Enigmas

Enigmas, Theories and Speculation

This page is for theories, speculation and unresolved mysteries of the Multiverse series. None of the below is necessarily canon to any of the stories, and is entirely unofficial. As more is revealed, the content below will be moved and updated to suit.

Current

Gemstone Hegemony? What on all the Earths is that?

• So far little is known about the Gemstone Hegemony, other than that they were the original source of the purple beam weapon used by The Black-eyed Army in the battle of the Capital Temple. It is interesting to note that more than once we have seen evidence of technology, devices or entities of a crystalline nature, such as the Blue Crystal Trap, the Purple bio-stones and the Rotators. Given the Gemstone Hegemony were able to develop a powerful weapon in the form of a purple beam weapon hundreds of years earlier, it is not a huge stretch to expect that other useful technology from them would have been collected by The Black-eyed Army, or previously by The First World. Cristina Thompson and other tech specialists would likely have studied such technology in order to develop advanced technologies of their own.

So what is the Mictlan? How come the Soul Reader (Book) could read a human soul the first time Cristina Thompson encountered them, but subsequent reads of Corpse-things showed no evidence of a soul? Why did the Soul Reader (Book) become warm when used by Cristina Thompson the first time around?

• From Aztec mythology, Mictlan is the name of the land of the dead. In essence, an underworld of sorts. Mictlantecuhtli is the ruler or lord of Mictlan. We have two sorts of known entity that comprise the Mictlan, the massive metallic construct which appears to be the central control node, and the Corpse-things, which are little more than drones. When severed from the controller the Corpse-things revert to standard harmless corpses. As for why the Soul Reader (Book) could read the soul of a dead person from the world destroyed by the Mictlan, the most likely answer here is that the victim committed suicide, preventing the loss of their soul.
• As for why the Soul Reader (Book) became warm, this raises an interesting prospect. The Soul Reader (Book) is a piece of technology, little more than a tool or machine. It wasn't made by The First World or the Brownshirts, and isn't crystalline, suggesting the Gemstone Hegemony aren't responsible for it either. It also was not recognized by the Yngtak, so who or what exactly made it, and why? Also, why make it communicate with souls, rather than the more traditional physical means of interrogation? The most logical answer here is that it was developed specifically to communicate with the souls of the dead. The Mictlan controller appears to also be a technological construct (although it may contain organics within the core of its structure) which also explicitly interacts with the dead. One possibility here is that they are related in a sense, with the Soul Reader (Book) being a precursor device developed before the more advanced Mictlan controller was constructed. With a vast army of undead corpses, the Mictlan controller would have had a huge workforce available to build itself into the colossus it has now become, irrespective of its original size.

What is GLORWOC? What does it stand for and where did it come from? What is its significance?

• Currently we know GLORWOC reproduces itself and is characterized by a bright blue iridescence wherever it is present. At this point it is likely GLORWOC is a microorganism that can metabolize a wide range of materials, whether organic or inorganic (eg. metal). It is spread through direct contact as discovered by Noah Fulmer, but is likely capable of airborne transmission when in large enough quantities. Its origin is still unknown, but it would make an ideal biological weapon, so it may have been deliberately created rather than come about through chance. Nothing yet has explained what GLORWOC actually is, where it came from or why it is named as such. It may be an acronym, standing for something like 'Genetically engineered Luminescent ORganic Weaponized Offensive Compound'. GLORWOC seems to be significant in that it appears to be unstoppable, even to vast organic entities capable of manipulating the pocket realities of the back paths. If it is intended to be a weapon, it may be quite useful to any one of the various factions.

So Heath made a deal with a Shadow Entity? What for, and why? What did he offer in return?

• Heath first contacted a Shadow Entity during the story of 'The Desolate Guardians'. From here he learned that he was unable to be helped himself, as the Shadow Entity said allowing it to consume him would be kinder than his current existence. Heath has apparently subsequently made a deal with the entity, likely offering his consciousness or soul to the entity in exchange for its assistance helping those that Heath was unable to contact. This came into play in Noah Fulmer's story, where the same Shadow Entity helped awaken both copies of Noah as well as Jay, Roger and others from their psychic interrogation. As the interrogation involved both psychic and drug-induced components, the party most likely behind this was The Black-eyed Army, who would have hoped to locate the Capital Temple through any information Noah could offer. Heath apparently does not expect to remain alive should he deliver on his end of the deal.

What is the deal with the Key Program? Is it software or hardware? Is this connected to The Angel Without a Face series?

• The Key Program seems to be software, housed on one copy of Noah Fulmer's mobile phone. In this sense it shares the trait of being software driven sentience, similar to the Data Angel. Where it differs however is that the Data Angel was constructed artificial intelligence with a limited set of functional parameters available to it, while the Key Program is apparently a software version of a Brownshirt volunteer that permanently altered his form to perform his task as the key program. The Data Angel also originated from a different plane of existence to humans, and was sent by another entity to build a bridge between the planes, this would suggest they are probably unrelated.

How long has The Black-eyed Army existed?

• The exact length of time that The Black-eyed Army has existed is not really known, but we can estimate it to be not much more than about five years old. This is from Conn's story in 'The Crushing Fist', where the events of Earth 44 and The Ink were stated as occurring five years earlier. Due to the clinical immortality of some citizens of The First World as well as the enhancements to those who were altered by the Shadow Entities, it is possible the members of The Black-eyed Army may have existed for hundreds of years prior to their conversion. This would seem to be supported by the mention of a stolen purple beam weapon used in the battle of the Capital Temple, which was stolen from the Gemstone Hegemony eight hundred years ago. That said, there has been no mention of who exactly stole the weapon from the hegemony, and it may have been acquired prior to the formation of The Black-eyed Army, potentially while Command was still active. One reason for such an action could have been the ongoing war with the Yngtak.

Who is Laura Thompson? What happened to her? Is she dead or alive?

• Laura Thompson is or was the daughter of Conn Thompson and Cristina Thompson. From the various stories it is assumed that Laura died at some point in the past, which turned Cristina into something of a monster which resulted in the events of the engagement in The Ink on Earth 44, and the creation of The Black-eyed Army. How Laura actually died, or whether she actually died remains unknown, however it is notable that Alek has a sister also called Laura. One theory at this point is that Alek, along with his brother and sister may be the children of a parallel version of Conn Thompson and Cristina Thompson, where their lives followed very different decision paths. There are a few other theories regarding Laura Thompson, one notable one being that she was the lost child in the back paths found by Noah Fulmer's duplicate while programmed with his hunter personality. Whether or not Laura is truly dead or alive remains to be seen, various versions of her have been encountered in both states.

What is on Cristina Thompson's shoe? Why did the Regret Demon want it?

• Cristina's shoe contains dirt from one of the realities she has gone through in the past. How exactly Cristina traveled between realities is unknown, but she may have used various installations of The First World, or through fractures in the realities similar to how Alek lead refugees towards The First World. What the dirt contained is unknown, it is unlikely to be GLORWOC, as it would have spread and destroyed everything around it, so another possibility is another microorganism, such as Temporal Bacteria, or a residue of some sort. Given the Regret Demon's considerable abilities, it can be presumed that whatever was on the shoe is rare and hard to obtain, and provides a material advantage to the Regret Demon, whatever its agendas may be.

Who reprogrammed Noah Fulmer's duplicate? What for?

• Current theories are that the duplicate of Noah was reprogrammed by either The Black-eyed Army or a similarly aligned faction. The party responsible for the shared psychic interrogation of both of the Noahs and a number of others (Roger and Jay) also used drugs, suggesting a less supernatural influence was at work. Their rapid departure would also match the actions of The Black-eyed Army, who would likely have moved using the Shadow Sphere's portal abilities.

Are there any more Multiverse Titan's? What about other Regeneration Cores?

• It really wouldn't be surprising if more of these existed, Ward Shaw (The Sword) provided a psychic link to allow one such titan to project its Regeneration Core into its deep future, and during the battle with The Mad God other titans may have resorted to similar techniques, or been shattered into fragments that came to rest in or connected to other realities. Other massive organic entities have been encountered, such as the Dreamer On High, or the organic entity in the series 'It Watched Us Play'. One interesting aspect of the Regeneration Core was its ability to affect the minds of many individuals from a considerable distance, in which it leaked its bitterness, pain and anger into the population. The vast collective apathy experienced by The First World may have been due to the loss of the Regeneration Core, or even through the influence of another, similar core elsewhere on or near The First World.
• From 'Our Final Acts (Part 3)', the reason the citizens of The First World are so apathetic is due to their achievement of clinical immortality, which essentially left many people incredibly bored.

Previous

What is with the age differences? Cristina Thompson is in her early thirties, so if she has an adult daughter she must have met Conn Thompson as a child. Why do the ages of various versions of Laura Thompson seem to jump around?

• Hey, anything is possible here. Cristina may look early thirties, but with the advanced medical discoveries from the destruction of the Regeneration Core on The First World, she may actually be somewhat older. Her personality indicates a mental age more typical of an older adult, with greater cynicism borne from experience. As for why different versions of Laura seem to vary in age anywhere from being a child to a young adult, this could be explained by differences between realities. As shown by the Temporal Bacteria, temporal displacement can happen in one reality entirely independently of the other realities around it. As a result, anything from taking a different quantum decision branch to gravitational distortions since the birth of each universe may slightly alter the passage of time, leading to displacements in their respective time-lines of years, or even millennia.

• The age aspect has been explained in 'Our Final Acts (Part 3)', where it has been confirmed that some citizens of The First World have achieved clinical immortality.

How did Heath end up the way he is? Where is he, and more importantly, what is he?

• Heath apparently volunteered for the procedure that turned him into the ultimate network node within the networks of The First World. It wouldn't be too surprising if he was part of the infrastructure supporting Command, as well as The First World shields, given his ability to readily connect with the systems. He is located in a reality somewhere near the Inner Shield, possibly on a Branch World. His reality was visited by the children lead by Danny, indicating it isn't one of the shielded (read-only) worlds previously discovered. One theory currently standing regarding Heath is that he may be related to the creation of the Inner Shield and Outer Shield, which was built with the help of the Brownshirts. He may even be a descended form of Brownshirt himself, which would explain why the Cordyceps Fungus infected Brownshirts reacted as he adjusted the camera Cristina Thompson was using. Another possibility is that there may also be other 'Heath' level system administrators out there, performing similar functions.
• This has also been answered in 'Our Final Acts (Part 3)'. Heath is the last of eighteen human volunteers, who along with eighteen Brownshirt volunteers became the underlying infrastructure that creates and maintains the shields protecting human space in the multiverse.