The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids Read online

  In the east, the Quizibash had fled from the forces of Shaybani. But here, in an effort to redeem their honour, some fiftie thousand Quizilibash stood in full array before two hundred thousand Turks. This time the lords of Persia meant to stand tall and hold their ground.[57] But the armie of the Turks which faced the strength of Shah Isma’il, the poet commander, was no frontier force.[58] Amongst the Turks was the personal guard of the sultan, Selim I, which numbered in the thousands and marched into battle with cannons and muskets.[59] The poet leader, Isma’il, knowing of the usefulness of gunpowder, nonetheless did not allow his armie to use it, in deference to the glories of God. Hence, outnumbered and with outdated technologie, the Quizilbash were crushed under the feet of the sultan’s armie.[60]

  The Zelaznids witnessed these events to their great horror. The sultan’s armie showed no mercie, leading Farzan to conclude that the men of Istanbul had lost their reason. Fearing what might befall them at the hands of the Turks, the Zelaznids turned about and followed the coast of the Caspian until they reached the mountains. There they found the river Attuk and followed it into the hills, beyond the furthest village, until they found the valley of Quiqanyu.

  And in the hills of Quiqanyu they staked their claim. Here they built a village. Here they opened a portal to another world, one to which they sometimes fled in times of danger. Here, at last, Farzan found his people a home. The Zelaznids thus survived in this world for three more centuries before I came into their presence.

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  hese were the tales I heard from the mouth of Hooshyar, though I did not at first believe them. It seemed impossible that a people who claimed kinship with herdsmen from the ancient Gobi, Mongol leaders, Greek conquerors, and Arab scholars could develop in such a fashion, could know such things. Yet, I came to believe the Zelaznids, and admire them, and follow them.

  Hooshyar seemed to be an honourable man. This is why I continued to listen to what he had to say. This is why I stayed among the Zelaznids for more than five years, collecting their stories and recording their memories. From these stories and memories I have thus drawn this narrative.

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  Part 2

  The Placement of Ports

  Chapter 6

  The Universe of Ports

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  efore I explain how the Zelaznids managed to travel from one world to the next, I would do well to be clear about the nature of these worlds, or ports, of which there are, in the estimation of the Zelaznids, countless numbers in this universe of universes.

  Consider for a moment what the men of philosophie tell us of the world that we know. The holy man tells us that this land is all that God has made and that, apart from Heaven and Hell, there is no other world than this. The astronomer disagrees, pointing to the discoverie of planets beyond our own. Yet the astronomer and holy man might agree that what we see, whether through a telescope or our own eyes, is real and unknowable, insofar as God or technologie allow them to be.

  And yet our world continues to present marvels previouslie unknown to man. It is not fiftie years since Uranus was added to the list of spheres observed by the ancients. What additional worlds might lie in the heavens beyond our sight? The natural scientist now searches deep in the ground. He knows that the world on which we dwell is fashioned much like an onion, layer upon layer.

  Even now, in the seas of the west, men are able to ride under the waves in new and terrible ships. [61] What wonders might these souls find in the deep and dark depths? What manner of life might likewise be discovered on those mountain peaks which have not yet been scaled by the boldest of adventurers?

  They are fools indeed who look upon this vast and verdant world with their own eyes and yet find nothing worthie of exploration. There are countless unknowns quite close at hand. And yet, some souls would declare that the universe is known to us, even though a larger telescope might soon prove them wrong.

  How can we say that we know the form and function of all that exists? How can a man of thought or faith claim to understand the indefinable? The Zelaznids knew better than this, for they discovered and explored at least three dozen worlds outside of our own. And yet these ports are like grains of sand on a vast beach, for there are countless worlds that have yet to be marked and traveled.

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  magine that we live upon a vast sheet of parchment. Consider the things that you know of this world, from the deepest seas to the tallest mountains, from Parisian statesmen to Argentine herdsmen. With the mind’s quill, ink upon that vast sheet of parchment the experiences of your life - and those of your forefathers - and all whom you know and all that you believe to be true. Now imagine that this sheet, covered as it is with all known truths, is placed in the midst of a stack of parchment one thousand sheets high, each sheet covered with the recorded historie of a world other than our own.

  This is how I learned of the multitude of worlds or ‘ports’ in existence. These ports exist outside of our immediate knowledge, unseen and untouched by normal means. Yet, like those sheets of parchment, or like the onion, they stack one atop the other, waiting for someone with the proper knowledge and skills to peel back the layer of the known and thus discover the unknown.

  Although the Zelaznids have, more than other peoples, depended upon their abilitie to utilize portals for the exploration of ports, they have not been alone in this knowledge. Consider the legendarie journey of Zelaznu, who went with Majumin into the high mountains. It is said that they were found by strange persons whom Zelaznu took at first to be gods. These beings were travelers from another port who took Zelaznu to their home world. Is it not logical to acknowledge the possibilitie that these beings further explored our world, entering through different portals, instructing others how to find and travel to distant ports?

  The Zelaznids believed this to be the case. They knew that others traveled from this world to those beyond, returning with knowledge unknown to our world before that time. These souls had thus, by chance or by cunning, made reputations and fortunes for themselves through the use of otherworldlie ideas. For the Zelaznids, proof of such activitie could be found in each period of human existence, from the ancient epoch to the modern era. These are the facts which they gave to me, truths that I now place upon the page for the edification of the reader.

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  Chapter 7

  The Ancient World

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  ar to the south and west of the valley of Quiqanyu, where the two great rivers meet,[62] lay the birthplace of the ancient Sag-giga,[63] the oldest peoples on Earth.[64] The Zelaznids believe that the Sag-giga did not begin their journie in this world, but rather came here from some distant port to dominate and breed with the primitives of ancient times.[65] Yet, some say that the Sag-giga were not the first to bring strong rule; there are those, Abdul Hazred among them, who believed that other intelligent races existed on Earth before the dawn of man, though I cannot speak to the truth of this.[66]

  Whatever the case, the Sag-giga came to Mesopotamia from parts unknown and settled between the rivers. Then, using knowledge unknown to the natives of the region, they established an empire. But, after mixing with the primitives, the Sag-giga ceased their expansion, became comfortable in their ways, and blended with neighbouring cultures.

  These curious people did not lose touch with the world that had given them birth, though several generations passed between contacts. Some amongst them knew the ways of ports and portals and taught others. Thus the Sag-giga had occasion to bring into this world certain skills and technologies unknown until that time, particularlie those associated with writing and irrigation and fortifications. In this way Bilgames, the builder of Uruk, achieved great fame in his time, both for his construction of that cittie and for his quest to find the gods, though in truth he did but return to the port from which his people had come, to consult with his distant kin.[67]

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  he Sag-giga were not the only ancient peoples to travel to distant ports. The Egyptians, too, had thei
r otherworldlie ways. The Zelaznids who instructed me did not know from whence the rulers of Egypt gained their knowledge, but, be it from the Sag-giga world or another, their learning was profound. One need but consider their knowledge of medicine and mathematics to see the great and improbable strides this people made in but a short time.

  It is believed that their greatest skills came not from this world, but from another, and were gained for the pharaohs by the high priests of Egypt. The priesthood, trained for thousands of years to be attuned to the ways of ports and portals, thus brought much innovation to Egypt. The language of that nation, for instance, is unlike any on the Earth at that time or since and did not come from this world; nor for that matter did the secret of glass manufacture.[68]

  Consider, also, the construction of the Pyramids. It is believed by most authorities that these great monuments were built with the help of vast numbers of slaves, whose task it was to hue enormous blocks from limestone quarries and then roll the colossal stones across the desert for the benefit of the pharaohs.

  The Zelaznids claim that those monuments came into being in quite a different fashion and that, in fact, the Pyramids are not made of solid stones at all. The great blocks of limestone, if the stories are to be believed, came not from the quarries, but from the dust, which was mixed with other elements and water and then poured into blocks where they stand. In this way, the work was accomplished without the need for vast numbers of slaves.[69]

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  his was but the first era in which the Egyptians benefitted from knowledge gleaned from other ports. They would also come into such learning in the age of the Hellenes. The Hellenes of Greece, you see, were not ignorant of the ways of other worlds, though they were not the first Mediterranean sea-peoples to learn of ports and portals. It was, rather, the famed Minoans who first mastered otherworldlie travel. On their solitarie island[70] the Minoans built a culture unique to this world, though for a long period of time, they progressed with no great influence outside of the island that they knew.

  The coming of Mwinu,[71] however, was revolutionarie. It is said that Mwinu was a child of the gods, and so he might have seemed to the primitive peoples of Crete. However, it is clear that this leader came not from the loins of Zeus,[72] but rather through a portal from another world, along with his elderlie father. That father met a swift end in the new world, but Mwinu, due to his striking looks and a vast wisdom that belied his age, was taken into the household of the Queen; for it was a land where a Queen might rule alone if she pleased.

  Mwinu was a good and kind prince, and he brought to his people as much knowledge as they desired. He gave to them a written language, as well as skills in artwork and construction. So great were his gifts that upon the death of the Queen - his beloved would-be mother - Mwinu claimed the title of King for himself and ruled the island until the end of his days.

  Throughout his earlie life, Mwinu frequentlie utilized his portal, a doorway hidden in a cave deep below the surface of the island. But he came to fear that persons with foul intent might discover his secret place and use it for some unsavourie purpose. Hence, after he ascended to power, King Mwinu constructed a palace atop the entrance to his cavern. And in the labyrinthine bowels of that dark place, he set loose a number of terrible beasts, so that he might keep the sight of that portal from all eyes but his own.[73] The king spent vast sums on this and also on his palace, a vast structure which served as a home, meeting place, storehouse, librarie, and museum. Most astounding of all, the palace was equipped with fresh water.[74] It is not known if the great king passed his store of information on to those who succeeded him, as the Minoans did not long survive.

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  or certain, mainland Greece produced others who held the secrets of ports and portals. Some Zelaznids contend that this knowledge came from the Minoans, for they had made their fortunes in trade and had much contact with the Hellenes. Others hold this to be unlikelie and state that King Mwinu alone held the keys to such jealouslie-guarded secrets. Still others argue that the Hellenes developed the abilitie to explore other worlds independent of outside influences.

  There is no agreement on the subject of when otherworldlie knowledge came to mainland Greece, to say nothing of how it did so. Some scholars point to the wonders of ancient Troy as evidence of a starting point. Others suggest that the legendarie Monists,[75] having such knowledge as they were reputed to possess, must have known of other worlds. Having studied the Monists myself, I see little of the miraculous in their thinking. Rather, it seems to me that they dwelled in theoretical lands alone, not those found beyond portals.

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  t was Macedonia from which the clearest examples of otherworldlie knowledge emerged. For proof of this, the Zelaznids point to the remarkable life and career of Alexander, the Hellene conqueror and founder of the great cittie of Alexandria.[76] Like King Mwinu, Alexander needed no priests or wise men to assist him, though he had the wisest of all Hellenes at his disposal.[77] The Macedonian conqueror knew well the secrets of ports and portals, for he had been taught such things by his mother, Olympias - that same Olympias whose familie possessed mystical power and a tremendous fortune - that same Olympias whose own ancestor, Achilles, owed his fame, in part, to a knowledge of ports and portals possessed by none but he.[78]

  Alexander used his knowledge, not for advancements in technologie, but rather for innovations in strategie; these helped secure victories for the Hellenes, even unto the furthest reaches of the world. When the conqueror laid claim to the land of the pharaohs, it was not his martial skills but his knowledge of other worlds that so impressed the great priests of Egypt. So profound was their respect for Alexander that they deified him. And when the great conqueror died and his remains were brought to Alexandria, the priests secretlie took the bones from his golden coffin and conveyed them to another world so that none might trouble his rest.[79]

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  ne man, more than all others, saw to it that Egypt benefitted from the use of ports and portals, though few at the time knew how deep and great was his knowledge. This must be noted as something of an ironie, for the person of whom I speak was the most revered scholar of his age. I refer to none other than Eratosthenes, Custodian of the Great Librarie in Alexandria, that same cittie of which I have alreadie spoken.

  Much has been written of the deeds of this famous Greco-Egyptian. As keeper of all knowledge in the librarie, Eratosthenes learned of the secrets of ports and portals by piecing together disparate facts from various sources. Through visits to other worlds he encountered both geographical and celestial wonders; these served him well as he sought to understand his own world and the heavens surrounding it.[80]

  Some among the Zelaznids believe that the great librarian shared his knowledge with at least one bosom companion. Eratosthenes knew several men of wit and abilitie, among them his own tutor Euclid.[81] But none was more noteworthie than Archimedes, whose coterie of inventions might well have owed something to the influence of ports other than his own.[82]

  In a later age the tutors of Ptolemie XIII and Ptolemie XIV[83] knew of ports and portals and imparted some of this wisdom to their two charges. But the boys’ jealous sister, Cleopatra, wished to gain this knowledge for her own purposes, by whatever means necessarie.[84]

  When the great and terrible Caesar descended upon Egypt, the queen conspired to set the Italian against her brother-husband.[85] As Romans and Egyptians contended one with the other, Cleopatra sent troops belonging to Caesar with orders to seize certain parchments from the Great Librarie, no doubt those dealing with ports and portals. But the librarians would not allow the soldiers to gain entrance to their palace of wisdom. To the great shame of the Romans, in the struggle which followed a great conflagration erupted and destroyed much of the librarie.[86]

  The Queen did not abandon her quest; with the assistance of Caesar, she seized her brother-husband[87] and tortured him to death in the waters of the Nile. This action did not please Caesar, but he gave Cleopatra he
r throne, just the same, with her youngest brother as her new husband and co-ruler.[88]

  As Caesar’s concubine, the queen took control of Egypt, but was ever in search of the knowledge that would allow her to cross into another world. Soon she learned that her new brother-husband, like her former, had received training in the use of portals from a tutor. In desperation, and after hearing word of the murder of her lover,[89] Cleopatra placed such devilish pressure upon teacher and student alike that both subjected themselves to death by poison rather than endure worse tortures. In this way, all knowledge of ports and portals passed from the land of Egypt.

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  Chapter 8

  The Dark Ages

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  he age following the fall of the western Romans has often been called the Dark Ages, a phrase meant to suggest a time of ignorance. This era was thus designated, I know not when, by those who purported to be wise. Yet, it has since been noted that the first to use this term were historians of the eastern Romans, men who had no love for their cousins in the west.[90] It has also been argued that the time that followed the sack of Rome,[91] dark though it seemed, was not entirelie devoid of learning. Indeed, Christian monasteries produced and duplicated thousands of tomes over the centuries. Although these began as little flames of knowledge in the west, one day such smoldering embers would erupt into the intellectual conflagration we call the Renaissance. But, alas, this would not occur for several hundred years.

  One area of knowledge which had an impact during this age of relative ignorance was that of ports. I do not speak of those ports which explorers from Portugal would later visit with their sailing vessels, though I may yet have cause to speak of them. No, I refer to those ports which are other worlds.