Editing Map the Multiverse

[[Category:Amber]]
[[Category:Campaign Resource]]
[[Category:Alternate Settings]]
[[Category:Multiverse]]

In Patternbound, my ''Godbound'' conversion for the Amber setting, I created a system to describe Shadows and navigate through them. I even wrote up some genre settings in it and prepared a spreadsheet.

I realized it might be a fun project if everybody wrote up their campaign worlds, favorite settings (from games, novels, TV shows), etc. and posted them using this system-agnostic rules. Kinda like we were mapping the multiverse.

It started as a [https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?833153-Map-the-multiverse! thread], but as it grew, I thought a wiki would be an interesting resource.

=='''The basics'''==
Creation is divided into four axes of existence, with Amber and the Courts of Chaos at opposing extremes: the poles. The axes are: Magic, Tech, Time, and Weird. Each has 10 degrees of variation (40 in total, 42 if you count Amber and the Courts of Chaos) and the cross-reference of these steps creates a coordinate system for the multiverse.

Each combination of the four coordinates references an area of creation that groups together all Shadows that share those traits. So two Shadows that both have Low Magic, an Industrial tech level, a time rate 10 times faster than Amber, and no “weirdness” will be found at coordinates 3430. It’s what Amberites call the “law of congruency of correspondences”.

This doesn’t mean they are exactly alike (they can be if they are reflections, slightly different versions of the same universe). One might be a Victorian Shadow where occultists ply their trade through the Royal Institute of Thaumatology, while the other is a Wild West reality where magic is virtually unknown.

Differentiating between two Shadows at the same coordinates can be done by name, Tags and a two- or three-line description. For example, the two Shadows above could be described as:

• '''Albiona:''' Victorian, Institutionalized Magic, British Earth; a Shadow where the 19th-century British empire rules over a significant part of Earth with the help of the magi from the Royal Institute of Thaumatology.
• '''Conehill:''' Wild West, Pleasure, Blue Humans; Conehill is the greatest city in the world of Azure and there you can find all sorts of delightful past-times, from the chemical to the sensual, but also a quick death.

'''TRIP DURATION'''
Each step in an axis represents one day of regular shadow walking, four hours of hellriding, or nine days of traveling the Royal Way. So, going from a Shadow at 3541 to another at 3563 would take 4 days, 16 hours or about five weeks, respectively; the difference between the two Shadows being four steps: two in the Time axis and two in the Weird axis.

Between Shadows at 0000 and Amber, or 9999 and the Courts of Chaos, there’s only 1 step, not four. Yggdrasil, the intelligent tree that sits midway between Amber and the Courts of Chaos is just a few hours from 4444 or 5555 Shadows.

Moving between Shadows within the same set of coordinates should be substantially faster than regular shadow movement. And travel between reflections should be even quicker. Going from Albiona to Conehill, from the example above, should take hours of shadow walking, no more. Shifting from Albiona with a closed bakery to another version where said business is still open should take a minute, at most.

'''INTERPRETING SHADOW'''
Of course, this system depends heavily on interpretation. Two people can have different ideas on how to stat a given reality. For example, the Shadow that houses the Star Trek setting is clearly No Magic, Space Opera, x2 time rate, and has psionics (Weird 4). But it also has a plethora of near omnipotent entities, like Q. Someone might think it belongs in Weird 5, 6 or even 7.

If you are the only GM, that’s not an issue, but if the master seat is rotatory, it can create problems. Try to discuss and reach a compromise. For example, all those ultrapowerful beings in Star Trek seem to be highly evolved species that transcended their physical form, not insanity-inducing cosmic monstrosities. So, in a way, they are the result of the Thematic Powers Weird level.

Someone might argue that, in this case, maybe Tech should be bumped up to Singularity, but it’s always better to stat a Shadow based on the traits of its most prominent area of interaction. Star Trek is not a setting where people are running around ascending into higher dimensions or rebuilding star systems. These things exist (a Shadow is a whole universe, after all), but are not the norm in Star Trek. Thus, the appropriate Tech level is Space Opera.

Note that a reality’s subrealms are not different Shadows. The D&D world of Oerth (from Greyhawk) is a Shadow that includes the Prime Material Plane and all the other dimensions, like elemental planes, the Happy Hunting Grounds, the Abyss etc. It’s up to the GM if shadow walking or shadow shifting allows a character to move between these subrealms. 

=='''The Axes'''==
This section explains what each step in the axes means. Most are straightforward, with only Weird being more open to interpretation. Still, readjusting the steps in the axes if you want a different distribution shouldn’t be problematic.

The notation for the axes isn’t difficult to remember: Magic, Tech, Time and Weird, or MTTW (kinda like Matthew). Magic and Tech are the two most common parameters to describe worlds in RPGs, so they come first. This way, you know the second T has to stand for Time.

[[File:The_Axes.jpeg|center|frame]]

=='''Timeline'''==