Last Light

Every singularity points in one direction: the end. The stars of the multiverse blink out, one by one, and everything fades to black. But there is an exception. Only one. And all of creation flocks to this final island.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen and others, to the last safe place in the multiverse.

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The Last Place

Floating in a nebulous cloud sea somewhere outside of traditional space, the Last Place¹ is the only part of the multiverse not subject to the apocalypse. Beyond this sacred refuge, everywhere is dying — although some worlds still remain partly or mostly intact, it's only a matter of time before they're claimed by the decay. Across reality, people flee from the darkness and find a more-or-less welcoming home in the arms of the immense sprawl.

Cities

Or city, if there's only one. Nobody's quite sure about this yet. In any case, such urbanisation blankets the vast majority of the Last Place and is generally a mishmash of architecture from all the corners of the multiverse. Slums built in old temples, obelisks leaning against the rusted hulls of ancient starships, streets built on ruins built on ruins from ages past. Aesthetically there are only three real constants: almost everything is big, almost everything is old, and almost everywhere is inhabited by as many people as possible.

Islands

The Last Place is broken. Individual islands drift to and fro², sometimes connected, sometimes disparate — the difficulty of travelling between them can range from a Herculean task to something as simple as taking the train. Very little is set in stone about the islands themselves, save for their size, which is immense. Whether they were once part of something bigger remains to be seen.

Inhabitants

The refugees who have taken to the Last Place are varied in almost every way you could imagine, and a lot of ways you couldn't. Convergent evolution means humanoid body plans aren't uncommon, and humans themselves tend to be remarkably widespread across the multiverse, but the average citizen is more likely to be alien than not. Some have been living there for aeons, watching legacies rise and fall. Others fell through a gateway mere weeks ago, and are still getting accustomed. The specifics are up to the writers.

Salvage

The edges of the cloud sea are rife with the flotsam of lands long since destroyed. Brave citizens set out in entropy trawlers to scavenge what they can and rescue the rare survivors; the mainland demand for salvage is high, and in a world with a thousand different currencies a life debt can be as good as a cheque.

Gateways

Enormous structures of undetermined nature, acting as methods of passage to other places. Perhaps even other times. Not much about them has been decided, save for the fact that the vast majority are now non-functional.

Groups and Factions

The Last Place is crawling with people and things, most with their own motives and goals. Over time, certain groups have stood out as noteworthy even against the native abundance of weirdness. Those currently accepted as initial pseudocanon are as follows:

Alephs

The Alephs are only a whisper, the name for whatever mysterious people first created this place. Almost nothing is known about them, for they faded into myth long ago. Though some claim them as their ancestors (and attempt to leverage these claims for money and power) nothing has been substantiated.

There are rumors that the Aleph was not a group, but a thing, the corpse of a dead god that long ago gave its body to form the islands, and its blood to form the clouds. This is conjecture at best and blasphemy at worst, and should by no means be considered gospel.

The Foundry

A group of singularly dedicated workers. Nobody knows where they came from, and they've been here as long as anyone can remember. They wander the islands, repairing what needs to be repaired, and accepting no thanks or payment. Also, they're all giant crabs³.

Holders

Immense beings straight out of Greco-Roman mythology, whose titanic bodies move over geological time and whose muscled frames support landmasses and cities alike. They hold the islands on their backs.

Nihl

Not everyone wants to be saved. The Nihl are a fungal group that believes it best for nature to take its course; for the world to be consumed. Perhaps they think a new universe will rise from the ashes. Perhaps they think the devout have something to gain. Or perhaps they simply worship death.

Withstanders

An order of technologically-advanced knights, hailing from a universe that collapsed long ago. They are the only survivors of the death of their world, and were very early visitors to the Last Place. They have resolved to never again fail in their duty to uphold order and preserve peace — not even in the face of annihilation itself. They serve as a de facto law enforcement group within the communities of the Last Place: one that enforces its own laws without oversight or impediment, for none yet have been powerful enough to obstruct them. Fortunately for the refugees of the Islands, the Withstanders appear to have no interest in any kind of direct rule, despite their lack of supervision.

Entries

Cosmic waves surge. New shores are plucked from the abyss. The following texts are chronicles of the Last Place, its inhabitants, and what's left of the surrounding universe.

• Slipstream Line by ProgressMade
• The Second Ark by Egileye
• Talk of the Town, an open collaboration by Lt Flops
• Stitch & Ditch by Ways of Wisp
• A Dirty Job by Naleth
• Vignettes of the End by Din-Bidor
• Blackrock Coast Circuit by ProgressMade
• Stranded Star by Rigen
• Before The Gateway by Varaxous
• Piece of Paradise by DarkStuff and Ellie3
• Vade Mecum by Indices
• Samudra Manthana by OriCat
• Standard Issue Withstander Field Guide: The Nihl by Snapdragon133
• Blink by Ellie3
• The Hollow Stump by ProgressMade
• Mercutio's Knight by Egileye
• The Greeter of Lowtown by Naleth
• Me, My Sword, and I by Crow-Cat

Writing Guide

The themes of this canon should be fairly transparent, at least during the days where everything is only partially formed. Potential things you might be interested in writing about include:

• Survival and inevitability
• Hope and despair
• Punishment in a world where existence is a diminishing resource
• Risk, danger, freedom, and the price you'll pay for safety
• Acceptance of the alien

Generally speaking, if you have an idea: write it. Nothing's canon until it's on the site, and even then it's flexible. Nothing exists in this world unless you say it does. The past, present and future are all waiting to be decided. Here and now, you are as gods.

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Okay, but what actually is this?

This page is the inaugural hub of our first collaboratively-constructed canon, courtesy of the new Serpentine Sorting System. The full description of how this process works is available on that hub page, but the general gist is as follows:

1. You submit writing prompts.
2. We curate the prompts into a poll. You perform Democracy and whittle them down to a single survivor.
3. This single prompt becomes the seed of a new canon. We nurture it. You discuss it on the Discord server.
4. We curate your ideas into a hub, which with any luck you're currently reading. You write for this hub, and shape the new canon to your will. We update this page as more ideas are spawned and refined.
5. The canon solidifies. Staff and users alike sit back and bask in the new writing. Everybody wins.

With more than a dozen entries from some wonderfully talented authors, the initial writing period is over; while you're still allowed and encouraged to write for this setting, it's not considered different to any other collection or canon on the site. Feel free to just sit back, bask, and read some good fiction while you watch the multiverse collapse.

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This prompt was provided by Varaxous, and won out of 64 submissions. The Curators of the canon are currently rumetzen and MaliceAforethought. Contact them if you have any questions or concerns.

+Translations

More From This Author

MaliceAforethought's Other Works
Entries	Hearth • All Dead And Just Resting (3232) • On Salasar • Poems Without Authors: Memento Mori • Memocide • UNAVOIDABLE. SPLIT. • Wounds nor Scars • One In Every Home • Expyrean • Distance Yourself • Father of mine, what you left behind • Warborne • Black Market Magic •
Other

Footnotes

1. Alternatively known as the Last Island, Last Islands, and a myriad of other names. The hub's using this name for convenience.

2. Or perhaps they don't, and their positions are unchanging. Once again, this remains to be seen.

3. Strange, yes, but perhaps not as strange as you'd think.