June 2023
The world of Broken Dimensions itself is kind of like a web of thousands of livable pockets of space – referred to as dimensions, whether or not that term is entirely accurate. Every dimension is but one of thousands of others located in an endless vacuum called voidspace.
Voidspace itself is worthy of its own post, which is linked here.
As for what the above described layout looks like, it's a bit like the "plum pudding" atomic model:
Alternatively, a more accurate model of the layering of dimensions might be more accurately described as a pile of pancakes. Menace calls this version "the jello model" because it reminds them of those jello molds with fruit in them.
Essentially, each dimension exists as its own little livable space pocket and each layer of “jello” is a different reality plane, some of which host multiple dimensions. (In actuality, each layer is one of several categories of voidspace, which will again be covered in the voidspace post much more thoroughly.)
There are also three dimension categorizations: planetary, archipelago/single island, and cavernous.
planetary: what it sounds like. While a lot of the dimensions in this universe aren’t particularly "normal" places to live by our standards (in terms of geography, makeup, or general composition), there are normal planets like [ x ] (Earth) that look and act/react like what we're familiar with. Most planetary dimensions act like you'd expect a planet to, and some have moons or rings.
[ x ] was the first dimension and is the most well-known planetary world, and its dimensional Core is located at the center of the planet like any ordinary planetary core
Examples: [ x ] (Earth), Koshi Major, Kardonia.
archipelago/single-island: generally what it sounds like: a space-like dimension in which the only livable locations are on space station-equivalents or floating islands. For a dimension to be classified as an archipelago, there must be three or more islands making up its central area and the Core must be split amongst those islands in some uneven way.
One-island dimensions have their Cores condensed into the substrata of one singular, usually massive, land mass. Two-island dimensions usually have binary Cores and orbit each other much like binary stars—they’re also usually equal in size and Core distribution, but there are larger central islands with one or two smaller “moons.”
Examples: Aetheria, the Iron Archipelagos, Vesallia (NEA Satellite).
cavernous: are what they sound like: pockets of reality contained within a solid, physical dimensional pocket or “shell.” Tartarus, to use an example, has one central continental landmass about 3x the size of North America. Cavernous dimensions are characterized by impenetrable ceilings and a surface crust that extends seemingly forever—at least, no one has ever been able to detect or reach an end of any kind. The dimensional Core is either contained somewhere unreachable within the world’s crust or dispersed in the soil and dimensional shell.
Examples: Tartarus, Feldspar, Starrish (?)
An addition note on something frequently referenced in these posts: satellite dimensions are the equivalent of dimensional moons. They're often smaller dimensions that branch off of a larger one's dimensional shell, and they are sometimes formed when a dimension's Core fragments or is augmented in some way. The Iron Archipelagos are a satellite dimension of [ x ], for example, and were created when a crisis in [ x ] split off a chunk of the dimensional core. Occasionally a satellite dimension will even be a fusion of two interacting parts of two larger dimensions, like Starrish (Feldspar and Tartarus)! Most often, a satellite dimension will look like its parent dimension(s) and have similar laws of physics and nature.
Short list of frequently-referenced dimensions and their categorizations:
[ x ] – Earth in all but name. Planetary. First dimension, where the gods developed and sentient life origination, created the first dimensions other than itself, which led to the automatic, natural generation of others over time. Exists in a larger pocket of internal voidspace than any other planetary or archipelago world.
Aetheria centra – archipelago dimension, center of the New Aetherian Empire (Aetheria maxima). A bunch of cloud-like and solid islands that are more suspended in a web than caught in a constant rotation around a Core island. Originally an experimental reality plane controlled and owned by the gods until their disappearance in Era 5, when the dimension and its civilizations continued to develop on their own.
The Iron Archipelagos – archipelago dimension whose Core is divided among multiple large island, generating a stable field that also doesn’t rotate, but in a way that is nothing like Aetheria. Dark “nightworld” in which daylight is fleeting (they have a “sun” or light source of some kind, but it kind of just… rotates around the island cluster at a relatively even level? I haven’t figured this one out yet).
A “nightworld” is a dimension in which there is no day cycle, or if there is, it is extremely short or is otherwise unlike a “day” on a planetary world like [ x ]. The Archs specifically do not have a sun or, like Aetheria, some sort of ambient shifting light source. Thus, it is a nightworld.
Tartarus – cavernous world, see section for primary description. Divided into around 13 provinces that are tentatively united as a single entity under the banner name “Tartarus,” but essentially function as their own countries. Largest alliance/governign body: the Northern Coalition. The landmass is covered by a cave-like ceiling complete with stalactites and the diurnal bioluminescent moss that discerns between the dimension’s day/night times.
Feldspar – cavernous world similar to Tartarus, except there is not “daytime” cycle and is considered a “nightworld” in a more literal sense than the Iron Archs. Inhabitants have learned to drawn on and recycle the energy of their dimensional Core, which is dispersed in the deeper layers of the dimensional crust. Technology advancement hub.
Adreoni – archipelago dimension, but only tentatively labelled as such. Was originally a dyad of two large land masses that orbited each other, but was destroyed along with most of the Darekaeiin quadrant shortly before Crisis 9. Darekaeii is the parent dimension that split into many other worlds over time, Adreoni being one of the first, and nearly all of its offshoots are nightworlds.
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