Blip.

Blip.

Blip…

Before, there had been darkness. Now there was light. A small flare of green as algorithms and numbers tripped over themselves and multiplied, grew exponentially in both complexity, structure, and size.

To anyone capable of viewing this strange birth, it would have looked like this: a sudden flare of a green neon spark in the void, suddenly growing brighter and brighter and larger and larger.

As it did so and the light filled the view, it was possible to see structures and shapes. What had started as a simple process of zeroes and ones, mathematical sums, and multiplications, became a glowing glyph. The self-replicating code growing exponentially.

With every passing nano second, this swirling, exact mathematical shape complexified like a Mandelbrot picture, growing bigger as it did so, sending out baby versions of itself which changed, altered, adapted…

Lines met nodes, branched into geometric shapes, and from every point more arms radiated out, this time curving on perfect parabolic arcs, with smaller nodes being created and thrown out in their wake.

This fabulous, geometry and chaos-theory shape extended not just on the flat plain, but also in three dimensions. It became a swirling, boiling shape of burning green light; a code that could contain the secrets of the universe itself.

In fact, such was how the newest of the super-large supercomputers was born, quickly developing its own programming, redesigning its needs and features as it occupied the full server space that it was given.

“It’s live! It’s working!” said the excited voice of the thin and rather weedy looking lead designer for the newest addition to the digital world. He stood with a self-satisfied grin, surrounded by the tall banks of white and silver machines, feeling at home in their electric hum and whirr.

“Of course it is! Of course it is, I never doubted you!” the room’s speaker transmitted the words of the awaiting CEO, safe in their booth above the main server laboratory. “Proceed to Phase 2! Input the name.”

The lead designer rushed to do so, moving to the bank of screens that displayed the constantly shifting code. The central screen was currently just a black screen with a blinking white cursor in the middle of a sea of screens full of the self-replicating green code. He typed in the name he’d been given.

Name: Tir’Nan’Og

The lead designer still thought it a bit of an odd name, and vaguely remembered it having something to do with a mythical realm or something. He wasn’t a part of the Concept and Marketing Team, though. He was just the Lead Designer, responsible for correcting lines of code and making sure the infrastructure was right.

After inputting the name, the algorithm seemed to glow a deeper green, as if taking on its identity made it somehow more solid.

Before that moment, there had just been six of the super-massive supercomputers in existence, each one running a number of game-worlds that kept the known world occupied and entertained.

Now, with the arrival of Tir’Nan’Og, there were seven.

“Do we have our game ready to initiate?” the distant CEO bellowed lustily.

“Of course, of course, but…” the nervous lead designer said. There were checks and tests that he wanted to perform first. He longed to take a few days to stabilize the mainframe, to make sure there were no glitches.

“I’m not talking about going live. I’m talking about loading the program, so we can go live!” the CEO bellowed, buoyed by their own unworked-for success. “Do it! Now!”

As a lowly employee, the man knew he had no say in the matter and reluctantly complied. He typed in another command and a new message appeared on the screen.

Loading: Legends of the Six Realms…

There was a flicker and a ripple across the giant digital glyph that was a map of the supercomputer itself. A tiny glitch, as it updated itself.

Neither the lead designer, nor the CEO, or anyone else in that room could ever conceive of what had just happened in that tiny instantaneous flicker. If they had, they would have realized that their multi-folding programming technique was far more miraculous and ingenious than even they had thought.

Reality, after all, could be described by numbers.

And numbers were a language, and that language, in the right manner, could be used like a key.

The world’s newest, largest supercomputer had just opened a door.