The Dark Peak Bestiary
In the beginning, all that existed was the In-Between. To the left, nothing. To the right, nothing. Gradually, as the epochs of time evaporated, darkness began to creep into the In-Between, and for some time, darkness ruled supreme, but the blankness of zero was nothing and all was stillness in the dark. Many eons later, the ones arrived, pickle-pockle whiting in the darkness. The zeros, at first, were happy of some company -- at last, the In-Between had some contrast, and the ones and the zeros, the light and the dark, would frolic and intermingle, happy in their newfound friendship. This fervour though, was to be surpassed, for not long after, the null ingressed the In-Between. The null was a virulent shade of grey, neither black nor white, neither dark nor light. The null was the murk. If zeros were the blackness of death, and the ones were the light and liveliness of life, then the null was the greyness and in the indecision of the "other", that place between life and death, the murk of the unexpected, the questions that were never answered, the unconsecrated ground, the forever to be unknown.
And so, as further eons passed, the blackness of zero, the whiteness of one, and the grey of null intermingled and there became an area of rampant activity and hostility, until, in the end, the null, like a wedge, forced the light from the dark: The ones of light fleeing to the left -- the place that we know as Hillsborough, the off-world. The darkness of the zeros pulling right to the place you don't know as Hellsborough. The null -- the murk -- remained in the In-Between -- forever grey, forever drismal, yet the null encroaches everywhere. The null, the murk, is forever on your mind, and you, forever in its thoughts.
When denizens are ready to succumb to the mortal coil, usually after several millennia if due to old age, or more likely, due to warfare, their souls end up in The Hinge after their trip to the Ripperthroat mountains, along that great river The Dun. I stands to reason that The Hinge is also the place that regular Hellsborough souls end-up as well as the souls of those from the off-world, such is the pull of the junction. Dreams. Lost spells. The vault of milting and the murk.
Colloquially according to milting: Thinge.
There are four known ways to enter The Hinge: The legend of the junction.
First. Through my research at the university of Hallamshire, I located and interpreted the ancient semagrams -- ideographic or more broadly, lexical symbol having no spoken referent -- of milting. This led me to the knowledge required to utter various incantations when at the junction in the off-world to unlock The Hinge and allow me to physically pass into it and through to into Hellsborough. Semagrams are the ancient written language of milting, a language, that like milting themselves predates The illimitable cleavage. Semagrams, or semasiographic writing, now a long forgotten practice by humans, suffice for some shamans in disparate clans out in humans in the nether lands -- the nethermen (who are may or may not be milting). The skill of semagrams lay at the very heart of wicca as practised for millennia, was used to convey a simultaneous mode of thinking, something, which again has been long forgotten. This method of communication though was, and still is, utilised by milting's collective intelligence, that which was the forerunner of the hive mind, to which all denizens in The Dark Peak are connected by birth right. But that's only because their brains were originally very small. The reason why humans can't connect directly (only via psycmasks) is because humans developed to think for themselves and not as a collective.
Second. As The Hinge is a quantum space, then being able to manipulate quantum gravity allows The Hinge to be accessed. This could be done from either side given sufficient mastery. This is likely to be the realm of advanced computing devices, such as Artifical Intelligence in the off-world, or the fungalAI of The Dark Peak. It is unknown whether this method of access has been achieved at the current time of writing, but recent activity suggests that one or other actors has mastered the science.
Third. Rockcrust. Rockcrust allows you to experience scerm is the missing ingredient of dark matter, it is the embodiment of the murk; the holy ghost; it is the embodiment (although ethereal) of Dunlockslyn, it is what you experience when you ingest rockcrust. All parties in The Dark Peak, be they the xin, the nascenti, clown, xaexs, crosslander or jellyhead subscribe to scerm as a greater power. Scerm inhabits The Hinge. Scerm is a distilled form of the murk containing the souls of all denizens, and only found in The Hinge, or when accessed using rockcrust.
Fourth. Brain downloads and mind links. It is believed that the nascenti -- with the help of the fungalAI -- have perfected aquaculture-genesis, that is the creation of humanoid shells capable of receiving a data download. This download is of unknown origin, it maybe indigenous to The Dark Peak or come from the off-world. Maybe both. The recipients of the downloads / mind links are believed to be those humans in positions of power in the Dark Peak District Council and other figureheads and leaders of Hellsborough based organisations.
They may be a Fifth way. It has been suggested that the fungalAI has created a quantum perfect simulation that can be accessed from within Hellsborough, but also via the internet in the off-world using advanced AR/VR technologies. The intelligence on the inside of the simulation wants to overthrow the nascenti, and because the fungalAI has power over quantum gravity, is able to manipulate life outside of the simulation.