Warps

There are six major areas of the Mess. Their names are taken from the six flavors of [quarks].

Roughly speaking:

• Up, clinical technocratic society devoted to humanistic science and rationalism; ["It's not that you're not good enough/it's just that we can make you better"]
• Down, cyberpunkish urban ruin filled with crazy artists and philosophers; ["Stronger than ever, stronger than ever before"]
• Top, aristocratic land of palaces and estates, whose inhabitants are devoted to craftsmanship and personal honor; ["Another Pleasant Valley Sunday"]
• Bottom, endless street festival where shame (and clothing) are virtually unknown, and where kinky behavior and hippie-ish values predominate; ["Snap into position, 'bounce til you ache"]
• Charm, fantasyland of bright colors, whimsical creatures, and wide-eyed innocence; ["Shiny happy people holding hands"]
• Strange, twisted mirror-image of an elegant city, trapped in eternal night, full of nasty crawly things that can corrupt body and mind; "Home of the brave"

The Warps also converge with one another at various points. The primary points of contact have become Parks in themselves.

ORDERING SCHEMES

The Warps can be roughly grouped into two triplets: an Apollonian triplet (Up, Top, Charm) and a Dionysian triplet (Down, Bottom, Strange). They can also be grouped into Freudian pairs: the ethical Superego (Up and Down), the social Ego (Top and Bottom), and the impulsive Id (Charm and Strange). Or, in an alternative scheme, Up and Down are the Machines (or the Environment); Top and Bottom, the Senses (or the Body); and Charm and Strange, the Mysteries (or the Mind).

In Up and Top, order comes through acceptance of authority and social structure. Order in Charm and Bottom arises through harmony between individuals. Order in Down and Strange arises spontaneously in the midst of what seems at first to be decay and breakdown.

An unknown individual, likely a student of Gridshaman philosophy, produced [another view] of warp groupings (with its own symbols).

The names given to the zones where the warps converge (see Parks) reveal another pattern of precedence: Up, Charm/Strange, Down, Top/Bottom. The names given to the Impossible Warps (Downup, Bottomtop, and Strangecharm) completely reverse this pattern, but they are probably just myths.

Specific mental states and cognitive processes can be associated with each Warp: reason with Up, instinct with Down, discipline with Top, passion with Bottom, wonder with Charm, introspection with Strange.

... you thought it would be so easy to place your thoughts with us, child...

Other groupings are left as an exercise for the reader: color, temperature, music genres, states of matter... see discussion of what qualities make the Warps distinct from one another.

• Up -- Represented by the color blue and/or an upward-pointing triangle split by a vertical line (resembling elegant pointed tower)
• Down -- Represented by the color gray and/or a downward-pointing triangle split by a vertical line (resembling fracture in ground)
• Top -- Represented by the color gold and/or an upward-pointing triangle split by a horizontal line (resembling Illuminati pyramid)
• Bottom -- Represented by the color pink and/or a downward-pointing triangle split by a horizontal line (resembles bikini bottom)
• Charm -- Represented by the color purple and/or an upward-pointing triangle (suggesting extroversion and positive feeling)
• Strange -- Represented by the color red and/or a downward-pointing triangle (suggesting introversion and negative feeling)

There are other places to go around the Mess, as well.