---[SDF Anomaly Guide]---
So you want to write of an anomaly, detailing the discoveries of the multiverse through science? In that case you’ve come to the right place, to write a Shroominati Data File you must first understand what they are. The Shroominati is the most advanced civilization in the multiverse, yet you must understand that even for them it holds mysteries yet unknown. If you wish to see further detail on the Shroominati’s ethos, see the Ethos section. If you already have a good idea of what exactly this dystopia is, continue at will.
To begin requires a plan, a concept in your mind which you want to work on. The first thing you need to know is that anomalies can be nearly anything. You could have an object which simply defies current knowledge in some way, or perhaps an entity with strange powers that are inexplicable; perhaps even a place which has anything in it altered, or your document could be about an event which occurred once and has had its effects and consequences widely documented. An example anomaly could even be an entire universe with entirely new forces other than the basic four fundamental ones we know, altering the physics of that realm completely. You should come up with a name for your anomaly, whatever people call it casually when they don’t want to string together the classification ID, similarly to how NE-485-01 is also known as Freshly Baked Bread Man. See Formatting for how to make an ID.
Now before we head on, one last thing you must know is how anomalies are assigned Threat Levels. Every anomaly is assigned a threat level between Plague and Omnicide. There are five levels total, each named after the most devastating thing within their respective tier.
By now you may be in the process of creating an idea. If so, then that’s great, however there are things to keep in mind before you continue or if you’ve yet to start, before you start brainstorming. Now not every universe in the multiverse has the same laws of physics, some have forces other than our four fundamentals. Those themselves are sometimes anomalies, or if sufficiently understood treated as simply alternate types. This allows nearly any setting, even fantasy ones or similar, to exist within the multiverse; but there are some exceptions, because some things across the multiverse are always the same, and these are called constants.
Constants are things that are part of the nature of the multiverse, as opposed to any particular universe. An example is that Time Travel cannot be done without access to higher dimensions, which is impossible for any third dimensional beings without aid from something far greater. This has several exceptions within itself which are detailed below, but it should be suitable to explain the point; there are a few things that cannot be used wildly without conflicting, despite the flexibility of the multiverse setting.
Without further explanation required, here is a list of things which are banned topics unless specifically granted permission.
The highest of all threats that the multiverse could face is the end of its story entirely. There is to date nothing capable of such a powerful feat as the Shroominati, while cold and calculating, is still a protector against the most immense threats the multiverse faces as self preservation is its integral goal. There are various protocols in the case of an Omnicide threat, but nothing to date has presented one.
Control over time is an ability which one must be especially careful with writing. It is an attribute which can only be done through multidimensional interactions, which even the Shroominati has not the ability to harness efficiently. It is theoretically possible, yet beyond even the Shroominati in difficulty, to create any sort of time machine. Anomalous objects may have these properties, but they are intentionally few and far between. Usage of time travel is also known to invoke forces from beyond, such as instances of DE-002-01 and its variants, or worse yet merge a user with the Remnant Convergence Field.
Celestials, multidimensional beings, or DE-002-1 as they are known as among many other names in this setting. They’re mysterious entities that exist beyond our three dimensions, and possess power over time as well as abilities allowing them to personally create anomalies. Anyone involving these in their writing must pay specific mind as to not break consistency between their existence due to their nature of being from quite possibly beyond even the multiverse in origin. They seldom interact with the mortal realms when not necessary, and once maintained the Celestial Convergence Field before the 21st Century Earth-Time.
Now that you’ve got the concept of anomalies down, and know what is allowed, it’s onto the formatting and standardization. This part may be longer, but at the bottom of it you can find a template if you wish to create a new document and copy paste it, however it is necessary you at least read the tutorial to ID your anomaly as to fit with the overarching standards of SDF Anomaly Logs.
-----[Anomaly Identification]-----
Now to begin explaining this, we shall start by creating an Anomaly ID. The Anomaly ID is the title of your document and what it is officially referred to as inside of it. As an example take how the weapon and anomaly known as Excalibur is officially NO-1138-01 as far as the Shroominati itself is concerned, and is referred to by that name within its data file.
There are 4 components of an Anomaly ID: Threat Level, Type, ID, and Variant.
-----[Standardization]-----
Starting with text options, the basic font used is Consolas due to it being a monospaced font that looks good. Though, I don’t actually care if you do or not to be honest, it’s just nice to be consistent. After that, the title for your anomaly (its ID and name) will be font size 26, the heading for main sections are of size 14 and bold, with the subsections being of the same size but without being bolded. Feel free to include images if you wish to.
Within each section, the standards are shown in the template, but you may reorder them should you wish (eg. history could be explained before recovery if necessary) if it is for better readability. In addition to this, you may create additional subsections if you wish. An example of a case where one might want to do this is if the anomaly creates a secondary object or has additional parts which you want to detail in their own sections. If you wish to ever do this, just ensure that you have font sizes standardized and looking nice. Honestly if you don’t it’s not like it’s even a big deal.
Here’s a link to the template if you want a document to copy: Link
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[Anomaly ID] Anomaly Name
[Description]
Overview (Name) hereby referred to as (ID), is…
Write down a short overview of your anomaly, without going into detail. Begin the overview with the starting sentence of this section.
Appearance Describe the appearance of your anomaly.
Function Describe the anomaly’s effects and how they’re believed to occur.
[History and Discovery]
Recovery Describe how the anomaly was recovered or found.
History Describe the past of your anomaly.
[Containment and Testing]
Test Log 01 Description of tests.
Interview Log 01 Description of any interviews, such as if an anomalous entity can communicate, whomever previously owned the anomaly before its recovery has information, or whatever you can think of. Fully optional.
[Addendums]
Addendum 1 Insert addendum information here. Note these are optional, and you may even delete this section if you so choose. |
By GooGroker, Winning submission for the 2018 Wohday Contest.
These parasites were found to possess anomalous properties that wipe their hosts from existence… or so it seems? What happens next is unknown, other than that all information regarding them disappears.
[PO-596-01] Genocidal Flyswatters
By BadaBomb, Entry for the 2018 Wohday Contest.
Several fly swatters found in the warehouse of an abandoned universe with traces of a post-apocalyptic past. Their properties were discovered by accident, revealing the potential for a deadly weapon.
By GooGroker, Winning submission for the 2019 Wohday Contest.
A mysterious woman who appeared one day, made of both biological matter and electronic scrap. Mentally disturbed by the events of her sudden creation, more is learnt of her through various interviews.
By Sixty, Winning submission for the 2020 Wohday Contest.
A set of two coins, one brings good luck, while the other brings misfortune. Universally unlikely events occur with ease around those who possess these, so long as they work for or against their user.
By Hexex, Winning submission for the 2021 Wohday Contest.
Description here.
By Agent, Written as a birthday present in August 2021.
A skeletal species with televisions for heads, these beings are sapient anomalies in nature which record a perfect memory of instructions their ancestors had known of.
The following section will consist of Shroominati lore, setting a tone. If you’ve already gotten the memo of this, then you may feel free to skip ahead or even begin writing your anomaly. The rest of this document is lore stuff.
Note: For info on the Shroominati as an organization, see the Factions.
The Shroominati as you may know, is a highly advanced nation consisting of a parasitic fungus which reproduces using other sentient life as its hosts. You may also be wondering how it managed to achieve the status on top of the civilization both technologically and politically for what they are. Right here today this will all be explained.
It all began with the fungus known as Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis. It was a miniscule chance to happen, yet as throughout endless space and time such an event was inevitable; and it needed only happen once, for the multiverse to soon writhe. What happened was a tragedy, free will taken from people as the fungus through a stroke of mad luck or fate mutated to grasp the mind of not just lesser creatures, but mankind as well by their infectious spores. These fungi would infiltrate the brains of their victims, gaining control of not only the body’s full movement, but all of the host’s memories and skills in addition. This alone would be apocalyptic, yet beyond that one fact made it so much worse, for while keeping the memories of their human selves they had no ability to access the emotional portions of the mind.
The birth of a species with the intelligence of mankind, lacking emotion in its entirety formed a deadly combination. Effectively as cold as a computer with the power of a scientific mind, taking shape so long in the past, they quickly advanced to the point at which they took mankind and controlled their population to leave as hosts. This was the only option that existed in their perspective, as without a soul they held only the basic motivations to survive and reproduce, and at last as their world fell to them you’d expect their story to end. It didn’t however, as a new property and trait branched off from these things that should have been sated by the promise to last until their world’s end. This is because their next chain of reasoning led them further down the path of science, twisting and defacing the honorable arts beyond what they had already done to conquer and control their realm. They knew that it gave them the advantage to guarantee their survival so far, and invested all they had past their necessities towards further pursuit. Through the ages, this eventually sent them to a secret no species was made to obtain, the key formula of the multiverse.
The discovery of methods that allow one to displace themself among the multiverse was a deadly one. Realm after realm, the now dubbed Shroominati would colonize and investigate. Their mad science was not just for the sake of science, but in the end motivated by the unchecked biological order to survive, which after ensuring their species would continue shifted; they had shifted to aim higher yet, to obtain a status where they would be completely invulnerable and everlasting at any cost. It didn’t take long for them to realize each universe had activity in it around the coordinates of what we call Earth, oftentimes with an alternate humanity for them to imprison in camps to develop and spawn new hosts, but it was also a troubling discovery for them. For the entire history of the Shroominati, there had been not a single problem they had failed to solve, yet those specific coordinates of reality in each universe inexplicably held something of note. It was not dangerous, and the Shroominati still had held supreme influence over their sphere of known reality, yet for the first time there was an anomaly.
Fast forward hundreds of years, the Shroominati having now expanded its operations in an attempt to log everything in reality out of the instinctive desire to cover any and all blind spots. Despite these efforts however, even going so far as to allow humans and other forms of life discovered to access the multiversal technologies for themselves in hopes that it would simulate possible ends they might face, there are countless anomalies that even the Shroominati cannot explain. For everything the Shroominati learns about the endless multiverse now, it appears that dozens of new questions open up. Now more than ever, anomalous entities and objects are appearing left and right among the stars. The Shroominati may use its endless resources and manpower to attempt to document and study them, and while still overwhelming in reach and cunning in mind, the fate of the multiverse grows ever more unstable as the years pass on.
Countless souls have fallen in pursuit of understanding, and the Shroominati stands atop all the observed multiverse, yet among the way they may have lost something essential. Never dying, yet never living.
Ophiocordyceps Immortalis.
In this section, some miscellaneous lore to help inspire ideas or answer your questions will be posted. The first part of this simply provides links to different resources, and the second bit shall provide answers to commonly asked questions.
Within the multiverse there are many alien lifeforms, some recognizable and some quite atypical. For a list of all lifeforms, click here.
Throughout space and time many civilizations have risen and fallen. For a detailed list and timeline of multiversal powers, click here.
Beyond the borders of one's own reality and beyond even the edge of their realm lies a multiverse of endless realities and infinite possibilities. For a rundown of different universes, click here.
(It may forever be considered under construction. Feel free to write in new universes, there’s an endless amount.)
Over the years the multiversal empires have created many forms of technology higher than that which we have on Earth. For a list of the most notable inventions of the multiverse, click here.
The Shroominati has declared throughout the multiverse a dating system divided into two eras, BD and PD, which stand for Before and Post Divergence respectively. The first era is defined as a time driven by fate and legendary figures due to the Celestial Convergence Field, yet in the 21st century it was made woefully clear to all that a new era has begun. It was in the year 2020 a previously unknown conspiracy was revealed, only moments too late to prevent the creation of a rift to the Infernal Realm. The result of this was the destruction of the Celestial Convergence Field, and rise of the Remnant Convergence Field.
Actually I changed the era system a few months ago. Just use A.D. and B.C. because people use Earth as a constant due to its anomalous property of existing throughout separate universes.
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The First Ascension Republic was the first human civilization the Shroominati has given access to the technology to travel the multiverse, and has a government one might consider corrupt. Combined with an impressive arms industry, they could be considered a superpower among the realms second, if you ignore the vast gap of might in all aspects between them and the Shroominati.
The New Imperial Gathering of Humanity is a second nation formed from a group which fractured off F.A.R. after the Veltarion War, using their country’s support for The Legarian Confederacy as means to gather support for separatism and independence of several colonized universes. They are an empire, as the name suggests, which makes vassal states out of newly discovered universes that the Ascension Accords allow them to contact in order to spread their influence. This has allowed them to catch up and stand as a legitimate rival to F.A.R. in terms of humanity’s leading ideology, with a considerable amount of universes colonized but not yet fully used.
Standing for Human Undertakings and Niche Tasks, H.U.N.T. is a specialized group within the Shroominati which consists of humans who were once residents of one of the many host factories before being separated from the rest for exceptional traits. Most of the Shroominati’s population comes from a host factory where people are treated as mere resources, born only to be altered in such a way that they can be infected as a body with perfect capabilities. Within these factories to ensure maximum ‘learning’ efficiency, microchips are implanted to read their thoughts so that any individuals showing symptoms of intense emotions, delusions of valorous rebellion, or any form of dissent may be reeducated or terminated based on circumstance. Sometimes however, there may be someone who is capable of resisting the mind reading technologies. This is because advancing onto the territory of the mind, no matter the tools used, is only capable of reading uncalm minds and surface thoughts. Those who naturally suppress their true selves the Shroominati welcomes, putting them through a 50 year program of brainwashing and technological modifications to become H.U.N.T. Operatives and serve the Shroominati. They are treated as valued assets in order to keep loyalty, but do not fool yourself into believing they are genuinely cared about. They are a force used for specific purposes, infiltration and interaction with civilizations when the Shroominati wishes not to reveal itself, oftentimes to secure an anomaly and dodge the consequences. At the end of the day, they’re brainwashed super spies used as tools for the cold grasp of the Shroominati on this reality.