Location
Neithernor is a location hidden from the mundane world where magiq still exists.
Description
Neithernor is a small “pocket world”, which was unaffected by the disappearance of magiq from the mundane world. It is a strange and gorgeous land of shores and fields, of deep woods and unexplained ruins, mountains, and caves, all abandoned when the memory of it was removed, but still alive and rich with hidden magiq. The Monarchs believed that this place had been created eras ago, through magiq, as a home for the old guilds—a place where those in the old time could slip away to use and research magiq freely, because even in that time magiq was secret and feared.
Time
In the blog post titled “Mr. Wideawake”, Deirdre learned from Mr. Wideawake that time runs differently in Neithernor. Time runs more slowly in Neithernor and those who stay there for extended periods of time adjust to its time. When they return to the mundane world, the time shift creates disorientation. For individuals who stay too long in Neithernor, they become unable to handle the shift and become permanently Neithernorian, therefore unable to return to the mundane world. The only known Neithernorian was Sullivan Green who, after being pushed back in time by The Churning Storm, used the time difference in Neithernor to guide his past self into following his plan to help the Mountaineers open the Book of Briars.
History
Creation
Unknown entities in the Book of The Wild once experimented with wells. They managed to harvest a piece of the Fray deep within a well, to study it, but the piece began to grow. They were afraid it would take over our world, so they tried to send it back, but as reaching out to The Fray is unpredictable and dangerous, it wouldn’t accept the piece. They tried to destroy it, and thought they had, but it actually grew just outside our world and 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.
The Monarch Papers
Neithernor was first mentioned in the blog post “M. Grey Ackerly,” by Sullivan Green, as the place where Deirdre was meant to go in order to save the world from the Storm. In Neithernor, Deirdre discovered how to cast figuration magiq, and found six books that her father had read to her as a child, including The Little Red House, which she would use to exchange for The Book of Briars when she fought the Storm on the Day of Change. After successfully vanquishing the Storm, she and Cole decided to return to Neithernor indefinitely, and have not been heard from since.
The Secret Society
During the events of the Secret Society, Saberlane encountered a Neithernorian ghost, who he named Woolie. Woolie would appear periodically throughout the course of the Secret Society, recounting his memories of discovering magic in Neithernor. When a recovered memory showed Woolie the painful truth of what his actions had caused while he was alive, he became distraught, attaching himself to Saberlane’s consciousness. It was only when Saberlane was finally able to knock into Neithernor through a door in City Hall Station that he was able to free Woolie from his mind by returning him to Neithernor and the spirits of his family.
The Search for Magiq
During the Search for Magiq, the Mountaineers discovered the Neithercouriers, which was a magical postal service that traveled through Neithernor. They were able to use the Neithercouriers to circumvent the Determiner-12 spell and communicate with people in the outside world until the doors to Neithernor permanently shut in June 2019. The closing of the doors is believed to have been a result of the dwindling magic available for use towards the end of the Book of Kings.