One of the little-understood dangers of the Perilous Realm is the storyshard. A storyshard is a fragment of a story that keeps repeating itself over and over. A traveler who stumbles into a storyshard will get caught up in its endless repetition and will eventually forget everything that happened in her life before the moment she entered the shard. She may not even notice that she is repeating the same actions over and over again. It is said that there are storyshards in the “real” world, too, and that people here stumble into them all the time and don’t notice. If you’ve ever felt yourself to be acting out the same tired old script day after day and wishing you could escape it, maybe you’ve been caught in a storyshard. There are ways out, though. Sometimes it’s enough to just stop in the middle of whatever you’re doing and do something that is the absolute opposite of what you think you should do.
Where did storyshards come from? One theory has it that they came about in the time of the Great Unweaving, when the vast and harmonious tapestry of Story was torn and warped, and became riddled with gaps and tangled knots.
Some say that storyshards are simply stories that have become so old that they’ve eroded, like mountains breaking down into hills, and most of what the story once was is worn away. As for why these ancient stories would keep repeating themselves, it may be that they are so old and so deeply embedded in the tapestry (and in people’s minds) that they become like unbreakable habits. Or like DNA, perhaps, self-replicating scripts that make use of hosts like you and me to pass themselves on.
2 comments:
Hello, for the past couple of comments, I've put anonymous because I've been very shy about asking questions, but if you need to refer or address me in anyway ( I like to ask a lot of questions the Realm)you can call me Susha. As for my questions...correct me if I'm wrong.
Since the Realm is a huge world would places such as the Screaming Wastelands, Bourne, Snowlands, Twilight Land, Dark Aunc, Tirreth Dree and Arzareth like seperate provinces/states/countries within it?
After hearing about the mirror shards Will encounters right after he enters into the Realm, I don't remember hearing about them afterwards. Perhaps I skipped some details, but I can't for the life of me remember their signifigance. Did the Tain Shee place them on that tree? Is it the same kind of mirror that Will was given right before he goes home? Who was looking at Will through the mirror shard, Lotan or Malabron?
If 2 people from the Untold entered the Gateless Gate at the same time, would they both see the same thing? (e.g, Will sees the blue and red lights of the police car) Would another Untold see the same thing, or would they see their own previous circumstances (e.g, crashing into a tree, running away from a parent, etc) or would they emerge with the other person? What was the actual boundary of the Realm Will went through? Can anyone get through or do you have to have a certain trait (bravery, wit, fencing skill)or have a certain role in the Story?
Since Moth was the one to find little Rowen after the mordog attack, do you think he carried her back to her grandfather? With his aloof nature and independentness, I found it kind of hard to believe he would, but I guess he couldn't just let a 2 year old walk on her own feet, especially after witnessing such destruction.
Anyways, I hope I didn't bug you too much, as always, I love your work, best of luck,
Susha
Hi Susha,
I'm glad to have a name for you other than Anonymous! Thank you for the feedback and the great questions. One of the best things about writing a book is to hear from thoughtful readers like you.
I'm going to answer your questions as best as I can, but I'm going to answer them in upcoming blog posts, since many of them deserve a detailed answer.
So stay tuned!
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