The “10,000 Drafts” was a vernacular name for a set of unfinished universes put together by the Firmament when they began planning out the creation of the 10,000 Dawns, but which they eventually discarded. Rather than destroyed, the Drafts were locked away not “far” from the finished Dawns.
One of their inhabitants, the Tourist, somehow discovered the truth about her own existence. Dissatisfied with this state of reality, she broke out of the Drafts and into other universes, including the 10,000 Dawns, thanks to her ship the Black Pyramid, which could travel to other universe. After visiting a universe where all of the 10,000 Dawns were fiction created by James Wylder, and the various Drafts were represented as literal drafts — early story concepts developed and forgotten by Wylder, the Tourist returned to the Drafts to break out two more individuals, Pathway and Miranda. (PROSE: The Forgotten Heroines of 10,000 Dawns Big Takeover!)