World-Jumpers

A “world-jumper” is anyone who possesses the Jumper (World)
advantage (p. 64). This ability seems to be “psionic” . . . but nobody
knows for sure.
Infinity has several people with this ability on its payroll, and is
always on the lookout for more. Only a few are native to Homeline. At
least one of them claims to have visited alternate worlds before Van
Zandt did . . . and kept it quiet, because he thought he was insane.
Infinity’s world-jumpers are top couriers, special agents, and trou-
bleshooters. Most observers believe Centrum has world-jumpers as
well.
In Infinite Worlds, Jumper (World) functions normally for jumps
within the same quantum. Jumps between quanta are at -5 per quan-
tum level of difference. Those who have this trait always know by “feel”
what quantum they are on.
fades away . . . and then the stag van-
ishes, leaving him stranded in another
world!
Many parachronozoids also have
the Warp advantage (p. 97), giving
them the ability to jump across space
as well as the dimensions.
Some
parachronozoids
seem
drawn to those with latent or active
psionic abilities (most often ESP or
almost unnoticeable. Nevertheless,
this slight deviation would explain the
differences, if the original “event” that
created the echoes occurred some 3.5
billion years ago – perhaps during the
earliest appearance of life on Earth.
The echoes represent an incredible
opportunity for research into history
. . . but they also represent a signifi-
cant hazard. Anyone visiting an echo
is carefully cautioned against doing
anything that might make a signifi-
cant change in the timeline. This has
nothing to do with ethics. It’s a ques-
tion of safety. The balance that holds
the echoes in Q6 is a fragile one. If
something happens to change the
future course of history in an echo, it
may simply vanish! The first few times
this happened, it was thought that the
world had been destroyed. But as
Teleportation). Others seek mana-rich
areas, and there are rumors of ways to
magically summon or lure them.
Certainly, wizards have trapped and
tamed such entities, using them as
mounts or harnessing them to create
world-jumping chariots.
And some are predators and vam-
pires, stalking prey from dimension to
dimension . . .
Infinity was on the verge of shutting
down all travel to the echoes, one of
the lost worlds was rediscovered . . . in
Q5!
Centrum seems to be able to insti-
gate such shifts on purpose. Of the 24
echoes that have vanished from Q6
since Infinity discovered them, four
are known to have moved “closer” to
Homeline, going to Q5. Eleven are
known to have moved to Q7, nearer to
Centrum . . . and Centrum deliberately
engineered at least six of these shifts.
One bounced all the way to Q4, on the
“other side” of Homeline. And eight of
the missing timelines haven’t been
found at all.
Infinity regulations require that
any visit to an echo be managed with
extreme care – no casual or “tourist”
trips are allowed. The I-Cops are
always alert for signs of Centrum’s
intervention. But they can’t simply
flood the echoes with agents – doing
that would greatly increase the risk of
instigating the very changes they want
to avoid! Instead, they rely on strategi-
cally placed agents and regular
patrols.