Lore FAQ
Introduction
This page serves as a quick FAQ for various lore bits. If you want a really swift introduction to everything or a fast reminder on basal concepts without getting too deep into it (two paragraphs or less per answer!), this page is what you want.
If you're looking for more detail, try the Basic Introduction.
Fundamentals
Q. What is this?
A. My (Marvin/Kolo)'s fictional headworld that I've been working on since 2010. It is needlessly overcomplex and dense with information but I love it lots so I kind of just roll with it.
Q. How does the magic system work?
A. TL;DR: "magic" or "Magninium" is a fancy term for magical juice that can make itself into anything and is also sentient. All things that are alive have magic in them; but sentient beings (like mortals and above) have metric tons of it. Gods have even more, etc. Magic can be used by anyone and works on a true intentions system - you don't have to know how a car works to be able to magic up a car, for example. It'll work perfectly. The major limiting factor for most spells is that it takes a lot of magic to do more than basic telepathy/teleportation so everyone's not magicking up cars left and right, really.
Q. What's this about concepts and resonating?
A. All magic in Numbers flows on "wavelengths" that sort of work like conceptual blueprints. It's how things are formed (fire exists because a wavelength of Magninium vibrates as fire) and why anything is able to exist; these concept wavelengths were made when the world was. To "resonate" is to be akin to a certain concept.
What this means in practical terms is: if the magic you're made out of flows on a wavelength that, say, resonates with fire, you will be naturally predisposed to using fire magic, warm things, starting fires, being hot-tempered, etc. It's not a hard and fast rule, and is rather open to interpretation.
Q. Okay, basic world history?
A. Originally all magic in the world was solidified into one being: Singularity. Singularity ripped themselves apart into Bereave & Genesis, the creator deities. Genesis stole most of Singularity's creation magic and went off to go make Timelines, though they were very bad at this and the Timelines were unstable/prone to collapse. Bereave didn't like Genesis being a thief and started blowing up Timelines. Awkward conflict ensured until Genesis created the Main Timeline, which was so awesome it assisted the other Timelines in stabilizing.
Most non-Fragment conflict occurs in the Main Timeline. It's also the blueprint any other Timelines are built off of.
Q. What are Timelines?
A. A huge swath of reality stitched together to collectively tell a certain story and to preserve the greater Magninium cycle (in which it is used, expended into the atmosphere, and reborn into new people). Timelines are relatively stable and secure, though they can break if people outside of the Timeline enter it and start messing with its path too much.
They have a lot of tiny Universes and people and nations inside of them. It's hard to water down the concept too much, but basically, anything to do with Gladar-mortals on the god spectrum is within Timelines.
Q. What are Fragments?
A. "Fragments" are small pieces of Genesis and Bereave that broke apart from them (hence the name). They exist outside of Timelines and have pledged to preserve them. Magnitude Fragments are a subset of these, just vastly more powerful.
Q. What's the God Spectrum?
A. See this page. TL;DR a way to categorize having different amounts of Magninium (and therefore, magical ability) in individuals.
Q. What are all the races? Are there humans/orcs?
A. See this page. There's a lot, with many varied abilities, boons, curses, and cultures. Generally no humans or standard fantasy races.
Note
Articles on the "Tidbits" section are intended to be written somewhat generically - they're more of a basic framework than anything completely rigid. The rules can vary from Universe to Timeline to etc, so nothing is exactly set in stone, but you'll see common themes - magic remains the same across all of Numbers, for example.
Specific universes (available from the Worlds page) will note changes or altered aspects. Most words have a unique "hook" to them that remixes some parts of the overall rules.