A Page from the Journal of Efriuul Lurthane, Cartographer

...many are the reasons I have heard from the mouths of those who have passed the portal, and more from those left behind who speculate about them. For myself I can say that the opportunity to map a land unseen perhaps in eons, the land from whence the elves and dwarves and gods know what other creatures arose was more than I could resist. I know that many use the portal to flee some real or perceived tyranny upon the mainland, or for the promise of a new vision of life, or to escape the memories of a past they can no longer bear - for me, it was the desire to see the place, smell the air, see what stories might unfold there.

I was glad to find myself alive upon the other side, for since contact was lost, we'd had no idea as to goings on the isle, or whether those who went found anything left there at all. The reports of the reavers, exaggerated or not, were terrifying enough to cast a doubt as to whether any of the sentient races survived upon the other side. I remember my sense of awe and wonder as I awoke, shivering, in the Portal of Welcome, and saw there a friendly face, to greet me warmly - and my shock at the amazing nature of the architecture and local jungle as I began to explore and map it.

To have said goodbye to the mainland forever was difficult - I know many harbor an idea that some magic may once again re-open the return passage; to me it is idle speculation, for in Hrielith and the surrounding haunts I have found a mystery, a beauty, and an inspiration beyond my wildest hopes. I only pray that we can hold off the reavers as we seem to have thus far, but I fear that for all our strategy and creativity we face in them a threat that hath no resolution...and this is the shadow which lays upon our hearts mare darkly than any other...