The Infinite Chain

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“The chain… it’s like everything that exists.”
“Like.... the universe?”
“Like ALL of the universes.”

a Faeriean Mage Explains the Infinite Chain to Their Mortal Friend

The infinite chain is essentially, everything to ever exist. More accurately, it describes the arches of magic, life, and energy that connect every reality in an unending line. In each world, slightly less magic and energy is passed on to the next.

Terminology of the Infinite Chain

Worlds

Worlds are the pieces that make up the Infinite Chain. They range in size and can be anything from one planet to an entire universe. For example, both Şiv’ia and Earth are worlds.

Vortexes

Vortex is a catch-all term for connections between worlds on the Chain. This can include scrying pools, portals, links, parts of the flow, echos, mirrors, and other such phenomena. Vortexes form naturally, but can also be made by beings.

The Flow

The Flow is the path of elements (magic, energy, and life) through the Chain. It has a current to it that flows in convection like links between the worlds. The Flow also determines how much of what elements are left on each world and how many move onto the next.

The Chain

A shortened form of Infinite Chain. Other names include: the Unbroken Chain, the Unending Chain, the Rope of the Multiverse, and the Braid of Infinity.

Links

Links are a specific kind of vortex that form a two way link between adjacent worlds. Even the worlds below Şiv’ia have links, though they are not as pronounced as those before them.

The Great Contamination

The Great Contamination, sometimes called the Great Corruption or the Corruption, was an interdimensional magical event that occurred during Şiv’ia’s Pre-Emberton era. The Corruption spread down the Chain through the magic element of the flow. In order to spare the as of yet uncontaminated worlds below Şiv’ia, mages from several worlds sealed off all vortexes to Earth and the other worlds.
In the end, the amount of magic blocked up on Şiv’ia destroyed many of the civilizations there, and caused the world’s development to take a strange turn. After the Contamination was destroyed, no one was left who knew how to reopen the vortexes. As such, Şiv’ia has continued to take the full force of the Flow’s magic for several million years.

Bridges

Bridges are being-made portals between two worlds. They have a different structure than natural portals and they can work against the Flow more easily.

Elements

The elements are what make up the flow, namely magic, energy, and life. Worlds often have different amounts and balances of these three elements, resulting in different world make-ups.

Known Worlds of the Infinite Chain

Mysterium

The Infinite Chain starts with Mysterium, a theoretical world of pure magic. Since Mysterium is theoretically, and only exists in a paradox as the chain goes on forever, not much is known about what it would look like. Many theories were put forth in Markus Zela’s The Start of Infinity: A Mage’s Look at the Mysterium Paradox, though none have been proven.

Glacier Dome

Somewhere between Mysterium and Şiv’ia exists Glacier Dome, an icy world which has made contact with several Şiv’ian cultures in the past. Access to Glacier Dome was largely cut off during the Great Contamination, but legends of the world still exist.

Io

Io is another world existing above Şiv’ia. It is thought to be very similar to the pre-contamination Şiv’ia, with some theorizing that the earliest Şiv’ian deities may have been travelers from Io.
Confusingly, many myths also paint Io as the source of the Contamination, though no reasoning behind this is provided beyond it being a world above Şiv’ia.

Tşh´óaeşiv´ia

The world directly above Şiv’ia, and the one that still has the most contact with it. Tşh´óaeşiv´ia is suspected to be a water world, due to the etymology of its Standard Fae Name.
It is commonly believed that Creeping Madness was originally sent to Şiv’ia as part of a war with warlock or Nature Mage groups living in the portal-rich swamps at the time of the initial infestation.
Other species, such as dragons and D’oae fruit are also connected with Tşh´óaeşiv´ia because of their bioluminescence. Why bioluminescence is associated with Tşh´óaeşiv´ia is unknown, but it has been part of the common perception for so long it is largely accepted as fact.

Şiv’ia

Şiv’ia is the world between Tshiv’iash and Earth. During the Great Contamination, Şiv’ian ancient mages, with help from several other worlds, closed many of the lines continuing down the chain. They sacrificed themselves and their world to save the infinite ones below them.
By the time the Contamination had been destroyed, Şiv’ia had been all but destroyed. With almost no way for magic to continue on along its original flow, it piled up in Şiv’ia. This gave the barren world a new chance, though the knowledge of how to reopen the flow has been lost forever.
As of the post-silent revolution era, the knowledge of how to open small vortexes down to earth has been rediscovered. It has been proposed that these could be used to slowly reopen the flow, though this idea is unpopular as it would drastically affect Şiv’ia, as well as the worlds beneath it who have been more or less without magic for so long.

Earth

Earth is the world directly below Şiv’ia, and likely the most familiar to readers. Prior to the Great Contamination, Earth had an average amount of magic. However, after the flow was closed on Şiv’ia, there has been very little magic there.
Earth is the only world mages and priests from Şiv’ia can consistently travel to and from through vortexes, as the nature of the flow pushes down the chain and Earth is the closest below Şiv’ia.

Dulirium

Like Mysterium, Delirium is a theoretical, paradoxical world that exists on the least magical end of the chain. As outlined in Zela’s second book, Infinity’s End: The Eternal Night of Dulirium, this world would be one completely devoid of magic, life, or energy. While Zela paints it as a barren rock where nothing lives or moves and there is always darkness, modern philosophers consider it more likely that Dulirium is simply an infinite void of nothingness.