The Plateau

## **General information and history**

   The Plateau was originally located somewhere in the jungles of South America.

At some time in the distant past, the Plateau was geographically isolated from the jungle below.

Access to the Plateau could only be gained by climbing the sheer side, or through a series of caverns inside the Plateau.

## **The Wizards colonize the Plateau**

In the 8th Century, the Wizards, a powerful race of magical beings that lived in the Underworld, came to be seen as a threat by the reigning Source of the time. The Source in question then waged all out war on the Wizards, exterminating most of them.

 However, unknown to the Source, some of the Wizards foresaw the coming holocaust and escaped the Underworld in time. Vowing to start anew, the Wizards migrated to a new home, the Plateau, where they built a city. They were aided by Elemental beings, such as Herne the Hunter, who was then given a Golden Scroll. that the Wizards had created, and told to give it to the Worthy One, when the time was right. The Wizards then devoted themselves to the preservation of life, past and present, and used their magic to bring dinosaurs to the Plateau from Earth’s prehistoric past. They also allowed some primitive cultures to settle on the Plateau, knowing that they will be safe there from outside influences. This is the policy the Wizards would maintain for the next 800 years.

## **The Necronomicon on the Plateau**

 In the 13th Century, a cult of Demons in Europe acquired one of the last few remaining copies of the Necronomicon. However, before they had a chance to use it against their enemies, a group of good witches tracked them down and engaged them in battle. The Demons used their powers to hide their copy of the Necronomicon on the Plateau (being totally unaware of the Wizard colony there). The Demons were subsequently wiped out before they could recover the Necronomicon, so it remained hidden on the Plateau for centuries to come.

## **The Wizards become the Plateau**

 In the 16th Century, the Wizards began to fear that the inflow of Europeans to the New World would destroy all they had sought to preserve on the Plateau.  The atrocities of the Spanish in their conquest of South America only reinforced that fear.

To prevent the Plateau from being conquered, the Wizards used their magic to give up their physical beings and formed a group mind. This Wizard Gestalt then merged with, and thus became, the Plateau. The Wizard Gestalt then used its magic to disconnect the Plateau partially from normal space/time, isolating it from the rest of Earth. Over the following centuries, the Wizard Gestalt allowed the occasional expedition to visit the Plateau, but did not allow any mass migration from the outside world. The Plateau then faded into legend and was mostly forgotten.

## **The Challenger Expedition**

 In 1919, an expedition under the leadership of Professor George Edward Challenger, set out prove the existence of the mystical Plateau in South America. The expedition consisted of Challenger, a big game hunter named Lord John Roxton, journalist Edward “Ned” Malone, Professor Arthur Summerlee, and a woman, with a mysterious background, called Marguerite Krux.  Upon arrival on the Plateau, they met a woman named Veronica Layton, who had lived on the Plateau since her childhood. Although Summerlee later disappeared and was never found, the rest of the expedition survive intact, although they were now stranded on the Plateau.

It would not be until 1924 that he Challenger Expedition finally succeeded in escaping the Plateau. Once they were back in civilization, Ned Malone wrote a book detailing their adventures on the Plateau. Although the book was a best seller, the publishers branded it as fiction. Professor Challenger also wrote a journal about the Plateau, but the Scientific Community refused to take it, or him, seriously.

After their return to civilization, Lord John Roxton married Marguerite Krux and Ned Malone married Veronica Layton. All were made offers by various rich sponsors to reveal the location of the Plateau, but they refused to do so  They wished to protect its uniqueness.

## **Rex and Hannah's first visit to the Plateau**

 In 2008, Rex Buckland and Hannah Webster learned that Dymond, a Lower Level Demon, had acquired knowledge of the copy of the Necronomicon that was hidden on the Plateau.  Dymond had thus gone there to retrieve it. Knowing that the information in the Necronomicon could be dangerous in the hands of a being such as Dymond, Rex and Hannah went after him. Once there, they met up with the Challenger Expedition. Since the Plateau existed outside of normal space time, it was 1922 for the Challenger Expedition. Rex and Hannah thus teamed up with the Challenger Expedition and together they stopped Dymond. Rex vanquished Dymond and the copy of the Necronomicon was destroyed. Rex and Hannah then left the Plateau. The Challenger Expedition, who wished to find a way back to their own time, remained behind on the Plateau.

## **Rex and Hannah's return to the Plateau**

 In 2010, Rex realized that the Golden Scroll, which had been given to him by Herne the Hunter not long before (Rex was the Worthy One), was written in a Wizard dialect.  He was thus able to translate part of it. Rex discovered that it mentioned the Plateau. Determined to investigate, Rex and Hannah returned to the Plateau.  This time, however, they arrived in the same time frame as the outside world.

After visiting the long abandoned tree house of the Challenger Expedition, Rex and Hannah followed the clues indicated by the Golden Scroll. Soon they arrived at the ruins of the city the Wizards had lived in, before they had become the Gestalt and merged with the Plateau.

There Rex and Hannah encountered Dr. Cabot Rowland, from the Department Of Paleontology at Oxford, and his assistant, George Baker. Rowland informed Rex and Hannah that he had read Challenger and Malone’s accounts of the Plateau, and was there for scientific reasons only, but Rex suspected otherwise.

During the course of events, Rex translated the writings left by the Wizards in the ruined city and uncovered the background of their escape from the Underworld and becoming part of the Plateau.

At the same time, Rex and Hannah uncovered Rowland’s real reason for visiting the Plateau.  Desperate by the budget cuts that Oxford had made to his department, Rowland hoped to turn the Plateau into a tourist resort, that he would run, thus making a fortune. Rex informed Rowland that the Wizards would not allow this, but Rowland refused to listen.

At that point, the Wizard that Halliwell sisters had encountered eight years previously (see below) appeared, stunned Rowland and Baker, and told Rex that he was indeed worthy to have received the Golden Scroll. As the Wizards had forged a new destiny centuries earlier, so the Warlocks now must forge a new destiny, thanks to Rex and Hannah. The Wizard revealed that there was yet more knowledge to be gleaned from the Golden Scroll. The Wizard then informed Rex and Hannah that the outside world had grown too much, and that discovery and exploitation of the Plateau was now a real threat. However, the Gestalt had prepared for this.

Using his powers, the Wizard removed Rex, Hannah, Rowland, and Baker from the Plateau. Then the Wizard Gestalt permanently removed the Plateau from Earth, thus rendering it unreachable by any means other than magical. Rex and Hannah then returned home, leaving behind Rowland, who now had to consider his future plans and actions.

## **The Lone Wizard**

There was one other Wizard who survived the Source’s purge of his people in the 8th Century. Unaware of the Wizard colony on the Plateau, he was convinced that he was the last of his race. This Wizard thus vowed to one day resurrect his people.

In 2002 the Wizard encountered the Halliwell sisters, and attempted to use them to achieve his goal of resurrecting his race. He tried to become the Source, but was vanquished. After his physical body was destroyed, his spirit was drawn to the Plateau, where it became part of the Wizard Gestalt.

Becoming part of the Gestalt, the Wizard realized that he was not the last of his race and was finally happy and content.

## **References**

*The Lost World TV Series: Based on the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle*

*Rex and Hannah Chronicles Story No. 1: Visit To A Lost World*

*Rex and Hannah Chronicles Story No. 20: Return To A Lost World*

*Charmed Episode No. 85: We're Off To See The Wizard*