User:Chubby Potato/Sandbox/MOPS

Because the nature of alternate realities in the DWU can vary, I have designed a system called the Multiversal Organization and Perspective System, or MOPS. This system is designed to take into account any way that a story might handle its alternate reality. This classes realities by letters and subtype numbers with respect to their relationship to the main reality, which in this case will of course be N-Space.

Type A

Realities of Type A are those that are completely separate from the prime reality. This has the following subtypes:

Type A0: The prime reality the system is being used for. The MOPS system is designed for use with N-Space, but may be compatible with other models; please ask your manufacturer for details.

Type A1: The reality can be considered a "universe" that has existed separately from the prime reality since the beginning of both their timelines. It can be said to have been created “naturally”, i.e. in a Big Bang. Type A1 realities have their own histories that may or may not differ significantly from that of the prime reality, and they may be the same up until a certain point. This would most commonly be called a 'parallel universe', though this terminology is also applied to other types.

Examples: E-Space, Fourth universe, Word Lord universe, Federation universe

Type A2: Often called a "bubble universe", this is where the reality is actively separated from the main one . This can happen naturally, or through artificial means. Also called a "pocket universe", "pocket dimension", etc.

Examples: House's universe (natural), Adric's bubble universe from The Boy That Time Forgot (artificial), Gallifrey's pocket universe (artificial), Celestial Toyroom (artificial)

Type A3: The universe is somehow entirely contained within another universe (a "bottle universe" or "micro-universe", as opposed to outside of it like a Type A2.

Examples: see Bottle universe, Ringpullworld

Type A4: These are realities that are somewhat separate from the prime reality, yet possess some interconnected link with it and often unusual properties of existence. These are also sometimes referred to as "pocket universe", "pocket dimension", and the like.

Examples: Time Vortex, Land of Fiction, Mictlan, Obverse

Type B

Here things begin to get a bit more complicated, since they involve changes to the timeline.

Type B realities are those that share a past with the prime timeline, and then diverge at a certain point to exist alongside it, like a tree branch. This can happen naturally due to some anomaly, or due to interference caused by time travel. The way some multiverse-themes fiction treats these realities implies that they still share the same past as the prime timeline, while others imply that they "back-generate" their own identical past, becoming functionally similar to a Type A reality. DWU material such as Doctor Who Unbound seem to use the latter, but it is not always clear.

Type B1: Diverges and exists alongside the prime reality. They are variably described as "alternate timelines" and "parallel universes", even if they're not parallel from a traditional two-dimensional geometry perspective.

Examples: Pete's World, Silurian Earth, Parallel universe (He Jests at Scars...)

Type B2: When a Type B1 timeline is temporally separated from its origin, effectively severing a portion or branch of the timeline (often, but not always, by being "negated" from ever happening). This leaves behind an "oxbow reality" (like an oxbow lake) Faction Paradox is a fan of these, it seems...

Examples: Donna's World/Sanctum of the Heretic, Eleven-Day Empire, Kingdom of Beasts, the Axis's worlds

Type C

Type C realities are those that involve the "overwriting" of the main timeline, usually due to time travel or other temporal interference. These can also be reverted to restore the main timeline; generally the reality ceases to exist. Almost always called an "alternate timeline".

Type C1: Temporal interference, be it some "natural anomaly" or a time traveller, causes the usual timeline to change.

Examples: The Trickster's World, River Song's World, Sea Devil Earth

Type C2: This was the main reality until something/someone negated it, or was prevented from happening in a bootstrap paradox.

Examples: The Year That Never Was, Alternate timeline (A Christmas Carol), Alternate timeline (Masterful), Alternate timeline (Pyramids of Mars)

Type D

Type D realities are a strange sort, where different versions of events seemingly coexist in the main timeline. They can't exactly be considered separate, nor can they be considered the same. Sometimes called a "palimpsest universe", especially when they are caused due to external alterations to the timeline. These don't have subtypes... yet, at least.

Examples: Infinity Doctor's reality, Timeline (Orphan 55), Salamander's 2018 vs Yasmin Khan's 2018 (these are never explicitly "separate realities", but that's exactly the point.)

Realities with multiple explanations

There are some realities that have multiple explanations as to what they are. In Fire and Brimstone, Barusa's universe is treated as a Type A1 separate universe, while The Infinity Doctors implies it is a palimpsest universe of Type D (rather accurate to its origins when taken literally). Whether you want to believe both are true or only one or the other is, the MOPS is prepared to help. Situations like this can be denoted with a slash, in this case as A1/D. These should be in alphabetical/numerical order, so not D/A1.

Unclear realities (Type U)

With some realities, it just isn't clear what they are. These will be denoted as a Type U for Unknown/Unidentified.

Examples: The Warrior's universe (is it an A1? B1? C1? C2?), Inferno universe (A1? B1?)

These could be more specifically denoted with a colon as U:A1/B1/C1/C2 and U:A1/B1, respectively. Writing out this expanded form is not necessary in most contexts since it could get lengthy, you can just call it a Type U unless you're specifically looking at what it and/or Type Us could be. Plus, sometimes we might be told of a reality without any clue as to what it actually is, so no suffixes are even applicable.

Compounding reality types

The above reality types can be compounded. For example, suppose in Pete's World one decides to visit the Land of Fiction. (Promise this isn't fan-fiction, just a hypothetical to help illustrate the point. Plus, with Big Finish's latest stories, this doesn't seem too far off...) Anyway, this is ostensibly a separate Land of Fiction from the one connected to N-Space. Pete's World is a Type B1 reality, and the Land of Fiction is a type A4, so this "Pete's Land of Fiction" is a Type B1-A4 reality— remember, everything is in comparison to N-Space. You could start everything with A0 then, but that'd be silly. Theoretically, these could compound forever…

There are two examples of compound alternate realities I can think of at the moment. One is the Cupid Homeworld, a pocket dimension of the Prime Universe, and thus Type A1-A2. The other is the timeline seen in Doctor of War's Aftershocks, but it's not yet clear what type the Warrior's universe is, so this is a Type U-C2.