Proton is the sci-fi half of the world. When Proton/Phaze started out as one world, it was lush and green; fresh for the picking. Luckily, before they could ruin the environment of Phaze, the two world were split. Proton wasn't so lucky; all the rainforests were cut down, water polluted, as well as the air. Everyone had to live in the domes, where there were various means of keeping the air breathable; not uncomfortable for them. Onto the culture lesson. A more or less fuedal system was set up; serfs own nothing, are nothing, while the super-rich citizens live off the profits of Protonite: THE fuel of the space age. Oh, the serfs didn't much mind; they had the right to leave the planet whenever they chose. Unless a citizen got angry and decided to shoot them before they had a chance to. Serfs were the human workers, doing everything that couldn't be automated, as well as whatever their employing citizen wanted them to; serfs had no rights other than termination of tenure. Tenure for a serf was twenty years, the payment one gram of Protonite; that single gram made them moderately rich elsewhere in the galaxy. The easiest way to tell a citizen from a serf? Easy; the citizen is wearing clothes. Honestly, serfs aren't allowed to wear clothes. Among citizens and serfs alike were those who live on Proton solely for the pleasure of The Game. The Game: almost every contest imaginable. Two people playing a grid of categories and eventually coming to a contest. You'll learn more about it in the fic. Of course, the Game Computer has changed recently; when you see the charachter I've placed as it, you'll know how.
Phaze is the fantasy half; dragons, werewolves, unicorns, vampires, demons, snow-demons, ogres, trolls, giants... you get the point. For the most part, races are the classic fantasy type. There's only two I think I need to say something about: vampires are more or less just like humans, and pretty nice folk. They have to drink blood to support their bat forms, which they get from domesticated animals raised for that very purpose. Trolls are the other; almost all trolls are very very nasty, typically eating whoever happens to anger them or just walk by while they're hungry. Their most defining trait is their hands; their hands mold hard, cold stone like wet clay, making them excellent burrowers, and though most don't develop the skill, excellent sculptors as well. As for magic; most everyone knows a spell to start a camp fire or repair a chip off a clay vase, but nothing besides very small spells. The adepts, now those are where the magic rests; there are ten most of the time, identified by color. The definite good adepts are Blue, Brown, and Red. The typical bad adepts are Purple, Yellow, White, Transculent, Black, Green, and Orange. Tan seems to change back and forth with each generation. Blue is the leader of the good adepts, as well as the strongest of all adepts, and almost always a top gamesman. Each adept does their magic in a different way, but I'll leave what ways secret; you'll have to figure it out as you read, since all will probably be mentioned by the end.
Now, a brief history of Proton/Phaze:
Somewhere over tree hundred years ago, the first settlers landed on Proton/Phaze; they found humans, and all the other races aforementioned. And a world ripe for the plucking. The Powers that Be(probably the adepts of the time, though the books never specify) didn't like that; they split Proton and Phaze, leaving on one side a world of science, with magic inoperative, on the other, a world with very much magic, but no science would work there. Not counting gravity and such, of course. It wasn't long before Proton had been defilied; the virgin Phaze was safe... or as safe as it could be. They were linked by a curtain, spanning both worlds; from the Proton side, you had to will youself through, from the Phaze, it took a spell. Mostly, there was no contact besides the occasional drifter. When things were that way, there were two of each person born on either world; one on each. You could only pass through the curtain if your double had died, or you were shipped onto Proton, so you weren't born there and didn't have a double. After a certain sequence of events, including the death of the Red Adept, the beginning of major action by the Blue, correction of an imbalance threatening to destroy both worlds, and a short bout where the worlds were joined, both were seperated, supposedly forever, no longer accesible through the curtain.
About twenty years later, Mach, the son of the Blue who stayed on proton, and Bane, the son of the Blue living on Phaze, found a link between the worlds once again. Naturally, this stirred up much trouble. A very very many things that I really don't have time to go over happened; the end result was both worlds merged into one again, both science and magic operative. But that didn't last very long either; soon, the Hectare, or BEMs(Bug Eyed Monsters) invaded, overtaking the planet by threat of orbital weaponry. The combined efforts of all the adepts, good and bad, besides Tan and Purple, along with the Magic Bomb that would destroy the planet, much effort by Flach, son of Mach, and Nepe, daughter of Bane, the world was turned from the sceince universe to the fantasy, where the Hectare had no orbital weaponry. Being an honorable race, the hectare accepted defeat and fit themselves into society as well as they could. This story begins perhaps twenty years or so later, when everything's pretty much settled in...
But as you know, when Lina is involved, NOTHING stays settled in.