Rifting is, by very nature, dangerous. More often then not, this occurs comepletely randomly. Any creature, sentient or otherwise, may find themselves pulled through a rift to some strange new world. Many times, this results in the death of the creature. Such an occurance just does not fit in well with Darwin's theory of natural selection. For those wishing to tap into the unending power of the rifts, they need to be aware of the dangers associated with such travel.

Rifts are not like the subway. You don't get on, deposit your twenty five cents and arrive exactly where you expect. Only the most powerful magi have any control over the chaotic nature of rifts, and even that is fleeting at best. Rifts represent a tear in the fabric of space and time. Such tears are anything but uniform. They are not neat little holes going from point A to point B. Rather, they can be likened to breaking out a window, then attempting to crawl through the broken glass that remains.

Only the complete fool will attempt to "rift" to a destination he is not very familar with. Many scientists theorize about rifts and dimensional travel, but most fail to recognize the truth of these vortexes. Rifts can be calculated in advanced mathmatics, but almost every mathmatician will find themselves hopelessly lost. Rifts are more like music in this respect. They represent a high order of mathmatics. These mathmatics are not calculated, however, they must simply be understood subconciously. Some have a knack for this, some do not.

Most of the animal life found in Domini, at one point or anouther, came from other worlds and times through these rifts. Most cases, this is as simple as say a deer suddenly finding itself in a new world. In other cases, such as the Slepnir, things become rather complicated.

The Slepnir was created by an occurance known as colocation. Colocation is incredibly rare and usually results in the instant death of the new creature. Colocation involves two different animals rifting into Domini in the exact sime time and physical space. Their bodies overlap and become as one. Needless to say, most physical bodies do not line up well at all. Organs are either repeated needlessly or rendered none functional. The slepnir was produced by the colocation of an insect (possibly a scorpion) and a horse. It is not known weither it was the horse or the scorpion, but one of these creatures was pregnant when rifted. The horse/scorpion gave birth shortly after finding itself in Domini. The orginal mosaic of animal died almost instantly, but did manage to birth a new species...the Slepnir.

Anouther occurance in Domini is that of the change. Perhaps no one fully understands the nature of the change, but it is something that can not be ignored. Almost every creature within Domini will, at some time, find themselves changed; gaining powerful new magics and sometimes different appearances. The nature of the change varies per person, but some theories have come about to explain this.

The Magi theory: Developed by Gegorius Domini, this is one of the most accepted theories on The Change. Gegorius believed that, just as rifts can teleport the body, they can also teleport souls or even just magical energies. Gegorius theorized that if one of these soul fragments or magical energies was rifted into the same space and time as a person, then this is what caused the person to undergo The Change.

The Warriors theory: Developed by Hernik Germain, this theory is in some aspects simular to the Magi theory. Hernik theorized that when a powerful warrior died in battle, he released an equally powerful energy, perhaps even his soul. The leylines trapped this energy, catching it and "storing" it. If someone should happen to walk through a section of the leylines where this energy was stored at, Hernik believed, that person would undergo The Change. Hernik died searching for the location of the energies of Arimus Domini.

The Theives theory: This theory was first proposed by Malagus Domini, brother of Cattivo. He believed that The Change was not random at all. Rather, anyone with the subconcious desire to become more powerful, would undergo the transformation. His theory suggests that this person would subconciously tap into the leylines, and steal power from anouther...perhaps someone not even in Domini or even the same dimension.

There are many more then these three theories floating around, but these represent the most accepted. Each are debated at length, and none have been proven or completely disproven. No matter what the true explaination is, the truth remains that The Change is a very real occurance in Domini.