There was a time when all Earth had was history, when all the stories ever told had happened, somewhere far away. Now, A thousand years from the moment that physics, our foundation, failed us, most of what we have are stories. Did they happen? Are they real? We don't know, for anything we dream about now becomes real.
The one thing we all agree happened, though it happened before physics collapsed, is the fall of the Joylan Empire. An Empire we weren't a part of, because it wasn't even a part of our Universe. They came from the world of the mind, where mind magic rules. I'm told that their world is run not based on strength or cleverness, but based on who can force people to obey them.
The story goes that a thousand years ago, they sense power growing in our world. Upon investigation, they saw a world that was very similar to their own, with a strong upper class, and a weak middle and lower class. Naturally, they thought that we were developing the ability to use mind magic, and that we would try and take over the moment we found out about their existence. So they infiltrated us, and used their magic to try and destroy us.
What they didn't know was that Terrance Gregson, Earth's first ruler, awaited them. He wasn't at the top of society, or even anywhere in the middle. He was at the bottom, a loser who lived with his mother, whose sole contribution was angry, stream of consciousness blog posts. He was the one who first saw the outsiders for what they were, and he was the one who united Earth against the threat.
What he knew that the Joylan's didn't was that the reason they sensed power coming from Earth, in the age before mages, wasn't because there were any mind mages. Or Elemental mages, space-time mages, or Anti-Mages. What Earth had was a growing problem, physics being torn apart by the different views of those who lived on its surface. This would wreak havoc one day, but to him it was an opportunity to crush the Joylans for good. He worked and planned for decades, and when the stars aligned he ripped the world apart, in such a way that Joylan was sucked into the Infinite, never to be seen again.
Nobody in the Mind World remembers the empire, for once it was sucked into the Infinite it ceased to be a place and became merely an idea. Nobody on Earth knows much about it either. We don't know who the Joylan's were, we only know they fought us, and even the reason why gets debated from time to time. While the most common theory is the one that says they wanted to stop us from colonizing them, some claim they knew going in that we weren't mind mages, and they were attempting to stop a more evil form of magic from emerging and taking control of the world. Others claim they just wanted slaves, and we seemed like easy pickings without a guardian or any magic to protect us. Still others say the Joylan empire never existed, it was just a myth built by Earth over the thousand years since our fall, to make us feel better about ourselves.
As Earth's ruler, I don't know what really happened, but I do know that officially Joylan never died. It still exists in the mind Universe, on top of where Earth now is. Anyone visiting "Joylan" would see it as we imagine it to look, an appearance with changes drastically at least once every few decades. About all we can agree on is that it was around earth's size, with over fifteen billion people in its heyday, and that they were far more technologically advanced then we were, because their physics didn't fail the same way that ours did. Strangely, although Joylan of the past supposedly sat at the center of multiple trade routes, no one much visits. Those who do leave shortly after visiting. I don't know why, but I suspect that since we aren't Mind Mages by nature, the illusion spell we're using is incomplete enough that anybody visiting can see right through it into the Infinite. I've brought this up a few times, but Dr. Tilreh and his cronies say that it doesn't matter, so long as they can't see earth.
I don't think he's right. I think that it's only a matter of time before the Guardian of Mind investigates. I'm honestly stunned she's ignored this for as long as she has. I'm told the Guardians are masters of all types of magic, including the lost form, soul magic, yet she doesn't seem to realize that a small planet in another Universe is tricking someone who ought to be the undisputed master of Trickery. Rose says that she's doesn't think we're all that much of a threat to her. She's right, but if I were in her position that would be my excuse to get rid of the problem before it becomes too big to take care of. I think the truth is that one of her advisors warned her that attacking us would put her in danger, though I honestly don't know how. It sounds crazy, and maybe it is, but we are the world that made Terrance Gregson after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment