The Phases

However it is that this universe came to be, one thing is certain: it is far stranger than anyone ever anticipated. The system that came to be was one of passive intelligence and partial omniscience. It is capable of self-governing and intentional evolution, while functioning in ways similar to both mechanical and biological forms.
There are countless functions, divisions, and forces involved in a smoothly running reality, but the design most focused on in the context of this story is called “The Phases”: therefore, this is the blanket term that is used to describe both this individual function and this function’s capacity for sentience and intelligence. “They” will be used frequently to describe the Phases, especially in Their capacity to make decisions for Their own benefit, and the benefit of all entities inhabiting Them.
But what are the Phases? This is not a simple question. The Phases as a whole are the Universe’s system of recycling, managing, and categorizing the various “multidimensional” matter, energy, and life forms. They can be described as various layers or planes of existential energies and frequencies, dictating what entities and energies are capable of interacting and which are to remain separate.
There are several Phases of existence commonly referenced: The Living Phase, The Soul Phase, The Ether Phase, The Impure Phase, and The Energy Phase. The Living Phase is what you and I experience every day. It's where the physical form of every living thing resides and experiences its life.
The Soul Phase is where your consciousness or “soul” lives. The individually unique life force of all conscious living things is tied to its physical form, via a “tether” that allows the consciousness to communicate with the body. It is a plane purely made of energy, that one cannot interact with physically.
Far above all the Phases exists a state of pure energy — duly named the Energy Phase. This energy is fed down through the Impure Phase and into the Ether Phase. Both these Phases act as a sort of “strainer” for the energy, lowering the purity and intensity of the energy so that it is not harmful to the entities it touches. Once it passes through the Ether Phase, the diluted, low intensity energy enters the Soul Phase, and every soul absorbs this energy in a way that sustains it. It passes this energy along to the body, fueling and healing it in conventionally undetectable but vital ways.

The Tether System

The Tether System describes the way that the consciousness and body interact with each other and with the world around them.
The place where a human’s physical body resides is called the Living Phase, or LP for short. The place where their “soul” resides is called the Soul Phase, or SP for short. In Figure 2.1, the red circle marked “Body” represents a human’s physical form in the Living Phase, whereas the yellow circle marked “Soul” represents a human’s consciousness in the Soul Phase. The purple column connecting the two circles is the “Tether”: this is actually hollow, and is how a person’s soul projects their consciousness into their body, allowing them to experience the world of the living as it is known to us. The line between the LP and the SP is called the Phase Shift, but is better known as simply the “barrier”. The barrier is what separates the physicality of our experience from the physicality of the (relatively) incorporeal.

Phase Energies

The “Funnel” at the top of the soul (Figure 2.1) is to demonstrate the way the Soul survives. Various types of energy flow around in the EP in high concentrations, and the souls feed on these energy particles to keep alive. This energy is called Non-Living Phase (NLP) Energy, sometimes just shortened to Phase Energy or Dark Energy. The energy is taken in through the souls, and part of it is used to feed the soul. Other parts of it are passed down and used to replenish and heal any damage or strain the tether might have taken on. The remains are passed down to the physical body, helping to basically maintain and replenish it as well.
The Phase Shift (or Barrier) separates the Soul Phase and the Living Phase. In order for a tether to pass through the Soul Phase and into the Living Phase, there logically has to be some kind of opening in the barrier. Some sort of “hole”.
However, energy from the NLPs (Non-Living Phases) is not meant to get into the Living Phase in anything more than small amounts. The effects of the interactions between pure NLP energy and the Living Phase energies is catastrophic, as cross-reality or cross-dimensional energies would be imagined to be. They clash and cause many kinds of unnatural events to occur. The smallest might be a mostly irrelevant case of paranormal activity, whereas the largest incidents are potentially massive cataclysms. In all technicality, these events are not truly unnatural, and neither are the interactions between NLP and LP energies. It simply comes down to the fact that life as we know it evolved to exist in a fragile ecosystem. Consider a city built deep at the lowest point of the ocean. It contains an environment entirely unique from the deep waters it is immersed in. A couple leaks in the barrier protecting the city may be manageable, but much more than that and the ecosystem is threatened.
NLP energies are still needed in micro-amounts to keep the body and tether healthy. So to ensure that the amount of energy doesn’t overflow the tether or break open a wider than necessary hole in the barrier, there is a “door” in place, functioning as a controlled floodgate or pressure release valve for these energies.

Structure

At the very top, in the Energy Phase, there are multiple different types of NLP energies flowing around, in a pure energy state. It is intense to an overwhelming degree, and anything that comes into contact with it would be instantly annihilated to an identical pure energy state. For this reason, the Phases exist, acting as various levels in a massive strainer system.
The Impure Phase is made up of random cross-dimensional debris (see Barrier Bleeding ), the thickness of it beginning the depurification process and passing what makes it through on to the Ether Phase.
Occasionally, some of the cross dimensional “x matter” will filter down with the energies, and the Ether Phase acts as a place to let this debris float around and decompose without interfering with the rest of the structure.
At this point, the energy is filtered enough that it will not harm the souls, and will in fact feed and sustain them as intended, thus it is passed into the Soul Phase for consumption. The leftovers get passed down through the tether as described previously.

Excess Buildup

For reasons to be disclosed in further sections, the Phases have fallen into “disrepair” over time. This mainly affects how much energy is being released from the Energy Phase into the filter system. The release continues to increase far surpassing what the current number of souls could reasonably consume, so the energy not being consumed simply cycles around the Soul and Ether Phases, waiting to be utilized. This is considered excess energy buildup, and is the most glaring symptom of the main problem with the Phases.

Souls in the Soul Phase have a physical weight on the barrier, similarly to how planets have a physical weight on the fabric of spacetime. Along with this, excess energy has a weight and force of its own to add to the mix. So if there is a single person (and therefore a single soul) in any random location, any excess energy is likely to gravitate toward the soul, crowding around it and increasing the gravity well. No excess energy, no problems. But excess energy will continue to weigh down on the barrier, causing it to spread its mass and thin out to compensate.
To further this concept, if one soul has a gravitational effect on the energy around it, a large gathering of souls would have a similar and amplified effect on the energy around them.

A collection of three people in the middle of nowhere would have a smaller effect than a collection of seven people, and similarly, a planet of three billion would have less than a planet of seven billion. Still, it is worth noting that large populations have far more noticeable effects from the buildup, as said buildup is pulled into “soul wells”, or barrier dips.

The "Gene"

Three Ways to Die

Method #1 - The tether eventually wears out and breaks, no longer capable of consciousness streaming. Otherwise known as “dying of old age” with an indeterminate cause.
Method #2 - The body itself is no longer capable of supporting the consciousness stream in any capacity. Can be anything like being shot, run over, or dying of a terminal illness.
Method #3 - When energy buildup gets to be severe enough, it can overwhelm and force open the floodgates, using the tether as a way to release excess in large amounts. These large amounts effectively disintegrate both the tether and the body, causing what one might call “spontaneous combustion”. (See Tether Overload)

Great Manifest Eras

Phase-Oriented Psions

There is a small subcategory of people with the ability to access and — to some degree, influence — the phases. These people are called Phase-Oriented Psions (POPs).
The process of Interphase Travel (IPT) is one next to nobody capable of using it actually understands themselves, which is part of the reason the risks are so great. There are two methods by which this is possible, the first one retaining the umbrella title IPT, and the second one being called Consciousness Retraction (CR). The IPT process is, in essence, one accessing their own tether (which is a physical object with structure and mass, on a separate gradient frequency), and using it as a method of transporting one’s body to the Ether Phase. The process forces something relatively incorporeal to oneself to become relatively corporeal to oneself, pulling the tether through frequencies and phases to become physically accessible. The change is quick (so quick you could be done with the whole process in a split second), but the process simultaneously propels the body up through the tether and into the Ether Phase, the tether now standing inside-out to continue the consciousness streaming. The same process in reverse is used to return to the Living Phase.
When you enter or exit the Ether Phase, your tether folds in on itself to create a wormhole for the propellant’s energy transfer to take place. This physically chips pieces off of your soul (as you physically pass through the Soul Phase first), and will wear down your soul to nothing with overuse.
It is not currently possible for a living human to IPT to the Soul Phase, for a variety of reasons. The main one of these is that the Soul Phase, despite its representation on the diagrams, is the smallest Phase of all, existing only in the space between the souls. The Soul Phase is like a bed of soil at the bottom of the Ether Phase, consisting of solid matter with souls wedged into it, like vegetables in a garden. One can only walk on top of the soil of the garden, not within it.

Consciousness Retraction (CR), however, is quite different from IPT. CR is basically what it sounds like: you cease the stream of consciousness and temporarily cut your soul off from your body. Considering that consciousness is naturally sourced in your soul and not your body, cutting off the stream is similar to a pilot ejecting from a jet, abandoning the jet’s controls and returning to the focus on their own physical experience.
The jet analogy is more accurate than one might think.

The soul itself is protected by a shell (Life Force Collective). Your soul shell retains your tether connection, but you must exit the shell in order to experience anything outside of it. Once out, you are free to roam any existing Phase as you will. This also makes CR the only way to experience the Soul Phase. However, the bare and exposed soul is vulnerable to damage just like any physical entity, and taking damage to your soul directly can have disastrous side effects, from reduced Psionic presence and Low Psionic-Aura Resistance, to Null Zone Breakdown or complete soul annihilation.
CR does not follow the same rules of energy requirements as IPT, meaning one can stay in soul form as long as they please. However, the longer one stays there, the more physically jarring the transition back to the LP is, as you adjust to the five senses again.
CR has no long-term side effects, which makes it a viable alternative to IPT in many cases. However, if intentional Psionic precautions have not been taken, many a CR traveler has returned to their body and shell to find something else inhabiting it.

Self Maintenance Systems

Primary Maintenance System

The Primary Maintenance System was the first defense mechanism, and it has existed as long as humanity has. The Primary and humanity were constructed in sync, designed to enhance the filtering process. This mechanism is the only one noticeable to those in the Living Phase: the Gene. This gene, as previously detailed, allows a human to access and control the flow of energy through their tether. The purpose of this is to attempt to release any excess energy that may build up over time, and help prevent excessive strain on the barrier between the LP and the NLPs.
The ideal function of this mechanism is a consistent spattering of “Empowered” humans (those with activated genes) all throughout time, with the occasional period of increased activation to offset the excess. The system was not designed to handle much more than this.

Secondary Maintenance System

The Secondary Maintenance System came into existence very soon after the Primary. This mechanism is not an automated process, but rather an actual species of beings that inhabit the Phases. Later known as the Psykrie, these beings were constructed for the purpose of performing rudimentary maintenance tasks on the general structure of the phases, namely the phase shift barrier. The Phases had noticed that humans tended to be messy and cause minor barrier damage with their prodding curiosity. There was also always the issue of general disrepair and upkeep. Thus, the Psykrie were created to counter this.
A Psykrie is a tendricular, wraith-like entity. In comparison to the human body, their minds are far more direct and singularly focused. They do not appear to have any sensory abilities beyond touch and very limited vision, as they primarily perceive and interact with their environment via extremely powerful Psionics. They are entirely dependent on these Psionics to function, using telekinesis to “swim” through the air. They have no spoken or written language, but rather communicate via these advanced Psionics, using unfiltered raw emotion to convey their intentions and meaning to other Psykrie.
It is common for them to form close relationships with others of their species, and they are most comfortable traveling and working in small groups, as they are most content with the Psionic presence of others. The height of their instincts revolve around Phase repairs, which is translated to an emotional drive toward being innately “helpful”. They are also constructed with a cautious caretaker mentality toward humans, knowing not to interfere with them, but being willing to if a breakdown in the natural order of things endangers them. They have an exceptionally strong instinct for self-preservation, and their one form of defense is nearly unbeatable: they are capable of Psionically overwhelming and either incapacitating or killing any entity with a consciousness, as well as using telekinesis to defend against more physical threats. Compared to humans, they are more emotionally stagnant, but seem to be capable of experiencing anger, fear, curiosity, and satisfaction. There is little variance in individual personalities and behavior, although they have impeccable memories, and can be shaped into varied individuals via different experiences. They do not reproduce, but are manufactured as needed by the Phases. Their lifespans average at 10,000 years long.
Another feature of the Psykrie is their adaptability. They are designed to have two different forms: their basic, natural form, and their adapted, emergency form. When they are in the Phases, everything is fine and normal. But in the event that something broke the barrier so severely that they were forced into the Living Phase, they would switch forms to self-preservation mode (a more physically than psionically oriented entity). Their new goal would be returning to the Phases at all costs, in order to continue their duty.

Tertiary Maintenance System

The Tertiary Maintenance System is relatively new in comparison to the other mechanisms. It was designed to handle the things the Secondary couldn’t: major problems that were too complex for the Psykrie. After the Secondary system was taken out of commission (Corruption of the Psykrie), the disrepair that went unfixed led to energy buildup over time. This buildup eventually became excessive enough that alternate measures needed to be taken. The Oversoul chose an unborn human and altered them, granting them Psionics similar to that of the Psykrie. This human was then born and raised normally, but upon maturation, the Phases pulled them into the Ether Phase, introducing them to the world and setting them free to isolate the problems and fix them. They have a Psionic strength level similar to that of a Psykrie.
The flaw in this plan is that The Oversoul does not fully comprehend the psyche of their creation. They cannot empathize with what it is to live without an innate knowing, without a honed sixth sense. They simply drop the humans in the Phases with no explanation and expect them to figure out what to do. And they often do discover that problems exist, but have little to no idea how to fix them, or even what the problems’ roots fully are. (The problems outlined in the Extrasensory Experience section only add to the dilemma.)
Even after The Oversoul fully realized the human lack of ability to figure things out without guidance, They were presented with another dilemma. This problem could not be simply remedied by The Oversoul choosing to instruct the Tertiary in their task. The Oversoul’s sole form of communication is Psionic, which they would often use to basically communicate with and instruct the Psykrie. This method is called “Empathic Insertion (EI)”. When The Oversoul inserts instructions via EI into the Psykrie, they do so in the form of organizing sensory and emotional memories into a patchwork pattern of images and emotions. They can ONLY use what the EI recipient has already experienced to do this. The Psykrie’s muted emotional capacity allowed them to handle this very well, but The Oversoul is far more removed from the psyche of humans, and when they first tried to communicate with them, the humans were overwhelmed with pure emotion and driven mad by the visions. The Oversoul lost several Tertiaries to this madness for trying to communicate with them. This desperation was part of what led to the need for a Quaternary Maintenance System (see below).
There is only intended to be one Tertiary at a time, as The Oversoul must actively strengthen them in order to elevate them to the power level necessary to affect the Phases. When it is decided that a Tertiary has done all they are capable of understanding and accomplishing, another one is born, and the old Tertiary becomes an inactive Tertiary, as they are cut off from the constant power boost in order to let the new Tertiary have this boost.

Universal Sentience

The universe is, by nature, a larger scale version of the Mother Earth mythos. It behaves as a biomechanical entity, needing constant upkeep and having multiple methods of self-care. It is semi-sapient, and capable of making its own decisions regarding many of the things that happen within it. This entity, this sentient portion of The Phases, is known as The Oversoul. This Oversoul is made up of the Life Force Collective in the Soul Phase. They refuse to do much direct interference into the matters of living things, They prefer to let them continue to be fed energy and recycle the energy via their actions in the Living Phase. This is the way things were meant to be. The Oversoul does, however, have Their limits. They can almost never instantly change anything about the events that take place within them, although They can nudge or insert or slow down things when They deem fit. They can subtly guide the evolution of a species, or self-direct Their own evolution to incorporate additional rules or methods of accomplishing Their goals. An especially relevant limitation of Theirs is the lack of ability to communicate with their inhabitants, namely humans. This is a major roadblock in Their attempts at working Tertiaries, as They often require more than just being dropped off in the Phases to learn about Them: something the Oversoul does not fully understand. Semi-sapience is the bottom line, full sapience unachievable due to the Phases lack of a sense of individualism, disconnection from the minds of others, and empathy. They are not omniscient, and only partially omnipresent.
Still, The Oversoul does have control over some fairly major things. They inserted the floodgate gene into people fairly early on in human development. For a long time, They retained an open line of Psionic communication with the Psykrie, for which They would use EI. They are still capable of manipulating the speed of Psykrie production.

Extrasensory Experience

The human mind was not designed to experience an alternate Phase. It is for this reason that when one tries to, it cannot fully understand what it is seeing. What it does see, the picture it does come up with, is actually it attempting to make sense of that which it is incapable of making sense of. Human minds don’t like blank spots and things they can’t understand, so they construct an image, a version of this world, that they can be comfortable with. This process leaves out a lot of key aspects of the Phases, still, and even so, each person who enters will see something completely different. This process is one that can be trained and refined, until one sees very clear (but still symbolic, representative, or metaphorical, rather than actual) images. One learns that their sight is the least trustworthy sense, here.

There is, however, a method of interacting with the Phases that every human has innately, though is a very undeveloped muscle through complete disuse. This method is commonly known as the sixth sense. The quiet whispers and discreet feelings humans have from time to time do not even close to represent the true intention of this sense. It was bestowed upon humans after the evolution of the Tertiaries, so that humans would have a method of perceiving the Phases if chosen for this purpose — or at the very least, wouldn't go insane from trying. It is a limited form of telepathy, based closely on the same telepathy the creatures that inhabit the Phases use to perceive and interact with the world. It has gone so long without use that it is much more weakened in humans’ genealogy than would be preferable, so those chosen to become Tertiaries are fed a cocktail of energies specifically designed to strengthen the sixth sense, as well as their Psionic capabilities.
Even so, the human sixth sense (even strengthened by The Oversoul) is not close to comparable with the senses of the Psykrie. This irreparable inefficiency in the Tertiary setup is partially responsible for the eventual evolution of the Quaternary Defense Mechanism.

Evolution: The Quaternary System

The Tertiary’s shortcomings were unclear to the Phases, even as time progressed. They assumed that the issue was the person they chose, but incompetence only works as an explanation so many times before They were forced to consider alternatives. When They realized that humans may just not understand, They attempted to use Empathetic Insertion to communicate Their intent to the current Tertiary. However, as before described, humans are far more emotional than Psykrie, and even more so than the Phases, so when the Phases harnessed the Tertiaries’ emotions, purified them, and presented them with the visions, the humans were either broken or driven to insanity. They attempted to change the intensity of Their communications, but They were designed for communication with the Psykrie, not humans, and thus could not do much about it. They did, a few times, manage to EI a Tertiary without harming them excessively, but doing so in turn weakened the Phases and left them temporarily more susceptible to damage. This meant it could not be used for constant guidance and thus was only used twice in all of history.
After many failed attempts, They started coming at odds with Their non-interference initiative. They compromised it in minor ways, prodding and suggesting and presenting various external things to point the current Tertiary in the right direction. Even so, no Tertiary could isolate the problem.
So after a cataclysmic barrier collapse that the Phases barely recovered from (see Part II: History — The Cataclysm), they decided it was time to abandon their plan of waiting out the death of the Psykrie (see Part II: History — Psykrie Corruption) and take more drastic action.
There was no way for the Phases to communicate with the humans without harming them, but the only way they could possibly comprehend their task was to be told of it. This dilemma was solved by the evolution of the Quaternary Maintenance System. It took many years to evolve, and this was fast for the Phases, but the moment it was complete, They deployed it.
So what is the Quaternary System? This system is, in some ways, similar to the Tertiary system. It was built by creating an Untainted Psykrie, encasing it in a soul shell (see Soul Shell), and tethering it to a human body. This Psykrie would experience life as a human, and would have the mental capabilities of a human, but would be perfectly capable of withstanding Empathetic Insertion — they would be, in fact, a Psykrie. They were tasked with exploring the Phases, racking up experiences and memories for the Phases to use in the EI process, then finding the active Tertiary and, acting as a sort of translator, relaying the EI messages to them so that they could comprehend and complete their task.
The Phases had at this point become far more familiar with human nature, and understood that humans cannot be trusted with power. They considered abandoning the current Tertiary and giving the Tertiary abilities to the Quaternary, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Ultimate power and full knowledge of the workings of the Phases were a bad mix, and considering human history, They feared human susceptibility to temptation would drive them to power madness, conquest, and destruction, the full knowledge of their abilities and their application being sealing their destruction. Instead, they opted to separate the power and the knowledge, having the Quaternary give the Tertiary only the knowledge they needed to fulfill their purpose.