Talk:The Void/@comment-31465078-20170418003825

Piecing a few things together, this is my current interpretation of the metastory. It is the future, and mankind has colonised Mars and other worlds in our solar system. Then "the cataclysm" takes place. The exact nature of this event is currently mysterious, but I would surmise that: 1) it was massively desctructive to human life, and perhaps all life on Earth and other planets in the solar system; 2) the alien race known as "the faceless" (six limbed beetle-like creatures) played some part in saving humanity from total annihilation, but in exchange were ceded Earth and Mars, and possibly the whole system, for their own colonies. The faceless are now exherting their claims on Mars, while there are still survivors there (including Hope and Hal). Santiago and his female companion are able to buy more time to evacuate them from the faceless.

Meanwhile, project Thanatos, the brainchild of Nathaniel, is being put into effect on asteroid B12. The project seems to be to find a way to bend reality that will overcome death itself. (Thanatos is the personification of death in Greek mythology.) Project Thanatos itself is a giant supercomputer cluster. The jumpers enter a simulation (presumably running on the computer), where time passes much faster than in real life. Jade is 30 minutes late, which explains her late arrival in Pugmire. Nathaniel is administering the system, but joins the others on Sam's death. Apparently, there have been previous people in the system -- specifically Erika's party. Jimmy, who the players encounter in the various universes, is possibly connected to Nathaniel's friend in his youth. Personally, I don't think that it is Jimmy, but rather a computer program/AI based on Jimmy's personality -- however I don't really have any solid reason for thinking this, except that he doesn't jump in the same way as the others, and he is initially slow, but becomes smarter (possibly by getting more CPU cycles).