Borghild: The Hidden Realm

There are many tales of distant worlds and hidden realms of our own planet… and yet none of the tales ever turn out to be true. Except for one.

Many people have theorized about the existence of parallel worlds that are linked to our own and we are forever trying to breach the barrier between that world and our own. Many religions thought of two realms linked to the Earth, they were called Heaven and Hell.

The Greeks called these places ‘The Elysian Fields’ and ‘Tartarus’. For the Egyptians it was simply the Afterlife. But for the Nordic people, it was Valhalla and Hel. The Earth had become plagued with the beasts created by the gods… Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Sköll, Hati Hróðvitnisson… that the Earth was no longer safe for the human race. But laying parallel to Earth was another world that the gods could access by travelling to it through a void in both time and space… a void that could be found within the Stonehenge of Wiltshire, England.

The Norse gods had called the Earth, Midgard, and charged one of their own with its protection and the protection of Mankind. The God charged with the duty was Thor, the god of Thunder and the wielder of Mjölnir. However, the gods could not completely leave their realm forever if they wanted to rescue a select few of humans from Midgard and place them in their found parallel world. They decided to turn a selected few mortals into Incidental Gods that would be charged with the selection of the traveller humans and the protection of their selected. The Incidental Gods would travel to their neighbouring world and remain in the astral realm connected to that world. But they gave a name to their Incidental Gods – the Mystics.

The Mystics were chosen from all walks of life on Earth – including one very tame Lion from the wilds of Africa. The powers given to the Mystics would give them the ability to travel through time and space… and even change their own appearance. Most of the humanoid Mystics would then have two genders to choose from depending on their mood, male and female. However, one chose to stay female… and the lion could only ever be male.

The eldest of the Mystics was a Slavic girl named Mira. She had long silken black hair that exceeded in length past her waist, and her eyes were unnaturally icy silver… and her skin was as pale as snow. Odin himself selected Mira because of her divine singing voice, and wisdom that she possessed that was beyond her years. He gave her a new name of Welsh origin – Ceridwen, meaning ‘blessed song’.

Second to her was a Dutch girl named Tryne. She was a short girl with purple-blue eyes and fiery red hair that was a mess of curls and waves. Tryne was pale skinned and easily burned by the sun… but her determination matched the “fire” of her hair. She had been selected by Freya, and was blessed with the Japanese name of Takara, meaning “treasure”.

Thirdly was an English boy with scruffy brown hair and green eyes. He was called Arthur and he was obsessed with Mythology, particularly Norse Mythology. All of the Norse Gods selected him because he was classed as one of their faithful, so they made him a Mystic and gave him the name of Lucian, which was Latin for ‘light’.

After Lucian there was another Slavic girl, the younger sister of Mira, who had been previously selected. Brana was younger than Mira by a couple of years, but showed magical talent that even impressed the Norse Gods. Brana was selected by Freyja because of her talent, after all one of Freyja’s areas of expertise was seiðr (otherwise known as sorcery and witchcraft). Freyja gave the girl the name of Aradia, which was Greek for ‘Goddess of Witches’.

Next to be chosen were the twins Andreea and Andrei. Fraternal twins, Andreea and Andrei were orphans adopted into a circus family. They were Roma gypsies, travelling with the circus – Andreea a fortune teller, and Andrei an acrobat. Some even believed that the twins had a psychic link between them… but they were very different. They were close, while being at war with each other. Andreea had white blonde hair and blue eyes, while her brother had dark brown hair and golden-brown eyes. For some bizarre reason the Norse Gods liked the twins, simply because of their sibling feuds. The gods gave them knew names… words translated in the Romanian language. Andreea was called Credinţă meaning “faith”, while her brother was called Soartă meaning “fate”.

After the twins, an Australian girl from the high country of the Snowy Mountains was selected because of her bond with her horses. Some said that she was a horse whisperer, with the natural ability to literally talk to horses. But the claims were never proven. Leann was ten years old when she was selected… the youngest of the Mystics to guard the hidden realm. Other than her gift with horses, Leann was often found sitting in the branches of trees, which inspired the gods to give her the new name of Liana – of French origin meaning “to twine around”. It was also the name of a vine found in tropical rainforests.

Lastly, the Norse Gods chose a young girl from the isle of Rhodes in the Greek Isles. They had watched this girl for quite some time and noticed that she seemed to be more at home in the water than she did on dry land. Friends with dolphins and seals alike, Catherine seemed to be a Human mermaid of sorts, spending hours in the water without tiring. They didn’t know why, but the Norse gods felt that they needed someone with her talents. Upon turning her into a Mystic they gave her the Greek and Latin name of Aqua… in Greek it meant “of the water”, but in Latin it simply meant “water”.

All the Mystics had been chosen... but the Norse gods wanted an animal amongst the Mystics as a divine animal. It was along the same lines as the Norse Gods having divine animals amongst them… no particular reason, just because they were there. Unless they were the get of Loki, then that was a different matter all together. They decided upon a Lion from Africa, that had been reared by humans from birth. His name was Fahamu, which was Swahili for ‘intelligence’. The Norse gods liked the Lion’s name and decided not the change it like they had with the people and put him amongst the group of Mystics as the divine animal.

It took little over four years for the Mystics to select the traveller humans to take to the new realm and guided them through Stonehenge of Wiltshire and through the portal to the new realm. The humans, now called Dunadein, settled into the land of Hlyrnir, which had been left unconquered so that it was easy for the Dunadein to call it their own. Three years after the settlement the Dunadein learnt of their neighbours… to the East they had the Alfar of Alfheim. Tall, lean and pointed eared creatures that seemed to resemble everything that the words beauty and grace brought to mind. Vegetarians by habit, the Alfar were curious of the Dunadein and an alliance was quickly forged between the two kingdoms.

To the north of Hlyrnir there was Jotunheim, which was the home of the Kentauroi. Appearing to be half horse, the Kentauroi were a race that was proud of their appearance and strength, and naturally talented archers… the Dunadein were right to be naturally wary of a race that was so naturally gifted at an art of war.

To the south there were the Schaduw of Svartalfheim. The Dunadein discovered that there southern neighbours could turn themselves invisible and were hunters that killed anyone that wasn’t at least partly of their race. It became common practice that the Dunadein stayed out of Svartalfheim.

To the West of Hlyrnir was Gimir, a dormant volcanic island that was home to large beasts with scales and wings – Dragons. Fire breathing beasts, the humans were naturally terrified of these neighbours of theirs and many humans became Dragon Slayers. But when they learnt the dragons meant no harm to the humans, dragon hunting became outlawed… but it still happens occasionally by those who just really hate dragons.

It took two years to learn of the other races in Borghild – Strzyga, Rusalka, Nymph, Periannath, Dvergar, Werewolf, Valkyrie, Fae, Gargoyle, Vila, Samodiva, Yokai and Star Farers. Then strange things started to happen… the Dunadein were becoming magical, and it was then that magic academies started popping up around the realm. The Academy of the Mists was the most notable… ruled by various races the isle of Helgardh was a refuge for those of magical gifts and those escaping wars. The second most notable was the Mageia in Jotunheim, found up in the treetops of the forest, the academy was also a refuge for the magically gifted. The third most notable was the Seekers in Hlyrnir near the Mystic Mountain – started by humans for their own magically gifted; it had foreign scholars come to teach the young humans how to control their magic. It was later noticed that some of the humans had broken apart from their race to become two other races – the Shapeshifters and the Enchanted Animals. But it was an uneasy time for the magically gifted… as most people were afraid of magic and the result was often drowning or burning at the stake under the persecution of being a “witch” or “warlock”.

Since the day of the discovery of the new realm by the Norse gods, there has been countless wars and uneasy peace while kingdoms built up their armies once again after the tolls of war. The Mystics watched from their star kingdom at the on goings of the realm below with a mixture of curiosity, severe interest or simple distaste of the wars that were occurring. But they can’t help themselves when they choose to meddle in the on goings of the realm. The Mystics couldn’t help themselves when they started to favour some races over others. Ceridwen became the Mystic of the Alfar, while her sister, Aradia, became the Mystic of the Strzyga. Lucian stayed true to his former race and favoured the Dundein. Takara had a instinctual liking of the dragons, while Liana became the Mystic of the Kentauroi. The twins, Credinţă and Soartă favoured the Valkryie… taking different sides of the line, Credinţă favoured the White-Wing Valkyrie and Soartă favoured the Black-Wing Valkyrie. And lastly Aqua became the Mystic of the Rusalka… naturally since she preferred the water over dry land.

The Mystics started the take on the subtle appearance of their favoured races, which would later become their permanent appearance so that their favoured races could relate to them more easily.

Even the Lion, Fahamu, got in on the drill of favouring races and chose the Schaduw. However, he couldn’t take on their appearance… but he did teach them how to tame the lions of Svartalfheim as an aid in hunting and war.

Ever since the realm was discovered the Mystics and the Norse Gods have meddled in the affairs of the races of the realm, simply for the enjoyment of it… or it had some form of benefit to the Gods themselves. The Mystics know they are Gods in their own right… but the Norse Gods never made them forget that the Mystics were Incidental Gods… and not Primal Gods like their selectors are. But in a strange twist of fate… the Norse Gods are not the only ones to visit the hidden realm… but Celtic, Scottish and Irish gods have started to visit… and even Greek gods too.

But not only that… they have started having children with the Dunadein of Hlyrnir… Demi-Gods. What is happening to the control over the realm?