Nuovi Universi – Racconti dal Futuro

Anthology of short stories for Numenera and The Strange (ITA)

In this collection, you will find nine short stories set in the Ninth World and four stories related to the recursions of The Strange. These stories will help you better understand the two games and inspire your next adventures.

Tales from the Ninth World

When we explain the central concept of Numenera to people, we often use Arthur C. Clarke's famous quote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This, after all, is the essence of Numenera.  To truly capture the essence of the Ninth World, however, I often think of another quote from Clarke: “The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them, into the impossible.” Because in the Ninth World, the impossible often becomes possible. And that, for me, is one of the most enjoyable and dangerous elements.
The things we “know” to be impossible today—life after death, time travel, teleportation—are things that in the Ninth World are not only possible, but probable. It doesn't matter if you're a noble, a thief, an engineer, or an assassin: when you're faced with impossibilities becoming reality, you have to make difficult choices. In the Ninth World, nothing is impossible. We hope this inspires and frightens you at the same time.

Tales from the Recursions

Stories extend the boundaries of reality. Literally. Many people think that tales of adventure, magic, incredible science, and mythology are futile pastimes. The few who are awakened, however, know the truth. Limited worlds constantly arise in the dark energy network of the Anomaly, through the power of human imagination. The Anomaly is a place where fiction becomes reality.
In this collection, you will discover how people face challenges born from these stories that have become real, materializing in places called recursions. Not all recursions stem from Earth's myths: humans who venture into these alien worlds must draw on every ounce of determination to remain whole. And there are people for whom facing the dangers that seep through the dark energy network is a daily duty and who therefore bear the high cost that eternal vigilance entails. Many recurrences are populated by shadows that satisfy the needs of the fiction that has seeded their world, although sometimes certain special individuals from those recurrences pause and question the reason for this. And there are also recurrences that are occasionally called into reality by a desperate act on which the very existence of planet Earth depends.