Blue Static America
rating: +11+x

NOTICE: CERTAIN INFORMATION REGARDING THE BSA LIMSPACE IS RESTRICTED TO ARCHIVIST TERMINALS OUTSIDE BASELINE REALITY. FOR INQUIRIES, CONTACT ARCHIVIST SARN.


LIMSPACE CLASSIFICATION


Difficulty 3/5

Survival is achievable if you carefully prepare for each BSA state you travel within. Know the time period and avoid standing out; don't bring items where they have yet to be invented or you may become the victim of witch hunts, mob lynching and similar.

It is absolutely crucial to avoid states whose present year is approaching the current year of Baseline Reality.

Entity Count 5/5 Humans and animals populate the BSA at an equivalent density to the Baseline United States on a given year. Entities can be expected to behave identical to their Baseline equivalents.
Chaos Gradient 1/5 The BSA is structurally obtuse and complex when compared to Baseline Reality, but ultimately, it is an ordered and predictable system, and each BSA subspace is considerably more stable than Baseline itself.
Basset-Frazier Index 3/5 This limspace poses a challenge unlike any other. If you want to explore the BSA, you must be resourceful, adaptive and knowledgeable in a wide range of US history, careful and always have a plan to escape — if so, you'll have no trouble experiencing the enchantment of old America.

DESCRIPTION


This is a centralized record, compiled by Archivist Sarn. Treat this as an overview; study the specific documents to the BSA subspaces you intend on exploring.

Blue Static America (BSA) is a liminal space containing an alternate United States of America, characterized by dull, monochrome colors with splotches of blue and a coarse, blurry appearance reminiscent of TV static. These visual effects have no apparent physical influence, however they effectively render Archivsts colorblind, and objects affected by the blue static may be difficult or impossible to identify.

Native inhabitants do not have these vision effects and may become confused or suspicious of you. The colorless environment can easily be explained as monochromatic colorblindness, but the inability to identify objects which happen to be affected by blue static is not trivial to justify. It is highly advised to actively avoid interaction with these objects, or to avoid discourse with BSA inhabitants.1

Water.png

fig 1.0 A man within the Arizona BSA subspace

The BSA is composed of at least 48 separate timeline continuums (referred to as BSA subspaces) progressing in parallel, each only accessible within one of the 48 continental US states. Native inhabitants to each timeline are unable to acknowledge the existence of other timelines and are unable to cross between them. An inhabitant who crosses a state boundary will appear to vanish at the border, but may reappear crossing back.2 It is believed that each timeline contains a full United States3 which inhabitants may travel freely, but explorers of the BSA are only able to access the specific region of the subspace.

Time within the BSA progresses at roughly two hundred times the speed of Baseline Reality (200×). For every minute spent within the BSA, several hours will have passed in Baseline. As a result, even a short expedition into the BSA may equate to several years gone.

Due to this temporal dilation, BSA subspaces regularly catch up with the current year of Baseline Reality. When a BSA subspace catches up with Baseline, the timeline continuum of the subspace jumps back to any point on or after the state's addition to the Union. There is no discernible pattern to what year the continuum will revert to. Any objects, entities and persons present within the continuum will be lost upon a timeline jump.

It is possible to find the alternate versions of people you know from Baseline within the BSA, but they will not recognize you and will deny any relation. This even applies to the alternate version of yourself, who will deny any physical resemblance to you. You are effectively a new stranger to anyone within the BSA.4

Any explorers who attempt to manipulate Baseline through advantages obtained by interference within the BSA will be barred from future entry into the limspace and temporary discharged from the Liminal Archivists. This is considered a level 5 offense against exploration ethics and Archivist duties.

Additional Limspace Architecture:

  • Territory outside the US is inaccessible to explorers; there is an invisible boundary at the US border. However, external regions are visible, and they appear as desolate, volcanic wastelands, hypothesized to be within a timeline continuum set during the Earth’s early formation.5
  • There is no known way to access Alaska, Hawaii, or any of the other external US territories. It is unknown if there are additional BSA timeline continuums at these locations.
  • Maryland and the District of Columbia exist within the same subspace.

SURVIVAL INFORMATION


If you are near the boundary between BSA subspaces, you will be able to observe the other subspace without being visible to its native inhabitants. This can be useful for watching an event or scouting a location without interfering or taking unneeded risk.6

When entering the BSA, it is advised to bring BSA notes and documentation to aid in survival and exploration. These should be kept very secure and not be made accessible to inhabitants. If an inhabitant happens to discover this documentation, it is advised to exit the subspace and report the incident to the manager of the nearest Archivist outpost.

PERIOD-SPECIFIC MEASURES:

Pre-1800: Modern medicine did not develop until the 18th century, so it is crucial to avoid severe injury within the 1700s, especially if you are far from state boundaries; you will be unlikely to find adequate medical aid.

Pre-1900: If you intend on entering a state which exists prior to the 19th century, it is advised to transcribe BSA documentation onto traditional note paper by hand to avoid unneeded attention.

Pre-1970: Women and explorers of non-white ethnicity must be particularly careful to avoid many sociopolitical conflicts in American history.

Post-1880: Be careful when you travel within a vehicle. If the vehicle crosses a state border, it will vanish and you may be flung with dangerously high velocity. It is highly advised to never enter any kind of aircraft within the BSA.


BSA2.png

fig 2.0 A horse carriage within the Florida BSA subspace


Additional Limspace Information:

  • BSA subspaces are locally non-anomalous, meaning there are no thresholds, limspace gateways, native Archivists or supernatural artifacts. Despite this major difference, the BSA timelines are not particularly divergent to Baseline. The BSA seems to be course-correcting, keeping itself fairly similar to Baseline at any period of time by modifying events to produce similar end results. Identical events may have occurred in both Baseline and a BSA subspace, but for different reasons.
  • The boundaries of state subspaces are determined by the present-day borders, not the state boundaries of past time periods.
  • "Blue Static America"/"BSA" is an Archivist designation. The country itself is still referred to as the United States of America within the limspace.
BSA3.png

fig 3.0 The Statue of Liberty within the New York BSA subspace

Important Periods of US History:

  • 1763–1789: The American Revolution (AVOID)
  • 1789–1812: Early Republic
  • 1812–1846: Westward Expansion, Industrial Revolution
  • 1846–1848: Mexican American War (AVOID)
  • 1861–1865: The American Civil War (AVOID)
  • 1866–1877: Reconstruction Era
  • 1914–1918: World War I (AVOID)
  • 1929–1941: The Great Depression (AVOID)
  • 1939–1945: World War II (AVOID)
  • 1945–1989: The Cold War (AVOID)
  • 1954–1968: Civil Rights Movement
  • 1954–1975: Vietnam War (AVOID)
  • 2007–2009: The Great Recession

Disasters to Avoid:

  • 1865: Sultana shipwreck disaster, Arkansas
  • 1871: Peshtigo Fire, Wisconsin + Michigan
  • 1889: Johnstown Flood, Pennsylvania
  • 1893: Cheniere Caminada hurricane, Louisiana
  • 1893: Sea Islands hurricane, Georgia + South Carolina
  • 1899: San Ciriaco hurricane, east coast
  • 1900: Galveston hurricane, Texas
  • 1904: PS General Slocum shipwreck disaster, New York
  • 1906: San Francisco earthquake
  • 1928: Okeechobee hurricane, Florida
  • 2001: World Trade Center terrorist attacks
  • 2005: Hurricane Katrina, south east
  • 2017: Hurricane Mariah, east coast

ENTRANCES AND EXITS


Entrances:

Four_Corners%2C_NM%2C_reconstructed_monument_in_2010.jpg

fig 4.0 The Four Corners Monument

The BSA is accessible through a minor threshold encompassing the Four Corners Monument at the intersection of the Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico state borders. This threshold, taking the form of a gateway portal, only manifests on July 4th, and is only visible to those who have had a moderate level of exposure to liminality in the past.

Entering the portal will lead directly to the state intersection within the BSA. There is no return gateway at the location. The portal will remain open for approximately ten minutes.

Interestingly, the BSA can be accessed through this threshold from any limspace which happens to contain the Four Corners Monument and has a calendar date of the 4th of July.

Exits:

At every intersection between three US states, there is a permanent return gateway and area of space invisible to native inhabitants. An Archivist outpost is positioned at a majority of these gateways.7


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