Basic Introduction

The Pitch

Numbers is my 11-year-old headworld spanning multiple timelines, universes, storylines, and many characters. Its themes revolve around self-forgiveness, hope, romance, and second chances, in a caustic, oft-violent world. Most of the stories revolve around characters growing and interacting with one another, and a central theme is how the bonds they forge enable them to right wrongs.

It is hopelessly, cheesily idealistic at its core. Simply talking it out is the solution to many problems. But that's why it's so special to me.

Fundamentals

Everything in Numbers is powered by the powerful element Magninium. With the ability to transform itself into any other material, it allows for magical feats to be performed.

In high enough quantities, Magninium gains sentience, which gives rise to animals and the civilized races. But magic in any quantity is needed for life in Numbers to operate, so even plants, rocks, etc. contain some.

To use Magninium to alter reality, as the sentient races do, one requires a fairly vast quantity of it. It is capable of literally anything - yes, literally - but the limiting factor is availability. The amount of magic required to conjure up a working car, for example, is beyond the means of mortals.

Magninium is intelligent and works on an "intention" system. AKA if a mortal could magic up a car, they don't need to know perfectly how a car works. It will appear fully functional, operational, and as expected.

Mortals can collect more Magninium through use of gemstones, which collect vast amounts of magic in the atmosphere and can be recharged.

However, the metals gold, silver, and copper resist Magninium's effects - instead consuming Magninium to generate more of itself. These metals are considered repulsive poison, and are either destroyed on sight or fashioned into secret weapons. Wrapping them in talc chokes their corrosive properties.

Magic also has "conceptual wavelengths" but that's a little too complex for fundamentals. Read the page on it if you want more.

In the Beginning...

Once, long ago, all Magninium in the world was contained in a single entity, the only existing thing. Though known by many names, Singularity is the most common. Crippled by loneliness, Singularity ripped itself apart into two beings: Genesis & Bereave.

Genesis stole most of the creation magic from Singularity, and set off to construct the TImelines, though their work was messy, dangerous, and volatile. Bereave, frustrated at his theft, dismantled and disturbed many of the Timelines created. These are known as the Original 24.

This feud ended with the birth of the immaculate creation, so perfect it stabilized much of the Originals and birthed infinite, minutely-different copies of itself (Connected Timelines). This Timeline, the most cherished, is called the Main Timeline (MT) and its creation was so incredible it shattered Genesis*. In heartbreak for eons, Bereave eventually tore himself apart as well*.

Most stories take place in the Main Timeline, and Timeline residents aren't aware that there are many versions of themselves. Timelines are infinite and any/all deviation from the MT is acceptable.

If a Timeline isn't specified, assume it's the MT. But dealing with Timeline stuff is only really relevant for Fragments, anyways.

The God Spectrum

The God Spectrum is a way to identify and classify the quantities of Magninium contained within individuals. It has its own page with more detail, but here is a quick 'n dirty reference:

Magnitude Fragment - huge shards of Singularity that are the personified identites of the fundamental building blocks of the world, 2D shapes. They exist outside of Timelines and cherish the world.

Fragment - smaller shards of Genesis and Bereave that scattered across the infinite Timelines. They are pledged to protect Timelines (generally) and exist outside of them.

Gladar - within Timelines, the most powerful entities. They live in a starscape void called Universe Core and create universes, which they can dictate any and all rules for. Unlike Frags, they are killable.

Harmonics & Chaotics - within universes, the most powerful entities, and usually the first created. They regulate the universe's Magninium cycle, and are often highly customized to the universe as dictated by the Gladar. There are typically at least 10 (5 of each) per universe.

Lesser God - lesser gods are made by H/C and often play direct roles in mortals' lives, creating the initial spawn that will go on to populate the universe. They have an "affinity" linked to their conceptual wavelength that they seek to discover.

Demigod - the result of a lesser god and mortal's coupling, demigods have a higher capacity for magic than mortals; if their will to live is strong, they 'respawn' at a safe, important (to them) location after dying.

Immortal - a genetic irregularity that occasionally happens to mortals when they are born, wherein the mortal does not die of natural causes - their magic bursting out of their body. They can be killed through any other means - poison, murder, sickness, accidents, etc.

Mortal - it's you!

Death

Death in Numbers is a transparent layer of existence overtop the existing Universe. Here, Magninium is weaker, the only thing tethering it to an identity being the living's thoughts.

In simpler terms: if a living person remembers a dead person - whether by their deeds, name, relationship, history, skills, anything - that dead person can exist in the Dead Zone indefinitely.

The more people remember that dead person, the stronger their 'ghost' becomes. Some ghosts become strong enough to physically appear to the living once more and interact with them, though weakly.

If all living people collectively forget a dead person exists, they fade from the Dead Zone in a few weeks, releasing what little magic of theirs remains to be reused in the Magninium cycle.

This doesn't only apply to people - important animals, locales, and plants can be superimposed on the Dead Zone as well, so long as they're remembered. The Dead Zone's unique locations and buildings are visible only to residents of the Zone and can exist superimposed on 'living' structures, making some areas highly hazardous or difficult to transverse.

Many cultures put heavy weight on being remembered and making a name for oneself, and there are festivals for celebrating and remembering the dead. Unsavoury individuals often have their names deliberately removed or censored in order to reduce their infamy.

Necromancy

Necromancy involves pulling a ghost from the Dead Zone and tethering it back to its original body. The necromancer then channels their own Magninium through the corpse, empowering the ghost to feed on it and exist in the Life Zone again.

The amount of magic that necromancy requires means it is inaccessible long-term to many mortals. Which is all the better, as it's easily misused - the magic in the body answers primarily to the necromancer, so their commands are irrefutable to their victims - otherwise known as zombies. Abusing this power imbalance is banned in almost every society, but selfish necromancy may still be practiced at the fringes of cultures.

Commands, however, have to be specific. "Don't run away" still allows the zombie to walk, fly, dance, pace, strut, saunter, jog, crawl, slide, drive, or bike away.

Originally necromancy was a way of reviving the suddenly-dead to allow them to settle their affairs and say tearful goodbyes, but misuse often sours peoples' opinions of it.

Sex & Sexuality

There are four primary sexes in Numbers: binary male (one gamete), binary female (one gamete), anbinary (two gametes), and sexless (no gametes).

An anbinary individual can sire or birth children, while binary functions identically to humans. Due to the existence of the anbinary, mother/father are ungendered and simply refer to the carrier of a child and the sire of a child.

Sexes are defined by race; most pony races have a binary (male/female) while others may reproduce primarily asexually (Beauts) or other means (Chilopoda).

The symbols for the four sexes are as follows:

It is customary to introduce oneself with pronouns in Numbers, as no clothing or physical appearance is gendered. Exclusive attraction is also rare - most characters would be considered bisexual, or lack a preference in general.

It's not often spoken of and is an afterthought in most cultures; people in Numbers lack terminology for sexualities or genders. The most they have are, again, preferred pronouns (usually he/she/they).

Conclusion

And - such are the very basics of Numbers, a rough outline of world details and explanations of some concepts. It should make reading profiles or stories easier (hopefully).

Any questions can be fielded to me, of course - I love talking about my convoluted world! And I can help parse and break down some of the denser information here.

If you made it this far, I love you!! Thank you for reading about my niche and complicated pet project :)