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Prologue

Good day dear and gentle reader, I hope I find you in at least moderate health, as we look at another tale centred around the Mystical Realms.


You may recall, that it has been said before that our universe was one of the first membrane universes to be formed, and as such it developed as it wanted to.

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Youtube video

But then, in the spaces between the undulating membrane universes another one took form, and somehow our own universe, indeed humanity itself in ways we know not, through our collective unconsciousness influenced the direction that new universe would take. Time in that universe was accelerated and ran at a different rate to ours, and so on a world, created in that universe, races developed that bore a striking resemblance to creatures out of our myths, our folklore, our fairy tales and our darkest nightmares.

Such was the nature of the link between these two universes, which as membrane universe were quite close, some of these other races who lived in that universe were aware of our existence, and the link through the collective unconsciousness of humanity allowed some to cross to and forth. When the first crossings started, the mismatch between the rates that time flowed in each universe, were synchronised by means unknown, and from then on we and they moved in a lockstep. As time passed on our world and theirs, the clouds that formed their world, patterned on our thoughts, fantasies and fears dispersed, and soon the world there, and their universe was dubbed by the inhabitants as the Mystical Realms became a world in it’s own right, almost like ours, but a planet, orbiting a binary star system with four moons where all these races lived together after a fashion.

It was only a matter of time, before the two worlds clashed metaphorically, and sagas were told of those clashes, some of the creatures there, felt as they had superior powers over the humans that had given them to them, they should rule over them. One was the Spirit of Lust, who triggered a long and bloody civil war that involved orcs and split the Troll clans.

As the war progressed it became evident that it was not just opportunism by those from the Mystical Realms that fed off of misery, but even humans from our world tried to cash in, until with the help of a human male and a female companion, who became his wife, both on the Mystical Realms and later back on Earth, this incursion from our world was foiled and a kind of peace restored.

But wars, dear and gentle reader take their toll. From our side a young child by the name of Sarah Smith was orphaned by a treacherous gnoll and brought to the Mystical Realms and enslaved in the kitchens of a citadel that was the ancient home of the troll emperors, known as Karam Tag Chou.

This young child because she was only a young child was not as efficient in the kitchens as the other slaves, and so she was whipped and beaten by a cruel hobgoblin. Her cruel slavery was ameliorated a little by the kindly attentions of two other slaves, by irony two goblins, a creature we often assume to be evil. These kind goblins were in fact two married goblins, Chidal and his wife Fadol. They cared for the child as best they could until she was rescued by the human male and female, who were, by this time, for a season at least, the Troll emperor and Queen. The child was adopted as their own daughter, and returned to Earth with them when they left Reports filtered back, that back on Earth, the couple on their return adopted her as their own under our laws and retired from adventuring..

As a reward for looking after the child whilst she was a scullion slave, the two goblins were given their freedom, although it was nominal as they knew of no other place they could go at that time.

But, no wars last for ever and this one ended, but because the power structure was changed, the citadel became deserted, and was now used by two troll clans, the Manjura who guarded the devices that enabled travel between their world and ours, and the guardians of the citadel itself, the clan of the Rachtal. The only other users were humans from an elite squad on Earth, who had made an alliance with the trolls, to help prevent the interference in each other’s affairs by those from either their side or ours.

The Manjura and the Rachtals were fairly self sufficient, The people from Earth brought their own supplies and as the seat of administration had moved away, there was no need for ceremonial duties or feasts, so the need for scullery servants was not as great as it need be, and so, as a gesture of goodwill, the scullery slaves were to be released and granted a chance to journey their homelands away from the troll citadel.

The problem was, that whilst the troll citadel was in the mountains well away from the fighting in the civil war, the homelands of the goblin couple who had helped the human child, were not so fortunate, and whilst some would look upon them as being unfortunates as they had been enslaved and taken away from their friend’s and family, some might take a view, that they lived as we would say a “cushy life” as they had not been the target of orc death squads. Whilst they lived in servitude, those left behind lived in fear, and some did not make it to see peace descend upon the Mystical Realms.

These two goblins were soon to be exposed to the horrific aftermath of a ferocious war; they were protected from, when others close to them were not so fortunate…