Multiverse

Overview

The Multiverse is a term used by Portal Corporation and various other organizations to refer to the infinite possibilities of alternate universes.

Main Universes/Dimensions

• Primal Earth: Home of the Freedom Phalanx and Arachnos, along with all non-Praetorian player characters. Most of the game takes place here. Primal Earth's main unique feature is that it was involved in an interdimensional war with Rikti Earth, resulting in the destruction of most of Paragon City. War Walls using captured Rikti technology protect the undestroyed City Zones, where Paragon's citizens live, and pen in destroyed Hazard Zones, where only heroes are allowed. Additionaly, Mediporters, also developed from captured Rikti technology, have made hero combat deaths almost non-existent by swiftly teleporting injured heroes away and healing them.
• Praetorian Earth: Home of the Praetorians. Many prominent heroes and villains from Primal Earth have alternate versions that exist in Praetoria, although they are often of a very different moral character. Most of Praetorian Earth has been conquered by Hamidon and its Devouring Earth monsters. The remaining human population is controlled by Emperor Marcus Cole, Tyrant, from his city of Praetoria, which was built upon the ruins of Paragon. Cole's regime is opposed by the Resistance and Praetoria's version of the Carnival of Shadows, called the Carnival of Light.
• Rikti Earth: Home of the Rikti. Rikti Earth destroyed magic and gods early in its history and was visited by an unknown alien power around the time of 2000 B.C. The Rikti are genetically similar to humans but were altered by the aliens that visited them into having a "Hive Mind".
• The Shadow Shard: Mysterious realm that defies normal rules of reality and is home to Rularuu the Ravager after the heroes of Earth Prime banished him there, ending his devouring of universes. Humans do live here, but most have been evacuated to Earth Prime.

Minor Universes

• Warrior Earth
  • Battle Maiden's home world. Valkyrie's spear originated from this dimension too; it is not known how it arrived on Primal Earth.
• Zeta Tao 7-63 (Shadow World)
  • Black Swan's dimension and one of 17 Shadow Worlds. She gets her power and her Shadow minions from this dimension.
• Alpha Upsilon 24-2
  • A world destroyed by your alternate self, now inhabited by Ghosts resentful of the living.
• Omicron Zeta 12-20
  • A world ruled by the Freakshow. This world is known to have its own Bile. Other versions of other Freakshow archvillains might exist here as well.
• Epsilon Tau 27-2
  • Here, the Clockwork King realized his true potential, and destroyed all the heroes, along with the rest of humanity. It is unknown if Epsilon Tau 27-2 is the same dimension as Clockwork World, which is also solely inhabited by the Psychic Clockwork.
• Hydra dimension
  • Origin of the Hydra. Originally discovered by the Rikti. Also being investigated by Arachnos.
• Omega Omicron 26-20 (Council Empire)
  • A world controlled by the Council Empire.
• Tau Gamma 9-24
  • A world where Oranbega won their war against the nation of Mu. The people of Oranbega here did not follow the dark path which lead to the creation of the Circle of Thorns

In the streets of Axis America

• Delta Zeta 24-10 (Axis America)
  • Homeworld of the Reichsman. World where Nazi Germany won World War II.
• Abandoned world
  • A world currently overrun by the Devouring Earth after 70% of the world's population was destroyed by Primal Earth's Nemesis's doomsday device. Targeted by Nemesis because the planet's population was mostly dark-skinned.
• Sigma Psi 20-7
  • Revenant Hero World. Crey's Revenant Hero Project developed a hive mind here, and pretty much wiped out anything not in the collective.
• Tau Delta 8-7
  • Nemesis Automatons World
• Nu Beta 9-7
  • A war torn world with few remaining defenses, this world has suffered a war against their Council recently. In this world, our dimension's Dreck attempts to set himself up as ruler.

Eternal darkness: Werewolf World

• Lamda Rho 57-20 (Werewolf World)
  • Perpetually night world, ruled by the Requiem of that dimension. This is an alternate world where the plot of A Path into Darkness succeeded and the planet seems to have suffered a major invasion of Nictus, to the point of having no more daylight, only darkness.
• Gamma Upsilon 28-3
  • A world controlled by Nemesis, who is opposed by a secret cadre of freedom fighters.
• Multiple other Nemesis controlled worlds
  • A world in which the hero must venture into to save several scientists' other halves.
  • A world in which Nemesis was able to take over by blocking out the sun with self replicating smog machines.
  • A world in which Nemesis took over by hooking the population on Superadine.
• Circle of Thorns world
  • The hero must travel here to locate a copy of the Tome of Persephone.
• A world nearly overtaken by the Devouring Earth
  • Being investigated by Nemesis forces. Devouring Earth and Longbow are fighting.
• Another abandoned world
  • Inhabited by Council (not Council Empire) and being investigated by Nemesis.
• A "dead world"
  • Being explored by Dr. Aeon without authorization from Arachnos.
• A "static" world
  • A world being investigated by Longbow, led by Dr. Advance.
• Rho Mu 7-2
  • A world with hyper-accelerated time caused by Anti-Matter's devices. Populated by Crazed, citizens who have been driven mad by the temporal acceleration.
• Rho Mu 7-3
  • A world with hyper-accelerated time caused by Neuron's devices. Populated by Praetorian Clockwork. The location of its citizens is unknown.

Apocrypha

The portions of the older Story Bible that were released contain much more detail about the nature of the multiverse than the game itself. The section on Rularuu the Ravager gives a description, but it is unknown if this description remains valid for missions written after its release.

2004 Story Bible Description

Before one can understand the threat that Rularuu the Ravager poses to all existence, one must first understand a bit about cosmology. As the Rikti Invasion so dramatically showed us, ours is not the only dimension out there. In fact, it is just one of many untold millions of such places. Each of these dimensions is like a reflection cast off from the original universe – a sort of Platonic Ideal where all existence began billions of years ago when time began. Ever since that time, the Origin Point has been casting reflections, each of which have in turn been casting their own reflections, until there is a seemingly infinite supply of dimensions.

But in truth, the dimensions only seem infinite. In fact, many of the reflections have such slight differences from one another that they collapse in upon each other and rejoin, or just fade away. While every moment births or destroys a new dimension, most of existence never notices these subtle shifts. What defines a dimension, and allows it to maintain its own stability in the multi-verse, is its uniqueness. The more radically the universe differs from the Origin Point and from the other universes around it, the more permanency it achieves. While there are potentially an infinite number of such places, in fact only a few million such places are known to exist. While this is still a staggering number of universes when you consider that each one is as seemingly limitless as out own, it is not in fact an infinite number.

This multitude of dimensions are all connected to one another through a plane of non-being called the Aether. One way to picture the geography of the multi-verse is to imagine a lake with thousands of tiny islands in it. Each island is in turn vibrating just enough to send out a constant flow of ripples from its shores. The islands are of course the various permanent dimensions, while the ripples are their reflections – existing for a short while before collapsing back into the Aether or merging with some other reality. In the common parlance of inter-dimensional cosmologists, these are called Shards. By traveling underneath the surface of the lake, one can reach any island without having to pass through any other dimensions. The same is true with inter-dimensional travel – a quick jaunt through the Aether brings you to some other reality.

Earth is relatively new to inter-dimensional travel, and so is just learning the lay of the land. The Portal Corp has mapped close to a hundred other dimensions, only about a quarter of which are Permanent Dimensions, while the others are mostly Shards. Travelers from other realities have been searching the multi-verse for much longer, and amongst them one dimension has become particularly legendary – the Origin Point. This is the world that started it all – the universe which has cast all of the other reflections in existence. No one knows exactly where it is (or even if it really still exists), but many have hunted for it. The theory goes that events that transpire at the Origin Point have consequences that ripple through the entire multi-verse. If one were to seize control of the Origin Point, one could theoretically hold all of existence hostage to his or her whims.

See Also

• Portal Corporation