A Brief History of the Balance There is a common misconception that the driving forces of the Twin Worlds are

Science and Magic, when in fact these two are merely applications humans devised of the two principles of Order and Chaos, respectively. 12, years ago the universe was in !alance, and the two principles coe"isted in perfect harmony. The humans, learning how to apply these forces, were a#le to use #oth Magic and Science in their daily endeavours, o#taining near$a#solute mastery over the cosmos. %nfortunately human nature is what it is and soon military uses were found for the incredi#le powers they controlled, #ringing a#out doomsday weapons of un#elieva#le might which threatened to destroy &arth and even rip the very structure of the universe apart. This is where the 'in enter the scene. (n ancient race of mysterious origins, they)d witnessed the distruction of universes many times #efore without #eing a#le to help, #ut this time they)d planned ahead* descending among the humans, they o#served them for centuries disguised as sages and scholars, and when they saw humanity was on the #rin+ of destruction, they decided to intervene. The 'in revealed themselves and proposed to the desperate humans a solution for their predicament* the universe should #e split in half, #rea+ing the !alance and separating Chaos from Order until humanity was deemed wise enough to use them #oth again. These two universes should #e separated thoroughly #ut not wholly, for the two principles cannot e"ist one without the other* one universe should #e made mostly of Order and the other mostly of Chaos, #ut each should have some of the other in itself, so they needed something to siphon power from one to the other. This tas+ was #eyond even the immense powers of the 'in, however, so they as+ed the help of the humans, and that)s when the Sentinel was created. The si" greatest scientists and the si" greatest magicians in the world were summoned to a great plain in the centre of the largest continent, along with a child who was #orn with an almost perfect #alance of Order and Chaos inside her. There the 'in and the Sentinel #egan #uilding a machine of immense power, a comple" techno$magical construct that would serve as a fulcrum for #alancing the two universes that would result from the splitting of theirs. This machine, however, was mindless, and left on its own would)ve inevita#ly created im#alances in the flow of the two principles. This is where the child would come in* she was to #e loc+ed in the Tower, her soul separated from her #ody in order to ma+e her one with the whole cosmos. She was to #e the first ,uardian of the !alance. This state of affairs could only #e maintained for one thousand years, however, so every millenium a new ,uardian would need to succeed the last one. The 'in on their part provided the engine for the Tower, a techno$magical artefact of such power it had re-uired the com#ined minds of all the 'in thousands of years to perfect* the .isc. This artefact was the perfect #lending of Magic and Science* -uantum computers wor+ed in unison with powerful dweomers inside it to provide energy for the .ivide. Once everything was in place, the universes were finally separated. The event was traumatic* reality itself was torn apart, #illions of years of history retroactively rewritten in #oth universes as enormous ripples spread through time and space. Those people who were #orn with more Chaos in them than Order found themselves in (rcadia, while those #orn with more Order than Chaos found themselves in Star+. /amilies were #ro+en up, lover forever separated from lover, children ta+en from the arms of their parents. 0ife had to #egin anew on #oth worlds, and it would #e millennia #efore humanity pic+ed itself up from the trauma of the .ivide.

The Divide and the Twin Worlds The .ivide itself is a techno$magical #arrier separating the universe in two discrete coe"isting portions* Star+ and (rcadia. These realities are superimposed one on the other* each point on the one corresponds to a point on the other, and vice versa. Star+ is a universe mostly made of Order* reality follows a set of predicta#le physical laws which can #e understood and used. 1owever, a fundament of Chaos is present in this reality in the form of -uantum stochasticity. (rcadia, conversely, is mostly made of Chaos* the wor+ings of reality are unpredicta#le, responding more to the whim of its inha#itants than to its own set of rules2 here mind is really stronger than matter. Order, however, is present in the form of the #asic rules of Magic, which does wor+ in accordance with set principles. The #arrier dividing the two worlds acts as a sort of magnet. 3t has two 4poles5* an 4Order pole5 and a 4Chaos pole5. These 4poles5 are oriented towards Star+ and towards (rcadia, respectively, and 6ust as a magnet, li+e poles repel, thus +eeping the two universes separated. The area in #etween these 4poles5 contains the ,uardian)s 7ealm, the last remaining portion of the original universe, along with a lot of smaller poc+et universes created #y the high insta#ility of the flu" of power, which ena#les the #irth of places li+e the Storytime, the Winter, or the 1ouse of (ll Worlds, all created #y minds strong enough to sustain their own small universes 8the 9aga#ond, /aith and 0ady (lvane, respectively:. .uring the events of The 0ongest ;ourney, when the ,uardian had overshot his term and was forci#ly removed from the Tower, an im#alance formed and the power #egan flowing a#normally from one universe to the other. 3n Star+, this ena#led the creation of technology un+nowingly #ased on magic<, li+e anti$gravity and /T0 travel, while in (rcadia the effects were much more contained. When the !alance was restored at the end of T0;, Star+ suffered a catastrophic collapse due to all magic$#ased technology suddenly ceasing to wor+. Humans and Dreams (ll humans in the Twin Worlds are #orn with a certain #alance of Order and Chaos inside them. 1umans of Star+ are a#out =>? Order and >? Chaos, and humans of (rcadia are the opposite. This ma+es it so that they are 4repelled5 #y the .ivide, and cannot cross from one world to the other. The small part of them that is of the opposite 4pole5, however, constantly pic+s up signals from the other side of the .ivide. .uring the day, particularly strong signals may manifest as reveries or even hallucinations, #ut they)re mostly drowned out #y the vastly louder reality that surrounds them. (t night, however, when the e"ternal stimuli of the world are cut off, these signals are fully percepti#le, and are +nown as dreams. 1umans of Star+ tend to have chaotic and nonsensical dreams, while humans in (rcadia have structured and logically consistent ones. (s awful as it sounds, humans #efore the divide did not dream at all. O#6ects #rought from one side of the .ivide to the other wor+ strangely #ecause of the different principles of reality underlying the other world. 3f #y any chance should an (rcadian person find him@herself in Star+ or vice versa 8as in the case of !rian Westhouse: he)d #ring a 4#u##le5 of his native principle with him@herself. That)s why !rian is a#le to use his #icycle in (rcadia even though it is #ased on scientific principles. 3f an (rcadian tried to use it, it would pro#a#ly #ehave
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(nother common misconception #eing that technology re-uires Science. Aot so. Technology is merely an application of Science or Magic, so it can e"ist in #oth worlds. The principles which ma+e it wor+, however, are very different.

in une"pected ways, li+e flying apart or turning into a small rodent. (ny spell cast in the immediate vicinity of !rian fails automatically, and any magical o#6ect immediately loses all its properties. The e"ception to this rule are Shifters, for reasons e"plained #elow. This also e"plains the strange #ehaviour of the calculator in the hands of 7oper 'lac+s. ;ust as a calculator in (rcadia can trap you in a poc+et reality, an alchemical potion in Star+ could turn into harmless 6uice at #est, deadly poison at worst. Children of the Balance Sometimes, very rarely, a person is #orn in the Twin Worlds with an almost perfect #alance of Order and Chaos, his or her soul #eing divided > @> #etween the two principles. These Children of the !alance, as they are called, are divided in Shifters and .reamers. Shifters have > ? of their souls comprised of Order and > ? comprised of Chaos. They are recognisa#le #ecause they tend to have strong attraction to interests associated with the opposite side of the .ivide from the one they live in* artists, poets or musicians in Star+, mathematicians, 4scientists5 and logicians in (rcadia. .ue to their perfectly split soul, the .ivide is permea#le to these people, who can learn to 4align5 their soul in such a way as to overcome the repulsion the #arrier e"erts on them and traverse it. To do this, they must concentrate on the aspect of their soul opposite to the 4pole5 of their world* in Star+ they can try to paint or sing or wor+ with their imagination, while in (rcadia they can perform some calculations or wor+ out some syllogisms. (pril e"perienced shifts when painting and dreaming, #oth activities highly tied to (rcadian sensi#ilities, and found it difficult to shift #ac+ from (rcadia to Star+ mainly #ecause she tried to do it the same way she did the opposite transition. 3n moments of high stress or danger, a shift may occur spontaneously, as a +ind of 4defense mechanism5. .reamers, on the other hand, can #e descri#ed as 4defective Shifters5. They are orders of magnitude rarer than Shifters 8in the modern world only one is +nown to e"ist:. Their souls are still divided > @> #etween Order and Chaos, #ut the two halves are separated. 3n a sense, they have two souls. This defective arrangement prevents them from #eing a#le to 4align5 their souls as Shifters do and thus traverse the .ivide physically, #ut it gives them a whole other set of powers. .reamers can learn to enter a state similar to lucid dreaming while asleep, when the half of their souls most lin+ed to the opposite side of the .ivide is most active. !eing > ? the opposite 4pole5, their dreams are much more vivid than those of other people, and they can learn to 4follow5 these dreams #ac+ to their source* the opposite side of the .ivide. 1ere they appear in an illusory #ody. They are for all intents and purposes there* they are tangi#le, visi#le and audi#le to all inha#itants of the other world and they are fully conscious of their surroundings and a#le to manipulate them. They are, however, illusory2 their #ody is not real. This gives them some disadvantages Shifters don)t have. They can remain on the opposite side only for as long as they)re asleep* if they)re wo+en or distur#ed they disappear and snap #ac+ to their own world. They have a #ig advantage over Shifters, though, and that is that they cannot actually die while on the other side of the .ivide. Their #odies #eing mere illusions, upon death they simply wa+e up in the other world unscathed<.

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3)m going to assume here that death in (rcadia in .reamfall has #een implemented for reasons of gameplay and nothing else.

Children of the !alance are capa#le of using #oth Science and Magic, and do not hinder any of the two while on the opposite side of the .ivide from the one they)re #orn in. Only Children of the !alance can #e ,uardians, due to their perfect e-uili#rium of Order and Chaos.