Etherealite, fissure glow, and interplanar connections

Breaches of the barrier surrounding this material plane lead to a number of detectable forms of radiation in our world.  These similar but distinct waves are used by Monstrous Matters scientists to piece together details related to each planar portal.

Fissure glow is the radiation that seems to emanate from the gaps between our realm and connected material planes.  For the Monstrous Matters team, this is often the best indication of a portal requiring investigation.  While it is unclear whether the radiation actually originates from those other worlds, or rather from the tearing of interplanar barriers, fissure glow has been found in the vicinity of most of the organization's most important research sites.  As noted previously, many common Earth minerals can block the detection of these waves, creating an additional challenge for Monstrous Matters operatives seeking the doors of the multiverse.

A similar signature, often called penumbral radiation, remains within all organic beings that cross the threshold of an interplanar portal into our realm.  Scientists from Department-7 spent a great deal of time in the 1980s zeroing in the detection of these faint rays surrounding the beings they referred to as Shadowkind, improving the sensitivity of their equipment to the point that handheld imagers are now quite reliable.  Penumbral radiation has been further harnessed in the operation of the uncertainty gun, used to return outsiders to their own realms; most researchers believe that it is the critical connection that leads many outsiders to simply fade away away (and presumably return to their plane of origin) upon death.

Penumbral radiation indicating an interplanar visitor

The radiation that remains the most mysterious to parageologists is that emitted by etherealite, the mineral associated with regions hosting planar portals.  Somewhat ironically, etherealite has been studied in more detail than either fissure glow or penumbral radiation; while scientists have become very good at identifying and describing it, its actual relationship with interplanar travel is so far unknown.

Etherealite's chemical composition varies somewhat from one region to another; it is distinguished from surrounding objects by a special feature of the electrons associated with various metals and metalloids found within its structure (notably aluminum, magnesium, and silicon). These electrons consistently appear to be entangled with particles that exist outside the immediate and obvious physical realm in which we live...described by some Monstrous Matters scientists as if they are paired with with points beyond our four-dimensional existence. Amazingly, mapping these realms based upon our known physics has at times led to physical reconstructions of worlds that have seemingly existed only in the imaginations of the researchers involved. It’s all very meta and is best understood with a wink, a shrug, or a bong hit. (Maybe all three.)

A future pseudoscientific blog post will cover some of the spots around the world that have served as significant sources of these forms of radiation, as well as the extradimensional realms connected to these sites.