“We stood in the middle of the plaza, surrounded by buildings of metal and chrome.  Not a sound could be heard, but the faint buzz of..something…The only life in this city of technology was us, yet the feeling we were being watched grew by the moment…”

  The world known as Easthalen is one of high magic. It resides in everything and has multiple influences towards reality, from the subtle to overt. It is a hub for the various planes, yet, at the same time, a prison. Those that do somehow manage to leave find themselves drawn back to it. Ironically, the more powerful one is, the harder it is to leave in the first place, as the system in place is designed to take that power and use it against you if you traverse the multiverse. As time went on since the creation of Great Barrier , those that did manage to travel afar to other realms started to pool their resources and knowledge. Very soon it was noticed that some realms were, for want of a better term, locked off from the “standard” dimensional pathways. Clues and signs point to their existence but it was like seeing a locked door – You knew something was there but not what was behind it. The Archivers gathered what knowledge they had on these locked realms and made some interesting discoveries about each of them.

• Each was locked in its own way – what would “open the door” for one, would not work on another
• Each was locked for a specific reason – most of the time it was, relative speaking, just due to a quirk in the nature of that reality that made tr dangerous for travellers – Realms with dangerous inhabitants didn’t count, but when the very fabric of space-time would render your into dust
• Some were, for want of a better term, private realms created by power entities who didn’t like visitors

One, in particular, stood out to the Archivers – It was locked, like the others, but nothing , at first, would indicate why.  Soon however the wall to this reality was broken – but not from Easthalen. Whatever was in there broke out. In the brief moments, the walls between realms were thin enough, the Archivers discovered that this world was their twin –  but in a way, mirrored. Easthalen was, as mentioned, a world of magic. This was one of science and technology, were magic was present but much, much weaker. Some old stories had told of this realm, which was later dubbed Westhalen by some travellers who managed to go there and return.  When they returned, they brought with them stories that at first seemed false – of a place were magic was of little use, where it was treated as a children’s toy, for entertainment purposes. Of flying vehicles using propulsion methods the likes of which had never been seen before. They told of doors and platform that could transport people and goods to faraway places in the blink of an eye with the ease one might just step through a door. But the biggest shock was the population.  Ignore the mutated entities and artificially created gene creatures, the hybrids of organic and technology and more, the most surprising thing was that the travellers found themselves. Literally.  This was of great concern – Was the birth of one creature in WH matched by another in EH?  If one died in this place, did the other die? What about marriages and families? A different would naturally produce different choices for the inhabitants.  Over the decades that followed, these questions were pondered many times, and eventually, with no known arrivals from WH, the subject became less and less important, fading away from the eye of those who might know, with what little knowledge that did remain left in the hands of the Archivers.  Although all this happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the knowledge that this world, this technological mirror exists was kept only by a few.   And the question keeps popping up – If the found this realm before – what is to stop them from coming here again?