QUADRIVERSE
Type: Mystic realm
Environment: Alien
Usual means of access: Magic
Dominant Life Form: Humanoid (past,
present, and former Guardians)
others: giant cyclopean creature, knight, trolls,
Wormworlds (possibly all metaphysical or illusions)
First Appearance: (mentioned) Dr.
Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts#19, (seen) 23 (June, 1977)
Features: The Quadriverse is a realm
composed of, as the name would suggest, four Sectors.
The first Sector represents menace. The second is calmness,
tranquility--a lonely stretch of land within a lovely castle. The
third is the stygian depths of Hell itself. Between them all
there is one common goal--Beyond them is the fourth Sector: Home.
Before one can come to the Home Sector, he or
she must survive the first three Sectors.
The Quadriverse is populated by a single being at a time: the
Guardian of the Quadriverse. The Guardian dwells at the very
center of the realm, and apparently acts to prevent menaces from
reaching the Home Sector. Eventually, another being from another
realm enters the Quadriverse, and helps the Guardian to reach the
Home Sector. At that point, the being who helped the previous
Guardian becomes the new Guardian. The former Guardian then lives
a life of peace and contentment on Home Island. The cycle
continues, with the new Guardian remaining in the Quadriverse
until he or she is assisted in making it to the Home Sector.
Apparently, the person who helped the previous
Guardian make it to the Home Sector is given the choice to become
the new Guardian. If he or she refuses, a new Guardian is
chosen/created by unknown means. It also may be that only a
powerful sorcerer such as Dr. Strange could refuse the command to
be the new Guardian.
Lastly, it is uncertain whether the trial and
realms of the Quadriverse are actual physical realms, or
metaphysical--more of a mental/psychological trial. The
Quadriverse may induce temporary insanity in those who undergo
these trials.
History: The Creators allege to have
created the Quadriverse (see comments).
The first Guardian of the Quadriverse spent six
thousand years in that position, before facing the trial of the
Quadriverse, and making it to the Fourth Sector. He founded the
Home Island there.
(DocII#23)- Dr. Strange entered the
Quadriverse, seeking the Creators. There he encountered the
Guardian, a beautiful woman who had been trapped in that position
for a little over two hundred years. Strange was pulled into the
Guardians mind, and the two entered the trial of the Quadriverse.
Within the first Sector, he saved her from the
assault of a large, green, cyclopean beast. Strange banished this
creature to the furthest reaches of the Quadriverse.
They were next transported to the second
Sector, where the Guardian tried to seduce him. A knight abducted
the Guardian, and when Strange followed him, he was lured into
the third Sector.
In this Sector, Strange first faced the
challenge of the Wormworlds, which extended tentacles to bind and
strangle them. Strange destroyed some of these with the Flames of
Faltine, and then relocated the knight.
As he defeated the knight (which turned out to
be empty armor), the Guardian was pulled into some subterranean
realm of trolls. Strange obliterated the realm of the trolls, and
he and the Guardian then made it to the Home Sector.
Strange learned the nature of the Quadriverse,
and he was instructed that he was to become the next Guardian.
Strange refused, as he needed to confront the Creators. Instead,
a new Guardian, an infant, was put in that position. Strange
wished he could help the terrified child, but new that it was
pointless--another would replace the infant, and another, and
another...so he left to continue his search for the Creators.
(DocII#25)-Strange located the portal to
Creation II, the realm of the Creators. With the aid of Apalla, Visimajoris, the guardian of
the portal was defeated, and they entered Creation II.
Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman and
Jim Starlin.
Creation II, which was the actual base of the
Creators, seemed to be a pocket realm within the Quadriverse
(more likely), or on the opposite side of it (as far as
relationships between dimensions go).
The Quadriverse may be the source of the
madness that temporarily afflicted Dr. Strange in this, and in
succeeding issues. In the Quadriverse, he began to unleash
powerful spells of destruction, slaying his attackers, when
simple spells of binding or defense would have done just as well.
When he faced the Creators, he acted rashly, and destroyed the
Cosmic Wheel of Change, which actually allowed the Creators to
achieve their goals more rapidly.
The Quadriverse's trials of its guardian appear
to have been going on since the beginning of time. There are at
least two possible explanations for this: 1) The Creators did not
create the Quadriverse, they just established a base in Creation
II, which was somehow connected to the Quadriverse. They could
have opened portals to the Quadriverse that would draw Strange
into that realm. I like this explanation. The Quadriverse seems a
little to complex for the Creators to have created, and it is not
exactly some sort of hostile death trap (although one could
become trapped within it for eons). 2) The Creators did create
the Quadriverse, and time simply moves at a vastly different rate
than in other realms. What appears to have taken billions of
years or more in the Quadriverse may have only taken seconds,
minutes, days, etc. in other realms.
I'm not sure if the Quadriverse was supposed to
figure in to the final saga of the Creators, which was written by
Starlin, and the Roger Stern. However, the whole deal with the
Quadriverse didn't seem to go with the rest of the story. Wolfman
had the Creators speak of it as if it their creation which they
would unleash on the Earth dimension, and it would destroy the
very fabric of the universe.
Wolfman had Xander speak of it as the realm of the Creators. The
first time Strange accessed Creation II, the realm of the
Creators, he had to pass through the Quadriverse to get there.
When he later returned to Creation II, he went there directly. I
guess he learned some shortcut. Or maybe it wasn't Creation II,
but another pocket realm of the In-Betweener. Who knows?
If I didn't know better, I would have sworn that the Quadriverse
story in#23 was written as a fill-in issue, by a different
writer than the one whom had initially described it.
Confused after reading this? Good, I am, too!
Let me know if you explain this more clearly.
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
First Posted: 04/07/2002
Last Updated: 08/01/2002
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