[An assistant to the Librarian transcribed this from a very old set of papers Donnovan had set aside in case he was unable to return in a timely fashion. His instructions indicated that it should be distributed to those who need to know. Similar items will follow each Monday until the Meeting of the Blackwatch on the Ides of January.] ------- The Veil and the Void As I begin this treatise I am forced to note the inherent paradox of a scholar writing things that almost no one should read. We Scribes generally work to preserve and spread knowledge, not to lock it away. The information contained herein is highly dangerous to most, and desperately vital to a few - thus I suppose the paradox must be endured. The following is a brief explanation of the nature of the Veil and the Void. It is intended only for members of the Blackwatch. If you are not a member (or are not preparing to become one) then I suggest you get your affairs in order, as an Agent will likely be by shortly to correct this oversight... It is difficult to explain the Veil to those without a firm grounding in trans-dimensional magical theory, but the it could crudely be described as an invisible curtain of energy that separates our reality from the Void. In truth it is much more than that, but for the sake of brevity that explanation will have to suffice for now. The Void is similarly difficult to comprehend, and much more dangerous to contemplate, as the more one understands about it the more ones sanity tends to erode. Individuals with significant knowledge of the Void also present the entities from beyond reality with a possible conduit for entry, and thus knowledge of the Void is strong curtailed. The explanation I will leave you with is this: the Void is beyond. Beyond understanding, beyond rationality, beyond life, beyond death, beyond mortal comprehension - simply beyond us. Speaking in a crudely functional sense, it is what exists between worlds. If worlds of myth and literature come into being when a mortal conceives of them, the Void is every un-conceived idea, every forgotten memory, the antithesis of thought, will and life. Even these explanations are woefully incomplete, but for the safety of both the reader and the Realm I will not continue to elaborate. The Veil acts as the barrier between our world and the Void. There are many theories about how it came to be and what sustains it, but the few who have studied it tend agree on a few key facts. First, the Veil was likely called into existence by one or more of the Greater Spirits at or before the creation of Sidleterra itself. It is a construct of such power and magnitude that it is utterly beyond the capacity of any lesser being to create. Second, the Veil tends to be strongest in areas rich with life and civilization and prosperity. While there are some exceptions, the vitality of the land and its people seems strongly tied to the relative strength of the Veil in a given region. Finally, the Veil prevents the things from the Void from entering our world... mostly. The means by which these entities gain entrance is not generally known, but it seems all but impossible for them to enter Sidleterra in areas where the Veil is strong unless [a portion of the text here has been deliberately blacked-out]. Here it becomes necessary to explain the interaction of the Gate, the Veil and the Void. As we know, the Gate connects our world to other worlds of history, myth and literature. When active, the Gate enables entities to travel from one world to another without piercing the Veil or passing through the Void. Its mechanisms are poorly understood, but what we do know is [a portion of the text here has also been deliberately blacked out]. Impressive as the Gate is, it is not the only way to pass in or out of this world. There are places in Sidleterra where the Veil is thin or volatile. Many heroes have encountered the Changing Caverns, the Gate Lands or [this text has also been blacked out]; all represent similar locations of turbulence in the Veil. Locations such as these remain inaccessible or out of phase when there is no world in contact with them, and thus they are not places where entities from the Void are often able to gain access to our world. There are rumors of areas on some of the desolate borders of Sidleterra where the Veil is considerably less robust. It is in these areas where the few acknowledged incidents with entities from beyond have tended to occur, such as [several lines of text here have been blacked out]. This is also the area in which the Blackwatch most frequently operates. It is my hope to study this area in more depth, and ideally gain a greater understanding of how and why the Veil operates as it does there. I hope this explanation of these concepts has been illuminating, despite its limited nature. I shall entrust it to the care of the Blackwatch and leave to pursue my studies. So long as I am careful in my research I expect I will be able to contribute much to the corpus of knowledge on these topics without posing any significant risks to Sidleterra or its people. -Quinton Exilis [A separate hand amended the following to the bottom of the page]: Quinton Exilis was executed two years later. This action was for the Good of the Realm.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 02:41:22 +0000
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