A Tangle of Links/Quinaterum


 * Quinaterum — A peculiar island nation located several miles off the coast of the Tesseraktines mainland
 * Name derived from the Latin word for five, quinque
 * Represents the K-Pop group Pentagon, hence the name
 * Based on the MV for Can You Feel It?
 * Two opposing realities in one plane of existence
 * They represent the Egyptian concept of peace (Ma'at) and chaos (Isfet)
 * One is chaotic order (Ma'at) and the other is ordered chaos (Isfet)
 * How the two realities coexist is based heavily on the orbital system of celestial bodies.
 * Their 'replacing each other' is based on the phases of the Moon

Two Sides of the Same Coin: Ma'at & Isfet
Millenias ago, Quinaterum was just an ordinary island located several miles off the coast of the Tesseraktines mainland with its own stable Magical Grid. When the Divine Wars turned the dimension into a battleground for the deities, the Magical Grid of Quinaterum was damaged so badly it created two realities that split from the dimension of Love&Letter. The split happened near the end of the Divine Wars so the deities were able to notice the Magical anomaly just in time before Quinaterum disappeared from reality entirely. It was through the quick thinking of Suzy, the Goddess of Magic, the deities all came together to "anchor" the two realities on the remaining stable shards of its former Magical Grid, which was strengthened by Suzy through giving each reality their own Magic Grid.

Quinateran Shifts
Ma'at and Isfet Quinaterums take turns appearing in the mainstream reality similar to the Moon's phases. The shift from one reality to another lasts for about a month and the current reality will stay visible in an indefinite amount of time. The longest time a reality was visible was for about a century and the shortest was about a month. The shifting looks like one reality is slowly eclipsing the other reality until the other reality completely takes the place of the first reality.

Effects of the Quinateran Shifts on Living Organisms
For Quinaterum-born natives, regardless of home reality, they don't really feel much of anything. Only the colour of the sky can tell them if a shift has occured. The reality in the mainstream plane of existence is normal while the reality outside the mainstream plane of existence is the normal sky overlaying a large expanse of space.

For outsiders however, they'd feel as if a large, invisible wave is washing over them several times. They'd feel nauseous most of the time, an effect of the constantly rippling Magic Grid on their Magic Cores (Magic Grids and Cores will be explained in the Basics of Magic 101 page). Those with greater control on their magic can block out the effects but they shouldn't prolong their stay on the island during a Shift lest they want to feel the effects after some time.

Sunmi's Law of Split Realities
Normally, Magical Cores can't be anchored onto anything but Quinaterum is a special case, a Split Reality-type Magical Anomaly and the first of its kind. Since Quinaterum has been split into 2 realities with no way of knowing if joining them back means not permanently damaging one reality or both, the people of the original Quinaterum have also been split into two Magical versions of themselves (i.e. two physical bodies each having one half of the original's Magical Core).

Call of the Cores: Quinateran Soulmates
It would be a century later before they'd figure out what would happen to the two split cores. The original split cores were passed down from generation to generation, so no one in Quinaterum really have whole cores (the Core split into two won't weaken the Magus, it will just limit the amount of types of magic they can practice. The Core is the heart of a Magus' magic, basically, and having only half of their Core makes them literally "halfhearted" when it comes to practicing magic.). The two halves (or the pieces, depending on the type of split) would 'call' on each other, a distinct pulling sensation towards the direction of the other(s). Once the individuals meet, a Magical bond between their cores would develop, making them connected in both mind and soul through their own special kind of telepathy and empathy. Sometimes the cores' call would be so strong they could literally drag them to a certain location in one of the realities, sometimes the cores would only react if they were on the same reality and sometimes, there would be no call at all until the individuals physically make contact, but the last one is quite rare. This would later on be called the "Call of the Cores" or simply "Soulmates".

It's honestly up to the Soulmates if they want their bond to be platonic or romantic, if they even want to answer the Call at all. No big consequence would come out of it either way. However, reunited Soulmates often report a sense of "completeness" when they got reunited. Soulmates who chose to strengthen their bond, whether romantically or platonically, are given a place of their own in Aequilibra by Sunmi herself, since that was the only place where they could interact properly due to the Law being at its weakest there.