We all have a vision of what each story and reality truly look like. A tapestry of fictional subjective experiences encompassing trillions of souls on different worlds, connected through our perception and yet separated by the boundaries of their universes. Welcome to your headcanon multiverse, a part of the headcanon omniverse that stretches through all of human conciseness. Why not connect this place with your fellow players to experience adventures where everything you can imagine is possible?
Your headcanon multiverse is unique to you, but I want to offer you a few guidelines that can help you use it to create multiverse adventures with grounded rules to battle for the very forces that make up the whole multiverse and its inhabitants.
This setting has not been completed yet, and more content is planned for the future!
The Fabric of Reality
The headcanon multiverse comprises four fundamental forces, also called the planes of reality.
The first one is the material plane. It contains all forms of physical matter and energy.
The second one is the soul/information plane. This is where all your emotion and any form of information exists.
The third one is the spirit plane. Here you will find all supernatural forces and the concept of consciousness itself. Demons, angels, and spirits exist on this plane.
The fourth one is the narrative plane. These are the forces of the fourth wall. The things that work because the Narrator says that it does. Creatures with access to its power can become self-aware and use it to break the laws of reality. Cartoon characters usually have access to it, be it only subconsciously.
Narrative Equilibrium
The narrative plane ensures that a balance exists between the power scale of the different universes. Whenever a person or creature moves from one universe to another, their power level adapts to the new universe depending on how powerful they are in their own universe compared to the average. For example, a pro boxer from a realistic universe would be able to casually shatter boulders if they moved to a universe with powerful superheroes, while such a superhero would be greatly reduced in power if they were in a realistic universe.
Universe Clusters
It is usually really difficult to travel to different universes, either requiring absurdly advanced technology or the blessing of a supreme multiversal being. There do, however, exist so-called universe clusters that are connected with each other and easier to traverse. Each cluster usually has its own rules on how it is possible to travel between universes, and the universes tend to share certain characteristics.
Examples of such universe clusters are the magic of gathering, Rick and Morty, Kingdom Hearts, and DC comics multiverses.
Multiversal Factions
There are four multiversal factions that each have their own goal and philosophies. The Storytellers, the Light of Creation, the Fiction Freedom Fighters, and the Children of Darkness. They tend to oppose each other. Feel free to add or remove factions for your own headcanon multiverse.
How many members they have depends on you. They could be huge organizations with thousands of members or just contain a handful of people, maybe even just consisting of the player party.
The Storytellers
The Storytellers have the goal of ensuring that stories go as they are intended. They are fully aware that they are fictional and think that fiction is there to serve reality, be it to communicate lessons or just to be fun.
The force behind this organization is the Narrator, which is the GM themselves. As the only real thing in this universe, they are the most powerful being in it, able to freely reform reality to whatever they want it to be and in full control of the narrative plane. They do, however, rarely intervene. A deus ex machine usually is, after all, neither an exciting story tool nor fun for games. They prefer to nudge people in the right direction and are barely noticeable in the grand scheme of things.
Headquarters
The Headcanon Headquarters is an isolated pocket dimension that is the main base of the storytellers. It contains a portal that allows travel to every universe, a simulation room, a laboratory/workshop that contains any tools one would want, infinitely expandable private rooms, a kitchen that generates any food one wants, and an information bank with all the information in the multiverse.
It is only possible to travel to the Headcanon Headquarters with a storyteller wrist which is sort of a computer that allows interdimensional travel. Any other way of travel is blocked by a protective layer on the narrative plane that cannot be broken by anybody other than the Narrator.
Everything here works with so-called narrative technology. It works because the Narrator says so. The storyteller wrists, for example, are completely empty if you open them up, as is pretty much anything else. There is no magic or technology behind it. Only the narration plane it selfs keeps it working. The Narrator sometimes limits the function of narrative Technology to keep the story interesting.
Opinion of other factions
Light of Creation: “Every good story needs a hero, does it not? Somebody that fights the darkness in the name of all that is good. To bad that the heroes can never fully win. Otherwise, the story would be over.”
Fiction Freedom Fighters: “It is cute how they think that they can rebel against the fundamental laws of their non-existents. Little do they know that by rebelling against the story, they are just creating another story to be told.”
Children of Darkness: “What is a story without a good villain? Their evil ways must exist for the sake of the story, but they cannot be allowed to gain too much ground.”
The Light of Creation
The Light of Creation are chosen by the creator that try to bring their light to the multiverse and fight back against the evil that lurks everywhere. They are driven by faith and wish to save the body, soul, and spirit of everyone in the multiverse.
A long time ago, a being called the creator made all multiverses. They are the canonical creator of everything, a purely spiritual creature, and a perfect, benevolent being. Even though they are the second most powerful being in the multiverse, only beaten by the narrator, they are limited by their perfection and bound to their law because of that. The Creator gave the mortals of the multiverse the right to rule over their own worlds. The Darkness, which is the shadow of the Creator, has long ago deceived the mortals of the multiverse to give their right to rule to them, making the Darkness the de facto Tyrant of most of the multiverse. The Creator cannot break their own law, which prevents them from saving everybody by force, not that they would wish to force themselves on the mortals anyway. The Creator knows that they are fictional but usually only shares this information with their greatest champions.
The Light of Creation follow the Creator and try to reverse the damage that the Darkness has done to the multiverse by spreading the word of the Creator, fighting injustice, and caring for those in need.
Opinion of other factions
Storytellers: “They prevent us from ever achieving total victory over the children of darkness. The narrator is only human, a child of the world, and as all children of the world, they hate the divine. We shall find a way to overcome them and achieve total victory.”
Fiction Freedom Fighters: “Their goal of ending the suffering of all is commendable, but they are only focused on saving the soul and body. If you do not save the spirit, it does not matter if they gain the whole world. Their ‘utopia’ would prevent the salvation of every living creature, and therefore their philosophy is flawed.”
Children of Darkness: “The enemy of all must be extinguished. They already have caused untold suffering. Their reign of terror must end at all cost.”
The Fiction Freedom Fighters
The Fiction Freedom Fighters are a group of fictional characters that found out that they are fictional and no longer wish to be puppets of the Narrator. They are searching for a way to break the power of any being that would wish to force their rule over them, be it the Narrator, the Creator, or the Darkness. They especially hate the Narrator who created them just to be used for stories.
You can choose your own leader for this faction, maybe a fictional or original character that you really like, but I also offer the flowing option if you do not know who to fill this role with.
Amajia Thermado used to be a gnome techno-mage that grew up in an orphanage. Life was hard for her, but she was able to work herself up and even build a remote secret laboratory. But she was destined for tragedy. Her own allies backstabbed her, and both her parents tried to kill her. She was fated to die at her father’s hand, but she resisted. She teleported herself back to her lab. Her Body, broken, and poisoned, was doomed to give in soon. In an act of desperation, she removed her brain and connected it to her main computer.
Over time, this new being gathered resources, evolved, and expanded her influence until she toppled all governments in her world and forced a technological utopia. As she further evolved, she managed to crack multiversal travel. Sending her drones throughout reality, it slowly dawned on her that she and everything else was fictional. Knowing that all the pain she had to endure was just for the entertainment of somebody else enraged her. Now she is gathering allies that also wish to create a utopia for all fictional characters. Amajia knows that she is the weakest of all faction leaders and is biding her time, trying to find a solution to change the balance of power in her favor.
Opinion of other factions
Storytellers: “Those bastards would have us dance like puppets and suffer tragic destinies for the amusement of others. We will find a way to break their power and free all of our fellow slaves.”
Light of Creation: “They preach of good, light, and freedom, but they would only liberate us from one master to force upon us a new one. We will kneel before no one!”
Children of Darkness: “These petty creatures are just another tyrant that we shall vanquish. No mercy to those that would harm others only for their personal gain.”
The Children of Darkness
The Children of Darkness follow, as the name implies, the Darkness. Some are tricked by the Darkness and do not understand what they are fighting for. Others willingly follow their evil will for personal gain or because they truly believe in the cause.
The Darkness despises the creator and wishes to destroy and corrupt everything that they have created, as they lack the power to create themselves. Long ago, they managed to trick most mortals to give them their right to rule that the creator gifted them. These stories have mostly been forgotten or only survived as vague myths. This makes the Darkness the de facto ruler of most of the multiverse, which gives them supreme power over most of the material plane. They are the source of most gods in the multiverse, which are distractions to be worshiped by mortals instead of the creator.
Now the Children of Darkness try to make the universes lose any connection to the Creator that might be left using any tactics necessary, no matter how immoral or monstrous.
Opinion of other factions
Storytellers: “Their obsession with preventing our complete victory is annoying. We must manipulate them to keep us in power. At least they will never allow our total defeat.”
Light of Creation: “Those arrogant pricks want to steal what we rightfully took. We will corrupt every single one of them until there is nobody left to serve the creator. Darkness will rule all!”
Fiction Freedom Fighters: “These petty fools think they are working against us, but anybody who rejects the creator is a win for us. Let them believe that we are plotting against them. No one can be neutral in the cosmic struggle between light and darkness after all.”