Rift
Rifts were gaps in the fabric of reality, which could open spontaneously from one universe to another. However, they were unpredictable and dangerous. (COMIC: The Beginner's Guide to Multiversal Theory) They could be referred to as dimensional rifts. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
Nature
Rifts could appear as a result of “major disturbances in the fabric of reality”. (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!) This included other Rifts: an area with too great a number of Rifts would start to spawn more and more, until a critical point was reached and complete dimensional collapse destroyed the affected dimension. (PROSE: The Mad Cupid of the Euclidean Plane) Lord Thymon once stated that using his powers to fly could create “minor Rifts”. (PROSE: Family Business)
Some Rifts worked as dimensional portals, (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!) with even Jenny Everywhere able to use them, (COMIC: Untitled) but they would also often interfere with the ability of other methods of interdimensional travel to function in proximity to the Rift, (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!) including Jenny Everywhere's shifting. (COMIC: Jenny Everywhere Meets The Crew Of The Copper-Colored Cupids)
It was possible to contain and transport Rifts by trapping them inside special Prisms. Other forms of Prisms could be used to stabilise all Rifts within an area, preventing any more from appearing. (PROSE: The Mad Cupid of the Euclidean Plane)
History
The Rifts Crisis
- See main article: Rifts Crisis
While Rifts were ordinarily rare, (COMIC: The Beginner's Guide to Multiversal Theory) during the Rifts Crisis, an “epidemic” of them spread throughout the Multiverse, destroying or endangering countless universes. It was eventually stopped with the destruction of Mandragora's Machine, which was accelerating the spread of the Rifts, combined with the uses of Prisms to counteract most of the existing Rifts. (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!)
Reality Z-25 31-H
A small “rip in the fabric of the universe” appeared in Reality Z-25 31-H in the middle of Times Square as an aftereffect of the destruction wrought by the Cosmic Solution. Unable to close it, Professor Madison and Rodney Rabbit ended up enclosing the hole in the world in a casing that turned it into a garbage disposal bin. (COMIC: Epilogue to Destruction)
Earth-K
In Earth-K, at some point, Anna Atom and Max Atom, bringing their full power to bear against one another, “ripped a a hole into the very fabric of the universe” and fell through. While the rift instantly closed behind them, leaving no clue as to where the two vanished superbeings had gone, they fell through a transdimensional maelstrom and eventually emerged in Reality Z-25 31-H. (PROSE: Anna Atom vs Max Atom)
Behind the scenes
- The multiversal nexus referenced in Xavier Llewellyn's short story A World of Pure Unimagination appears to share similarities with the Rifts.
