Multiverse

In the future, humanity discovers another dimension. The dimension is ‘below’ ours in a sense, and so it is called the Deep. Our first excursions into the new dimension were unsuccessful; the pilots vanished, never to return. We did not give up hope. In time, we became successful. New ships were able to enter and return from the dimension with more ease. It was a breakthrough. We were able to traverse there and travel at relativistic speeds before returning to our dimension, thus benefitting from faster-than-light travel.

Three years after the first use of the technology, a ship appeared in our dimension from the Deep. It was not of human origin. Although humanity feared the worst, the pilots of the ship were friendly. The Quelen were our first alien contacts. They taught us that the Deep was a dimension that connected a vast multiverse of other dimensions. If a vessel traveled to the Deep, it was able to surface into any dimension; not just the one it came from. It was the beginning of true extra-dimensional travel. But all was not what it seemed.

The Quelen also told us what had become of our missing ships. In the Deep lie creatures which seek and consume all who enter. It is believed that they seek out fear, the primal emotion shared by all creatures of the multiverse. If one dives too far depths or spends too long in the Deep, they might never return.

Knowing this, many creatures of the multiverse continue to make use of the Deep, connecting to other dimensions and traveling faster than light. This path is the one that humans now follow. Vast technologies and boons await us at our destinations. A new golden age of humanity will come at last.

But we still fear what lurks in the Deep.