DIDO

It was the war. The war that did the most damage, shattered the most lives, ruined the most species in all of time and space. Once, time and space was a flowing river, a stream, a direct line from beginning to end. Time travel was just jumping into the same directional flow;  a different place in the stream but the same destination, inevitably rushing towards oblivion as the Universe died a cold death, all things finally expended. The universe was finite. Massive, but finite. There indeed was a limit to matter and energy and a perfect finality to existence, ultimate of ultimate end. Until there wasn’t.

The war between the Pegg and Simulacrae raged for eons. Both species evolving specifically to fight each other over thousands of generations caused more and greater damage physically than had ever been seen. Solar system after solar system was claimed by one species or the other, expanding rapidly, forcing rapid breeding to keep up with the billions upon billions of causalities. Multiple different genetic mutations spread through both species based on traits that allowed their ancestors to survive while battling the other, cultivating the ultimate soldier counter to the other race. The Pegg rapidly developed mental prowess that had never before existed. The species began the war as an intellectual race, brilliant and cultured, with honed cognitive powers surpassing any seen before. Very quickly telepaths developed, first as empaths, able to feel the intentions of the enemy and react, giving conscious control to a subconscious instinct. After some empaths developed true telepathy, the Mentat mutation developed, giving some few Pegg the ability to kill indiscriminately with nothing but a thought. Known throughout the Universe as Zslars, this type of monstrously powerful mutation caused life to be shattered across all the Universe as innocent species were scythed through by different types of Zslar from both the Pegg and Simulacrae.

For millennia the war raged, until finally a weapon was developed by a desperate last alliance of free worlds, the only weapon which stood a chance of saving the Universe from being mindlessly torn asunder. The most fiendishly clever solution, absolutely perfect, infusing the tranq into eternity. The device was plotted and built by a species called by outsiders the Slydyde for the manner they seem to slide in and out of existence. The ability they developed, they applied to the weapon. The only species ever to evolve the natural ability to create their own universes. They create tiny temporary  dimensions that only exist for fractions of a second and slide through them. Scaling the theory, the eight most brilliant minds the galaxy could provide created a massive Intergalaxial Darkmatter device to be ignited inside a black hole that would take from time and space every trace of the Pegg and Simulacrae. Everything from the first instance of tiny DNA mutating to create a slightly different species which would one day become one of the two to the bloodiest and most horrific battle which wiped no fewer than sixteen separate races from existence. To do this, the device was to create a separate dimension and lock away forever the two warring species in a Universe all their own.

It went wrong. Most infinitely wrong.

Instead of creating a single dimension, the war was scattered across thousands of alternate dimensions as the explosion rendered the single  stream that was reality. The scale of the conflict was reduced to a negligible series of incidents as the decimated races continued their war wherever they encountered each other across the vast expanse that was now an infinite number of alternate Universes.

So became the Polyverse, allowing for untold suffering to impossible numbers of species…. But creating the opportunity for many who never could have lived, to live.

The Device was named the God Detonus and hailed as simultaneously the greatest and worst event in all of the newly created Polyverse. The eight minds who created it, and trillions of others were thrown out into the Polyverse as the detonation went off, with no hope of return to their dimension… Until in a small, unregarded Universe, barely large enough to be called a Universe, created seemingly as an aftershock of the God Detonus, there evolved a species with the natural ability to travel between the Universes. It was instinctual at first, an impossibly effective defense mechanism. When attacked, they simply shifted to a Dimension that was exactly the same except for whatever danger they faced no longer existed.

Then there was born those who could control the shift. The species named Valharo, humanoid, tended to be slim but muscular with dark hair and eyes. Their planet was not unlike Earth, except much younger and the society integrated into the ecosystem instead of wiping it out. More and more were born with Shifting, until they developed devices that could allow others to shift to nearby dimensions. First only others They began to map the Polyverse, splitting it into sections that had been created by major changes in time, categorizing and sorting dimensions to allow for safe exploration. An organization was developed to police the Polyverse  as with control of the power came those who would abuse it. The Department Of Dimensional Organization (DIDO), was charged with maintaining the species’ travel through dimensions and finding those who abused it.