Story

A Story is essentially an entire contained multiverse. An infinite number of Stories exist in the Nothingness, and many of them are under the protection of Doña Sapphira and the Janitor Menagerie.

Anatomy of a Story

In the Nothingness, a Story will appear as a gigantic leafless tree seemingly made out of yarn. Each 'string' represents a Storyline, which consists of certain actions, events, and so on in the Story. Essentially, a Storyline is one particular timeline of events in the multiverse contained within the Story. A Tale is a "main story" that is supposed to happen within the Story, and can happen across a Story's multiple timelines with some variations. There are usually multiple Tales within a Story and its Storylines, and it is extremely rare for there to be only one Tale in a whole multiverse. A Tale is identified as such by the Menagerie based on whether or not its End has an affect on the overall health of the Story.

The roots of the Story represent the basic laws and history of the Story which acts as the groundwork for all possible Storylines within the Story. The trunk is the part of the Story that is the same across all timelines, and can be variable in length across different Stories. Each branch is usually made up of one or more Storylines. A thick branch represents a cluster of Storylines with similar setups. Similar to regular trees, a branch in a Story will also have smaller, thinner branches, and those branches have their own branches, and so on. Certain actions and events will cause differences in the timelines, thus leading to more unique Storylines in the branches.

The tallest branch, which also tends to be the branch that points straight up from the trunk, is considered the set of Main Storylines. These are the ones that will have the greatest effect on how long the Story will exist, depending on what ending it gets. If the Main Storyline gets a Good End (i.e. the majority of its Tales get Good Ends, especially the ones in the Main Storylines), this means the rest of the Story is far more likely to live a healthy long life. If it ends in a Bad End (i.e. the majority of its Tales get Bad Ends), the Story is unfortunately guaranteed to wither and weaken, eventually dying much sooner than it would have with a Good End.

While Janitors and other beings can move to different points in a Story and its Storylines, time still needs to pass in the Nothingness for the Story to actually grow and develop. On average, it can take thousands of years for Stories to grow enough until some Janitor intervention is needed. Given the size of the Doña's territory and the essentially infinite number of Stories within it, even with this "time limit" there is still plenty of work needed across the many Stories in Her territory.

Good Ends and Bad Ends

As mentioned briefly in the previous section, the End of a Tale will have an effect on the health of its Storyline as well as the overall Story. Even non-main Storylines will still have an effect on a Story's health. Bad Ends have a particularly negative effect on Story health. While some would say "good" and "bad" are too subjective, here it is a very clear cut case. A Good End can be called as such if it satisfies at least 7 of the following characteristics:

• The main setting(s) of the particular Storyline is not destroyed, or at the least will be able to heal after a disaster. This can end up covering very small settings (a single house, a small village, etc.) to much larger ranges (a country, a planet, a solar system, the whole universe, etc.)
• Universal peace or near-universal peace, either only within the setting of a Tale or across other parts of the universe within the Storyline, is achieved.
• The rest of the beings that live in the Storyline of the Tale (regardless of the scale, i.e. town, country, planet, etc.) are not made significantly miserable as a result of the Tale's End. Usually this is measured based on how much the End affects the quality of life of other beings that are unrelated to the Tale.
• The main conflict of the Tale is resolved in some manner, such that no one is trying to continue perpetuating the problem. The resolution is not necessarily satisfying, it just has to be something that ends the conflict. The conflict itself can be anything from an intergalactic war to someone's inner turmoil.
• The protagonist(s) are recognized as heroes and/or are rewarded as such by other beings in the Storyline.*
• The protagonist(s) are at least somewhat happy and accepting of the End itself.*
• The protagonist(s) can claim a victory, even if it's a pyrrhic or ironic one.*
• The protagonist(s) live through the End, and are able to live out their lives relatively peacefully afterwards.*
• The protagonist(s) developed into a better person than they were at the start of their journey.*
• While the protagonist(s) may experience hardships and disabilities either before, after, or over the course of their Tale, in a Good End they are either able to overcome them, or learn how to properly manage and cope with them. These include cases where the protagonist(s) suffer mental and/or emotional trauma.*
• The antagonist(s) are properly redeemed, or otherwise suitably punished. *
• Any damage done by the antagonist (either on settings, characters, or other things in the Storyline) is healed, or otherwise other beings in the Storyline learn how to manage or cope with the damage. *
• Oddly enough, a decent majority of Good Ends tend to have a party or wedding at some point as well. So this tends to be a good indication that an End is most likely a Good End.

* = Note that if a protagonist is a genuinely evil villain protagonist, the opposite of these bullet points will count towards a Good End.

(NOTE, this list may be further expanded in the future with more ideas of what a Good End should be in the Storyverse setting)

While Tales in the Main Storyline need to end in a majority of Good Ends for the health of the Story, Tales in other Storylines have a little bit more leeway. However, some Tales or Storylines may still have a fairly significant effect on the Story's health, even if it's not to the same degree as the Main Storyline. The rule of thumb is to get as many Tales in as many Storylines as possible to reach a Good End, as long as said Good End does not end up being near impossible to achieve. Even then, some Stories may still end in a majority of Bad Ends. It is unfortunate, but one needs to accept that not every Story can be fully helped. What the Janitor Menagerie aims for is at least giving Stories a genuine possibility of a Good End, not necessarily a guarantee. Some Janitors find this frustrating, but it comes as a part of the job.

Beings of a Story

Besides the Story itself and the characters within its Storylines and Tales, there are also three classes of beings associated with the Story. These being exist outside of the Story, but serve important roles in the health of the Story. All of these beings look as if they're made of felt.

• Watchers: Humanoids with pale body colors, ranging from pure white to pastel colors, and a number of eyes across their bodies. These beings protect the Story from outside forces, though sometimes even their combined might isn't enough against certain Interlopers. They also serve to make sure that no one within a Story manages to get out. Doña Sapphira has worked with the Watchers of each Story under her protection to ensure that her employees can enter Stories to help, though some are still quite distrustful about this. Watchers themselves can have pretty much any type of ability that's needed for a given situation, from fire magic, laser beams, shapeshifting, telekinesis, super strength, and much more. However, they seem to only be able to use about 3 abilities at a time.
• Sleepers: These beings live under a Story, within its roots. They are also humanoids, though they tend to have darker colors, ranging from non-pastel darker colors to black. They have no eyes at all. As their name implies, they spend almost all of their time sleeping. They support the Dreamer in shaping and supporting the Story they are connected to, as well as acting as another line of defense to protect the Dreamer from outside threats, using magic and energy manipulation.
• Dreamers: Each Story has only one Dreamer, a humanoid that changes between a rainbow of colors and has a single eye on their face. Like Sleepers, Dreamers are always asleep. The Dreamer is the being that actually manifests an entire Story, and as such they are often referred to as the "seed" of a Story. The Dreamer manifests the Story using magical energies, and is supported in this tasks by their Sleepers. If a Dreamer wakes up, their entire Story, including their Sleepers and Watchers, is instantly destroyed. If the Dreamer goes back to sleep, they could theoretically still create a new Story on their own. However, without the aid of Watchers and Sleepers, it would be very taxing on the Dreamer and leave them very vulnerable.

A Story's Watchers, Sleepers, and Dreamer are all made up of beings who existed in a previous Story. Watchers are made from those who have a strong will to live and protect others, especially through direct actions and combat. Sleepers are made from those who have a strong desire to help, especially through more passive or supportive means. Dreamers are made from those who have an incredibly strong ability to create, and thus have a large imagination, large enough to facilitate the creation of an entire Story. Individuals who have an intense sense of creativity, though not on the level of a Dreamer, will instead turn into Miranim.

Once a Story ends, new Watchers, Sleepers, and Dreamers will be generated, and will go on to create more Stories. This is explained further in the next section.

When a Story Ends

Much like a tree that eventually dies, a Story will end at some point. A Story will slowly fade away when this happens. Regardless of the Story ending with mostly Good Ends or Bad Ends, the Story will produce new Watchers, Sleepers, and Dreamers, which will then go on to create and be a part of new Stories. There is always at least one Dreamer created from the end of a Story, but on average there's hundreds of them. They will move away from the spot where the old Story was, to take root in a new spot for their own Story. Sleepers and Watchers will follow a Dreamer to help protect them and their resulting Story. It seems there has never been a case where there were not enough Sleepers and Watchers for each Dreamer created from an ended Story.

Certain aspects of the original Story tend to be present in the Stories produced from that Story's end. This can include things like history, magic systems, species, characters, settings, and so on. These descendant Stories may end up being very similar to their 'parent' Story, or may only share one or two characteristics. More often than not, the Tales in the parent Story will end up appearing in their descendants. Usually they appear as fictionalized accounts of the Tale, such as novels and video game series. This can continue to be passed down to other Stories in the chain, long after the ancestor Story has ended.

Sometimes, Stories that are in relatively close proximity to one another, but which don't share the same parent/ancestor Story, may share their fictionalized versions of old Tales with one another. This can be seen in the Nothingness as 'leaves' seemingly made of velvet traveling between different Stories.

In addition, the actions and influence of a Janitor may end up manifesting in later Stories as their own fictionalized Tale. Sometimes, a Janitor may already be fictionalized in a Story, without any previous interactions from that Janitor. This is essentially a coincidence, and occurs incredibly rarely.