Ravel

From Chrono Stars

The Ravel is a collection of parallel planes, dimensions, or alternate existences throughout the universe that exist alongside real space in a perceived tangle or knot. Each individual component of the Ravel is known as a Braid, itself its own tangled combination of dimensional space and time, all of which can be perceived and be seen to flow differently in a given part of the Ravel.

Using stitch drives, it is possible to traverse the Ravel for relatively short periods of time and use it as a "shortcut" across real space. Because the Ravel is made up of a "tangle" of dimensions, it's always possible to find a passage where the movement of time is in favor of the travelers, resulting in journeys that would take hundreds upon hundreds of years at light speed completing in a small number of days. However, while such travel is relatively commonplace in the modern-day of the Ealdremen System, it is not without risks. The Ravel is inhospitable to life from real space in many cases, and vehicles or people lost within it are rarely recovered.

In much smaller-scale cases, the Ravel can be used in magic spells to transport a small amount of mass (rarely more than a single subject of typical Kin size) for relatively short distances, typically not exceeding a local geographic area even for skilled users of magic. Traversal through the Ravel in this manner is generally "instantaneous" from both the views of outside observers and the travelers themselves due to the short distance. However, it is not possible for someone to traverse the Ravel any distance farther than the confines of a single planet in this manner; without a stitch drive and a ship capable of withstanding the Ravel's effects, anyone who seeks to use the Ravel's paths solely with a spell will never survive the attempt.

Because of its instability and the dangers involved in navigating it, the Ravel is not broadly understood and is mostly spoken of in theoretical or metaphorical terms by even the most advanced specialists in macrocosmology.

Other Names

While the modern term for the Ravel is broadly established, it has gone by a number of different names throughout different cultures that made contact with it through spells or that perceived travel through its Braids differently than a tangled knot. Before space travel, the Ravel, or concepts similar to it, tended to be seen through a mythological lens. It was called an afterlife, another world or even "the Otherworld," the realms to the gods, or other similar concepts.

Ravel Natives

Other creatures are known to inhabit the Ravel, which have historically been given a number of mythological names and designations in the past. At various points in history, creatures native to the Ravel have been called direct servants to the gods or even gods unto themselves for their perceived power and residence in planes beyond a given people's comprehension and experience. They have also been regarded as pure animated Chrono, spirits of the deceased reincarnated into new bodies, or extensions of the universe's will given shape.

Because some Ravel natives bear resemblance to various cultures' mythology, there is debate over whether these myths originated from the Ravel in some capacity, or if the creatures from the Ravel take such forms because of these myths, either intentionally so as to utilize the myth in some way or unintentionally due to requiring a comprehensible shape when dwelling in real space.

Denizens of the Ravel are sometimes known as otherworlders, outsiders, Chrono-composites, or Ravellers.

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