Metrianda is an Elseworld. We've heard it a thousand times, you're in The Elseworlds on an Elseworld, that's great, cool even- but it doesn't give you much context.

So what is an Elseworld?

Metrianda is an elseworld in The Elseworlds. The Elseworlds are in the space in between universes, infinitely long, filled with infinite things, people, possibilities, everything and anything- the unique conditions defining thereof.

The Elseworlds are split up into 4 general “spaces”, The SubSmoke, The Smoke, The SuperSmoke, and The Above. As one can guess, there is an Elseworlds-wide thick layer of black smoke that separates the Sub and Super-Smoke that can only be crossed and traversed by specially built ships typically called ‘VoidShips’ often manufactured by Founder Kingdoms.

Below the smoke is the SubSmoke, a dark, varied stretch of land and natural geography that could easily be confused as its own Elseworld or series of Elseworlds. Large bodies of liquid, sometimes water, oil, magic, magma, and varied other liquids are scattered across, rivers run through, as do mountains. Settlements are rare, but not impossible, more often than not popping up in crashed voidships or the many abandoned kingdoms from… some time long before recorded Metrianda history. Elseworlds typically grow in the Subsmoke, starting as small fleshy egg-like masses that are maintained by humanoid-sized mannequin-like caretakers that build large structures around them that seem to relate to the god that will eventually be summoned to “become” the Elseworld. These structures often look like cities, with their appearances varying to match the god they are built for- which the caretakers often also shift to appeal to. Occasionally SubSmokeians will be drawn to or summoned into these locations. There is no documentation about what became of these people but SubSmoke cultures reference these budding elseworld-settlements as some form of actualized afterlife. Heaven, hell, purgatory, it varies greatly. These eggs and settlements grow and grow and grow until the god is summoned *into* the god-egg, shortly afterwards the egg and settlement will turn to black glass and enter the cocooned metamorphosis stage. During this stage the area around the elseworld is slowly sapped of color and life- turning everything to glass slowly afterwards. Once this stage ends and the Elseworld “hatches”, it takes the form it chose and crafted for itself and is thrust upward, to life, above The Smoke. The most basic form an Elseworld can take is a tower-like structure or cylinder, making it a relatively uncommon shape to be taken. Often Elseworlds appear in a variety of complex shapes, ranging from constantly moving millions of miles long jet glass trains, to large hollow terrarium-like orbs, to massive glass turtles, ships, infinitely complex fractal cities and gigastructures, massive trees, impossible geometry, and more. Metrianda appears to be this most basic shape.

The Elseworlds themselves are impossibly long in every direction, with no true “space” above it and no true anything beneath its Subsmoke. They exist in the infinite space between dimensions, the little nooks and crannies that the bubbles of universes leave between themselves when pressed up together. For most of recorded history, from what Ichika can find, the Elseworld itself has been left in the shadow of its “creator”- The Elsemother- who died before written history and left her legacy to her final creation- The Founders. Despite there being no documented research or study in Metrianda regarding this information, Ichika, against all odds, is able to find old letters of correspondence between two founders in the restricted section of the library- the architect of GIVE, King Meter Matan, to his brother, Captain Lazarus Matan of The Gallant. While the letters are many, Ichika is able to find that each of the original Founders split off from that last meeting with The Elsemother- journeyed across The Elseworlds and established their own empires, and kingdoms. Each “family” (colloquially the term family is used less to mean direct familial blood relation but instead individual subspecies of the same “founder” species) was left with a different “holy” task, gift, or puzzle, and told to continue the elseworld systems and open gates. Meter believes that the original intention of The Elsemother was not to have the Founders rule over The Elseworlds- which many families did following the meeting- but to act as support in maintaining the Elseworlds. In his letter he states that the Matans were given a phrase to decipher, though he has no interest in it- nor does his older brother- but he presumes it to be a prophecy tied to The Matans in specific. He also states that he interprets it to be a call of peace amongst The Founders and the other native species to The Elseworlds- that everyone can and should and must work with one another in order to prevent the destruction of The Elseworlds and, by extension, the entire multiverse. He clarifies this possibility- stating that he is of the understanding that should The Elseworlds collapse or be destroyed that a dimensional vacuum will be created- sucking *every* world into the space The Elseworlds used to occupy, shredding everything in existence until nothing remains. He states that, again from his understanding, the process of summoning itself is a natural process the Elsemother had created upon her own summoning (supposedly she is the first to be summoned?) to help balance the energy, entropy, and pressure created by different universes- and should The Elseworlds not exist the people being summoned would still be shunted into nothing, just with an uneven entropy gain on their universe’s part- inevitably leading to that universe’s oversaturation of entropy and inevitable collapse. The Elseworlds fulfill a process not dissimilar to an overflow tank, just with people and objects, and Meter assumes this is out of compassion, that people are brought somewhere livable and forever instead of merely destroyed to net The Elseworlds themselves a 0 gain 0 loss- which his brother concurs. Lazarus adds that from that point he believes that the creation of The Elseworlds themselves, though graphic and upsetting, are likely another way The Elseworld’s balance their own entropy gain- that along with The Smoke Season and Entropic Weather Patterns. All this to say that they believe that summoning is something that is inevitable and unstoppable by an Elseworld- it was just something that was going to happen. The Elseworlds exist for two purposes according to the brothers: to shelter the lost summoneds and provide them a life, and to balance entropy and several other variables between different universes in order to prevent total Multiverse collapse.