The "Meta-setting" of my Stories *Completed*

I've been in the fandom since, I'd say a,out late 2006-early 2007. I've been thinking about how I could possibly contribute to Karbo's universe for about that long; I wrote the prologue for an ultimately aborted saga, which to tell the truth was "heavier" than most stories about Felarya at the time. But, I don't think it was wholly unsuited; vore figured very heavily into it, and I was fascinated by the predator/prey dynamic. Most people, when dealing with paraphilias, are either repulsed or think nothing deep can be done with it-that any work centered on it cannot rise above stroke material. I always found such views to be parochial-revealing a lack of imagination. The predator/prey dynamic and the effects upon humans confronting the notion of being prey will always figure heavily into my work, but I digress heavily from the main subject.

To understand my characters and their story, one must first understand the world they hail from. They are not native to Felarya-in fact, they are from Earth. However, they are not from OUR Earth; their Earth resides in a parallel universe. Critical to my notion is that there are an infinite number of "parallels" to a given universe-each parallel represents every possible permutation, manifested on civilized worlds in different divergences in their people's history. This version of Earth, henceforth known as Alt-Earth for our convenience, experienced its' point of divergence in the aftermath of World War II. Europe was devastated; two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively; the Soviet Union and the United States were gearing up for a showdown that would persist until 1991. Okay, you may ask, sounds like our world-what's the difference? Apart from political outcomes in the United Kingdom and economic policy in South America, it would seem that no other divergences have taken place. But that is only if you focus your attention upon the bluster of men in the halls of power. The divergence that would shape the course of Alt-Earth begins with a single man: that brilliant physicist, Albert Einstein. I'm not much of a physics geek, but I do know that Einstein's main stumbling block was in quantum physics. His main contribution to physics, general relativity, is really not so strange upon further reflection. It was merely a resolution to defects in the classical Newtonian physics model; namely, in regards to light and heavy masses. Causality was preserved, with no 'spooky action from a distance'. It was his inability to come to terms with QM that was Einstein's undoing on our Earth.

However, on Alt-Earth, he rose to the challenge; he devoted the remainder of his life to reconciling relativity and quantum mechanics. Just a few years before his death, he succeeded; the solution was long and complicated, which only highly trained physicists could really understand. But it's implications were revolutionary; it posited the existence of an infinite number of universes, which could be conceptualized in a multitude of ways (as bubbles in quantum foam, membranes linked by strings). Other physicists, working out the math, discovered that travel between universes was theoretically possible. But, to create a brief rip would take a massive amount of energy, and a sustained 'gate' more still. On October 1957, scientists in the Soviet Union successfully created a temporal rip in the fabric of the universe-Sputnik's launch was barely a footnote in the world's papers. It would also be the only man-made object to orbit the Earth until the end of the Cold War. The Space Age never began.

Instead, Alt-Earth embarked on another path: The Gate Age. The Soviet Rip, which was sustained for only four seconds, would ignite a fierce competition with the United States-the race to build a gate to another universe. John F. Kennedy, who survived an assassination attempt in Dallas, had announced earlier in the 60's that such a gate would be built "by the end of the decade!" The development of Gate technology would shape the future course of Alt-Earth's history; technology to identify and classify universes according to "frequency"; the use of smaller portals between different places on Alt-Earth, changing the way people travel; secret wars fought in different worlds, the innocents paying the price; and, finally, the discovery of Felarya by the 1980's. However, a word about the world that was ultimately selected as a "destination": known by its inhabitants as Dorontu...

I remember well that project

It was a solid one but I think I like this one even more. a gate race ? that's just neat ! XD
And there is so much fun to have with alternate and "what if" universes. In fact it's one of my very favorite science fiction theme personnaly ^_^

Indeed, this is quite good, a feasible divergence from our timeline.

Cuuurious. Seems like an excellent idea, could turn into a great story (ies). Definitely looking forward to whatever comes from this. A "Gate Age" instead of a space race sounds peculiar, and very interesting.

Hmm... Interesting. You've caught my attention. I'll be keeping an eye out to see how this develops.

*Sits down on his easy chair in front of the fire, lighting his pipe*Where was I? Oh yes, Dorontu. The Soviet Union beat the United States in creating a "rip"-a temporary hole in a universe. However, rips aren't very useful. First, they cannot be opened beyond a certain size for safety reasons; without being contained by a 'gate', the amount of devastation would make a nuclear holocaust seem preferable-besides, the biggest ones never exceeded that of a small window for these reasons. Second, they randomly connect to universes while open-at a rapid pace, measured in picoseconds. A connection would not remain open long enough for a human to pass through in one piece, and would be transported somewhere quite random even if that were not the case-with no hope of getting back. No, the development of a practical "gate" system was essential. During the late-fifties to the early-sixties, a gate was a completely theoretical construct. Some scientists thought Mr. Kennedy was being supremely unrealistic-some thought that a gate was impossible in practical terms! Most, whether driven by patriotism or a sincere can-do spirit, pressed on. Both proponents and detractors knew the following things were needed for a gate to function:
-the means of containing a "rip"
-the means of "tuning" to a specific universe, a specific location
-a power source (later refinements to use less energy welcome)

The first breakthrough came from the United Kingdom in 1963, when a team of scientists and engineers backed by a pair of wealthy individuals (who were funding for the prestige alone) developed the prototype for a dimensional tuner and autoseeker. Modeling parallel universes as “frequencies”, it identified stable universes by looking for regular oscillations. [Note: I derive this from what I remember about how SETI operates. Apparently, an artificial signal would not have a irregular pattern-while a natural signal, like a pulsar, would have a regular pattern. In this formulation, a universe that had an irregular pattern would be “noisy”-that is to say, without any cosmological constants.] The project then turned toward identifying and classifying all stable universes and the worlds in them. This was done slowly at first, by hand, aided by computers as powerful as cheap calculators today-this was the sixties after all. However, as computers became more sophisticated, the speed of classification would increase. For now, they identified one stable world in one stable universe-which they labeled, “Finish Line” after both the Soviets and the United States declared it to be their destination. By 1969, the United States successfully built a stable gate-it took a lot of taxpayer money, borrowed funds from other nations, and more than a little bit of inflation. But, Neil Armstrong was the first Alt-Earth human to set foot on another world in another universe; he had reached “Finish Line”.

Like on our Earth, interest in gates and parallel universes collapsed after this moment-only nerds and physicists remained interested in such things. Unlike Earth however, manned expeditions to Dorontu didn't cease-rather, they were simply transferred from civilian agencies to military auspices (aka the Pentagon and the Red Army respectively). Throughout the 1970's until the end of the Cold War, the US and the Soviets built bases; outposts; and underground labs without the knowledge or oversight of their civilian governments. They often clashed, with hot wars moving away from proxies in the Third World to “off-world” hot wars over territory and ideological control of local people. It was also here where both sides encountered the voracious inhabitants, both sentient and non-sentient. Declassified documents describe, in excruciating detail, how predators made short work of their respective units. Some of these reports grew progressively less coherent, as the stress of being prey to beings who appeared to just be larger humans took its toll. Some even launched into reflections on Darwin; Tennyson's notions of nature as “red in tooth and claw”. Toward the middle of the 80's, when Cold War tensions moved back to Alt-Earth, American and Soviet soldiers on either side were no longer interested in fighting with each other. Mostly, they left each other alone until the Cold War's end brought them earthside. But the declassified documents of this “trans-dimensional imperialism” became known to all, and launched a huge controversy that persisted well into the next century.
However, while all this was happening, the world changed as it did in 1980's. The Cold War went hot again, Reagan was elected in the United States, proxy wars resumed in the Middle East. Margaret Thatcher, who led the Labour Party to it's first victory in parliament (ending the Conservative hegemony and the reign of Churchillism), did not back America's new found belligerence. Indeed, Reagan faced down the “Evil Empire” without any backing from Thatcher-making him less popular worldwide. The only thing maintaining his popularity in America is a Dorontu native who has been leading successful proxy wars in South America. However, none of this is important to our story.

The nineteen-eighties, on Alt-Earth as much as our Earth, was a decade of apparent greed; selfishness; ruthless CEOs; but, it was also “Felaryan Decade”. Remember that team in the United Kingdom? They have still been at it all these years, taking advantage of the new silicon based personal computers. In 1980, they discovered something...unprecedented. A world that was simultaneously a universe. They had discovered Felarya; and gate technology was now quite well developed (every developed country had one or a set of them. Hong Kong firms even found ways to make them profitable, if only by catering to a rich crowd), and exploration began immediately. Much to their surprise, it seemed as if two “manmade gates” were present and accessible. Felarya would capture the imagination of the world (by this time, the notion of intelligent beings consuming humans was well known by the mid 80's, which provoked varied reactions from different segments of society); inspire fiction and art; provoke philosophical discussions; and inspire a motley group of humans, young children at this time...to go and make their mark there.

[There. Not entirely perfect, and further refinements are desirable. Still, that about sums up my “metastory”, backstory, for the main characters. Feel free to make any suggestions or improvements. The next installment will be found in the characters board, where I will describe this “motley group” of humans.

that's quite fascinating XD

oh boy, they don't know what they're getting into, lol.

Alt-Earth folk: Yay, a new world!
Felaryan folk: Yay, new snacks!

Can't wait to see what might come out of this.

Ohhh, bad move there, old chap. Betta luck next time. Lol, those silly humans, not able to accept their role changing for the pointy top of the food chain to the bottom. I like how this is working. can't wait for it to develop.