Welcome to my World Page. The goal of this page is to describe the universe in which my OCs reside. To learn more about the OCs themselves and the story of the WHATverse, go to the character hub here.
Where?
The Cosmos
Where things happen on a dimensional scale.
Veritan Dimensional System
This dimensional system is the one in which Dragga resides, and where the action happens with my original fiction characters. Distortion and Veritas are the two dimensions it contains, and they intersect through rifts. Augmentation is a metaphysical plane that goes "over" the two dimensions. It can't be physically accessed, but animum signals can be sent to and from it. The dimensional structure can be visualized like this. This illustration isn't to scale in any way; it's just a symbolic representation. The image scales with your window size; click to view at original size.
The "real world" for my Dragga-based characters, a dimension ruled by Vipheriv and Xinonix, the Incarnations of Order and Chaos. This dimension stays within cosmic balance, and is a generally nice place. The amount of animum in this dimension, under normal circumstances, allows for very rare instances of fantastic powers. There had been no confirmed dimensional rifts until the Shadowlawn incident 2 years before canon. Similar, smaller-scale events are described in historical sources, but it's unknown whether these describe literal dimensional rifts or are interpretations of mundane natural phenomena. Minor animum manipulation for use in science and technology is common. Most residents are aware of animum's existence but don't think of it as majorly impacting their lives.
A corrupted world, ruled by the Degenerate. Natural disasters are common, and most regions don't interact with each other. Most of the land is wilderness filled with chaos entities rumored to be either entities created by the Degenerate or the result of Veritan entities who settled Distortion in the past adapting to the strange conditions there. Every day is a struggle to survive and nothing lasts at all long. Culture takes a back seat to survival and most entities communicate telepathically so that their voices or animum don't betray them to the legions of predators waiting to strike. Strange things manifest here because due to the absence of an Incarnation of Order, there are no limits on how much animum an entity can carry. This results in abnormal mental states and abilities as entities gather distorted animum.
A pseudo-dimension that functions as a conversion point for animum signals across dimensional systems. It is unknown what created it, how exactly it works, or whether it has Incarnations of Order or Chaos. All animum that is channeled into ideas or concepts goes here. If a dimension has sufficient animum to breach Augmentation's membranes, the animum-encoded things contained in Augmentation are converted to fit that dimension's animum and can be accessed as mental states or visual and auditory media. Due to the change in animum encoding when something transfers from Augmentation into another dimension, physical objects or solid animum projections can not be directly transferred. However, in dimensions where Incarnation is possible, concepts from Augmentation can Incarnate using those dimensions' animum.
The primary place Augmentation is used in Draggian Universe media is as a source of digital media. Veritas residents can tap into signals from Insula and access them in the form of webpages, with the contributed animum converted into digital data. This was discovered approximately 15 years before the main Draggian Universe stories take place. This allows for Dragites to access Insulan pop culture and other resources, most often computer software and digital media. The influx of exotic cultural concepts from Augmentation has resulted in cultural shifts amongst Dragite youth, especially in large cities. With access to the Insulan Internet, new concepts are being introduced or reintroduced to Dragite culture and technology is moving faster than ever before. This is seen as a generally good thing, but does get objections, both from Dragites concerned about cultural purity and those who are concerned because access to Augmentation data is essentially entirely controlled by Limina, Dragga's largest and richest tech company. Even among Dragites who are accepting or even encouraging of Insulan culture being introduced, there's serious concern about the growing role Limina has been playing in Dragite life.
Insulan Dimensional System
It's boring, but the being writing down these observations lives there so it's worth mentioning. It has no connection to the Veritan or any other system save through Augmentation.
The dimension that contains Earth and its surrounding universe. Animum doesn't really work here. All living beings have it as with all dimensions, but it's not particularly powerful and there isn't enough of it to go around to be able to physically manifest Incarnations or do anything else of interest. Its Incarnations of Order and Chaos are nowhere to be found, although some belief systems may have been built on interpretations of them. No dimensional rifts have occurred that can be observed. Due to the low animum level for the system, it can be assumed that Insulas is the only dimension in its system. It can sometimes receive extradimensional signals coming through Augmentation in the form of ideas or written or spoken media, but most residents don't recognize them as such, interpreting them as works of fiction. Most residents are not aware of animum's existence in any form.
No physical entities from Insula are ever going to be encountered; its main purpose in existing is to explore the effects of the cultural exchange via Augmentation. Due to differences in animum encoding across dimensional systems, it is impossible for any physical object or entity to travel in between the Veritan and Insulan systems. If one did, they would get torn apart by incompatible animum fields.
Dragga
Basic Information
An Earth-like world in almost every respect, save higher dimensional animum. Its atmospheric and terrestrial chemical makeup, gravity, laws of physics, and base climactic conditions are functionally identical to those of Earth. As far as anyone knows, it's the only world with sentient life in its galaxy.
Dragga's landmass consists of a single supercontinent, also named Dragga or sometimes Draggia. This has helped culture remain consistent due to it being possible to travel anywhere solely over land.
Map
Coming soon! Or maybe never, I don't much like drawing maps.
Culture
Dragga has many countries, each of which has its own distinct cultural identity, government, subddivisions, and more, none of which is really relevant to Draggian canon since my work is only set in one metropolitan area. Technology, medicine, literacy, etc. exist at a modern or higher level, with some fields enhanced due to easier animum manipulation. All Dragite species live generally peacefully with each other. There are conflicts, but they're usually about ideals or beliefs, not someone's physical features. Diversity in gender and sexuality is acknowledged and accepted, but can't really be expressed in human terms. It is seen as just a thing someone is in the same way as eye color or height. The main place gendered connotations turn up is in stories for symbolic purposes. Labels on character pages do not exist in that form in-universe; they're the closest terms a character could be called in English and exist for reader convenience.
The Dragite language is rich, complicated, and never going to be written down save for names because it can't really be Romanized and I'm not a linguist. It's got a variety of regional dialects, but the base language is comprehensible by nearly everyone. In Draggan Common, word roots can be combined to describe almost anything and almost any word can take on any part of speech with the right ending and intonation. For example, "Slus-" can be used to mean "to slither", "slithering", or "slithering thing" depending on its intonation. Intonation can also alter the connotation of a word. For example, "Plun-", a root that is best politely translated as "filth/defilement" and the most popular swear word, depending on how it's intoned, can range from something you playfully call your friends to the kind of thing that starts bar brawls.
Draggan Common doesn't have gendered pronouns or nouns. Pronouns listed on character pages exist for reader convenience. However, it did historically have several gendered sets of verb endings, which could be used either to emphasize the gender of the entity performing the action or describe an action being done in a particular manner. The available endings were masculine, feminine, neuter/gender irrelevant, non-applicable, or unknown, multiple genders at once, plural for groups, and an "everything at once" ending that was only used for Incarnations. In the most recent linguistic reform, the gendered endings were retired, and at this point, everyone uses the neuter except in religious texts where the Incarnation ending is observed. However, they got recently reintroduced for the purpose of translating gendered Insulan media. As a result, they've been adopted by trans* youth who've grown up with them, but in general, endings other than the neuter aren't used much unless someone's specifically trying to draw attention to their gender. Debates over whether they're grammatically correct or not are virtually nonexistent, and when they do pop up, no one cares. People respect each others' endings.
The primary currency of the country in which my characters live is the Eck, abbreviated as E or a lowercase Epsilon depending on Unicode support. Ecks are built around units of 1,000, with 1,000 ecks making a Kilex. This is roughly equivalent to 1 US dollar. Ecks and Kilex are written in decimal form with 3 places. For example, 6,065 ecks would be written in kilex as E6.065. All transactions use credit/debit cards, checks, or bills. Some areas are working to eliminate bills and solely use cards and checks.
Inhabitants
Dragga is inhabited by carbon-based lifeforms which have similar biology to the Earth animals they resemble. Its dominant lifeforms are Dragites, which vaguely resemble anthropomorphic Earth animals. Anthropomorphic species may resemble mammals or non-avian reptiles; bird, fish, and amphibian-like creatures exist, but didn't develop sentience. Dragites vary wildly in shape, but they are all capable of producing and receiving spoken language, eating whatever they want, and making facial expressions. They are also all roughly the same size, averaging a standing height of 5' (152.4 cm). Dragite species have "bloodlines" or subspecies which alter their physical features and abilities, but these are still considered the same species.
Dragga is also inhabited by Animites, creatures which are smaller and less intelligent than Dragites and are used for food and companionship, like animals on Earth.
Where the Action Happens
The capital city of its country and one of Dragga's richest and most happening cities due to Limina's headquarters being there. It's been getting a huge influx of population, especially youth, in recent years due to it being known as a hub for science and technology. Historically, it's been a primarily reptilian settlement because it's in a climate where they can live reasonably comfortably year-round, and it still maintains a majority reptilian population.
A suburb of the city of Pulklita. It's built around the University of Eyendaru, making it an enclave of quirky shops, vibrant culture, and bored teenagers and 20-somethings. Some older residents live here as well, usually further away from the college in more typical subdivisions. Its cultural attractions include an active alternative music and film scene and thriving geek culture, including an active LARPing group and Pokemon Go community. It has affectionate small-town rivalries with neighboring suburbs Kartuba to the south and Duxat to the north, and borders Pulklita to the west. My characters nearly all live, work, and play in Eyendaru, and unless otherwise stated, locations can be assumed to be located there.
The Pulklita metropolitan area has a humid subtropical climate similar to the American South. Dramatic swings in temperature are common, with most of the year being either too hot or too cold. Rain is common throughout the year, especially in spring and fall. Natural disasters are relatively rare, save for a few large thunderstorms every year, which occasionally spawn tornadoes. Freezing rain and ice storms occasionally occur in winter, but snow is very rare and winters are generally mild. Weather gets more extreme as you approach Shadowlawn and its dimensional rift, with distorted animum overflow producing wild temperature and pressure fluctuations. When smaller dimensional rifts open, they're usually heralded by sudden storms. Of course, given the usual weather, unless the rift is visible, it may be hard to tell whether a sudden storm is a dimensional rift or just the local weather doing what it does. Wait 5 minutes and see if something comes out.
The suburb that borders Eyendaru to the east. Even before getting involved in cross-dimensional shenaniganry, it was rumored among locals to be corrupted, cursed, or otherwise metaphysically wrong. It was supposedly once controlled by a secret Degenerate-worshipping cabal whose rituals left scars on the land itself and some will tell you it still is now. For the record, it wasn't. The worshipers of Likoa who gathered there were more than happy to mind their own business and were quite open to visitors. It's the site of a dimensional rift that opened about 2 years before the main Draggian Universe is set, which had the side effect of splitting the suburb itself into two distinct halves: one in Veritas and one in Distortion. If an entity goes through the rift, it will end up in the other dimension's half of Shadowlawn. Unsurprisingly, ever since the rift, Shadowlawn isn't not doing well. As far as anyone knows, all the residents died when the rift opened, and the Veritas side has basically been completely destroyed with locals agreeing to stay as far away from it as possible. Shadowlawn Park, despite its confusing name, is technically on the far east side of Eyendaru and didn't take substantially more damage from the rift than it would from a tornado, which the city government was used to. It was repaired shortly after the initial rift.
When?
Draggian Universe stories take place in a nebulous late-2010s Earth state and are all "present day". If I were to link it to a previous year, I'd probably say it was set in 2017-18ish. To keep things simple, Dragga follows Earth's rotation and its residents use units that can be translated to those used on Earth. Because of how Dragga interacts with Insulan culture and media, culture may not be associated with any given era. Time travel is theoretically possible with enough animum, but it isn't really relevant to any of my works. Rules on it will be added if it ever becomes relevant.
Technology's progress in Dragga is roughly equivalent to that of Earth's late 2010s, but has followed an alternate path, resulting in a mid-late 2000s aesthetic and the elimination of all the parts of the Internet that don't jive with the story I want to tell. Funny how that works. But don't worry, we have worldbuilding explanations! Before Limina, technology was not at all standardized. Any given company, institution, or group of nerdy friends had their own set of standards and engines. After Limina streamlined connection between Draggan devices and between Draggan and Insulan standards, everyone can read each other's pages regardless of operating system, but most of the Draggan Internet still maintains that decentralized ethos. This means that standardized social media and "cloud services" are not popular. There is a worldwide Draggan Internet and most companies have internal systems for sharing files, but social media profiles are replaced with personal webpages and forums, either hosted via Limina's or an individual's servers. Groupchat-like services don't exist either. Texting, including multimedia messages, is widely used for one-on-one communication, but most wider groups operate via specialized forums.
Due to Dragite anatomy, touchscreen devices and voice-activated systems aren't in nearly as widespread use as they are on Earth. The newest Limina phones have touchscreens for compatibility with Insulan apps, but portable devices are controlled via physical joysticks, buttons, and keyboards because species that are covered in fur can't easily use touchscreens and some Dragites with more paw-like hands can't easily handle styli. Because they require physical controls and fitting things into pockets wasn't popularized since most Dragites can't easily wear pants, Draggan mobile devices are thicker than their counterparts on Earth. The newest Limina KeyPhone is approximately the size of a Nintendo DS. Voice-activated systems are being previewed among Limina employees and high-level contractors, but are unlikely to be released to mainstream markets any time soon due to Draggan Common having high variability because of species' differing vocal anatomies.
Artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, artificial limbs, and other such cyberpunk-type stuff exists at a late 2010s Earth level. Artificial intelligence can be used for photo classification, trippy visual experiments, and processing text for web searches etc. but isn't anything close to equivalent to a sentient being and won't be any time soon. Augmented and virtual reality are basically only used for gaming and artifical limbs can replicate organic function enough to restore functionality to those who've lost or were born without limbs, but cybernetic implants to improve function in those who already have all of their limbs normally functioning are not on the horizon any time soon.
Space travel and satellites were not developed, for which the main worldbuilding-relevant consequence is that location services on devices operate via triangulating your position based on the locations of cell towers and WiFi hotspots. This means that navigation isn't as popular and that overall, location services are less accurate. Some large cities, including Pulklita, and public places like malls and college campuses have made deals with Limina to add more hotspots to their cities, both providing free Internet access and making location services more accurate, which makes playing location-based games a more rewarding experience. Them being much more physically present also makes them more culturally relevant and harder to ignore and gives Limina a captive audience for advertising.
Who?
Species
Sluslan: Who most of my characters are, and Dragga's most widespread reptilian species. Their name roughly translates to "slithers". A species of Dragite that resemble snakes with arms, completely lacking back limbs. They're covered in scales. They lack body hair, but some bloodlines have hair-like crests made of protofeathers. They have four fingers including an opposable thumb. The bones in Sluslan's lower jaws aren't fused, which allows them to consume food items larger than their heads. They can't chew, instead biting into food items with their many sharp teeth to break them into smaller pieces. They have clear scales over their eyes to keep them from drying out so don't need to blink, but they have external eyelids to better communicate with more visual species. Some bloodlines have syringe-like venomous fangs. However, use of venom is heavily frowned upon because it can easily kill most other Dragite species when used in aggression or self-defense. For this reason, some Sluslan in naturally venomous bloodlines may have their venom sacs surgically removed.
Historically, Sluslan were one of the most maligned species, in part because of the aforementioned venomous bloodlines and just because thousands of years of instinct are hard to extinguish. The fact that their lack of need to blink and flicking their tongues to smell read as threatening to mammals isn't helpful either. They're no longer as directly hated as they were, but they still mostly live in historically reptilian cities and are considered by many mammalian species, especially those who are more conservative, to be creepy, distant, or hard to read. Children are often trained to remember to regularly blink and more discretely tongue flick precisely because it freaks mammals out.
Sluslan make up the majority of the population in the Pulklita metropolitan area, and that (along with that I find snake people both fun and easy to draw) is why all of my central characters are Sluslan. There are plenty of other species of Dragite, too, but they aren't really relevant to the story save as flavor to make the world look more colorful.
Incarnations: Beings of pure animum which embody the "spirit" of a thing or concept and can physically manifest. They can be cosmic forces or spawned from the animum and energy put into a thing or concept. Particularly aggressive concepts can Incarnate themselves through stealing the animum of others. They have no set physical form, and can change form at will to resemble anything they desire. Incarnations literally are the thing they embody: if they're destroyed, the concept or thing they represent is also destroyed.
Chaos Entities: The main inhabitants of Distortion, sometimes referred to as "demons" or "abominations". No one knows quite what they are. The leading theories are that they were either created by Likoa or are the results of Veritan creatures being exposed to corrupt animum in Distortion. They come in all shapes, sizes, and power levels, ranging from dimensional threats to superpowered jerks, but you wouldn't want to meet any of them in a dark alley. They're composed of solid animum, but aren't considered Incarnations because they usually can't change form and their bodies aren't powered by their animum cores. Some of them are capable of producing spoken language, but they all naturally communicate telepathically or through animum signals. Because Dragites don't, when they communicate with them, their signals get interpreted as speech.
Sluslis Bloodlines
Colubris: The most common bloodline, Slender-bodied Sluslan who don't have venom sacs. They have rounder heads and larger eyes than other bloodlines.
Pythonis: Sluslan with thicker bodies than most. They're sexually dimorphic; the females are usually much thicker and longer than the males.
Elapsis: Sluslan who resemble Colubrin visually, but have venom sacs connected to straight, relatively short fangs. These contain a potent venom that targets the nervous system and can kill an adult Dragite within hours if antivenin is not administered. They're resistant to their own venom and are usually smaller than most Sluslan. Their traditions stress managing one's emotions and not striking out in anger, which means they're usually trained in either weapon or hand-to-hand combat so they have an option for non-fatal self-defense.
How?
All the wondrous, otherwise impossible things that happen in the ADU are courtesy of my plot-enhancing substance of choice, which is referred to as animum. Animum isn't particularly mystical, it's just a natural part of any being's body. Here's how it works.
Who Has It?
Literally everyone. All living beings are born with an animum-based soul that influences their personality and behavior. Brain-based behavior and mental states are hard-coded, but the type of animum in someone's soul can influence how those brain-based aspects manifest. Anything with a brain has a soul, but all species' souls function differently and have varying amounts of animum and levels of effect on something's behavior. The more complex a species' brain is, the more animum impacts it. If someone loses their soul, they won't die, but they will become completely emotionally empty and lack motivation. After being lost, their soul can be returned or replaced with other animum. This means that hypothetically, removing someone's soul and replacing it with something else could serve to alter their mental and spiritual processes to whatever some third party desires. Everyone has a natural supply of animum which will return to them unless it's absorbed into someone else's soul. If souls are damaged, unless they're prevented from doing so, they will regenerate. If a soul can't regenerate and some of its animum is lost, it will fill the gap with animum from the environment.
Souls constantly absorb and release animum, which has a slight effect on the area around the being releasing it, but everyone's reality distortion fields are so small that they cancel each other out. Soul matter can be transferred between beings, either voluntarily or via a more powerful entity consuming or otherwise extracting another's soul matter. Souls are mutable by nature, and can be influenced by animum around them in the environment or directly pulsed into them. This means that entities with close contact's souls gradually become similar to one another. With enough direct animum transfer, souls can become linked. The two or more beings with linked souls will share a degree of mental states and continually transfer animum. When someone dies, their animum is released into the environment, but can't be used to create any more souls. This is why animum can't be used to revive the dead; when someone dies, the membranes that keep animum contained in their soul collapse. Incarnation can only make concepts "alive" because it creates an artificial animum core via the entity's will; once anything's animum core collapses via lack of input for Incarnations or death for organic creatures, it can no longer process or store animum. Putting animum into something that can't process or store it won't create a core; the animum will just passively accumulate.
Where Does It Come From?
Animum can not be created or destroyed, except by the Incarnation of Void. When a dimension is created, the Incarnation of Void gives it a quota of animum, from which souls and environmental animum are created. The Incarnations of Order and Chaos divide this animum among all the souls that are going to be created in a dimension. This is why Distortion expresses so many anomalous properties. Without an Incarnation of Order and with Likoa continually abusing the power of creation, she's continually making more chaotic animum which gets released in a free-for-all, meaning that entities in Distortion's souls are completely unlimited in how much they can grow, so they manifest strange and chaotic abilities or mental states in response.
Once a dimension's quota of animum runs out, it's time for the End of All, in which the Incarnation of Void purges everything except the Incarnations of Order and Chaos and restarts the dimension. This makes dimensional rifts dangerous on an existential level to all involved dimensions. If animum is introduced from elsewhere, it interferes with the quotas for both dimensions and prevents the End of All from occurring properly. Even worse, the more animum passes through a dimensional rift, the higher the rift's capacity becomes. This makes dimensional rifts extremely difficult to close once they've opened.
What Can It Do?
Just about anything with enough of it. Animum can physically manifest if it's focused on and can transfer other forms of energy, such as heat or electrical charge. It can also be used to create weapons or other physical objects that don't need to be focused on to stay solid via the production of an artificial core. Solid manifestations take massive amounts of animum, so this is relatively rare. When it occurs, the objects in question are produced by teams who each contribute some of their animum to the object or are forged from ambient environmental animum. Animum can't usually override a dimension's fundamental laws of physics. If it can, it takes absurd amounts of effort and raw power, making it functionally impossible except by cosmic Incarnations or other powerful extradimensional entities.
Animum also comes in variations based on particularly prolific souls, and everyone's animum is tailored to them. If an entity is powerful enough, they can send their variation of animum directly into someone's soul until it eventually overtakes it entirely and they become similar to the first entity. Animum can also be directly focused into a given concept to create Incarnations.
Incarnation
If a specific concept has enough animum put into it, it can Incarnate, becoming capable of physical manifestation. Incarnations are made of pure animum and can take the physical form of anything they want. They absorb animum from everything around them at an enhanced rate, because if they don't maintain a certain amount of animum, they can not maintain their animum cores and will cease to exist. This is why being around minor Incarnations can be extremely dangerous: they're so hungry for animum that they will absorb your soul, whether they mean to or not. The Incarnations of Order and Chaos absorb animum directly from the Incarnation of Void, which contains an infinite supply of it so it exists no matter what.