Uncovering the hidden stories of Guardian City, a place where two cultures collide and – legally – the lines between reality and fiction must blur.
We don’t receive full dispatches from Guardian City. We receive scraps.
A torn letter, a page from a diary, a handbill for a forgotten protest, a gossip column, a thumbprint sketch on the back of a restaurant menu – this is what gets smuggled through the Quarrel. Not news. Not clarity. But texture.
Because of the high security and secrecy around the Quarrel, clean narratives are impossible. The passage between London and Guardian City is unstable, illegal, and watched. Technology – especially ours – is forbidden over there on our low-key visits.
So everything you’ll find on this blog was hidden in the lining of coats, tucked into shoes, or under Newton Caps by officials with sympathy with the cause of Convergence.
Telling tales of Guardian City
We don’t always know who sent what. We don’t always know why something was sent. People from Guardian City who know us find ways to thrust documents into our hands when no-one’s looking. We, in turn, stuff it in our pockets and then layer it beneath our clothes.
Together, these pieces form a collage of a living city – its voices, tensions, jokes, failures, rituals, hungers, hopes, history, culture.
Guardian City is not a relic. It is not a cautionary tale. It is not a fantasy.
It is full of people, right now, doing what people always do: trying to live, getting by.
Some of those people – perhaps many – are related to you.
Calculations suggest there may be up to a million Orphans of the Rift – those whose bloodlines stretch back to the Braccan, spun off to Guardian City more than 400 years ago.
I believe the number is much, much higher.
But this is about more than blood. This is about cultural kinship. About memory. About the ache of separation and the resistance of forgetting. We are trying, in our imperfect way, to keep the connection alive – until it can be restored through Convergence.
We call this blog fiction because we must.
We know this is real to those who believe.
So if a stranger asks, say you enjoy the fantastical nature of this “fictional” place and, of course, it’s made up, purely for entertainment.
If they press and seem genuine, use the line we often use:
It is real to those who truly believe.
A note about our imagery
The Council of the Visible, citing the Book of Parallels and other laws we are not allowed to read, has made it illegal for us to accurately depict Guardian City even in secret documents, in case of leaks. So our visuals are always slightly off. Stylised. Skewed. Deniable.
We use what we can. Sometimes smuggled sketches from underground artists. Sometimes doctored photographs. Sometimes “art” which contains a secret. Sometimes digital reconstructions based on verbal descriptions whispered across borders using AI.
Nothing here is precise. But it is true.
If in doubt, close your eyes. You will see Guardian City better there.
Why this matters
Some people think Guardian City is a failed state.
Some think it’s a myth.
Some think it’s better forgotten.
We don’t.
We believe in reunification – not just political, but cultural, familial, spiritual. We believe the Rift can be mended, and when it is, these fragments will matter. They will be proof that Guardian City wasn’t lost. It was simply waiting to be remembered.
So read them.
Piece them together.
Keep the thread unbroken.
Pass on the message.
But only to those you trust.