Disclaimer: The term “dimension” for this concept is misleading. It was coined by high school me and will eventually be replaced by a more fitting term.

When you played as a child, read a book, watch a movie, or play a video game, do you sometimes feel transported into another world? That is because you are – you have just used the power of imagination to enter a different “dimension”. For the Asiuluiam, Dakiuzuiam, and Yelluam (and many other species), this is not just a metaphoric saying, but actual reality. They are able to willingly transfer themselves into other worlds, and even create them in a collective effort!

Terminology

A dimension is an area that you can fully traverse just by physical means¹physics of the world at hand 😉. The universe with our Earth and all the other planets and stars is one such dimension (although an exceptionally large one), the planet with the continents Westeros and Essos on it is another dimension.

There are several ways to travel between dimensions: Between most dimensions, there are only invisible passages, so-called dimensional doors (or dimensional stairs). When you use a door to go to another dimension, the environment around you changes suddenly, as if you had been teleported to another place. You can create ad-hoc doors between two dimensions using your imagination, but in some dimensions, there are also natural dimensional doors, areas that will immediately transport you to another dimension when you pass them. These are also sometimes called portals. You definitely have to use a dimensional door to get from Earth to Westeros.

Some dimensions are more strongly connected to others, and the passages between them are visible. The other dimension might be permanently visible or only within a certain radius, suddenly appearing in the distance as you come near it. The boundary between these two dimensions that allows you to pass between them without the teleportation effect is called a dimensional crossing, as the two dimensions intersect in this area. Two dimensions connected via a permanent crossing might seem like a single dimension on first sight, but the dimensional crossing cannot be used by pure physical means: Creatures without sufficient imagination are unable to pass it.

A system of one or more dimensions interconnected by dimensional crossings is referred to as a world. Our universe is a single-dimension world (often called “the Real World”). The world that this site is about consists of many dimensions and has one particularly big dimensional crossing called “the Llof”, where most of the inhabitants live.

The creation of worlds

The Earth, Westeros, and the Llof are located in permanent worlds. Their inhabitants exist, whether or not someone from another world imagines them at a certain moment or not. Many other worlds exists only temporarily, while someone is thinking about them. When these worlds are constantly imagined by a larger number of persons over a longer period of time, they may eventually become permanent.

As a creator, you will notice that your characters seem to develop a life of their own, for example developing character quirks and habits that you did not come up with, forming bonds that you did not foresee, or achieving things that you didn’t plan for them. The landscape will develop details you did not design, and when visiting your world you will end up in places you did not expect to go. These are sure signs that your world is becoming independent of you. When then other people start imagining your world and add their own aspects to it, the world will eventually become a permanent, publicly accessible place, and will be able to live on without its creator.