The treaty could only be described as one that angered everyone equally. Creatures borne of the Creator, such as man, were to live in the logical world of Terra while those borne of the Cycle, including most of the fair and mystical beings, were to live in the illogical Ether, and the realms were to be separated so as to make travel between them difficult and so prevent another war. As part of the treaty, all the fair beings on Terra and the mortals in the Ether were rounded up and forcibly exchanged.

For the most part the arrangement worked well, save in one place: a village in the Riftlands called Mirage. As the Rift was a chaotic admixture of Terra and Ether, with aspects of both, neither side could agree to whom Mirage belonged. Its population included all sorts of creatures from both sides of the divide, most of whom strongly resisted any attempt to break up uncountable years of peaceful coexistence. War loomed again and the treaty was imperiled by a village with less than 1/20th the population of the great cities for which hundreds had fought in the war.

Eventually, a compromise was forged: the Riftlands were to be set apart from both Terra and the Ether, to exist in a sort of betwixt and between. All who remained were bound to stay, though all who wished could leave before the treaty took effect. Unsurprisingly, most of the inhabitants chose to stay and were accordingly sealed away. They remain so to this day.

But just as the chinks between Terra and the Ether were never completely closed, the occasional link between Mirage and the other worlds can sometimes be found…

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