Everything has its opposite. There is light, there is dark. There is matter, there is antimatter. There is Simple magic... and then there is Dark magic. They repel each other, they will not mesh, will not blend, will not co-habit hosts peacefully. Both can do amazing feats that betray natural laws. Despite the naming, neither is inherently good or bad. Neither is strong or weak. Different flavours of the same miraculous substance.
Some dimensions carry Simple magic, and this is fine. Some dimensions carry Dark magic, and this is also fine. The trouble begins when one type is carried over to the other's realm. It should be impossible to do. Nothing can cross through dimensions. It's a barrier untraversable by any mortal creature. You can roam worlds, roam mirror worlds even, (which are only slightly altered from the one you reside in), travel through portals leading you to the very edges of the known universe, but... other dimensions are a no go. Even in a mirror world, the laws of physics that you know and trust will be in place: there will be carbon-based life forms. The periodical table of elements will be unchanged.
In other dimensions, though, nothing is as we know it. There are new laws of science, and new elements. To bring in an alien power from an outside dimension will affect every life form it encounters. It may be physical changes, or strange dreams and visions, but it will happen. Then as it travels, disrupting life as it moves, the fabric of reality itself will begin to fray. Like an acid eating away at cloth. Eventually, the reality it resides in will purge itself of this foreign substance. A whole universe's span of time, from its first collision of basic atoms to final dead wasteland of space, will cease to be. Erased. Everything in it wiped clean like a slate.
How, then, do we know about this? If crossing dimensions is impossible, surely this threat is non-existent? The answer is dragons. A law unto themselves, dragons do not have the limitations of life forms and can wander dimensions at will. This is not a problem if they roam only in Simple magic dimensions, or Dark magic dimensions. All it takes is one confused dragon making a wrong turn in the multidimensional alleyway, however, and an entire universe is threatened. Because they like collecting things, don't they, dragons? Living specimens, rare elements, whole worlds sometimes, and somewhere out there is a dragon who likes collecting weapons. And one of the weapons in their possession was made of Dark magic, and they've just wandered into a magic dimension and had them all confiscated by the Council of Sorcerer's...
YOU ARE READING
The Book of Warlock
FantasyWhen a power-hungry rat warlord turns up out of the blue, wielding impossible power from a mythical artefact, and murders the royal family with sole intent to bring down every Empire on the map, one aardvark soldier's life is changed forever.
