To: The Peoples of Earth From: Parciloquy the Peculiar, Pleonast of Bleak-on-Vomir, Thaumaturge of the Aurantian Concordat, and author of "Parciloquy's Suffering Silence: an Arcanist's Guide to Siopic Excruciation"
Welcome, dear reader. Once again it is I, Parciloquy the Peculiar joined this day, literally in body if not mind, by my faithful manservant Lancelot Squib, whose fingers even now tap away upon this laptop. Such a delightful device, much better than the tuning rods and crystals of which I am more accustomed to in my own devices.
As you may have already surmised, I am a Wizard and not originally of your plane of existence. Indeed, I am currently not technically in it, as my dear colleague Laddys Fermille and I find ourselves still unable to travel directly to this world. So transdimensional psychic domination must suffice.
Projecting your consciousness into a surrogate’s body is even rather more fun than actual teleportation, I’ve found, if it is rather more taxing. I have rarely needed to spend as much time in the rejuvenation tanks as I have since these astral expeditions to your world began.
Spending a decade or two encased in jelly is a small price to pay for the experience, however. I’ve found myself growing closer to Fermille as well, a side-effect of the bodies we inhabit no doubt, but one that could have political benefits should we accomplish our main goal of opening a tear in the fabric of reality between our two worlds.
The Inevitable Realm of Atlass
“… and so with this discovery, I, Laddys Fermille, proprietor of the Most Excellent Manse astride the banks of the Sumilulilulia River and Erythrocrat of the Aurantian Concordat, propose this new Earth be named Earth Prime …”
By the standards of a creature living within your Earth, Fermille’s discovery of your world happened roughly six years ago. By the rather shifty standards of time in the world he and I share, however, it has been closer to 700 years. A mere trifling amount of time for a Thaumaturge Supreme from the Inevitable Realm of Atlass, however.
Why “inevitable”? We call it thus as we live within its sixty-ninth and final aeon. The very universe in which we reside is contracting, destined to shrink into a tiny, dense ball of metal.
Atlass exists within the hollow world of Agarth, a massive planetoid with an exposed, fiery core that acts as a sun of sorts. In the last days, the sun has grown even as the concave lands have shrunk. The great oceans have begun to boil, and the northern empire of Patala is little more than dust in trackless desert.
As whatever magic which created the magnificent hollow world of Agarth wears off and the planet returns to its normal state, the Inevitable Realm lives on under the powerful magics of the Aurantian Concordat.1 The “wilderness preserve” which the Aurantian Concordat has made of Atlass is the sole location where life can be found in Agarth.
For some thousands of years now, we have maintained a sort of bubble around the southern continent to prevent the worst effects of our planet’s transformation. To be honest with you, I’ve been alive so long I can’t even remember how old I am. As such, I actually find this inevitable contraction of the universe somewhat soothing.
However, the Aurantian Concordat has taken it upon itself to find a way to halt, or at least delay the world-ending disasters facing us. You read that correctly, we plan on restoring the seals which maintained the planet Agarth. Even if it means destroying your world in the process.
Based on the groundbreaking work of Panagiotis “Panos” Alphito, a brilliant thaumaturge and scientist in Aeon 23, Fermille and I plan to build non-magical devices in both worlds that are able to tune into each other across the thaumatadiastasis through gravitation.
Because your Earth has such a minimal (almost non-existent) amount of background magic, we theorize that the magic in Atlass will leak into your own, relieving the pressure (if you will) on Atlass and slow the contraction. Physical paradoxes will escape into your universe like gas into a void, restoring our world and… ahem, changing… your own.
From your standpoint, this will likely result in a hellish new reality of death and suffering on a massive scale, but I believe there is a metaphor common to the Earths involving the need to break eggs to make an omelet. That would apply here.
Magic Portals to Multiple Realities
“While dimensional travel is not unknown (and surmised the origin of humanity itself on this world), it is almost unknown for these magical portals to remain active and stable indefinitely as they do within the Tower. Often, whether occurring through the concerted effort of a thaumaturgist or through natural accident, these portals remain open for a few minutes at best …” – Laddys Fermille, “Tower and Multiverse”
If I seem rather conversant with your idioms and customs, that isn’t by chance. I have spent a great deal of time on various Earths, if not your Earth. As I mentioned, they are all fairly similar.
Like the contraction of the universe within which floats the orb of Atlass, the Tower is a phenomenon which we Wizards have not yet fully been able to grasp. Most agree that it is a construction and not a natural occurrence, however.
While the Tower itself seems to contain no trace or proof of who or what may have created it, a careful examination of the exits on various worlds has led to the theory that it was created by a magically advanced race of humanoid lizards.2
Where or when these lizard people originated from is still a mystery, as they don’t appear to fit with any known ecology in any time period on any of the known worlds. Their roles within the worlds they seem to have visited seem to have been either colonial or non-existent other than the exit itself.
The extinction of this of race lizard people does seem to have been magical in origin, as evidence of their existence has only survived in universes with lower levels of magic present. On Atlass, there is no evidence of their existence, even when attempting to confirm through time travel. That in itself raises a few red flags, as it were.
The Tower has been a boon to research on the multiverse, however.3 While I myself prefer to collect the books, scrolls, and artifacts of the many worlds, Fermille has taken it upon himself to study the Tower itself and its role as a nexus between these 108 universes.
It was he who was able to deduce the mechanism for temporal control over the magic portals. Previously, time travel within Atlass was only practical through djinni4, which are highly problematic to deal with at the best of times.
As already indicated, each of these 108 doors links to a similar door located in some alternate reality. For the most part, each of these worlds resembles each other at the basic physical level.
In some cases, such as with the Earths, several or more closely resemble each other. While Atlass stands apart as unique, it should be noted it has the highest measured amount of background magic of any other realm.
Additionally, it seems that the background magic present in a universe is proportional to the unique geology and history of the planet which hosts the exit portal. As expected, astronomical phenomena also vary wildly in universes with higher concentrations of magical energy.
Our Current Expedition
Fermille and I have paved the way for travel to your version of Earth, seemingly blocked from entry for so long. Your Earth occupies Door Alpha Prime (1) while Atlass is accessed from Door Omega Prime (108).5
Of all the magic portals, the portal to your world is the only one which is inoperable. It is a problem which has vexed the Aurantian Concordat for several thousand years. Given this, you can understand what an achievement it is to penetrate even this far into your realm.
Each magic portal resides next to the other in a ring at the base level of the Tower. Therefore, a number has been assigned to each door in a clockwise fashion beginning with your own broken portal. Depending on how you classify an Earth world, there are approximately 41 other Earths very much like your own.
As I stated, it is the intention of Fermille and myself to create a rift in the fabric of reality using extreme gravitational forces. In turn, this will introduce large amounts of magic into your universe, altering it forever and rendering the lives of your descendants into a hellish nightmare.
Even by introducing advanced scientific concepts culled from the futures of other Earths, this endeavor will still take another couple centuries from your perspective. Opening magic portals is never the easiest endeavor.
Transcriber’s Note:
Yesterday I found and watched a video of myself speaking a language that I am pretty sure isn’t human. Ling was speaking the same language and we appeared to be talking into large conch seashells. I had to shut it off when the conches appeared to talk back.
I have no recollection of doing this, but of course I have no recollection of most days anymore. I wonder if there will be a time I black out and just never wake up. I just pray I don’t wake up to find a video of me performing a cult sacrifice.