Witchspace
- Aug 15
- 2 min read
Witchspace is the name given to space beyond space, a layer of reality not distinct but one dimension removed from the observable universe. Through it, Humankind walks among the stars, bypassing the bounds of space and time.
Starships enter witchspace like labyrinthine catacombs below the shallow fabric of known space. In the natural universe, there are thinning seams and tears that allow for the transition. In many systems, relays and gates are built to open fixed witchspace tunnels of their own. But true interstellar starships enter the labyrinth under their own power, plowing with the fore of their hull right through the cosmic horizon and into the malleable medium of Witchspace below. The process is violent and produces unstable eddies, leading to notable disruptions and quasi-spatial phenomena in a travelling starship's wake.
Precise measures and traditions of Witchspace travel differ between worlds. Most notably, humankind’s Twin Civilization rely on differing approaches of Witchspace Navigation. The Terran Empire employs the unique minds of Waking Dreamers to foresee the correct course, whereas the Mechanist Union adopts Machine Minds performing pre-determined calculations.
To all who glimpse beyond the cosmic horizon, Witchspace remains mysterious, even ages after the first opening. Its existence has been known to astronomers since before the dawn of the Terran Empire, but it became the focal point of nearly all interstellar travel in the wake of the Celestial’s Third Awakening awakening and subsequent reordering of Cosmic Law. At that time, the Spatial Lanes were rewritten and old ways of interstellar travel left barren. In the new era, Witchspace Travel emerged as the foremost path between stars. Only a few millennia after, the fight for dominance over this superluminal plane would escalate and be finally decided in a series of galactic conflicts known as the Witchspace Wars.
Humankind's first equal enemy in many ages emerged from Witchspace in the shape of the Prophets Inbetween, and the war against them could not be won without razing much of their domain. Witchspace across the known galaxy turned into a cosmic wasteland beleaguered by the aftershock of the wars that were wrought back in the day.
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