These may be clues to the demise of the Oort. “Entropy epoch” implies a period of decline and chaos. “Vacuum energy risks all existence” may imply how the Oort destroyed themselves. Interestingly, the use of the word “entropy” my be a double entendre when you consider the use of vacuum energy. You see, vacuum energy, aka zero point energy is a theorized type of energy taken from background energy from the vacuum of space. Vacuum energy is theorized to be infinite, yet tapping into it may affect the thermodynamic balance of the universe causing the heat death of the universe. In this case, we are using the physics definition of the word entropy as well as the common use of the word. This seems to suggest that the Oort did not simply die off slowly, but destroyed themselves by tapping too much vacuum energy. I may have gotten some of my science mixed up here, but I do believe this is the general basis behind the lore.
P.S. In a PM from @James, the lore of The Oortiverse is based on science / cosmology / creativity. Additionally, the devs will likely not comment directly on topics of lore, but rather allow us to speculate and unravel the lore for ourselves. Consider it an archaeological quest! Happy hunting!!
Sounds good. But seems a little bit contradicting that the almost almighty Oorts died of something we can predict with the knowledge we have now.
That said, maybe they had the same problems with corrupt or dumb people we have that will most likely destroy our planet so…^^
Hmm. Depleting the vacuum energy would (hypothetically) slow down the expansion of the Universe. That would avoid (or at least forestall) a Big Rip scenario. I don’t know that it would hasten the heat death of the Universe since that can’t occur for 10^100 years or better (it would take that long for the entropy caused by the Hawking decay of super-massive black holes to occur). If the vacuum energy of the Universe is infinite, then by definition it can’t be depleted. (It’s not infinite–it’s just that so far the mathematics resist renormalization of the results of the calculations; that’s the biz when you mix quantum mechanics with relativity.)
True, but this could be explained by the abuse of the tremendous power or usefulness of such an energy source. In a way, it’s not unlike our predicament with fossil fuels and global climate change. We know the dangers of abusing fossil fuels, we can predict the consequences, yet we cant seem to ween ourselves off…
see how much use it gets.
