🖊️Meta City LORE

The Story

The Ancient Roman poet and satirist Juvenal very aptly described the basic human needs - "Рanem et circenses". Bread and circuses. Although he meant only the aspirations of his fellow citizens, these needs turned out to be not even panhuman, but universal.

Though almost all advanced races have solved the bread problem fundamentally, circuses have always been a scarce commodity.

Long interstellar flights, monotonous work, multi-kilometer traffic jams, delayed flights... boring! Galactic boredom! Billions of intelligent beings, fed but bored, demanded entertainment.

Everything was used: Books, paintings, movies, virtual worlds, induced brainwaves, hypercubic exhibits, games. Especially games.

The universe was inhabited by all kinds of creatures. Big and small, with different numbers of heads and limbs, flying and living underground, breathing boiling sulfuric acid and not breathing at all - the encyclopedia describing them all occupied three huge buildings at once. And they all had one thing in common - a passion for games. As different as they were themselves - strategic and lightning, bloodthirsty and meditative, dangerous and lethal, simple and unimaginable. Different.

The interstellar community itself was built on game rules.

For any species, its native star system was considered a "Learning Zone". As long as at least one representative of an intelligent race did not leave the gravitational influence of its native star, contact with that race, as well as open visits to their system, were strictly forbidden. And even after the Contact, the native system was considered sovereign and inviolable, and this rule was observed even in the bloodiest wars.

After the Contact, any intelligent race was given access to the InterUniversal Bridges Network, a complex and intricate technology related to fluctuations in the eighth dimension of the n-dimensional brana and something very scientific.

Only the Forerunners, who created the Network, could explain how it worked, but it was impossible to ask them. They, as befits an ancient and incredibly advanced civilization, left by their own Bridges in an unknown direction.

The Network was not the only technology the Forerunners left behind. Because interuniversal teleportation required an enormous amount of energy, they had to construct a device to generate it. Namely, the BEM, also known as the Brana Energy Module, draws energy from the interbrana space that is released after they collide. Other than powering the Network, BEMs have been used to recharge compact energy crystals, but this process was unstable and not always predictable. In addition, energy crystals carried the function of a universal currency, since their value, unlike absolute any other object, was significant in any worlds and on any planets.

The third and the last gift of the Forerunners to all intelligent races was the Gargantyupa, a multidimensional hypercube each facet of which was covered with intricate geometric patterns. The purpose of this device, despite centuries of scientists' attempts to comprehend it, remained unknown. The only thing they managed to find out was that a long study of the patterns led to an irreversibly violent insanity. But scientists still tended to think that the Forerunners had not created Gargantyupa for this purpose.

By gaining access to the Network and the ability to power energy crystals from BEMs, an intelligent race was discovering a boundless new world. Colorful and full of all kinds of entertainment. And the center of this world was rightly considered MetaCity, a nexus at the crossroads of all paths between all worlds. A world from which one could easily travel to any other world. A world, where diplomats and traders do their business, trying to grab a piece of someone else's universe. A world, where the brave gain glory or oblivion. A world, where every bored intelligent species can get a taste of someone else's entertainment.

Crystals

Energy crystals are crystals of different size and capacity, material, quality, with different amounts of energy inside, different shape, different concentration of energy.

Crystals could be created from different substances, since almost all have a crystal lattice, but not all substances fit the standard crystals, such as strong metals. After all, one of the main functions of a crystal substance is to protect it from external influence.

Other important parameters are the degree of interaction of the substance with the brana energy. The lower the degree of interaction is, the more energy can be "pumped" into the crystal and the more valuable it is.

The energy crystal made of ice was not suitable for powering up the uniforms, because if it is damaged (melted), a large amount of energy is released at once and Bang! happens. But scientists and the military use such ice crystals for their own purposes.

Some use these crystals as jewelry. Rings pumped with energy crystals are the latest in fashion.

All technology has switched to free brana energy.

Need a "battery" for a spaceship? - Easy, take this one, it's enough for 20 days of continuous flight through space :)

Brana Energy Module (BEM) is a class of technological devices that allow not only to draw but also to store energy from interbrana space, which is released after their (branas) collision. However, BEMs themselves cannot open subspace pockets to draw energy from there. This requires Zero Point Stations. These are sophisticated technical devices that allow you to transfer energy inside the BEM, and do it in a limited way, according to the class of the device, of which there are five. Class I (Roman numerals are used) is the most common and widely used, it is a universal source, familiar to everyone. Class V is incredibly rare and unique, used only by those who can afford it, where it is needed, and not just wanted. Their key difference is the amount of energy that a BEM can hold inside itself at one time. And energy is everything. It can solve any problem: from warming a cup of tea of glivanna leaves to transforming matter into the form that the mind needs. And although the source of infinite energy has been found, the number of vessels that will hold it is finite.