A cluster of countless parallel worlds has recently been discovered by the Prime Material Cartographic Society, an organization of multiversal explorers who are curious about the goings-on in this obscure corner of the cosmos.
Valigan Talaire is an exceptionally powerful psionicist, and in the wake of a personal tragedy he finds himself volunteering to explore one of those worlds for the Society to get his mind off his troubles.
Taylor Hebert is an inexperienced teenage cape, and on her first night playing hero she finds herself stumbling through the Society's portal along with several other capes to end up on an unknown world.
With Valigan doing his best to resist the temptation to meddle with the locals of Earth Bet, and Taylor willing to do anything to find a way home from the world of Eberron, both worlds will find themselves greatly changed by their unexpected visitors.
Doors to the Unknown
is a crossover/Fusion Fic between Worm and Dungeons & Dragons written by Silver Pyromancer.
It follows the events of Valigan Talaire (a min-maxed epic-level character) as he explores the world of Earth Bet. At the same time Taylor Hebert and her party (nicknamed THACo by readers) explore the world of Eberron after stumbling through the portal Valigan used to travel to Earth Bet.
Doors to the Unknown provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Brown: People in Earth Bet are mildly baffled by Valigan having brown skin, auburn hair and blue eyes, and guesses about his ethnicity go from Mexico to India to Brazil. He doesn't bother correcting the mistake most of the time.
- The Archmage: This is the role Valigan essentially fufils. He is actually a psionicist, but his specific brand of powers functionally allow him to cast any spells he needs in a moment. Most of the other members of The Society also qualify for this title, as does Baron Merrix d'Cannith from Eberron. As he is quite possibly the greatest artificer of all time.
- Big Red Devil: Zalmok, a schemer who starts working against THACo once they reach Sharn, is a falxugon. Also known as a harvester devil, they are the stereotypical deal-making fiends most people think of when they hear the word "devil".
- City of Adventure: The city of Sharn on Eberron functions as such for THACo.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Juroth of Cabal Ashcrow is a complete madman with enough doomsday devices to destroy any given planet twice over, as well as a healthy disregard for life. He's also one of the founders of the Society, and ostensibly Valigan's boss.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Eberron's natives are a lot more casual about lethal force, courtesy of the constant fighting across their multiverse. Compare and contrast with THACo helping some of few to repel a drow invasion and being visibly shocked and horrified by all the corpses left in the aftermath.
- Crapsack Only by Comparison: Valigan outright calls Earth Bet a paradise, since the planet doesn't have to fight an apocalyptic Eldritch Abomination on a seasonal basis.
- Deader than Dead: Resurrection magic is well-known, but Aldric was killed using magic that has explicitly prevented him from being revived.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: This crops up many a time, for both Valigan and THACo. For the former, the sensibilities common to a Heroic Fantasy universe like D&D frequently clash with the Capepunk world of Worm. This manifests in Valigan's consistent bafflement at the conventions of the cape world. The reverse is also true, with THACo initially having trouble adapting from a world of heroes and villains to one with much more (overt) nuance.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: Zalmok is a servant of the Demon Overlords of Eberron, who he is hoping to free by manipulating the Draconic Prophecy.
- Doing in the Scientist:
- It is revealed that the powers of the Worm universe actually operate off most of the same magical-physics as the rest of the D&D multiverse.
- This is also interestingly Played With, as string theory and its associated physics are proven to be largely correct across all planes, simply with magic and the elemental planes acting as the foundational blocks. Valigan has a rather fascinating discussion on the topic, where its obvious the author has Shown Their Work.
- Fake Aristocrat: What THACo accidentally become during their stay on Eberron, mostly due to initial misunderstandings regarding cape names.
- Five-Man Band: THACo fall into this dynamic when in Eberron. In order: either Brian or Dean fill the role of The Leader at any given moment, with the other taking the role of The Lancer. Chris is The Smart Guy, and the one who fulfils most of their technological needs. Both Taylor and Alec can fill the role of The Heart, though the former does so more often than not (mostly due to Alec's personality). And, ironically, Taylor also fills the role of The Big Guy, with her bugs giving the team the ability to punch far above their weight class.
- Heartbroken Badass: Valigan joined the mission of exploration on Earth Bet in order to cope with his grief over the recent demise of his husband.
- Hive Mind: Multiple appear in story. Valigan is capable of severing himself into multiple duplicates, Taylor controls her swarm as she does in cannon, and Adilege, a member of The Society, appears as a pair of mentally-linked individuals from a species called the devati. Who are this naturally.
- Humanity Is Infectious: Shards can grow a mite too deeply attached to their host, just like Dean's — it actually expresses feelings and manages to consider plans going beyond "pissing everybody off".
- Internal Reveal: The existence of magic is one for everyone from Earth Bet, along with Alec's true name and parentage.
- Jack of All Trades: Valigan is an incredibly versatile spellcaster, capable of almost-any feat of magic or pscionic power required of him. But this also crosses over into Master of None territory, as his lack of strong combative powers leads to his inability to defeat Leviathan.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Valigan loathes puns on principle and will express his disgust whenever one is used.He named [a dimensional travel device] Abacus as a pun, because it carries out calculations involving a large number of moving spheres.
Truly, there are no limits to his depravity. - Magitek: Found frequently on Eberron. Tinker-tech also turns out to be this, with enchantments and inscripment magic disguised as advanced technology.
- Mundane Utility: As is tradition in Worm fanfics, Taylor's Pest Controller powers find a use in the economic sector. This time they find themselves employed in mind-controlling giant spiders for use in creating mass-produced silk, which THACo use as one of their primary source of income.
- One-Man Army: Valigan. If he wanted to go all-out, he could easily defeat most capes on Earth Bet in a matter of seconds. As he demonstrates the few times he actually bothers to fight anyone, it ends with most of The Empire 88 capes dead.
- Outside-Context Problem: Valigan and THACo are that to Earth Bet and Eberron, respectively — their powerset just doesn't fit with the natives' cultural expectations.
- Private Detective: Both Creilath Movanek and Urzat are inquisitives, and they employ THACo once they get settled into life in Sharn.
- Psychic Powers: Valigan's powerset is this, with him specifically being a spell-to-power erudite. This allows him to functionally manifest any power or cast any spell he needs to at a given moment. Zalmok also displays these when he alters Leyla d’Cannith's memories following his impersonation of Creilath.
- Purple Is Powerful: Valigan enjoys donning purple and violet garments as a reminder of his lost birth country. He's also an absurdly powerful erudite, especially according Earth Bet's standards.
- The Reveal: Multiple. The first is the reveal that Corvin is working with Creilath to stall THACo's return. Followed by Zalmok impersonating Creilath in order to enact his plans against THACo. Then there is the fact that Endbringer's are (basically) gods.
- Punny Name: THACo. It is a play on the phrase Taylor Hebert and Co, and the D&D 2e game term: to hit armor class 0 (THAC0).
- Shown Their Work: It is very obvious that the author is a master on both the lore of D&D and Worm, and they also show a remarkable degree of insight into nuclear and subatomic physics. Up to the point of having an actual real-life scientist show up, and discuss some of his work with Valigan. Also, whenever a real-world location appears, everything is perfectly mapped out to the real layout of the location (as can be seen during the battle with Leviathan).
- Straight Gay: Both Valigan and his recently deceased husband Aldric are gay, though show none of the associated stereotypes. This is mostly down to them being from alien cultures, whose views on gender, sexuality and even relationships are very different from our own. This said, some people on Earth Bet are able to guess at Valigan's alignment (pun definitely intended) due to him preferring to wear the colors of his homeland (purple). He also bonds with the similarly straight-gay Legend over their shared sexuality when they first meet.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Half of the group that is transported to Eberron is made of heroes, while the other is made of villains (with Taylor mostly neutral, despite claiming to be a hero). This is the frequent result of them being forced to work together. They manage to get along fairly well, but certain events, like the revelation of Alec's true name and family, cause rifts between them.
- Trapped in Another World: The current situation Taylor, Dean, Chris, Brian, and Alec find themselves in. They adapt surprisingly well, but are still focused on returning to their home plane.
- Twofer Token Minority: Valigan appears to be an Ambiguously Brown mixed-race homosexual. Since he first lands in Brockton Bay, he's warned to tread carefully or the Empire will try to assault him for pushing two of their racist buttons.
- Weird Trade Union: The Prime Material Cartographic Society (PMCS) functions as a guild for people who explore and catalogue the planescape. Despite being what amounts to a Mundane Made Awesome organization of cartographers, their ranks are filled almost-exclusively by retired epic level characters.
