One game; three worlds to explore. The Land of the Quick, the Land of the Dead, and the Other Side of Midnight…
We mortals are short lived. We are the ‘Quick.’ Our experiences are ephemeral. We may make our mark; even create a legacy. Perhaps our people will sing our songs or our children tell our stories once we are gone. For a time. Our souls burn bright; passions briefly. We do not remember the past as our flames set fire to the present. Our scholars grope after the blind spots of history, grasping smoke, their knowledge frail. We war for our own ego, for resources of the material, we do not go to war enough for understanding. Craving what we perceive to be power we cling to our trophies and are ruthless to defend, and to protect what is ours. We too often have eyes on gathering more, for the sake of more. To satiate a desire to fill the void within us which no treasure can truly satisfy. The Ard Righ and the Seven Kings, or Ri Ruirech, and the Petty Kings of the minor Kingdoms constantly scheme and double-cross, plot and murder to get their way or die in the attempt. ‘Peace’ is an illusion and never lasts for long…
The Land of the Dead then. Beyond the mists of the Veil dividing our realms. When we escape the Coil or the Circles of the World, we pass over, to the Other Side. Some of us are restless, we may refuse to accept our death or we perhaps have left the Land of the Quick in such disgrace and dishonour that we are bound for places of torment unspeakable. Knowledge of these places is as elusive as the truth and the knowledge of the past is to our scholars. As it should be. Some secrets are not meant to be shared.
But the Land of the Dead is not all horror and suffering. Our mighty warriors go forth ready to bravely adventure once more. Our purest hearts depart our embrace to bring love to vistas beyond our imagination. Architects of all descriptions pass over to carry on their work in what we all can hope is a better place…
But the Other Side of Midnight is not always a better place. It is a realm beyond our sight, hidden from view. The domain of the Aos Si, and also the Shadow-fey, of which few dare speak: Beings so utterly inhuman as to be entirely outside of our comprehension. Seelie and Unseelie, mischievous and cruel, beautiful and proud, or hideous and deceptive. To those with the Sight, or those to whom such beings are revealed, they are by turns mysterious, magical, enchanting, capricious or wholly abhorrent. Their world is not the place for the Quick to dwell, and those who travel there seldom return. Of those few mortals who do make that journey and come back to the clutches of the Coil, none remain unchanged. Sometimes, some of that Midnight creeps into the soul. Sometimes some of that soul stays in the Midnight…
It is however the treacherous, delightful, horrifying and beautiful magic that keeps us coming back to these stories, to venture through these realms and the mists of time and the Veil between worlds…
Perhaps we will learn something of ourselves, or of these lands. Perhaps we will dream harder, love more passionately, and strive more ardently in our pursuits once these tales have touched us. Let us reach like the scholars, though for something other than the knowledge of the past. Let us instead reach after the magic. Let us not fail in this missive, but to grasp what we reach for and keep that magic held tight in our hand.
And not let the Thief of Shadows steal it…