Are the shards in spatially separate locations ?

[PondHollow]

We know Omega and Midgardsormr came from worlds that can be travelled to. Do we know whether the same can be said about shards?

It would seem hard to reconcile that with the difficulty of travel between the void, the source and the first.

But if the shards are NOT in spatially separate locations ...

are they in the same spot? Do we have any hints on how it works?

If Hydaelyn is just the planet, and the shards are "reflections" existing in the same spot, then I wonder whether the alternate universes of the shards are limited to the size of Hydaelyn, because it would mean that all the shards would share a sun, if the world had a conventionl solar-system-like setup. Because if they don't share a sun, then ... is the sun in Hydaelyn's atmosphere?

[Anonymoose]

We don't know how it works for sure, we just have a lot of hints, and some they don't play well together, sometimes.

For example, we know that the dimensional plane that contains the Source is right next to the voided dimensional plane that once contained the Thirteenth, because the membrane between them is in constant flux and sometimes holes open up naturally through which low-ranking voidsent come through. (It can also be "cut" into directly by powerful magicks, the Void Ark, and the Crystal Tower, for example.) This likely would be impossible if the shard was still there, as there would be immense aetheric pressure from both sides keeping the membrane in place, and we've yet to hear of a membrane breach that didn't cause the distinction between worlds to be undone, thus deleting the shard.

This description doesn't play well with Arbert's suggestion that that the First is "closest" to the Source, and the void is "farthest from."

The only thing that really makes sense is that all of the dimension planes are in the same place, on "different frequencies", overlapping and sequentially ordered...but in the same place. And that in some ways doesn't make sense at all, lol.

But it's also the only explanation I've found so far for how every dimension shares a membrane with the Source that can be attacked by the Ascians discretely and independent of the others. Unless I guess it's like the Source is a bubble, and there are 13 other bubbles surrounding and attached to that sphere? But that doesn't work great with the void thing; it would localize the phenomena and that just does't seem to be the case.

So basically you have our plane and you have the void and you can get rifts in them and that’s where the voidsent come through but a lot of times those rifts close and they can’t get back home. The reason those rifts happen is because the void and our plane are constantly in flux so they’re moving back and forth. Sometimes they hit and that’s when these tears occur. They can occur in other ways as well through magic or powerful beasts rending a hole in it.

One of those reflections─the one nearest to the Source─is our home. And we were the heroes blessed with Her Light.

Believe what you like. But it has happened before, on a world far removed from ours. The Thirteenth, which was swallowed by the Dark, and transformed into what you call the void.

Regarding your final question: Is the whole universe split into 14 or just this local spot?

Don't think too hard about this; the devs don't know yet, either. They'll get back to us when it becomes relevant, lol.

To my knowledge the split is focused mainly on Hydaelyn, the planet, being split. Now, how far that extends, that’s one of those things I’m going to have to confirm with Oda-san.

I think other questions were like, is Hydaelyn the only planet that split? Are there other planets that split? Can you talk about the Dragonstar? That confirms there are other planets, so Hydaelyn is not the only planet in the universe. But is the Dragonstar part of the Source’s universe, or is it a different universe? And what about the Dragonstar, does it also split into thirteen? Do all planets split into thirteen?

The only thing that I can confirm is that Hydealyn is not the only planet in the universe, but beyond that it’s going to be one of those things we’re going to be talking about in the near future. Hopefully, a lot of those answers will come to light.