====== Universe ======

===== Setting Directory =====

**Lore Directory:**
  * [[universe:start]]<--- //You are here!//
    * [[universe:calendar]] 
      * [[universe:calendar:3500_gc]]<--- //Current Year!//
  * [[entity:precursors]]
  * [[universe:gates]]


===== Setting Primer =====

At our core, Project Multiverse is a space opera. 

Our stories take place on worlds within star systems within a greater star cluster. This doesn't make our setting exclusively science fiction, however! Individual worlds and/or systems can be pure high fantasy, post apocalyptic, steampunk, or any other type of setting that our players might wish to write stories in. The broader space opera setting is the glue that holds everything together and allows characters of one location with its own rules - [[shards:start]]s - to travel and visit other shards.

So long as their stories don't cause problems for others, players can tell the stories they want to.((Within reason - we have rules about fairness, appropriateness, Intellectual Property, and so forth!))

We're excited to see where //you// fit in.

===== Setting Pre-history =====

The //Calliope Star Cluster// predates the various burgeoning [[shards:start]]s and entities that have, in recent history, begun to pock its interior. 

Thousands of years prior to the current GC((Gatekeeper Calendar)) a race of powerful [[entity:precursors|precursors]] ruled the star cluster in its near-entirety for millennia without count.

These precursors, their history now lost to all but the most advent of stellar archeologists chose to shepherd instead of rule the many races of peoples in the star cluster; Guiding them and watching over them when they could have ruled over them like gods. The precursors lived with and among the fledgling races of the star cluster until one day they simply //vanished// from any known records or annals of history, leaving the weak and vulnerable races of the star cluster to fend for themselves.

Their disappearance is highly speculated and disputed among those nations to uncover ruins, technology fragments, and installations of the precursors such as the [[universe:gates|Gates]]. 

The reasoning behind their disappearance is widely up for debate; as no definitive answers have ever been found. To do so would require one to invest heavily in the exploration of //[[location:hadals_chasm|Hadals Chasm]]//, the great and sector-spanning great nebule that cuts a great tear across the star cluster and sits on top where many signs point to being the heart of the precursor's society. [[shards:start]]s, fragments of wayward realities that follow their own laws of space and time, have likewise begun to appear, with just as little explanation.

But the chasm is not only great and turbulent, but also filled with horrors and terrors beyond comprehension that only the bravest and most well-equipped of adventurers, treasure seekers, nations, and archeologists dare brave for more than just the secrets it holds. 

With the fall of the precursors, many fledgling races and nations have risen and built over their graves and now seek their turn as the masters of their own destiny.

===== Calendar and Currency =====

The enigmatic gatekeepers who manage the sector's [[universe:gates|FTL gate system]] have a pronounced effect on those that they interact with. They //only// operate within their time scale and using their own currency, so it is common that any of the Nations that interact with them will slowly adopt their calendar and currency for trade and communication outside of their systems.

The [[universe:calendar|Gatekeeper Calendar]], "**<color #ed1c24>GC</color>**" for short, has been the sector's primary way to track time since other Nations first contacted the Gatekeepers. It moves in approximately the same space as our time in the real world.

====Gate Credits====
 Gate Credits, or //credits// for short, are the most commonly accepted form of currency. [[universe:gates|Gate travel]] can only be purchased with Gate Credits. Credits are obtained by trading goods or services with the Gatekeepers which are often teleported directly from the cargo holds of ships upon consent, but they can also be traded independently of the Gatekeepers themselves as each individual can request a type of //digital wallet// linked to their identity that can be installed on any number of devices be it magical or technological in nature. Due to their necessity in long-range travel and ubiquity across Nations capable of FTL, Credits are typically accepted as currency by any Nation which interacts with the Gatekeepers and in some cases are even the standard form of currency for some space-faring nations and entities.

Nations may use whatever calendar and currency they like for lore reasons. But the GC system exists as a form of OOC record keeping. Credits can be whatever economic weight a Nation wishes and even backed economically by in setting resources or whatever system a nation would like if they wish to have such background information, but GC as the set standard is the strongest currency due to its importance no matter how powerful your Nation may be or how much gold equivalent they might have to back it.