The Crinoverse 2 (End of Part 2)

[Crinos]

And now for something completely different:

The Mirror Realms

Its hard to believe, but sometimes accessing the multiverse is as easy as looking into a mirror.

The Mirror Realm is what is known as a "hub" realm, a place where countless different universes can be accessed. Physically, the Mirror realm is dark blue/black void filled with countless mirrors of countless sizes and makes, ranging from ornate french vanity mirrors to broken shards of glass. Gravity is subjective in this realm; if you believe you are on solid ground, you can walk about freely; if you think there is no floor, you will fall in the void forever; Going up and down is as simple as imagining stairs and walking up and down them; inanimate objects simply float in space unless disturbed.

Each mirror is a doorway into a parallel universe, just as every mirror in the real world is a portal to the mirror realms. Naturally, it is normally impossible to access the mirror realm without science or sorcery, but once you've gotten in, traveling through mirrors becomes a cinch; When one enters the Mirror Realm, they pick up some of the energy of the realm, which lingers on them for a time. This basically means that if you enter the mirror realm then leave, you'll still be able to use a mirror to get back to it. The energy eventually wears off though, usually in a few hours, so don't dawdle too long or you may be stuck in some parallel reality.

As noted above, the Mirror Realms are difficult to access; certain high level mystics can do it, and both the John Smith Society and MERLIN have developed machines that allow entry into the realms. Certain creatures (such as Werewolves and Nightbane) can access the mirror realms. Also, sometimes portals just open up naturally to the mirror realms; a mirror or reflective surface will just transform into a portal spontaneously with no real explanation. The most famous occurrence was the Bermuda Triangle, where a mortal to the mirror realms opened up on the reflective surface of the water, sucking in numerous boats and planes until it was sealed by Adrain Eldrich .

The Mirror Realms are inhabited; not only are there travelers from other universe wandering around it, but natural species as well; these creatures are incredibly rare, extremely bizarre, and usually quite lethal, and are best avoided (Of course the John Smith Society and MERLIN seek them out, cause they're kind of crazy like that). Most of these creatures can leave the mirrors as will, and often hunt prey on other worlds.

As noted above, both the John Smith Society and MERLIN study the Mirror Realms, and The Atom Family have visited it as well. However most organizations avoid the Mirror Realms because it simply isn't an efficient method for traveling to parallel worlds. Since there are no definite landmarks besides the mirrors (which move freely around the space), its impossible to pinpoint where specific mirrors are, and there are so many of them you can die of old age before discovering the one you want. That doesn't stop some people though; Omega has often attacked Earth through the Mirror Realms, with limited success, and The Red King is considering using the Mirror Realms to find a metaman Eden, a failsafe in case his war with humanity goes south.

[Charles Phipps]

Wow, you managed to explain:

* Mirror Master
* The Doctor trapping the alien girl in every mirror in the universe.
* Werewolf: The Apocalypse

And goodness knows how many other things at once.

Bravo!

[Crinos]

Wow, you managed to explain:

* Mirror Master
* The Doctor trapping the alien girl in every mirror in the universe.
* Werewolf: The Apocalypse

And goodness knows how many other things at once.

Bravo!

Heh, I was actually inspired to do this article after re watching "Flash and substance" on Youtube.

Wasn't even trying to work in the Doctor Who thing.

[Libra]

That just makes your article EVEN MORE impressive, if you worked up such an elegant solution subconsciously!

[Charles Phipps]

The Mirror Realm is what is known as a "hub" realm, a place where countless different universes can be accessed. Physically, the Mirror realm is dark blue/black void filled with countless mirrors of countless sizes and makes, ranging from ornate french vanity mirrors to broken shards of glass. Gravity is subjective in this realm; if you believe you are on solid ground, you can walk about freely; if you think there is no floor, you will fall in the void forever; Going up and down is as simple as imagining stairs and walking up and down them; inanimate objects simply float in space unless disturbed.

I really enjoy the description here. It reminds me of the Jack Kirby designs for different dimensions. I'm reminded a bit of the Negative Zone and the various dimensions that Doctor Strange visited over the years.

This basically means that if you enter the mirror realm then leave, you'll still be able to use a mirror to get back to it. The energy eventually wears off though, usually in a few hours, so don't dawdle too long or you may be stuck in some parallel reality.

Nice bit of explanation here. Also an explanation why the poor Sliders can't get back to their original dimension.

The most famous occurrence was the Bermuda Triangle, where a mortal to the mirror realms opened up on the reflective surface of the water, sucking in numerous boats and planes until it was sealed by Adrain Eldrich .

Wonderful explanation there.

The Mirror Realms are inhabited; not only are there travelers from other universe wandering around it, but natural species as well; these creatures are incredibly rare, extremely bizarre, and usually quite lethal, and are best avoided (Of course the John Smith Society and MERLIN seek them out, cause they're kind of crazy like that). Most of these creatures can leave the mirrors as will, and often hunt prey on other worlds.

I wonder if Time Travel is also possible in the Mirror Realms and this is where the Doctor's TARDIS travels through, only at really high speeds. The Chronovores and other monsters probably travel through such places.

That doesn't stop some people though; Omega has often attacked Earth through the Mirror Realms, with limited success, and The Red King is considering using the Mirror Realms to find a metaman Eden, a failsafe in case his war with humanity goes south.

The Terminus is something that Omega undoubtedly wants to eventually extend into the Mirror Zone to eliminate all possible realities. Of course, that's a bit beyond even his considerable power and ability.

As for the Red King, he's visited a number of realities with varying degrees of success. Some really irritating like places where humans and Metamen live as equals. Cassius Mass has also visited Erde, where he showed he had a few standards by opposing Superior.

[Crinos]

Yeah, Cassius is no fan of Edre, especially when he discovered in that world that in that world he and his sister are A) Die hard Nazi's, and B) Involved in an incestuous relationship with one another.

It made the next fight between him and his sister REAL awkward.

[Charles Phipps]

That's evil but awesome.

[greycrusader]

Commendable work, Crinos-the Mirror Realms rock!

Well, I suppose they do not if one is trapped there, subject to strange physical laws and preyed on by bizarre beasts.

The Mirror Realms can give rise to all sorts of adventure hooks-travels to other realms, heroes and villains with powers arising from the Mirror Realms, menaces, monsters, and entire evil races imprisoned behind every reflective surface...

Sweet.

[Crinos]

That's evil but awesome.

Yep, in Edre, the Mass siblings are basically the Strucker Twins.

[Crinos]

As for whether or not time travel is possible in the mirror realms; well Charles, HED! is your baby, you tell me.

In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing the canonical HED's take on Mirror Realms.

[Charles Phipps]

As for whether or not time travel is possible in the mirror realms; well Charles, HED! is your baby, you tell me.

In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing the canonical HED's take on Mirror Realms.

The canonical HED! version of the Mirror Realms is that it is basically a nexus between realities that functions a bit like the DCU's Hypertime. All realities more or less flow into each other and from each other along its access. There's a central supreme timeline that all others flow from which all timelines pretty much are born from and burst from.

Thus, it's slightly different than a traditional Multiverse as a breakaway timeline can exist permanently independent but too many variant timelines created (mostly with temporal interference and paradox) will eventually collapse on itself. There's a finite number of parallel realities, though no one has any idea how many there are and changing history can result in more being created. Deathmonger, by the way, is the universe's greatest creator of alternate timelines as he deliberately makes them with paradoxes so he can conquer them and expand his quantum empire.

The Mirror Realm, of course, is the means for which most time travel is accomplished as you travel down the timeline at the center of it.

[Libra]

The concept sounds like a comic book artist's worst nightmare or gnarliest dream to illustrate; It's rather interesting for a writer to describe as well I'd guess!

Classic Charles Phipps then . . .

[Crinos]

Bernadelli Insurance

Lets face it, the crinoverse is a pretty dangerous place; super battles, alien invasions, crisis' of infinite earths, it only stands to reason that once in a while the average Joe on the street is going to get the short end of the stick in some major crossover event; having a giant monster step on his car, or having Divinos get tossed through his apartment.

That's where the Bernadelli Insurance company comes in. A subsidiary of Omnitech Steel, The Bernadelli Insurance company is the worlds first Insurance company which focuses on insuring against damages caused by paranormal sources.

Types of Insurance provided by Bernadelli include protection from damages caused by super hero battles, insurance against being transmuted or possessed, Dimensional rift insurance, Retcon insurance (in case a interdimensional crisis erases your car from existence.), Alien invasion insurance, and many more. They even provide insurance to Super Heroes (who most other Insurance companies wont even touch) and many heroes, including Johnny Rocket and Captain Thunder, have policies with Bernadelli.

Of course, since this is an Omnitech Steel production, Bernadelli is dedicating to make sure their clients are taken care of (as opposed to the Spartacorp equivalent, which uses every dirty trick in the book to avoid paying its clients). Bernadelli is also very aggressive in protecting their clients; employing an entire division of "Damage moderators" whose job is to track down high risk targets (like Smashface and Ultimatum) and try and curb the damage caused by them. The Damage Moderators includes metamen, shivan Crystal focusers, former AEGIS operatives, and otherwise normal people armed with cutting edge omnitech steel weaponry. The Damage Moderators are very effective and have actually beaten down numerous villains.

Bernadelli primarily operates out of the various cities of adventure (Freedom City, Los Dios, and so forth). They also primarily operate on the North American Continent (and even then mostly in the US and Canada.) There was a European branch, but it was wiped out by Eurostar and has yet to recover. Doc Steel hopes to eventually extend Bernadelli further, and is looking into a partnership with the Silber Agency to do so.

[Phrozen]

I am pretty sure that property damage would fall under an existing property & auto insurance. The only thing property insurance doesn't cover is flood insurance because the Federal Government prohibts them from doing so.

[RomLoneWolf23]

I get the impression that one of Bernadelli's top employees would be one Robert "Bob" Parr, who used to work in claims, before moving on to one of the Damage Moderator teams, under his heroic identity of Mr. Incredible. Although he still works a desk at the claims department now and then, just to get to work with regular people again. He likes that Bernadelli's has a policy of helping customers work through the bureaucracy, rather then block them.