Well World

It involves a planet-sized supercomputer known as the Well of Souls that builds reality on top of an underlying one of greater complexity but smaller size.

Its surface was used as an experimental site where the Markovians tested their species designs before sending the successful ones into the new universe to populate planets.

The books are adventures that follow Brazil and a changing cast of secondary characters through a series of visits to the Well World over a period of hundreds (and millions) of years.

The Well World houses a planet-sized, reality-shaping computer that creates an artificial universe layered on top of the much smaller, original Markovian one.

The North is made up of exotic species which are often so alien that no common ground exists between them and the Southern races, and, often, their Northern neighbors as well.

Since the Northern hemisphere contains, for example, seas of oxygen, chlorine, methane, and ammonia, Southern races need some kind of life support in the North.

Even then, there are exceptions; Gedamondas is low-tech, but the Gedamondans can use naturally occurring steam from their volcanic vents, and the Agitar can electrocute people in any hex, regardless of tech level.

An InterZone Gate allows Northern and Southern ambassadors to travel between opposite Zones, and most materials can be transported via Zone gates, so there is some limited trade between North and South; for example, "universal translators" are grown in a Northern hex, and allow almost all races to communicate, at least within the limits of common ground.

For this reason, Nathan Brazil (and, later, Mavra Chang) is translated to Glathrial, the home of type 41 (humans), without even being normalized to the Well-specific form.

In the early books this largely controlled by the Community of Worlds (the "Com"), where genetically engineered clones are widely used to form peaceful communist societies.

Since each hex not only has different environments and species—ranging from conventional classical mythological species such as yeti, centaurs, and satyrs to more esoteric science fiction species such as giant carnivorous insects and mobile plants—but as well a different, fixed, level of allowable technology—from non-tech and semi-tech hexes through to highly advanced technology that closely resembles outright magic (plus actual Well magic)—and since there are 1,560 of them, the author never need repeat situations and locations through the entire series of books.

Furthermore, the nature of the Well World as a set of laboratory environments, whose technology levels and ecosystems are forcibly computer-controlled, limits what can potentially occur therein.