Base Reality

Base Reality is a collective term for the regions outside of structured existence-- it forms the substrate which gives narrative salience to Crann and consequently all life. It comprises Base Chaos, the principle of change, rearrangement and flux and Base Stasis, the principle of certainty, stability and endurance.

Often referred to as "the Real," it's extremely dangerous to normal beings, the assumptions their biology and minds are based on being completely irrelevant to them, and acted on randomly regardless of the rules of the local reality. One of the major preoccupations for many Siol is shoring up unstable Crann, preventing the Real from gnawing its way inside and utterly destroying them.

Description

Base Reality is impossible to describe except by metaphor. Siol who travel through it must either insulate themselves from it by forming a break, or metamorphose themselves into a type of creature that can exist within it and interact with it on a very abstract, metaphorical level-- both techniques have different dangers and utility.

A typical metaphor of what Base Reality looks like is an assemblage of large crystallline or glass fractal structures suspended in a sea of kaleidoscopic color, light, concepts and memories. The crystals are constantly growing, incorporating the substance of chaos into their matrix and thereby neutralizing it, while the sea constantly shatters and pulverizes the crystal to dust, dispersing it. Though this description obviously misses many important and meaningful details that a Siol would intuitively understand from within it, it gets the main ideas across-- it's a realm of constant metaphysical conflict.

Hazards

The Real is inherently hostile to all structured reality. Anything that comes into contact with it is systematically unravelled, dissolved and dispersed at its most narratively salient level.

To matter, it will strip away electrons, transmute it into unstable isotopes, and degrade it into its base particles. Large spikes of radiation are the hallmark of an uncontrolled incursion from The Real on physical reality (though this is by no means the only avenue it may seep in by).

To minds, it will erase memories, change personalities, cause a loss of faculties or even lead to total catatonia.

To stories, lives and communities, it will erase important events, introduce absurdities, disrupt relationships and cause individuals to lose their purpose.

Its activity, especially when it's attacking more abstract concepts, can be totally invisible to normal humans, but no less corrosive.