Just a piece out of a book in a book

Many thousands of years ago, our world was not as we know

it. There were no mortals that we know of, none at all. Ophilia was

a wild world, capable of producing resources for other worlds, yet it

was uninhabited by civilized folk. Oh yes, there were, to be sure a

good amount of strange and wondrous creatures such as the great

dragons of old, and the peculiar beings of the sea, said to be half-man,

half-fish. Tales of faeries, goblins, monsters, man-eating trees, and even

the peculiar, spined Winx have fascinated us for millennia. However,

no alleged creature has intrigued our race quite as much as the

Hissepesake

According to past texts, Hissepesakes seemed to have been very

similar to other humans. They were built in nearly the same way,

and could pass for a mortal being any day. Yet they were not mortal.

Hissepesakes, based on the reports of past adventurers, were very

strange creatures, capable of the most ominous feats. The most

acknowledged traveler of all time, Keverett J. Stonewall, once wrote

in his journal, “I know now that what I have seen in the Western

Wilderlands was not the work of mere natural disasters. Everything

was destroyed in a disturbing pattern, as though they were meant

to be; put in place by other beings. Though the land is barren now,

I have found traces of a great battle. Hilts of swords and knives lay

a few inches below the ground, as do broken arrows, axe blades,

bits of thick wooden things that I believe to be clubs, as well as

great deal of others. I am afraid, however, that I have only

reached the tip of the iceberg.

There are several theories I have about this battle. One is

that this land is an ancient battleground, and this battle took

place so long ago that it has not been documented. The other

is so disturbing, I have been inclined to forget about it. Yet, it

makes the most sense. The dismissals of the idea of Hissepesakes

were made by a legion of political rulers who have never left their

palaces in their lives. The weapons were not like the ones that our

kind uses. They were intricately decorated, each with a specific

symbol of something on it. It was as though every one was

crafted for a particular person. Or someone like a person. If the

legends about the Hissepesakes are true, then the legends about

their offspring must be true as well.” Unfortunately for us, Stonewall

does not condone exactly what he saw in the Deeper Lands, nor what

he meant about Hissepesake offspring. No one has gone farther west

than Stonewall, at least not since before the legends died down ten

thousand years ago. The Gates keep people away, for it is said that

if opened, they will unleash unspeakable horrors from the past.

Of course, this is all theory, and very few people believe it to be

true. All the same, most stay far away from the lands to the

West, even though they claim not to believe the tales.

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