In the Beginning
It began with the Oregon Trail
The history of the Southwestern Bellows beings with the Oregon Trail. According to legend, in 1850, a caravan of 90 covered wagons from Indiana, led by business tycoon, Junior Baxton, headed west to follow the Gold Rush. The journey was difficult and taxing, but typical of the times; broken wagon wheels, broken bones, four deaths, and one birth. But, up until they reached Southern Oregon their journey was unextraordinary. While traveling through what is now the town of Gold Hill, the pioneers felt a weird pressure in the atmosphere and reported seeing odd lights in the sky. The wagon train ventured through an increasingly eerie-feeling land where there was no bird song or any sign of animal life, and the air felt alive with bizarre energy.
A possible entrance to The Southwestern Bellows
That evening they all transported.
Note: Today, the sight of their disappearance is home to a campy but fun roadside attraction called, “The Oregon Vortex”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Vortex
It took the pioneers a while to realize that anything was amiss because the terrain of the new world was almost identical to Southern Oregon, but the rivers and mountains were different and didn’t correspond to their maps. At first, they thought they were lost, but even the stars were different.
Lailoken Bel, a Scottish mystic and folk-magick practitioner, was the first to sense that something was off and believed that the entire wagon train had been spirited away like in fairy stories. Lailoken had been hired for the journey to divine the location of gold and silver mines. Over the years he had proven himself excellent at discovering underground springs, and even buried treasure by use of occult means. Lailoken was, however, considered by most to be a fool and a dreamer, and no one took him seriously when he said that three nights after the event on Gold Hill, he had been summoned into the forest to speak with a seven-foot-tall mantis-like creature.
A common depiction of a Mantid, similar to the one who first spoke to Lailoken Bel
NOTE: Supernatural encounters with the Mantids, are sprinkled throughout the history of the Southwestern Bellows, and this is the first known story detailing such a meeting.
According to Lailoken, the creature looked very much like a huge praying mantis but its body was similar to a tall human’s. It wore red robes and a medallion covered in unfamiliar runes. The creature spoke telepathically and being in its presence, Lailoken felt as if he was in the company of the divine.
The Mantid told Lailoken that he and his fellow pioneers had indeed reached a land rich with gold, but warned that the gold was cursed, for it belonged to the Zeta Reticulans. The Mantid told him that a group of extraterrestrials--referred to as the Zeta Reticulans--had brought the pioneers to this new planet for the purpose of settling and starting a new human civilization. The Mantid told Lailoken that sometime in the distant future the Earth might possibly be destroyed by its human inhabitants and that the Zeta Reticulans were in the middle of a long project involving the human race, and that their work would not come to fruition for many centuries. In the event of global destruction, the Zeta Reticulans would be able to continue their work on this planet.
NOTE: Mantiods and Zeta Reticulans are separate species of extraterrestrials but are often witnessed working together. Future posts will explore both of these alien species in great detail.
While in the woods, the Mantid showed Lailoken many mental images. Lailoken saw his fellow pioneers, including himself, walking through a shimmering fog while in a dream-like state. He saw other robed entities similar to the Mantid, but terrifying in nature. He saw images he couldn’t explain with people and places he had never seen before. Was he being shown pictures of the future or a distant past? Finally, the Mantid placed a map of this new world into Lailoken’s mind.
FUN FACTS: Junior Baxton, the businessman from Indiana who sponsored much of the wagon expedition, later became the first king of Southwestern Bellows and progenitor of the royal Baxton monarchy and nobility class, which still exists to this day. Junior Baxton was only king for 9 months, however, before being eaten by a large flying snake.
Lailoken Bel was the Southwestern Bellow’s first wizard and still lives to this day, but goes by the name Lamp Black, who is known as the father of another wizard called Haxm Forehand.
Next week, I plan on continuing with this creation story. So much to tell! …
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