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How many worlds haveyou been to? I've seen multitudes.They're all beautiful...and different.

Multiversal Cycle[]

Ever since theCelestial War, reality has gone through cycles of destruction and renewal.^[7] Multiverses have a natural lifespan, although they can also end early due to other means.^[26] There is usually a period of nothingness between each cycle.^[27] The current Multiverse was originally theSeventh Cosmos, until it wasdestroyed and reborn as theEighth Cosmos, a direct continuation of the Seventh.^[28][29][30]

The First Cosmos and the Creation of the Multiverse[]

In the beginning, there was only one universe: theFirst Cosmos. The First Cosmos was a single Universe instead of a multiverse. Embodied by theFirst Firmament, it was a perfect, unchanging cosmos. Loneliness caused the First Firmament to create theAspirants andCelestials, who then fought aCelestial War. The Celestials wanted change, evolution, and mortality, and at the end of the war, they shattered the First Cosmos into countless pieces, and from these pieces were born countless universes, thus forming the first ever Multiverse of infinite possibilities, theSecond Cosmos. This also kickstarted the multiversal cycles.^[7][31]

Each iteration of the next Multiverse would go through a different instance of renewal, which constitutes in the destruction and re-creation of everything there is starting from zero, with each renewal prompting the Multiverse to evolve further.^[29][7]

The Second Cosmos[]

The Celestials colonized theSecond Cosmos and created servitors called "Omegas" to help them manage the newly-created Multiverse. However, the Second Cosmos only lasted a few millennia because everything at the time was new, including the concept of an "all-death." Thepersonification of the Second Cosmos was eager to try it, and thus willingly died.

After its death, it was reborn as the Third Cosmos. The Celestials moved on to the next Multiverse, while the Omegas decided to stayoutside of the Multiverse in theremnants of the Second Cosmos. Because of this, the Omegas became known as the Beyonders.^[31]

The Third Cosmos[]

TheThird Cosmos was the first to be born from a completed multiversal cycle (as the First Cosmos did not go through cycles and the Second was born from its war-torn fragments). The Third Cosmos was noted to be basic. Having learned the states ofbeing andnon-being from the Second Cosmos, the conflict in the Third Cosmos (the earliest form of "narrative") was betweenexistence andnothingness. This conflict was represented by the battle ofLifebringer One (the first sentry, or first hero)^[8] and theAnti-All (the primal void). Lifebringer One defeated the Anti-All; thus, existence conquered non-existence. However, the Anti-All shattered into countless fragments, speculated to be variations of the great nothingness that will appear in future cosmos.^[32][31]

The Fourth Cosmos[]

TheFourth Cosmos was inhabited by archetypal beings who were bound by patterns. They fought in endless cycles, in accordance to those patterns. When the "What-Must-Be" (the archetype for the Devourer of Worlds) threatened the other archetypes,Cloud (who travelled to the Fourth Cosmos alongside theDefenders) convinced the archetypes to break their old patterns to unite against it. The "What-Must-Be" was transformed into the "What-Can-Be" (the archetype for the Lifebringer). The archetypes and patterns from the Fourth Cosmos were passed on into future cosmos.^[33]

The Fifth Cosmos[]

TheFifth Cosmos was the first to havemagic and sorcery began here. One of its inhabitants wasMoridun, who wasSorcerer Supreme. At the end of the Fifth Cosmos, Moridun presumably bonded with theSentience of the Cosmos and passed on to the Sixth Cosmos as Omnimax, the Devourer of Worlds.^[34]

The Sixth Cosmos[]

TheSixth Cosmos was devoted to science and is said to have begun the concept. One of its planets wasTaa, a highly advanced world said to be unmatched by any other. ATaa-an namedGalan found out that their universe was dying due to a "plague" known as theBlack Winter. The last Taa-ans launched a ship to the terminal point of the universe and Galan met theSentience of the Cosmos, who informed him that they were both dying but would pass on to the next cycle as a new lifeform: Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds.^[35][36] According to the Black Winter, it intentionally spared Galan so that Galactus could become its herald.^[37]

The Seventh Cosmos[]

TheSeventh Cosmos was the most well-known Multiverse as it was the present-day Multiverse, up until agreat calamity destroyed it. Out of the myriad of realities that composed the Seventh Cosmos, the most notable wereEarth-616 (the Marvel Universe) andEarth-1610 (the Ultimate Universe).

X-Termination[]

Before theCelestials had split the Universe into the Multiverse, they created ravenous monsters called theExterminators to balance their creations of life with death. The Exterminators went out of the Celestials' control, so the Celestials sealed them up in one of the Multiverse's universes.^[38] However, multiversal travel weakened the walls the Celestials had put up, allowing some of the Exterminators to escape eons later.^[39]

The rift first became known onEarth-13812 in the head of theSphinx.Lord Xavier, the Witch King,Nazi Xavier, andXavier Head began sacrificing civilians to an interdimensional rift to gain power. Thetransdimensional X-Men were were able to rescue their Xavier and narrowly defeated Lord Xavier and Nazi Xavier. Unfortunately, the X-Men did not act quickly enough to save that world, and were forced to make an interdimensional jump, leaving that reality and all its citizens being consumed by the Exterminators' vortex.^[40]

Meanwhile onEarth-616,AOA Nightcrawler andDark Beast used theDreaming Celestial to create a portal toNew Apocalypse. Unfortunately, this portal opened the rift between realities wide enough for the Exterminators to pass over toEarth-295.^[41] When the Exterminators emerged, they were greeted by theX-Men, thetransdimensional X-Men, and theX-Terminated.^[41][39] One of the Exterminators departed to Earth-616 where he drained theDreaming Celestial while the other two Exterminators remained on Earth-295, one feeding off the rift and the other seeking out the power ofApocalypse in theDeath Seed.^[42] They were imprisoned within Earth-295 when Nightcrawler sacrificed himself to seal off their universe.^[43]

Age of Ultron[]

AfterWolverine traveled back in time numerous times to prevent the rise of power of the evil artificial intelligence known asUltron, the space-time continuum was broken, causing a multiversal massive shockwave to echo through time and space as reality seeming to shatter before being pulled back together. A "multiversal chaos" was unleashed, where numerous beings from other realities were transported to other universes through the tears of reality.^[44]

Incursions and theEighth Cosmos[]

TheBeyonders fromoutside the Multiverse decided to conduct an experiment to end it and spare it fromEnigma.^[31][45] In every reality, they orchestrated the "accident" of theMolecule Man in hopes that he would explode and take everything out simultaneously.Doctor Doom and theMolecule Man ofEarth-616 opposed the Beyonders and went to the past to kill the Molecule Men. Unfortunately, the Molecule Men's deaths caused the Multiverse to contract as part of the Beyonders' design.^[46][47]

The contraction to the Multiverse led to events known as theincursions. Realities throughout the Multiverse began to experience regular collisions one with another, with their respective planets Earth acting as the focal point. Unless the impact was averted by the destruction of either of the two colliding Earths, both intersecting realities would be destroyed when the two planets made contact. In addition, the entire Multiverse's lifespan was shortened.^[26]

While numerousdifferent beings and groups of people from across numerous universes attempted to avert the death of everything, it all eventually came down to the final incursion between the last two surviving universes,Earth-616 andEarth-1610, which were subsequently destroyed. Only a handful of inhabitants from each universe outlived their realities, aboardlife rafts that kept them in suspended animation. Among them were the Reed Richards of each universe,Mister Fantastic andthe Maker.^[48]

After stealing the power from the Beyonders with the help of the Molecule Man, Doctor Doom managed to salvage the remnants of several destroyed universes, merging them intoBattleworld. Doom's eight-year reign as Battleworld's ruler came to an end when the discovery of the two life rafts caused bedlam. During a confrontation between Doctor Doom and Mister Fantastic, the Molecule Man transferred the power of the Beyonders to Reed, destroying Battleworld in the process. With the power he had received, Mister Fantastic began to restore the Multiverse, universe by universe, with the help of his son,Franklin Richards. This chain of events is what caused the creation of theEighth Cosmos.^[49] However, instead of starting over from scratch, most of the Seventh Cosmos was carried over to the Eighth Cosmos.^[30]

Eternity War[]

Still resentful of the existence of multiple realities, theFirst Firmament decided to attack the current embodiment of the Multiverse,Eternity. Taking advantage of Eternity's weakened state caused by its most recent rebirth, the First Firmament bound it in chains, and sent itsAspirants to destroy it from the inside out.^[7] Additionally, the First Firmament and the Aspirants corruptedLord Chaos andMaster Order, leading them to taking over the Multiverse asLogos.^[50]

In an attempt to help strengthen Eternity, the Maker harvested the essence of the Aspirants and used theHigh Evolutionary's technology to disrupt and bring down theSuperflow, the network that separated realities from one another, successfully merging every universe within Eternity into one. The Maker also took advantage of this opportunity to rewrite the laws of the Multiverse to bring back to life the originalUltimates from his defunct home universe.^[50] Even though the process strengthened Eternity in the beginning and allowed it to break free from the First Firmament's grasp, it soon proved to be counterproductive. Eternity began to deteriorate, facilitating the First Firmament's consumption of it. Because of this,Galactus sent his ownUltimates to stop the Maker.

AfterSpectrum and the High Evolutionary killed the Maker's then-current body, both teams of Ultimates worked together to reverse the damage caused to the Superflow. Using the nanites from his armor in the High Evolutionary's technology, which had been advanced by the Maker beyond its creator's understanding,Iron Man was capable of interacting with it. Spectrum subsequently used her powers to link together the minds of both teams of Ultimates, allowing their combined brain power to operate the machine, and restore the Multiverse to its normal state.

Galactus and hisEternity Watch subsequently entered Eternity. Aided by theQueen of Nevers, who revived theCelestials, and theBlack Panther, who ascended with theTiger God, they defeated the Aspirants and Logos, freeing Eternity from their detrimental influence. Full of vigor once again, Eternity summonedthe previous embodiments of past cosmoses from theFar Shore to aid him against the First Firmament. This army of past cosmoses imprisoned the First Firmament, and took it away to another plane of existence in order to heal it.^[8]

Infinity Conflict[]

When thefuture omnipotent Thanos forcedhis past self to follow his own path by using theAstral Regulator to absorb the majority of theCosmic Beings,^[16] the two merged and then absorbed both theLiving Tribunal and theAbove All Others, becoming the very embodiment of the entire Multiverse. However, after the future Thanos realized the realities were stuck in a loop, he saw that life was meaningless and sought to "free" everyone by killing himself and destroy all of space and time. Thankfully, thanks to the combined effort ofAdam Warlock,Kang the Conqueror, and present Thanos, the future Thanos' plan was stopped and he was erased from existence.^[51]

PossibleNinth Cosmos[]

There are at least three possible outcomes for the Ninth Cosmos. The first one, at the end of time of the Eighth Cosmos,Franklin Richards andGalactus ofEarth-616 were the sole survivors. While waiting for the entropy to finish the current cosmos, they recalled the history of their universe and multiverse. Finally when the Eighth Cosmos ended and the new one started, Galactus's energy merged with Franklin who became the Devourer of Worlds of the next cosmos.^[52][53] Through a series of events,Reed Richards of Earth-616 ended up at the time of the transition from the Eighth to the Ninth Cosmos, being saved and returned to his rightful place by Franklin.^[54]

On the second one, billions of years into the future at the end of the Eighth Cosmos, analternate version of the Hulk who had been possessed by theOne Below All, killed all other immortals, and devoured theSentience of the Universe to become the Devourer of Worlds of the next cosmos.^[55] However, due to the influence of the One Below All, he would become the Breaker-Apart. This cosmos apparently was inhabited by advanced aliens that communicated through crystals, pulses, and colors. After ten billion years, the Breaker-Apart destroyed almost all life, light, and planets throughout the universe, rendering it dead, with the lastsurviving inhabitant sending before its death a modifiedTiding-fly to the former cosmos.^[56]

The third one, as related by theEventuality toDylan Brock, ifEddie Brock were to reunite with theVenom symbiote, they would emulateKnull, taking up the mantle of theAnti-All.^[57] As a multiversal presence born from the amalgamation of every Eddie Brock in the Multiverse staying asVenom,^[58] and the trueKing in Black of the Eighth Cosmos, the Eventuality will be renewed by the cosmic void when the Eighth Cosmos ends and the Ninth Cosmos begins to met a new King in Black.^[59] Eddie will rampage across the universe leading a horde of insectoid symbiotes similar toSymbiote Dragons in order to find and test a worthy successor to the role of King in Black, declaring his intent to destroy the Ninth Cosmos should none arise.^[57] This outcome of the Ninth Cosmos seems to be inhabited by the same or a similar species of advanced aliens that lived in the outcome of the cosmos of the Breaker-Apart.^[60][56]

Marvel Cinematic Universe[]

Earth-199999^[61] is also known as "616" or "Sacred Timeline" (not to be confused withEarth-616).^[62]

In the past, there was aMultiversal War betweenVariants ofVictor Timely, until one known asHe Who Remains won the war. He isolatedhis home reality and founded theTime Variance Authority to prevent the divergences of branched timelines fromSacred Timeline.^[63] He Who Remains took shelter in aCitadel at the End of Time, from where he observed the timeline. Any universes that diverged had been destroyed ("pruned") as soon as they started branching out.^[64] The people who diverged from the Sacred Timeline had been sent to theVoid at the End of Time to be consumed byAlioth,^[65] except for some variants who had their memories wiped so they would work as staff for the Time Variance Authority.^[66]

Eventually,Sylvie Laufeydottir killed He Who Remains^[63] and the Time Variance Authority started allowing the alternate universes to freely branch out. However, the growing multiverse overloaded theTemporal Loom which was designed to maintain only a single universe. After the Temporal Loom was destroyed,Loki Laufeyson (Variant L1130) was able to personally maintain the multiverse existing while sitting on the throne in theCitadel at the End of Time.^[67]

Uatu the Watcher has been observing several alternate universes branched from Earth-199999. This includes a variant ofUltron who threatened to destroy the multiverse and was eventually stopped by theGuardians of the Multiverse.^[68][69] Eventually,Doctor Strange Supreme attempted to use the Forge to recreate his owndestroyed universe by sacrificing several people from different universes, but he was stopped byKahhori andCaptain Carter.^[70]

According toAmerica Chavez, she has no variants in the multiverse. She also claimed that food is free in most universes.^[71] It has been noted that travelling between universes can cause anincursion. This has been described byReed Richards fromEarth-838 as "An incursion occurs, when the boundary between two universes erodes, and they collide. Destroying one, or both, entirely." Some incursions are known to have happened:Doctor Strange from Earth-838 caused the destruction of another universe, andSinister Strange caused the destruction of his own universe as well. All copies of theDarkhold in Earth-199999's multiverse were destroyed byWanda Maximoff.^[71]

An universe can deteriorate and be eventually destroyed after the death of its anchor being. In the case ofEarth-17315, its anchor being isLogan, but there was also an attempt to replace him with anotherLogan variant.^[72]

Cosmic Hierarchy[]

Each cycle has its own cosmic hierarchy. The following is an incomplete cosmic hierarchy from the Seventh Cosmos.^[73]

• Tier 1: TheLiving Tribunal
• Tier 2:Eternity,Infinity,Death,Oblivion
• Tier 3:Master Order,Lord Chaos,Mistress Love,Sire Hate
• Tier 4:Galactus,Celestials,Kronos, theStranger, theWatchers, thegods of Earth (e.g.Odin andZeus)

However, at the start of each cycle, the hierarchy of the previous cycle is rendered obsolete and the power rankings of all the cosmic entities are temporarily in flux while the new hierarchy is being established. This is proven at the start of the eighth cycle, when Galactus was able to defeat Master Order and Lord Chaos despite being below them back in the Seventh Cosmos.^[74] Galactus had switched roles from the Devourer of Worlds to the Lifebringer, and after failing to force him to revert back, Order and Chaos tried to appeal to theLiving Tribunal. However, the Living Tribunal sided with Galactus as the old cosmic order is no more and the new order is yet to be set, meaning Galactus is allowed to change roles. Displeased with the decision and realizing that the Living Tribunal himself is part of the cosmic hierarchy, Master Order and Lord Chaos then killed the Living Tribunal as he was no longer their superior.^[75]

Order and Chaos once again tried to revert Galactus to the Devourer of Worlds, only to fail for the same reason they were able to kill the Living Tribunal: there was no set hierarchy. To fix this, Master Order and Lord Chaos fused themselves with theIn-Betweener to form the cosmic entityLogos and impose their own cosmic hierarchy.^[76] Logos was eventually defeated and the Living Tribunal was restored.^[8] It is unknown if the cosmic hierarchy of the Eighth Cosmos has been established yet, and if it has, how it differs from the Seventh Cosmos'.

Protectors of the Multiverse[]

The Multiverse was originally categorized and protected byMerlyn, who established theCaptain Britain Corps. Most realities have a Captain Britain designated to protect its version of the British Isles and in extension the reality, thanks to an omniversal dimensional nexus situated in a tower on the shores of the United Kingdom. Individual members of the Corps draw their power from this nexus thanks to Merlyn's magic and science.^[77]

There are other beings and groups dealing with protecting the Multiverse, for example theTime Variance Authority,^[78] or theExiles.^[79]

New realities are constantly created. As time travel in Marvel Comics usually creates divergent realities,^[80] it is usually not possible to alter history or travel to one's own past.^[81] However, exceptions to this rule have occurred, such as with Doctor Doom's use of hisTime Platform andSilver Surfer being sent back to the beginning of the universe.^[82]

Rules of Time-Travel[]

The waytime travel works within the Multiverse is open to variations from story to story, and thus inconsistencies in its application exist throughout all mediums. That being said,Mark Gruenwald laid out a loose set of rules for time travel inMarvel Age #117 in 1992:

• "Time travel should be used very sparingly in order to keep the phenomenon as special as possible. To ensure that future usage of the phenomenon are kept consistent with the majority of past usages, observe the following principles:

1. The Marvel Universe is part of a multiverse (a system of related universes) which diverge from one another at critical junctures.
2. The act of time travel always produces a critical juncture diverging a new alternate timeline or world at the moment one enters the reality of another time period, past or future of the time period set out from. It creates one timeline where an extratemporal person or element materialized via time travel, and one 'virgin' timeline where that person or element did not.
3. Because it is impossible to travel to the 'virgin' timeline, and because divergent timelines are dimensionally displaced from one's root timeline, all time travel actually involves dimensional travel. A time traveler does not truly travel straight backwards or forwards in time, but backwards or forwards and a bit off to the side to a divergent timeline now running parallel to one's timeline of origin. Since this timeline will have been identical to the 'virgin' timeline until the moment of divergence, there will be virtually no differences between the two timelines until most time travelers have no reason to be aware that they are not on the 'virgin' timeline.
4. If one travels a second time to an era one has already been to, one will not materialize on the 'virgin' timeline nor the timeline diverged by one's previous trip, but a third timeline diverged from one or the other. A time traveler can never travel back to the exact same timeline more than once. Again, since the second and third divergent timelines are identical until the time traveler's arrival, they will be indistinguishable at first.
5. When one travels a second time to any era in which one already exists, it will be possible to meet a temporal counterpart of one's self already there. A new counterpart diverges into being every single time a time traveler travels to a timeline one already exists in. Subsequently, multiple temporal counterparts could co-exist through multiple time trips to the same time period.
6. The coexistence of multiple counterparts of the same being on one timeline does not cause time paradoxes. Time paradoxes are only possible in single timeline universes.
7. Altering an incident in the past will indeed affect the future reality of the timeline diverged by the time traveler's presence. One can create any number of different divergences by one's significant actions, the act of time travel being but the first. Whether one will be able to return to the present of the timeline where one did no reality-tampering divergences or one which diverged as a consequence of one's past actions is a function of the means of time travel.
8. Returning to one's present also creates a divergent reality. If one has been gone any length of time, one may find differences have accumulated in accordance with the length of time one was away.
9. Selective alterations in the present as a consequence of the time traveler's actions in the past do not occur. An alteration in the past will create an entirely new timeline with events proceeding smoothly from the point of divergence. To the denizens of that timeline's 'present', the past is a continuous series of events that always happened as they happened. Were one to see selective dematerializations, they would either be caused by something other than the act of time travel unto itself or would be hallucinations.
10. There are three possible methods of time travel in the Marvel Universe: a. Time travel machines (Dr. Doom, Kang). b. Magic (Dr. Strange, Thor's hammer). c. Personally generated energy (Silver Surfer).

*All methods involve generating 'chronal displacement inertia' freeing one's chronological position in the timestream (just as escape velocity frees one from earth's gravitation), skimming through the extra-temporal realm outside the timestream (Limbo), and re-entering the timestream at another chronological position. Because no time exists outside the timestream, the perceived duration of the passage through limbo may be anything from non-existent to an eternity.

1. If any of the above is confusing to you or your writers, you may ask the Senior Executive Editor for clarification. If it still is confusing, you should not be doing a time travel story. The above principles only apply to the Marvel Universe; other fictional realities may have other rules of time travel.

According to writer and editorJordan D. White, these rules are flexible and not strictly enforced.^[83] The Handbooks, theHandbook Appendix and by extension the Marvel Database attempt to follow the original rules laid out by Gruenwald as best as we can.

• The concept of time is tied to the multiversal cycles. The start of the current cycle is referred to as "the dawn of time";^[85][86] the end of the current cycle is referred to as "the end of time";^[87][88][89] and beings likeGalactus orKnull, who predate the current cycle, are described to be "older than time."^[90][91] Previous cycles are called "the time before time,"^[92][32] and future cycles are called "a time beyond time."^[35] The gap between cycles is also called "a time before time" and "a space before space."^[59]

• Each universe has its own cosmological constant that determines how permeable it is to travel to and from other universes. The value of it can be altered, although the power required is far beyond what is accessible to mortals. Some realities are sealed off from the wider Multiverse entirely, such asEarth-23203^[93] andEarth-77013.^[94]
• TheSoul Stone ofEarth-616 contains an entire Multiverse of worlds within itself,^[95] known asMergiverse. Each life on those worlds is a mix of two individuals.^[96]

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