Alter Aeon The Great Library

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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:  7802
Title: a book titled "The Otherworld"

"The Otherworld" by Almi Wind-Wise

There are many legends about the origin of fairies. Some say they came from
another plane and spread out through the cosmos using magic. Another claims
they are prime elementals, the refined manifestations of the World Spirit.
The most ancient make mention of the Otherworld, from which the Princes of
Faerie descended and mingled with lesser beings. Thus sprang up a multitude
of fairy kinds and fey-touched beings that continue to this day.

The Otherworld is real. It is not a plane or a distant world. Nor is it any
singular place. The Otherworld refers to locations in the mortal world
where the barrier between it and the spirit realm is thin. Faerie Lords and
Ladies are drawn to and dwell in these places. They use them to pass
between this world and the world of spirits, allowing them to travel
betwixt them with great speed, not unlike a scototropist stepping from one
shadow to the next.

The paths into the Otherworld are well-hidden, cloaked in glamors and
clever artifices. Many are deep beneath the earth, in places where mortals
rarely trod. Quite a few are deep in the wilderness, hidden in mountain
valleys or deep groves. It is even said there are some hidden in the sky,
in clouds or even marvelous floating castles!

Because fairies are descended from beings that transcend the boundaries of
the mortal world and the spirit plane, they may have more in common with
the undead than with the living. Indeed, many primitive cultures make no
distinction between fairies and ghosts. However, unlike undead, their
existence is entirely natural and not an affront to the gods.

This connection between the undead and fairies may also explain their
affinity for necromancy. It also explains why they rise spontaneously as
undead more readily than most beings, as they are more attuned to lifeforce
energies.

A more recent theory links the Otherworld to Purnima, the lowest of the
Planes of Lights. Faeries are known to frequent Purnima, and it could be
their origins are in some distant corner of the poorly explored plane.
Indeed, the Field of Fonts in Purnima, with its famous portals, could
certainly help facilitate faeries traveling between distant points. Perhaps
the various points of the Otherworld are connected in a similar fashion,
with portals linking it together from plane to plane.