Trapped in Mandelbulb Prison From a distant and unknown part of a certain universe exists an asteroid. Except it's not just any asteroid, but a giant carbon copy of the Mandelbulb set, carved by (even larger) mechanical robots down to an incredibly fine level (apx. 1 trillion voxels cubed).



Unfortunately, upon this asteroid resides a lonely soul, cruelly banished to the place for 800,000 years over some ridiculously minor misendeavour. However, she has made the most of her stay, building some kind of home (a giant tree house would probably be a better description), and has even managed to generate electricity from raw materials found in the crust of the Mandelbulb, along with her knowledge of science.



Around 'Christmas' time, it looks like this from the outside (click pic for full size, then click opened pic again to expand):













At this time of year, you won't find her anywhere near these parts though, as she has much more vital work to attend to and time isn't on her side.



In this world, a dark 'night' like this only appears thrice every 600 'days', and along with it comes a hope of salvation. All other times provide at least moderate daylight by our Earth standards.

Zooming out, we see this below. A thousand potential homes - much alike, but all empty; a sorrowful scene indeed, and not unlike the Earth's place in our own universe. Indeed, our lonely inhabitant occupies around only eighty trillionths of the entire space (volume) of the Mandelbulb asteroid, so it must seem like the universe to her (click picture to enlarge):















Exploration of the Mandelbulb is of interest to our lone wanderer, not least because a certain unknown location holds a secret portal out of this somewhat pitiful existence. It has been said to appear as a faintly glowing pyramid shaped object, perhaps up to two metres in height and two metres across. Why was it even put there?! Is it supposed to be some kind of twisted game by her captors? Or is it maybe to prevent prisoners from losing all hope, and going insane?



Who knows, but one thing is for sure - finding it is daunting, not only due to the sheer size of the Mandelbulb, but also because of the difficulty in navigation by foot. Whether it's getting trapped by falling into a ravine, slipping off a cliff face, avoiding deadly Mandel Nightshade, or overcoming upside-down surfaces, there can't be a more foreboding terrain.









In the daytime, things appear a little more optimistic. Above, every part of the Mandelbulb is coated in a sheet of frost, due to the decrease in temperature compared to night (where the snow melts entirely).



This class of asteroid prison is hollow and in such cases, rumours persist that the much sought after portal is hidden inside the asteroid rather than on the surface. This means finding it becomes much more difficult, especially as the inside is filled with lurking horrors such as this gut-wrenching precipice.



Below is a view from inside too. Due to an incredibly dense type of matter found in the asteroid's crust, gravity on the asteroid's inside is inverted from the outside. This makes it possible to walk 'upside-down' which of course would appear as the right way up for any person inside. Gravity in (or on) the asteroid is generally very strange and can vary dramatically from one moment to the next, especially in deeper, more dense locations. It's also possible to get trapped whilst tunneling from the surface to the inside, so one must be especially careful in this case.

And here below, for the first time, we see the lady herself, homesick and heartbroken, but resolute in her hope to exit this nightmare. If you look carefully, you can see her in the lower-left corner of the screen standing on the green verge. Also apparent in this shot are three lakes (many more outside eyeshot) which do indeed hold vast quantities of drinkable water.





Barely visible in the other shot, here's a closer look at her staring into the vast wilderness.



Maybe this Christmas night, she'll see the glow of the pyramid. Maybe this one. Alternatively, there's only another 799,923 years left to wait.....