Rifts Crisis
The Rifts Crisis was an interdimensional crisis involving the rapid, destructive spread of Rifts across the Multiverse. The Consistency Imperium was founded to stymie the Crisis, being active for decades from its perspective, but unbeknownst to most members of the Imperium until the last day, the Imperium's own Imperial Advisor was the true culprit for the Crisis.
History
Origins
There were many potential starting point for the Rifts, most of which righted themselves in time, without halting the spread of the Rifts in other dimensions. They included a Rift-making machine built by a “bull-guy”, dangerous chemical manipulations by a juvenile space behemoth called Fyargathaaark865blububurgh$1gkzo, and reckless time-travelling by a man with a bowtie. (PROSE: The Grand Multiverse Hotel) The spread of the Rifts was accelerated by the activities of a sort of interdimensional sect called the Consistency Imperium, who were manipulated by the mad alchemist Mandragora-257. Mandragora also built a Machine designed to be activated once the damage to the Multiverse had become critical, to complete the work of destroying it altogether. (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!)
Early occurrences
Some Rifts connected dimensions. (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!) Starting on April 29th, 2019, Prime Earth time, one Rift connected the headquarters of the Faction of the Fooling Fish on the Prime Earth to the Cupid Homeworld. This allowed the Fish, who, at the time, did not yet possess an interdimensional mode of transport of their own, to cross over as they pleased and cause mischief in the Cupid Homeworld. Although the Crew's Department of Rifts attempted to deal with this, they could not close the Rift permanently, but only temporarily. The Blue Feather were assigned to guard it. (PROSE: The Faction of the Fooling Fish)
One small, anomalous dimension became a kind of nexus point for Rifts to connect to. Because the presence of many Rifts in one place accelerated the creation of new ones, complete dimensional collapse became a concern. One of the Rifts connected to the home dimension of an ordinary old man, who fell through accidentally. In the hub dimension, he found an abandoned cabin containing books on dimensional science, and began building Prisms to contain as many Rifts as he could. He also learned how to create a set of four special Prisms that could be used to stabilise the dimension and prevent any more Rifts from appearing there, but it would need two people to implement.
At least one Rift also appeared in the Euclidean Plane, “doubling up” a natural ravine such that the actual Rift hovered halfway down the “real” crevice. An Octaser once fell through that Rift and into the hub dimension, where they attacked the old man. Viewing the intruder as a threat, the old man captured them and sent them back out through another Rift. “Two moons” later, Tracker-764 chased the Pulsaton Doki Dick through that same Rift. While Doki Dick fled through another Rift, Tracker stayed with the old man and helped him implement the four-Prisms ritual to stabilise the dimension and avert the catastrophic destruction that could have ensued. At the last moment, Doki Dick returned to this dimension by chance after going through six portals in a row, but quickly escaped again. After saying his goodbyes, Tracker left through a random Rift, as did the old man. As luck would have it, the portal selected by the old man ended up connecting to the Rift in the Cupid Homeworld, much to the surprise of Blue Feather operatives Larrikin-1029 and Dandy-432. (PROSE: The Mad Cupid of the Euclidean Plane)
Halloween 2019
By the 2010s, due to an unidentified threat, the Great Ghost believed his native Spirit Realm, that of the Prime Universe, to be “doomed” and was looking for a way for him his legion of spirits to permanently escape. He intended to do so via ordinary spirit paths, but, when Frankenstein-818 attempted to repair his malfunctioning Spirit Realm Gateway and instead caused it to collapse in on itself, it opened a full Rift between the Spirit Realm and the Cupid Homeworld. The Great Ghost took his chance and led his legion out of the Realm through that portal. While the spirits rampaged, looking for bodies to possess across the Multiverse thanks to a flotilla of Fog Ships stolen from the Cupids, Frankenstein built a One-Way Forced Spirit Realm Gateway which, when activated, would send everything around it to the Spirit Realm.
However, before he could use it, Frankenstein was abducted by the spirits and forced to build a Reverse Spirit Realm Gateway to replace the Rift, which the Department of Rifts had sealed. After a short mishap with the One-Way Gateway where Foreman-964, Pythagoras-858, Technophile-963, Igor-1612 and Philatel-426 were briefly transported to the Spirit Realm before being summoned back by Juliet-178 using the reverse switch of the One-Way Gateway, the Cupids managed to send most of the ghosts back to the Spirit Realm. When they tried to return through the Reverse Gateway, they were transformed into clockwork toys of which Madame Tarsa took possession. The Great Ghost, meanwhile, was separated from his host body and sent to parts unknown. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
Affecting the Cupid Homeworld
A short time after Mandragora's Great Experiment, a small Rift again appeared in the Cupid Homeworld, apparently controlled by the SavageMen from the 14th Cosmos, who used it to cross from their world to the office of Judicator-337 in order to register a complaint regarding the Cupids' alleged misuse of the SavageMen's copyright to their own concept and design in The Rainbow Adventures. After making themselves understood, the SavageMen returned from whence they came and the Rift apparently came, whether through the SavageMen's own agency or the Department of Rifts'. (PROSE: Plagiarism of the SavageMen)
Lockdown in the Homeworld
A Rift could also hinder the functioning of normal dimensional transports; after too large a Rift appeared in the Cupid Homeworld, it began to block Fog Ship dematerialisation, sealing off the Cupids in their own Homeworld. (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!)
The Rifts caused some universes to unravel and, at any rate, made travel between them more difficult. As a result, many versions of Jenny Everywhere temporarily lost the ability to shift and to tap into each other's knowledge, lest they go mad or fall out of reality completely; many more of Jenny's selves died than had in living memory. One version of Jenny who had retained the ability to shift investigated the Rifts' origins and discovered that they seemed to be caused by the activities of a sort of interdimensional sect called the Consistency Imperium: wherever they went, Rifts appeared or worsened. (COMIC: Jenny Everywhere Meets The Crew Of The Copper-Colored Cupids)
End of the Crisis
Pythagoras-858, whom this Jenny encountered while looking for the Imperium's home base, already knew something of the Rifts, which had cut him off from his homeworld. After learning Jenny had a lead, he decided to join forces with her and the two departed to seek out the Imperium together. (COMIC: Jenny Everywhere Meets The Crew Of The Copper-Colored Cupids) Although parting ways with Jenny at Hilbert's, (PROSE: The Grand Multiverse Hotel) Pythe ultimately made it to the Imperium's base of operations, where he met up with three other Clockwork Cherubs, Marksmanship-522, Tracker-764 and Bibliophile-962, as well as the Hound. They discovered that Mandragora had indeed infiltrated the Imperium. They helped ensure his plan backfired, however, with his Machine imploding and taking the Imperium's base with him (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!) in an event known as the Fall of the Consistency Palatium, which brought an end to the Rifts Crisis. (PROSE: The Interlude of Jenny Everywhere)
The Rifts were subsequently closed by the bevy of powerful beings who had rallied to the Cupids' cause, including Madame Tarsa. (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!) Jenny Everywhere regained the ability to shift normally, (PROSE: The Interlude of Jenny Everywhere) while Vertolin and other survivors of the Imperium vowed to build a new city from its ashes which could serve as a refuge for the many who'd lost their home to a Rift during the Crisis. The ruins of the Palatium thus became a vast scrapyard in the middle of which New Subcinctus was constructed, using the remains of the Palatium as raw material. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
