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The dynamics of the change are difficult to theorise clearly. Of the underlying principles of gravity (that it be always additive, always infinite in range, and always attractive) the first two are unaltered by the shift; were gravity, notionally, to shift through more than 90° clearly the last would be violated. Any shift of less than 90° lacks quantum stability. The gyroscopic rotational realignment alters the equations trivially, but it otherwise satisfies physical necessity.

1.2. Equations.
The standard equations for gravitational attraction have usually taken for granted the linear, lagrangian properties of the gravitational effect, such that each particle exerts line-of-sight pull on every other. In fact, equations contain a blind element that eliminates the torque effect of superenergetic quantum foam. Accordingly, for a spherical body of mass M and radius R, containing N molecules each of molecular weight A, the Newtonian gravitational binding effect of energy E
_g
will be as follows:

where
is the necessary alignment of the vector of attraction.

Theorists from Podkletnov onwards had postulated localised gravitational instabilities, particularly with reference to certain condensate attributes; and these states were always directly related to the linear part of the gravitational lagrangian
L
. This in turn involves the very small negative
intrinsic cosmological constant of space-time. The older definition of ‘critical regions’ as those where
δ
²
(χ) >|
Λ
|/8
hG
, applied prior to the uncovering of over-efficient power sources that drew their energy in a more direct way from quantum foam.

Gravitational theory had, similarly, long known of certain unstable modes of the classic Einstein space-time dynamic, named ‘zero modes’, which have the same probability to occur as the
h
=0 configuration (flat space) and a higher probability than all other field configurations. (The probability is proportional to exp(
iS
[g]/
h
_Planck
), and for the zero-modes one has
S
=0). Thus a gravitational field would always embody a certain instability towards these configurations. What prevents this in the general bulk of space-time is a certain intrinsic cosmological term
δL
_Cosm.
⁽²⁾
=+|
Λ
|/
h
²
, favouring an
h
=0 configuration.

The coherent coupling
δL
_Coherent
⁽²⁾
=−
Λ
²
h
²
of the gravitational field to
any
atomic-molecular aggregation, for instance a central node of mass, always amounts to a local positive cosmological term (which is to say, gravity must be an attractive rather than a repulsive force). This cancels the intrinsic stabilising term
δL
_Cosm
.
⁽²⁾
and leads to a local instability.

Therefore, while the regular coupling of gravity to incoherent matter produces a
response
– a gravitational field – approximately proportional to the strength
T
_cont
of the source, the coherent coupling induces an
instability
of the field.

Things go as if a potential well for the field were suddenly opened. The field runs away towards those configurations which are now preferred (although whether this is compatible with the cosmic energetic balance remains moot). The runaway stops at some finite strength of the field, where higher order terms in the lagrangian, which usually can be disregarded, come into play. This duration of this condition is difficult to determine because it depends mainly on the non-perturbative dynamics of the field, and very little on the initial conditions.

1.3. Doomsday Possibilities.
There are two opinions as to what will happen; one is that this gravitational disturbance will exhaust itself within (estimates vary) fifty to five hundred years and gravity will revert to normal. The other is that it will distort superstring alignment in a chain-reaction, interrupting and perverting the universal gravitational constant. This ‘doomsday’ scenario sees the situation of the worldwall as cosmically fatal, with the actual weave of space-time disintegrating over a period of some hundred thousand years, the unravelling beginning at this world but spreading logarithmically throughout the galaxy and possibly further. Should this happen, the basis not only of gravitational attraction, but of atomic coherence, could disintegrate, and the universe as a whole reduce to
a sort of chaotic sub-particle soup extremely attenuated through the expanse of remaining space. The greatest danger posed by this eventuality is that it would disrupt the balance offerees maintaining the singularities beneath the event horizons of black holes. Arguably, a shift in the vector
would release enormous amounts of stored energy from black holes, with devastating effects.

It is unclear which of these two hypotheses is the more likely.

The effect of this shift in the coefficient and alignment of gravity has been to angle the vector of living through 90°. Instead of operating, as it were, from the sky to the ground, gravity on this world now operates from the west’ to the ‘east’, turning the entire world on end and replacing what had been an endless flat plain (punctuated with mountains and valleys) into an endless
vertical wall
(punctuated with ledges and crevices). West is now ‘up’, and East is ‘down’.

2.1. The Pause.
At the surface of the world (or worldwall) gravity is running parallel with wall, rather than conventionally at right angles as is normal. As yet, however, gravity is operating ‘normally’ in the rest of the universe – such that, for instance, the world continues to orbit around the sun. There is accordingly a place where the ‘horizontal’ gravity stops, and the usual gravitational laws reassert themselves. This boundary is known to the inhabitants of the worldwall as the Pause. This barrier, although theoretically navigable simply by pushing through it, in effect creates a seal on the atmosphere of the world. This has significantly raised the air density and pressure between the world and the Pause (something of which the inhabitants of the world are, of course, unaware).
¹

2.2. Sunrise and Sunset Atmospheric Turbulence.
The worldwall as a dynamic system has now achieved a precarious equilibrium. The atmo-sphere is under a constant gravitational pull and will tend to fall. There is, of course, no ‘ground’ to prevent this fall, and in effect the atmosphere rests upon itself. During the day the air is heated by the sun and will tend to rise, or at least to stop falling; and at night it chills and falls more rapidly. This means that at the cross-over points of dawn and dusk cold falling air meets rising warm air – creating dawn and dusk gales. These gales are most pronounced at the central latitudes (or verticalitudes), and least pronounced out near the Poles.

2.3.
Days and Seasons.
From the point of view of an inhabitant of the worldwall, the sun now appears to rise from beneath, to ascend through the sky and to disappear ‘over the top of the wall’. Over the years since the catastrophic realignment of gravity, the earth has – as would be expected – picked up rotational momentum. With the globe spinning faster the day now lasts a little under half the previous twenty-four-hour period. Seasons, on the other hand, are longer drawn out than before. Partly this is because the planet’s solar orbit is counterset by the gyroscopic increased rotation, partly the increased air-pressure (see below) stabilises the shifts in temperature occasioned by the elliptical passage of the planet about the sun. The population of the worldwall continues to count time in ‘months’, for now forgotten reasons; but there are twenty months in a year (divided into ten
tithes
, two months to a tithe). More specific timekeeping varies from region to region. One popular system divides the day into one hundred and eighty ‘degrees’ from sunrise to sunset; another divides the day into ten ‘hours’, each of a hundred ‘minutes’.

2.4. History.
At the time of this catastrophic realignment of the gravitational field the large bulk of the world’s population perished. The world’s water, chiefly contained in oceanic form, was removed from its usual position and fell through the space between the world’s surface and the Pause; evaporation was significantly reduced by the presence of the Pause, and this heavy rain lasted for a considerable time, although eventually the bulk of this body of water ‘froze out’ at the two poles, creating what would on a normal world have been two enormous mountains of ice. The amount of loose matter, chiefly earth and biomass, which was also dislocated by the change in gravity was small compared to the mass of water, but significant in terms of erosion, as well as constituting the main cause of fatalities. Eleven billion people died in this event, the small population of survivors mostly subsisting underground (or ‘inside the body of the wall’) until the outside environment had reached an equilibrium. A significant proportion of the loose matter lodged itself back on the wall, building up on ledges and overhangs, but the bulk of it was frozen in at the poles with the loose water.

After a hundred years or so, the remaining population of the planet – minuscule in comparison with what had been before – had settled into a habitual lifestyle. There are enough horizontal spaces (ledges, platforms, crevices and the like) to support small groups of people; springs and rain provide a degree of water, and a variety of plants and animals grow on the surfaces available to them. High amounts of oxygen, raised humidity in the central latitudes (or ‘verticalitudes’) and the presence of many springs and water-sources – chiefly subterranean aquifers fed from the pressure of polar water-ice – enable extensive forestation of certain areas.

3.1. Claw-caterpils and Other Insect Life.
The higher air pressure has changed the dynamic of the fauna and flora of the worldwall. In particular it has allowed many insects to grow to much greater size; the main limitation on insect dimensions being the efficiency of spiracles as a method of diffusing oxygen throughout the organism. At higher pressures, this efficiency is viable over greater distances, and insects can become much larger. With the majority of insect predators destroyed in the catastrophe, and with insects more able than many organisms to adapt to the new environment, a great variety of forms of insect life flourished; larger and larger bugs evolving rapidly in the rapidly changing circumstances.

Various breeds of insect, particularly the variety known to inhabitants as ‘claw-caterpils’, have developed habits of predation upon non-insect fauna, including human beings. These creatures are strongly attracted to the smell of blood and will eat all components of their prey. They have evolved a variety of coagulant saliva. This prevents the blood from draining out of victims and being lost off the face of the world, and enables the insects to maximise their feast. Claw-caterpils prefer densely forested areas and are rarely seen outside meshwood or tanglewood locations.