Quantum Destinies
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
By Jurai Knight (sthesken@earthlink.net)

This section is inspired by the information presented in TSR's excellent 
role-playing sourcebook "Tangents."


Appendix:

Underlying this story is the assumption that parallel universes are 
real, something that both quantum wave theory and also the theory of 
relativity predict the possibility of.  Endless possibilities for 
alternate Earths exist, all contained within a structure known as 
Superspace.  It is composed of every universe, coexisting side by side.  
Each of these individual realities will be referred to as a paraverse 
(contracted form for parallel universe) or a tangent.  Each tangent is a 
timeline, an alternate version of history.

Each separate tangent is like a thread, and the entire network of 
threads make up superspace.  Timelines branch apart from each other at 
various points in their history, but threads also remain braided 
together in rough groupings of similar tangents, forming clusters across 
superspace.  It's generally accepted that only truly significant events 
result in the creation of new timelines, and truly massive events or 
catastrophes (such as the Second Impact from Evangelion) serve as 
massive bifurcations of the threads and can produce entirely new 
clusters.

There is also a theory (the one I am following in this story) that every 
action produces multiple tangents, but that almost all of those tangents 
merge back together into a single thread.  Only a few of these tangents 
created cross over the minimum temporal energy threshold that will allow 
them to sustain themselves as separate from another tangent, but it is 
left to the reader to imagine how significant an event would have to be 
to do this.  Time travel is an example of one of the ways that this 
might be done, but the change done in the past would still have to be 
large enough to split off a new tangent that would not simply fade back 
into one of the others.

Tangents are "grouped" together into clusters, all of the paraverses 
within a cluster sharing many basic characteristics with each other, and 
they are all wound and braided around each other much like threads 
forming a rope.  Each individual cluster may hold anywhere from dozens 
to thousands of tangents, maybe even more.  Generally, the tangents 
within a cluster bifurcated from each other relatively recently 
(anywhere from a few moments to thousands of years ago), as they share 
many historical similarities, but it is also possible for a tangent 
within a given cluster to have originated within a completely different 
cluster and "migrated" to its new location.  For the purposes of this 
story, it can be assumed that different tangents tend to be attracted to 
others of similar attributes.  An example of this is what could be 
called the "Nuclear Armageddon cluster," which contains tangents where 
terrible wars were fought between the Empire of Japan and the United 
States, or even between high-tech versions of the Aztecs and the 
Babylonians, to name a couple of random examples.

As another example of this, consider a tangent where the biology of the 
Earth favored a sentient species of cats to arise to dominance over the 
Earth instead of humanity.  Events and even individuals could have 
paralleled happenings in the timeline thread that is represented by the 
manga or anime story of 'Ranma 1/2', complete with the entire cast being 
represented by catlike sentients who even bear the same names and 
general attitudes as their human counterparts.  Such a timeline could be 
pulled into the "Ranma 1/2 cluster" of tangents, and the reader can then 
imagine how events would be similar and different to that other timeline 
thread.  The dreaded "Cat Fist Technique" could be a tapping into the 
primal drives and abilities of the race in that timeline, and might not 
require as mind-warping a training method.  Other possible, similar (yet 
different) events are left up to the imagination of the reader.

Moving away from the cluster of the baseline tangent used in this story, 
the tangents will grow more and more unusual, and I will classify them 
into four rough "divisions" of timeline clusters: Historical, 
Biological, Cosmological, and Fantastic.  Looking at these divisions in 
cross-section, the picture would be roughly a series of concentric 
rings, radiating out from the center much like a bullseye.  However, as 
was previously mentioned above, the divisions are not rigidly fixed, and 
tangents originally from the Biological division could become part of a 
cluster in the Historical division (such as the tangent with the catlike 
versions of Ranma 1/2 characters mentioned above).  These divisions are 
also relative to each other, as an inhabitant of different tangents will 
define the tangents that surround them differently.  For example, the 
"Slayers" tangent would be in the Fantastic division as seen from our 
own Earth, but we would be in the Fantastic division to theirs, since 
they would see us as a timeline with greatly different physical laws 
from their own.

The Baseline cluster is the one that immediately surrounds the tangent 
of Imperial Earth, the Baseline tangent.  It is the reference point from 
which all other tangents in this story will be looked at.

The Historical division generally indicates the millions of tangents 
where the presence of humanity is the defining characteristic.  The many 
differences in worlds will be determined by the numerous potential 
divergent events and changes in human history.  Different cultures may 
reign supreme, unusual governments may rule, and even the course of 
technology may be radically different, but humans are still humans.  
Most of the trips taken in this story will be to tangents in the 
Historical division.

The Biological division of clusters has seen evolution playing games.  
In some, humanity exists, but is subtly changed.  In others, humanity 
shares the Earth with other sentient lifeforms.  And in still others, 
the species called man never arose (or perhaps not even mammals), and 
nature filled the void with sentient apes, cats, or dinosaurs.

The Cosmological division represents timeline threads where the solar 
system itself developed differently.  For example, billions of years 
ago, Earth itself never formed in some timelines.  In others, Earth 
formed a little closer or a little farther from the sun, and the whole 
biosphere may be radically different, if life even took hold at all.

Lastly, the Fantastic division represents tangents where the very laws 
of nature have taken on sometimes bizarre variations.  For example, on 
some of these tangents, humans exist but possess strange abilities such 
as magic or superpowers, while in others, the Elves still rule a 
pristine and verdant Earth that is vibrant with magic.  However, also 
possible are worlds where various forms of undead rule supreme over a 
blasted and dead Earth as the least powerful of the nightmarish servants 
of the elder gods of madness and darkest evil.

There might also be divisions that lie outside the Fantastic, but the 
incredible superspace distances make it difficult to determine what they 
might be.

To make it easier on the readers to catalogue the different parallel 
worlds, I will be using a simple two-dimensional grid to establish a 
coordinate system for each tangent, using the home tangent of Imperial 
Earth as the Baseline tangent, and it will be designated 0.000,0.000 for 
its coordinates.  The further a coordinate is from the Baseline, the 
more radically different it will be from Imperial Earth.  For the 
purposes of this story, the divisions previously given (Historical, 
Biological, etc) will each be roughly ten full spaces apart (for 
example, 0.000 to 10.000 along the x-axis is the radius for the 
Historical division).  With a grid of ten thousand tangents by ten 
thousand tangents, that gives just the Historical division alone over 
three hundred and fourteen million paraverses, more than sufficient for 
my needs as an author.

Here are some sample worlds and also their coordinates relative to 
Imperial Earth:

Earth  0.000,0.000 - The world of Scholar Ranma (Baseline cluster)
Earth  +0.001,+0.002 - The world of Scholar Ranko (Baseline cluster)
Earth  +0.004,-0.003 - The world of Slave Shampoo (Baseline cluster)
Earth  +1.612,+1.509 - The world of Shampoo 1/2 (Ranma 1/2 cluster)
Earth  +1.614,+1.496 - The world of Nabiki 1/2 (Ranma 1/2 cluster) 
Earth  +1.614,+1.502 - The world of Ranma 1/2 (Ranma 1/2 cluster)


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