Nymphlopedia
Entry 49: Parallel Nymphs
Beginning AN:
Oh shit September 30th is also when Journey's End is coming to consoles so you could say instead of just the Nymph anniversary RTLD would also be like this accidental console celebration?
Anyway, this is another one of my favorite biome ideas. I really like the concept of "different worlds" and whatnot.
Also the mini-story - or at least its opening - might actually be moved to RTLD proper and a new one would be written in its place. Meh... just picture these as quick previews for RTLD if that happens.
As Vince looked over the edge of the Naked Empire's big, fancy ship, he caught something in his eye and blinked. "Wait... what are those islands over there?"
Sonata reacted in surprise. She started mass-patting Tania's back. "Holy shit! Holy shit! Vince doesn't know about the Parallel Islands of all places!"
"What? Really?" Tania replied.
"Yeah let's set sail to go over there! In fact..."
She moved her legs out and held her hand to her chest. Tania sighed and rolled her eyes while a magenta aura of small stones and gems appeared around Sonata, which got the sail to firmly switch directions to the small, blueish-stoned islands out in the distance.
"Ever since you mastered the power to draw from nature, you've been using it for mundane tasks." Tania said.
"Yeah yeah yeah we're at the Parallel Islands. These are places where the connections to the Parallel World are the strongest."
"THERE'S AN ENTIRE PARALLEL WORLD?!" Vince asked.
Sonata just laughed at him. Even Tania chuckled. The whole rainbow of Nymphs that had been gathered thus far, and the various town resident women (all nude), went over to see what the commotion was. Also, why their ship changed from plowing towards the Jungle for the 'Big Showdown' with some flower to some islands.
Sonata lept off their ship and flew over there with her new, upgraded wings.
As soon as she did, she was met with laughter. From a series of dark violet Nymphs that stepped out, seemlessly, behind some trees. A few others just walked out of glowing spherical portals that opened up.
"Oh Pan, ahoy matey!" One of them said. "What the hell are you?! Some kind of pirate immitator? Why in either world do you want to be like a pirate?! Those are some really awful people, and that's quite a feat!"
Sonata put her hands on her hips. "Oh, well... laugh at the Human in that awful icky green Jungle armor!" She pointed behind herself, to where she thought the ship was. "He's the one who came up with that!"
"No he did not." Tania said. Landing next to her. It turned out the ship was closer to the islands than she thought. "This was Sonata's idea in fact."
"But-" Sonata sighed. "One little white lie! Just one, I can't have one?"
"Vince had already been laughed at for his ignorance."
"So have I!"
"This is the same ignorance, though."
"Thanks for sticking up for me." Vince himself said, getting a smiling glance back from Tania. He turned his attention to the naked purple women. "So, I heard there's a whole other world here?"
The Parallel Nymphs looked at each other.
"So Human. We'll be happy to just throw you there if you're at all curious."
Vince shrugged. "I know that's a threat, but I don't care. Let's go."
Several portal'd from behind him, grabbed him, opened up a portal, and threw him in, while he just stayed looking still and bored throughout the whole experience.
...
Yeah the other side was neat. He was on what looked like the islands themselves, just with all the plants being purple, and the ocean and sky being significantly darker, almost pitch-black. Also, there were a lot more Parallel Nymphs, usually swimming along in the ocean.
Another portal opened up, with Sonata being thrown out (saying a "Whoop hi there!") and Tania (who was silent, aside from grunting after hitting the ground).
"So... are there also, like Parallel Deserts and other biomes too?" Vince asked. "Do they have their own Nymphs?"
"Well... not exactly." Tania answered, getting up and dusting herself off.
"Also by the way these Nymphs ain't friendly," said Sonata, "we're being attacked but whatever."
Tania already took her staff out and looked like she was ready to take them on. "This biome holds the essense of the world being layered, but it is not the 'biome of the layers themselves.' Think of these are more-of recreations, and not their own biomes. Yes, there are Parallel Deserts, Parallel Tundras, and even Parallel Jungles, but you will only naturally find Parallel Nymphs there."
"A couple of Nymphs from the biome's Normal World counterpart migrated over there though." Sonata said. "There's still a ton of us Oreads."
"Hey," said a Parallel Nymph, "this is a raid. Or, whatever it's called when you come to our islands and we fight y-"
"Shh!" Said Tania. "I'm trying to be educational! Vince is still sore about losing his main Guide!"
"So like, for example, say some Desert Nymphs moved out, they wanted to find another Desert to call their home, they voyaged, went here, found these Nymphs, and were like, 'fuck you you have this other desert in your own world, we're going here.' So yeah Parallel Deserts are just Deserts and stuff."
"The real alternate dimensions are something different." Tania said.
"...Oh, so one does exist?"
"It's a different can of worms, we don't know about them."
A naked Mollie was tossed through another spherical portal next. She got up and looked around.
"...Cool! A whole new world of animals-"
"Why are none of you taking this seriously?!" Asked a particular Parallel Nymph on a rock. "We're vicious monsters of nature dragging you to an eldritch dimension-"
"This is not eldritch, honey." Said Tania. "Trust me."
"-To eat you!"
Vince shrugged. "We're used to it by now."
Parallel Nymphs.
The guardians of an entire alternate world shrouded in darkness and mystery. Sailors in the Standard World should be warned when venturing near their islands, and sailors in the Parallel World should be warned in general.
Preferred Environment: Parallel Islands/Parallel World.
Environment Threat Level: Parallel Islands of the Standard World: Moderate.
Parallel World: Severe.
Environment Stats: Parallel Islands of the Standard World: Moist. Warm. Moderate on the Mundane-Fantastic scale. Rare. A set of blue and purple lands, naturally as surface islands, that house energies that can lead to a particular different world.
Parallel World: Dry. Cool. Fantastic. "Omnipresent." This is the world resulting from travelling from the islands, by either natural portals or the ones opened up by their Nymphs. Everything is washed in violet, the sky is dark - often black or glowing in off-colors, and most water is black and infested with dangerous creatures.
Other Names: Dimensional Nymphs (not technically accurate), Wormhole Nymphs, Mirror Nymphs, Portal Nymphs, "Purple World Nymphs" (No... just no, seriously, do teenagers come up with these names?).
Affinity: Water.
Color: Dark Violet.
Traditional Costume Weapon: Necklaces with thumb-sized circular mirrors on them. Enables them to better connect with the two worlds at once, and helps them make the portals. Elite Parallel Nymphs are rumored to be able to make portals to third or even fourth worlds, but this has not been proven.
Vince's Comment: Their own little purple dimension makes my head hurt. Everybody, from the Parallel Nymphs to Tania, say that's not the case.
Right, surviving with them is... ugh. They'll DEFINITELY pull you in to their world, and then ONLY use portals to get away from your weapons and whathaveyou. They KNOW you'll be stranded there if they don't open a portal back, so your best bet is to ask another one to send you back or use some tools that will let you travel between the two worlds. Oh wait, thankfully, Recall Potions and Magic Mirrors still send you back to whatever world you set them to. But it... stings a bit passing from one to the other. It doesn't sting taking their portals.
Why the fuck do these Nymphs pretty much get an entire planet to themselves?! If not a whole universe or dimension?! Isn't that a little overpowered?!
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Tania's Comment: Parallel Nymphs.
Nymphae Parallela.
As someone who has been to an entire alternate dimension myself, I feel as though I am qualified to explain some of this phenomina more than others... but I doubt this. Rather than a different plane entirely like Etheria, this is a world much like our own, connected to it. I first entered the Parallel World when I was only ten and was scared of it, mistaking it at first to be an otherworld that was completely consumed by the Corruption. After learning and getting used to it, it's still... unsettling. The Parallel World has its own distinctive ecology and geology, although for some reason it replicates the world to a certain point in history. Unlike fictional "mirror worlds," actions in one world do not affect the happenings of the other. Well, usually Parallel Nymphs go around "correcting" this by keeping the two worlds the same. Why, even they are not sure. It is not an overwhelming compelling force, just a tradition of theirs. They believe strongly in "balance" like all Nymphs, only in their case, the "balance" refers to making sure the two worlds are aligned and in harmony with each other.
They will allow deliberate cross-world action, such as Vince planting some standard Terrarian grass in his "Parallel Base," and planting Parallel grass in his world. I think that's cute of him. But I glance at it and my mind still goes to "Corruption" on a first look.
For the record, I do believe that this and the "Standard World" are but a mere two layers, and stronger Parallel Nymphs could unlock the ability to enter more. As for what those would look like, I am not sure.
(Note from Sonata: Dammit you got me to abandon my backwards writing joke to get curious about this. What would they look like? Each one is somehow more violeter than the last? They're all different random colors? Do they look more warped the more layers you explore? Does one of them look like a shitty creepypasta with skulls and blood everywhere? Tania, you just said something that'll keep me up at night. Again.)
Closing AN:
If Sonata's Comment is too annoying to decode, just one person needs to ask and I'll post it on the chapter that comes out after the asking.
Whoo I haven't played Paper Mario: Color Splash and I honestly don't intend to, but I really like the idea of the Parallel World (enough that Joy Roy kinda revolves around something like that, Joy's whole gang being set in "a Parallel World" (okay Perpendicular but whatever)) so... it's a biome here. Kind of.
Also yeah... I'm not too big a fan of crossovers so I was really unsure if I wanted the DD2 stuff to be involved in this... but, you know, that's in Terraria, it's a part of it, and while it's apparently an ignored part of it, it's still... there. (Plus I already mentioend the Tavernkeep in the Wine Nymph chapter.)
Oh, the mini-story here is supposed to be set right before the next chapter's, and thus it is the second-to-last chronologically of Part 2. Speaking of which, yeah, that's the last "regular" chapter of this and I made it one of the odder ones. I mean, yeah. On average these places are planned to get weirder as they go on. At least for this "First Edition."
And no, there won't be Perpendicular Nymphs (this makes way more sense and comes off as way less random if you've read Joy Roy), by the way. At least not in the First Edition.