Myriads before the Sumerians began plowing Mesopotamia, a race of people known as the Aati emerged possessing telepathic abilities and a love of travel. A curious, nomadic group with a very fluid sense of community, they were discovering qubes and opening portals from day one just to say hello to whoever might be on the other side. Originating in a loose cluster of earths with exceptionally temperate climates, an abundance of food, and few natural predators, the Aati thrived. They had everything anyone could want and so their society evolved in an incredibly open manner with few borders, restrictions, or any sense of personal space.

The Aati were not true telepaths as they lacked an overt mind-control ability and instead possessed a passive one that allowed them to “read” people to incredible depth based on emotions, aura, and the like. In modern parlance, enhanced intuition is closest: the preternatural ability to sense minor variations in local coherence across a broad spectrum of wavelengths at short distances. In other words, they could read anyone like a book, a talent which undoubtedly affected their early development into an open and friendly culture. Subterfuge and deceit did not exist in Aati culture because it could not.

It believed that the Aati possessed a kind of pineal antennae that expanded their sensitivity to other wavelengths, such as those emitted by qubes, which they must have known about long before finding an entrance to one, let alone learning its function. Without an instruction manual, countless Aati were undoubtedly lost forever on one-way trips to different worlds. In general, there weren’t many people around back then, perhaps as many as a million per earth, so whether it was because they couldn’t return, or they just liked the new place better, they made themselves at home, and soon enough, whole tribes and villages of people were shuffling back and forth between worlds as easily as dropping in on the neighbors. As there were no gatekeeper, agents, or demi-gods in those days to spoil the fun, everyone came and went as they pleased, chasing seasons, ever-better conditions, or just their own curiosity,

With fewer people, the chances of one meeting themselves were much higher than it is now. Apparently this was a positive situation, because while there is no evidence that the Aati developed any sort of formalized religion, they did develop a higher purpose, as it were, by making it their life mission to find portals and establish relationships with their other selves wherever and whenever possible.  Finding all the many facets of oneself was the only purpose in life, as reconnecting with all of yourselves was the only way to become truly whole again and to move on to the next plane of existence.