Preface to the Complete Edition

The hypertext rendering of this Complete Edition of Archives Pertaining to Egderus Scriptor took shape over the course of a generation, and comprises writings gathered and transmitted over a span many times that long. Here collected in one volume are all the texts previously issued in three separate volumes published under the title We Descend.

Those previous selections from the Archives were rendered into hypertext form by Bill Bly, the current Curator. Volume One was published EV 1997 as a standalone computer application distributed by Eastgate Systems; Volume Two was brought out in the online journal The New River, Fall 2017. In addition, a 'preliminary view' of Volume Three appeared in The New River, Fall 2019. The edition you are reading now presents Volume Three in full, and includes a number of Writings heretofore unpublished.

Over the course of this project, the process of preparing the Writings has matured, with the inevitable consequence that some inconsistencies appeared not only in the narratives of certain Authors, but also in the apparatus in which they were housed. This omnibus edition attempts to smooth out that unevenness, though some irregularities were felt to be part of their story, and were retained.

In any archive of writings, many voices speak, and it can take some time to come to discern how they are related to one another. The simplest way to embark on the present journey is to follow the PATHWAY, which departs from the word 'Begin' on the TITLE page; this procedure will take you through twenty-one Writings of varying length. PATHWAY constitutes a tour of the Writings that will introduce you to most of the persons in this volume of We Descend and some of their stories. At the PATHWAY's end, you will arrive at an interstitial directory called the LANDING, displaying links to Writings you have not yet seen, and to other apparati that will be useful in exploring the Archives further.

At the bottom of each text field, activate the link '— on >>' to go to the next Writing along the PATHWAY, and '<< back —' to retrace your steps. (Note that employing the directional controls on your reading device may have a different effect.) Activating the 'PATHWAY' link that sits between these two in the navigation bar will show you a list of all of the Writings in this introductory sequence.

[TECHNICAL NOTE: Longer Writings, like this Preface, which might extend beyond one screenful of text, will appear in multiple columns, as in an ancient scroll, and may be read by moving the text itself left or right. However, for the sake of readability, lists and other apparati are displayed in a single column that can be shifted up and down.]

El Refugio

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México