Codex of the Synapse: Folio C3.3
A Synaptic Circus
"The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma unfolded before him, grander and more obtuse than one might have imagined...." Franz Kafka, Amerika
There are very few well-documented examples of large-scale Synaptic Loci. We owe our knowledge of one case, however, to the willful indiscretion of the Keepers themselves. A potent Synaptic Locus appeared in the 1870s which stretched some 1400 miles across the American Plains and on as far as the Great Basin in Nevada.
The Midwest of the 19th century fostered a climate of migratory-showmanship, and ingenuous, or bored, prairie communities welcomed the occasional arrival caravans carrying tent-revival preachers, agricultural inventor-entrepreneurs, charlatan rainmakers, and makeshift carnivals. Among these caravans were the first American circuses, bringing oddities of all varieties zoological, anatomical, and acrobatic.
One such circus may have been operated by a renegade, extremist faction of the Keepers. This faction believed that the dissemination of the knowledge of the Synapse was not happening fast enough to prevent its atrophy from disuse. Fearing a premature Synaptic Apocalypse, they set out to bring the Synapse to the Walkers, as non-Keepers were then called. The seemingly erratic route they traced across the country, actually coincided with a migratory node of Synapse fragments. Using the traditional venue of pay-as-you-enter show-wagons, the Keepers employed makeshift Pattern Language Reclamation Modules to induce and amplify Synaptic experience upon the unwary rubes. The results were mostly disastrous, often causing paroxysms, illness, and fits of terror-induced violence in the clientele. The Hall of Mirrors remains one of the most concentrated sites of neighbor-world activity in recent history, and provides an ideal example of a classic Synapse portal form.
The traveling circus operated for only six months, before disappearing in Utah. It is unknown whether the circus fell prey to a vengeful public, more conservative Keepers, or its own disillusioned ranks. Despite its short tenure, it exerted a pivotal influence on certain American religious sects, whose migratory path it no doubt crossed. The paroxysms, faith-healing, speaking-in-tongues, and communing with the Dead that still occur during the rituals of some Pentecostal, Baptist, and Mormon congregations, may be traceable to encounters with the Synaptic Circus.
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