a non-physical mind. In other words, intelligent life has a soul. This soul is non-spatial and can be thought of as a fundamentally different substance from the rest of the organism. Unlike the physical atoms of Cosmoria, whose interactions are governed by a simple set of rules, the forms of Cosmoria are governed by Axioms. Axioms appear to be remarkably complex, behaving very differently depending on the situation. The result is a poorly-explored realm in which most of its secrets are still unknown.

Energy can permeate through the Noosphere in the form of "Noospheric Radiation." This form of radiation, better described as a local increase in the instability of the Noosphere, always moves towards a lower energy state. In nearly all cases, this lower energy state would be a physical manifestation in Cosmoria, the energy, through an interaction with the Thaumic Force, manifesting in any number of ways. It can manifest as mass or energy.

Lux Aeterna[]

The Lux Aeterna is a large concentration of Thaumic Energy within the center of Cosmoria. The Thaumic Force is the force that mediates between

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