The Earth Gates

Fundamental to my tales of Izan is the existence of two gates from our world to that of Exura. One-way gates; there is no returning for those who travel to that other world. Nor can one use them anymore. The wizard Hurasu blocked both in what would be the mid-1930s here and only an exceptionally powerful magician would be able to force his bindings. None such exist in our world.

These two gates are somewhat opposite poles in both worlds. In ours, one exists in the southern Ural Mountains and and the other in the South Pacific. Their approximate locations are 55N and 60E for the Ural Gate, and 120W and 35S for the Pacific Gate. These have remained essentially stationary over millions of years though, as the magnetic poles, they might meander just a little.

But the continents and oceans would themselves have shifted. The Pacific Ocean is somewhat of a constant, and at least for the last 250 million years the Pacific Gate has been located in it or its predecessor, the Panthallasic Ocean, which formed some 750 million years ago. We needn’t concern ourselves with anything earlier than that, I suspect.

This does mean the Pacific Gate was in the ocean when the last Mosasaur lived. It is likely the Itza encountered in a couple of my stories is a descendant of that aquatic reptile. The Ural Gate has generally been on land during that same period though shallow seas may have engulfed it for periods.

Exura would have had its own extinction events, some unique, some paralleling those of Earth. The dinosaur-killing asteroid did not occur but there would certainly have been similar events. Perhaps there are in all worlds, even those of the gods. This is one reason creatures extinct in our world persist in Exura, though generally not in large numbers. Evolution goes on there too, but not necessarily at the same pace as on Earth.

Of course, the Exura continents would also have drifted. The gates there are a subject to take up another day. We can say that, in addition to the gates from Earth, there are quite a few going to and from other worlds. That is one factor in the ease of using magic there in comparison to Earth, which is practically without sorcery of any sort. Some worlds, such as Hirstel or some of the homes of the various gods, are even more connected.

Does Earth have any other gates to or from one of the infinite worlds? We have mentioned one that opens in Anatolia, one-way only from Atlantis. Hurasu came through it and was stranded here until he found the way to Exura. A few others have passed to our world and some may have never have discovered an exit. There may be a few hidden ways here and there, difficult of passage or leading to inhospitable — or even deadly — worlds. Perhaps we’ll discover one or another of them in a future tale.