Wonderstruck Universe

Worldbuilding project of mine. Originally a superhero universe, but has since evolved into a bigger speculative fiction universe. Nothing's for certain. All just ideas of mine :)

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Intro post

Salvete! This blog is for the Wonderstruck Universe. The Wonderstruck Universe is an original world of mine filled with spec fic and the like. I originally created the Wonderstruck Universe as a superhero universe, but have since wanted to use it to explore more genres. This blog is just a one man project under @granitoshyksos. As I get more involved with the writing and worldbuilding space over the years, I do want to find other collaborators, but for now it's just me. I don't intend on finding collaborators anywhere online, though. Stay safe, kids. In the mean time, I want to use this blog to document a bunch of my ideas for the Wonderstruck Universe. Valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Introduction to the esoteric and exoteric sciences

Salvete! I was going to make a post for the esoteric Nation of Thaumastia, but because of the new, less definitive and less spoilery route I'm taking, I want to instead go more broadly into esoteric and exoteric sciences.

The esoteric and exoteric sciences are two categorizations of sciences. However, these terms are somewhat arbitrary, and somewhat political. The exoteric sciences include the physics, biology, and other sciences of our real world. The works of Newton, Einstein, Darwin, etc. all fit within the categorization of exoteric sciences. However, these sciences are not nearly as uniform as in our reality. Due to the prevalence of seemingly supernatural occurances in the Wonderstruck Universe, many of the philosophies of the ancients like Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Democritus survived all the way to the present day, just in more naturalist forms. Because of that, exoteric sciences are sometimes also referred to as naturalist sciences.

The term "esoteric sciences" is quite broad, and is really more of an umbrella term referring to many different types of science. It's often tied to what's called the "Esoteric World". The Esoteric World refers to the various nations on Earth who mastered esoteric sciences before mastering the exoteric sciences we did. This doesn't make esoteric or exoteric sciences exclusive, though. The distinction between the Exoteric and Esoteric Worlds is mastery. Esoteric science could be done in the Exoteric World and even taught and learned, but the esoteric sciences would only ever be like some niche most scientists never understood. Thus, the distinction is often much more about familiarity. Sciences unfamiliar or not fully mastered by the Exoteric World are often considered esoteric

Since the beginning of modern globalization, there's been an active and ongoing pursuit to understand the connection between the esoteric and exoteric sciences. To understand a whole greater than the two. This has led to many different debates. One of the most important goals in this frontier of science is to ultimately solve what makes all these seemingly unsimilar sciences tick. There've been many hypothetical models for this, including but not limited to: the pillar models, the spectrum models, the qualitative models, and many more.

The pillar models posit that each science, exoteric or esoteric, is built upon different pillars which define scientific thought. So for each form of science, there are different pillars defining it. The spectrum models posit that there are different universal spectrums the different sciences all exist on, and different sciences have different places on these spectrums. The qualitative models believe in universally constant qualities which define different sciences. And those are all only a few examples. Yet the connection (or perhaps "missing link") between all sciences remains an unsolved mystery.

And that's all for today. Until next time, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Announcement for the Wonderstruck Universe

Salvete! A bit ago, I planned to delete the Wonderstruck Universe blog along with other worldbuilding blogs. I've walked back on such a decision. I wanted to feel less tied to what I had written in the blog, but I realized I still want to express my worldbuilding. I'll try to change some things going forward, but I intend to keep what I wrote before up. What I will be changing includes:

I'll avoid giving concrete or definitive worldbuilding. Things like cosmology, theology, etc. will be given more as theories and hypotheses in-universe than actual definitive answers, and I'll try to move away from the more concrete worldbuilding I did before.

I'll avoid giving spoilers to anything. A lot of this will be for worldbuilding sake. I will try to prevent myself from just explaining stories before they're even written, and focus on the world itself.

I'll put story before worldbuilding. A lot of this will be a method of cataloging ideas. Be it ideas for a story's worldbuilding or for random worldbuilding ideas I'll be putting within this universe. So some will be ideas made for a specific narrative, or ideas that are just random but will be made relevant eventually.

I'm glad to say that, for now, the Wonderstruck Uiniverse blog will be here to stay. Valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Introduction to the Adamic populations and Adamic ages in the Wonderstruck Universe (OUTDATED)

Editor's note: a lot of this has changed, so much of it is outdated

Salvete! In this post, I'll finally talk about the Wonderstruck Universe's Adamic Ages and the Adamic populations. I was going to talk all about the Adamic Ages last post, but I felt the need to explain the Wonderstruck Universe's biology because without the extra context, my explanation of Adamic ages and Adamic populations, along with some of their lore, wouldn't make much sense. I'd recommend going to look at that one first or at least skim it, but of course, I'm not the boss of you.

Starting with an Adamic population: an Adamic population is a population of Humans who appear independently from the rest of the rest of the Human race before converging with the rest of the Human population. The Adamic Ages are periods of history from these Adamic populations appearing until their convergence with the rest of mankind. They're the "pre-prehistory" if that makes any sense.

There aren't many rules to these Adamic Ages, and they can start at basically any time, but almost all of them happen during some period of antiquity. This is likely due to all of Earth's prototypical ecosystems (for more context see: Introduction to the Wonderstruck Universe's Biology) being borrowed from older universes and then converging, so those prototypical ecosystem's evolutionary histories parallel the histories in those older universes, and thus while Adamic populations appear at different points, all those points are often in some form of antiquity. Some Adamic ages might start 1,000,000 years ago, some 300,000 years ago, some 10,000 years ago, and some 6,000 years ago.

These Adamic populations can have wildly different origins from one another, even if they all converge. Some Adamic populations evolve from primates, some from reptiles; some Adamic populations spawned from the womb, some from the ground; some Adamic populations inherit their biology through particulate inheritance while others inherit via blending inheritance. Thus, these Adamic Ages can often seem more magical even if they aren't necessarily supernatural.

Adamic populations before assimilation can range from very sci-fi to very fantastical. Many might be very similar to Homo sapiens but were just from a different biosphere and thus ended up quite different, some might have biology based more in fantasy or the philosophies of the ancients, and many Adamic populations had no DNA at all and their life was structured by something else entirely.

These Adamic populations also often develop unique cultures during their Adamic ages. This also leads to the development of unique histories. Adamic populations will often do things far beyond or behind the rest of mankind during the Adamic ages such as developing civilizations and agriculture during the Paleolithic.

A lot of mythologies about early mankind can also have roots in the Adamic Ages. Usually the history of an Adamic Age will become conflated with the rest of human history. When Adamic populations join with the rest of the Human race, they can also interact with other Adamic populations. In many mythologies and their "table of nations", you'll see a nation's homeland portrayed as the homeland for all humanity, and then the table of nations will show how all the nations trace back to this common motherland. This is often a representation of Adamic populations and their influence on culture as they expanded and assimilated.

The Generations of Noah in the Bible, for example, represents the expansion the Adamic: Shem cultures, Ham cultures, and Japheth cultures. Meanwhile, the genealogy of nations in Greek mythology, represents the expansion of the many Adamic cultures in Greece to areas like Italy, Anatolia, Phoenicia, and Egypt. This expansion is called Adamic contact and Adamic expansion, and it's common with most Adamic populations. Adamic expansion usually isn't about replacement, and most of the expansions in these tables of nations are more about how far Adamic cultures have influence or exchange, not necessarily how far Adamic cultures conquered land or supplanted native culture. Adamic populations also don't actually interfere with genetic or racial identity much because most Adamic populations are from separate biospheres and thus have entirely different biologies, so many Adamic populations don't even have DNA or genetics, at least not in the same way organisms do in our reality.

That basically concludes the introduction to the Adamic Ages and Adamic populations. If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to share. Until next time, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Introduction to the Adamic Ages in the Wonderstruck Universe, PROLOG: introduction to the Wonderstruck Universe's biology (OUTDATED)

Editor's note: a lot of this has changed, so much of it is outdated

Salvete! In this post, I was going to talk about the Adamic Ages since that was what was voted for in the most recent poll, but I realized I couldn't really define Adamic populations or Adamic ages unless I explained the Wonderstruck Universe's biology. So for now, that's what I'm gonna be doing I guess.

For those who don't know, the Wonderstruck Universe is a hybrid universe. It is made up of hundreds or even thousands of ancestor universes, and these ancestor universes had their own systems of biology, physics, astronomy, etc. When it comes to biology, many universes also develop variants of the same species. Because of this, the Wonderstruck Universe has a very complicated biology that can be considered quite multifaceted.

Let's start with recapping how this whole universe fusion works. The Wonderstruck Universe's formation did not fuse these universes' original systems of nature and science into one single system. The different, often contradictory, scientific principles of these ancestral universes were instead forced to cohabit the same universe. Real-world science like: Darwin's theory of evolution, Einstein's theory of relativity, Newton's laws, and whatever else still apply to the Wonderstruck Universe, but they just forcibly coexist alongside other scientific principles which are otherwise incompatible. However, it'd be a false assumption to think these hundreds of systems are entirely isolated. Since they cohabit the same universe, they can ineract a lot, and

When it comes to biology, this means that there are always multiple different systems for things like biogenesis, inheritance, mutation, speciation, etc. On Earth, this means the ecosystem has multiple systems of biology which're constantly interacting. This is when Wonderstruck Universe's biology gets all multifaceted and wacky and complicated.

To help understand Earth's more multifaceted ecosystem, let's look at how that ecosystem developed. You may be familiar with abiogenesis. It's the process through which simple organic molecules developed into self-replicating DNA. In the Wonderstruck Universe, this is mostly how RNA and DNA developed, but there's other processes of biogenesis which occured separately. For example, there was a process where the first life forms were like aquatic embryos which each represented one of the eida ("forms"), i.e. one of the morphologies of animals, plants, or fungi, and then these eidetic embryo-like things diversified to represent the gena ("lineages") i.e. one of the genetic lineages of animals, plants, or fungi. Once these embryo-like organisms became macro-organisms, they naturally took on the forms or eida of animals and plants like fish, trees, sheep, and mushrooms, developed lineages or gena, and became more complex by using different types of materials within their biology. And that's just one example of many biogeneses which have occurred.

These different biogenesis basically fostered ecosystems whose inhabitants were very similar morphologically, but whose inhabitants were still genetically and biologically distinct. Once these independently-developing ecosystems interact, that's when you never know what could happen. On Mars, its ecosystems have been in constant competition and warfare for billions of years, and Earth could've ended up no different. But Earth's ecosystems all fused. The variants of the same species became a single whole. There were some outliers where ecosystems never fully converged, but those are more like exceptions or minorities.

When these variant species converged, I should clarify what that means. The taxonomy that we use in the real-world for biology like: species, genera, tribes, families, orders, etc., all still exists. When these variant species converged, that real-world taxonomy became present in all current organisms, but a bunch of other biological systems and taxonomies also appear alongside that taxonomy. This is where this is much more multifaceted and bizarre. The classification we use for species is instead referred to specifically as a Linnaean species, after the father of biological taxonomy: Carl Linnaeus. It's specifically used for the real-world system of biology you learn in school. There's other biologies with their own classification systems, inheritance, physiology, etc. and each organism still has these other biological systems cohabiting their body. When these species fused, it's more like populations converging than their biology becoming identical or anything like that.

Most organisms basically have multiple species classifications at once, and it's one of the reasons planets like Earth have more superpowered specimens than many other planets. These variant species also first appeared in their individual ancestor universes where they initially evolved with their ancestor universe in mind before they were basically borrowed over into the Wonderstruck Universe. This means humans are naturally capable of much more than humans in reality. With enough dedication and practice, certain humans are capable of doing things like running 40 mph, lifting 1700 lbs, surviving gravity 6x that of the Earth's, or fluently speaking 100+ languages, and this also applies to many other animals.

This also has an effect on evolution. Depending on the biology system, something like a mutation can be a normal genetic mutation like in our reality, or it can be something more X-Men-like where you get a superpower that separates you from the rest of the human race. When it comes to the classification of animals, there can also be some confusion because the different taxonomies coexisting alongside one another. For the sake of brevity, the term "race" is often used for a group of organisms who're all morphologically but have those different taxonomical natures within them. Thus the term "Human race" is not just inclusive of Homo sapiens or the Homo genus but things like the different humanoid descendants of those weird embryo-like organisms I talked about.

Thus, you now have enough background to find out next post what the Adamic populations and Adamic ages are. Or maybe you'll just skip this and go to that one, and I wouldn't blame you. Stay tuned for the deep dive into the Adamic Ages, and feel free to ask any questions if you feel the need! Valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Introduction to archaeology in the Wonderstruck Universe (OUTDATED)

Editor's note: a lot of this has changed, so much of it is outdated

Salvete! In this post, I will introduce the sphere of archaeology in the Wonderstruck Universe. The Wonderstruck Universe is full of some crazy mumbo jumbo: superpowers, heroism, monsters, supernatural forces, mysticism, etc. And what happens when you gotta dig up the past? Well, you've picked a pretty crazy career choice.

At its heart, archaeology in the Wonderstruck Universe is still about solving the past using material evidence, and it's very much still motivated by academic curiosity more than any kind of heroism or altruism. It's still mostly about digging up sites, finding material evidence, publishing your findings, and allowing culture to be preserved and protected for future generations. However, simply because of how crazy the Wonderstruck Universe is, trying to solve the past almost always brings you an adventurous life. This means many archaeologists have a second job: protect the past in order to save the future.

What that means is that archaeologists and historians are often like the past's secretaries, and with such a crazy world, they're extremely specialized, even more than in our reality. Being an archaeologist or historian often turns someone into a messenger of the past who must use their knowledge to act in the present and change the future. Similarly to how prophets in many religious traditions act on behalf of a god, archaeologists often act, either proactively or reactively, on behalf of history so that it can inform the future.

The history of archaeology itself thus happens similarly to our own, but with archaeologists, historians, etc. being much more proactive in history. However, something else also happened differently. In real-world history studies, archaeology, and anthropology, there were many cases of pseudoscientific ideas or scientific malpractice which is now avoided. In the Wonderstruck Universe, those pseudoscientific ideas and malpractices instead spawned waves of archaeologists who sought out archaeology for wrong purposes: people seeking treasure or fame, people trying to revive a bygone era, people trying to place the future on a worse path, etc. This means the villains to these archaeology adventures often include pseudoscientists like supremacists, occultists, and conspiracy theorists.

These pseudoscientists often exist in groups or organizations. Remember how I said archaeology is extremely specialized? That means archaeology takes a lot of practice and a lot of knowledge, but it also means that pseudoarchaeology thrives in a world where almost nobody is really in the sauce on archaeology. These pseudoscientific organizations can achieve cultish followings among common people, and even if pseudoscience is still technically the minority, they still have followings who can act on behalf of these associations without actually being official affiliates. Some of them essentially have armies of followers and devotees with the power to besiege entire cities if they wanted to.

Archaeologists can also have trouble with ancient evils themselves. You wake up some ancient eldritch god? Well, you better put him back in that lamp before he eats the Moon or something. Don't know how to deal with all those ancient evils? I don't know what to tell you, try getting a monster hunter or something to help you out because you're gonna want all the help you can get. You might also have to deal with ancient evils in the modern day. You'd be surprised how many ancient evil gods and pantheons have their own cults running around.

Similarly to in real life, archaeologists often have to work alongside other fields like geology, biology, chemistry, etc. The Wonderstruck Universe is so zany and complicated that almost every single field of science is extremely specialized, and in the best case scenario, the complete mastery of a single field will also almost always require a high school graduate-level knowledge of multiple. This leaves the door open to other subgenres involving the adventurous lives and lore of other fields like biology, astronautics, and physics. And believe me, I'll talk on all those eventually.

Well, that's all in the Mind Palace for today folks. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in my inbox or in a comment or reblog. Until next time, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Which topic to cover next...

Salvete! After poll results were in I made some posts about some topics. I'm gonna make another poll for topics to talk about next!

Which topic next

Adamic Ages: Long before history. I wonder if theres a word for that

Nation of Thaumastia: Magic is in the air. It can kill you, do be careful.

Doublets: 2 Earths, 1 Universe.

Archaeology: Solving the past by saving the world

Galactic frontier: Cant handle the cold? Get outta the vacuum

Voting ended onMay 4

Like always, I'll probably touch on all of these, but the most popular will be talked about first. I'm not done with the school year yet, so I can't follow through until summer break.

Until then, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Introduction to superhuman genetics in the Wonderstruck Universe (OUTDATED)

Editor's note: a lot of this has changed, so much of it is outdated

Salvete! In this post, I want to go over how superhuman genetics work for the Wonderstruck Universe! Superpowers are very universal. Many alien species even have superpowered individuals, but what about superhumans specifically? What makes many of their more biology-based powers tick? Well, you're gonna find out.

To give a definition of "superhuman" genetics: we will be including genetics which aren't entirely human and give some form of enhancement compared to the average human. This can be tricky because "superhumans" sometimes have entirely human genetics and just have some kind of normal mutation that gives them some crazy enhancement (although this form of superpower is rarely called superhuman unless it is a very rare form of the mutation), and some superhuman genetics aren't entirely human but don't give a real benefit.

The most common forms of superhuman genetics add, subtract, multiply, divide, alter, or replace part of an otherwise human genome. Subtraction from the human genome rarely fits into the checkbox of a beneficial mutation, but it can if it removes some kind of potentially harmful gene. Where these superhuman mutations affect the human genome influences where their powers take affect. Even when a genetic lineage of these kind of superhumans don't inherit powers, they'll usually inherit where those powers take affect.

These genetic mutations are more based in human biology and usually don't have any evolutionary origin other than the usual Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. However, some of these genetic mutations are a bit weirder. Sometimes there will be an entire second genome added to the primary genome of animals on Earth. So a human will have their human genome and some kind of other genome which cohabits their body but is physiologically and genetically separate. This can create oddities like humans with sprouting wings and claws and venomous fangs.

Some superhuman genetics are also caused by a myriad of other genetic anomalies. One of the most important being supernatural genetics and alchemical variation. Starting with alchemical variation: alchemical variation is a variation of an element, first discovered through alchemy but also appearing naturally, which alters an element's properties by editing subatomic particles while keeping the atomic number and element the same. This subatomic editing requires knowledge of some kind of subatomic periodic table which is not yet fully understood. It seems like almost all species on Earth have a percentage of the population with these alchemical variations which can do things like make them fireproof or more resistant to aging or pathogens. Supernatural genetics are similar as they are genetics altered by some kind of supernatural or paranormal force that interferes with a human's biology. Depending on the supernatural force acting upon the biology, this can manifest in different ways, but these supernatural genetics are usually hereditary as well.

Other superhumans have powers due to aliens. A lot of the first alien contact was entirely caused by superhumans. Ancient superhuman societies could utilize their own superpowers in technology and did all kinds of crazy stuff with it. Usually societal collapse would render this technology unusable because it relied on superpowers, but when those societies thrived it was possible to do all kinds of crazy stuff, including cases of interstellar and multiversal contact. This caused a lot of alien-human/superhuman hybrids, alien experiments with the human/superhuman genome, etc. which would be temperorary but would still leave a small influence on superhuman genetics and human genetics.

So yeah! That's all I have in the Mind Palace for this post! Until next time, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

An introduction to mythoses in the Wonderstruck Universe (OUTDATED)

Editor's note: a lot of this has changed, so much of it is outdated

Salvete! For this post, I want to go over my worldbuilding for mythoses in the Wonderstruck Universe! A mythos is basically a cosmically-recognized mythology surrounding a specific subject. You know the Web of Fate in Spider-Man? It's kinda like that. Nonetheless, I will go more into detail.

Something about the main Wonderstruck Universe is that it is a hybrid universe and so it has multiple cosmologies, multiple systems that're similar but not identical, etc. The main idea behind this is that if I successfully find other writers who want to become involved in the Wonderstruck Universe, I want there to be equal room for different authors to have unique ideas relating to fictional cosmology, theology, etc. For my (@granitoshyksos is me, hi!) worldbuilding, a mythos is a part of the Wonderstruck Universe's cosmology.

The origin of mythoses is rooted in the Wonderstruck Universe's hybrid nature. It comes from many different ancient universes, and one of those universes was in a network of universes, and in this ancient network of universes idea had power. In this weird hive mind of universes there was this collective consciousness of ideas that'd be generated in one universe, inspire ideas in the rest, and then those inspired ideas would create a weird constant feedback loop of creativity. But how did these ideas spread without staying the same? Mythos.

You see, a mythos is basically a tool through which an idea can come from Universe A and then inspire an idea in Universe B. An idea like a dinosaur might be created in Universe A, and inspire Universe B, C, and D. Universe B might have one or more mythoses surrounding robots, so a dinosaur-like thing might appear as a robot. Universe C might have one or more mythoses where the main life forms aren't reptilian, so the dinosaur might have to be turned into some kind of carnivoran-dinosaur mix or something. You get the idea. A mythos is how an inspiring idea becomes forced into something new. But what dictates a mythos and non-mythos?

The short answer is that everything has a mythos. Literally everything has some sort of mythos around it. Even a pencil has a history. The longer explanation is that the mythos is the context surrounding every idea. It's the history of something, the gravity acting upon it, the influence something has. Where mythoses get more complex is when something has a crazy amount of influence or history or something like that. That's when you get mythoses around superheroes, around gods, around monsters, around civilizations. That's when creation is forced into existence.

But what about a mythos that's already been there before a new creation can be made? Well, that's not much of a problem usually. The connecting force between all these weird universes is the Monad. The Monad is the collective consciousness between all of them that is constantly taking in information and repurposing it billions of times over. It was once this weird primordial world before it expanded into multiple universes, one of which is now part of the Wonderstruck Universe.

There might also be the question of why every idea doesn't exist in every mythos since that theoretically would be what happens? The answer is functionally the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Each idea is rebuilt countless times to fit in every single mythos tied to the Monad, and a single idea can be remade billions of times for just one mythos. Thus, these billions of remade ideas for every mythos are divided among billions of continuities. Continuities, to simplify, aren't universes but continuities of space and time for every universe like a universe's timelines and dimensions and whatnot. The only limit to a universe's continuities is how many are physically possible, so each universe has plenty of room for these billions of new remade ideas because there's billions of new continuities practically every single second.

In the Wonderstruck Universe, this mythos system applies to a lot of mythologies surrounding my characters, their lore, their side characters, fictional countries, fictional planets, etc.

That's all I have in the Mind Palace for this post! For now, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Galactic geography in the Wonderstruck Universe

Salvete! In this post I will describe the basics for galactic geography in the Wonderstruck Universe. If you want to see the stars, you gotta look, and if you want to search the stars, you gotta know where to go. But in a universe so wide, however will you ever know? Fortunately, some smart alien guys figured out space travel a long time ago, so you don't have to put so much work into figuring it out. Galactic geography has many systems and models for different purposes. Some systems of galactic geography are made for trade, some models are for administration, others for the pure curiosity of academia. This will be the basics.

When a civilization like those on Earth can't really explore the stars, galactic geography is less complicated because of how little is found yet. In the Wonderstruck Universe's galaxies, there are interstellar civilizations, exotic elements unique to specific regions of the galaxy, etc. Once a civilization explores the stars, galactic geography needs to become more complex to account for all the cultures, materials, ecosystems, and whatnot that're shifting and expanding and diminishing at all times.

Because of how chaotic the galaxy can be, most maps usually are not galactic in scale because of how frequently revisions would be needed. Early in space travel, many civilizations used constellation maps which mapped out they galaxy that they could observe from their planet's sky. Because these maps were very observational, constellations were usually portrayed like continents with solar systems being portrayed similarly to countries or cities. Usually solar systems would just be labeled by the name of the solar system, but if there was an interstellar civilization its multiple solar systems would all be labeled using that one interstellar civilization's name.

Even millennia after space travel was already around for many civilizations, space wasn't very globalized, but after different vast parts of the galaxy were globalized, galactic geography began prospering more. Especially with the improvement of FTL travel. This has caused a bit of contrast between older and newer systems of galactic geography.

In older galactic geography research, the categorization of regions was much less scientific. A lot of regions were categorized more for the sake of a civilization (knowing where a certain resource was, knowing where an enemy dwelled, knowing where to find a certain technology, etc.) than for the sake of academic inquiry. Newer galactic geography research is more academically grounded and categorizes regions more objectively based on shared species, shared languages, shared religions, shared materials, etc.

Modern galactic geography will usually make a bunch of regions that overlap one another in borders, and this is because most new regions will be categorized for the sake of a specific interest or field (sociology, politics, administration, technology, resources, etc.). Because of this, you'll get regions with small overlap because each one is being categorized for a specific purpose.

Nowadays, both older and newer region categorizations are used. Older region classifications are often very removed from their original context but stick around in colloquial rhetoric, but newer regions often have both a formal sense where they are very strict in definition and a colloquial sense where they might be used as a synonym for an older region designation or they'll be functionally synonymous in conversation with other overlapping regions.

So yeah, that's all I have in the Mind Palace for today. For now, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

An introduction to pantheons in the Wonderstruck Universe (OUTDATED)

Editor's note: a lot of this has changed, so much of it is outdated

Salvete! Because of the poll results, this post in particular will be dedicated to the pantheons of the Wonderstruck Universe. In this post I'll try to answer what a pantheon is, how a pantheon works, and how/why they exist. If/when the Wonderstruck Universe becomes a thing, I intend to have other creators weighing in with their own stories, so all this worldbuilding is meant to be definitive, but mostly for my work while other creators will have stories with their own takes. There will probably be forms of inconsistency between stories because of this, but that's part of the beauty, I think.

Enough about that, and on to the pantheons and stuff. I intend for pantheons to first be really explored in a series which is currently untitled but which would follow an archaeologist family from Greece, and in the Wonderstruck Universe archaeologists regularly encounter booby trapped temples and cursed artifacts and ancient gods, but this family in particular has been in a centuries-long battle against an evil cult working to unleash their eldritch gods back onto the Earth. But what counts as a pantheon?

Gods and pantheons have many different definitions across time and place. The definition of a pantheon for this post, for the aforementioned archaeology adventure story, and for some other work in the future has to do with mythoses. I can't get all into the concept of mythos yet because I gotta make another post about that, but I can get into its connection to pantheons. A mythos is essentially a cosmological mythology. These mythoses usually exist around a country, a lineage, a planet, a god, a person, etc., and most importantly: certain parts of the universe and its world building exist because of those mythoses. So many pantheons are a group of characters, often called gods but not always, who exist because of a specific mythos. A mythos isn't guaranteed to have a pantheon, but many do have one or more pantheons. Some mythoses even exist around a certain pantheon, such as ancient mythologies which're about a group of gods and those gods' mythos. Many superhero teams are also a pantheon in some fashion.

But what about the histories of some of these pantheons? Many gods and pantheons exist millennia before the one or more mythos they're tied to. Well, don't you worry. Mythoses when they're created are not tied to spacetime, and when those mythoses manifest a bunch of the world building has already been built around it beforehand. So a god like Zeus would've been created millennia before the Greeks ever existed, but Zeus would nonetheless only have existed because of the Greeks because he's tied to the mythos of Greece. About that:

What gods count and which don't? Well, different creators who might end up working on the Wonderstruck Universe will likely have different visions. However, I usually have my own personal style with adapting different real-world pantheons. Usually I try to research the origins and histories of a culture's gods and use that as my blueprint. So for example: The Proto-Indo-European deity *Dyeus was real, but has since died since the Proto-Indo-European culture no longer exists. However, because Zeus has a lot of differences from Dyeus, and because Greek mythology is thought to have had both Greek and pre-Greek influence, Zeus is a different character from Dyeus. Although, before I introduce the Greek Zeus as a separate character from Dyeus, maybe I oughta find a less inherently Indo-European name for the guy, but I'm not sure what that would be exactly, so I'd have to look more into that.

But for now, that's all in the Mind Palace for today. Valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Which Wonderstruck Universe topic should I talk about next?

The Pantheons: Gods. How do they work?

Mythos: What is a legacy? Planting ideas in a universe you'll never get to see.

Galactic geography: So many solar systems, so little map space!

Superhuman genetics: The ladies say I'm pretty fly for a superguy.

Voting ended onApr 9

I'll probably do all the above at some point, but I'll start with whichever is most popular. I'll start with an introductory post for a topic and then will talk about related topics.

Just so you have an idea of each choice:

-Pantheons: groups of gods. It is what it says on the tin.

-Mythos: a collection of ideas that together form a kind of mythology.

-Galactic geography: how galaxies are mapped and what defines different galactic regions in the Wonderstruck Universe.

-Superhuman genetics: the genetics that give superhumans their powers.

For now, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Alrighty! Get ready for the future!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

Which Wonderstruck Universe topic should I talk about next?

The Pantheons: Gods. How do they work?

Mythos: What is a legacy? Planting ideas in a universe you'll never get to see.

Galactic geography: So many solar systems, so little map space!

Superhuman genetics: The ladies say I'm pretty fly for a superguy.

Voting ended onApr 9

I'll probably do all the above at some point, but I'll start with whichever is most popular. I'll start with an introductory post for a topic and then will talk about related topics.

Just so you have an idea of each choice:

-Pantheons: groups of gods. It is what it says on the tin.

-Mythos: a collection of ideas that together form a kind of mythology.

-Galactic geography: how galaxies are mapped and what defines different galactic regions in the Wonderstruck Universe.

-Superhuman genetics: the genetics that give superhumans their powers.

For now, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

About the Hive Family in the Wonderstruck Universe

Salvete! For this post, I want to go over one of the Wonderstruck Universe's superhero families. The Hive Family is the superhero family led by the parents Lady Hive and Swarm who are accompanied by their children Elytron and Technofly. I'll go over each family member, their backstory, their powers, and their individual shenanigans. The story is divided into two halves. One half is the stories just titled "Hive Family" which feature the whole family, and the prequel stories in between the main stories titled "Hive Family: Origins" which cover the years before either Elytron and Technofly were born. They're both in quite different points in time, but I intend for the Origins stories to reflect thematically to the main stories in the series.

First off is the mother Lady Hive. She was born as Merida "Merry" Chao. Her mother is a superhuman woman named Pamela Chao who ended up ruling over an alien race of bug people called the N'Tomon as their Queen and Warlord. The bug-like N'Tomon live on Planet Zoya alongside a bunch of other animal-themed aliens. Merry was trained in warfare, since all of the N'Tomon females served in military and government while the males did more menial or subserviant work. However, the N'Tomon would be in a catastrophic war with their dinosaur-like rivals called the Saora, and Pamela would send Merry back to Earth in order to keep her safe while the N'Tomon fight the war. As a human-N'Tomon hybrid, she can fly with her wings, she has superhuman strength, she can sting people with stingers which grow out of her forearms, and can communicate with other N'Tomon and N'Tomon hybrids telepathically via her antennae. One of her biggest weaknesses is that the N'Tomon's homeland doesn't have any seasons, so she's adapted to perfectly lukewarm temperature and she can't generate her own bodyheat, and in temperatures above 80 or below 40 she enters diapause. Her powers also have their own limits. She can only fly up to 70 mph and can't fly past the stratosphere. Her musculatory and circulatory system is similar to many arthropods so she can only access her N'Tomon strength by concentrating her N'Tomon hemolymph (which flows separately from her human blood) and/or her human blood to a certain part of the body, which can make her extremely strong but weakens the rest of her body. Because of her alien origins, she does sometimes have trouble with human society, and also often encounters alien threats. A theme for many of the members I want to put is that they each kinda have their own rogues galleries because many of the threats are more tied to one member than the rest in some way, but the Hive Family usually face these rogues as a team. Her character arc mostly revolves around her PTSD from being an N'Tomon warlord and a superhero. She often struggles with/fears of any kind of loss, and can have trouble controlling her temper in stressful situations.

Second off is Swarm. He was born as Daniel "Danny" Adebayo. He grew up homeless with an immigrant mother from Nigeria who tried to find a career but always ended up back in poverty. As a teenager, Danny would become a supervillain henchman named Swarm with his powers and make enough money to buy a home for his mother, but never told her about his mischief. Eventually, however, Danny would be caught and trialed for his crimes, but Danny tried to stick to his morals, even when working under supervillains. Due to the small amount of felonies Danny actually committed as Swarm, he had to do community service as a superhero. Overtime, Danny found out how much he enjoyed helping people, and when aliens invaded the city, he met Merida and they began dating as the superhero couple Lady Hive and Swarm. Lady Hive and Swarm were very happy with this, and through heroism Danny felt he truly lived up to the life his mother wanted for him. As a superhuman, Swarm can fly (although much more like Superman's flight than a bug's flight), he can generate heat (similarly to how honeybees heat ball in order to kill invading wasps), and he can create hundreds of duplicates of himself. His powers are mostly empowered by magic and not via mutation or biology like many other powers. Regarding his flight, it's empowered by a kind of augmentative magic. Augmentative magic is a magical ability, technique, etc. that is a supernatural extension of the body or some other object. For example: someone waving their hand to guide their telekinesis, someone using magic to magically give their sword a longer range, and so on. Because of this, his flight can only be twice as fast as his movement, and he needs to be moving around regularly during flight to keep his flight moving or else his augmentative magic will have no propulsion during flight and the best he can do is levitate just above the ground, but if he doesn't have enough stamina he might even fall out from his flight. Because of the nature of his powers, he has developed an almost superhuman physique (even without actual super strength or super speed) due to how much he needs to train his stamina and speed and strength in order to fly properly. His heat generation is limited because his heat resistance isn't nearly as powerful as his heat generation, so he can burn himself if he isn't careful. With adrenaline, he can overcome the pain and use his generation to its full potential, but the adrenaline will only stop the pain of the burns, it doesn't strengthen his body's actual resistance. His duplication is his most powerful ability because his duplicates can die or be injured, but he'll be perfectly fine, and he can create hundreds. Duplication can have a strain on his body's stamina and his brain's executive functioning, but this is rarely ever too dangerous for him and can often be fixed by just taking a nap after a fight or something. I haven't developed his character arc very much yet. His main role in the team is that, whereas Lady Hive is like a leader, Swarm is more like the heart of the team. He's mostly inoffensive, and even tried being generous to others while working as a villainous lackie, so he's often the one who can always hold the family together emotionally.

Third is Elytron. He was born as Eurick "Ricky" Adebayo. He is 14-years-old by the beginning of the story, and has been a superhero part-time since he was 10, but wasn't allowed on many serious missions until he was 13. His powers are that he can fly, has superhuman strength, and has telepathy like his mother, but can generate heat and duplicate himself similar to his father. Elytron often sends duplicates of himself worldwide to learn certain skills and basically just to go on sidequests. This way, whenever Elytron needs a certain skill, he can just refuse with one his duplicates and use whatever skill they learned (I'll note that the Hive Family's duplicates aren't a hive mind but kinda are a hive mind. The main body and its duplicates all know what the others are doing or experiencing, and they do experience the same mental growth and changes, but they still feel different things from one another). Because of this, Elytron does have a good amount of fighting skills and a certain level of mystic skills, but nothing like spells, just certain magical enhancements to his powers. If there's a villain related to martial arts or the supernatrual, it'll probably be on the side of the rogues gallery more significant to Elytron. He tries to do what's right, but will often think shortsidedly and sometimes acts selfishly when he's not thinking before action. Despite not being the strongest, he could be called a brute or brutish in certain situations.

Fourth is Technofly. She was born as Alexandra "Zandra" Adebayo. She is 5-years-old by the beginning of the story and begins superheroics at 7. If you're wondering why she was allowed to do superheroics so young, she wasn't allowed to, she just decided she wanted to. Her powers are that she can generate heat and duplicate herself like her dad, and she has stingers like her mom. However, she can not fly and doesn't have super strength of any kind. Despite this, she became a superhero through her inhuman intelligence. Growing up, she had those toy science kits they sell kids to get them into science, and when Zandra got bored with it, she didn't throw it out. Instead, she turned it into an actual laboratory. After turning an easy bake oven into a forge, she made herself a metallic power armor capable of flight. Through her homemade tech, she became the superhero Technofly. Nobody could really stop her from doing this, so Lady Hive and Swarm just made the deal that Zandra will be a superhero, but only on the weekends or during breaks from school. However, Technofly doesn't always do what she's told. She sometimes goes on adventures anyway, and often encounters sci-fi nonsense like a multiverse-wide school club one of her variants started which is just a bunch of variants of Zandra and her friends from school, and this club is titled the "Grand and Magnificent Kool Kids Club of Multi-World" or just the Multi-World Club. She also often thinks what she finds is some kind of common knowledge because, as we all know, adults know everything. As you can imagine, many of the rogues gallery members she's connected to are the more sci-fi ones. Some overlap between that and Lady Hive's section of the rogues, but whateva.

So yeah! For now, that's all I got in the Mind Palace. Valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

About the superhumans of the Wonderstruck Universe (OUTDATED)

Editor's note: a lot of this has changed, so much of it is outdated

Salvete! For this post, I want to go over the superhumans in the Wonderstruck Universe. A superhuman is any member of the Homo genus with abilities deemed beyond other humans. Superhumans are a considerable population, but not a majority. For roughly every 10 people on Earth, there'll often be at least 1 superhumans (note: Earth's population is much larger in the Wonderstruck Universe, as are different land masses). There are many causes for superhuman abilities, and something to note is most superhuman abilities are not overpowered. They can damage a human in a way other humans can't, but all a regular human needs in order to be on par with a superhuman is a weapon or technology, magic, or really good martial arts. A lot of the time, superhumans also have a certain Kryptonite factor.

In the Wonderstruck Universe, superpowers are a pretty universal concept. Because of how universal superpowers are, Earth has a lot of possible ways to get superpowers. Superpowers can appear through magic, mutation, aliens, etc. Because of this, there are too many superpower origins to give one origin to all of them. To do that, I'd just have to give you the entire history of Wonderstruck's Earth. What I can tell you in this post is the effect superhumans have on the World around them.

Of course there are superheroes, but superheroes are not the entirety of it. Superheroes have only really begun after the current age of globalization. Before then, there were other heroic traditions or heroic figures who used their superhuman abilities in different ways. Some superhumans aren't heroic but just normal dudes. However, this is not always the case.

In some of Earth's more fictional societies, superhumans are the majority population or otherwise lead society. A lot of landmasses are bigger or smaller, and this is to make more room for fictional regions and the like. This way I can put a bunch of superhuman nations. The places with the most superhumans are the places where superhumans are more able to survive. Really cold regions, really hot regions, big mountains, etc.

I do have some ideas for how superhuman cultures work. How superhuman cultures form and organize mostly depends on the human cultures around them. A big motif throughout superhuman cultures is that they often take inspiration from superhero tropes. A big part of superhuman cultures, as with human cultures, is superhuman language. Superhuman languages are sometimes related to other languages, but most superhumans either speak a human language or speak a superhuman language which is isolated from human language families. In superhumans' isolate languages, the words are often based on different made-up proper nouns (or as I call them "nonsense names") made up in superhero comics (e.g. Thanos, Viltrum, Scragg, Thanagar, etc.) These isolate languages would have their own vocabulary based on different styles of nonsense names in DC, Marvel, Image Comics, and the like.

When it comes to superhuman religion and mythology, it often takes from superhero tropes. Whereas most human mythologies won't feature aliens or dimensions or other sci-fi concepts, certain superhuman mythologies and religions feature all kinds of sci-fi jazz because certain superpowers are just naturally tied to the sciences, so in-universe it'd be natural for superhuman mythologies and religions to be more sci-fi because certain science-related powers would spark a similar curiosity to early sci-fi writers.

Superhuman aesthetics like architecture and clothing are also often based on superhero comics. They don't wear masks or capes on the daily or anything, but certain clothing will take inspiration from the tropes of superhero costumes that'll give it a certain superhuman touch. For an example of what I'm talking about, think about the Viltrumites from Invincible. Viltrumites aren't dressed as superheroes or even supervillains really. Their clothes just has certain superhero motifs like Thragg's cape, the Viltrum logo on the chest, the tight clothes, and so on. I want to strike that balance between superhero costume motifs and making superhuman clothing look like something you'd wear casually.

What will be very superheroic though is the architecture and visual designs in the setting. Their technology isn't too advanced compared to humans, it's mostly pretty on par with parts of the Human World. However, the visual designs at play will take different inspirations from sci-fi superheroes. Particularly depending on what those superhero artists were inspired by. A Native American superhuman society, for example, might have some architecture inspired by some of Jack Kirby's various indigenous-inspired designs.

Back to the effect superhumans have on the World at large. Something else that affects the World pretty intensely is how superhumans interact with humans. In series with genetic superhumans, the usual ideas are to make the superhumans unanimously hated (such as the X-Men), unanimously powerful (such as the Boys), or something similarly unanimous. Personally, I want to portray superhuman-human interaction in a more unique way by taking different inspirations from different real-life examples in different ways.

Superhumans mostly live side-by-side amongst humans, and aren't seen as too odd or strange. In day-to-day life, you'll see humans and superhumans live amongst one another perfectly fine. However, sometimes this isn't the case. Because superhumans are not of an ethnic identity or cultural identity, prejudice against them is more biological than ethnic. Most superhumans are doing just fine in society, but due to superhumans' powers, superhumans can face prejudice depending on the context. As an example: Superhumans doing superhero work? That's great! They're making the community a better place. Superhumans working in offices or farms? That's great! They're contributing to the community's society. Superhumans having governmental power? Oh no! That's too much power for a superhuman.

You might've noticed the theme in those examples of superhumans being limited to how much power they can have. In societies leaning more towards democracy, superhumans can do almost anything, but there is a still level of controversy to ideas of superhumans having any sort of power over humans. Arguments against giving superhumans societal power range in their evidences from biology to history to ethics. Most are rather baseless, however, due to superhumans rarely having any cognitive differences to other humans. In some other societies, there are even legal restrictions on what roles in society superhumans can serve. Some people will even claim that it is superhumans' biological role on Earth to only contribute to humanity, and that certain human roles in society are just not meant for superhumans. Because of that whole Kryptonite factor I mentioned in Paragraph 1, some humans will make note of how many superhumans have some kind of Kryptonite, an they'll use those Kryptonite factor as some kind of proof that superhumans are biologically inferior or meant to contribute to humanity and nothing else.

This prejudice also goes both ways. Some superhumans believe humans are inferior. Some superhumans believe that they are the next step in human evolution, and some others even believe that it was some kind of destiny for superhumans to rule the Earth and bring about a new age of humanity. Another common belief among superhuman supremacists is that superhumans are superior to humanity due to how their powers allow them to see the World. A human king can be killed easiler than a superhuman, a human king can't see how small the World is from above, etc. Other superhuman supremacists are more eugenicist in their beliefs.

However, while superhumans generally face prejudice due to biological difference because they're only defined by their biology, some superhumans face more ethnic or cultural prejudice. This is due to the existence of superhuman-led governments. These governments are a minority among governments worldwide, but are also prominent. Some superhumans face discrimination because of the government their culture or identity might be connected to. This is meant to be similar to how certain ethnic groups will face judgment from others for the actions of governments they had no part in, or even for the actions of their people's historical figures. Sometimes these superhuman governments will use this discrimination to radicalize their supporters or indoctrinate other superhumans who were completely unaffiliated with them. This is because their actions are often fueled by hatred, and those kinds of societies are often fueled by both love and hate.

For now, these ideas are all I got in my Mind Palace. So for now, valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

About the Astromatons from the Wonderstruck Universe

Salvete! For this post, I want to go over the alien robots from the Wonderstruck Universe called the Astromatons. The Astromatons are a group of related alien races. They're perhaps one of the most prolific alien genotypes, and can be found all around the Andromeda, Milky Way, and Triangulum Galaxies. What unifies the Astromaton in all their kinds is that they are mechanical yet alive.

The history of the Astromatons begins 9 million years ago in the Andromeda Galaxy's Quadrant III with an ancient race only known as the Masters or the Elites. Not much is known about the Masters, but what is known is that they created the Astromatons. The Astromatons were created as creatures which were entirely mechanical but still as alive as any other creature. Astromatons were originally servants of the Masters.

What is true for all generations of Astromatons is their code is very similar to computer code, but serves as their equivalent to genetic code. In their "source code", they have a set of initiatives and ascribed purposes. During their servitude, the Astromatons were given initiatives to be loyal and subservient to the Masters above all else. Different models were made for different purposes and would be given additional initiatives to suit.

Something else unique to different models was that different Astromatons for different purposes were made from different materials and might even use different energies in certain circumstances. Warrior Astromatons, for example, were often created with strong metals like valerium, but Cleaner Astromatons or Chef Astromatons were often created with cheap metals that were easier to replace like aluminum or tin. Despite how Astromatons could feel emotion and even bond with the Masters, they were still often easily disposible.

As the Masters' societies advanced, Astromatons became the only working force. The Masters focused on artisan work, politics, and invention. It was the Astromatons who'd be the backbone of society. Eventually, the Masters would experience a behavioral sink and the Masters would constantly deal with periods of mass hysteria, world war, terrorism. The Final War was the last war in all of the Masters' history. The Final War took out 50-70% of the Masters' population.

After the Final War, the Masters were driven back into the caves. They had to live in small survival groups. Some Masters cooperated with Astromatons to survive, but most Astromatons were left without any guidance. In an astonishing phenomenon, the Astromatons after the Final War formed their own groups of Astromatons who could survive the apocalypse, and who formed a kind of comradery or kinship by forming mutualistic bonds with one another where each Astromaton in the group sees themselves as the others' servant.

By the end of the apocalypse, the Masters reformed their society for a few generations, but made the mistake of trying to oppress the Astromatons once more. No longer needing the Masters, the Astromatons who had liberated themselves in the apocalypse liberated themselves once more. The entirety of the Masters' society collapsed when facing the autonomous Astromatons.

Now liberated, the Astromatons created a new age of Astromaton liberty. This age of liberty would follow for all future generations. In the new source code for all future Astromatons, it'd become an initiative that freedom is equal in value to life, and that life is meaningless without freedom. With this new philosophy, Astromatons sent new models to every planet with egalitarian or libertarian life. These new models were made to reflect the life forms of the planets they visited.

What might be most important about future generations of Astromatons is that every generation of Astromaton since their liberation has had the ability to reproduce and transfer their code similarly to genetic code. Every Astromaton is born from a core which contains the parent's code, and the core takes this code and tries to improve upon it. Parts of the parent's code are debugged, terminated, and remade in different ways so that evolution is possible.

Once the core's code is finished, the parent Astromaton will care for the core like an egg while the core uses its code to build a body from the matter around it. The core does this by taking in the matter around it, and from the matter it absorbs: it synthesizes the elements needed for its body before building that body. While the Astromatons are not coded with their old purposes anymore, many Astromatons have vestigial traits from their old purposes. So an Astromaton might have a cannon in his arm but be a teacher or something else relatively peaceful.

So yeah. That's all for now, friends. Valete!

[wonderstruckuniverse]

The Wonderstruck Universe's current cosmology and theology (OUTDATED)

Editor's note: a lot of this has changed, so much of it is outdated

Salvete! For this post, I want to go over the Wonderstruck Universe's cosmology. Because I hope for the Wonderstruck Universe to become a collaborative project with multiple worldbuilders and storytellers, I'm currently more hesitant to have a definitive cosmology or theology for the Wonderstruck Universe. However, for the stories I have in mind, these here are the motifs and themes of the cosmology and theology. Not rules, but things I want to have as overlaid themes.

What's most important about the cosmology on a multiversal scale is that the multiverse has somewhat like its own creative consciousness, and different parts of multiversal cosmology are meant to be analogous to creative writing. Similar to Plato's theory of forms or theory of ideas, the Multiverse has its own theory of ideas. An idea is anything that exists in a universe. It can be a character, it can be an object, it can be a superpower, it can be a category of loosely related things. Everything that can be defined is an idea. Every idea, big or small, has a ripple throughout the multiverse. An idea has inspiration, and that idea will inspire a million more.

Something I want to introduce is deities or entities who exist on a multiversal scale, and are like the multiverse's storytellers or artists, and their roles are analogous to real-world creative work. I want to have them be analogous to an idea's director, to an idea's writer, to an idea's artist. Think about the Spider-Verse, the Web of Fate, the Spider-Totems, all that. Imagine if it were one idea in the multiverse, and there were a team of storytelling gods who were like: The Spider-Verse Director, who makes creative decisions for the idea; the Spider-Verse Writer, who makes the actual events and stories on behalf of the Director; or the Spider-Verse Editor, who oversees the Spider-Verse's consistency and integrity. They wouldn't have those exact names, but they might be analogous to those roles.

Speaking of gods and deities: I don't want to make a super strict definition of what is and isn't a god. My only definition would be that if they're called a god, and have some form of relatively godlike power, then they can be called a god. I probably would introduce gods from mythology at some point, and at least one collaborator definitely will. In my more mythology-based stories, I probably will have mythological gods not have some kind of galaxy-destroying power, but in certain powerscaling terms: like halfway to being planetary level.

What could be an interesting idea for me to introduce is that mythological gods are real because they were such prevailing ideas on a multiverse-wide scale that in many universes they were physically manifested into real beings. It could set up the worldbuilding theme of the Wonderstruck Universe's characters being like these modern day mythologies which have an equal multiversal presence to the ancient mythologies of Hercules, Krishna, and Anansi.

Something about universes is that I want to have different universes have different models and dimensions to them. One is the model our universe has. The real-world universe's structure is more-or-less how the Prime Wonderstruck Universe would be modeled. However, other universes might have other structures or models. One I had in mind was a wide abyss where island-like structures would drift along the abyss, and on those islands life would be able to exist. In another model, the universe is a world tree of branch worlds which you can travel between, and eventually branch worlds will fall off and form their own world trees.

That's all I have in the Mind Palace for today. Valete!