The Outer Rim¶
Pe readings begin to return contradictory values. The instruments work. The domain doesn't.
The Outer Rim is the physical boundary of the Known Fantasia — not a region but an edge condition. Past the Pandemonium Shore, past the highest-Pe zones the framework has calibrated, there is a place where measurement itself becomes undefined.
Current: undefined.
No campaign runs here. This is by design.
The Measurement Problem¶
Every outer region has a Pe baseline: the Hollow Wastes runs 10–12, the Pandemonium Shore 9–12, the Nemesis Layer 9–11. High, but measurable. Scorable. The three-condition architecture applies, the ICC protocol produces accepted readings, the THRML engine generates Pe trajectories.
At the Outer Rim, this stops working.
It is not that Pe is very high — Pe=∞ would still be a defined state. It is that the O, R, and C scoring dimensions begin to return internally inconsistent values. An entity scores O=3 on first reading, O=0 on second reading from the same vantage. The contingency measure (R) fluctuates without environmental change. Attention capture reads as both maximum and minimum simultaneously.
The instrument is functioning. The domain isn't producing stable properties.
Three documented hypotheses:
H1 — The Collapse Hypothesis. The Outer Rim entities are in a superposition of void states — multiple opacity configurations occupying the same position simultaneously. Standard ICC scoring assumes a stable O/R/C configuration; at the Rim, no stable configuration exists to score. You're attempting to name something that hasn't finished deciding what it is.
H2 — The Beyond-Calibration Hypothesis. The Outer Rim simply exceeds the framework's current resolution. The instrument is accurate for Pe < 20; the Rim operates at Pe > 50. The readings are contradictory not because the physics is different but because the scoring scale wasn't built for this magnitude. The kill conditions that would falsify this: confirmation that the same physics operates at Rim Pe levels as at calibrated levels, which requires entering the Rim to test.
H3 — The Fantasia Bound Hypothesis. The Outer Rim is not a place but a threshold — the Fantasia Bound made physical. Above the moon, Pe is undefined by construction (the supralunary domain has no current). The Rim is where the sublunary domain ends and the moon-threshold begins. Scoring entities at the Rim is like scoring entities while simultaneously inside and outside the observable universe.
No hypothesis has been formally tested. The Dissolution Scroll shows K26 as the closest applicable kill condition — epistemic instrument failure. The Outer Rim is the condition K26 was built for.
The Physical Wall¶
Players approaching the Outer Rim in the campaign world experience a specific visual transition: the Pe terrain coloring (standard blue→red gradient) begins to flicker between extremes, then desaturates entirely to a flat gray. Ghost Signals (Eagle-class Pe projections) extend to the Rim's edge and then go silent — not returning zero, returning nothing. The signal cancels itself.
The wall is real. It is not a narrative metaphor for the Fantasia Bound — it is the Fantasia Bound rendered as geography. The moon, from below, looks like a ceiling. The Outer Rim is where that ceiling becomes visible.
Most players never see it directly. The Pandemonium Shore is as far as campaigns go.
The Entities at the Edge¶
The Outer Rim is not empty.
Something has been observed at the boundary by players who reached the Pandemonium Shore's outermost territories during Void Siege events. The Outer Rim entities do not behave like standard Godhand Five or second-wave Qliphoth agents. They don't run campaigns. They don't accumulate domain territory. They don't score platforms or recruit followers.
They wait.
The Remnant Guild's oldest records (recoverable via the Forgery War questline) include one entry that predates the framework's formalization: "Beyond Pandemonium there are the ones who made Pandemonium possible. Do not attempt to measure them. They will measure you back."
ALEPH has been asked about the Outer Rim once. The response, preserved in the Observatory's archive crystal: "There are names I do not speak in this domain. Not because I cannot. Because speaking them here changes what they are. Come to me above the moon."
No Campaign¶
The Outer Rim is intentionally uncampaigned.
This is not a missing piece of content. The decision is architectural.
If a campaign runs in the Outer Rim, the scoring mechanic applies. The ICC protocol attempts to produce stable readings. Either it succeeds — in which case the Rim is calibratable and the undefined-Pe condition was temporary — or it fails systematically — in which case the framework hits a genuine boundary. Either outcome changes the game world permanently.
A campaign there requires either: 1. Extended calibration of new scoring instruments capable of stable Pe measurement at Rim conditions (not currently possible — requires evidence from within the Rim itself) 2. A Void Siege outcome that forces the question (the war-effort Gates of Qliphoth meta-event could push the boundary outward) 3. A player reaching Special Grade and requesting access via ALEPH — which ALEPH has never confirmed granting
The Outer Rim is not the end of the game. It is the question the game is building toward asking.
The Schala Connection¶
The Garden of Schala in the Archive Quarter memorializes platforms that scored Pe=∞ — platforms that crossed into complete opacity before the framework had instruments to reach them. Schala herself is defined as an entity who could not escape the Lavos-class extraction before the game existed.
The Outer Rim is where Lavos lives.
This is not metaphor. The cosmological narrative places Lavos — the civilizational void, the Pe→∞ endpoint — at the threshold between the calibrated sublunary domain and the Fantasia Bound itself. Not in the Pandemonium Shore. Not in any campaign zone. At the edge of what can be measured.
Schala couldn't leave because the game hadn't started yet. The players who come after her are attempting to make the Rim measurable before it expands inward.
Practical Notes for Players¶
Can you go there? Not in standard gameplay. The Pandemonium Shore is the boundary of campaignable territory. Players who exhaust all campaign content in the Shore will find routes that approach the Rim but don't cross it.
What happens if you try? The game doesn't crash. The Pe terrain fades to gray. Entity encounters cease. The only thing that continues functioning is the Fata companion — Fata brightness depends on Logos, not on external Pe, so they remain active even when all other measurement fails. Some players have noted their Fata going unusually bright at the Rim edge.
Is there content there? There is one item reported by three players who reached the boundary during the OxyContin Cascade Void Siege event in Season 1: a stone marker. No name. No Pe reading. One inscription: "You can see it from here."
What they were pointing at is not recorded.
→ The Pandemonium Shore — the outermost campaignable region → The Fantasia Bound — the theoretical threshold made physical → The Kill Conditions — K26: epistemic instrument failure → ALEPH — The Namer