Capricorns

"Click here to return to the directory of supernatural species and phenomena. "​​Named for both the constellation and the book character of Capricorn, the phenomenon of the Capricorns refers to a human being capable of creating "pocket mini-dimensions", and influencing all within them, often using physical objects as the anchors (and simultaneous portals) from these dimensions into the reality. Previously called the Sylvanians, they were eventually coined with the name "Capricorns" (from the character of the same name from the 2003 book "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke). These Capricorns were found to be much more common in Descendant bloodlines than not, yet all are now protected by the Academy, as they were initially hunted down and treated as trophies by high ranking members of society.

The first recorded case of a Capricorn's abilities lies within the "Ka'Aten Saat", an Egyptian papyrus found in the delta mud near modern-day Alexandria. Upon reading the Ka'Aten Saat, its reader would be transported into the pocket dimension that it held: an Egyptian hell where the mummified dead returned to life to curse the living.

While many Capricorns often find themselves isolated from society as they spend the majority of their time shaping and creating their mini-dimensions, they are still capable of freely interacting with the general populace, though many tend to guard their anchors in the most protected and remote of places.

A Capricorn's Mini-Dimension
All Capricorns are capable of creating mini-dimensions that were connected to reality through an anchor (which could be any physical object chosen by the Capricorn, that could include talismans, literary work or more mundane objects such as mirrors). Indeed, "Through the Looking Glass", written by Lewis Carroll, adopts the concept of using a tall mirror as the gateway into another dimension. Naturally, the physical state of the anchor would greatly affect of the dimension held within; damage to the anchor could cause detrimental harm and destruction upon the world within, causing certain areas, persons and even entire civilisations to become non-existent within the mini-dimension.

A person from the true reality may find themselves transported into a Capricorn's mini-dimension by simply holding the anchor, (if the anchor were a literary work) by reading it, (if the anchor were a painting or similar) by gazing at it. The actual method of transportation is often decided by the Capricorn, and thus there are many known methods of activating an anchor.

However, once within, a person from the true reality may not escape the Capricorn's dimension except by the will of the Capricorn who created that dimension, by someone within true reality destroying the anchor, or by sheer force of desire and will to escape that is not yet fully understood.

The circumstances within the mini-dimension could only ever be changed if the Capricorn who created the anchor performed the action themselves. As such, replicas, transliterations, transcriptions and models of the anchor have no power whatsoever. Only the original has ever been seen to exhibit the ability to contain and transport others into the mini-dimension. For this very reason, many anchors of Capricorns long since passed are prized and treated as incredibly precious antiques.

The Nature of Time and Death
How time operates within a Capricorn's mini-dimension is decided by the Capricorn themselves, and thus a single minute in our true reality may be equivalent to a single second in one Capricorn's mini-dimension, while in another it may be the equivalent to a century. Regardless of the time spent in a Capricorn's dimension, upon returning to the true reality, the person(s) in question are returned to the same age and physical state as when they entered the dimension. Thus, this has been seen as a form of "pseudo-immortality".

Dying of natural causes (such as ageing and diseases not caused by external forces) within a Capricorn's dimension causes a person to immediately be returned to the true reality at the age and physical state as when they had first entered; however, any form of death deemed unnatural (such as suicide and homicide) also results in death in the true reality. Here, the person's soul immediately passes into the River of Death and their physical corpse returned to the real world.

Strangely enough, though they are also deemed unnatural forms of death, death through accident and misadventure do not cause death within the true reality, and return the person(s) to the real world as if they had died form natural causes. However, unlike those who have died from natural causes within the Capricorn's dimension, they will forever be unable to again enter again, unless given the explicit ability to do so by the Capricorn who created that dimension.

Those Who Live Within
Those people and creatures created as part of the mini-dimension are never able to leave that dimension, and upon their deaths, simply undergo death as dictated by the Capricorn who created their dimension (in some dimensions, this includes an afterlife of sorts, though in other dimensions, characters simply cease to exist)

The Written Anchor
When the anchor was a piece of literature that contained the written word, the nature of the Capricorn's dimensions naturally followed the content of their writing, but contrary to popular belief, the dimensions held within would not follow the storyline as dictated in the literary work. Rather, as soon as the story was written and given power by the Capricorn who wrote it, the mini-reality would only follow the plot line of the literary work up to its end, and then continue beyond the scope of the written work. In other words, the written story would only set the scene and initial events within the mini-dimension, but the timeline within would still continue from that point on, much like a sequel carrying on from their original work

As within a written Capricorn dimension, the "story" will continue beyond the scope of what is actually written, if a person from the true reality were to read the written works of a Capricorn, they would be transported into the written dimension at a point that may not even be described by the literary work. Indeed, some have found themselves at a point thousands of years after the events that were described in the original literature.

Nevertheless, regardless if the anchor is a literary work or a mundane objects, all contain a dimension that is constantly moving forward in time (as dictated by the Capricorn), with generations continually passing. A dimension has never been found to contain a "loop" of reality, and thus some of the oldest anchors still intact contain dimensions that have had events continue for millions of years, even as the anchors themselves are but a century old.