PARALLEL WORLDS & OTHER DIMENSIONS

Travel to the realms of alternate Earths, otherworldly dimensions, and possible futures and meet the people that live there, and a few that just like to visit.

• Hypertime
• People and Places of the Multiverse

HYPERTIME

The Universe has a timeline that runs from its creation in the Big Bang to the moment the last particle succumbs to entropy and it ceases to exist. The timeline can be thought of as a great river, often referred to as a Timestream, and like a river it can have branches and tributaries. In the case of the Timestream these kinds of branchings are created at moments of decision, or when events can have different outcomes. In most cases these branches are small, where the consequences of one outcome versus another have little effect on the overall flow of the timeline. These small branches will eventually merge back into the primary Timestream with barely a ripple and are usually unnoticed. Larger branches, ones whose consequences have a far reaching effect, will break off into their own tributaries; some will continue in parallel to the primary Timestream where similar events will continue to occur (but with noticable variations due to the differences between the streams) while others will head off into wildly different directions eventually resulting in worlds vastly different from the primary Timestream.

The Timestream and all its branches and tributaries are collectively known as Hypertime. It is possible to cross between the realities represented by the different streams of Hypertime. In fact this happens all the time with the smaller branches; individuals often cross into a close parallel stream and back without noticing since these branches are not separated by much and are likely to merge back into the main stream at some point. Crossing over to a larger, more divergent stream is more difficult and can have far worse consequences however. Whenever someone or something travels to another Hypertime reality, the barriers between the realities of the two streams begin to thin. The first noticeable sign of the breakdown of the barriers will be phantoms of other realities appearing randomly. The next sign is the development of a synchronicity pattern, where events from one reality will begin to happen in the other in an attempt to reconcile the two divergent timestreams. The synchronicity pattern is evidence that the two realities are on the path to merging. Eventually the realities will combine into a single reality with a merged timeline, which can have catastrophic consequences for the inhabitants of one or both streams as they find their existence radically altered, or cease to exist altogether. The farther apart (or divergent) the streams are the longer it takes for these consequences to occur. For wildly divergent Hypertime streams it could take years, decades, or even centuries of continuous crossover before the effects became noticeable, but for streams that are close parallels the effects will start being felt in a matter of days or weeks.

STRANGE NEW WORLDS

The entries below fall under different categories, defined as follows:

• Alternate Earth: an Earth similar in history to the mainstream Earth but with no counterparts to characters from the mainstream DC Universe. (Example: Tangent, Pre-Crisis Earth-S)
• Parallel Earth: a parallel Earth is an Earth where history may be radically different from that of the mainstream DC Universe but where counterparts to people from the mainstream exist. (Examples: Pre-Crisis Earth-2; various Elseworlds)
• Alternate Future: a future timeline that may or may not be the actual future of the mainstream DC universe (Examples: Elseworld futures such as One Million and Kingdom Come)
• Other Dimensions: besides the dimension that contains Earth and the cosmos (what most inhabitants would think of as "the universe") there are other dimensional planes like the Astral Plane, the Green, the Dream Dimension, the realm of Skartaris, the 5^th Dimensional world of Zrfff (home of Mr. Mxyzptlk), and the Phantom Zone.

Alternate Earths

• The Megaverse: an alternate Earth that was home to an array of heroes before its destruction by Darkseid.
• Alternate Enforcers: an alternate Earth where a very different team called the Enforcers of Justice are the premiere heroes of their world.

Parallel Earths

• The Elseworld: a parallel Earth, created as the result of interference in the timestream by time-traveling members of Justice Inc.
• Justice Incorporated: Justice Inc. have had several adventures involving parallel worlds and alternate futures.
• World Without a Renegade: a parallel Earth, actually an alternate timeline created when the hero Renegade was erased from the timestream.
• The Superiority: a parallel timeline apparently created by the Cockroach for his most recent encounter with the New Enforcers of Justice.

Alternate and Potential Futures

• The Future is Now: an array of future times encountered during heroic adventures.
• Future Justice: time traveling heroes have encountered future incarnations of the hero team Justice Inc.

Other Dimensions

• Otherworld: other-dimensional world ruled by the malevolent Overlord.
• Anti-matter Universe: negative universe where evil and chaos reign, also called the Negaverse.
• Dimensional Travel Guide: a handly guide to the most frequently visited dimensional realms.

People and Organizations

• Hypertime Masters: heroic explorers who travel across Hypertime.
• Kei Manga Corporation: a pan-dimensional corporation with access to Hypertime.
• Rebels of Otherworld: the rebellion against Overlord's rule on Otherworld.