Strigoiverse Collections (Original stories from various genres)

Strigoi Grey · Post by **Strigoi Grey** » 2025-09-16 01:11pm

A collection of stories set in my Strigoiverse but only tangentially related to the metaplot, or seemingly unrelated so that you shouldn't have to know much about it to read them. Characters and aspects of the Strigoiverse may make cameos or be referenced, but major interactions will likely take place in chapter not canon to either side/all sides. Some chapters will be standalone/one-shots, while others will be part of storylines.

Now the title says various genres, but offshoots of them or stories with various aesthetics that don't quite fit in a genre will also be included.

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The Ur-City

The Endless, Beginningless Now

"Before" Transcendence

In the City That Holds All, there is one Maker who does not quite understand the process of creation.

It loves the work, but it knows it yet lacks the ability to craft things and people able to survive without its attention. It does not wish to sleep and forget them so that they become nothing, nor to let its attention wander and look, after a few moments, into a void, not knowing there was ever anything to remember.

Thus, in the manner of those Creators who learn to love their craft, it looks upon the Unmoved Mover, that sibling of its who has Awakened, who now watches its macrocosm grow like a garden rather than move like smoke in the winds of its mind.

Does it take inspiration from the Ur-City's Second Monarch? Perhaps. Creating is a greater concern than originality to Makers, however, as it is to those who rose from the Mover's Wellspring and now stand as its equals.

This Creator, however, is far from such peaks of power and aware of the fact; it is not skilled enough to make independent creations, much less craft whilst pursuing Awakening, so it focuses the brunt of its mind on its macrocosm, while observing those of its brethren, especially Wellspring. It finds that this sort of exercise both keeps its creation in a state of stability and trains its mind, perhaps heralding the beginning of Awakening.

[Scene: a picturesque wilderness, with crystal streams, towering evergreens and snowcapped mountains, though bereft of animals. An Asian-American man walks into focus, brown-eyed, with flecks of silver in his dark hair and beard. He appears to be in his late thirties.]

"Welcome back, everyone, or hello for the first time. In the second case, you might have have heard of me as Ryu Walker, creator of the Long Walks travelogue series. Maybe that's why you're with us now. You read the books, or watched the podcasts, lived the memcordings, followed the astral projections.

"The name of the series is something of an inside joke. It's based on that time I went to China and my name got swapped with the closest local version - "Long" story -, then people latched onto my passion for going on lengthy trips, and here we are.

"You might be listening from my home universe. If not, I can tell you its physics have enabled my hobbies, being unusually permissive of quantum entanglement and tunneling, allowing the creation of a portal network and easy personal teleportation. In my travels, I have picked up various techniques and devices meant to enhance my spatiotemporal movement capabilities.

"This is the first extra-macrocosmic edition of Long Walks! Now, I'm not giving up on my home creation: even one planet in one universe can have so much to offer. It's just that the usual magna-macrocosmic interaction between the Mover's Wellspring and others consists of David Silva beating the shit out of uppity Makers, and I think that's making them allergic to our tourists.

"So when I heard that this Mirthful Merger Creator is allowing visitors on its territory, I just had to go check. I have astral projected there a few times already, to test the waters, though I haven't gone in person yet. It seems fairly safe, by my standards, though don't take that as encouragement to follow. Might not be for you.

"I have spoken to a few diehard fans since, and they had some questions about the whole thing. I thought I should share my answers here.

Q: Is the Overlap macrocosm smaller or less complex than our Wellspring?

A: No. Metaphysically, they're on par. Variety in terms of mundane spaces might be less obvious at first glance, but that's unrelated.

Q: Are all your travelogues for the near future going to be set in Overlap? Will we see you in other creations? Maybe we can follow other people? I've heard David Silva might want to collate such experiences for one of his books.

A: No, though they might be the majority; likely; yes, I might receive correspondence detailing the travels of other people in other creations, or of natives in theirs; I know that's not really a question, but while David might do this, I think this will be the extent of overt interaction here. Overlap is a peaceful macrocosm, at least relative to its neighbours.

Q: What is Overlap like? Is it one place or split into various structures? Can we get a preview of some or will we have to wait until you go in person? If yes, is all you're telling us about now its full extent?

A; Let's leave that first one for last, ok? Because hoo boy. Yes, I've been projecting specifically so I could share an overview of those parts of Overlap one could travel in. I think the Merger might take note of my informal classification and use an expanded version to set better boundaries. Fun fact, you can move from any part of its macrocosm to any other by thinking about it and moving around a bit, no powers needed.

I've decided to split Overlap's structure in Sectors (using Roman numerals) and Districts (using Arabic ones). The Sectors might seem to have unifying themes, but not all do. I'm still working out if there is any rhyme or reason to it (maybe the Merger is too), so I can only offer speculation about why dissimilar Districts are sometimes together.

The Districts I have been to are not even close to the full extent of the realms they act as entrance points for. They include planets, universes, pseudo-macrocosms and everything in-between (in their case, the idea of an unifying theme seems more certain).

Sector I: "X-punk"

"Fighting the man" is a thing in some Districts here, but not all. Rather, they seem to be 'punk in the sense of unifying aesthetics and the societies formed around signature technologies.

SID1: "Stonepunk"

Like in the Flintstones cartoon, people here have achieved an equivalent to most mundane 20th century Earths, except theirs is centred around improbably effective stoneworking and megafauna labour. Yeah, they have dinosaurs. And those stone cars like Fred had. They're actually kind of fun to use. Dinos appear to take the place of various machinery: my astral form was on a sauropod's rising neck as it demonstrated how it stands in for escalators.

SID2: "Clothpunk"

I initially went with something related to string or thread for the name, but these people can shape usually inflexible materials like they're fabric, as long as it is for the purposes of making clothing or armour. There exists a sapient species made of textiles, usually humanoid but not always, made of everything from cotton and silk to kevlar and carbon fibre.

SID3: "Clockpunk"

You know those wacky Da Vinci inventions that were made flashier for Assassin's Creed? Here that sort of stuff is practical, so that technically Renaissance tech allows for 21st century comfort and even surpasses it in several ways. I like the architecture, and their clockwork automatons are cleaner and more pleasant-sounding when they're moving than the steam ones in another District of this Sector.

SID4: Soot-stained, Spring-driven/"Steampunk"

Needs no introduction, right? Their steam and coal is inexplicably powerful, letting inventions endure way beyond what should be its limit, much like the pseudo-Victorian culture of the "node world" I projected into. They stand in for electricity and nuclear power when they really shouldn't, and the waistcoat and top hat enthusiasts here get very smug about that.

SID5: Darkling Gold/"Dieselpunk"

The edgier older cousin of the previous. Still got the mechs and zeppelin, but they're a lot heavier and more armoured, and with more guns. Global war has resulted in the industrialisation of sciences that were previously the province of the wacky gentleman adventurer.

SID6: Quark Clock/"Atompunk"

The best and worst parts of Cold War pop culture. Cold fusion powers everything from cars to buildings to jet packs, directed energy weapons are common, and the threat of global nuclear annihilation is balanced by an apparently clean-cut and optimistic society.

SID7: High Tech, Low Life/"Cyberpunk"

Megacorps as nation equivalents, staggeringly wide wealth gap and extremely common gang violence and cybernetics. I went through a dozen mugging attempts in as many alleys here and damn if I know what they were even after.

SID8: "Nanopunk"

Microscopic tech is way more powerful and precise here than what you'd expect from the mechanical equivalent of human cells. Lots of carbon nanotubes, lots of miniaturisation. People are not tinier than usual, and my disappointment is immeasurable.

SID9: Caro, Ex Nevro/"Biopunk"

Modern day tech enabled by biomechanical and genetically-engineered creatures. Hollowed macro-millipedes and dragonflies instead of trams and helicopters, bioluminescent fungi patches instead of lightbulbs and mentally stunted, vat-grown labour units instead of robots.

SIID10: Gone Green/"Solarpunk"

A much less invasive version of the previous District's practices shapes the nature of a world where technology has advanced so as to draw the energy of the sun and other stars, as well as various renewable sources. I spent hours looking for the hippy polycules every writer in this genre assured me were inevitable once such a paradigm shift took place, and ended up being given lots of fruit baskets and assurances that sex is not everything in life. No one seemed in on the joke.

Sector II: "Stages of SF"

Throughout the first Districts, I thought I was walking through space operas as imagined by specific decades.

SIID11: "Victorian superscience"

Think Verne and Wells' space books. Rockets shot across star systems out of cannons, luminiferous ether gliders, phlogiston rays and Jovian moons as full of savage apelike spacemen as this Mars is full of little green ones.

SIID12: Blue, Red, Ashen/"Settling Sol System"

The Expanse is one of those gritty shows that are cool to watch but would fucking suck to live in, as well as a close equivalent to this place. A series of brief interviews with the locals convinced me the common currency of the inner planets, the outer ones' moons and the Asteroid Belt's is violence. Political bullshit also qualifies.

Physics seem to be of a standard bent, that is, the Hard SF one in regards to such places. Like that movie about the one guy on realistic Mars, except there are a lot of angry people here.

SIID13: Father Sol, In Mirrors Crowned/"Settled Sol System"

Earth gone K1+ and no longer cramped. Every solid celestial body houses settlements or research stations and the gas and ice giants are harvested, as is the sun. People live comfortably and generation ships filled with cryogenics chambers are being prepared for launch.

SIID14: "K2+ Sol"

Grown up version of the previous, with a Dyson sphere and colonies founded across antimatter torchships scattered across neighbouring systems. FTL systems or workaround are still being worked on, but with how easy immortality and mental uploading is, no one's in any hurry.

SIID15: "K3+ Milky Way"

The above repeated across a galaxy, with drives harnessing tachyons and dark matter to cheat time and bend space. Artificial wormholes dwarfing most worlds enable easy travel and transportation between systems.

SIID16: "K4+ Cosmos"

Things just seem to be getting bigger, huh? But in reality, none of the aforementioned Districts are future versions of each other. I checked. Here, sculpted superclusters and the control of the universe's forces have defined human culture for as long as anyone cares to remember.

SIID17: "Raygun Gothic"

Like the pulp superscience cosmos is the steampunk District in space, this seems to be the expanded version of the atompunk one. Energy rays, quippy robot butlers powered by nuclear reactors and thinking through positrons, and space criminals and alien monsters everywhere. Think Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon.

SIID18: "Ungraspable Consequence"

Have you ever been into a SF series whose premise sort of falls apart without that one substance or material? I'm not gonna call the one here unobtanium, cuz I'm not a hack, but honestly, what else is letting them push ship mass out of the universe's view to go FTL? You'd think everyone would be crashing stuff into planets for infinite or at least extra damage, but of course this sort of things has fields it can be shut off by

SIID19: "New Frontier"

I was thinking about calling this Boldly Gone, since, you know, Trek. Or the Orville, but less self-aware. I was happy to find out that easy teleportation and matter-energy conversion don't inherently drive people to romp around space in pajamas, with no effective weapons, shields or armies.

SIID20: "Balance Of The Power"

Old lived-in galaxy, known hyperspatial routes ('cause going FTL outside one is like off-roading, except you can slide out of reality, see?), an all-encompassing energy field which is generated by living beings but is not magic, by any means, for real. Also, its champions seem driven to beat the fuck out of each other and make it everyone else's problem every few millennia. What's up with that?

Sector III: "Mankind Plus"

This is one of the Sectors with a clear identity, I'd say, and I'd say it's humans improving on themselves.

SIIID21: "Cyborgisation"

Like the Cyberpunk District if society wasn't shit, and cyborgisation was more extensive and advanced. Think people uploading themselves into building mainframes to run them, replacing everything except their brains (and sometimes even those) with chrome, and mass automatisation letting them reap the rewards of unthinking robots' labour so they can focus on the cool stuff. I can respect that.

SIIID22: "Transhumanism"

Since people improving themselves, but not enough to become godlike, through mechanical and biological enhancements is the big thing here, you could call this a fusion of D9 and D21, except it's still humans and those adjacent to them handling work, and infrastructure and other services have stayed mostly as they were before the body modding wave hit.

SIIID23: "Posthumanism"

Beyond a certain point, people become, at least physically, too different to be called humans anymore, whether by power or nature. Whether chimeric or so superhuman as to be unrecognisable in terms of inner workings, they move past that threshold.

SIIID24: "Postphysicality"

People becoming virtual or energy beings doesn't mean the world has to go the same route, but they sure seem interested in that. The neat part is that you can't really have overpopulation when everyone's everything is so flexible.

SIIID25: "Psi"

Not just telekinesis or telepathy, but psychic nullification and the manifestation of thoughts have all been honed to the point of surpassing the other sciences in utility. Cities orbit the world, shielded from gravity and airlessness alike by the sheer force of thought. I did not find anyone with big, funny-looking brains, and nearly got into several fights when I kept calling controlled rainfall brainstorming.

Sector IV: "Apocalypse Then, And After"

Is it inspiring that mankind tends to persist after fucking up the planet, or deplorable that they don't get the hint to die?

SIVD26: "After The End"

There are, in fact, no Fallout-esque mechanics to abuse here, and stuff that'd be memeable in said series is suicidal to try in real life here. At least I didn't go in the flesh, hah! But for real, it's good. The whole planet is radioactive for the foreseeable future, far longer than it should be even after a global nuking, and mutation is a lot more dramatic than it should be. And faster.

SIVD27: "New Beginning"

Rediscovered pre-apocalyptic devices and sciences, the arrival of aliens more advanced than mankind ever was and the resurgence of the occult have resulted in a rebirth of the world that once glowed green in space. Not a future of the previous District, much less a guaranteed one, sadly. I need to help that people, speed the recovery records up. And get rid of whatever physics makes people burst into hulking mutants after eating stuff irradiated by specific reactors, but which is harmless by proximity. Where's the mass from?

Sector V: "Stages Of Fantasy"

The various faux time periods a fantasy series could be set in appear to be the "theme" of this Sector. I'd have said a lack of good plumping was, before I went through them all.

SVD28: "Prehuman"

Scaled, tentacled and more alien creatures hold empires spanning continents, while proto-human half-apes skulk in the shadows of their crystal spires and megalithic structures. I'm probably overly proud of how my ancestors still manage to nick their shit whenever their back is turned.

SV29: "Prehistoric"

Swords and sorcery except it's more sharp rocks and shamanism, this being hunter-gatherer times. No agriculture means people spend most of their time looking for food, and culture doesn't have much time to flourish.

SV30: "Stone Age"

The sort of place you'd expect to run into Conan in. Agriculture is established and metalworking is a thing, but settlements are scarcely any safer than the enchanted wilds.

SVD31: "Bronze Age"

Magical city-states with attitude. You ever imagined giving Ancient Greece the powers they only imagined? When are the Sea People showing up, I've seen way too many ways to enforce slavery without chains already.

SVD32: "Iron Age"

You read the above? Switch some name around, imagine I'm waiting for the so-called barbarians at the gates to topple this Roman Empire knockoff. Which could crush its mundane version, let me tell you.

SVD33: "Low Fantasy"

I know, I know. No one who lived through medieval politics is going to visit here for the version rehashed with magic. Believe me, I'm only going for completion's sake, myself. It can be interesting to look for the supernatural when it's rare or you don't know how it works. For example, I met this monster hunter here, weird-eyed guy, could've been any age, and I felt this urge to toss him a coin. Thanked me and went his way, so I guess I did something right.

SVD34: "Dark Fantasy"

An overclocked version of the former, keeping the shittiness while piling on the power. Imagine switching from A Song Of Ice And Fire to Malazan. Every mass ritual, whether it's for slaughtering armies or triggering apotheosis, is built on an appallingly deep foundation of suffering. The fact I don't feel bad for most of the fuel should tell you something about the average person here,

SVD35: "High Fantasy"

The sort of world you'd find in a Lord Of The Rings derivative, brought to life. Technically less dangerous than the previous, in that the stuff worse than death usually happens to awful people, and at least fate isn't as heavy-handed as in the next District.

SVD36: "Epic Fantasy"

Is anyone choses to be a hero ever happy to be chosen? Fate usually pushes back more in response to one's struggles, and people here don't even need to struggle against it to be pushed. Dealing with their enemies is enough to bring destiny running.

SVD37: "Pike And Shot"

The proliferation of gunpowder and the printing press doesn't mean fireballs and spell books are less common. There are now just different ways to blast people apart and rapidly share information.

SVD38: "Age Of Sail"

The difference between this and the previous seems to be more of geography than advancement. Only islands (not getting into an argument over what makes a continent one right now), more pirate crews than governments able to stop them, and the occult looms in the margins, in the form of ghost ships and undead pirates.

SVD39: "Torchlight And Shadow"

Vibe difference again? You bet. Gunpowder and the printing press are fairly newfangled here too, though a lot more needed, what with the perpetual global foggy night and the monsters lurking in it. Not that the witch hunters and inquisitors opposing them need much help to match them , in monstrousness and everything else

SVD40: "Napoleonic fantasy"

Imagine magic-filled world in a period equivalent to that before industrialisation got going. Large professional armies are becoming more popular, as are the concepts of nation-states and democracy.

SVD41: "Industrialising fantasy"

Railroads and telegraphs are beginning to spread and rival enchanted doors and speaking stones. Not a future version of the previous (this doesn't seem to be a thing with any set), but their legislatures and charters of rights are sure more developed.

SVD42: "Industrialised Fantasy"

The 1860s-1890s with magic and monsters. Tensions are probably flaring up into the first global occult war in the next few decades, and man will that suck. Speaking of.

SVD43: "World War One Fantasy"

You know how this war was so awful the concept of glorious warfare mostly died? There'll be things a lot worse than mustard gas and early tanks getting thrown around here.

SVD44: "World War Two Fantasy"

I'm split on whether the first nuke will be a hellfire dispenser or a necromantic death ray. Hopefully, MAD will emerge here as a concept as well.

SVD45: "Cold War Fantasy"

Not that the existence of MAD prevents proxy war and sabotage, especially when agents can warp reality. Here, a full arsenal exchange would result in a fate far worse than human genocide.

SVD46: "Modern fantasy"

This is less of an alternate version of my Earth, and more of a world where people can afford to live as well thanks to the typical fantasy magic and creatures. Not to say there aren't tensions under the surface.

SVD47: "Masquerade"

Supernaturals existing in the modern world's shadows, for a variety of reasons. The nature of their relationship with mankind, in terms of power, varies depending on where you go.

SVD48: "The Masquerade, Now Broken"

The reveal of the supernatural will not soothe tempers that flared over historical inaction and resentment, or ensure fair treatment of all. Hopefully, interspecies tensions will not make this look like some other Districts.

SVD49: "The Masquerade, Broken Then"

The paranormal has been an established thing for as long as the oldest humans can remember. There is still friction, but occult advances are ensuring prosperity across the globe and beyond, and people of all species are looking towards the stars and otherworldly realms.

SVD50: "Never Masked"

I'd say this is like District 46 if it took place on Earth. Less magic as tech, fewer medieval aesthetics.

SVD51: "The Veil Kept"

A darker, more dangerous world: a supernatural community hellbent on keeping mankind ignorant for a variety of reasons, from the want to exploit ignorance to a misplaced paternalistic attitude, makes sure a humanity much weaker than them doesn't learn the true nature of reality. I think I'd have to put on my "heavy boots", so to speak, if I took a walk here. Looking through the metaphorical window earned me a lot of glares.

SVD52: "Science Fantasy Galaxy"

Swords of both enchanted metal and hardened light are used alongside wands and plasma launchers. Champions and relics able to grants godlike powers have appeared and disappeared through the ages, and now, with new dangers rising from within and without the galaxy, the need for them to return is strong.

SVD53: "Science Fantasy Universe"

A bigger version of the previous, with more emphasis on cosmic forces and their avatars than humans and peer species. Mortals might act as champions of such beings, and this cosmos is more overtly paranormal than District 20.

SVD54: "Eldritch Cold War"

While humans clash with the puppet-states of unnatural monsters older than time on Earth, advanced alien empires fight off the actual questing tendrils as they reach into space across the universe.

Sector VI: "Timeless Fantasy"

You'd think the difference between this and the previous Sector would be that the Districts here don't correspond to exact periods, but do all of the previous ones? I think the Merger just started winging it at some point.

SVID55: "Dungeon Crawl"

Certain areas evolve malignant cunning as they produce treasures and the monsters to defend them. In response, the thinking species form bands and guilds of adventurers to raid them for civilisation's security and prosperity.

SVID56: "Game Life"

Health bars are more thorough indicators of wellbeing here than any medical check, and any task can be made into a quest to gain experience points through. People become superhumanly good at their specialty by leaning into their [Classes].

SVID57: "Otherworld Leap"

A mundane Earth acts as the starting point of adventures in adjacent realms not unlike neighbouring Districts. These events are usually triggered by the death of those with ambition but little attachment to Earth, though mirrored situations are appearing in other worlds.

SVID58: "Spellsong"

The first District of this Sector, recreated in a void of space that resembles an ocean, with the requisite cosmic sea monsters and enchanted void galleons.

SVID59: "Dark Forest"

If anyone ever wants to shoot a Grimms' fairytale movie, any place here would work. Just make sure you hire one of the hunting lodges defending the walled cities and countries from the ever-present animal-shaped monsters, which are in truth something far worse than creatures with unnatural strength and speed.

SVID60: "Brass Tracks"

Civilisation persists on trains like moving cities, some running on rails, others floating through magnetism or stranger forces. Around them, wastelands filled with mind-bending anomalies and dangerous creatures stretch endlessly.

SVID61: "Sky-High"

Planes instead of trains, now. What cities exist float thanks to antigravity generators or the efforts of monstrously strong flying monsters, and the idea of walking anywhere important is as alien here as what sometimes descends from the airless voids beyond the clouds.

SVID62: "Fog And Flame"

It has been millennia since the Emperor has raised man from slavery at the claws of the things in the mists. Now, his green fires keep the fog away from the Emerald Circle of his world-spanning Empire, and no one will go into the mist without an Imperial torch to avoid instant transformation into something worse than any nightmare.

SVID63: "Unholy War"

Earth is the latest battlefield in a cosmos-spanning clash between seraphic and fiendish forces that has been going on since time immemorial. Caught in this during the Middle Ages, mankind turned to strange alchemies to survive before they could industrialise enough to properly harness the fire stolen from the divine. Now, they can stand on their own.

SVID64: "Four-Faced"

I don't know about you, but if something that could think me out of existence walked up to me, proclaimed itself the embodiment of good and offered to do so for the sake of sparing me from my sins, I'd be just as leery as if it called itself orderly, evil or chaotic. At least the humans here have learned not to trust unduly.

SVID65: "Gaslamp-Lit"

Industrialised alchemy and unearthed magical practices stand where steam power and gears would have, in another world. The power gap between the aristocrats and the commoners is as steep as the one in wealth, and getting steeper. But the sort of magics they wield cannot be barred from everyone, forever.

Sector VII: "Spell Scare"

Humans getting fucked over by magical asshats seems to be a strong pattern in all these Districts. Sorts of places I'd only visit for pleasure while decked out in antimagical gear.

SVIID66: "Strife Shamanic"

Primitive tribes struggle to develop agriculture and metalworking as they try to survive in the shadow of shamans whose clash rends the land, sea and sky, wielding powers from beyond the world and its spirit.

SVIID67: "Hermeticism"

Occult knowledge and world-warping willpower enable mages to lord over the unpowered, ignorant mundanes who built cities around their towers and workshops, if only to survive their rivals. Bronzeworking is the order of the day, and people aren't sure iron is magical or not.

SVIID68: "Witch World"

Who said spiritualistic women would be more openminded and kindly than materialistic men seems to have forgot bad people will follow their worst impulses regardless of gender, beliefs of species as long as they have the power. In this world, human kingdoms struggle to learn the secrets of steel as they try to survive the curse-filled confrontations between witch covens and bloodlines.

SVIID69: "Wizards And Warlocks"

The most moral mages are still apathetic at best towards humans, cloistered in their towers as they harness their mana and the energies of the cosmos, while the ones considered outright evil make pacts with the worst of spirits and monsters beyond the world in order to increase their power. Their clashes crush kingdoms.

SVIID70: "Alchemastery"

The human world is split between scattered city-states living on the whims of occult polymaths who build homunculi, golems and vivisect the spirits of the world and skies to learn their secrets and harness their powers.

Sector VIII: "Monster Mash"

If you thought last Sector was bad, at least there you knew you could stock up on antimagic and be golden. Here, the dangers are more varied but no less pervasive.

SVIIID71: "Mad Science"

On the one hand, it's cool to read Girl Genius or Twig or play Genius the Transgression (when are they making it an official game anyway?) and imagine what that sort of magic-like science could do, but it's way less glamorous to see all the physics-breaking horror the "Inspired" and "Enlightened" unleash upon the "ignorant" as they sharpen their skills against each other until the day they show them all. Hopefully, the mundanes will make their own strides in order to counter the unnatural sciences looming over their heads. They made it past the industrial revolution, already, though such things can never be reverse-engineered or recreated by sane minds.

SVIIID72: "Ectoplasmundus"

A world at the turn of the 20th century, or an equivalent. Ghosts, varying in terms of sanity, malice and power, are as common as shapeless ectopasmic manifestations, stone tape events and buildings, objects and landmarks "gone ghostly", though lone ghost hunters and mediums as well as institutions are taking steps to defend the living from such.

SVIIID73: "Takers From Man"

Vampires, of the most common variety but also of the sorts that feed on souls, emotions and minds, as well as their thralls and fledglings, rule a world they shrouded in eternal darkness. Some bloodlines are making their way into space, looking to expand their influence as well as their power by delving into the void and the abysses outside reality.

SVIIID74: "Beastworld"

With power to match their insane anger, creatures that are half-human, half-animal and entirely of the wrathful spirit of this world hold power over much of their creator's shell, while humans attempt to survive in the margins. Where the beast shamans' powers triumph, human technology and science fade, people becoming hunter-gatherers and even apes once more. Advancement and its advocates are hunted down wherever they are found and mankind is constantly culled to avoid "unbalancing nature", but what else can be done?

SVIIID75: "Slashed"

Every place people dwell can, overnight, turn into the hunting grounds of unnaturally powerful and determined animals or silent, unstoppable murderers, either immortal and capable of teleportation or effectively so. Hunters band together to patrol the night, but few return.

SVIIID76: "Invasion"

From shapeshifting infiltrators and psychic body snatchers to alien trophy hunters and giant locust swarms, this Earth is the focus of an unending procession of alien threats. They have adapted, but the threats never cease.

SVIIID77: "Vile Void"

A galactic human empire, backed by transhuman troops, weaponised psychics and reality warping relic-tech from their golden stands against a cosmos filled with the embodiment of every nightmare mankind ever had about space, the mind and machines.

SVIIID78: "Eldest's Mark"

Mankind reaches for the stars in an universe filled with older, more powerful and advanced alien civilisations, yet they all strain to understand the purpose of the relics and guardians the first thinking beings left behind when they ascended beyond this cosmos, much less their function. From unbreakable bridges wider than worlds linking star systems together to cyclopean cities locked out of time and all other aspects of existence, yet somehow, visible, it is clear those who ruled before did so with knowledge and power yet unequalled.

Sector IX: "Money Makes The Worlds Go Weird"

Not gonna lie, the thought of superpowers as economics scared me far more than that of running into some precursor guard construct.

SIXD79: "Palace Economy"

Concentrating power and resources into the hands of the few always leads to disaster, but

SIXD80: "Feudalism"

Powers that enforce classism and make sure serfdom is survivable no matter how demanding the aristocrats get? Yeah, miss me with that.

SIXD81: "Capital"

Now, let it not be said that being able to vote and not being tied to the land prevents unreasonably powerful elites from doing whatever they want and hading you the consequences. Maybe things can improve some day, because damn if seeing people literally sell their souls to keep working isn't depressing.

SIXD82: "Crypto"

You read the above? Do you think it would be better if everything was digital and the economy was shakier, changed much faster? These people did.

SIXD83: "Socialism"

People own everything they work with, and there's no such thing as being unable to afford something. Nor of having more than anyone else, but hey, they're transitioning towards classlessness, right?

SIXD84: "Communism"

All-seeing planners and an omniscient not-so-secret police with a love for their work to match their information might not make the prevention of anarchy pleasant for the people less equal than them, but it sure is working. Everyone keeps arguing that political equality (you'll forgive my grimace) and material prosperity aren't enough to be happy, for some reason.

SIXD85: "Mercantilism"

The less you import and the more you export are signs of power as certain as having the most fleets plying the oceans and oppressing the native overseas for their resources. But what will happen when they start doing the same?

SIXD86: "Barter"

When no one can agree on a price and everyone but especially the world loves arguing, the wheels of the economy move at a snail's pace, but can grind mountains to dust. Enough belief in an object's value or ability can make it a person

SXD87: "Gifts"

Sharing prosperity out of altruism might've been the starting point, but nowadays, giving what you don't need, while others do, is simply another facet of strategy, making sure the other is as compelled to return help as if they were pushed by divine force.

Sector X: "Skewed Balance"

Certain passions and occupations have no concept of diminishing returns, here. In fact, things keep getting better, for those practising them.

SXD88: "Sports"

Y'know, when I was a kid watching Inazuma Eleven, I thought it was dumb as hell how soccer matches decided the fate of everything from schools to the freaking world was decided by soccer matches, but here? Sports are already a stand-in for combat and war. Add signature moves that warp the world around them, and...

SXD89: "Symphonia"

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, it felt weird being in a world where Disney movie-esque flash mobs are actually something that happens. I do what I can to make myself and the extensions of my being immune to such compelling forces, but this doesn't make a sugarcoated version of the previous District with more musicals pleasant.

SXD90: "Power Burst"

Giant Earth, bloodline powers, foods and training regimens that make people's power skyrocket...flashy fistfights that wreck mountain ranges being the most common conflict resolution rather than wars between eugenicist states is actually funny, in a not so reassuring way

SXD91: "Blood And Brawn"

No outright paranormal powers like in District 90, though damn if the pressure points and fighting spirit manifestations don't get close. Also, I'm fairly sure mundane humans can't train until they kick tanks in half and dodge hypervelocity rounds, but they say it's all natty.

SXD92: "Warrior's Code"

Whether they take place on mountaintops, with swords, or in teahouses, with poisons, fights between people so damn good at fighting they make governments and "less dedicated" armies ineffectual are always something to behold.

SXD93: "Immortal Errant"

Cultivation of the flesh and spirit allows one to become godlike, eventually ascending beyond the confines of this humongous world and into the even grander cosmos of cosmoses in which it spins.

SXD94: "Death Contract"

Did you know that despite of how different they might seem at first glance, Assassin's Creed and Sakamoto Days are the same sort of series? "Wacky hijinks of bullshit skilled assassins." Oh, add John Wick and that Hitman game for the lower end. This world is full of assassins working alone or in extensive societies, though they are always uncannily stealthy, skilled and dangerous. Some work for money, others for the thrill or to sharpen their skills or test their new weapons.

SXD95: "Fortune's War"

Hey, if I told you about an universe that's all Team Fortress 2 on Earth and Schlock Mercenary in space, you'd say it sounds like a lot of fun, right? Cuz those series are cartoonish and don't focus overly much on the most nightmarish shit in them. This world has no genre conversions to make it easier to stomach, though: it's every "mercs more capable and ruthless" than your country's army stereotype played straight.

SXD96: "Crime's Dues

Now, I'm not gonna tell you to break the law, you'll get superpowers if you do, but in this world, people go get abilities fitting their crimes, and making them easier to repeat, from teleporting or invisible burglars to superhuman murderers. I'm hoping the police will be able to catch up soon enough.

Sector XI: "Man And Monsters"

Partnership, hunting, warfare...how united would these strains of humanity remain if their counterparts disappeared, I wonder?

SXID97: "Spliced Strength"

Humans weaponising the carcasses of the creatures praying on them, replacing their flesh with theirs or bonding with those willing to aid humanity is not uncommon across existence. It happens in practically every world with humans and animals. Here, there's a much greater and more powerful variety of life to deal with, though.

SXID98: "Battle Bond"

You will not, in fact, catch them all unless you're a monomaniac with no life. You can absolutely get closer to the creatures that have replaced most machinery and weapons of mankind here and become a captain of industry or the equivalent of an army thanks to your team, though. They keep the world turning.

SXID99: "Virveldt"

Told you about something like this before, didn't I? Except in this case, travel between Earth and the virtual worlds around it is made by human turned into data, and the nonhuman creatures calling those worlds home must become material in order to interact with Earth rather than just some its machines.

SXID100: "Leviathans' Tombs"

No one knows if this Earth has always been like this or whether it is recovering after an apocalypse from the distant past, but it is certain that few of the titanic beings who unrotting carcasses mankind has built its cities within and around still survive. Those are as impervious and unstoppable as their stature implies.

SXID101: "Behemoths' Battle"

An Earth as advanced as mine, though it went down a different route, by necessity. Transhuman troops enhanced through cybernetics and gene-therapies back the giant robots meant to clash with the walking mountains threatening mankind's force-fielded cities on equal grounds, and kill them.

SXID102: "Ziz's War"

Mankind took to the stars but its nemeses followed, and in deep space, humanity met and warred with eaters of worlds whose young nestle in stars and whose swarms blanket galaxies, as well as the fleshsmiths who brought them into existence. They had to adapt, and advance, to survive.

Sector XII: "Grandeur"

Mundane humanity reels in the face of cosmic irrelevance, or malice, and contemplates its future.

SXIID103: "Darkest Ocean"

The world of man and the gods of man is an island of light amidst seas of dark chaos with no beginning or end, and they were never meant to journey far, in flesh or mind. Those who try return scarred by the ones behind the thin skein of reality, or things that look like them do.

SXIID104: "The Spheres Celestial"

Belief that the celestial bodies of humanity's solar system have power is common across countless realities. Here, the music of the sphere indeed decides fortune and fate, and ancient bloodlines tap into the power of the sun, worlds and moons as they champion their causes. From Martian war sages to sunfire smiths to wielders of the darkness and cold beyond Neptune, the power of the cosmic orrery is incarnated in those who learn to read its movements.

SXIID105: "Utopia Gazed Outward"

Shepherded into a worldly paradise by hypergenius AIs and other godlike posthumans, humans and their offshoots across the Milky Way now look beyond, into the world between galaxies, and recoil. Those who lead them devote all their processing power to glean the workings of crafted universes with tailored physics, megastructures heavier than galaxies that move with no apparent propulsion, and stranger things yet.

SXIID106: "Wound Down"

Every celestial body and universal force has been harnesses, and corporeal humans are outnumbered only by those dwelling in digital worlds, palaces of the mind and other unreal realms. Yet entropy persists, and they wonder how they might avert the end, once everything withers.

SXIID107: "With Infinity In One Hand, And Eternity In The Other..."

After a series of advancements, what was once named humanity decided that its destiny was not a slow descent into darkness as mankind collapsed into scattered particles. Man was the sire of the cosmos, they declared, not its scion. Now they have created every logical and possible world the fabric of their minds could be spun into, yet at they glance up and outward, they see only the visage of the one who crafted them thus, and they fell observed and confined, much like the life they seeded across their worlds did once it learned of its origin.

Sector XIII: "Excellence"

In this Sector, one's moral fibre enables the attainment of virtue beyond what would be possible through physical ability alone.

SXIIID109: "Mankind Rising"

Across a world so vast most Earths wouldn't be a dot on the map, mankind has spread to challenge the empires of those who reshaped reality in their image when apes first swung in trees. From squat underground dwellers who ply arcane sciences and harness fiery demons to fuel their forge-cities to elfin spellslingers whose words and thoughts become fact to older, nameless beings whose appearance alone could blast most minds off their hinges, many inhuman forces have found themselves met and repelled by humans wielding righteousness as they carve out fledgling kingdoms.

SXIIID110: "Masks And Mystery"

They don't understand that it's not the lab accidents or the gruelling training or the contact with aliens that determines their powers - those merely shape them, in accordance with the will and morality of the superhuman. And so those people who put on masks and go out to change the world into what they think it ought to be are beginning to wonder why some powers are only ever present in the form of specific kinds of heroes and villains, and whether said powers make the person, or the other way around. All the while, mundane citizens and governments cling to every form of sanity they can find in a world constantly assaulted from within, without and beyond, only kept on the brink by the powers of those who mean well.

SXIIID111: "Superhumane"

Difference is not evil. So spoke those superhumans who, scarcely a generation ago, agreed to work with the authorities to enforce peace and law if not normalcy. Some joined looking for wealth and fame, but it is a fact that, backed by most of society, they are better trained and prepared than the misfit villain teams that, on occasion, form to oppose them.

SXIIID112: "Supermajority"

If everyone is special, is anyone? This is one of the questions the superhumans making up most of this world's population ask themselves. Like their sister-districts, its is the person who makes the powers here, yet what does that say about those few mundanes unable to stand out in terms of the scale their good or evil deeds happen at?

SXIIID113: "Star-Spangled"

For many millennia, superhumans and the champions of alien world have ensured prosperity and kept the peace across the galaxy and beyond. Whether their enemies take the form of invading empires, godlike warlords or immeasurably powerful titans older than time and vaster than space, they stand ready.

Sector XIV: "Vigil"

SXIVD114: "Metanormalcy Maintenance"

Belief becomes fact everywhere in the magna-macrocosm, if strong enough. Here, even the disbelief of one, mundane human is powerful enough to turn a costumed human using props into a plasma-casting cyborg. The Metanormalcy Maintenance Movement thus strives to ensure capricious cryptids, deities hungry for worship and unchallenged authority, xenosapients alien enough space and time reel from them and worse stay away from Earth, where their presence might be enough to shape humanity and reality to darker ends. At the core of the Movement stands Metanormalcy Maintenance, the most organised of the Movement's branches. While M3's UFO chasers, monster hunters and occult erasure experts work at the margins of society and existence to keep them from fraying, M2 stands behind every government, managing economy and media so that things appears as safe as predictable as can be. Their arsenal of living and ontological weapons has both destroyed and restored existence as they know it many times, when there was aberrancy to be purged.

SXIVD115: "Off The Clock"

Whether the guardians of the timestream known as the Clocksmiths have a true beginning or will ever face an end is unknown even to most of them. Perhaps their shrouded past and future archives, or their possibility-computing thinking machines, hide the answer, yet the rank and file can spare not a moment to learn when their organisation was founded and why. People who would rewrite history for their own gain, chrono-despots who would crush certainties and possibilities together, eaters of time and antediluvian forces who remember the dark before place and moment oppose them and every turn, and their watch can never end.