The Waswood
"The Waswood is full of things that used to be: lost correspondence, childhood treasures, the scent of night-blooming jasmine in the forecourt of a friend's villa. Liturgical vestments from the worship of dead gods.
"Nothing that has come here will ever return. Don't step on the shore."
The Waswood was a region of Parabola that housed things long-past and long-forgotten. It also seemed to house what could have been, like alternate versions of major historical events.[1]
The Woods That Were[edit]
As one might expect of a Parabolan landmark, descriptions of this place varied. It was remembered as a thriving forest of willows along a river, twined with honeysuckle vines;[2][3] but at some other time, long ago, it was a barren waste of dead trees and bone.[4][5]
A river - one of the five rivers that circled the land of the dead[3] - flowed through the Waswood. Following that river, it was possible to reach the Waswood from the land of the dead,[3] though entry through Parabola must surely have been simpler for the living. Indeed, most dream-travelers preferred to explore the Waswood by boat, drifting down the river and witnessing What Was on the shores,[6] either as separate items[3][6] or vivid visions of times past.[1][3] It was said that those who set foot in the Waswood would never return[7] - though this did not always prove to be the case.[4][8]
The things that did or did not end up in the Waswood were sometimes said to depend on the memories of the living, though the exact relation is uncertain - at times, the woods held only the things that were still remembered,[9] and, other times, only the things wholly forgotten.[4][10]
There are few stories of things native to the Waswood, but the Glory - the creature that now forms the backbone of the Chelonate - was first born there and only later roamed to the Unterzee. It now resides in the Waswood as part of the past.[4]
The Other End of the River[edit]
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The river that flowed through the Waswood branched off into rivulets and tributaries;[8] one of these rivulets was redirected into a large mirror leading to Moulin in the Hinterlands.[11] This left the surrounding area strewn with truthful, albeit misplaced, historical relics, displaced from the Waswood by the water's flow.[12]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Search out the lost histories of London, Fallen London
- ↑ The Sacroboscan Calendar, Fallen London
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 The Shallows, Fallen London
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Seek the Glory's story, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Dust, Sunless Sea
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Visit the Waswood, Fallen London
- ↑ Stay a little while, Fallen London
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Retrieve the hagiographies of the lost and unlived, Fallen London
- ↑ Extricate a half-lost memory, Fallen London
- ↑ Listen to the Waters, Fallen London
- ↑ What is the source of the water?, Fallen London
- ↑ Catch up with the Wayward Historian, Fallen London
