How did the world or the universe begin?
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1. Fiat Lux: On October 23, 4004 B.C. according to the Bishop Usher's chronology the world was created.
Its direct, its straightforward, and logical. Its especially useful for high magic universes which probably should require special reasons to have them have more conventional chronologies.
It should be noted that this scenario has a strong tendency toward the "Tolkien Effect". That is, you start out with the stronger, braver, better people, and over time things get progressively more inferior. The Balrog in the Third Age of Middleearth is a great terror, but in an earlier age he was a foot soldier.
This Tolkien Effect is excellent for creating fantasy. In general, Evolution and Fantasy do not play well together. The degeneration can be explained by the concept of 'genetic load'.
As a side note, some theorize that the date of creation is slightly earlier, and they are less definitive than the Bishop. A typical formulation is 'six to ten thousand years old.'
2. The Big Bang: Once upon a time, for no reason we can fathom scientifically (indeed some scientists hold that science is meaningless before the Event) a Point Singularity of enormous heat existed. It exploded.
Matter rushed out, and space unfolded, and out of the kajillion of possible settings for all the universal forces, one of the insanely few that allow life to be happened.
Matter which was hurling outwards, and away from each other then began to be attracted to each other even as it flew apart, and then it got together and linear motion got converted into circular motion.
Clumps of gas led to stars which led to planets, and so on.
One key problem of this is its not science the way I learned in high school. There is no observer, there is no reproducing the experiment.
3. Eureka!: As Science advances, eventually a brave and brilliant man discovers the Basic Theory of Everything. It unifies Quantum Gravity, Relativity, and Where Do All the Socks Go?
Its expressed in simple enough terms that everyone can understand it. And once Humanity understands the Nature of the Universe, Humanity creates itself.
The Quantum Fluctuation (which will be dealt with one after next.) spits out a Big Bang, and much later, here is Humanity.
The two chief problems with this are the assumption of the end of basic research (see Lord Kelvin for infamous assertions of the end of science), and the sheer philosophical impossibility. This requires an Uncaused Effect.
Bzzzzz. Thank you for playing, and here's a nice door prize.
However, in Multiverser, every story, no matter how improbable or illogical is true. The next one might be improbable, but at least it makes sense.
4. Ymir's Body: Odin killed Ymir the Frost Giant. Then he used his wadded up body to make Earth, or Midgard. Ticks became dwarves, and flowing blood became rivers, and so forth something like that.
This can be used in a low magic bias world. Ymir's Body could have been transmuted into stone, and earth. Or it could be that dirt accreted to Ymir's Body. Which raises interesting possibilities if Ymir is raised from the dead.
5. Quantum Fluctuation: This assumes that the quantum substrate is nothing. Sometimes the quantum substrate to reality fluctuates a bit. Usually an electron is spat out, and so is an anti-electron, and poof, they are no more. Sometimes, only an electron is spat out, and suddenly there is another particle from 'nothing'.
If this process continues on for long enough, it might actually happen that a huge mass of electrons got spat out. This mass forms the Point Singularity of the Big Bang.
One problem is the quantum substrate is not 'nothing'. It has an existence. So, this is a form of pushing the question back. Where did Reality come from? It came from the quantum substrate? M'kay, so where did the quantas subbasement thingie come from?
One theory that has been broached is what if the whole world is accidental. What if the formation of the Earth as it is now is the result of a quantum hiccup? The odds against this type of luck make the odds needed for Evolution seem small and insignificant, and there we are dealing with odds like One in the Number of Elementary Particles in the Universe. Of course, by the logic of Hitchhiker's Guides Improbability Drive that would make this the Numero Uno most likely thing to happen.
6. World Without End: The Universe has always existed, and will always exist. This used to be quite popular for not quite obvious reasons with the science crowd. The Big Bang was not accepted easily or happily.
One reason might be St. Thomas Aquineas saying that in proving God, he conceded that the universe was forever. Because if you started with a universe with a beginning, it was too easy to prove the existence of God.
Of course, few of us are the most brilliant mind of a century so I'll take what cheap shots I can.
7. Bicycling Universes: The universe expands in a Bang, and then contracts. Process repeats itself later with another universe. Process continues repeating.
Interestingly enough, 'the Artifact' on Eureka the TV Show (a very good show) is supposed to be the only item to survive from the previous universe. Also, Galacticus the Planet Eater of Marvel Comics (and featured in the movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) was supposed to be the only thing that survived from a previous universe.
Some people speculate that this allows for the random chance of the strengths of various universal forces to come into the incredibly slim Life is Possible Zone. One problem with that is that Entropy carries over from the previous universe it seems...so you only get at most a hundred universes to play with. And the odds are such that with one universe or a hundred, it really makes no difference.
Also, of necessity, a universe creating machine is going to be more complicated than a universe. Which means this theory requires a super-duper extreme complication level more than the other theories.
8. A Snake Eating Its Tail: Time is a circle. Perhaps I'm too logical, but I can't make heads or tails of this.
In any case, if you travel forward far enough, you'll end up seeing yourself grow up in the past.
This seems to be another, but very weird version of #6 Eternal Universe.
In such a universe, things tend to repeat. There may be separate ages (think of them as bands of color on the snake), but it is very possible that heroes and villains from another 'band' are reincarnated in the new band.
This would be a good place for a rock and roll joke if I knew any.
9. Continuous Creation: There was no Big Bang. Instead, there are lots of Little Bangs. Call this the Firecracker String Model of Space/Time.
What if when the universe first was formed, it had equivalent amounts of matter and anti-matter. Due to electrical polarization, these bits of matter are drawn away from each other, and separated. Quantum Mechanics seems to agree with the equal creation of matter and anti-matter.
So you have massive galaxies of matter and others of anti-matter. And what happens when as it must, one collides into another eventually.
A huge explosion, a Litte Bang, that expands everything around it radically. But it does not effect things far away from it for a very long time.
10. The Great Mother: There was Primeval Chaos. And then the Great Mother was born of it. She had a vision of the future of Father Sky. She was impregnated in the vision, and thus gave birth to Father Sky, her Husband-Son-Consort.
They had lots of other children who also had a lot of really bizarre carnal relations with things living, dead, and never living. Dwarfkind was born of relations between the God of Iron and a mountain, for example.
Being bored one day, Father Sky, the mightiest of the gods snuck away from Mother Earth who had been the Great Mother but got demoted. He summoned an entity out of Chaos, and of they had children. These children were vile and evil.
This led to the War of Gods and Demons which broke Paradise into two, gave an excuse to Humans to rebel and steal fire, and finally ended when Rome burned Carthage to the ground with the victory of the Gods.
In designing for this setting, staying awake for three days, and then overdosing on twelve cups of coffee is the key. After that, you should be well primed to come up with the backhistory of this Soap Opera of the Heavens. And remember, when you have a chance to be sensible, or to grossly over-complicate things with a baroque and perverse tale of madness, betrayal, and lust....well, need I say more? No, I didn't think so.
11. Steady-state Model: If the equivalent of one hydrogen atom in a hundred meter cube was created every year this would provide enough new material to keep the universe at the same density as it is now.
Its continually raining in the physical universe as electrons fall into this reality.
New stars and galaxies are continually forming from the new material. Some parts of the universe are old, and other parts are young.
12. Dragon Eggs: The Earth, and most life-bearing planets are eggs laid by the species Draconis Stellarae. Mold and fungus tends to coat the exterior of the egg to help it slide out. This mold and fungus are your very distant ancestors.
One day, the egg will crack, and the baby dragonet will fly free. And there will be lots and lots of little flash-frozen mites cluctching cell phones for its first meal.
The Universal Version of this is that the Universe is an Egg. And we are inside a Dragon not ready to hatch.
13. Plasma Universe: The dominant factor in the creation of galaxies is not gravity. Gravity does not have anywhere near the amount of time needed for some of the structures observed. Even a 150 billion years is not long enough for the creation of some of the structures which look to require a trillion years to form. And that is time that the Big Bangers are not willing to grant.
Enter Electromagnetism. Every structure of consequence in the universe is the way it is because of electromagnetism. Galaxies are Faraday generators. Currents of plasma twist and turn on themselves naturally, and in so doing they create the galaxies.
This offers interesting consequences for space travel, as it might be possible to use EM fields to drive spaceships far easier than chemical rockets.
It also offers some interesting ideas for planet creation which I'll deal with later.
14. Dreaming Daze: The Universe is a Consensual Dream. This one is popular with Mage: The Ascension. Its a great excuse for an apparently low magic world which actually has a magic bias through the roof.
It allows the creation of dream-like effects which might not be reasonable in other universes. Coincidences, implausibilities, archetypical figures showing up when you need advice, and bizarre almost unstoppable villains that require greater enlightenment to defeat all become more likely in this sort of universe.
16. Starlight and Time: This theory postulates that the Earth is close to the center of the universe, and that universe expanded outwards away from the Earth. But the Earth is inside some sort of event horizon.
So the further one is away from Earth, the faster time goes. The Creation took Six Days on Earth, and billions of years on the edge of the Universe.
Its an interesting idea. And this is a good point to bring up the idea that you can have multiple choices on this chart. The earth could be the result of a Stellar Dragon laying an egg in a Big Bang Universe for one example.
17. Earth V.1.0: Earth is a computer simulation, and you and I are Sims(r) characters run by some really smart computer programmers in the year 3000.
You'll know this is true if you ever look up in the sky, and see it turning dark except for a big flashing sign.
"Game Over."
In many regards, this does not matter. The same holds true for a Dream World. Its still real.
Of course, it offers the possibility of Unexpected Apocalypses as a brownout in Base World causes Earth the Video Game to turn off. And what if some character is the POV character of the gamer, and every time the POV character gets wasted, the gamer reboots to an earlier saved version....
It could be that there are a few heroes, and everyone else is normal. Or it could be like the TV Show 'Game Over' where everyone knows they are game characters, and everyone acts like one (Mom is a superspy, and Dad is the racer that always crashes and burns.)
There are many possibilities.
18. Butterfly Dreams: Am I a man dreaming of a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he is a man? Are we just the dreams of God?
If so, in some sense it doesn't matter, unless the God for this reality is not fully in control of his own dreaming. Yahweh would be, but some lesser entities might not be.
If a lesser entity, then the relevant question becomes what happens when the deity wakes? Do we all just evaporate? Does it become important to try to keep the deity asleep?
19. The Evaporating Doughnut: Traditional Big Bang theories almost necessitate, it seems to me, the idea of a resistance or loss of energy as the particles shoot toward the edge of Nothing, and create Space.
Otherwise, how do you get particles that are every second further away from each other to start heading toward each other? I'm sure I'm not grasping something here. At least I kinda sorta hope I'm not because otherwise this is Real Stupid.
But what if there is no resistance? And particles do shoot madly outward forever?
Since space is created by the passage of matter, once all matter has left the original spot of the Big Bang, we will find space evaporating back into nothingness. There will be a hole in the center of space/time. And as the matter shoots outward, the hole will expand.
Eventually each particle will be so far apart that it will be its own universe.
But before that point, we have an expanding doughnut with a hole of Nothingness in the middle. This is a place condemned to lack of life. No planets, nor stars will ever exist here.
But, the verser could arrive anyways. Its an excellent spot for a bunch of insanely brave scientists from an advanced civilization on the other side of the dimensional walls to try to examine.
They could send in a 'space station' loaded with people, and sensing gear to study up close the transformation of space/time into nothingness.
Of course, the tech bias might be negative as with the mag bias, and the body bias is going to be very low too as with the psi bias. So the scientists may be trying very hard to save their own lives against the unexpected problem of the universe's rules not allowing their best equipment to function.
And the verser can drop in on them, and .....
20. Each Book a Universe: Which makes a library a multiverse. Stories are created, and if they take hold, they become more real. Magic energy gets shunted to them, and the people take on color and depth. And at some point, the people become Real. They have souls. And usually with the benefit of people in the world believing in the world, the world becomes self-sustaining.
Yes, yessssss, 'tis pleasant to be a creator of universes. It has it perks. Some people say writer, or novelist--I say Universe Builder.
You want an autograph? Ten bucks which is very reasonable I think.
21. "Say Ferdie...": The Seyfert Galaxy new matter model is intriguing.
Inside the center of Seyfert Galaxies, new matter is created. This matter is 'young', and 'unaware' of the rest of the universe. As it ages, and its awareness spreads in a field around it, it becomes heavier.
However, before this happens, it is ejected from the Seyfert galaxy due to being extremely low mass. It gains mass as it goes, and begins the process which will lead to more galaxies.
One side effect of this is that the redshift which we've been depending on to tell us how far away is everyone is actually saying something else entirely. And it could be that the universe is waaaaaaaay smaller than we think--only the Local Supercluster (which is again, way more space than even the most ambitious stellar empire will use).
22. Planets as Gods: Why did the Ancients fear and revere the planets. They are just dots in the sky, after all. But the tales of the ancients are full of vigor and danger attributed to these 'just dots'. Maybe at one time, they were more.
Maybe Venus was a comet belched by Jupiter (and matching the stories told of how Jupiter took Minerva from his head). Maybe a temporarily electrically active solar system was able to catch Venus after it did much harm to Earth in close passes. And then the orbit was circularized.
Which makes on wonder where Earth came from.
