Prologue: How Worlds Overlap
As recorded from Santa’s lectures at the Great Hearth Hall
The Earth is not alone.
Beyond what the eye can see, beyond the stars and space known to science, there are hidden realms layered beside our own. They are not far away in miles or lightyears—they are separated by something thinner. A veil, nearly weightless. So thin that all the pages of all the books ever written, stacked together, would be thicker than the space between Earth and Dondavar.
These are the other worlds. Some wild, some peaceful. Some reflections of Earth, others governed by different laws of physics, time, and magic.
Dondavar is one such world—one of the closest to Earth. And yet, it is still sealed behind the curtain of a higher dimension.
Why don’t we see it all the time? Because the worlds turn at different rhythms.
Earth completes a day in 24 hours.
Dondavar takes 25.
This single hour of difference introduces a slight—but permanent—misalignment. It’s like watching two spinning tops at different speeds: they occasionally align, but more often, they drift apart. This cosmic rift keeps the worlds separate most of the time.
In the warm middle latitudes of Earth and Dondavar, where time runs tight and space is stable, it’s nearly impossible to cross over. But in the far north, near the poles, time and space are looser. The fabric of the worlds stretches there. Fairy Dust helps too—particularly Yellow and Blue, when used with skill.
Passage is rare. Most humans never realize they’ve brushed up against another world. Some wander in by accident, returning with dreams they cannot explain—dreams of sleighs, or reindeer, or castles carved of peppermint ice.
Some of Earth’s myths may be echoes of Dondavar:
- The White Witch’s forest?
- The mountains of Asgard?
- The Neverland of Peter Pan?
Perhaps these are only glimpses caught in moments when the veil was thin.
Yet those are dreams. Or are they? Dondavar is real.
And when the auroras shimmer and the winds carry the faint jingle of bells… perhaps the veil is thinning. Perhaps, just perhaps, the sleigh is already on its way.