Divergence: An ontoclysm occurs in May, 1892 that changes certain physical properties; in the summer of the same year, several species shrink to 1/70 Scale: cats, chickens, cows, dogs, horses, pigs, sheep, and humans. * War against expansionist Communist Hungary in 1920s; presumably a parallel to the World Wars, sans The Bomb * OOCly released by Observer Effect in 1970 * 1972 - April Banusky's Portal experiment kinda works * * * * 1986 - Present The Microworld described in G:IW changed considerably fourteen years ago. Dr. April Banusky of 1967 Gernsback America, while working on a projector-type portal generator using paraphysics unique to Gernsback, accidentally pushed a spherical volume(including her lab, much of her father's manor, and several brilliant friends) through the realities to Microworld. They landed off the coast of California, and were able to convert the manor into a stealth aquatic base in grand Gernsback style. Banusky Manor next surfaced in Microworld history as a source of black-market robots and mechs, having adapted Gernsback robotics to Microworld and added Microworld computer technology. They claimed to be a front for Banusky Robotics, which supposedly had factories built somewhere on land, but they had actually converted part of the manor into a robofac. "Banusky Robotics" raked in money, first selling to South American criminals, then to various police forces; the light "joe-rigs" proved very effective against ordinary criminals and evened the field against upgraded types. Brazil in particular mechanized their police, expanded their industry with robots, and in 1977 conquered the rest of South America with Banusky Robotics "battlemovers". Other nations clamored to upgrade their militaries, and Banusky Robotics continued to make money. In 1978 the UN attempted to raid Banusky Manor, which by then was a weird superscientific Atlantis, but were turned back by an area-effect weapon that tore robot and ship hulls apart. In 1979 Banusky Industries debuted as an umbrella company, with subsidiaries selling superscientific foods and industrial products at aggressive prices. Later that year Angel Carter was elected president of Brazil, and revealed an alliance with Banusky Industries. Word also leaked that Brazil's conquest was at Banusky Industries's request, and that Banusky Industries had basically bought out the country. International outrage was tempered by a growing world depression, their economies suffering from dependence on Banusky Industries. Several industrial nations received a voice and economic support via the World Council, a UN competitor modeled loosely on the WSC. In 1981, the parachronic secret was revealed. Banusky Industries had been exploring other worlds since 1977 - and in fact, Banusky Reality Works was the reason for the War Of '77. ` The World Council also added a seat for the UN, dominated by the US as the remaining industrial holdout. Dr. April Banusky of 1965 Gernsback America threw a party at one of her father's manors, having looked up her old university friends and invited them, along with her current friends. They partied late into the night, then stayed to sleep it off in the guest bedrooms. Inspired, instead of sleeping, she went down to her lab and did some serious tweaking of her Portal experiment, which was an attempt to create a tunnel through the realities to the source of the strange particle emissions she'd detected. Late in the morning, as her friends were starting to wake, it worked… after a fashion. Instead of opening a tunnel, it pushed a spherical volume(including much of her father's manor) through the realities to Microworld. Their second concern was the local governments. They were able to determine from TV signals that the natives were very small, and their technology was fairly primitive. ` While much of her technology(including the projector-type parachronics) is only functional on Gernsback, she is a Heroic Scientist, and makes a number of innovations and discoveries: * She discovers a protein at work in the shrinking, which she dubs microtin. It appears to be an "antenna". She also discovers that purging microtin has no apparent effect, but slow introduction of microtin can shrink an animal. She later shrinks herself, and one member of her staff chooses to shrink as well. * With a parachronic sensor she used to develop her pseudo-projector, she finds two portals on Microworld, one of which is selectable. * Based on her microtin research and experiments with animal corpses, oz beams, and the Window Of Ixchel, she invents microsalusine, which is equivalent to the Carey Formula. (Her synthesis method is cheaper but slower, appropriate for bulk vatfarming, and produces monochiral microsalusine, while the Carey Formula is produced inorganically, and is thus racemic.) * Salvaging the few working technologies from her pseudo-projector, she invents world-shift technology, which is basically conveyor technology in a different form factor. Parachronics Microworld parachronics are based on a combination of the Window Of Ixchel and conveyor-like technology. The Window Of Ixchel is capable of selecting a portal on one of 384 alternate worlds, and easily viewing through the selected portal; with a lot of energy, it can open the portal. The portals are only two feet across, but that's plenty for Microworlders. 346 of these worlds are on Q3 with Microworld, but 19 are in Q2, 16 are in Q4, one is in Q1, and two are in Q5. Two each in Q2 and Q4 have Microworld shift stations, but the ones in Q1 and Q5 are all too dangerous to set up a base on. World-shift technology powers Microworld parachronics within a quantum. Each shift station is the size of a city block to a Microworlder, which is roughly the size of an Infinity large vehicular field generator. This functions more like a beamed power station, however; shift focal referents(SFRs) define a field which the shift station "kicks" through the worlds. SFRs are compact enough that a Microworlder can wear a personal SFR on their belt, and it usually contains a wireless radio network link and a computer. To use it, the Microworlder logs onto the shift station and enters a destination; when their turn comes(if there was a line), the shift station locks onto the SFR and shifts it as requested. Protocols for incoming shifts resemble Infinity protocols for incoming projection, being based on pre-arranged pickup times and such. (However, unlike Infinity's projectors, they can perform "sweeps", where they sweep the shift station's focus over an area where an SFR is likely to be, and when it hits one, it locks on and shifts. The parachronic energies of a shift station focus without an SFR are hard to detect on the other side; roll at -6.) Recent military needs have prompted the creation of "shift dreadnoughts", usually just called dreadnoughts, which have their own shift station and include SFR structures in the hull… being roughly equivalent to a 16'-long VTOL strike conveyor designed for a micro crew. Named April Banusky - A Heroic Scientist from Gernsback, holder of all the voting stock of Banusky Industries, and the most powerful person on Microworld. She spends most of her time experimenting and teaching as the senior scientist at Banusky Reality Works. Her greatest weakness is her deferment of power, but her Contrefessors shore up this weakness well enough. She's lost several technologies to people who exploited them better, but she's making "enough", so she doesn't really mind. IT:16, Parachronics Talent:+4, Quick Gadgeteering. Charlene "Charlie" Walker - ` "the giants" - The Window Of Ixchel Before the shrinking, in a ancient Mayan temple, archeologists discovered documents speaking of "the window of Ixchel", and how the "hole one can see through" operates as advertised in conjunction with it. The Window was a stone sculpture with a two-foot hole at its center in a cramped room deep in the temple, but when a Hole was made and used as described(under the right circumstances, among which the phase of the moon is chief), nothing happened. When April Banusky's parachronic detector led to the old location of the Window, she arranged for Brazil to conquer the area(so she could work without interruption from an unstable government), researched the Window and Hole, and with enough understanding of parachronic physics to apply the bizarre abstract math describing their interactions, she was able to figure the thing out. The Window, a Hole, and the moon all acted as mirrors for oz particles; between the three of them, they could trap oz particles, which would then build up to usable levels. The various arrangements of objects in the room and astronomical bodies would "tune" the trap to different worlds, and some long-term astronomical patterns were missed by the Mayans, preventing its use. Only during a particular phase of the moon could a three-dimensional object fill the Hole's role, but April's parachronic equipment was capable of producing a tuned oz beam without all this futzing around; she built a paraviewer. Perhaps more accurately, she built a device to semi-open the portal represented by the Window. She was also able to actually open the portal, which led to her invention of microsalusine and made Microworld a player in the parachronic game. Opening the portal, however, uses power levels that would blow apart a stone Hole, and aren't cheap even in the modern era. Dark Avalon Portal In heavy mist, with a tube of the right materials and conformation(the traditional tube is a staff made from the heart of a large tree), you can open a six-foot portal in the old marsh around Gastonbury Tor. However, the portal apparently leads to a Vanish, or perhaps just hard vacuum. Microworld uses this portal as a trash dump, with a device to force the portal open in a more controlled fashion, powered by burning garbage, its noxious smoke in turn disposed of via the portal.