For the last two weeks I’ve been changing. I can sleep again. I can relax again. I can create again. It’s as if a boulder I hadn’t even seen was suddenly rolled out of the way of a river and now it’s flooding. I can feel all these things I used to experience coming back. The desire, no, the NEED to create has returned with such force that I have no choice but to let it wash over me. It’s like being alive again. When Robert Jordan wrote about channelling the One Power I think this is what he was talking about. The shear joy and amazement. It really is like coming home after the longest trip of your life. The best part? All the good things I collected while I was gone? I get to keep them. I can add them to the collection that was who I was before.

Hello, Kevin. Where have you been for so long?

On February 27, 1975 the world changed. It was subtle. No one noticed at first. Everyone woke up that morning across the country ready to start the day. Perhaps it was the number of short, hairy men applying for hard labor jobs. It may have been the few pail, thin folk walking the streets and looking curious. Something was off. The dragon settled it. News around the country carried the story. A massive, winged Green Dragon wound itself around the Empire State Building and looked down upon it’s new world. The world had entered a new era.

There was some degree of panic. People were definitely frightened by what was happening. Mythical creatures were turning up all over the world. In the southern United States a plague of Red Dragons struck. Basilisks hit Arkansas. Gnomes showed up everywhere. Local law enforcement was at a lost. They turned to the states. The states turned to the federal government. The federal government turned to INS. INS said they were all at lunch and would get back to them. The more civilized of these “fantastics” would eventually gain citizenship or at least be legally accepted aliens. The problem of the more dangerous creatures continued to be a concern. It was shocking how uniformly things began to break down at that point. Rallies were held and no government across the world stepped up to handle the problem. It was a matter of jurisdiction. Then the Church got involved and settled things down.

The Pope held a summit of world leaders in August of 1975 and made an arrangement. They would form a new order of knights to specifically handle Fantastics. They would answer the the Church and the new order with the understanding that they would be respect the laws of each nation, but not be bound by them. They would be Holy Mercenaries. Thus began the Holy Order of St. George the Dragon Slayer. A Council was set up to govern internal affairs and essentially “watch the watchmen”.

Now, mankind lives along side Dwarves, gnomes, and various other creatures of myth and legend in a stable environment. Next time, we’ll discuss the impact of magic and myth on the modern world.