Welcome to Gaia! ::

Introduction

In Celtic Europe it was thought that there was another world under the ground beneath our feet. This could be explained by the second set of branches underneath the trees and how springs of water would magically appear from below the earth. This was one of the origins of belief in the Underworld, another plain that could be reached after death.

Lately that story has been viewed as a load of nonsense, and while the Celts had not got it entirely right, there was still a different world, completely separate to our own which only a select few may see.

This world like any other had it's conflicts, as different races of faery folk tried to live together and ageing empires crumbled to smaller nations. However one land remained the same, regardless of what was going on outside.

The Labyrinth lay right in the center of it all, but very few were granted access to it, and even fewer were able to solve it. Some believed its daunting walls were built to keep everyone out but some suspected that it was built to keep something in. It had been there so long that those thoughts disapeared for it was merely there and always had been.

The Labyrinth had been granted to the Goblin race, so long ago that nobody remembered when, or understood why. Still the goblin nobility had been easily influenced and had made some particularly disastrous mistakes in the past, one of which was allowing marriages with foreign royalty which caused all sorts of problems with land ownership and asylun and goodness knows what. In fact the royal blood of the original goblin royalty had been so watered down that it's present king was practically Fae and looked nothing like his tiny subjects, but more like a human.

Jareth paced impatiently back and forth across the throne room. That blasted envoy was late again. The unseelie were always horribly unpunctual. However the world was becoming a smaller place and if they had any chance of survival they would have to make a trade agreement with the other nations. It was in their best interests to come this eve.
But the unseelie were a stubborn race, intigration was not part of their vocabulary and they they were notoriously secretive.

Leoven sighed nervously as his carriage drew him ever closer to the forbodding castle. The path had been lit clearly for the occasion as it was rare for visitors to be granted safe passage through the Labyrinth.
The young lord was worried, he had never left his home country before and had only once seen an outsider in his land. Of course he had read about the outside world but the reality was frightening and for the first time he felt lost and out of place.

Leoven entered the throne room, which had once been a complete tip but the goblins had diligently cleaned once word had gotten round that they would be having guests soon. An elderly and rather ugly goblin announced him and hundreds of beady little eyes turned upon him, each pair filled with mischief. The unseelie felt quite ill at ease.

Having noticed that the diplomat had arrived, the Goblin King rose to his feet, not quite so accidentally stepping on a few of the creatures as he walked towards the stranger.
"Lord Orczy, I'm so glad you could make." he said brightly, obviously making an effort to be agreeable. "Any longer and I might have given up on you. I trust you had a safe journey."

"There were heavy storms as we crossed the mountains I'm afraid." said Leoven, who was nervously fidling with the hem of his cloak.

Jareth gave the man an odd look. He certainly didn't seem the type to go travelling. "You must be tired." he said quickly changing the subject and intructing one of the goblins to prepare a room for the new guest "We'll discuss things in the morning, once you've rested."

Leoven followed one of the goblin servants through a myriad of passageways and halls. The castle was indeed a Labyrinth in itself and had he not had a guide then the young lord might have been lost forever. It was dark but Leoven was used to the darkness, and his vision was not affected by it. He admired the tapestries, wall hangings and paintings as he passed them, they were beautiful but a little old and damaged. He still couldn't help feeling uneasy, as if something was watching him. He shrugged it off and blamed it on paranoia, and those goblins, they had really freaked him out.

Leoven blinked as a strange figure appeared from behind a tapestry, no doubt from a secret passage or something. He was a rather interesting looking creature with red and black hair and five horns upon his head, all very showy in his opinion.

"And who might you be?" he said, sounding a little angrier than he had intended while trying to cover up his initial fear. "And how do I know that you won't lead me astray as you've so rudely accused my guides."

Leoven frowned but let himself be led by the other creature.

"Well, I'm glad I'm not the one who finds those things disturbing, and trust me I've seen disturbing things in my time."

They turned corner after corner until the unseelie truly had no idea where they were, but for some reason he was less worried now. As brash and haughty as this other creature was he didn't sense any harmful intent.

"I was only trying to make conversation." Leoven sniffed "It's rather hard when you've essentially been kidnaped by a.... And just what purpose do you serve here anyway? Are you a servant? A pet? A concubine? It wouldn't surprise me, you certainly dress like one."