All The Worlds
My dear friend,
Due to the excess of questions I keep getting from people unwilling to travel off-world, you know who you are; I have set out to write what I know about each to the best of my ability. Though I still maintain that visiting a world is the best way to get to know it, I understand how nerve-racking going to some of these places is, so—despite my excess of teasing—I don’t blame you. I hope this catalog will answer everything, and if it doesn’t, then I am afraid I know nothing more about each world.
For the sake of anonymity, others may read this; I won’t use your name, but writing “you” is a bit strange, so we will refer to you as Garnet in the meantime, yes, I know, that pseudonym is painfully apparent to everyone who knows, but not many people really know.
So, Garnet ;)—how do you like getting those silly smile faces thrown at you?—I will start this catalog/diary/letter thing with that out of the way.
I suppose the best way to begin this endeavor is to attempt to explain, well, everything. That said, this is no easy feat. Even though I have different access than you, we are still beings of the same level; I can explain things I have learned secondhand, but bear in mind I have seen nothing for myself, nor could I explain it if I had, I possibly haven’t seen anything at all, but that is for a different diary.
So, there are roughly 70 to 72 worlds. Right away, we run into the first issue. I think there are differences in counting, or maybe a world or two is on the border of splitting, but who really knows, honestly. I will say the count is 70, but don’t be surprised if the final number in this guide contradicts that count.
Anyway, the 70ish worlds can be thought of as arranged roughly in the shape of a circle with several rings. I have drawn a rough illustration below.
Yes, Garnet, I know, that’s not a circle. Mind you, I’m a mage and sword collector, not an artist. Nevertheless, it should get the job done well enough. If you look closely at the middle, there is a single world known as Earth. I will go into full details about these worlds in future letters, but it is important to note that I have drawn Earth as the only world solely as a circle. The amorphous shapes of the other worlds are not to express that each is in material a blob shape—or solely due to my drawing skills—but instead, this chart functions symbolically, shall we say.
I just wanted to get that out of the way. You are pretty quick on the uptake with these sorts of things, so I don’t expect it will be an issue, but it was the sort of thing that needed to be said if you get what I mean.
Having been to many of these worlds, I can affirm they use similar rules as we might expect on our own. The worlds are round and can be left to the reaches of space. In some cases, you might be able to see one world through the telescope of another as the science fiction stories would suggest, though I only know of one case where travel through the heavens was achieved as such. Most stumble to another world by finding a thin space or two or being thrust out manually by a “strong push.”
This all might sound strange to you, I know. Our conversations have usually gone the way of explaining these places as parallel worlds or pocket dimensions, and, odd as it is to say, that understanding is also correct. I am not privy to enough information to fully understand myself, and even if I was, I doubt I could explain it sufficiently, but I am not too bothered by the whole thing, and I encourage you to take a similar approach. Both are true and don’t conflict. Whether whisked away to a world by the iron of a ship, or the magic of the fae, the fact remains that the end result is standing in a place incredibly foreign to oneself.
Though foreign is probably the next thing to cover. I got off-topic trying to explain. You have likely noticed, and I made mention to the rings around the drawing of the worlds. Each serves a sort of boundary or wall of sorts. Not in the sense of anything physical that must be passed or clambered over, this is still just a symbol after all; rather, the rings represent the borders of the world’s incongruity.
The inner ring is Earth. As I have said, it is solely inhabited by the single world, and I believe that base model to compare every other world. Outside of the inner ring, there is the first ring. They like to call this ring Diafola. It is the ring of variance. Worlds seem like they are split off from this Earth in the same way we have our pocket dimensions in our own world. I should note the idea of such a separate space is entirely fictional for any of the Diafola worlds.
What I mean to say is that things don’t get too odd in this ring. It is hard to explain, as we are not from a Diafola world, and our understanding is limited to our frame of reference. I’m having trouble explaining it myself, so perhaps I’ll just leave it there and move on. Through the course of these letters, you will understand what I mean.
The next ring is where our own world finds its home. Ananeno, the ring still expected. This is the place where you find things that you and I are comfortable with. Elves, dwarves, and the like are natives in the Ananeno ring, and magecrafts are more openly embraced than techcrafts. It would not be uncommon in a world in this ring to find a floating island—or pocket dimensions as you are well aquatinted with—whilst such things would be surprising to someone born in a Diafola ring.
I know Garnet; you are thinking of how this lays out with our world and how a Diafola mindset matches what you once had, but I planned for such a question. If you return to the image of the worlds, you’ll see that not every shape fits neatly in each ring. This is not because I am bad at drawing—this is not only because I am bad at drawing. I am explaining the “rules” of the rings in a way that lays them out easily to understand, but for every rule, there are exceptions with this sort of stuff. Language simply cannot contain what we are discussing, and it will be full of flaws. Nevertheless, we must persist if we hope to understand any of it.
So, with that in mind. Nkremo, the cliffside ring. Bear in mind there is no cliff; at least, I don’t think there is one, but rather this indicates that this is the edge. Whether it is an edge, you can somehow fall off, or simply the metaphorical way to explain for beings of our level, I don’t know.
Regardless of that, Nkremo worlds are where things get, well, weird. Not in the sense of physics, those remain consistent across all worlds. The best way to explain it is probably with the natives. You will not find humans native to a Nkremo world. There are cases of travel between them, but the races are all different, and not only are they different, you will not find some of the Ananeno groups native either. I can throw out words and names, but I don’t think it will do any good since you have no frame of reference. I mean, does Aqueenian mean anything to you? The spell check on this damned device even says it’s a typo while elf and dwarf are left alone. It would take too long to even begin.
So, that’s the layout of the worlds, and we’re done, or at least I’d like to say we are. This last bit I’ll leave short as I am supremely unqualified to begin explaining—but first, another picture.
Yes, Garnet, the handwriting is terrible and all. Ignore that for a moment and look at the centerish slice labeled Kemtro. This is where everything I have been talking about is, let’s say, “situated.” This is where it gets hard to comprehend. Even if, and I don’t recommend it, you went to say Mezis or Chanilos—it is possible for someone of your level—the experience would be odd, almost dreamlike, and whatever concept you have if time would be thrown out the window. As a general rule, the spaces under Kemtro move slower, and above move faster. I once spent a year in Mezis, and that was when I knew you. You undoubtedly don’t recall me being gone for so long, since it was maybe a couple of weeks or so for you. Likewise, if you spend time in Chanilos, you might get back after a year and five have passed. It is quite unpleasant, to be sure.
But now I imagine your brow furrowing and eyes squinting while you are on about “that this wasn’t what you wanted to know about at all.” Did I get it right?
Fear not, Garnet; now that all this terminology is out of the way, we can start this world catalog proper. I will send my following letter in short order, or as short of order is for me; you know I am in my own time zone, after all.
Anyway, I think I’ll hit the send button. If I may request anything from you, it is that I may write future entries in good old ink and parchment; it is the only way to really write a letter, you know.
May you be well,
Solomon
Solomon,
Garnet? You really had to use that? My face was red with embarrassment for the whole email! Anyway, thank you for your note…I guess. My head hurts. Please make the future letters less abstract. By the way, I do recall that you went missing for weeks; you’re usually not that bad with time. To think you spent an entire year somewhere else…. And, please do not send a letter with ink and parchment! I swear you act way older than you are sometimes….
