Outside the Continuum lies the Maelstrom.
As the name suggests it is a place where anarchy reigns: a chaotic null space where time holds no dominion. It is believed by some to be the home of the Elder Gods and a myriad of dark and malevolent creatures such as the Strzyga, Monad and many other nameless horrors.
The Maelstrom can only be entered through an ‘Aperture’ or breach in the Continuum, these are rare events and require the specialist service of the Draconian’s Dreadnought Division. Many Dreadnought officers have been lost defending time breaches, none have ever returned. To look into the aperture is thought to bring bad luck, those who have, reported seeing fleeting images of other worlds spinning past like a Victorian Zoetrope.
The Maelstrom is a graveyard of fractured and discarded parts of history that have been thrown together in no particular order. Time does not flow in any one direction, some find themselves trapped in closed loops, like groundhog day, while others run contrary to each other like rip tides dragging the unfortunate traveller in unexpected directions.
Caitlin believes her parents were lost to Maelstrom during a massive breach in the 2nd Egyptian Dynasty. There are theories that one never ages inside the Maelstrom, that it is a form a purgatory, where the lost are made to suffer for eternity. She has never been able to bear the thought that they are still trapped in there.
Belsarus was rumoured to have designed a craft, a time-ship, that could travel safely through the Maelstrom, but no one has ever seen it.