The Mirror

The Mirror is the most interesting site I've seen so far. It is located in the furthest part of South Forest, near the hospital. As the sketch shows, it's quite large and surrounded by a stone ring. It's not visible in the sketch, but the Mirror seems to shimmer and pulse continuously. Although it's called a "mirror" because it resembles a large mirror, it is not reflective (or at least, not of visible light). Wangah Rah reports that ether readings fluctuate more than normal in the mirror sn'ell. Callia clarifies that ether readings are normal there--that is, that it's normal for them to fluctuate wildly.

Several of the trees closest to the Mirror are dead--the only dead trees in South Forest that I am aware of. This leads me to wonder if there is something about the Mirror that killed them. On the other hand, this sn'ell has such a large number of creatures in it that it is a popular hunting spot. Given the river that flows along the southern border, the presence of so many creatures is not surprising. Yet if the Mirror were harmful to trees, surely it would also be harmful to the animals? Unless any harm it inflicts is very minor, but accumulates with lengthy and continuous exposure.

Older exiles report that the Mirror is a teleportation device which was active before and shortly after the Ripture War. Apparently it led to a chamber with several other mirrors, which in turn led to various destinations. I've been told that a T'rool told some exile that it was exiles who had broken the Mirror.

It remains a mystery who build the Mirror in the first place. Given its magical nature, perhaps it is an artifact of the winged centaur civilization. Some exiles have spoken with Falinea, a survivor of that civilization, so I hope that anyone who meets her gets a chance to ask what, if anything, she knows about the Mirror.

Callia and other exiles spoke with Tenebrion in the Spring of 540 about the Mirror. Tenebrion claims that the mirrors appeared at the time that the first exiles began arriving, and that it is through the mirrors that we arrived. That's possible--I don't have any memory of how I got here, after all. If Tenebrion's claim is true, that suggests rather strongly that the mirrors are at least controlled by Emperor Mobius. Tenebrion also told Callia that mirrors appeared on his island as well. I wonder if any exiles have seen them?

More recently Melabrion stated that the Brions believe the Orga's teleportation stones may hold a clue to reactivating the mirror, and this is one of the reasons they want the stones. I'm dubious about the reliability of this information, though, since the Brions are very eager to get their hands on Orga stones. Melabrion may have made this up in order to encourage exiles to give them the stones.

Qual also claims that the Mirror was here when he arrived, but he wasn't too clear on how long ago that was. He claims to have been dewed almost 400 years ago, which does put an upper limit on how long ago it could have been.

Many exiles are interested in the Mirror, and want to get it working again. I expect this entry to get considerably longer as I gather information from other exiles who have researched it. In particular, the healer Merlisk has a scroll with information he has gathered in hopes of reactivating the mirror. There is also a scroll with pictures of the places that could be reached through the mirror. The author of this scroll is an exile named Lameer.