when most worlds die, they end up in one of two places. worlds that were too sparse, that died out naturally through running out of stories, those end up in the voidwaste, where they become part of the flattened black ash beneath a churning sky of nothing

for worlds that had enough story to hold on, parts of them will precipitate to the city in the middle, and be added to the giant incoherent mess that is the library's biggest "city"

some chunks of some worlds don't fit to either. some aren't light enough to get to the voidwaste, but aren't heavy enough to be pulled into the city. those chunks should just disappear all the same without context, but an accident happened. between the city and the void, held like a satellite in orbit between the supergiant sun of the city and supermassive black hole of the void, there's a purgatory that isn't supposed to exist.

without a world consciousness, this vast expanse of half-forgotten worlds clings on as a self-perpetuating dream, hoovering up bits of other dying worlds like the city but slamming them together unincorporated and unsustained

sometimes people make the trip, too, and end up here. sometimes people WANT to come here, the only truly free place in the library, an anarchic no-world's-land of fading memories. scavenger is the only real profession here, looting bits of wayward worlds before they're disappeared. if you get enough people you can make some things permanent, and so you get

all

mad max motherfucking factions fighting over what chunks of world are freshly landed so they can steal it and add it to their preserve

Salvage and Millie found some poor human and now theyre a team or something