What I wanted to do was publish the second of my three-part up-and-coming Children’s ‘Zine, TALES OF ADVENTURE ABOARD THE SEVENTH CHAMPION, which will consist of A Myth, An History, and A Folk Tale, but what I had to do while working on that was compile a glossary of terms, which I’ve published instead, because it’s fun. More on why I think this (that it’s fun) and The Demands of Fantastic History is coming shortly in a post on how weird it’s been writing these. But for now feast your eyes and brains on how confusing and bizarre the index form renders shit that supposedly happens in a simple sequence! Xoxo – Joshua
Note: this is a glossary of beings, things, places and events that take place in a Fantastic ~fictional~ World of Stories. I feel like I keep forgetting to tell people that.
An History’s Appendix: An Index Of Things To Remember
After
The future, after Now.
Beginning Times, The
All the time that stretches from The (earliest) Time We Can’t Remember to The End of The Beginning Times, usually attributed to the end of The Last War. It is a general term, as both its beginning and end are hazy at best.
Bridges, The
The race born of the combination of The New Ones/ Offspring and The Next Ones (see: The Wedding). The Bridges left the last of The Old One’s great cities for a self-imposed exile sometime after The Wedding, only to return for a short period during the end of The Last War.
Everyone Else
In the context of The Last War, a term used to signifying anyone or group who weren’t The Krell.
First Ones, The
No one knows anything about The First Ones, except that they must have existed. They should not be assumed to be The Ones Who Came Before The Old Ones, as The Time We Can’t Remember is generally understood to stretch back much further into the past.
Fantastic Epic*, The
The written story of The Fox and her intrepid comrades as they ventured out beyond The Wall, and whose adventures ushered in The Remembering.
Fox, The
A young person— the first of The People to leave The Hand since The Long Time— who visited The Grandmother in search of an answer to the question of whether or not the people had a history, and who eventually led her band of intrepid comrades far beyond The Wall on an adventure of epic proportions (see: The Fantastic Epic).
Grandmother, The
The last elder, from whom An History was orally transcribed.
Hand, The
The place where The People lived during The Fox’s lifetime (see: Now), around The Small Water which opened out to The Big Water. Maps of the area strongly resemble a hand, hence the name.
The Krell
The second race to come from beyond the sky, aggressive invaders whose war on the inhabitants of The World** and The Moon precipitated The Long Time before Now.
Last Ones, The
Much like The First Ones, The Last Ones are mostly assumed to have existed, considering the vast expanse of The Long Time that belongs to The Time We Can’t Remember. Not only is that to say that there must’ve been others after The Old Ones and The Next Ones and The Offspring and The Bridges and The Krell, but that one-ness to which all The Ones prior to the ones which disappeared during The Long Time are either not actually the last ones, or The People of Now and After are not “ones,” but something else altogether.
Last War, The
Presumably caused by the invasion of the Krell, the actual causes, players and alliances remain unknown, though it does seem safe to assume that in the end every group— even and including The Plant Life— became imbricated in a conflict that, for the most part, boils down to The Krell versus Everyone Else.
Long Time, The
The time roughly following The Last War, which lasted for years beyond count, second only to The Time Before The Beginning Times in terms of assumed duration.
New Ones, The: See: Offspring, The
Next Ones, The
The first Ones to come from beyond the sky, they were refugees from a far-away war. While The Old Ones and The Ones Who Stayed Behind welcomed them, their feeble bodies were unable to survive in The World until it was discovered that their physiological makeup curiously complemented that of The Ones Who Stayed Behind, while simultaneously curing The Problems that The Ones Who Stayed behind had begun experiencing after the exodus of The Ones Who Left The World following The Old War. The Wedding of The Ones Who Stayed Behind with The Next Ones eventuated the advent of The Bridges.
Now
An historical present, roughly centered around the lifetime of The Fox, when The People lived in The Hand, a great deal of time after The Long Time.
Offspring, The
The Ones initially created by The Old Ones, also called The New Ones, to help them maintain their world-city and lifestyle. Often referred to (especially by The Old Ones) as The Offspring, they eventually awakened to a sentience of their own and began reproducing and proliferating their own mode of being. It was their evolution that precipitated The Old War. They were eventually split into two groups: The Ones Who Left The World, who colonized The Moon** following the war; and The Ones Who Stayed Behind, who remained in The World.
Old Ones, The
The Ones whose civilization finally reached totality with their world-encompassing city, and whose era rivals The Long Time in terms of duration. The Old Ones created The New Ones, bore the brunt of the destruction during both The Old War and The Last War, reigned during the arrival of The Next Ones and The Krell, witnessed the exodus of The Ones Who Left The World, the advent of The Bridges and the arrival of The Plant Life, and the general descent into the last great Time We Can’t Remember known as The Long Time.
Old War, The
A global conflict that The Offspring called The War Of Becoming and The Old Ones called The War Of The Unruly Children.
Ones, The
A general umbrella term for a number of groups during or around the era of The Old Ones: The First Ones, The Ones Who Came Before, The New Ones, The Next Ones, The Ones Who Stayed Behind, The Ones Who Left The World and The Last Ones. Though never really referred to as such, other major groups— The Bridges, The Krell & The Plant Life— are all often grouped historically with these.
Ones Who Came Before, The
Not much is known about The Ones Who Came Before, except that that which they came before were The Old Ones.
People, The
By the era in which The Fox lived— an unspecified amount of time after The Long Time— the groups that lived in and around The Hand referred to themselves and others as The People, as opposed to The Ones.
Plant Life, The
Toward the end of The Last War, The Bridges returned to assist in the fight against The Krell. They brought with them The Plant Life— massive plant-like beings who are thought to have been something like The Bridges’ ‘Offspring’— to the fight. It was with the crucial help of The Bridges and The Plant Life and the return of The Ones Who Left The World that the war against The Krell was won.
Problems Of The Ones Who Stayed Behind
We are unsure why, but shortly following The Last War and the exodus of The Ones Who Left This World, The Ones Who Stayed Behind began experiencing problems. Some speculate that it was a some sort of epidemic, while others postulate that following The Last War The Ones Who Stayed Behind committed to changing their previous mode of reproduction, which is thought to to have granted them extremely long life, and taken on the mantle of something like mortality. Something about this change in their way of life may have caused an unseen side-effect which caused the widespread expiration of a great many of The World-bound Offspring. It wasn’t until the arrival of The Next Ones and the discovery of their oddly compatible constitutions, did they find something like a cure: though in order to continue existing they had to change forever, and very few of them remained in their old form. The ones who did were sometimes referred to as The Old New Ones Who Stayed Behind.
Remembering, The
Following the events of The Fantastic Epic, the arrangement of the world of The People who lived in The Hand changed drastically, an event referred to as The Remembering. Part of this change involved a renaissance of historical understanding, much of which was facilitated by The Grandmother and The Fox. These changes are documented in the heretofore unnamed and forthcoming Fantastic Sequel.
Time Before The Beginning Times, The
Nothing at all is known about The Time Before The Beginning Times, or whether or even it existed, or why there is an entry for it in this glossary.
Time We Can’t Remember, The
The Time We Can’t Remember is a kind of categorical type of time, periods in history that have occurred here and there that we know of, and probably here and there that we don’t know of, of which we know little to nothing about. The most commonly referenced Times We Can’t Remember are the Time Before The Beginning Times and The Long Time. Interestingly, the whole concept is fraught with contradiction: how can there be time before The Beginning Time— and if there were how would we remember it anyway?; And how can we know if a time is long, let alone anything, if it’s something We Can’t Remember? Also: what is the difference between what we can’t remember and what we don’t know?
Water, The Big
The water beyond the opening provided by the gap between The Finger** and The Thumb** in the region known as The Hand where The People lived during the lifetime of The Fox.
Water, The Small
The Water inside the opening provided for by the gap between The Finger and The Thumb in the region known as The Hand where The People lived during the lifetime of The Fox.
Wedding, The
We are unsure as to the specifics, or what it even means, or what actually happened, but it would seem that after their arrival The Next Ones suffered from health problems caused by their incompatibility with The World. Interestingly, the Ones Who Stayed Behind had, again for unknown reasons, been suffering from The Problems. Somehow, someone discovered that the two kinds of bodies complimented each other in a way that not only allowed them to survive and thrive, but to evolve into what came to be known as The Bridges. While it is understood that some of the Ones Who Stayed Behind refused The Wedding and were able to survive as Old New Ones, it is unsure if any of The Next Ones followed a similar route, let alone if any of them survived.
* Tentative Title
** No Entry