Cosmogenesis in Your Campaign (or: Playing God for Dummies)

The question does arise from time to time in some FRP games: “O Mighty GM, how can my super-powerful PC create his own universe? You know, maybe something with a nice view? And a path!” In response to “the question,” which invariably evokes groans from the other PCs, who maybe are not so powerful (or who are; their groans directed at the total insanity of it all), I finally devised a simple yet effective method for dealing with their megalomaniacal, cosmos-creating delusions. Instead of simply providing them with a quick fix, ready-made cosmos of their own to play with, I instituted a new policy: You can create only that which you comprehend.

Naturally, my Feynmanesque play stumped many would-be creators; too many, in fact. I realized that there was no easy way to describe, at least to the popular-level audience of the gaming table, something that is perhaps beyond our common ability to explain. Therefore, I amended the policy, creating a system based upon the currently unrecognized principles of cosmic hypersymmetry that enables a popular-level audience understanding of the mystery of cosmogenesis. This hypothetical system has demonstrated its effectiveness since then in the FRP environment, empowering many PCs with the base knowledge of how a cosmos could work, and allowing them to create in not so uncertain terms their own cosmos, with its own well-defined system of universal laws.

Yes, there are probably a few old-school role-players who would question why anyone would, or could, ever want to go there. The creation of a universe is perhaps one of the greatest feats possible, even in a fantastic gaming environment. It is a power restricted in our own Terran mythology to only the most powerful deities, and it is not the type of power one might consider typical of even the most powerful PCs in most game systems.

Yet, cosmogenesis is a fact in our own world; would it be anything less in a fantasy world? Of course not. True, there might be some reluctance to actually incorporate the act of creation into your game, and that reluctance might stem from sound logic (viz., the other players are really stupid; we’re playing on holy ground, and I’m afraid I might spontaneously combust; I’m playing a quasi-sentient, basically powerless microscopic virus in the campaign, etc.). However, as I will demonstrate, if your campaign features access to magic, or to technology that is approximately equivalent to our own current technology, then cosmogenesis is not only possible, but also relatively easy to achieve.

Cosmogenesis

It is probably fair to say that cosmogenesis, or the creation of that which we Terrans collectively know as “the universe,” is fiendishly difficult for most people, even those of high bandwidth, to comprehend.

It is, however, easy to extrapolate the cost to create an entire cosmos: Terran logic systems imply that it takes infinity to create infinity. But this “infinite” cost remains constant only if one bases the cost scale on a typical Terran numerical progression (viz., linear, geometric, etc.). The infinite becomes the mundane when the progression itself is eliminated, then replaced by the geometry of perfection. Or, if not that abstraction called “perfection,” then a state of induced dimensional perfection.

Hypersymmetry: Creation on a Budget

Hypersymmetry implies that there is an omnidimensional symmetry of systems from the micro to the macro. In all its applications, the cosmos itself is treated as system.

All cosmic sets conform to a hierarchical matrix where there is a hypersymmetry among subsets within the cosmic superset. The dimensional distribution of the sets, from the sub-quantum boundary level, through the atomic to the stellar levels, then through the galactic and super-galactic levels, adheres to a strict progression; one level a fractal permutation of another, with the micro observing a statistically similar dimensional relationship with the macro.

Therefore, the cosmos is omnidimensional fractal permutation within a discrete, hierarchical matrix. This innate factor is conserved among all levels, from the micro to the macro.

For example, with hypersymmetry, diatomic vibration/oscillation actually mimics the orbital mechanics of binary star systems; their system organization is actually the same, and this implies that there is a constant in the system other than the classical mass/gravity relationships we typically employ to define their particular systems. That constant is the actual motive force which shapes the cosmos from the micro to the macro; from the smallest of the small to the largest of the large.

The Cosmic Refresh Rate

The cosmos is a single superset that “refreshes” itself, analogous to the way in which a computer monitor paints an image on the screen. Visualize the entire cosmos as a single body (a sphere, a cube, or whatever) that “refreshes” itself, much the same as a computer monitor, yet encompassing the entirety of everything. Reality follows a simple “On/Null/On” cycle where the only difference between the first “On” state and the next “On” state is the relative incremental increase in time by one step. The Null state exists as the absence of cosmos, for it is the state that exists in-between the smallest possible measure of time. Given this, it could be said that the cosmos possesses a cosmic refresh rate, or cosmic pulse.

The Null Matrix

It is possible to define in quantitative terms the binding of the Null Matrix. Because the On/Null/On cycle is itself a cycle of steps, we can sample the smallest possible refresh rate by incrementally halving the distance between the two On states, until we reach the point at which another division would reduce the distance to zero. This is the point at which quantum vibratory waveforms lose their vector identity and cease to exist in this reality.

Inferred Time/Null Time

We note time itself only by its passage; therefore, time does not exist as a quantifiable entity in a vectorless state. This vectorless state is a property of the Null phase of the On/Null/On cycle.

Before Cosmogenesis: The Antiversal Singularity

Ever try to imagine what this universe was like before it was born? Hypersymmetry allows us to pierce this dark veil quite readily. We have already determined that, in order for a cosmos to be born, the entirety of its energy must already exist. Holding that the cosmos is infinite (or, for our purposes, as infinite as it needs to be), the primogenetive force that creates the cosmos must also be infinite. Following this line of logic, we now discover that it requires a cosmos to create a cosmos. This would appear to be illogical, for it disallows an initial cosmogenic event.

This apparent logical trap is solved by an application of hypersymmetry. First, disregard the cosmos-to-cosmos loop; it’s not necessary for now, as you will see. Next, visualize your own world, that which you see around you, only on the smallest possible scale. This is the realm of indeterminancy, where the act of (our imprecise Terran) measurement itself can change the properties of that which is being measured. From this point, at the smallest of the small, hypersymmetry allows us to jump to the largest of the large, simply by becoming “smaller” than the current cosmic matrix boundaries. However, this state can be achieved only by submitting a particular set of the local quantum matrix to omnicompression.

Omnicompression of the Anticosmic Singularity

When the anticosmic singularity is subjected to omnicompression, the temporally forced singularity is “painted” by the passage of time, with each subsequent painting adding to a “phosphor burn” effect on the face of reality itself. The antiversal singularity, its quantum matrix too “bright” for the cosmos to contain, flashes itself into itself, creating in its death the fractal motive force necessary for the birth of the new cosmos. This new cosmos is born into life along fractal lines, with each passage of time allowing for one more fractal iteration. Even a relatively low refresh rate would result in billions upon billions upon billions of iterations in the first second of the life of the newly born cosmos; thus, the cosmos would be huge just after a single second.

Crank up the refresh rate, and you speed up the rate at which your cosmos forms; slow it down, and you retard its growth.

Fractal Harmony

Finally, the actual creation of a cosmos isn’t as hard as it sounds, should you choose to employ hypersymmetry. A tenet of hypersymmetry is that the cosmos itself is defined as a system of sets, with each of the individual sets occupying its own particular “level” of the cosmic quantum matrix. Ranging from the conventional dimensions of the local quantum world to the universal expanse of the cosmos itself, each of these levels hosts a particular set species. Further, each of the levels shares in its cosmic arrangement a harmony, based upon fractal iterations of time.

This is fractal harmony, and it renders the chronology of a certain set species fractally, iteratively, and statistically similar to a set species from another level. Thus, level-phase requires not infinite power, but infinitely focused power. As a result of this, it is indeed theoretically possible that one could, with proper focus, create a new cosmos from but a single quanta.

All That All Which Is, All That All Which Binds

By this point, you are probably wondering how this can possibly be integrated into any FRP campaign, for even this “popular-level” explanation is, unfortunately, still quite abstract. So allow me to illustrate by example how the act of cosmogenesis has occurred before in our own campaigns. Though this is but one example drawn from a sample of many, the “warm and fuzzy” cosmogenic solution it presents is easier to comprehend than most of the others.

During one of our immortal-level SenZar game sessions, it became quite clear that the group’s PCs were about to kiss their immortal souls goodbye unless they could somehow manage, without the use of their own primal (immortal-rank power, to be brief), to snuff the disembodied soul of a particularly nasty ancient immortal. A “primal pulse” (a killer Big Bad NPC plot-device) had stripped the PCs of the ability to focus their own immortal powers, and had all but toasted their artifacts. So they were restricted to what would be their normal “mortal” abilities, including the casting of mortal magics, while the bad guy, the one behind the whole thing, was capable, at least apparently, of wielding his entire spectrum of immortal powers.

After much deliberation (including an attempt by one disconsolate PC to use the Schoolhouse Rock classic quote, “Hurray! I’m for the other team!”), the heroes decided to let their resident mystic take a crack at creating an entirely new cosmos, one in which they could trap the immortal soul of their noncorporeal foe. The problem lay not in creating the new cosmos, but in creating the new cosmos from what was, in effect, only mortal-level magic. The solution, therefore, called not for raw power but for perfection of form. Within this realm, the mystic excelled, for his magics drew their power from the reserves of his own will, and his will was what we might modestly call “perfect.”

Therefore, the mystic was able to construct via mortal magics (albeit the most powerful mortal magics; one empowered by what was, in effect, a big “group hug” whereby they pooled their collective magic power) a “perfect form,” using his own inner vision to direct the perfectly vectored omnicompression of a single quanta. Essentially, the mystic used his own perfect will to focus perfect telekinetic vectors into the target quanta, forcing it into a state of omnicompression, and thus catalyzing cosmogenesis. His “perfect will” and his mystic abilities to produce a single quanta “perfect form” allowed him to satisfy the “perfection of form” prerequisite of cosmogenesis that is embraced by hypersymmetry.

We achieved this through a fairly rigid interpretation of what both the spellcasting and game mechanics allowed, fudging perhaps only by allowing the mystic to keep his perfect will, despite being primally pulsed (stealing a VoidSpawn soul and incorporating the best parts of it into his own soul allowed the mystic to overcome that particular obstacle). True, the “perfection of form” prerequisite required a group pooling of ideas, shared power for the casting of magics, more than a dozen skill rolls, and sheer luck on the part of the PCs to survive a battle with a powerful immortal foe long enough to implement their desperate scheme. Naturally, cosmogenesis would be easier to achieve under ideal conditions, or by the use of immortal-level power. Yet, as is readily apparent, cosmogenesis can be used as a tactical/strategic weapon, given the proper (if highly unusual) conditions.

(Finally, for those who must know, after a struggle in which only half the group died, the soul of the bad guy went for a one-way ride to its newly created prison cosmos, where it would serve the mystic for eternity. If it ever stops screaming, that is. For the mystic, a sadistic bastard in his own right, had decreed, as is the right of the creator, that the new cosmos itself would obey his own laws; that the prisoner within this infinite universe would forevermore witness the birth-death cycle of this cosmos, moving within it forever unseen, unheard, and unnoticed by the countless souls which inhabit this created universe. So, if you ever wake up late one night and think you feel a silently screaming presence in your room...)

Todd King belongs to Nova Eth Publishing--mind, body and soul. At least we got his writing talent on loan to write this article.