The World is the cosmos its inhabitants live in: created by a demon and itself demonic and negative (“this world is demon, this world is negative”), multipantheonic, masked, and one among countless worlds. A prophecy sets its end in 1901.
| Type | Concept (cosmology) |
| Spanish entry | Mundo |
Nature
- Negativity. A demon made it, not from outside as a potter makes a vessel, but so that the World is demon. Negativity is a condition of its making, not a vice of its people; good exists, but against the grain.
- Autonomy. “This world also defends itself” and need not “come with the mental plane”: it has its own defensive force.
- Many pantheons. No god reigns alone; pantheons coexist without hegemony and blend their deities, so no religion can claim the single truth.
- Masks. It is “a place of masks”: what is shown is not what is there.
Scale
“There are worlds in the blades of grass; they are the possible and visitable worlds,” and each leaf of the tree of Kumal holds one. On the northern axis the tree is Yggdrasil, the tree of life whose branches join “the different worlds that touch”. The scale also inverts: “the world fits in a blade of grass or in a small diamond, in a ruby.” Those allowed to see it glimpse “that vision of complexity” only for a moment.
The Ivory Labyrinth is “larger than a material world”. Other named worlds, such as the world of the nails and the world of Helena, are entered by slipping in “like thieves”: entry is possible but irregular, never by a highway.
Surface
The World looks and dresses like “a 1600–1700”, whatever the calendar says. In Bahrain and the Arab world strong coin circulates: “they show you a gold dinar”.
Prophesied end
The end is set for 1901. The prophecy has been stated since 1120; in 1889 it was said that “in twelve years everything ends”, and the belief prevails in that period. Pablo’s chronology also lists “the end of the world in 1901”. Yet a record exists dated 21 June 1901.
Conflicting accounts
- One reading holds that the end is a sentence on the World itself; another, that it is a belief of its inhabitants.
Open questions
- Which demon made the World, and which pantheons it holds.
- How the period surface relates to the tree of worlds, and whether the 1600–1700 dress is deliberate or regional.
- Whether the worlds of the nails and of Helena are leaves of Kumal, branches of Yggdrasil, or neither.
- What entering “like thieves” involves; what the dinar is worth; its landscape and climate.