Darkverse

Public astrography record
Property of the Royal Atheneum of Hövnís, Eörpe

The darkverse is a plane of existence known to be coterminous with our reality, featuring a different space-time continuum and altered natural laws. It's discovery and the invention of riftech enabled widespread galactic connection and colonization, and was crucial for the development of our modern macro-civilizations.
For millennia the darkverse was believed to consist of a mostly empty expanse. The many natural hazards and perceived lack of features of note or value, made it hard to justify an investment in proper scientific exploration.

Etymology & Definition

-verse is a recognized postfix used in names of planes of existence or alternate realities. The term verse is also used in place of dimension and plane in many formal texts to remove any potential confusion with geometric size or spatial directions. It's also commonly used in place of reality (including alternate reality), with the purpose of reserving the usage of the former for exclusively referring to our own plane of existence.

History

The First Planar Collision

The existence of darkverse's equivalents to landmasses were only discovered 18 years ago, in the aftermath of the Shattering of Ghete disaster. A large riftcraft used for long-haul freighting had been parked planetside for repairs, when someone bypassed its security measures and activated the front-mounted reality cutter. It tore a massive rift that, together with the reactor used to fuel it, caused the annihilation of the planet and destabilization its entire solar system.
Since the energy signature from the disaster could be registered from several lightyears away, it was expected that only a cloud of debris and dust would be left. Instead, circa 30% of Ghete was still present in the form of shattered pieces floating within a debris field, and the rest of its mass had vanished. There were also a lot of unexpected foreign matter - both organic and inorganic - suspended in a cloud of highly corrosive vapor.
Further investigation led to the conclusion that the planetside rift had caused Ghete to collide with an unknown mass within the darkverse, and the resulting debris had partially been transposed between the planes. Searches in the darkverse revealed that the corrosive cloud that served as Ghete's analogue was near-gone. Most of the missing mass of Ghete was found in its place, along with more torn pieces and chunks that could have been part of a landmass once hidden in the cloud.

Astrography

Cosmic Sea

The analogy of our reality's open space is called the cosmic sea. It's a starless expanse scattered with colorful, swirling nebulae, glail clusters, and white holes.
Unlike regular space, the cosmic sea isn't a true vacuum. It has a very thin, cloudy, and storm-grey atmosphere consisting primarily of hydrogen, helium, xenon, and neon gases. Suspended in this atmosphere are crystalline microparticles propelled by strange winds created from ambient magnetic and gravitational forces.

Glails

Every asteroid, moon, and planet are represented in the darkverse as one or more 'islands', called glails, that are enveloped in dense clouds of highly corrosive vapor. These clouds are what obscured the glails from being detected, and they make approach by riftcraft from the cosmic sea impossible. There's no known hull plating material resistant enough to ensure safe landing.
The few glails that have been successfully accessed through planetside rifting are estimated to be 50m² to 800km² wide, and 2-4 kilometers thick at the center. While they all have two traversable sides featuring mesogravity, they aren't all necessarily flat like a disc. Some glails, when viewed at an angle at distance, appear crescent- or even wave-shaped. They're thickest at the center and grow thinner toward the outer edges.

Hazards

Natural Rifts

It's not fully known how rifts form naturally in space, but they always present a hard-to-anticipate danger. Due to their instability and the difficulty in spotting them, astronavigators might find themselves steering a spacecraft through one without realizing until it's too late. It's usually easy to be recovered if one is stranded this way along a monitored lane, thanks to long-distance communication capabilities.
Even spacecraft equipped with their own reality cutter have ended up stranded on numerous occasions. While it's widely recommended to always store enough energy for at least four cuts, in practice most will opt to save money and space by only having enough to enter and exit the darkverse once. If they end up stranded on a low-traffic lane or unofficial route, they may not be able to receive outside recovery before running out of resources.

Stranding

Becoming stranded in a remote location of darkverse is a serious problem, as very few non-native species are capable of surviving in its environments for prolonged periods of time. The chances of being rescued or happening upon a natural rift to escape through before running out supplies or falling victim to one of its many hazards, are hopelessly small.
Abandoning one's vessel isn't an option either, even if an escape pod or evacuation suit is available. The microparticles suspended in the cosmic sea atmosphere, accelerated by the sweeping winds, are capable of tearing through most textiles, skin, and flesh. Inhalation quickly causes severe internal hemorrhaging.

The only known survivor of direct exposure to cosmic sea atmosphere was the nullvox engineer Spindle, a crewmember of the Suthern exploration riftcraft Saratine III. They managed to repair a hull breach and damaged reality cutter so the craft could safely return, but spent months in biomedical repair afterward.

— Notation by Dr. Tybulus Svilen

Spacecraft Collisions

Collision with a spacecraft - intentional or not - is immensely destructive and can release enough energy and radiation to destroy a planet. There's no hull plating or shielding in existence that can save two colliding riftcrafts of near equal size from being completely obliterated and their passengers evaporated. In most cases there wouldn't even be debris left behind.
Thankfully collisions between spacecrafts are rare and a comparatively small concern, especially along established and monitored lanes.

Planar Collisions

The severest danger by far is the high chance of causing a planar collision when using a reality cutter within the atmosphere of an asteroid, moon, or planet. If the cut is misaligned, the opened rift could clip into nearby terrain, causing the landmass on both sides to collide.

Matter Transposition

Other factors that need to be taken into account before and during rifting is pressure differences, leakage of toxic vapor or gases, and contamination by alien species.
Of particular importance is the fact that there's a notable presence of agglamus in the cosmic sea. Typically it's found as fist-sized globules carried on the winds in search of compatible lifeforms to infect. Recently, there's also been an increase in sightings of sketh corynexes, even in places far from the containment zone and any active hives.

Desynchronization

Individuals that return to our reality after spending time in the darkverse may temporarily suffer a chronobiological condition called major desynchronosis. The differences in passage of time can give rise to several averse mental effects, and also cause symptoms similar to normal desynchronosis such as: sleep disturbances, cognitive impairments, and gastrointestinal problems.
Shorter trips through the darkverse, measured below one hour in reality, typically takes a week at most to recover from even by individuals unused to rift travel. By this time, most if not all symptoms have receded. Long trips are ill-advised without the use of cryopods; an individual that's spent a significant amount of time in the darkverse may develop a desynchronosis disorder that make some or all of the mental health effects permanent. Many with desynchronosis disorder report feeling sluggish and alienated while in our reality.

The Signal

A signal, consisting of low frequency sounds, is permanently broadcasted across the cosmic sea through unknown means. It has no discernible origin and is known to adversely affect many non-native species, and will cause rising levels of discomfort and anxiety even at very low volume. Prolonged exposure to the signal can cause a permanent state of paranoia and panic, often called 'suffering the dread throes'.

Stellar Phenomena

Nebulas

Cosmic sea nebulas are large clouds of ionized plasma and dust, carried by the same strange winds that accelerates the crystalline microparticles. They are composed primarily of neon and xenon, and considered very beautiful.

There's a widespread belief that looking at them will accelerate the onset of dread throes, but there's no scientific evidence pointing toward such being the case.

— Notation by Dr. Tybulus Svilen

White Holes

Scattered throughout the cosmic sea is the darkverse's analogue of singularities (black holes). They share a similar range of mass, charge and angular momentum as our singularities, but are blinding white in color which make them significantly easier to spot. Differently from normal singularities energy-matter, light and information can only escape from it but not enter into it.

The Wormhole Theory

A popular theory is that our black holes form a pair with the darkverse's white holes, acting as a type of stable rifts that are fueled by their immense gravity wells. This would mean they're permanent and predictable bridges between the two planes, although likely only cosmic dust, energy, and information could safely transfer through them. The hazy atmosphere filling the cosmic sea could be the pulverized remains of stellar objects from our reality.

There was a proposal to use these singularity pairs to build a new galactic communication network or fuel massive power plants, if the wormhole theory could be proven.

— Notation by Dr. Tybulus Svilen

Indigenous Life

So far, the only native lifeforms encountered in the cosmic sea consist of a family of extrinsid species called kishethers that resemble different dangerous space phenomena. The most well-known ones being the volsyne and the ninnithys.

The glails appear far more diverse, as each glail studied so far have been home to their own unique ecosystems - one on each side. While there can be some similarities between ecosystems within a single cluster, we're yet to find any signs of common genetic ancestry.
Chigecsni, another species of kishethers, have been found on most visited glails. They don't appear to be native and have so far displayed no signs of aggression, but their presence severely hampers exploration efforts - likely unintentionally.

Cultural Significance

The Liquid Night

In Arat Mapuya-Morrek, the darkverse is portrayed as the Liquid Night: a twilight realm separating our Ordered Universe from the Eternal Discord beyond. The maddening sounds come from all the treasures of the mind stolen by Nacuja-Yichat.

The Near-Nothing

In Krot Ur, the darkverse said to be the Near-Nothing: the fading remains from when Rauf devoured yesterday.

Dgelek Turai

In Dgelek Turai, the darkverse is the same as the Gloom; a part of the Mist cast in shadow. The Mist is where the land of living and the land of spirits meet. Just like predators stalk the nights in Ittakeb's jungles and forests, malovent spirits lurk in the Gloom.

The Beyond

In the Paradigm, the darkverse is portrayed as the Beyond; a dark and cursed realm that the souls of heretics and heathens are condemned to. Regular citizens are forbidden from using riftech in the Lukariat, and there's widespread superstitious beliefs concerning the darkverse, riftech, and those that develop and/or use it.

The Starless Sea

Data recovered from ruins of Cheusal origin mentions a realm called the Starless Sea. It's theorized to be their name for the darkverse, drawing parallels between the glails floating in the cosmic sea, and their homeworld's vast oceans and many islands.

The Cosmic Seam

In the manifold-reality model, it's purported that the darkverse is a cosmic seam: a layer between different realities that separate them into the honeycomb multiverse.