So in Anne of Brittany’s court in the late 15th century there were two factions, the Monarchs and the Silver, made up of artists and artisans which Anne was a patron of. After Anne’s death they split due to their difference in beliefs about magiq and how to find it, what its purpose was ect. The cause of this was a tapestry called The Unicorn’s Gait which was destroyed when Anne died. Anne believed there was another world beyond our own that we could access if we knew how to. The Monarchs and Silver also believed this which is why they created artifacts from the tapestry.
The Monarchs and the Silver then set out to find a door to a place that was neither here nor there. The Monarchs found it first, the world of Neithernor that once teemed with magiq but was now in ruins. In Neithernor they found six great halls that lay in ruin each with histories, crests and belief systems. They scrapped together what they could and created their own belief system and history which are the 6 Royal Houses.
The Silver never found the Gate, but they knew the Monarchs had so after centuries of tension and strife they begged for entrance to Neithernor. The Monarchs granted their request but only if the Silver agreed to go to an island across the sea where they could have their own Magiqal place.
The House of Silver arose on this island and became a dark and terrifying place. It was the birthplace of The War and The Palace of a Thousand Doors. Also the island has no WiFi. The Silver and the Monarchs lived in peace and shaped the world together for a while until the Silver began building their own door. This is all from Sullivans point of view and what he gathered together. We know from Woolie that the Silver launched a suprised attack on the Monarchs most likely when the Monarchs called a council with the silver to stop them building the door. However we can only speculate on this. We do know a massacre of the Monarchs Royal House’s leaders kicked off The War of Neithernor. Eventually the silver we beaten and kicked out of Neithernor and the doors to it were sealed.
“…finally a parley had been agreed upon. It was decided that an assembly of house leaders would await them at the eastern shore at the dawn of Assembler’s Day. But they never meant to parley. They came as night fell on Assembler’s Eve. I stood at the watch. Was trusted as the first sight. I looked across the cold and silver swirling sea. I was the one who first saw them coming. I was the one who knew. And saw it all begin. I saw them, carried by wing, and wind, and blood-black sails. I was trusted as the first sight, but I stood, watching, unable to move, unable to speak. Unable to sound the cry. I failed. Frozen there as a great black wave of water rose up, obscuring their envoy, and laying waste to the house leaders who made camp on the shores. I watched them fall from sight beneath the mouth of the sea, the ice brine reaching up to the tower, and then the final silence fell up on me.” - Woolie
When we met Mr Wideawake he says;
“I asked him what Neithernor really was. How it came to be. He said according to what’s left of the Monarch history (which may not be completely accurate) there was experimentation with wells. They were hoping to find answers about our changed world in them, and sometime in the Book of The Wild someone managed to harvest a piece of the Fray deep within a well, to study, but it began to grow. They were afraid it would take over our world so they tried to send it back, but reaching out to The Fray is unpredictable and dangerous and it wouldn’t accept the piece. They tried to destroy it and thought they had but it actually grew just outside our world, and it eventually became Neithernor. A place where magiq and imagination could be fully realised without limit, without fear of misunderstanding or retribution, but with its own risks and dangers.”
Finally;
“In the book for the wild someone managed to harvest a piece of the Fray deep within a well to study, but it began to grow. They were afraid it would take over our world so they tried to send it back, but reaching out to The Fray is unpredictable and dangerous and it wouldn’t accept the piece. They tried to destroy it and thought they had but it actually grew just outside our world, and it eventually became Neithernor. A place where magiq and imagination could be fully realized without limit, without fear of misunderstanding or retribution, but with its own risks and dangers.”
So thats the background information out of the way. Now the question is who created/found Neithernor and created the 6 houses that the Monarchs found?
I know! I know!
What I meant to say is that Mr. Wideawake discusses The Council of the 18 Gates as different from Monarch’s Mountain. The way he talks about them is like a sort of us vs them conversation. In the modern incarnations, Monarch’s Mountain is a separate entity from The Council of the 18 Gates. Though yeah, you’re absolutely right that they could have come from the same source. Honestly, that point seems rather brilliant to me, though, the fact that they might be splinter groups from the same organization.