Hello, Multiverse

First, let me start off with a truth. This truth may be hard to think about, and you may even think it is purely fantasy… or my preferred word, hobbligook. Or maybe it was hobblegook? Gobblegook? The exact spelling escapes me, but you get the idea. Either way, that isn’t important. What is important is that there isn’t one world, but many, many worlds as many as there are grains of sand on your world. A great multiverse of both worlds that seem fantastical from your world, or simply a world exactly the same as your world except they use the word mavity instead of gravity. And contrary to popular belief, these worlds are not that far apart or hard to get to as one would imagine. There isn’t a wall that separates the worlds. There isn’t even a thin veil. It is more like a dense London fog. You are walking across your London, thinking you are going to Kensington and then suddenly you realize you are in Camden. While you may not realize it, creatures, often of the intelligent variety wander into other worlds all the time, simply by taking a wrong turn. Cats on the other hand do this on purpose.

It could happen to you. One day, you are going to the kitchen in your small flat. You always turn right to get into your kitchen, and usually after staring blankly at a fridge like it will make a sandwich, you end up grabbing chips because they are easy and walk back to the TV to watch another episode some old TV show that has been finished for many years. No they are not going to make a sequel. Anyway, you always turn right. When it is raining, you turn right to the kitchen. When it is sunny, you turn right to the kitchen. To be dreadfully dull about it, the kitchen is indeed to the right of you down your little hallway, so of course you in your fully debatable intelligence will turn right. Right? Maybe. What if one day, you absently turn left. You run into the wall. Why? There is a wall there of course! Normally, turning left you would smack the wall with your face, arguing that the wall randomly reached out and hit you. It always wins those fights, so best not to argue. However, one day, you turn left and just miss the wall. That’s it. That’s the trick. Instead of hitting the wall, you simply miss hitting it.

After a few minutes you find yourself wandering the nine hells, and end up having a cup of tea with a world destroying demon, feared throughout the realms, the terror of misfortune, called Fred. You have a lovely discussion about crippling social anxiety, sharing the revelation that even the most terrifying monstrosity of a thousand screams disdains cocktail parties, just like you do. Don’t even get them started on Tupperware parties. The last one they attended they accidentally destroyed everyone before the final sales pitch, though the Tupperware company managed to get a sales order for their entire monthly quota that day. Needless to say, the world is infinitely stranger than you can imagine, and more normal than you can possibly dream. Fred is doing fine by the way. They have acquired a series of help books. They told me they must truly first love themselves, before they can be the best nightmarish creature they seek to be. Hey, don’t judge. We must all have aspirations, and the important part of this is that getting self help is normal, and needed before one can truly live to their aspirations. Also, this strange incident is actually based on another story, but that story isn’t for now. Actually, the important part of this was to help you realize, the universe is actually plural - universes or better said, the Multiverse.

I love the Multiverse. I may not love all the people in it, and some of them I down right loath, hate, maybe even disdain. However, the worlds across the Multiverse, I have always sought to see them all. Who am I? Well, I have gone by many names. Fable, M, Aesop, Naolin, Maximilian Cumberbatch the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, or whatever else struck my fancy at the time. That is because in truth, I am The Wanderer. No, no, you misunderstand. Not “a” wanderer. There are many of those. Travelers, wanderers, chroniclers, or just simply wizards who pretend to know where they are going but are indeed lost. I, however, am The Wanderer. I have spent my immeasurable lifetime wandering the great multiverse. My brothers and sisters, well, I shall leave their names out, and I are more like ideas. That shows what little you may actually know of the Multiverse, as to be called simply an idea really is rude, and I kindly ask you not to do it. Now, am I alone? Of course not! Don’t be so arrogant. I encourage others. I welcome others. I encourage you to be a Traveler. Yes you. A traveler is someone who can either go the quick way through the Multiverse or the long way, one world at a time. What sets a wanderer and traveler apart from everyone else is a natural curiosity and joy about the world around them. The inner desire to discover new things, document those discoveries. The greatest wanderers are those who explore their own minds, then cause their discoveries to manifest in yours. Writers, artists, creators - they’re all wizards, really. What else would you call it when someone dreams something in their mind and makes it appear in yours? Magic, pure and simple.

In either case, since you are reading these words, in what I hope is your language, you have stumbled across my journal which I have turned into a Guide for you. This guide is meant to be a codex for the most frugal traveler, as you seek to wander the Multiverse. I hope you treat this codex as a survival manual of sorts. A guideline of what is out there. Of course, if you are unlucky, you may only have a small part of my full journal, which may mean you will want to supplement stories from other wanderers and travelers. However, whether it is my guide, or their journals, may you find your ever expanding codex of knowledge as a guide across the Multiverse. I would put Don’t Panic on the cover, but in truth, Sir Adams’s book is one of the few works in your world that is known across the Multiverse. I assume it has something to do with the Don’t Panic and always bringing a towel with you. Frankly, a towel is really a useful tool to have as you traverse the multitudes of existence, so yes, take this book and a towel. Plus, Multiverse lawyers are truly the worst to deal with. Fae - every. single. one. of them. Best to avoid them at all costs.

To get you started, it is good to understand the multiverse as a whole, before you dive into some of the various worlds I have visited. The similarities before the differences, as some like to say. What can you as a traveler expect when you first start exploring the Multiverse? Well a good drink at a tavern, new clothes, maybe some paper or inks, and a rug… though probably best to avoid the rugs.