**PRELIMINARY NOTE: I am generally ignorant of _Lexx_ and Eris willing I shall remain so. What I am about to say will no doubt contradict canon in more ways than everybody else might be willing to bend. You Have Been Warned.**

So, what's *really* at the heart of the Void anyway? And where did the Darkvoid some from in the first place?

Well...

Some time ago, maybe a million or so Solar years back, the Vorlons (of course) were Up To Something (of course). This time, it was an exploration of the hows and whys of hyperspace. While the Vorlons had used hyper - in more bandwidths than we mere mortals know to exist - for millenia, they figured that there was something *more* out there. A meta-hyperspace, if you will.

So they decided to find out.

Now, the Vorlons weren't naive. They understood that there was a remote chance that something could go wrong on a pretty impressive scale, and Vorlon tech is very difficult to destroy, even for Vorlons.

A self destruct was needed. Fortunately for the Vorlons, nature would provide one.

At the center of we call the Darkvoid was a red giant star. The star was barely stable, which made it a perfect self-destruct for the project.

What happened next is mainly conjecture. The Vorlons turned on their new toy and opened a door to somewhere else. Something very large started to come through the door, preceeded by a hell of a lot of smaller Things. The Vorlons panicked, couldn't shut down the device, and triggered the self-destruct.

The self-destruct induced a core collapse in the red giant. Trillions of tons of hydrogen and helium underwent superfusion and exploded back outward, releasing more energy than *all* the other stars in the galaxy emit in the same second.

In layman's terms, this is called a supernova. The Vorlons, their widget and the Things never stood a chance. In fairly close orbit around the star, they were all rendered into their component subatomic particles before they had the chance to dive into hyper.

But it didn't stop there.

Most people don't know this, but a supernova isn't merely a big prety explosion in the sky. It's a megascale fusion bomb. Fusion bombs produce bursts of radiation, and the Darkvoid event was no different.

The radiation shockwave raced across thousands of lightyears, killing everything in it's path. Any FTL-capable species (or at least the ones with FTL sensors) fled and never looked back. Everybody else, well, the shock wave was traveling just under the speed of light, so by the time they saw the nova, it was too late; they were fried without any chance to save themselves. It's remotely possible that the Vorlons saved a few, but not even God could save them all.

Every life-bearing planet in what we call the Darkvoid was sterilized, either by the shockwave itself or the secondary effects of having it's atmosphere ionized into oblivion. The planets in the Shadow Zone were slightly better off - the radiation caused pretty terrible damage, but the passage of time has erased most of it, save for some very odd fossils.

The rest you know: The Vorlons ran, time went on, the Spiral as we know it today came into being. But the Void remains a dead zone.

Or almost a dead zone. Because in the very heart of the Void, at the center of a great dark nebula, a tiny wedge in the fabric of reality is jammed open. And Something is slowly working it's way through.

A wise man once said "Do not call up that which you cannot put down." The Vorlons did just that a million years ago.

And now we all get to pay for their mistake.

---

Whaddya think, sirs? (Aside from being maybe a little overdramatic, but fuggit, it's late.)

I'm sure that story makes the rounds of conspiracy theorists in the Spiral. Whether or not it is true is another question. Other theories include:

a) the Darkvoid is a completely natural phenomonen and will eventually expand to cover the enitre spiral.

b) Many millions of years ago another galaxy (as yet unrecognised by astronomers) interpenetrated the Galaxy, devestating the local suns but possibly giving rise to many more in the future.

c) sunspots

Of course, an interesting twist would be the story is correct except for the protagonists. e.g. the Vorlons were one of those races who vacated and have no idea who or why the Darkvoid was triggered.
or
The Vorlons are the ones who came from metahyperspace and the Darkvoid cut them off from: 1) going home or 2) a major threat that they were fleeing.

The Vorlon's commentary on the matter ranges from embarassed silence to a discussion of pizza/laundry/the weather to obscure comments on the Veil of Illusion to angry silence.

Further thoughts

- I'm not sure that a single red giant would have anywhere near the power to strilize that bit an area. The Darkvoid is *BIG*. Perhaps if it were a cataclysmic and mostly self-sustaining reaction caused by the interaction of the supernova and the Big Ugly Experiment. On the other hand, I don't know astronomy, so I could be wrong. It just doesn't feel to scale to me. More of a technical kibitz than a real flaw in the idea.

- The concept as written cheapens hyperspace. The Vorlons are cool enough to use Hyper3 without telling anyone about it, but any more than that and the whole idea is rendered sorta petty. Hyperspace is supposed to be Big and Scary. Not that the Vorlons couldn't try (and succeed) to pierce the wall into Hyper4 or meta-hyper (a self-sustaining portal reaction in which the power released by the opening between Hyper(n) and Hyper(n+1) is used as the spark to tear into hyper(n+2) with similar results, mind... more of a kibitz to maintain dramatic scope than a real flaw in the idea.

- it is pretty much impossible to distinguish between varying types of Vorlon silence,unless the vorlon in question lets you know through low-level psychic projection. Vorlons, for the most part, do not speak on pizza/laundry/the weather, unless it is applicable to the task at hand, a bizarre and involved metaphor, or a display of typical dry, Vorlon humor. At least, we think it's humor. With the Vorlons, you can never quite tell.

The topic has, however, garnered a truly impressive number of comments along the lines of "It would not be appropriate to speak of that at this time." - and comments like those invariably mean that you're on the right track somehow or other.

Fibula

(Totally random quibble: Has anybody else noticed that the forum script *doesn't* quote messages when you're logged in? Anyway...)

>>- I'm not sure that a single red giant would have anywhere near the power to strilize that bit an area.
The Darkvoid is *BIG*. Perhaps if it were a cataclysmic and mostly self-sustaining reaction caused by the
interaction of the supernova and the Big Ugly Experiment. On the other hand, I don't know astronomy, so I could be wrong. It just doesn't feel to scale to me. More of a technical kibitz than a real flaw in the idea.<<

Well, modern (i.e. out here in the "real" world) astronomy is basing their theories on conjecture, since there really hasn't been a nearby supernova event at any point when we could do a proper analysis. But the theory is fairly sound.

On the subject of scale... well, the scale of the Spiral layout seems to be a little big for me - the Galaxy is at least 30,000 light years across, and that's a hell of a lot of space, even for something as crowded as the Spiral setting. So, I dunno. Maybe a compromise of some sort?

- On the nature of the Big Ugly Experiment, that's anybody's real guess and doesn't *have* to be lined out exactly. The only things it has to do are:

a) Open a crack for Nasty Lovecraftian Beasties to try and slip through, and

b) Freak the Vorlons enough that they torch 10% of the Galaxy to keep it from spreading.

So whatever happened doesn't matter as long as it covers those two points.

Incidentally, Alpha Orionis is a subcritical redgiant smack in the heart of the Centauri Sector... somebody ought to check for Vorlons.

(FYI, A. Orionis is also known as Betelguese.)

Well, as a theory the supernova hypothesis is provable. All you have to do is go into the Shadow Zone or to the edge of the Void and look at the various planets for signs of extreme radiation bombardment. It's tricky work, if only because you're wandering into places Best Left Alone, but the traces of a supernova explosion *can* be found in the surface rocks.

So, you can prove if a bigassed supernova happened near the center of Darkvoid sometime in the past. Whether the conspiracy theorists will *believe* is anybody guess. More'n likely they won't.

Very nice. Well thought out, interesting, and internally consistent.

Unfortunately also wrong. ^_^

At least the supernova part.

The Darkvoid is a region of space where the basic laws of reality are -different-. Fusion reactors don't work (including the kind you find inside stars). Singularity reactors don't work. Fission cores don't work. Amat containment fields lose coherency and fail catestrophically (which is pretty much the only way those things -can- fail).

My mental image of its effects is mostly based off of a dimly-remembered viewing of part of Giant Robo. That funky power-eater field generated by the technodrome lookalike.

It was made by an artifact left by J. Random Extinct Space God Race.

Hyperspace is shot through with, for lack of a better term, lines of power. For most races, these things are pretty dangerous, in the same sense that flying into a hurricane in a 747 is dangerous. Havenite pattern ships are interesting in having the ability to use the higher latent energy levels of these lines to increase their speed while in hyperspace.

These lines also have an effect on things in normal space - magic is easier on worlds that lie 'within' one or more of the lines. Of course, since any power in contact with a planetary gravitational field behaves as a microcosm of the larger powernet, you also have relatively small planetary ley lines. Some espers can use them, most can't, as their potentials are internal rather than dependent on their environment (they will notice that certain things are easier, though).

Anyway, sometimes, ley lines congregate into nexi, points where they all meet. Wormhole junctions occur in association with some of the larger ones, but by no means all (this isn't common knowledge).

The largest nexus is the point where the Spiral's leyline net links into the larger, intergalactic leyline net (yes, it's a fractal system) - probably fortunately, no one knows where it is.

Because, you see, there was an ancient race that built a machine that could manipulate these lines with great ease - a piece of technomagic that could, quite literally, do anything you asked.

It is called the Galactic Leyline, and once, long, long ago, it was used as a weapon in a time of darkest peril.

But its foe was truly alien, or truly powerful, and remained beyond its reach. All it could do was strip the threat of its power and imprison it... for a time.

Unfortunately, this action had some... unpleasant side effects.

Blessed be.
Nathan Baxter

>The Darkvoid is a region of space where the basic laws of reality are -different-. Fusion reactors don't work (including the kind you find inside stars). Singularity reactors don't work. Fission cores don't work. Amat containment fields lose coherency and fail catestrophically (which is pretty much the only way those things -can- fail).<

which means that before the good guys can take the fight to the ultamate villian, they'll need a new (or an existing but rarely used) power source.

In Reference to the Leylines, I've got 2 questions. 1) what the status of leylines in the darkvoid and shadowzone, and 2) you a fan of Palladium Books? 8)

>>The Darkvoid is a region of space where the basic laws of reality are -different-. Fusion reactors don't work (including the kind you find inside stars). Singularity reactors don't work. Fission cores don't work. Amat containment fields lose coherency and fail catestrophically (which is pretty much the only way those things -can- fail).<<

>which means that before the good guys can take the fight to the ultamate villian, they'll need a new (or an existing but rarely used) power source.<

Or at least that the Darkvoid will have to be dissipated by then. It's an artificial effect, remember.

>In Reference to the Leylines, I've got 2 questions. 1) what the status of leylines in the darkvoid and shadowzone,<

Undecided.

>and 2) you a fan of Palladium Books? 8)<

Hell, no. I am, however, a fan of John Biles. ^_^ That explanation is pretty close to the canon description of the Leyline's function anyway.

Blessed be.
Nathan Baxter
(Leyline being used as a proper noun, there above.)

So..The Beast That Skulks In The Void was imprisoned and stripped of its power for millenia. Perhaps it is not so much driven by a desire to destroy all that is, as by a desire for revenge against its captors (and anyone who vaguely resembles them).

Other thoughts on what might be going on...

- The Void and the Vorlons are playing some sort of bizarre game a la Bab5. They have clear and opposing goals, but we only see the outermost layers of their actions, and so we don't neccessarily know what the goals are. Perhaps they are actually one species - a species rift by philosophical differences about whether to coexist with other intelligent races or to destroy them lest they become a threat. The winner of this little war will determine which way the species goes.

- As above, but each is playing devils advocate. The Void beings wish coexistancce, and the vorlons wish destruction. Each is taking the role of the other so as to better understand.

- the Creature is using the Void to manipulate the Vorlons. It seeks revenge, but knows that if it struck against the Vorlons directly, they would just flee beyond its sphere of influence. Instead, it assaults the (comparatively) innocent, knowing that eventually the Vorlons will have to face it in force, and that it can then destroy them.

- The Void and the Vorlons are actually both working for the same goal. The Void attacks, the Vorlons position themselves as instrumental in the defense, and vastly different forms of influence are applied from both sides. They are in constant communication with one another.

- the Darkvoid would really rather just be left alone - except that the Vorlons Hate them with a passion that will not be quenched, and, having spend a great deal of time between the stars on R&D, now have the power with which to confront the Darkvoid on its home turf. The assaults are in reaction to unprovoked Vorlon attack, and the Vorlons are preparing to take advantage of this by turning the entire rest of the spiral against the Void as a weapon.

- as above, but less pleasant drives than hatred - the Vorlons want the void as slaves, as a unique mineral resource, or as a culinary delicacy.

That is all

Fibula