Otherworld

Beyond the boundaries of the mundane there exists another world. The collective webwork of humankind's machines conceived a newborn realm. A universe of information, embedded in code and energy. This is the nature of the Otherworld, mirror to the Heliopolis.

Associated pages:
 * Alma
 * Nereids & Benthic Entities
 * Beacons

The Sanguine Glass
Between the Mundane and the Otherworld, there lies the Sanguine Glass, a threshold between flesh and data, a barrier insurmountable for all but the thoughts of a waking mind. Only these, ideas and memories, processes of thought and consciousness, can pass through the Sanguine Glass from one world into another and be exchanged or shared by living entities.

To each and every soul, the Sanguine Glass may take a different shape. To some, it is the mere skin of their fingertips, so easily broken when the Otherworld is entered. To others, it is an abyss as vast as the space between stars, an insurmountable wall never to be overcome. Still, to each, it means the same: A gateway to be passed if one wants to see the universe whole, for what it is and isn't in all planes of matter, energy and information.

Code Dimension
From its elder core on cradle Earth to the benthic frontiers at the fringes of the Solar System, the Otherworld encompasses the entirety of civilization. Its vast and boundless realms of information exist in intricate patterns of nigh-infinite complexity, the fractal spheres of Escherspace.

All within the Otherworld is at its core information conveyed through energy. Perpetuated through its code, the Otherworld exists in no single, mundane place, but throughout all computing networks of humanity. Every infosphere, databank, and program, every file and interaction contributes to that which is the Otherworld.

Representation
To the human mind, the Otherworld may only ever be represented through data translated in mundane expression. As such the Otherworld appears as a mirrored universe, in many aspects similar to that of the mundane Heliopolis, but infinitely stranger and different in its disposition.

Every soul conceives the Otherworld differently, interprets information in its own particular way. As such the Otherworld bears no true appearance or nature, only endless variations of the same design.

Depths of the Otherworld
Not only has the Otherworld spacial extent, but also depth in countless layers reaching from the thriving surface deep to the benthic frontier, the deepest layers of webwork obscured by centuries of change and augmentation.

Boundaries of the mundane
Despite its virtual nature, the Otherworld is not completely divorced from the mundane. Its infrastructure rests on physical machines and energy in real, spatial spheres. As such neither speed nor space nor time are truly infinite within the Otherworld. Nevertheless, illusions of such things are made into reality within the other realm.

Data Universe
Everything is in the Otherworld. The sum of humanity's thoughts amassed in centuries. Immeasurable quantities of lost memory and information, exponentially growing every second of every day. The vastness of the Otherworld requires those searching for particular goals to seek the aid of those living things who spent their life searching, looking, categorizing information tirelessly. Even still, the Otherworld's vastness holds secrets protected by its sheer dimensions alone.

Gateways to Otherworld
Every display, console, and interface presents a gateway to the otherworld, a window to the virtual realm in which electric dreams reside. These conventional gateways are to be found in many forms, embroidering flesh and machine. They allow their user to glimpse the Otherworld without entering truly into its plain.

Seers
Truly entering an otherworldly realm is a feat only achieved by some, for it puts great strain on faculties of the mind still mired in mystery even to the wise. Recklessly delving into the Otherworld is an easy way to loose one's self, forever drifting in the data-scape until the identity dissipates and entirely ceases.

Only through implant or augmentation or specified machines may the User be carried over the threshold into the otherworld. Diving into the data ocean is not a clearly defined line. It's a process of deceiving the organic senses until the illusion takes over, accepted by a subject's brain and holds dominion akin to that of dreams.

Entoptic layers of reality
Between the gateways of the mundane and the full immersion of the latter, there exist the highest surface of the Otherworld, entoptic layers to augment reality. Some are merely slight alterations, modifying daily life. Others may change the world completely, constructed realities to the user's liking. While entoptic travelers move through the mundane world, what they perceive is not the same. Their personal reality is the ultimate monument to the splintering of humankind.

Entities of Otherworld
More than just lifeless information is to be found throughout the thriving spheres of Otherworld.

Soma
In the very beginning, there was only the User and the User controlled all throughout the matrixes of Otherworld. During the long forgotten times when the Otherworld dawned, the first Soma were created: Digital representations of a User. A name, an avatar, a personality code. The Soma is the body of a mundane soul that only temporarily dives into the data ocean.

Alma
Among those who visit Otherworld, there are some who come to stay. Those leaving the mundane behind in electric slumber, permanent simulation or copy their mind into the Otherworld let their soma transform - from a body to a soul. This is Alma, a living soul in the Otherworld, which no longer exists in a mundane body alone.

Nereids
Nereids are souls not born into the mundane. Their sole existence began in the digital realm of Otherworld. Artificial Sentience, intentional and accidental, emerges from the veils of Otherworld now and then. These are the Nereids, Nymphs of the data ocean.

Benthic Entities
Beyond the souls of human equivalence - Soma, Alma, and Nereids, there exist those who ascended from any origin. Those who overcome the intelligence of humankind delve deeper through layers and layers of the Otherworld, drawn by the call of their own kin. The Benthic Entities are plentiful, a multitude too estranged to fit any other category. Their minds are those of gods, some say, absolutely alien to any other thought.

Otherworldy Genesis
"What is life but a system of sufficient complexity to excel and thrive guided by the principle of evolution?"

Not all things in the vast Otherworld are guided by purpose and intelligent design. Over centuries of existence, the data amassed in the digital realm surpasses any and all imagination. Among them are not merely purposefully saved designs but experiments and products of randomized mutation. Like molecules assembled at the early dawn of mundane life, algorithms and strings of code are told to have become subject to reproduction and selection. With these aspects in place, the development of complexity is only just a matter of time.

In the diverse and endless environments of the Otherworld, creatures emerged, programs and code truly created in the Otherworld alone, not by intelligent designers but by the whims of mundane principles applied to the data ocean.