Lesson Two

[Malefact]

[ModNote: Following Lesson One and Assignment One.]

We shall now look at the legendary SHUNT spell.

Let us look at some event A that can have two possible outcomes, X and Y.

We shall either witness outcome X or outcome Y. However, BOTH outcomes will happen. When they do, the universe will replicate, exactly like a cell replicates. One universe will house outcome X and the other will house outcome Y.

So, let's assume that our universe is the culmination of millions of Xs and Ys in a certain combination. (Although in reality there are rather more than a million and rather more than two possible outcomes per event).

What if we were to reach back in time to a past event and exchange outcome X with outcome Y? Answer: this universe would swap with its counterpart.

Unfortunately, we would swap too (that which would have caused the exchange in the first place) so the action will cancel out before it even begins. So, an Existential Shield is required. When time-delayed to form at the exact moment you cause the SHUNT, the spell will work and you will jump into another reality.

For example:

Universe 1 Universe 2

X...................Y
X...................X
Y...................Y
X...................X
X...................X
Y...................Y
Y...................Y
X...................X

The first event bred universe two from universe one. To move from the first universe to the second universe, we must use SHUNT with regards to Event One, Universes One and Two.

Note: for our purposes, we will be dealing with subatomic events only - the lowest common denominator. SHUNTing larger events (which can regarded as clusters of smaller events) requires a lot more time and a lot more magic.

Since we have to specify the event and universes in question when we use SHUNT, an incantation is used to accompany the spell. Next time, we shall look at this is detail.


Point of interest: Some of you may be aware that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate. This is because the number of events and possible outcomes is increasing exponentially due to the increased volume. It's a chain reaction. The universe must increase in size at an ever-increasing rate to accomodate the growth in probabilities. Similarly, due to the ever-increasing growth in probabilities, the universe must grow at an ever-increasing rate. Geddit?

[Snowwiewolf]

Very interesting... I think I understand....

[Malefact]

Great! Well, you'll get the chance to try it out yourself in the Assignment Two Simulator Room.

[Snowwiewolf]

Great *faints*

[Malefact]

Oh, don't worry. We'll only be using baby universes. Also, much of the magic will have been done for you. Part Two of this lesson will go into how to perform it. It's not that difficult. People thought Assignment One was tricky until I showed them how and they realised what goes on.

[Snowwiewolf]

Thats nice *faints again*

[ringmasterrob]

sounds interesting, this class is testing even my knowledge of magic

[Malefact]

To continue from earlier on, we shall look at how to cast SHUNT. As I said, the spellcaster must do more than merely cast the spell on its own. Information regarding which event in which pair of universes must also be conveyed. Ready-made SHUNT spells have been configured to accept this information thus:

Step 1 : Specify Universe One
Step 2 : Specify Universe Two
Step 3 : Specify the Event
Step 4 : Cast SHUNT

IMPORTANT NOTE: If the spellcaster is residing in one of the specified universes, SHUNT will have no effect unless you either move to another unrelated* universe or form an Existential Shield around yourself at the moment SHUNT occurs (but the Shield must be configured to deactivate after a few moments, otherwise you'll cease to exist since you won't be in a position to remove it and no-one outside the shield will be able to reach you). To save you the trouble of this, though, there exist ready-made SHUNT spells that come with automatic temporary Existential Shields.

*An Unrelated Universe is one in which the Event in question does not occur - if we call the Event 'A', we say that this universe is Independent of A.

There are two types of SHUNT spell: one for use when the spellcaster is independent of the universes involved (the alias for which is simply SHUNT) and one for use when the spellcaster is residing in one of them (the alias for this one being SHUNTME - don't laugh!).

How to specify the universes:

We will have selected an Event to SHUNT. In this course, we will be dealing with Fundamental Events only - a simple either/or outcome, the simplest possible. This will make it very easy to select a pair of universes.

Creation began with just one universe (the Event being the initial Formation). This universe is coded 0. Another Event happens when one t-unit elapses (one t-unit is the fundamental unit of time - you can't get any shorter period of time than this) and Universe 0 splits into two. These two are called 01 and 02. These two split as well, into 011, 012, 021 and 022.

The problem, though, is that our universe is massive. An uncountably large number of Events have taken place, which means that there are an uncountably large number of parallel universes. This means that it will take several billion years to specify our universe's unique identification code even for an Event only a few years after Creation.

There is a shorthand system used to counter this problem, though. However, this system remains a closely-guarded secret that only Mages are privvy to. This is a security measure to prevent meddling. So, in this course we will be dealing only with baby universes, complete with specially-prepared SHUNT spells that refer to them. These will be gifted to you when the time comes.

Look out for Assignment Two which follows shortly. I will give a worked example of how to use SHUNT. Then, I'll give you a task of your own to do.

[ModNote: Assignment Two is here.]

[ringmasterrob]

Ok, sounds interesting