Alter Aeon The Great Library

Welcome to the Alter Aeon Historical Archive!

Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  14417
Title: a history of the land of magic by B. Worm

This book is large, about a foot square, and has very nice paper pages. 
The book cover is made of some strange fabric, and the spine has been
broken.  

The book tells how during the great wars near the beginning of time, in the
Age of Chaos how magic was warped in a small area of forest, north and west
of what would one day become the city of Ralnoth.  The magic flows were
warped in such a way that more magic than normal concentrated in the area. 
This attracted a number of creatures from the faerie realms, including a
satyr and nymph.  The magic also changed a simple worm into Mr. Book Worm
Esquire.  It has been my task to detail the rest of the history .  In the
old days, a realm known as hell lay north and east of Ralnoth.  Druids
entered it to try and soothe the tortured trees and animals of the upper
levels.  However, the place warped all who lived there.  At last the
druidic order were reduced to two: the old druid who remained to tend the
great stone circle the druids has constructed, and his brightest, but
maddest pupil.  The old druid sent his pupil away to find help.  The mad
druid wandered out of the forest and into Ralnoth.  At first the people 
tried to help him, but his ravings, odd behavior, and occasional irrational
unleashing of rat swarms on those who annoyed him, forced the citizenry to
drive him out.  He fled west.  It is said that he grew a magnificently
biomantically enhanced tree west of town, though I have only hearsay
reports of this phenomenon.  He eventually reached the land of magic. 
Grasping its potentials immediately, the mad druid warped the mana flows
still further and created a vortex.  The mana flows into the land now, and
circles and never escapes.  He grew another huge tree near the center of
the forest to serve as a living tower, and he began experimenting on the
creatures he found.  Besides his own experiments, creatures mutated wildly
in the intense magical field, and the land became abandoned.  Sane people
avoided it, and it became a wild place, off the main roads and seldom
visited.  I fear that the mad druid has some insidious scheme in mind.  He
has wandered through the forest raving on many occasions and I have
observed him closely.  He speaks always of how magic warps and changes
things, and if there were no magic, the land would be natural.  He seems
not to understand that his own powers would disappear with such a world. 
However, he has also muttered about being able to punch a hole in reality
to a place of nomagic and summon forth a void to devour all magic in the
world.  This must not be.  I have attempted to leave several times, but I
am afraid of the many creatures that roam this land.  

The book is signed Mr. B. Worm Esquire, the Cottage Cheese, the year 432 of
the reign of Dentin.