As the Malibu Ultraverse ended publication about 23 years ago, one cannot expect most readers to be versed in the background and terminology introduced into Malibu comics. For that reason, I am introducing a glossary which should help readers understand terms and concepts that figure in the adventure that Mantra has just embarked upon. An explanation of the important terms found in Chapter 1 follows:

Glossary for Chapter 1, Twilight of the Gods

Godwheel

The Godwheel is an artificial world with a unique design. It is build like a finger ring that that surrounds two suns. A life-supporting atmosphere is maintained for human beings and various alien species. The culture of the Godwheel peoples range from primitive to very advanced. Some societies are empowered by magic, some by science. The humans living on this vast world came from the planet Earth, kidnapped in prehistoric times to populate the Godwheel. Mantra has visited the Godwheel four times before this and has found it to be a place for grand and dangerous adventures. In general, she considers the Godwheel hectic, dangerous, and exhausting and prefers not to go there unnecessarily.

Multiverse

Multiverse theory suggests that our universe, with all its hundreds of billions of galaxies and almost countless stars, spanning tens of billions of light-years, may not be the only one. Instead, there may be an entirely different universe, distantly separated from ours — and another, and another. Indeed, there may be an infinity of universes, all with their own laws of physics, their own collections of stars and galaxies (if stars and galaxies can exist in those universes), and maybe even their own intelligent civilizations. It could be that our universe is just one member of a much grander, much larger multitude of universes: a multiverse.

Timekeepers

A race of beings originating on the Godwheel. The Timekeepers were created for this story by Aladdin. They command very advanced technology, the most important of which controls time, at least locally. They are charged with the responsibility of monitoring the timelines of the Multiverse and correcting anomalies that occur. In this story, Mantra meets the Timekeeper Gabriel, who appears to be human-like. This may be the natural appearance of the Timekeepers, or it may be an illusion or disguise that members of his race might use to mingle with human beings.

VIGOPS

To gather the immense amount of information they need to carry out their work, the Timekeepers use supercomputers called VIGOPS units. This word is an anagram that has no meaning in English. A VIGOPS unit is a memory bank. It uses intrusive technology to gather information about the Multiverse and its timelines. The Timekeepers are connected to one or more VIGOPS units and may draw the information they need from it to facilitate their duties. They seem to have a "wireless" connection to their VIGOPS unit that allows them access to the information it holds from far away, and even in a different period of time.

Zero-time

The technology of the Timekeepers allows them to create pockets of time that exist outside of natural time (also called Real-time.) These pockets are zones of limited size in which the passage of time can be slowed down to almost zero. Only persons with enabling technology can move about inside Zero-time. What is not touched or connected to the person is held frozen in time. This has certain strange effects, such as a dropped object does not fall. It hangs in midair. If one is short of time, a Timekeeper can enter into Zero-time to perform lengthy work or research and then emerge into "Real-time" with only microseconds having passed.