i am frightened

Springtrap gets a visitor.

Contains: Vivid descriptions of musty, gross surroundings. Rot. Gore (not actively gore-ing, but referenced in high detail). Rodents. Isolation??? This may also qualify as angst, I'm not completely sure.

this Will be taking up space in my brain for a while thank u for sharing

-youwontdie

Thank you so much!!! I wasn't very confident in my prose, so I'm very glad to hear that it's appreciated!

I initially wanted to go into this AU with a more realistic approach, mirroring that of real-world Many Worlds Theory and Black Hole Cosmology, but I decided that a more narratively clean route would fit better, and be easier to understand.

Oh right, here's a render I've been working on in Blender. Still not completely happy with it, but I think my computer is going to start dry heaving up its parts if I keep pushing it any further.

Here we go! I've laid out the groundwork, and now I can get into being unfathomably scatterbrained about these silly little worlds that live not only rent free, but all-expenses-paid in my mind.

Chapter 10: What Now?

And now, we stand before a multiverse. I’ve explained most of the principles and rules of this AU. But now that I have, what should I do with it?

I could write a story. And I probably will, at some point. But that will take time.

I could make a comic. And I probably will, at some point. But that will take skills that I have yet to develop.

I could open my asks and encourage you to ask any questions you have…

Yeah, I think I’ll do that one, for now.

Do you have any questions? Is curiosity eating away at you? Do you simply want further clarification on topics I’ve covered? Do you want to know where your favorite fancontent fits into this multiverse? Have an idea that you think could fit in well with this AU? Send an ask my way! Or add it in the replies, or reblog this post!

Just because I’ve finished the basic explanation doesn’t mean that I’ve said everything there is to say about this multiverse. I have plenty more to say, and I’ll continue elaborating upon this AU over time. And I would love, love, love to talk about it with others and have questions asked about it.

In addition, I fully encourage anyone who’s inspired by this AU to make their own story based in the multiverse. Or even elaborate on a different multiverse using these principles! If you can’t tell, I love this community dearly, despite its flaws. I’m rounding on 10 years with this franchise and this fandom, and I want it to thrive, and grow. I love this community, and this multiverse AU is a loveletter to all of the creative people in this community who have made so many interesting, funny, and unique stories, games, comics, art, and media over the years. And thank you, for reading this. I’m eager to continue writing this, and (hopefully) contributing to the entertainment, inspiration, and encouragement that this community has brought so many people.

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Here we are, nearly at the end of my little silly textbook draft. Don't worry though, I'm not finished with this AU. (Not by a longshot)

Chapter 9: The Spaces In-Between

And here we are. A part that I’ve been eagerly awaiting.

Explaining what lies between universes. This is where things start rounding out into something you can really sink your teeth into.

First off, the space between universes is… Interesting. Yeah, that’s what we’ll call it.

It’s filled with fractured pieces of forgotten universes. Broken, misshapen settings, haphazardly mis-mashed together into a distorted landscape, full of tears and chasms that only plummet deeper into the multiverse. Characters who have forgotten who they are - Characters who are confused, lost, and scared - Characters who have been alone in the broken, uncanny wastelands for so long that they’ve gone mad - Characters who have begun to remember things they shouldn’t be able to, who have begun to remember their previous revisions, the loop they’ve been on for lifetimes - Characters who’ve realized their entire life was planned out as a narrative, all to entertain onlookers like a trained beast in a circus - Characters who are angry, so so angry that while other universes continue to exist, theirs was abandoned and forgotten, and they were left to rot in the wastes between worlds.

Characters with a predetermined fate know nothing of the hell that those forgotten experience. To be doomed by the narrative is to have a place in it. And for these wandering souls, the narrative, the story, the life that they once had… It’s long gone. And now, there is no narrative to guide them. They’re left wandering. Even characters doomed to death serve a purpose. Even characters who face fates worse than death have the security of a story to fall back on, even if they don’t know it. But for those without a story to support them, there is nothing. Nothing but to wander, often in solitude, for eternity.

Surprisingly, navigating the spaces in-between is rather easy, as long as you’re careful. The hard part is finding an exit. Or rather, an entrance. The space in-between is quite vast, and despite how many universes exist, it’s still very much a hotdog down a hallway situation. [Note to self: Find a better way to phrase that before you post this.] [Update: I couldn't.] The sheer scale of the multiverse makes it difficult to find universes through just wandering.

With the sole exception of the center of the universe. There, you can't go five feet without tripping into a universe, simply because of how cramped it is there. But as it pertains to anything beyond X±.1 Y±.1, there will be a lot of wandering involved.

An interesting addition, there are two universes which, in this AU, could have built-in interuniversal travel. The first of them being FNAF World. Specifically, the Flipside. This is the point where I’m going to establish a specific coordinate for a world. The fourth level of the flipside exists at X0 Y0 Z-1. It exists directly under canon at the lowest point of the multiverse, and if anything falls through from canon, it ends up there.

And the second of these potential easy integrations is - drumroll please…

The Fazbear Frights anthology. I’m sorry.

The initially cut and later released Fazbear Frights story, The Scoop, sticks out severely for being intensely meta. And because of that, it is, in this AU, an example of a larger story spanning over multiple universes. And that could potentially be the case with several other stories from the anthology series, but I’m electing not to touch the matter any further, because the canonicity of these books is still a topic of vicious debate, and I’m not about any of that.

Also, I'm not even going to touch In The Flesh. I know there is an argument to be made there about it taking place in another independent universe, but I really can't take that story seriously.

But anywhom, with that out of the way, the next chapter is mostly going to be a note from me, rather than a direct explanation of the principles of this AU.

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Almost at the end of my introduction to the multiverse. Just two chapters left. (Closer to one chapter, really.)

Chapter 8: Exaverses

Ah, exaverses. It’s high time we talk about these properly. I’ve mentioned a few times about how while the focus of this AU is the FNAF multiverse, it is simply part of a bigger whole.

This ‘whole’ is the local exaverses. Exaverses contain a number of multiverses, and are generally reflective of genres, fanbases, and mediums. They are not based specifically on position, nor are they static. Exaverses can, and frequently do, overlap quite noticeably. For brevity, I’ll list just a few of the exaverses that the FNAF multiverse has been local to.

The HORROR Exaverse - This one is self-explanatory. FNAF started with a horror game, and it has become rather recognizable and well-known in the space. Though many would argue that it has since grown out of the horror label, and skews more towards the thriller label. Also contains Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, IT, The Thing, Creepypasta, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, and various other horror works.

The INDIE GAME Exaverse - Another self-explanatory one. FNAF began with an indie developer, and has inspired many independent developers, in turn. Also contains worlds such as Undertale, Super Meat Boy, Journey, Untitled Goose Game, Cuphead, Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, and various others.

The MASCOT HORROR Exaverse - This one is particularly interesting, as FNAF is, for all intents and purposes, the progenitor of this relatively new exaverse. While Bendy and the Ink Machine and Poppy Playtime are regarded as the type specimens of the Mascot Horror genre, FNAF is generally seen as the face of Mascot Horror, due to being so deeply influential to the themes of the genre. Also contains Tattletail, Amanda the Adventurer, Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning (though with a more parodic sentiment), Mr. Hopp's Playhouse, Duck Season, and several other properties, including The Banana Splits Movie and Willy’s Wonderland.

This obviously isn’t an exhaustive list, as the number of exaverses is basically countless, and their borders are fuzzy and subjective at the best of times. And not all of the universes encompassed by the FNAF multiverse are under the same exaverses. Some fanmade universes aren’t part of the HORROR exaverse because they aren’t meant to be scary, and some canon universes can’t be placed in the INDIE GAME exaverse because they aren’t indie and aren’t games.

I specifically made this chapter to address something that I know I’ll get asked, because it’s something I would ask, if I saw an AU like this. “Why does this logic apply to this property, but not others?” The answer is… It does! Other franchises very much do have their own multiverses under this AU. I’m just focusing on the FNAF part of it because that’s the part that I’m most interested in. Certain multiverses have other rules under their community creators. Certain multiverses have a much more ‘closed-circuit’ approach than the FNAF multiverse. Others are more open. Some have a lot of movement between universes, while others have none.

And next time, that’s what we’ll be talking more about how the FNAF multiverse in particular handles movement between universes.

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I've already finished the rest of the chapters. I think I might most them all at once. Or maybe I'll space them out. Who knows.

Chapter 7: Timelines

Timelines are a frequently referenced thing among multiverse AUs, and sci-fi on the whole, and I have touched on them briefly in the Universes chapter. But this time, I’ll be going a bit further into detail on them.

Timelines, as present in this multiverse, are parallel series of events that stem from a common point, but (generally) do not thereafter intersect. They exist in the context of the same universe, and do not retroactively change known facts about the universe in question, allowing them to coexist on separate ‘planes’ of a singular universe.

These planes are, for the sake of simplicity, recognized as an ‘auxiliary dimension’ of reality. One that doesn’t really exist in known reality, but which does in this multiverse. We’ll call it Path, or P. The base plane for a universe is typically at P 0, and subsequent timelines can exist anywhere from P +1 to P -1. As an example, FNAF 3 has two endings. The canon ending exists at P 0 of the GAMES timeline, and the non-canon ending somewhere around P -0.01. Similarly, Sister Location has a non-canon ending, which in turn exists at P +0.01.

More complex timeline systems also exist, as a result of nonlinear storytelling. For example, in the (as of posting) soon-to-come choose-your-own-adventure novels, there will be multiple paths available to the reader. While I currently don’t know how many endings and paths will exist (not out yet =[), it’s likely to be a fair amount, and there will probably be a fair amount of overlap between paths, to save on book size. Due to this, the planes will likely have a very complex series of connections, breaking the general ‘no intersecting’ rule.

Similarly - Security Breach, with its differing routes and endings, has this same sort of non-linear planar system on a smaller scale. While the midpoint choices mostly serve to affect gameplay, not story, they still exist, and certain endings do require certain choices to be made. The ending below the pizzaplex, requires that all of the glamrocks be in their broken state. The fire escape ending requires that the player collect significantly more collectibles than is required by normal gameplay. This series of decisions creates a semi-complex web of options, paths, and endings. Which ending is canon, and if it’s any of those shown, remains a topic of debate. But nonetheless, these endings all exist as timelines within the universe.

And, if you want to go over it more keenly, there are micro-timelines for each of the games. Mostly in the form of the various game overs that the player can encounter. These micro-timelines aren’t elaborated upon in any meaningful capacity, nor are they considered a part of the story. They’re mostly a consequence of the games’ mechanics. But, they can still serve as the basis for fanmade universes, via the creativity of fans.

Alright, there’s that part explained. Next time, we’ll be going the opposite direction, and looking at the bigger picture. The next chapter will be on exaverses.

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Part six, a little shorter than usual because I'm trying to get ahead on the next few chapters

Chapter 6: Satellite Universes

Alright, we’re back to normal, pretty meta stuff. Last chapter was a doozy, so I’m taking it easy on the writing this time.

Satellite universes are partial universes that require the context of a ‘host’ universe to make sense. In these satellite universes are where things like headcanons and theories come into play.

Satellite universes can be thought of as a lens through which a universe can be viewed. They don’t change what is known about a story, but they give context that doesn’t explicitly exist in the host universe.

They are VERY densely packed around canon universes, simply by virtue of how popular the canon universes are. The GAMES universe is the most egregious in this matter, as the rather fragmented nature of the known story has led a great many of these satellite universes to be created, in hopes of illuminating the lore, or the sake of elaborating upon the events and characters in the story.

The characters ‘created’ by these satellite universes aren’t technically independent characters, but instead a view of the preexisting characters from a different angle.

BUT. If a satellite universe becomes densely detailed enough, it can function on its own, becoming a unique universe. But more often, it’s simply a matter of the different ways in which different people construe the same piece of media.

Satellite universes are the main culprit in the unbelievably dense nature of the multiverse’s center. Canon itself is rather dense, yes, but the knowledge that we have about it is very limited, and so people make assumptions and theories to fill in what we don't know. The sheer number of satellite universes are what makes it so difficult to see in. There are hundreds of thousands- maybe even millions of perspectives, all having different ways of filling the gaps. There is no impartial way to observe canon, because there will always be assumptions made. This is part of the reason that canon is practically untouchable.

This is a rather short chapter, but I feel like people would have asked where headcanons and theories fit into it all, and I wanted to get the answer out, since I already have it.

Next chapter, we’ll be defining and talking about timelines. Probably another short chapter, for the same reason.

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WOW this one got a little dark. I don't even know how to tag this. UHH... Mild descriptions of major character death? Descriptions of watching a world die? Abandonment, kind of? I got a little out of hand writing this one. The writer in me woke up out of nowhere.

Chapter 5: Dead Universes

Now THIS is a concept that is full of potential. In the last post, I talked a bit about how creators have a hand in their universes, and the ways that affects things. But here, HERE is where that idea gets interesting.

Think of a discontinued story. A story that never gets finished. A story that stops evolving, and sits stagnant - unchanging, and incomplete.

The multiverse is full of these kinds of stories. These universes where an ending never comes. Universes where the timeline simply ends, with no explanation. No closure, and no conclusion.

These are dying universes. Universes that come to a grinding halt. A fragment of what could have been. They still exist for a time, but as people begin to forget them and their source materials disappear, they decay. They wither and die, crumbling into the cosmic dust that fills the spaces between universes. Forgotten stories.

That is what happens to universes that are discontinued.

But the even more interesting thing is that this fate isn’t too dissimilar to the fate of finished universes. In finished universes, the story simply repeats, over and over again. Replaying time and time again for its audience. Until that audience stops watching, and the universe decays.

This is what happens to stories that are completed. They are also dying universes.

What makes a universe dead isn’t if it’s discontinued, or unfinished. What makes a universe dead is that people have stopped caring for them. There is exactly one thing that existing universes are dependent upon. That being their creators. Once a creator stops caring for a story, it stops growing. And when fans begin to forget, it starts dying.

But, being a dead universe doesn’t always mean that a universe is destined to decay. A creator doesn’t have to be the original creator. As long as there is someone to nurture the universe and grow the story, it isn’t dead. A universe is only dead if it becomes disconnected. A universe is only dead if it’s forgotten.

Just as there are countless forgotten, decaying universes, there are countless universes that have come to be fostered by new creators. Stories that were entrusted to others by their original creators, in hopes that they could continue to bring joy - and stories that had been left to rot, discovered and given new life. Even canon falls under this group, with a new set of creators in charge of keeping it alive.

There’s so many opportunities in this concept, which is why I elected to include it in this AU. A character having to watch as their universe is forgotten, aspects of the story slowly breaking down, the very world around them crumbling as the abandoned husk of something that once brought so much joy gives its final curtain call. Before eventually slipping into the space between universes as their reality dies and breaks apart.

But at the same time, there’s the inverse. A story being salvaged and renewed. A new path being forged ahead - having new experiences, meeting new people, and continuing to live on. Continuing to bring joy and catharsis and feeling to people that they don’t even know exist, but whom so often hold them so very dearly...

Well, that got a little heavy for a second. Anyways-

Next chapter, we’ll be going down to a smaller scale talking about satellite universes. What they are, and why they are particularly dense around canon.

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Part four, we're getting in it, now.

Chapter 4: Universes

In our last two chapters, we defined the different two main genres of universes in this multiverse. Canon and fanmade. But I never really took the time to explain what a universe is. So here, we’ll be doing exactly that.

Universes, in the context of the multiverse, are independent ‘worlds’ that exist between Z0 and Z-1. They may be part of larger systems, but they function normally without the support of external bodies.

For example, the GAMES universe does not need the TRILOGY universe to function, and vice versa. A piece of fan content like AVS or BTC - while they couldn’t be created independently, due to influences from the canons - can exist independently without issue, as are both fully formed worlds. And the same with other fanmedias, like Spring-trapped, DSaF, the House Party comics, or Tony Crynight’s FNAF series. (I know some of those are real throwbacks. My apologies.) They can exist independently because they aren’t built as elaborations upon canon, but instead as reinterpretations, what-ifs, and stories built to stand on their own.

On a smaller scale, things can be defined a bit differently.

Locally, universes are exactly what they sound like. They’re universes. They can be different in any number of ways, have different events, different characters, different themes, different settings. In this multiverse, the universes typically have some amount in common overall, though what exactly that is varies widely. Some universes merely have their character designs linking them to canon, being functionally distinct, but still recognizable. Most, though, have more shared ideas than just designs.

Typically, universes have a main story, sometimes with alternative timelines that aren’t the creator’s main focus - though some take the form of elaborate webs of timelines, in the form of games with multiple paths, and choose-your-own-adventure stories. These auxiliary timelines functionally exist in the same universe as the main timeline, running in parallel. Note that the term timeline is typically used only to an alternative series of events documented by the creator of the universe, and not fanworks that document a hypothetical series of events. And yet other universes have no particular story, at all.

The most interesting part of universes, however (on the multiversal scale), is how they interact with other universes, and, on occasion, reality. Because they can, and frequently do, interact. Admittedly, canon is quite restricted - but fanmade universes are much freer in terms of interactions. I’ll go further in-depth at a later point, but for now, I’d like to touch on the ways that universes - on a multiversal scale - change with time.

There have always been ‘trends’ within the fan-creator community. As people’s understandings of characters have evolved, many shifts have occurred over the years.

For example, looking further back - or in spatial terms, towards the edges of the multiverse - there’s a particular interpretation of a character, which doesn’t really exist anymore. That being: Purple Guy. Today, that moniker is mostly used in jest - but at one time, it was the only name we had for the man responsible for most of the story. And it was reflective of our rather limited knowledge of him. Which, in turn, allowed for more freedom of interpretation, for better and for worse.

Today, many universes that used that name have been deserted, for any number of reasons. Loss of interest, inaccuracies, toxicity, simply being too busy to continue.

And very fact that raises a question. What happens to universes that are abandoned? What becomes of stories that are discontinued? That’s what we’ll be covering in our next chapter.

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Part 3, baby, lets get down to it.

Chapter 3: Fan Content

Unsurprisingly, fan content is another prominent part of the FNAF fandom. Simply put, there are people who get very invested in these silly little traumatized characters, and like to create their own stories with them. I mean no offense by summarizing in that way, just to make that clear - been there, done that. But the thing is - in this multiverse, all of those worlds, and headcanons, and timelines people create are very much real.

Fan content makes up the vast majority of the FNAF multiverse. There's quite a lot of it, after all. While not as densely packed as canon, it spans over a much larger area, diverging from canon and exploring stories that wouldn’t ever be considered for official materials. (For better and for worse.)

For clarity, let’s go ahead and define what fan content is. (Though I’m sure most of you don’t need an explanation, I’d like to be thorough.)

Fan content is any content made by a fan of a piece of media, which noticeably and clearly takes inspiration from the media in question. For example, fanart, fansongs, ask blogs, fan comics, animations, cosplays, alternate universes, and many more unique types of fan content.

But with this, the question then becomes, where is the line between something made by a fan, and fan content? How close does it have to be, to be a part of this multiverse? Does mascot horror count as part of the FNAF multiverse, because it’s inspired by the themes of FNAF? What about something like CASE: ANIMATRONICS, which had a lawsuit brought against it for IP infringement? What about content that goes out of the limits of the franchise? Where is the line drawn between ‘inspired by’ and ‘multiverse’?

Well, I’ve thought about that a fair amount. And here is my conclusion:

There isn’t a clear line. Universes can be rather close in proximity to canon, but not be part of the multiverse - and universes can be quite far from canon, and still be part of the multiverse. There isn’t a clean line, because that’s simply not how fiction works. Everything is inspired by something. And in this case, it’s simply a matter of choosing what you think fits into it, because everybody will draw their own lines. It’s always a matter of perspective, in this franchise.

But, if you’d like my input, I have a few questions that I use to determine if a universe is part of the FNAF multiverse.

1.) Does it have anything in common with FNAF?

Technically speaking, everything has something in common with FNAF, because if you look hard enough, all stories share something in common, even if it’s very small. But I particularly mean in terms of characters, settings, events, or other specifically recognizable things.

2.) Is it inspired by FNAF?

This is a rather self-explanatory one. Something can’t be part of the multiverse if it was created independently.

3.) Does the creator insist that it is distinct?

This one might confuse things a bit, but here’s my train of thought. A universe exists under the provision of its creator. It might be in the locale of a certain multiverse, but the creator maintains sole control of if it is under the ‘jurisdiction’ of this multiverse. Something like CASE: ANIMATRONICS is distinct because the creators insist that it’s not part of the multiverse. Compare with something like FNAC, which makes explicit references to FNAF, and has been brought in as an official fangame. - If the creator does insist that it’s distinct, then it’s probably part of the greater exaverse. (aka, Fiction on the whole. When I said this multiverse concept could be applied to a lot of different things, I meant it. It goes much farther than just FNAF.)

4.) Does it involve themes that have been explicitly disowned by the creators?

The fact of the matter is, there are AUs that go into content that has been openly renounced by the creators of the franchise. And as the multiverse is under their jurisdiction, these universes are basically in voluntary exile due to the inclusion of these themes.

So, now that that's cleared up, where does that leave us? Wading through the still-absurdly-dense web of universes that remain a part of the multiverse. There are still thousands - hundreds of thousands, even - of fanmade universes, timelines, satellite universes, and megaverses, even with these guidelines in place.

Next chapter, we’ll be defining what makes a universe a universe, and why there are so many of them in the first place.

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Part 2, here already. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I know myself too well for that =]

Chapter 2: Canon

Canon has always been a point of contention among the community, and for good reason. It’s dense, confusing, misleading, and has had at least one retcon take place. And that is reflected in the multiverse. Canon is the infinitely dense, ever-expanding cosmic horror at the center of the Five Nights at Freddy’s multiverse. The creature that spawned all of the universes that came after it.

That last point is particularly relevant to the Games canon. And unlike the people slogging about on Twitter, I don’t particularly care if you think the anthologies are canon to the games, or if the novel based around the movie retconned things. Because regardless, there are too many universes to keep track of - and because of the way the community is, there will be a universe where they are one in the same, and there will be universes where they are distinct. Everything that could be, is. And everything that might be, will. It’s just a matter of people speaking it into being.

There is no clear distinction between canon and canon-adjacent. The true canon has never been identified by the creators, and so, it remains a mystery among the endless sea of speculative universes. Which universes are the true canons remain something only the creators know.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of canon/canon-adjacent universes and timelines based in canon universes.

The GAMES Canon - Consists of the Clickteam-era and Steel Wool-era games. The true breadth of this canon remains a topic of heated debate amongst the community. Depending on who is talking, it may or may not include FNAF: Special Delivery, FNAF World, Fazbear Frights, Into The Pit, and Tales from the Pizzaplex. Has several alternate timelines, including the non-canon endings of FNAF 3 and Sister Location, and the various endings of Security Breach.

The TRILOGY Canon - Consists of the official FNAF novel trilogy: The Silver Eyes, The Twisted Ones, and The Fourth Closet. Despite initial confusion within the community, this trilogy is generally considered to be a distinct universe, due to various incompatibilities with other universes. Keen readers may consider the graphic novels to be a separate timeline, due to being generally comparable, but slightly different.

The MOVIE Canon - Consists of the FNAF Movies. As of posting, the second movie is in development, and the canon is thus unfinished, leaving many mysteries up in the air. The novelization is considered an alternate timeline, due to various small differences and mistakes.

Uniquely, canon is functionally untouchable, only making it more difficult to distinguish. Any attempts to interact or even perceive the true canon result in the immediate production of a unique 'satellite universe', prone to mutations. No two people will have the exact same perception of the canon, and that is reflected in the mechanics of the multiverse. Where one may find a character unilaterally evil, another may find them sympathetic. No one universe is more invalid than another, as each is as real as the rest. Proximity to canon is difficult to parse, and even official content deviates from it, at times. 

In our next chapter, we’ll get into the other side of the coin. Fanmade universes.

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