Places

Assuming you’re the mage in question, getting into a Paradox Realm is easy – getting out again is the trick. Generally,

this involves serious soul-searching and a form of penance, perhaps something as simple as a sincere “I’m sorry” to the Universe at large.

Getting into one if you’re not the mage who caused that paradox is far more challenging. First off, you’ll have to find the right one… which, if you’re looking for a buddy’s Paradox Realm, is fairly difficult. These Realms can resemble soap bubbles or sparkling holiday ornaments scattered across the shell of the Horizon or floating in the distant reaches of the Aetherian Reaches or Epiphamies. Once you find the right Realm (assuming that you can), there’s the puzzle involved in opening the door. You see, there isn’t one… and because every Paradox Realm is different, each Realm has a different means of entrance and exit. You might find yourself singing nursery rhymes backwards, kissing a winged pig, or speaking a familiar spell in a different language before the Realm lets you in. One thing’s constant, though: each Realm, without fail, is based upon the magick that brought it into being. If you can figure out why a given Realm exists, then you’ll have a key to freeing its prisoner.

Getting free one way or another is important with a Paradox Realm. Eventually, Reality gets tired of having such things around… and, like bubbles off the inner surface of a glass, they float away. To where? Into the Deep Umbra, that’s where. And once that happens, the chance of getting free on your own power disappears. Unless someone finds you and sets you free, you’re stuck with the results of your own Paradox… possibly forever.

Paradox Realms aren’t the only places where time stands still. Remember when I mentioned dinosaurs? Yes, they still

roam free in a place known as the Hollow Earth: a strange inner Umbra that supposedly rests on the inside of the Earthly world.

Known by a variety of names, this region has been spoken of for millennia. It’s the Land Beyond the Edge of the World, the Inner Earth, Hyperboria, Annwyn, Underhill. Whereas most cosmologists place the Umbrae outside the mortal realm, tales place the Hollow Earth under the crust or oceans of our world. Tunnels, whirlpools, caves, and rabbit holes lead into this region, supposedly without a need to step sideways over a Gauntlet; that gauntlet, in this case, is the edge of the everyday world. For obvious reasons, it’s really bloody difficult to locate Hollow Earth passageways. Especially in our age of satellite cameras and GPS tracking, those “edges of the known world” are difficult to find… in order to find the Hollow Earth, you must first get seriously lost.