Chapter 15: Worlds Apart
8 January, 2008 – 4:06 pm
It is written in books - either long forgotten or lost - that before the Split many thousands of years ago, the world was one, and no such thing as magic existed.
According to fragmentary documents discovered (now kept locked away from the prying eyes of parties that would want to destroy them), a catastrophic event occurred that cruelly separated the world, cleaving it in two and bringing on an ice age that lasted for hundreds of years.
Just how this happened or why seems never to have been documented.
But copies of texts that do remain tell us that the two halves of the world became two separate physical lands - known as the world of Man and the world of the Others (A land which is also known by a colourful array of diverse names - notably: Annwn, Tir Na Nog, Hel, Heaven, Faerie).
The two lands were destined to drift apart from each other until a time in the future when both realities would eventually pass the horizon of each other and their portals would be severed forever, never to be repaired.
Could it be that whatever lingering legends and myths of the Faerie race remain stem from this distant time?
In the past, the paths that connected the two worlds were more tangible than they are now and some scholars have even dared to go so far as to suggest that there were no barriers at all between the two.
Even as little as a century ago it is believed there were numerous entrances still hidden here and there, but these began to quickly disappear, for the clues that led us to one portal sadly proved to be a dead-end. Investigating further ones revealed the same: thorny briers, rotten tree trunks, impassible hedges and stagnant pools of fetid water. It seemed that the priceless map that we had discovered and used for our research, was either a fraud or the nodes connecting the portals were in rapid decline. For whatever reason, we could not say. Maybe mankind’s relentless pursuit of Reason and Science had begun to drive out the old virtues of Faith and Magic.
Other people who claimed to be knowledgeable in this area suggested to us that the two worlds could not be bridged (The general concensus was that they could, by simply traveling in a particular direction at a particular time.) Their theories suggested that an altogether more esoteric route must be employed.
Nevertheless, there have come to light tantalizing hints of just that happening. For history is littered with people who have disappeared here and there. Indeed, one of the most famous reports committed to record concerned a farmer called Fox Tufford who, whilst out walking with his wife and two children, simply disappeared without a trace, never to be heard of again. According to his wife, he had simply ceased to exist.
Is it not unlikely that the vast majority of disappearances in the world can be accounted for by this phenomenon?
Another such example of portals existing between the two worlds concerns Jonathan Swift, the celebrated author of Gulliver’s Travels. Recently, letters discovered written by Swift and locked in a hidden vault, point to his entire writing being biographical in nature with only places and names having changed.
When Gulliver landed on the island of Lilliput, in reality it was Swift himself who landed on the island of Illepuschia - one of the dread lands of the Fay. It is unsurprising that the letters have so far been greeted with derision and contempt by literary scholars.
In one such case, a critic became so incensed that he tried to set them alight by tossing a bundle of them into the fire, shouting ‘Poppycock!’ over and over again at the top of his voice. It was only after he was overpowered that the remaining letters could be saved. Alas, more than half had been consumed by the fire.
But there are said to be other methods that can be employed to bridge the worlds.
Unfortunately these are either forgotten, or as yet undiscovered.
