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Lore24

Jan 01, 2024, 30 min read

Wake up, babe, new RPG challenge just dropped.

This one is called #Lore24 and it’s all about that sweet, sweet L O R E . It’s simple: each day, every day, for all of 2024’s 336 days, you write a paragraph or two (or a novel) of lore about your world. Get lore-ing! 1

Relevant links:

Now excuse me, I have some catching up to do!

Table of Contents

001 - January 01

Other - short fiction

Some moody flash fiction.

The world is ours: it spins, it flies around the Sun, it stinks, it’s filled of people. The people ferment and fornicate, pile up on the interstate, and stare at the dark at night. In that dark, out in the cold void, something other than human lurks. It knows of you, but cares little of our Coke Zero and high-speed Internet marvels. This Other has been here long before we took our turn on the merry-go-round. Its deals and concerns are above our fast fashion brains. Yet, “As Above, So Below” applies to It too. The resonances of our minds and hearts tug and pull at the grand cog of the Cosmos and the Other. We are connected, despite our unceasing desire for atomization and isolation. When we yearn, when we scream, when we reach out with our minds for the edges of what can be known, the Other waits. What does it want of us? What does it offer for our service? The excitement of not knowing, of finding out with every new dark pact, is what makes the merry-go-round worth the hassle for those freaks who dare to prod. Outside the city, in the clear night sky, you stand and stare out at the void. You hope it stares back for you have things to ask.

002 - January 02

So what is this? I am trying to brainstorm setting ideas for a modern horror world. I’ll be mixing ideas from Lovecraftian horror, conspiracies, the occult, weirdness, and whatever I feel like throwing into this cursed soup. For structure? Not sure. Maybe I’ll use Silent Legions to create a sandbox of sorts, for investigative horror. Or I might brainstorm more elements for my Romanian Mythos sourcebook. Or wild ideas for one of my many work-in-progress modules. Or just pretentious flash fiction.

The Party - short fiction

For today, some flash fiction using the Mythic Adventure Crafter:

The party.

The high end club — Gremlin — appeared as if from nowhere. Over night, its name resonated across the night life of the City. All your friends keep talking about it. At the usual bar you go to, you arrive too late. Their plans are already set in motion.

”We’re checking out the Gremlin”, Steve says.

He puts on his faded leather jacket you suspect he bought pre-faded from a boutique pop-up and grins at you. The rest of the crew — Madelyn and Joey — are closing the tab and downing their drinks. This is beyond your saving.

”I don’t feel like rubbing elbows with trustfund bros,” you hopelessly dissent.

Two shots and three beers in you meet him. Magnetic, brilliant white teeth, and wearing a pale pink shirt that screams “I’m fun and safe”, Marco turns out to be just as much a fraud as you. You exchange vapes in the club’s lounge. His grape-flavored IQOS tastes like stale wine.

”I don’t know what I’m doing here,” he says. “I’m not much of a party guy.”

You stare at Marco. How can someone so perfectly at ease with the world be so relatable to you? You’re a weirdo and a half. You think peach tea and a book on the life of trees is the way to go down on a Friday.

She crawls out of the darkness of the Gremlin’s belly, like a panther stalking her prey. Samantha never looked good in dresses. At least not when you were dating. But that was back in college and now she’s working out. Yoga? You lock eyes enough to notice you stop breathing. She looks away, then sits on the sofa, near Marco. She grabs his leg.

”You boys having a good time here?” she asks.

”We*‘re talking about trees. Did you know they communicate through the soil, like part of a world-spanning brain?” Marco says, his flawless denture a reminder of your fallible nature. He waits for you and Sam to acknowledge this perfect summary of your interaction so far*.

”We’re friends now, right?” he says.

“Hey, Sam” you finally say*.

”You too know each other?” Marco asks.

Cut to the car. Crisp winter air comes in through the windows, mixes in with the vapes flavors. Strawberry? You don’t remember who’s driving, but they’re not good. The turns come and go too fast, and you’ve lost sense of where you are. You remember Sam inviting you to join them — who were they? — to the afterparty at Carl’s. Steve, Madelyn and Joey called it a night. The car veers hard left, your head veers the other way. You hear the driver scream, Sam screams too. Marco’s hand grab your shoulder hard.

You stand above the ditch, looking down. The car hit the tree head-on. The glass shattered and scattered across the snow, transparent reflections upon white reflections. No blood, no bodies.

You look at your phone. The screen is broken. In the crack, you see yourself: magnetic, perfect teeth. Marco stares back at you. From the woods ahead, you hear a voice:

“Follow me”, Samantha says.

What was this? Guess I’ll try to figure it out tomorrow.

003 - January 03

A Moveable Feast

Today I’ll try to write the mechanics for the nightclub in my short fiction from yesterday.

A Moveable Feast.

The Gremlin club is an unnatural manifestation. It appears across urban spaces, as a club, bar, or concert venue. Its appearance changes, depending on the atmosphere or style of the city or neighborhood.

People that are part of its respective audience subculture always know about it. They insist on taking people that aren’t in the know.

In there, a player character (PC) is faced with a mirror image of themselves in the form they dream they can be. The interaction seems off and may inflict SAN damage 2.

If the PC continues interacting with the manifestation, they are inevitable seduced by another manifestation: a close connection they lost.

The two manifestations pursue the PC throughout the night, pushing for more reckless activities: drugs, car races, brawls, etc.

Inevitably, they suffer an accident. When the PC suffers any harm, their body is swapped with the body of the one they coveted. The connection they lost in the past is nearby.

004 - January 04

Today, a faction based on random table rolls.

Saviors of the Green

This is a sect dedicated to the preservation of the forest that I’m going to use in a work-in-progress Call of Cthulhu module.

Name: various, changes across time and place: The Mother’s Children, Saviors of the Green, Forest Protection Radicals

Origins: Ever since the forest could scream from the fires of man, the committed heard and rallied to protect her precious green. With the dawn of industrialization the scream grew deafening for the Mother’s chosen. Their methods grew brazen as man’s hubris grew dangerous.

Methods: The sect worships Shub-Niggurath and her many nature aspects throughout history (Astarte, Cybele, Danu, Artemis, Feyja, Demeter). They settle in forests they deem endangered by “modern man” (a term they use with derision in their pamphlets and tomes) and bless them. The blessing is a ritual sacrifice in which they spill “modern” blood on chosen tree. Once enough has been spilt, the tree grows into a protector.

Resources:

Sympathy. Today, due to the climate movement, the group has been able to attract and recruit at an unprecedented scale. However, not all those who are interested are taught the Magna Mater’s secrets. Some are kept as ignorant tools, to do the bidding of the masters.

Talent and crafts. The cult has always attracted those in touch with their artistic and creative side. The dawn of industrialization brought on the Romantic movement as a diametric opposite. Poets, novelists, painters are all obsessed with nature and its power. The cult uses these gifted individuals as channelers of Mother’s wishes. Additionally, they use the goods the create as an additional source of income.

005 - January 05

Concept: The City and the Void

Today I want to articulate what I’m aiming to building in this series. My main themes are:

  • the city and
  • the void

While those are quite broad, they contain in themselves a multitude of sub-themes and ideas. My main idea is horror mixed with aspects of urban decay, decadence, corruption. The Void on the other hand, represents the Other, the Unnatural, piercing the Illusion.

Which city? Any city, really. I can’t commit to one city. These strands of lore should be easily moved between any modern, contemporary city.

006 - January 06

Baytax, Inc

Faction - White collar crime cult (inspired by Roger’s lifepath).

Note on formatting

Elements within larger collapsible admonitions and within code font are random rolls, used for inspiration.

Name: Baytax Inc.

History: The group dates back to Schulte Law formed by Roger Schulte as his private law practice and tax advisory service, in Chicago. It was soon redirected by force by the Mickey Raza Family criminal outfit to launder their money and provide legal advice. Roger attempoted to change his identity and moved to New Orleans. However, this didn’t work. The hired bodyguards were dumped on his office doorsteps, etched in their necks the sign of the Mickey Raza Family gang.

Acquiescing to the pressure, Roger dedicated himself to growing this illicit side of business. He grew to appreciate it as a lucrative side hustle to his daytime casework.

As part of his money laundering fronts, Roger purchased many local businesses. One such acquisition was a local pawnshop with a reputation for the occult and weird. During an inspection of the business, Roger discovered a …

… bag of what seemed to be old tabbacco or some sort of powder. The smell overwhelmed Roger’s senses. …

… From the darkness of the shop, a figure appeared. Roger chocked. His heart pounded in his ears.

Returning to his office, he hired extensive detectives and academics to track down the powder and its origin. Throughout the next year, Roger divested more and more funds to his occult interests. One day, the gangs that have been paying him will take notice…

Methods.

Discovery: Search of lost artifacts, hidden knowledge, and secrets

Take money from criminal gangs for laundering and investment. Divest it to occult research and purchases.

Resources

Diplomacy: Good reputation, network, or alliances to negotiate, cooperate, or trade with others

Criminal connections. Roger has made friends with many of the local and regional gangs. He can call on most of these for favors or jobs.

Occult treasures. With his vast funds, Roger has managed to acquire plenty of occult times. While most of these are mundane, a few hold secret powers.

Hooks

Unfortunately, Roger doesn’t understand what the items are or do. He doesn’t trust the external detectives and consultants to keep them on the payroll long enough.

Furthermore, the gangs suspect Roger is hiding something. They have surveillance on him and have noticed the strangers coming and going from his office.

007 - January 07

Silent Legions Pantheon

What is the nature of The Void (The Unnatural, The Strange) in my world? Where did it come? What does it want? Does it want at all?

Let’s create some Gods using the Silent Legions book.

Creating Gods

  • Major Deities: 1d4+2, but few with any connection to the others -> 1d4: [1] = 1+2 = 3
  • Pantheon Traits:
    • Distant. The gods interact with the world only through their minions.
    • Relicts. The gods come from a former age of reality, when things were different.

The Gods of this Universe 3 are ignorant of humanity. They also inhabit spaces and shapes that cannot interact with our four-dimensional reality. The Gods do not exist in the same sense we exist. For humanity, existence is struggle, existence is uncertainty. For the Gods it is impossible to say what existence could feel like. Perhaps they are the physical forces that imploded our Universe into existence to begin with, that expand it further, and that eat it away slowly, cold entropy its leftovers.

When they do manifest with the confines of our reality, they are perceived as “inhabiting” a body — monstruous, but still a body. Human perception is limited to the window of the four dimensions, so we perceive everything through those limitations. The effect is similar to what Alan Watts described in “The Book”:

Here is someone who has never seen a cat. He is looking through a narrow slit in a fence, and, on the other side, a cat walks by. He sees first the head, then the less distinctly shaped furry trunk, and then the tail. […] Thereupon he reasons that the event head is the invariable and necessary cause of the event tail, which is the head’s effect. This absurd and confusing gobbledygook comes from his failure to see that head and tail go together; they are all one cat. - Alan Watts, “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”

The Gods are “leftovers” from the Universe’s unending cycle of birth, expansion, and destruction — the accumulated entropy and momentum. They remember the previous iterations, as we remember and learn from our childhood growing up.

Human perspective

Occultists of this world refer to these entities as the “Eternals”, due to their transcending the Universe itself. In the typical anthropomorphizing, humans ascribe their own emotions to the Gods. Some wizards dubbed the entities as “Ancient Weepers”, akin to an immortal who he sees their family and friends perish of old age. Scientists puzzled by the mystery of creation and entropy have posited the existence of a “Sine Qua Non” particle that kickstarted the Big Bang itself — the “Seed”.

To be continued...

008 - January 08

Haathrasz, the Thirster

God: Haathrasz

  • Porfolio: Life
  • Modes and Epithets: See - Diviner

Haathrasz is one of the Eternals, the “Ancient Weepers,” the “Seedlings.”

It isn’t so much an entity as a pervasive force that shapes and controls creation, with some sort of intentionality and consciousness that we cannot really understand. Where we begin, it ends; where it ends, we end. There is no life outside Haathrasz, there is no Haathrasz outside the Universe.

To say that Haathrasz is life is also erroneous. The relationship between It and life is like the one between the observer and the observed, with the added complication that the observer somehow is the observed. Wherever there arises complexity, there is Haathrasz already, waiting and calculating. What is this life? Why is it here? What should I do with it?

  • Title: Adjective Noun Epithet
  • Word: Burrowing, Thirsting, Thirsting, Dawn

When it notices life emerging — of any form — Haathrasz coalesces into it, and dives into the substructure. It traversez up and down, feasting and drinking from the fountain of life. For as much as It is powerful, Haathrasz cannot create life on its own; it only notices it already existing.

Haathrasz follows the evolution of Life — a bug, a bacteria, the human — from its inception as an idea in the mind of the Universe (another Weeper?) to its apex and collapse into entropy.

011 - January 11

Yes, I skipped a few days, life happens.

Let’s continue with another god.

Boghost, the Lingerer

Boghost is the Lingerer 4 whose domain is lies, deceit, and trickery. It grows as humanity lie and deceive each other. At the same time, it destroys what it feeds on. For example, if a politician lies to their constituents, Boghost intrudes into the mindspace of the treachery, and expands its on the collection subconscious layer, like a wound that invites infection. Unless the right cleansing ritual is employed — magic, social, or personal — the lie grows to destroy the relationship and cohesion of all those involved.

012 - January 12

And the final of our trifecta of Ancient Sadbois.

Uamathi, the Cosmic Mourner

Porfolio: Night Modes and Epithets: Destroy & Eradicator Title: Adjective Epithet Noun Word: Sorrow, Dusk, Dancing, Listening

What is the symbolism of Night in this context? I don’t want it to be too similar to Boghost, the God of illusion above. I’m going to interpret Night as the dream world, the subconscious realm, as opposed to the mundane.

Uamathi is the Cosmic Mourner 4 that seeks to destroy and eradicate the creative aspects of humanity, with all its aspects: human communication, dance, art. Those mystics that claim to have communed with the great god-mind talk about an alien feeling of anger, almost jealousy. Uamathi is said to hate the creative aspects as it was creation that destroyed the previous universes that it has inhabited, with everything that it had held dear.

013 - January 13

What are monsters?

Let’s move to some monsters and aliens. First let’s clarify what aliens and monsters are. They could be just like humans, arising out of evolution, as we know it. The Lovecraftian interpretation points towards the Ancient Aliens creators (that inspired the Alien universe too). While this is a juicy interpretation, the problem arises: why haven’t the other aliens made full contact with humans, or outright enslaved us? Basically, Fermi’s Paradox.

I devise several histories (ontologies) of what aliens and monsters are.

Remnants. Similar to the gods above, monsters and aliens are remnants of previous universes. Part of the initial expansion of the Universe, their primordial seed persevered and expanded into the new instantiation. Some are similar to humans (ex. Lizard-Men, Ghouls), some are very different (ex. Mi-go, Elder Things). Consequences: In previous universes, the aliens had different relationships with previous versions of humanity: alliances, wars, colonies. When they meet us again, this can cause troubles and confusions. There are parts of our ancestor memories that identify the aliens and monsters. The monsters and aliens have agendas and wills of their own, and are more akin to humans than the Cosmic Mourners.

Manifestations of the gods. The god-processes of the Universe create aliens and monsters — what we perceive as monsters and aliens. Their only will is as part of the god-processes.

022 - January 22

What do we need to have in our world’s assumptions for a sandbox modern horror game?

The closest we have in current RPGs is Unknown Armies. However, the horror there is centered around humanity. We did it!

How can we apply that logic to a Lovecraftian supernatural horror game to make it about the PCs? Again, Silent Legions to the rescue (partly). The book suggests creating a region and then filling it with aliens, monsters, gangs, and cults. But that’s a bit strange to me. Or a bit in the wrong direction. Because 1) generally, in Lovecraftian fiction, horror works when it’s sparse; 2) why would the PCs get involved?

I think the assumptions should be along the a different perspective:

  • the PCs matter. What they want and do should be important and pro-active (not reactive, as in most investigative RPGs)
  • horror is de-facto reality. It cannot be the exception. For this, we need to extrapolate and reach the logical conclusion of something like Cthulhu City or Cthulhu Apocalypse: evil has won.
  • alternative spin on the horror: Gods care about humanity for some reason. Whatever we do is important to them; human emotions and despair are treasured and interesting. This is what Kult does and I love it.

Thus what we get is a sort of “urban survival horror RPG”.

Plots and frameworks are the bread and butter, so here are some:

  • you are the last remnants of humanity within a small town, you want to search for other communities, while also removing any subverters and horrors hiding among your midst
  • you are part of a criminal network in a dark metropolis. You want the Eldritch powers because you think that they can provide the only means to save the world (or will you give in to their temptation for personal power?)
  • you are Spec Ops soldiers, part of the last fighting force of humanity. You are lost behind enemy lines, where you need to blend in, sneak, kill. Either find your way back home or dig deeper to kill the ultimate evil of the region

023 - January 23

Monsters: Onichus

Rolls

It’s hard to decide how to even start.

Mythic GM roll for Alien Species: Threatening Suffering

Mythic GM roll for Character description: Mature Wounded

What do they fear? Rivals. Some other aliens threaten their destruction.

I’m imagining a monster alien species that is created out of humans. The aliens infect humans during their lives, as this is the only way they can reproduce anymore. They’ve been defeated by a rival alien species, and now take shelter within humans.

The disguise is only effective because they hide within the brain electro-chemistry of the humans. They slow down the receptor sensitivity in order to allow themselves more time to plot their revenge and return to glory.

Unfortunately that has started to have effects on humanity. These humans exhibit strange self-mutilating behaviors and have reduced fertility. Subjectively, they describe their experience as moments of “intense deja-vu”, like “timing slowing down”. Some have discovered they can tune into these feelings and some times control them.

When they do so, they can see things on higher dimensions, and can interact with items at far away distances, via torsion fields. To the outside observer, the intrusion and interaction appears as fragments of the person reaching out and touching them from “strange mirror-like surfaces”.

Upon death, the alien thought-pattern take complete control and slow down the decay of the body. The aliens appear as “zombies” with telepathic and telekinetic powers. They are slowly decomposing and dying, but wield immense powers.

024 - January 24

Monsters: Onichus (Stats)

Today I’m gonna try to flesh out some rough stats for the Onichus I’ve outlined yesterday (see above).

These are for DG/Cthulhu Eternal.

So this is a sort of zombie (a decaying human body) that, as it dies and decomposes, it gains more intense mental (telekinetic and telepathic) powers.

The aliens work by slowing down the metabolism and brainwaves, feeding off of the dissipation of entropy from the human. It needs a long time to grow in power, so it needs to move into a young body, as the build-up of “dissipated entropy” (yeah sci-fi mumbo jumbo, sue me, it’s fun and great) feeds the Onichus.

So, mechanically, we should tie taking damage and lower stats (HP, CON, DEX) with greater telepathic/mental etc. powers of sorts.

When it dies, the alien energy leaves the body and searches for a new healthy body.

Onichus take full control over their hosts in the latter stages of their lifespans, when their body begins to decay, or when deathly sick or dying (from violence or other causes). When they do, they gain the following abilities:

TELEPATHY. The Onichu can communicate via thoughts with anyone within visual sight, if they pass an opposed POW tests. If the Onichu fails, the target is not aware of the attempt, they only feel a slight throbbing of a headache. The thoughts of the Onichu manifest as a conversation. The human body can no longer communicate normally, but only with grunts.

TELEKINESIS. The Onichu can move items with a successful POW check up to 2D10 meters, up to car-sized. Car-sized -40%; Motorcycle: -30%; Human -20%; Table or larger furniture -10% etc. They can throw the item to damage a target, with another INT check, with the same modifier.

REACH OUT. The Onichu can open mirror-surfaces that they can extend themselves through at a target with a successful INT check. They can extend their arms and perform a normal attack (unarmed or with a melee weapon) through the mirror-surfaces. The mirrors last 1D4 turns.

DECAYING. As the Onichu loses HP, it becomes more powerful. For every point lost from its initial HP (based on CON and STR) from whatever source, they gain a point of either INT or POW, up to the GM. When it dies, the alien escapes the body and can attempt to infect another human. They pick targets of 20 years or younger. The Onichu must pass an opposed POW and INT check. The Onichu suffers a penalty equal to the number of years the target has above 20. The target must be within visual sight. If none exist or the check fails, the Onichu perishes, unleashing mental anguish and strange physical effects (1/1D6 SAN and 1D4 HP damage).

030 - January 30

A Campaign Framework

Give a GM a one-shot, and you feed them for one day. Teach a GM a campaign framework, and you feed them for a lifetime. - Abraham Lincoln, rpg.net forums, 2014

Today I came up with a fun little campaign framework, for both solo and group gaming. It mixes cosmic horror and mythical fantasy, so you get “chocolate in your peanut butter”:

My goals for this were to combine two of my favorite settings for RPGs: modern investigative horror and OSR-style hex- and dungeon-crawling.

The campaign framework is composed of two layers, separated by dreaming:

  1. By day you play modern day investigators of the weird and occult. You work strange cases as a consultant and make it home by supper. You delve into libraries, peruse strange tomes, and strike deals with the local mob to help you against the new age cult. This can be played with your pick of whatever modern cosmic horror system (CoC, Cthulhu Eternal, Delta Green, etc.)
  2. However, by night, when you dream, you are transported to a world of mythic fantasy, inhabiting different characters. Here you play out pulp sword and sorcery adventures, delving for treasures and facing off against undead cults and monstrous beasts. This can be played with … take your pick (WWN, Knave, OSE, DCC, etc.)

Further notes

  • The GM can decide what the connection is between the “mundane” world and the dream-world. Is the dream the past? Is the dream the future? Is the dream a parallel world?
    • The Cosmic Prison. In this framework, the modern day is slowly being overtaken by the rise of an Old One, either as an outright apocalyptic series of events (flooding, madness, violence) or in a more subtle way (you simply wake up one day to feel that something is off — check Cthulhu City). You are one of the few survivors / seers of the truth, etc. You join a group trying to figure out what’s happening in the world. But the current day is already too late. In you dream world, you come across strange hints about the nature of what’s going on.
  • Generally, ideas you research in the modern day may reflect back into the dreamlands. Ex. you read about a cult of Atlantis in the library of Arkham, and in the dream world you are a fierce warrior of Atlantis facing off against an attack of Deep Ones.

032 - February 01

Short fiction - The Door

See

Transclude of block

033 - February 02

Epistemological bottleneck

The unnatural is above and below our reality. Its true nature cannot be perceived in our four dimensional world. Thus, any intrusion, traversal, or intersection manifests in idiosyncratic ways. It is reduced to our physics. The human mind is another epistemological bottleneck. It simply cannot perceive the real and absolute. It shapes it, filters it, changes it, in order to process it. Whatever we see as a demon is not the actual form. We see it and understand it with our own cultural and psychological baggage. The same unnatural manifestations across history were seen as different things as cultures changed: the will of Gods in ancient Greece, demons and witchcraft in medieval Europe, UFOs and aliens in the late 20th century.

I’m quite proud of the phrase “epistemological bottleneck.”

034 - April 9

Campaign framework - Dreamlands Conjunctions

Reality is shaped by belief, a la Planescape or Department of Truth. In hidden fringe corners of the world cultists control and subtly guide those susceptible to various ideas to their own ends. They shape reality and summon forth creatures from the Dreamlands. Their goals? Mysterious, elusive, but dangerous. You play agents trying to stop them.

This framework allows me to combine modern day with magical fantasy incursions, similar to Project Staircase, without worrying about having to research and represent modern realism. In these corners, belief in Yeti or The Mothman have altered reality to new magical rules.

An example could be a system of otherwise mundane caves believed by locals to house spirits of the dead animals in the area. The theme of the location would be exploring loss of innocence and animal companionship.

035 - April 10

Faction - The Free Librarians

This is a group that can be used in any modern horror campaign.

The main concept is a group that operates within public libraries. They leave hidden messages within shelves and meet at odd hours to discuss and share secret knowledge.

The leader is Chloe Zhukov, a disgraced literary studies PhD. She had to leave academia as she was discovered to have been using and spread pirated copies of academic books. She now works as a librarian. Her secret desire is to write and publish a book about guerilla warfare that will land her a fat check, so she can finally retire.

Resources: They have managed to obtain leaked copies of top secret government documents outlining anatomical representations of aliens. The group has copied these and placed them in various public libraries. Unknown to them, the government (perhaps Delta Green?) is on their tails.

Current operations: They are currently fighting a silent academic war with the Miskatonic University circle. The Free Librarians post on social media condemning the MU circle of “gatekeeping” by not allowing external researchers to access the MU’s much-renowned “forbidden section.”

Footnotes

  1. Separate goal: come up with new verb for writing lore. Should be fun, for the kids. ↩

  2. Assume Call of Cthulhu / Delta Green / Cthulhu Eternal. ↩

  3. Cosmology and multi-verses to follow. ↩

  4. Another euphemism human occultists use to describe the hypothesized entities that have spanned across multiple Universes. Scientists studying the secret of the cosmos identified these processes as having no clear beginning or end, but, as scientists, they cannot ascribe them any sort of consciousness or human-like intentionality or agency. ↩ ↩2