Incipisphere

The Incipisphere is the dimension that Sburb transports its players to, and also where the main gameplay takes place. The name is derived from the word "incipient", meaning beginning or emerging. Each Incipisphere is central to one session, with different sessions having their own Incipisphere. It is structured as follows:



The Medium
The Medium is the thick of the Incipisphere between the Furthest Ring and Skaia, to which a player's house is transported to upon entry. Although utilities (such as electricity and Internet connections) appear to be disconnected, the Medium seems to facilitate a working Internet connection (and a power supply, at least to the players' computers) wherever the player is.





Most Sburb sessions provide planets for their players, one for each player to be transported to upon entry; for example, in the Beta kids' session, there are four planets in their Medium. Each planet is separated from Skaia by seven gates, each of which is found somewhere on its surface. Each planet has its own unique environment and (usually) some form of civilization (long deceased or otherwise) maintained by different species of Consorts.

Upon arrival to the Medium, the kernel of the kernelsprite divides and the prototyped attributes are sent to the Light and Dark spires upon Prospit and Derse respectively. Derse then sends underlings and monsters (initially imps and ogres) to the player's planet to harass the player. These underlings (and eventually, monsters) initially take on the constituency of the materials and elements that make up the player's respective planets, but also take on the characteristics of the prototyping. For example, John's imps were initially made up of Shale and Tar (among others), due to his planet's oily constituency, and wore clowns' clothing, as per his prototyped kernelsprite.

The planet is usually determined by the Mythological Role of the player, though its name may not immediately betray the connection. For example, as the Heir of Breath, John Egbert's planet is the Land of Wind and Shade, while as the Prince of Hope, Eridan Ampora's planet is the Land of Wrath and Angels. There are a few quirks to the naming and theme of the planet; for example, a Space player's planet will always have Frogs as its latter trait (Jade's Land of Frost and Frogs and Kanaya's Land of Rays and Frogs).

The Alpha kids' planets seem to follow a different convention (that is not only nominal) due to the special nature of their session; their planets' traits consist of a place of interment and a noble gas respectively (such as the Land of Tombs and Krypton). The specific significance of the planets' traits to their player is yet to be confirmed.

The Dark and Light Kingdoms

 * Main articles: Prospit, Derse

There are two kingdoms that occupy the Incipisphere whose ongoing war provides the context for the session. Both kingdoms are comprised of a planet with a moon physically connected by a thick chain. The Light Kingdom, called Prospit, orbits near Skaia, with its moon skirting through Skaia as it orbits around Prospit. The Dark Kingdom, called Derse, has its own distant orbit past a Veil of meteors, flirting with the Furthest Ring, a spatially and temporally indeterminate void inhabited by the Horrorterrors that divides each session from each other.

Prospit and Derse each have a number of spires corresponding to the number of players to receive the kernel from the divided kernelsprite upon a player's entry. Each kingdom is a palette swap of the other, with both exhibiting a complex network of Gothic architecture. Similarly, the inhabitants of Prospit bear a white carapace, while the inhabitants of Derse have a black one.

The Veil
The Veil is a belt of meteors that separates the Medium from the Furthest Ring, with Derse orbiting just beyond it. It comprises many asteroids, many of which are "seeds" that will eventually be sent to destroy (and 'repopulate') the players' home planet. The Veil is treated as neutral ground for the kingdoms, and contains laboratories other facilities designed primarily for building the kingdoms' armies. Up until the end of act 5, the trolls were hidden from Bec Noir in what was remaining in the Veil after the Reckoning had depleted it of most of its asteroids.

Skaia
Skaia is a "dormant crucible of unlimited creative potential" that lies beyond the Seven Gates, for which the kingdoms of the Dark and Light Kingdoms fight for control over. Prospit tries to protect it, while Derse seeks to destroy it. Across every session, Derse inevitably wins. At the center of Skaia lies The Battlefield where the physical war takes place, led by the Black and White King. This battlefield mutates with each prototyping, expanding exponentially in complexity each prototype (how this worked in the Troll's 12-times prototyped session is not illustrated).

The Furthest Ring
The Furthest Ring is the void that surrounds furthest edge of the Medium (and presumably, the Incipisphere), beyond the orbit of Derse. It is the home of The Noble Circle of Horrorterrors, who communicate with the Sburb players whose dream selves sleep on Derse's moon. It is a vast void of indeterminate space and time that separates all the sessions. Not much has been revealed concerning its inhabitants.

Time and space do not operate properly in The Furthest Ring. Travel through The Furthest Ring can lead back and forth in time, and great mastery of time and/or space is needed to traverse it. The light of The Green Sun can be traced back to its origin and used as a one-way path into The Furthest Ring, if followed quickly enough.

Trivia

 * It seems to be the case, as shown by the Incipisphere in [S] DD: Ascend, that the planets actually don't exist until the players enter.
 * However, the mythology of Jane's planet states that the Alpha session planets have been dead for quite some time, and that the consorts waited very long for the players to arrive. This is easily explained by the fact the Medium and everything in it exists on a separate timeline from the players' home Universe. This same fact also explains why even players who have not yet installed Sburb/Sgrub can have dream selves waking on Prospit or Derse long before playing.
 * This may be a reference to how videogames have backstories, when in reality the world of the game doesn't exist until you start playing.
 * An alternate reading of Incipisphere (due to pronunciation alone) is as a sort of verbal portmanteau of the words "insipid" and "sphere", which is appropriate if you consider the opinions of at least a few players (and at least one subgroup of readers) regarding the world of the game at various points in the story.