¶ Anomaly
"It has forever been in our very nature as sapient beings to delve into the deep, unraveled mysteries of the unknown out of the sheer force of our own curiosity, of the need to understand and of the need to demystify. Even in our field theories of the most fundamental form once thought concrete to the absolute, breaks and problems arise in the most strangest of situations, even when mathematically and logically sound. Science was searching for the answers as it should, failing to realize that it was not their own theories that were incorrect, but reality itself."
Anomaly is, in essence, the weakness of realspace forces; where reality fails, and allows foreign laws to take hold. It has been well established that the laws of physics are inconsistent. The way molecules, atoms and subatomic particles interact with each other vary depending on where they are. Chemical and physical reactions that occur in some areas behave completely differently in others, as if reality is governed by different laws entirely. This inconsistency has a pattern, and is considered a new field of study in the 33rd century commonly referred to as either Anomalistics or Metaphysics. Anomaly is a difficult thing to measure, but certain instruments such as cuilometers are capable of doing so to a high degree of measurement. The most common measurement of anomaly is Cuils and Environmental Cuil Factor, or ECF for short.
Historically speaking, anomaly has long been documented in history, but written off as unexplainable phenomena or hoaxes. Only with the recent discovery of the Hyperspace has a better understanding become attained, as it is the cause of many anomalous phenomena. Hyperspace’s high ECF can prove to be dangerous when the barrier between the two dimensions are broken or weakened, allowing cuils to flood into Realspace. These are largely known as Observable Anomalies and range from what can be considered as a ‘tear in spacetime’ or Sub-Space Anomaly, to the small Vortex or Vortices of anomaly that appear in pinpoint locations. One of the more peculiar instances of this would be what is known as an Anchor World, where the parallel solar systems in realspace and hyperspace overlap perfectly, causing a relatively high ECF around the synchronized planets.