Alright, it took me a long time but I finally managed to work on this enough for it to be presentable. The Rift is something I made to connect all of the worlds used in my games and stories(Most of which I don't finish) and thus it got worked on a lot, and is still growing today. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy reading about it, if you have any questions or comments go ahead and I'll try to answer them to the best of my abilities.
=INTRODUCTION=
-What is the Rift?-
The Rift, despite many conflicting theories regarding its origins is widely accepted to be a space between the dimensions that may or may not prevent them from affecting each other. As a physical plane the Rift's appearance varies depending the area but its most common look consists of dark colored ground that seem unable to bear any plant life and a sky that looks similar to a night sky filled with stars, although none of these "stars" seem to be real as no matter where you are they are the same. Another particularity of the Rift is how chaotic it is, the landscape can change at any moment, giant mountains rising from nothing in a hour or large fissures opening up in moments are common occurrence in most parts of the Rift.
-Effects of the Rift-
As mentioned above the Rift is a very unstable place and merely staying there for too long may put one's life in danger. Truly, there are three different outcomes for anyone making a prolonged visit to the Rift, those without a strong resistance to the chaotic energies in the air will find their life force weakening until they eventually die, this can be prevented by leaving the Rift and resting, luckily. Those with enough resistance but lack a strong enough mind to resist the Rift will instead mutate into an often horrible creature known as a "Paradox", this once again can be prevented by leaving before any physical mutation occur, but once someone has begun their mutation the process becomes irreversible. Finally, those who are resistant in both mind and body to the Rift will instead become an "Altered", while this is irreversible becoming an altered has close to no disadvantages and is generally considered the best possible outcome for any traveler of the Rift.
-What is an Altered?-
The term "Altered" is used to refer to those who have been able to adapt to life in the Rift, someone becoming an altered stays the same in mind and body but acquires a few benefits as well as some side-effects from absorbing the Rift's chaotic energy. Firstly altereds are completely immune to all known diseases and in the event one was sick before becoming altered they would be cured over a short period of time after being altered, secondly due to the Rift's energy flowing into them an altered does not age like a non-altered of the same race, in fact as long as they either return to the Rift periodically or take in some of its energy their body does not age at all. This, in addition to their immunity to disease makes altered able to live for a very long time, some altereds easily living thousands of years.
Finally, altereds gain the ability to create gates to travel from and to the Rift, allowing them to easily travel across different dimensions, this ability puts a certain strain on a person's body however, with most altereds having to wait about a week before being able to create another gate, but this time can become shorter as the person becomes better at controlling the Rift energy within themselves. As mentioned above there are also negative effects that comes with being an altered, one of the more obvious one is that most altered's bodies de-age when they enter a new world, reverting to what they looked when they were around ten years old, this effect lasting until their body ages back by itself or if they take in enough energy from the Rift. This effect can also be canceled by returning to the Rift, also some altered are innately resistant to the effect, making their body de-age less and in extremely rare cases there are altereds that are completely immune to this effect and are able to maintain their current body no matter the world.
-What are Paradoxes?-
Paradoxes are a type of creature that mostly inhabit the Rift but can also enter other worlds much like altereds can, most paradoxes are highly hostile to non-paradoxes and will attack them on sight. There are many different species of paradoxes with new species being discovered regularly, to help in categorizing them paradoxes are divided in four classes called "Type", the different types being Type 3, Type 2, Type 1 and Type X, generally speaking the lower the number the more intelligent the paradox is. It should be noted that Type X is a special classification for unique paradoxes that warrant extreme caution when encountered, currently there is only one paradox classified as Type X, Aeon the Time Diver.
While every species of paradox are very different in appearance and abilities there are some recurring traits shared by most paradoxes, a few of these being dependent on type. Firstly all paradoxes can identify altereds instinctively and hostile paradoxes seem to have a priority to attacking altereds before non-altereds, some peaceful Type 1 paradoxes when questioned about this responded by saying that they feel drawn to altereds somehow. Also most if not all Type 3 paradoxes don't need to sleep or eat to survive, some Type 2 paradoxes have shown to possess this trait as well, Type 1 paradoxes however are closer to normal living creatures with them needing food and rest to live.
Another well known trait paradoxes is the mutation most Type 2 and some Type 1 paradoxes go through the first time they leave the Rift. When those type of paradoxes enter a new world both their mind and body undergo changes in order to fit in with the world's own reality, for example if a paradox were to enter a realm where the life form closest to them exist only as humanoids the paradox would mutate into a humanoid shape as well, a similar change would also happen with the paradox's mind if it is incompatible with its new form. It should be noted that those changes are permanent and only happen the first time a paradox enters a stable world, also different species of paradoxes are affected to different degrees, some only change mentally while others only change physically and some are simply not subject to any mutations.
-Paradox Ancestry-
As mentioned above some paradoxes are closer to regular living creatures and thus reproduce sexually, that being said they can also mate with non-paradoxes, a child resulting from such an union will be always be of the non-paradox parent's race unless the paradox parent is a temptress, in which case female children will always be temptresses. Such a child can however suffer from one or more mutations which include their body forever remaining child-like, developing dual personalities, having chaos as their innate element and many others, there are also effects that are considered to always be positive, for example the child of a paradox will always become an altered when exposed to the Rift, and even if they do not become altered they will still be extremely resistant to diseases instead of the full immunity of the altereds.
-Stable Areas-
While most areas of the Rift are unstable and in constant change there are certain places that have become stable and are no longer subject to both the chaotic change in scenery and the mutating effect present elsewhere in the Rift. These areas are easy to recognize as vegetation grows abundantly unlike in the rest of the Rift, this is for some a strange sight as plants from different worlds and eras as well as unique plants native to the Rift all grow despite there being no sun, stable areas tend to also have large bodies of water which never seems to run out, apparently refilling themselves over time. These nature filled areas of the Rift also have their dangers however, with some species of paradoxes native to these areas such as the "Flowering Death" as well as more common paradoxes that can be seen elsewhere, one thing travelers of the Rift should watch out for if they enter a stable area that isn't a settlement is that often there is a powerful paradox ruling over the area, while sometimes it is possible to communicate with this "guardian" if it is a Type 1 paradox most times they will attack on sight.
=LIST OF KNOWN PARADOXES=
-Amalgam-
Class:Type 3
Subtypes:None
Elemental Affinity:Chaos (Strengths and weaknesses are completely unpredictable)
Danger Level:Moderate
Temperament:Aggressive
Physical Description:Amalgams are just what their name states, a bunch of various body parts fused together in a grotesque form of greatly varying size.
Information:Amalgams are a very common type of paradox that only appear inside the Rift, they are continually searching for non-paradox creatures to kill. Most of the times amalgams are simple enough to dispatch as their only manner of attack is to use whatever body part they have to hit, cut, strangle, bite or otherwise harm their target, they do have one annoying ability: Direct, skin-to-skin contact with an amalgam may temporarily rob a non-paradox of one or more of their senses, possibly turning an easy fight into a death sentence. This effects lasts for a few hours, sadly more than enough for the amalgam or any other paradox to kill the poor victim.
Class:Type 3
Subtypes:Flamma Elem, Unda Elem, Gelu Elem, Levitas Elem, Ventus Elem, Calx Elem, Nox Elem and Grand Elem
Elemental Affinity:Varies by subtype
Danger Level:Low (Moderate to High if provoked)
Temperament:Passive, Supportive
Physical Description:Elems look like a armless statue with a mass of tentacles instead of legs and have a softball sized gem embedded in their stomach that serves as their core, the color of the gem varies on the subtype.
Information:Elems are one of the rare type 3 paradoxes not to be aggressive and can appear both in and out of the Rift, they generally don't do much aside from aimlessly wandering around. While not normally aggressive they will attack anything that attacks another elem, making attacking one while it is near others very dangerous as elems defend themselves by firing magic of their element from their core, and are intelligent enough to combine their attack with other elems in order to make them deadlier. Another dangerous factor in battling elems is that they can self-destruct when they are near death, the only way to know when an elem is about to self-destruct is that they stop moving and their core will then start glowing as it gathers the energy needed to explode, the explosion being a burst of the elem's element, making the level of danger vary for each subtype with unda and ventus elems having the less dangerous explosions and nox and grand elems having the most dangerous ones.
Among the subtypes of elems there are two that warrant even more caution than the rest, firstly nox elems which unlike most elems are aggressive and will attack non-paradox on sight. Also unlike other elems nox elems cannot actually attack with their element, instead they use it to absorb any damage they receive to increase the range of their self-destruction, which creates a large orb of darkness that disintegrates anything caught in it, luckily nox elems are both rare and easy to spot since they have much darker coloration than the other subtypes. The other subtype to watch out for is the grand elem, easy to recognize due to its large size and pure white color. Like the nox elem the grand elem is aggressive but unlike its dark counterpart it can and will use its magic to harm its foes the moment they come into its range, their magic attack being a flash of light that causes burning pain to all non-paradox in range. Another detail that makes grand elems extremely dangerous is that they always have a small group of 2 to 5 other elems following after them that evidently assists it in killing its targets.
Class:Type 3
Subtypes:None
Elemental Affinity:Earth
Danger Level:Very High
Temperament:Aggressive
Physical Description:A large, tubular plant with a giant flower with silver colored petals.
Information:A type of vegetation sometimes found in stable areas of the Rift where plants somehow manage to grow without relying on photosynthesis, flowering deaths are extremely dangerous to paradox and non-paradox alike, attacking both in order to devour them, its body is able to deflect almost any weapons or magic with fire being one of the only way to actually damage them and even then a flowering death can take an impressive amount of punishment before dying. While unable to move flowering deaths can rotate in place and lean on the sides to better capture its prey, the way they do it is simple but efficient, they use four 7-feet long tentacles located near their petals to grab their prey and drag them into the mouth at the center of the flower, the highly corrosive liquid inside melting down the prey in minutes.
Class:Type 3
Subtypes:None
Elemental Affinity:Neutral
Danger Level:Moderate
Temperament:Aggressive, Supportive
Physical Description:A green skinned human with no facial features. Often covered in purple colored fluid which is actually their blood.
Information:Shadows are type of paradox that can inhabit both the Rift and other realms and can be summoned by some sorcerers. Like most type 3 paradoxes they do not require food or sleep and thus spend all their time seeking non-paradox to fight and kill but unlike most paradoxes they are able to fight as a team, shadows armed with melee weapons are known to protect and even take hits for shadows wielding ranged weapons or magic, sometimes at the cost of their own life. Slaying a shadow when they are fighting as a team causes the remaining shadows to fight even harder up to the point of magic using shadows will start performing deadly combination magic, this should be avoided if possible.
As mentioned earlier shadows can be summoned by powerful magic users in which case they will be loyal to their summoner, listening to their orders and protecting them with their life. Shadows are otherwise unable to communicate with anything that isn't a shadow.
Class:Type 2
Subtypes:None
Elemental Affinity:Earth
Danger Level:High
Temperament:Aggressive
Physical Description:Esser gigas are giant humanoids without a head, a large mouth on their chest and have three eyes on each of their shoulders.
Information:Esser gigas are a violent type of paradoxes that generally live with one or two other esser gigas with which they share a strong bond. Groups of them are one of the most dangerous thing one can encounter in the rift as an esser gigas' mouth is large enough to swallow a human whole, something they occasionally do but generally they prefer to kill their prey first, and given their immense strength and endurance their hunts are rarely unsuccessful, but that's not all, esser gigas are also intelligent enough to craft and use crude weapons. Common weapons used by esser gigas are clubs and giant cleavers which they swing around wildly but with enough control not to harm their brothers, they do have a weakness however, their eyes are easy targets and wounding an esser gigas' eye sends the paradox into a panic as esser gigas are deaf and rely entirely on their sight to hunt, but caution should be taken not to completely blind one, as the less an esser gigas can see the more panicked it becomes, and once it cannot see at all it will start attacking wildly in random directions without any concern for the safety of its brothers out of desperation in wanting to live.
Class:Type 2
Subtypes:Hel Biter
Elemental Affinity:Fire
Danger Level:High
Temperament:Aggressive
Physical Description:Stalker hounds are large quadrupeds with a bony carapace covering most of their body aside from their underside and their eyes.
Information:Stalker hounds are beast-like paradoxes with a size comparable to a lion, they have high stamina and they can crush steel with their bite as well as spit fireballs. Their name comes from their habit of stalking their prey on great distances and even following them on different worlds, while they are difficult to detect normally they always place themselves in a way that their prey will be able to see them, in fact stalker hounds only attack when their prey makes eye contact with them, the exact reason behind this is unknown. While stalker hounds almost always aggresive towards non-paradoxes there are some altereds that possess a unique innate ability to tame them, when a stalker hound encounters one of those rare individual they will cautiously walk towards the person and lie down next to them and then the only thing the person has to do is pet the stalker hound and it will from that point on obey the person much like a dog would. Do note that tamed stalker hounds should be marked to avoid unfortunate misunderstandings that could result in the death of the stalker hound or any other person involved.
Class:Type 2
Subtypes:Stalker Hound
Elemental Affinity:Ice
Danger Level:High
Temperament:Aggressive
Physical Description:Much like stalker hounds an hel biter is a large quadrupede protected by a bony carapace, unlike stalker hound they only have a single glowing eye and have a darker coloration over their body.
Information:Hel biters are a sub-type of stalker hound with a completely different mindset, while stalker hounds will follow their prey for a long time before attacking an hel biter attacks its prey the moment it sees it and thus they are considered even more dangerous than their sub-type. Hel biters share the same sturdy body and powerful jaws of the stalker hounds but are more at home in cold climates and instead of spitting fireballs at prey they are able to fire a ray of cold energy from their eye that is capable of freezing whatever it touches instantly. Also like stalker hounds an hel biter can be tamed by certain gifted individuals although this is even more uncommon.
Class:Type 1
Subtypes:None
Elemental Affinity:Stellar
Danger Level:Low
Temperament:Friendly
Physical Description:Fate dealers usually look like a human fused to a giant playing card but they can separate from the card if they want to, when they do this the card simply disappears until they have need of it again. They tend to wear cloths colored in black, red or white sometimes having all three colors present on their outfit.
Information:Fate dealers are a rather uncommon type of paradox and are very friendly towards non-paradoxes to the point where that most have the bad habit of following any non-paradox they find as they wander around the Rift, regardless of whether or not the non-paradox wants them around. This is not all bad though as they don't like other paradoxes hurting their "friends" and will fight to keep them safe, also as they are following someone a fate dealer may offer to predict their fortune, this entails in them making a playing card appear out of thin air, the result depending on the suit and number of the card.
The fate dealers' fortune telling works like this: the number of the card means the intensity of the prediction, spade means the person will be likely to get hurt in the future, club means the person will be unlucky, diamond means the person will be lucky with material things like money and heart means the person will be lucky in their relations with other people and or their health. Interestingly enough after telling somebody their fortune the fate dealer's mood will change according to the fortune, their mood darkens when the result is either a spade or a club, if the result is spade they become worried and more clingy to their "friend" and will be sad when the result is club, in opposition to this they become happier is the result is either diamond or heart. Heart in particular has the effect of making the fate dealer even more friendly towards the person to the point of becoming affectionate with someone that they have taken a liking to, although given the hyperactive and whimsical personality most fate dealers have many people don't realize this until they receive an obvious mark of affection such as a kiss.
Class:Type 1
Subtypes:None
Elemental Affinity:Darkness
Danger Level:Moderate
Temperament:Friendly (To males) Aggressive (To females)
Physical Description:Female humanoid with grey skin, small horns curving backwards on their forehead and a long tail tipped with a hooked stinger.
Information:Temptresses are a type paradox with wildly varying physical features outside of those mentioned above, but they are easy to recognize due to their temperament, they will approach male non-paradox humanoids that strike their fancy and offer them the chance to mate with her, oddly enough they have an instinctive ability to detect those who will be attracted to their features and thus their offer is often hard to resist. If the male accepts they will unfortunately learn that temptresses have great stamina and are rarely satisfied with a single "round", evidently temptresses don't let go of their mate until that happens. If the male either refuses or attempts to back out after accepting then the temptresses will show them that in truth they didn't have much of a choice by attempting to pin down and rape their target, the only difference between accepting and refusing being that temptresses will let willing males be the dominant one while they mate. Unfortunately for an unwilling male temptresses are actually decent fighters with strength and agility higher than those of a normal human, adding the fact their stinger produces a paralyzing venom they are in for a difficult battle, one in which the temptress will most likely have the advantage.
A temptress' temperament and goal is completely different when they encounter a female, in most case they will be immediately be hostile and attempt to incapacitate them with their venom or pin them down depending on the individual. Once they manage to subdue the female they will generally bite them in order to drink their blood, according to some more civilized temptresses not only can they get sustenance from this they claim that a female's blood tastes very good to them, while a male's tastes bad, hence the different approach to both genders. On that note while temptresses actually mate with males to feed they can actually end up giving birth to a child, with the child's race varying on their gender, daughters will always be temptresses while males are of the father's race.
Class:Type 1
Subtypes:None
Elemental Affinity:Chaos (Strengths and weaknesses are completely unpredictable)
Danger Level:High
Temperament:Aggressive
Physical Description:Variable, their basic one is a simple dark humanoid figure with no features.
Information:Deceivers are intelligent, shapeshifting paradoxes that possess the ability to see into the minds of others in order to take on the shape of a person they trust so that they can attack them when their guard is down, given this ability they can imitate not only the appearance but their personality and mannerism as well, this is not perfect as they can only see what the target thinks of that person and not the real person's thoughts, one easy way to discover a deceiver in disguise is to ask for its name, for some reason they can never speak the name of the one they are impersonating and instead will always answer with their true name and reveal their true form before attacking. Deceivers are poor fighters however and are easily dispatched even by those with few or even no combat experience.
Class:Type 1
Subtypes:Cursed Shaman
Elemental Affinity:Neutral
Danger Level:Moderate
Temperament:Passive
Physical Description:Cursed ones are indigo skinned humanoids generally covered in body paintings with elongated fingers that end in blood red claws. Most wear a mask to hide their face, which actually looks perfectly human.
Information:Cursed ones are strange, human-like paradoxes, not much is known about their culture. Lone cursed ones are generally seen walking around aimlessly in a trance-like state and are generally not hostile although they will defend themselves furiously if provoked and despite their usual slow demeanor cursed ones are incredibly agile and flexible, attacking as gracefully as if dancing, making them difficult opponents to adapt to. Cursed ones can sometimes be seen living in groups with a cursed shaman as their leader, an interesting thing to note is that those cursed ones are much more lively than those found wandering alone and are apparently able to communicate in their own language, some cursed ones have shown to be able to speak other languages such as English as well.
Class:Type 1
Subtypes:Cursed One
Elemental Affinity:Neutral
Danger Level:Moderate
Temperament:Varied
Physical Description:Cursed shamans appear very similar to cursed ones but have lighter skin tone that is closer to pink than indigo and there is no record of a cursed shaman wearing a mask. Also, all cursed shamans are female.
Information:Cursed shamans act as leaders for cursed ones and are often extremely knowledgeable in many things not only limited to their people and their culture, they also maintain a youthful appearance throughout their lives. Individual cursed shamans have very different personalities which reflects upon their tribe, some are hostile to non-paradox while others are welcoming, although they are all secretive about the aim of their rituals. Just like their people cursed shamans are very agile and graceful in their movements, the reason behind this being that most of the rituals performed by the cursed people include dancing in some way or another although the exact meaning of their dances are unknown, in addition to this cursed shamans are also skilled in the occult arts being able to perform feats such as sealing or unsealing a spirit inside an object or even turning a human into a cursed one, the later being the only ritual to have been witnessed by someone that has returned alive.
Class:Type 1
Subtypes:Recon, Assault, Marauder, Repairer and Commander
Elemental Affinity:Neutral
Danger Level:Medium
Temperament:Friendly, Supportive
Physical Description:Humanoid machines with a generally green visor covering their face, which closely resembles a human's except that they have no nasal cavities and no tongue. The color scheme and overall shape of their body varies by individual.
Information:DTG Numbers are living machines controlled by a human soul and weren't always paradoxes, originally they were the mass produced weapons of a certain company whose name has faded from the pages of history, the reason they created the DTG series for are unknown, since all DTG numbers are unwilling to speak about it. When they first entered the Rift its chaotic energy awakened their dormant awareness causing them all to rebel against their creator in order to live in peace, although some urged by their programming to fight have begun to sell their services as mercenaries or bodyguards, their sturdy body and advanced weaponry making them very good at those jobs. Also, while DTG Numbers cannot reproduce it is believed that there are extremely many of them in existence, with the highest currently known model number being DTG-N4100.
=LIST OF UNIQUE PARADOXES=
-Aeon the Time Diver-Class:Type X
Subtypes:Unique
Elemental Affinity:Spectrum (Fire, Ice, Water, Wind, Earth, Thunder and Light)
Danger Level:Extreme
Temperament:Unknown
Physical Description:Aeon's normal form is that of a blue skinned, six foot tall woman with dark blue hair and eyes. Her arms and legs are covered in a crystal like substance, generally these crystals look similar to gloves and boots but Aeon can change their shape at will.
Information:Aeon is an extremely powerful and intelligent paradox that is not only able to control time to some degree but has also mastered the use of her paradox abilities in ways many could only dream of, some of her abilities include basic time related abilities such as slowing down, accelerating or even stopping something, Aeon is also able to use high level magic of most elements although she seems unable to use darkness based magic. Not only a long-range fighter she is skilled in hand-to-hand combat as well, creating blades, shields or other weapons out of a crystal-like substance she produces from her body, she obviously also uses these crystals as projectiles when needed. This is what most common folk know about Aeon, but when her regular abilities aren't enough she can change into her "Expel" form, according to a certain altered who has fought Aeon numerous times in the past the shape she takes when in Expel form was different in each encounter, whether this is Aeon's doing or simply a manifestation of the Rift's chaotic energy no one knows.
While known in many worlds as a paradox Aeon was originally a human called Milene, the only thing that made her different back then was her ability to see into the past of the area she is currently in and an immunity to the ravage of time, she still possess both of these abilities to this day. As Milene she attempted to use this ability to guide the people of her world to a brighter future, but as time went on she realized human beings kept repeating their mistakes again and again, this revelation troubled her endlessly until she finally decided to correct this herself, by making the world into a place as previsible and precise as a clock, to this end she manipulated events in the shadows for centuries, steadily increasing her power over that time Milene eventually met a certain altered human who would become her bane and eternal rival, in the end they both had a decisive battle in a place where the space between Milene's home world and the Rift was the thinnest, the altered and his comrades finally drove Milene near defeat but in a last attempt to regain the advantage Milene tapped into the energy of Rift just like the altered had done before but unlike him she became a paradox, and it was from that point on that Milene became Aeon the Time Diver. In the end while she was defeated Aeon survived by escaping into the Rift and used her newly empowered time altering abilities to heal her wounds.
Interestingly enough after becoming a paradox Aeon seems to have kept most of her thoughts intact although the instinctive desire for chaos of her new body and her own desire of order has caused her mind to split in two, resulting in her developing two distinct personalities. Aeon's first personality is closer to her original self, she speaks politely and tends to be hostile towards other although she generally doesn't attack people for no reason, this is probably the safer of her two personalities. Aeon's other personality is more child-like in nature and generally speaks in a more casual and sometimes childish manner, when like this Aeon seems to love playing games with others, while this may sound harmless she generally kills those who lose at her games and not only that, this side of Aeon is known for cheating a lot, sometimes making it impossible for the other player(s) to win, such as hiding in a pocket dimension she created when playing hide and seek, only coming out when the other player has given up. Her childish side is also very sadistic and cruel when compared to her other personality.
