Metaphysics of TORG [PDF]

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Metaphysics of TORG To understand the nature of possibility energy, the axioms, world laws, and everything else, one must first understand what happens when the living and the unliving interact. We tend to think of the world in terms of cause and effect. Some set of factors impact the current state of events, which then has some fixed effect. If we repeat those factors on the same state of events, the same thing will happen again. A given set of influences on situation X will produce result Y every time if the influence set is kept invariant. While quantum mechanics seems to introduce elements of randomness into that, they only influence the micro level (seeming to always effectively cancel out at the macro level), and it remains debatable among scientists as to whether the random elements are really random, or if we simply are incapable of measuring the things we would need to measure in order to actually understand them, saying more about our tools than the nature of the universe. This is, however, not the entire picture. In the TORG Cosmverse, there is a fundamental binary distinction which shapes everything else, between the living and the non-living. The non-living cannot manipulate possibility energy at all (Not counting things like Eternity Shards and Darkness Devices, which are strange items covered under the Everlaw of Three...), while the living can. It is the possession of this capacity to manipulate possibility energy, even if only very weakly, which distinguishes the living from the non-living. It is this capacity which enables the living to escape the tyranny of the laws of nature and be something more than a cog in the great universal machine. The inanimate has no ability to generate its own possibility energy because it has no possibility of deviating by its own choice from the rigid matrix of 'natural law'. In the absence of the living, the universe functions like a machine. Cause A always leads to Effect B. The unliving generates no possibility energy because there is no uncertainty or deviation. Things are not 'possible', they simply either 'are' or 'are not'. A cosm drained of all possibilities by the Possibility raiders takes on this state of being; everything living perishes and what remains is cold, lifeless matter and energy which experiences a purely mechanical existence. The living are fundamentally different from the unliving because they are able to make true choices. They can do this because they possess possibility energy and can manipulate it to various degrees. This allows them to affect both the living and the unliving with their possibility energy. The existence of possibility energy means that the course of events in the world of the unliving can be changed. The 'natural' course of events can be forced into other paths. The interaction between the living and the unliving is not mechanistic. Rather, it is fluctuating and probability-based in nature. A given action has a range of results, each with its own probability of coming to pass, ranging from total success to abject failure. A variety of factors feed into setting the probabilities of each possible outcome, which differ according to the situation. If an action is repeated enough times, the set of

outcomes will gradually more and more closely resemble the set of theoretical possibilities with regard to distribution. [To give an example. Joe has a rifle. He is target shooting with a Lee Enfield MK 1 at a target 100 meters away. He has a 20% chance to miss entirely, a 10% chance to just barely hit the target, a 36% chance to hit inside the first ring, a 15.75% chance to hit the second ring, a 10.5% chance to hit the third ring, and a 7.75% chance to hit the bullseye. Joe may get lucky and hit the bullseye four or five times in a row, but over time, as he keeps shooting and keeps shooting, eventually, his shots will more and more closely line up to the percentage chance of each potential outcome more and more closely. (For the curious, Joe's possibilities are set by him having a Firearms total of 13, a –3 range penalty, and targetting difficulties of 5 to hit at all, 8 to hit the first ring, 12 to hit the second ring, 15 to hit the third ring, and 18 to hit the bullseye. Joe is Skilled, so he rerolls on tens and twenties.)] To repeat, the interaction between the living and unliving is not mechanistic, it is a matter of probabilities. Probabilities which are turned into realities by the expenditure of possibility energy by the living. Most living beings lack sufficient control over their possibility energy to bias the selection of which possible event becomes the actual outcome directly; they can only monkey with the various factors which set up the base possibilities, then take their chances. Their expenditure of possibility energy simply makes it possible for them to alter their environment at all. The possibility-rated are set aside from the common ord because they have sufficient control over their use of possibility energy to actively influence the selection of a single real outcome from the list of possible ones in a given situation. They do this by burning exceptionally large amounts of possibility energy to bias the outcome in the direction they desire. More on this later. So what determines these probabilities? A variety of factors come into play, depending on what you are doing. Environmental factors (aspects of the particular arrangement of the unliving environment) come into play, modifying the base skill which a living being has at some task. However, the core determinants of the likely outcomes of an interaction between the living and the unliving are set by three factors: the skill level of the living creature at that task, the axiom limits of the cosm, and the world laws of the cosm. All skills are essentially lower axiom versions of the UberSkill which would be all that the inhabitants of a Tech 33/Magic 33/Social 33/Spirit 33 cosm would need to do everything they feel like doing. They are ways in which the living impose their will on the unliving and control what the unliving does. The skills of a living creature are forms of possibility manipulation; by using them, they make a desired set of events more likely, shifting the likelihood of events in a desired direction. (This is why poss-rated characters can spend possibility points to increase their skills rapidly, without training. What they are really doing is permanently altering the probability of their success at the appropriate actions by manipulating their personal reality. Normal training is much slower because non-Poss. Rated characters cannot spend the amount of possibility energy very quickly,

and must spend months slowly spending it in tiny installments.) Such skills change the likelihood of events by, in a sense, moving the goal posts closer. The axioms of a cosm, on the other hand, are the out-of-bounds markers of the universe. They define the degree to which the living and the unliving can interact by defining what 'tools' exist. The living must use tools of various kinds in order to effect the unliving more than they can accomplish with their bodies alone. (In a Magic 0/Social 0/Spirit 0/Tech 0 universe, the only tool a living thing has is its own body.) Using possibility energy, the living reshapes aspects of the unliving into tools, which become bridges between the living and the unliving, through which living beings expend possibility energy to make their desires become reality. Tools need not necessarily be physical (Tech Axiom). Tools can be magical constructs (Magic Axiom), spiritual powers (Spirit Axiom), or even forms of interaction between beings (Social Axiom). All tools are connected to some sort of skill which is necessary to manipulate them. Some tools are bounded by multiple axioms (Martial Arts [Spirit and Social], Animal Domestication [Tech and Social], Psionics [Tech, Magic, Social].) As an axiom rises, the number and power of the extant tools increases, until eventually, at Axiom 33, you have tools which are basically omnipotent within their sphere. Tools become the bridge between living and unliving. When a living being effects the world through a tool, possibility energy passes from the living being through the tool into the cosm, influencing the results of the tool usage. As part of the process of the results of your action taking placing, the cosm then returns, under normal circumstances, an equal amount of possibility energy back to the living creature through the tool. However, the universe only returns the amount of possibility energy normally necessary to make the action possible in the first place, regardless of how much was actually spent on the action. (This is why, when you spend a possibility point to boost your chance of success, the cosm does not funnel an equal amount of energy back to you.) Energy not returned builds up in the cosm, eventually leading to rises in Axiom levels (more on that later) or other effects. Different tools require different amounts of linkage between living and unliving. The higher the Axiom, the easier and more effectively and in more ways and on a larger scale the living can influence the unliving (or other living things). Tools which require a stronger linkage than the Axioms allow do not work. However, living things can override the axioms by the expenditure of possibility energy. Even ords contain enough possibility energy that they can force the universe to let them use a tool that shouldn't work (ie, create a contradiction) by exploiting the Everlaw of Two, which creates a special relationship between the living and the unliving which can be used to create contradictions (The Everlaw of Two is also what allows the Possibility-rated to burn large amounts of possibility energy to vastly increase their chances of success at actions or to create reality bubbles). This is, however, dangerous. Violation of the Axioms creates a conflict as the universe tries to resist the Axioms being overridden. Most of the time, even an Ord will win this conflict, but eventually, your

number comes up and the Everlaw of One 'notices' what you are doing and 'disconnects' you. The Everlaw of One enforces the Axioms, forcing beings to conform to them by severing their connection to the Everlaw of Two. This severs their ability to create contradictions, although they can still influence the natural world within the limits of local axioms and continue to spend minute amounts of possibility energy to do so. Beings who have been disconnected from the Everlaw of Two become unable to create contradictions and must obey local laws. Possibility-rated characters can use their Reality skill to reconnect themselves. Ords cannot reconnect by their own action, but it is possible for others to reconnect them, inside their home cosm, if tales of Glory are spread about, tales which have been infused with possibility energy by those who created and transmitted them. Disconnected beings may continue to be a minor contradiction because they still carry their world laws and axioms inside themselves, even if they can't use them. (Obviously this only applies if they are not in their home cosm.) Eventually, the Everlaw of One notices this contradiction and sets out to fix it by transforming the subject to match the new reality, binding them to a new axiom set and world laws. This may well physically transform them as well. Unfortunately for them, it also drains all their possibility energy, leaving them drained down to the very barest level at which they can interact with the world at all. This can make any future visits to other cosms very dangerous, as if they transform again while empty, they will die. World Laws are features of particular cosms which alter the normal matrix of probabilities. Some of them provide access to tools which would not normally be available at a given Axiom level. Others modify how certain kinds of tools work, making them stronger or weaker. Because every cosm has special world laws of its own, they can be a source of trouble for travellers, since any use of them or the tools they provide can cause a contradiction, which can draw down the Everlaw of One. Some aspects of World Laws can be avoided by those under them with no special effects (for example, a Nile Empire person could avoid using Weird Science without creating a contradiction by simply actively avoiding using it.). Others cannot (such as the Law of Suspicion's influence on behavior), without generating a contradiction which risks disconnection. At sufficiently high axiom levels, it becomes possible to directly manipulate possibility energy using tools. This enables a variety of effects to be produced, such as the reality trees of the Akashans or Mobius' reality bombs. Once the unliving has been reshaped by the living into a tool, it becomes subject to the axioms which the living are bound by. A tool partakes of the nature of both the living (subject to axioms) and unliving (unable to make real choices or decisions to act on its own). A tool can be made to violate local reality by a still-connected user, but left on its own, it will only act in accordance with local reality. This means that if an ord throws a grenade in the living land, it won't go off. The tool is not broken; it simply cannot act on

its own without a user to set it in motion. Tools do not connect or disconnect; their users do. At sufficiently high axioms, some tools can begin to take on more of the nature of the living, and become able to act on their own. They are still bound, however, by the axioms of the place where they are; if they enter an area which cannot support their axioms, they will instantly shut down unless someone is in physical contact with them or is using the Reality skill to support them. (Gospog are an exception to this, but this is because they involved the use of heavy Reality manipulation to create them and are sustained by a Darkness Device and its powers). Like a living creature from a different reality, tools carry an axiom set inside them which will lead to the Everlaw of One transforming them eventually if they do not match local reality. In some cases, they may transform when used in a failed contradiction, but this is rare. Most simply gradually transform over time when the Everlaw of One happens to notice them.

Axioms and World Laws are both subject to change by the living, given enough time and possibility energy. This is because possibility energy doesn't just cycle back and forth; it is also created over time by the actions of the living. Acts of creation create possibility energy, as do actions which go beyond what is normally possible (contradictions). This newly created possibility energy is absorbed by the axiom itself instead of returned to its creator (who does get back the possibility energy he spent himself on the act); eventually, once it absorbs enough energy, the axiom level rises, first in the locations where the energy was expended, and then spreading to the rest of the Cosm. Similarly, a darkness device can pump possibility energy into an axiom to make it go up. Unused axioms eventually decline, some faster than others. In some cases, the actions of the inhabitants of the cosm may actually speed this process if they have consciously or subconsciously rejected an axiom (such as the humans of Tharkold rejecting magic after the Spasm.) Pushing an axiom down 'deliberately' actually consumes possibilities permanently, for by lowering the axiom, one is reducing the possible range of events, making events impossible. Axioms which are not being exercised enough may fall, being drained by the other axioms to assist their own rise. (This happened to Core Earth, where the rise of its Social and Tech axioms came at the expense of the Magic and Spirit axioms.) The speed at which axioms change without darkness device intervention varies by several factors with the two biggest being the degree to which people are pushing their limits and the number of people who are doing so. Axioms are most likely to rise in times of stress, when some crisis forces people to go beyond their normal methods and begin to create new ones which push the boundaries of the possible. Axiom shift begins in small areas and spreads; this is why areas of local axiom shift exist.

World Laws are not so easily manipulated by the living, as they tend to be invisible to those involved, taken for granted as part of the world. It takes massive, consistent behavioral shifts or cosmic catastrophes to change world laws. The absorption of possibilities by Darkness Devices is made possible by the laying of new axioms over the old ones by the bounding of areas with stelae. When a person of a reality other than the invading cosm acts inside the bounded zone, their possibility energy flows through the tool into the cosm. But when the cosm tries to return an equal amount of energy to them, the stelae intercept it and absorb the energy. Eventually, both the inhabitants and the cosm itself are drained of possibility energy, unless the stelae are removed or something happens (like a Glory seed) to refill the populace. The end result of this process is a dead cosm.

A few issues: What exactly defines a long-range contradiction? Why is a grenade one, but a bullet isn't? After all, the bullet is no longer in contact with the person who fired it. Tools are bound by the local axioms and cannot contradict them without outside help. Unlike in the scientific viewpoint of the real world, tools do not work by applying underlying principles. Rather, tools are the means by which the living influence their environment. They are a bridge for the possibility energy which enables the living to influence their environment. When made into a tool, they now operate under the axioms which limit the living, rather than being ruled by natural law, the way, say, the Sun is. Because they cannot create contradictions, they cannot change themselves or the environment in ways which violate local axioms. A bullet works once fired, because it operates under the principles of physical law which work in all cosms unless World Laws overwrite them. A normal bullet need not make any changes to itself once it is in motion to function. Objects striking each other at high speed are not contradictory in any cosm unless a world law makes it illegal. Things like exploding bullets, plasma rounds, etc., are long-range contradictions because they do things forbidden by the local tech axiom once no longer in contact with the thrower, just like a grenade does. The key thing is that local axioms determine which tools are 'possible' in that cosm, and living creatures have to use tools of various kinds to affect non-living things. By turning something inanimate into a tool, it becomes bound by Axiom Law instead of natural law, as the very nature of axioms is to dictate what tools are possible. Natural law effectively ceases to function 'inside' a tool, except so far as it is supported by the local axioms the tool is dependent on.

If a process is cut off in the middle, the process will be suspended until someone else asserts their possibility energy over the device. This means, for example, that if the Living Land sweeps over a computer lab at a university, all the computer clocks will freeze at the moment of the axiom shift hitting them, if no one is using them. Should someone sit down and begin to use one (having arranged a power supply for it), the clock will resume ticking from the moment it stopped and any programs opened at that time resume operation. This can be dangerous if the device was about to explode. But why does natural law stop affecting things which have been reshaped by living creatures into tools? Why does mass bend space? Probe any system of thought deep enough and you eventually hit the layer where all you can do is to say 'This is how things work'. By turning things into tools, living creatures enable themselves to affect the world, but limit those tools to only work in worlds of sufficient axiom levels to support them. They are now tied to an axiom, and only obey natural law internally in so far as their axioms support those laws' functioning for tools. Torgian metaphysics is a strange thing, compared to how we think in reality. Also, to be precise, natural law does not internally affect such objects, but still can externally influence them. A wooden desk may fall apart in the living land because its nails stopped working, but it will burn nicely. The bullet will do ugly things to flesh once it is set in motion, as it doesn't need technology to follow the laws of ballistics.

Let's say that Joe the Core Earth Hunter goes to the Living Land and gets in a sniper fight with Pierre the Cyberknight and Ssh'rak the Edeinos warrior. Pierre is wearing advanced cyberpapal armor (Tech 26) and Ssh'rak has used an armoring miracle which covers him with thick vines (Spirit 14). Joe is using armor piercing bullets (Tech 23). Does Joe have to make a long-range contradiction check when his bullets hit since they involve armor-piercing technology? Joe has to make a long-range contradiction check to see if his armor-piercing ammo works properly on Ssh'rak, because Ssh'rak is under the local Tech 7 and armor-piercing ammo is a contradiction. If Joe fails the check, Ssh'rak will still get hit by the bullet (because Joe didn't disconnect when firing the gun itself), but the bullet will get no benefit of being 'armor-piercing'. If Joe shoots Pierre, the armor-piercing bullet will work just fine if Pierre has not disconnected, as the armor is in contact with Pierre and the bullet will be too. Sorry, Pierre. Conversely, if Pierre then shoots Joe with exploding rounds, he has to make a long-range contradiction check, as Joe's tech axiom does not support exploding ammunition. If Pierre has disconnected, Joe's armor-piercing technology will not work, but Pierre's armor won't be working very well either.

Okay, tools which actively function will stop working if you disconnect. What about something like armor? Does it just become paper-like or what? Some tools retain a lesser degree of function when they disconnect. A medieval longsword in the living land can still be used as a club. Armor will function as whatever is closest to it in materials and design at that tech level. A cyberknight who disconnects in Aysle is now effectively wearing a suit of very cumbersome platemail, which provides the protection of platemail, but greatly hampers his dexterity due to the poweredmovement-assist mechanisms going out. How exactly does the social axiom work? It seems to deal more with the interaction between the living, rather than the living and the unliving. Yes. It is distinct from the other three axioms in that it primarily deals with interaction between the living, although some aspects of it also touch on the relationship between the living and the unliving. Interaction between the living involves the exchange of possibility energy, just as interaction between the living and the unliving does. This is why the social axiom can be used to refill people with possibility energy (Glory seeds). (It must be noted that all four axioms can be used to interact with other living things in various ways. Technology can be used for animal breeding and genetic engineering or to make weapons to hit living creatures, magic may well transform living things, and many miracles are designed to affect living targets. The social axiom is simply more heavily about affecting the living and tends to affect the unliving more indirectly.) As the social axiom increases, the living become more connected to each other, able to impact each other more and more thoroughly by social means. The social axiom is also important for the systemization of knowledge and the development of abstract systems of thought. Systems of knowledge typically have a joint axiom of the social axiom plus one of the other axioms. Science is Tech + Social, Magical Theory is Magic + Social, Theology is Spirit + Social. If the social axiom is low and other axioms are high, those axioms are probably being approached in a very pragmatic, empiricist manner, rather than being explored in a systematic manner with an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of why things work. A world of High Tech, low Social might be post-apocalyptic, with people patching up machines that they can keep running, but which they no longer remember how to make themselves or which have to be made for them by machines (Tharkold). A world of High Magic, low Social is probably full of reclusive magicians who develop many spells through lone experimentation which will be lost when they die (A typical D&D world). A world of High Spirit, low Social is full of people who exalt Faith over reason and trust to their faith to guide them, rather than any well-developed system of theology and ethics (Living Land). The social axiom does involve some degree of interaction with the unliving in so far as it governs how well the unliving can be categorized, described, and systematized, and the

use of that information to interact with it in various ways. Systems of measurement of distance, mass, spatial relations, magical energy levels, volume, degrees of faith, and what have you all fall under the social axiom as well as the appropriate magic, tech, or spirit axioms. A map is tech in so far as it is physical and social in so far as it is a way of communicating measurements of spatial relationships. A grimoire is magic and social, as it is a way of communicating methods of magic. With high social and spirit, one might have a great web of faith which allows believers to access the collective knowledge of the faithful and the Saints. Trying to navigate via a map, trying to read a grimoire, or trying to tap into the Akashic Record all involve interaction with the unliving. What generates reality storms? The Everlaw of One generates reality storms at the boundaries between cosms and invasions zones by tapping the possibility energy which has been infused into the landscape by its interaction with the living (part of the phenomenon which also creates Hardpoints, see below), and by tapping the possibility energy frozen into the cosm's axiom set. Over time, the Everlaw of One becomes more and more desperate, throwing more and more of the possibility energy of a world at the invaders. Every invasion is a race to see if the invaders will drain enough possibility energy to weaken the world before the highest fury of the storm is reached. If the invasion goes poorly, the world eventually begins to overload and blow out the stelae, reclaiming areas for itself. In the invasion has gone well, the storms never reach the point where they can blow out the stelae, and instead, the Everlaw of One is simply cramming more and more possibilities into the maw of the invaders. The Everlaw will keep trying, however, until it consumes and destroys the very world it is trying to save. The big problem with this process is that the Everlaw of One will eventually drain every inch of possibility energy from the planet and shove it down the maw of the invaders if it doesn't succeed in driving them out. This is why worlds invaded by the possibility raiders are eventually reduced to barren, lifeless wastelands. The Everlaw of One begins by tapping the possibility energy which has been stored in the land itself and the Axioms. The strongest hardpoints usually form early in the invasion, before the possibility energy which would sustain them is drained away from them by the Everlaw of One to try to fight the invasion. Secondly, the Axioms themselves begin to be drained of possibility energy. Axioms which are neglected by the inhabitants will plummet first, because the inhabitants of the world will tend to reinforce the most used axioms. Indeed, in a sufficiently possibility-rich world like Core Earth, some Axioms may start to be pushed upwards before the draining effect of the Everlaw of One begins to significantly cripple the Axioms. Eventually, however, the Axioms will begin to fall. In some cases, the world may have all of its Axioms drained away to zero. In other cases, the planet will be covered with stelae and its energy drained by other means long before the Axioms actually hit zero.

So how do Hardpoints form? And how does possibility energy get stored in the land when you said earlier that the inanimate doesn't use possibility energy? The unliving world does not naturally possess possibility energy. However, when the living interacts with the unliving, it causes possibility energy to flow through it. With sufficiently high axiom levels, tools can be created which manipulate possibility energy like a living thing. At high axiom levels, this can be done directly and deliberately, as with Mobius' reality bombs or Akashan reality trees. At lower axiom levels, certain processes infuse man-made objects with enough possibility energy that such objects become even more tied to the world's axiom set than a normal tool, even allowing it to manipulate local reality to enforce that axiom set. Such objects are known as hardpoints. Actions which reshape the world infuse the things reshaped with a certain amount of possibility energy, the amounts varying according to the degree to which the world is changed by them. Simple acts like landscaping your lawn infuses tiny amounts of possibility energy into them, but not enough to generate a hardpoint. Hardpoints are created when acts of either great creation or great transformation of the world take place at a location. Such acts infuse them with possibility energy from those involved in the act. Over time, hardpoints may grow stronger if they continue to be significant to living creatures. (This is why hardpoints have 'spiritual value'.) Indeed, certain locations may be transformed into hardpoints gradually over time by the continued infusion of possibility energy into them by living beings who accord them some sort of great significance. This process is heavily influenced by the social axiom, because the social axiom dictates how well social interaction can convey possibility energy. On Core Earth, people who have never been to India can still infuse the Taj Mahal with possibility energy just by looking at pictures of it and being impressed by its grandeur, whereas, in the Living Land, hardpoints would tend to only receive possibility energy from those local tribes which lived near them. In a heavily developed world, virtually all inhabited areas are infused with some amount of possibility energy due to man's impact on his environment. Most regions simply don't have enough possibility energy to resist the invading axioms, however. Sufficient infusions to form hardpoints are rare. It must also be remembered that hardpoints are not just objects, but objects in a physical, historical, and cultural context. They are woven into the fabric of the world and removing them disrupts those links which make them special; a moved hardpoint might in some cases regain its status eventually by the same process which strengthens hardpoints, however. (For example, the US Constitution should probably function as a hard point, but the actual hard copy of it was long ago moved from the city where it was signed, Philadelphia, to the city where it currently resides, Washington, DC. The Constitution, however, could have regained its strength by the constant flow of visitors to see it.) Depending on the hardpoint and its significance, some limited mobility might be

possible without disrupting it at all. If the support structures holding up the Liberty Bell fail and it falls partway through Liberty Hall, it is not going to begin to fade as a hardpoint, whereas, if you haul it to New York City, it will. In a few, unusual cases, a hardpoint might flip realities, becoming tied into an invading reality which is in synch with the circumstances of its creation. If, say, Aysle had invaded Egypt, the Great Pyramids would have been hardpoints of Core Earth Reality. However, the Great Pyramids are linked to an aspect of Core Earth's past which forms a significant component of Mobius' reality, and as a result, they have flipped over to his reality. The effects of reality storms may create unusual hardpoints, as the defeated possibility energy of an invaded cosm seizes on something of slightly higher than normal levels of possibility energy to anchor itself to. Such hardpoints are extremely fragile and will very quickly unravel if moved. This is the type of hardpoint found in Seattle in Operation: Hard Sell. Hard points do not easily maintain themselves in close proximity to a maelstrom bridge, since it is a conduit for a contradictory reality and usually is surrounded by a pure zone. The flood of possibility energy from it will destroy all but the very strongest hard points. They also are usually quickly located and destroyed by invaders, if located in close proximity to the bridges.

What about Outer Space? Is there Possibility energy in space? Can different regions of the universe have different axiom shifts to the point of appearing to be different cosms? If Living Things stay out of it, Space operates under the fundamental systems of natural law for magic/tech/spirit that govern the interactions of the unliving with each other when they aren't being meddled with by living things. Thus, the sun of a Tech 7 world might quite happily burn with nuclear fire even though the living things of the world it shines on don't even know what nuclear energy is, let alone how to use it. However, until living things enter it, Outer Space has no possibility energy. Possibility energy is generated by the actions of living beings and governs their interaction with each other and the inanimate world. As soon as living beings enter Outer Space, their interaction with their environment causes the cycle of possibility flow between the living and the unliving to begin, and the Axioms of the cosm begin to assert themselves over every tool used there. The laying of stelae in outer space is possible, but probably fruitless in most cases, because there is no one to drain of energy; the cost of maintaining your own reality is going to be higher than anything absorbed. Conversely, however, the landscape in outer

space has not been reworked and infused with possibility energy, either, and as a result, you will generate only very weak reality storms, because outer space lacks possibility energy to fight back as effectively as inhabited planets. It is also much easier to create a local axiom shift in a largely uninhabited region of space than it is in an inhabited one. If, say, Nippon Tech decided to put a space station on the moon to conduct Mining operations, they could likely bump the local social and tech axioms up to 22 and 24 (inside the region of the base) within a few months of continuous operation. At an interplanetary scale, the universe can sustain somewhat larger axiom shifts than it can on a local scale. This is because space is huge and empty and lacking in possibility energy, making it harder for the Everlaw of One to tap possibility energy to shut down the contradiction. So long as the planets remain out of contact with each other, tech and social axioms might vary between solar systems as many as 4 points and magical and spiritual axioms by as much as 8. Any shift beyond that level will do one of two things: either it will drag the entire cosm upwards in axiom so as to keep the differences at a manageable level (if the planet in question has more 'weight' of possibilities than the other major inhabited planets do) or it will provoke the Everlaw of One to finally take action and seal the entire planet off into a pocket realm. Contact between planetary systems with significant local axiom differences will also quickly finally provoke the Everlaw of One into action, either resulting in the raising of the axioms of the cosm to resolve the difference or resulting in the offending region being sealed off into a pocket dimension. Cosms which contain many occupied planets which are not in contact with each other (or even ones which are) may find themselves advancing slower than cosms which contain only a single occupied world. This is because the inhabitants of the different worlds may well be trying to push different axioms in different directions and because it takes more possibility expenditure to push an axiom up in a larger area. Unless one world builds up enough of a weight of possibilities to dominate all the others and enforce its local axiom shifts into cosm-wide ones, or all the worlds try to follow similar lines of development, worlds which advance too far ahead of the rest may well vanish into pocket dimensions and cease to count (if there is no contact) or find themselves slowed by the necessity of pushing enough possibilities to affect the entire cosm, not just themselves (if there is a lot of contact). This is among the reasons the Akashans have advanced more slowly than Core Earth over the centuries.

How can High Axioms be used to manipulate possibility energy? When does this become possible? Magic: Magic 20: Part of the process which makes crude wish parsers possible is the development of the Reality Arcane Knowledge. Such spells must use Reality as their mechanism and only work for possibility rated people who can invest possibility energy

into the spells. They are very difficult, as Reality sits above the Essences with a Pattern cost of 35. It connects to itself at a cost of 15 and to the Essences at a cost of ten. Spells using Reality as a Pattern can manipulate Possibilities (putting them into or draining them out of a source, moving them from one place to another, and so on) or can sense the flow of possibilities and the axiom levels of an area, using Reality as a Mechanism enables them to use the full effect value instead of pushing it through the Power Push table (like Magic), and using Reality as a result makes the effect permanent by allowing you to invest possibility energy into the effect to make it so. Only possibility rated people can actually learn to use it yet, however. At this axiom, possibilities can only be absorbed from eternity shards or possibility-rated beings, and can only be transferred into other such things by means of magic. Magic 24: Spells using the Reality knowledge can now absorb possibility energy from the environment or ords, although it requires a very high EV to get enough possibility energy to be of much use. Only possibility rated people can build such spells, still. Magic 28: The Reality arcane knowledge can now be used by any sorceror; it is used in the construction of reliable wish parsers. Using Reality as a mechanism, connections can be opened between Cosms. Permanent magics can be created which will absorb possibility energy and radiate a hardpoint of their cosm, though not very big ones. Magic 29: Larger hardpoints can be created using Magic. Magic 30: Huge hardpoints can be created using Magic and magical items with the powers of eternity shards can be constructed with magic, if sufficient possibility energy is available. Magic 33: Possibility energy is easily manipulable with magic. Social Axiom: Social 2: Through shared rituals and the expenditure of a possibility point by a possibility rated member of the family, a truly impressive event (one in which a glory card was spent or a 60+ rolled if no PCs were around), can be used as a focus to reconnect the members of the family to their cosm if they are disconnected, and refill them with possibility energy. Social 3: It is now possible to spark members of your extended family through group rites, if someone participating is possibility rated. Social 5: You can spark your tribe members. Social 7: You can spark an entire village community. Travelling storytellers exist who can, over time spread the spark beyond the local community to other ones in the area who share similar culture. Social 10: With better collection of knowledge and its better preservation, protohardpoints (so-called because they can't actually be noticed by natives unless an invasion happens) now become better able to endure past the age in which they were made, for they can more easily continue to have significance, instead of being forgotten. Social 12: Members of other cultures can contribute to hardpoint formation by being impressed with the great deeds and works of other cultures. The sparking of ords can now cross cultural barriers. Sparks can also spread via news services. Social 17: Possibility rated characters can now time the length of their reality bubbles accurately.

Social 20: The development of international media means that it is now conceivably possible to spark people on the far side of the planet who you have not even heard of, although trying to spark via news media is harder than group storytelling and cultural rituals. It is now possible for possibility rated people to infuse possibility energy into a unit of communication (a story, a novel, a news story, a television episode, a chain letter, etc), and cause that unit of communication to have a disproportionate effect on the world for a short time. Proto-hardpoints can be world-famous and benefit in growth or preservation of their spiritual value appropriately. Social 21: Possibility-infused media grows in impact, lasting longer and hitting harder. The growth of global media, infused with some degree of possibility energy by its creators means that anyone who spends enough time exposed to it will eventually reconnect (if he is in his home cosm) once some story hits home, though this may take a very long time. (Use the transformation tables). Social 22: Spreading global culture helps you to spark larger areas with a single glory deed. Possibility-infused media may well last for months before the impact wears off. It makes an excellent advertising tool for possibility rated businessmen. Social 23: A possibility-infused unit of media may well become known around the world while its time in the sun lasts. Social 24: It is now possible to spark an entire nation with a single glory. Social 25: It is now possible to spark an entire continent with a single glory. Social 26: Techniques begin to be developed which can create possibility-infused ideas which can sustain and spread themselves by absorbing minute amounts of possibility energy from those who listen to them and agree. Such ideas are thought-viruses, known as memes. They are still clumsy and easily fall apart at this level, and only possibilityrated people can make them successfully, unless some sort of other possibilitymanipulation exists which can be used to charge them with possibility energy. A meme which disconnects in an area of Axiom 20-25 becomes the most powerful sort of possiblity-laden idea it can. A meme which disconnects below Social 20 simply evaporates, though if it conveys concepts understood at that level, it may well spread by normal means. Social 27: Memes are now reasonably stable and useful; counter-mimetic measures are developed. Anyone can create memes, though it is much faster for possibility-rated people. It is now possible to spark an entire planet with a glory result. Memes can be created which will, given some time, create talismans and even hardpoints by causing people to give a place or item cultural significance. While Memes cannot actually change other axioms, they can facilitate the rise of other axioms by spreading the ideas necessary to advance the axiom, or causing a reaction against it which will cause some to reject the use of some level or aspect of the axiom. Social 29: Memes can be created which make it possible to affect a wide-range of behaviors. Such memes enable their bearers to more easily resist the temptation to evil deeds. The most evil of acts become a contradiction. Sufficiently widely-held ideas will now spontaneously become memes when they hit a critical threshold of possibility investment from their advocates. Any performance of a glory deed will absorb possibility points from its environment, then cause it to potentially spark anyone who witnesses it or is told of it or even just watches it on the news. Memes can now, given enough time, transform an object into an eternity shard.

Social 30: Memes can be used to reshape the axioms in an area, causing a local axiom shift, by altering people's behavior on a grand and consistent enough scale to cause them to spend enough energy to make the change. Social 31: It is now possible to spark an entire interstellar civilization with a single glory, given enough time for it to spread. Communications is so possibility laden that prolonged exposure to culture will cause people to reconnect and refill with possibility energy. (Use the Pure Zone Transform table to see how quickly) Social 32: It is possible to force axiom shifts with memes fairly quickly. Memes can reshape cultures completely, turning vegetarian pacifists into violent carnivores. Social 33: A single glory deed automatically resparks the entire universe, given time. Spirit Axiom: Spirit 13: Direct Invocations can, on a spectacular success, affect reality-phenomena, such as maelstrom bridges, reality storms, and so forth. Spirit 17: It is now possible to sacrifice unbelievers who are possibility rated and extract their possibility energy for your own use. Miracles also exist allowing possibility rated characters to voluntarily give up or transfer some of their possibility energy to others. Miracles can create sites of perpetual miracles which sustain themselves by tapping into the ambient flows of possibility energy and the possibility energy of their users to sustain themselves. This is not easy. Direct Invocations can, on a superior success, affect realityphenomena, such as maelstrom bridges, reality storms, and so forth. Spirit 19: The sacrifice of unbeliever ords can now yield possibility energy, but requires fairly large scale slaughter to do so (Spirit Axiom + Torg Value of Ords sacrificed – 33 = Number of Possibilities yielded by the rite.) Worship rites exist which harvest a small amount of possibility energy from believers, leaving them largely unharmed and transfer the collective energy to the priest. Such rites produce (Spirit Axiom + Torg Value of Ritual Participants with Faith – 36 ) worth of possibilities to the priest. In either case, non-possibility rated priests can use the rite, but it is much harder for them and they must burn the points in fairly short order. Possibility rated priests can keep the points for as long as they like. Miracles can open portals into pocket dimensions and the like. Spirit 21: Miracles now exist which allow possibility points to be spent to temporarily or permanently lower the difficulty of miracles in a sanctified area. Such areas require periodic recharging with possibility energy by sacrifice of unbelievers, the possibility energy of believers, or direct energy expenditure by priests. Spirit 23: Miracles exist which can be used to enforce the dominance of a particular mythos in the area of effect; they require the use of possibility energy to empower them. Such miracles are typically only present in cosms with contact with other cosms, as the cosm itself enforces this at home. Miracles can create hardpoints if sufficient possibility energy is available. Direct Invocations can, on a good success, affect reality-phenomena, such as maelstrom bridges, reality storms, and so forth. Spirit 25: Direct Invocations can, on an average success, affect reality-phenomena, such as maelstrom bridges, reality storms, and so forth. Spirit 27: Possibility energy can be spent on miracles which suppress the power of enemy mythos in an area, rendering them impotent even if a contradiction could normally be created in the area. Miracles can bear messages between cosms or even open portals between them. Aspects of other axioms can be suppressed with miracles (such as Kaah

rendering magnetic devices impotent in the living land), effecting even attempts to make contradictions, unless said attempt overcomes the miracle's strength. Divine invocations can create items similar to eternity shards, though it requires a superior or better success to have much effect. Spirit 29: With sufficient possibility energy, the very face of the world can be reshaped to fit religious beliefs. Local Axiom Shifts can be forced. Devices similar to eternity shards can be created. Direct Invocations can, on a minimal success, affect realityphenomena, such as maelstrom bridges, reality storms, and so forth. Though not very much. Spirit 31: With enough possibility energy from believers, the process of axiom shift can be greatly accelerated. Spirit 33: The believers can easily reshape reality to their whim. Tech Axiom: 25: It is possible to build crude reality-analysis equipment. Such equipment can assess local reality, determining what works and what doesn't, and what world laws exist. It can also sense large concentrations of possibilities. Stelae can be sensed. It is now possible to build devices which can fling someone into another cosm, but you can't get them back. 26: It is now possible, though very difficult, to build devices capable of opening portals between cosms. Reality-disturbances (such as reality storms) can be sensed at a distance. 27: Devices can be built which communicate between Cosms (such as the Signal Fire) or can create small hardpoints and talismans. 29: Larger hardpoints and talismans can be made. 30: It is now possible to create reality trees and similar devices. Devices can be made with powers similar to the Shift Possibilities power. Devices can be made which have the Reality skill. 31: It is now possible to harvest possibilities from ords and the environment, then store them or transfer them to other locations. Conversely, possibility energy can be transferred into the environment or ords, causing the ords to reconnect and promoting transformation of ords and environment to your reality. Alternately, the effect can be used to simply promote local axiom shifts on a potentially huge scale if you have enough possibility energy. Extremely huge hardpoints can be created. 32: Given enough time, the axioms of an entire cosm can be manipulated by technical means. 33: Reality dances to your jig.