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OMARIA · WHISPER CARD
You didn’t find Omaria.
The other way round. Omaria found you — through a card someone left behind for you. That card comes from a book. And the book begins like this:
read the first page ↓Prologue
This is how Omaria begins
A wild, almost fevered enthusiasm propels Sinne from cloud to cloud. Her ship tears through shreds of cloud that dance against the wind, as though they have agreed upon their own choreography. In shimmering communion with this extraordinary world, she lets the sails of her mystical ship billow out on both sides at once, the impossible made possible.
This is constant change made manifest in her flight towards freedom, in a realm she could previously only dream of. Here she may move as the sun moves, appearing time and again in a different place across the firmament, as if teasing Sinne and the shadows, which therefore cannot decide where to fall.
The otherworldly-seeming trees sway against the wind and then with it. Their branches stretch out bearing leaves that are both young green and autumnal gold, and the mountain ridge she skimmed just moments ago is never the same from above. It reshapes itself endlessly, the way you would only expect of clouds. The very clouds that drift here like fleeting thoughts, passing from here to there, and only step aside when they wish to avoid contact.
When she gazes at the water below, she tumbles from one astonishment into the next. So changeable is this — shifting from translucent bright green to crystalline grey, with whitecaps reaching upward like fingers. The wind smells of things that do not yet exist: fresh bread that will be baked tomorrow, rain that still has to fall yesterday.
Sinne does not steer.
She suggests.
Her vessel interprets. This is Omaria.
This is freedom. This is what happens when you surrender to your dreams and watch them become real.
OMARIA · BOOK 1 OF THE NIGHT TRAVELLERS
By day, Sinne survives a post-war refugee camp. By night, she travels to Omaria — where clouds are little islands and everything you feel takes shape.
Ten whisper cards
are travelling around. Which one did you find? The cards speak Dutch, and the narrator’s answers are only on the cards themselves.
- Have you found Omaria yet?Heb jij Omaria al gevonden?
- What is the password for Omaria?Wat is het toegangswoord voor Omaria?
- Everyone’s talking about it — but how do you get to Omaria?Iedereen heeft het erover, maar hoe kom je op Omaria?
- Is it true that thoughts take shape on Omaria?Is het waar dat gedachten materialiseren op Omaria?
- Travelling to Omaria at night? Can I do that too?’s Nachts reizen, naar Omaria? Kan ik dat ook?
- Eyes closed. Is that enough?Ogen dicht. Is dat genoeg?
- Can you really fly through the clouds on Omaria?Kun je op Omaria echt door de wolken vliegen?
- Is everyone welcome on Omaria?Is iedereen welkom op Omaria?
- May I take someone with me to Omaria?Mag ik iemand meenemen naar Omaria?
- Have you been there yet? … to Omaria?Ben je er al geweest? … op Omaria?
Pass it on
You can’t take someone with you. Going first, you can.
- Don’t let the card sit with you. Leave it where someone else will find it: in a library book, on the train, in a waiting room, in a little free library around the corner.
- Tell the narrator where it travelled. Which card it was, where you found it and where you left it.
- The narrator will write back. With the part that doesn’t fit on the card — it’s different for everyone — and an invitation to the Night Journey.
Feel free to attach a photo of where your card is now. With your permission, it goes into the logbook of #omariareistdoor.
The Night Journey
A few times a year, at full moon, the door of the Hanzehuis in Stavoren opens for a Night Journey: candlelight, reading aloud, and the four images Omaria grew from.
There are no tickets for sale. Your way in isn’t the card itself — you passed that on, after all — but the narrator’s letter.
Encore
One more question? The narrator is listening.
Don’t expect an oracle. I don’t answer questions, I change them. That’s my trade.
— the narrator
Your question isn’t stored anywhere. Omaria listens differently.