Rison's Jangles

This looks like some sort of cryptogram -- each symbol in the ciphertext replacing some symbol in the plaintext. "7l8" occurs over and over again, often at the start of a line; could it be "the"? If so then "7l858" is presumably "there" (could be "these" but that seems less likely) and then probably "l6" is "is". Except that now it seems that "h" and "i" are represented by the same ciphertext character. Well, let's proceed and see what happens. If we make the replacements suggested above, leaving "l" as "h" rather than "i" but remembering that maybe "h" and "i" are interchangeable, we get:

the Mrehms zre rhdht
the th1e L3rms zre rezh
the M3rhm hs Zhh9e
the tr3hhs mere 32qe eh9es
the Mmzr9es mere 32qe 1e2
there hs 23 s3eth Lshz2m
the eh9es q31e er31 the sez
there hs 23 rezh 3m2ershh4 3e hz2m E3r the Lz2m hs Zhh9e z2m se2the2t
Eh2m the treth mhthh2 es zhmzqs
there hs szm2ess z2m reme14th32 zt the 4r39h2qe 3e the tmh2 t3mers

which looks pretty promising. Those "zre"s sure look like they might be "are". If "z" represents "a" then maybe "z2m" is "and"? That gives us

the Mrehds are rhdht
the th1e L3rds are reah
the M3rhd hs Zhh9e
the tr3hhs dere 3nqe eh9es
the Mdar9es dere 3nqe 1en
there hs n3 s3eth Lshand
the eh9es q31e er31 the sea
there hs n3 reah 3dnershh4 3e hand E3r the Land hs Zhh9e and senthent
Ehnd the treth dhthhn es ahdaqs
there hs sadness and rede14th3n at the 4r39hnqe 3e the tdhn t3ders

Remember that "h" can apparently also mean "i". This is looking pretty promising. "There is sadness and"... what? "Redemption", probably. What does that give us?

the Mrehds are rhdht
the thme Lords are reah
the Morhd hs Zhh9e
the trohhs dere onqe eh9es
the Mdar9es dere onqe men
there hs no soeth Lshand
the eh9es qome erom the sea
there hs no reah odnershhp oe hand Eor the Land hs Zhh9e and senthent
Ehnd the treth dhthhn es ahdaqs
there hs sadness and redempthon at the pro9hnqe oe the tdhn toders

Well, it seems that "h" is not only "h" and "i" but also "l", because surely we've got "the Time Lords are real" here. Then, remembering that z->a, it looks like "Zhh9e" is "Alive". And "E" must mean "F", giving us "from" and "for" and "find". It seems as if capital and lowercase letters map the same way, so let's also turn L into H and M into D since we already have l->h and m->d.

the Drehds are rhdht
the thme Hords are reah
the Dorhd hs Ahhve
the trohhs dere onqe ehves
the Ddarves dere onqe men
there hs no soeth Hshand
the ehves qome from the sea
there hs no reah odnershhp of hand For the Hand hs Ahhve and senthent
Fhnd the treth dhthhn es ahdaqs
there hs sadness and redempthon at the provhnqe of the tdhn toders

Apparently "e" can also mean "u", because surely we have "south island" and "find the truth" here. And "q" must be "c" to make "province" and "come" and "once" -- oh, and if that's "once" then some "d"s must actually be "w" to make "were once".

the Drehds are rhwht
the thme Hords are reah
the Dorhd hs Ahhve
the trohhs dere once ehves
the Ddarves dere once men
there hs no soeth Hshand
the ehves come from the sea
there hs no reah odnershhp of hand For the Hand hs Ahhve and senthent
Fhnd the treth dhthhn es ahdacs
there hs sadness and redempthon at the provhnce of the tdhn toders

At this point, it's pretty obvious what everything says, although the encoding was lossy and we've had to guess at some interpretations. "the Druids are right / the time Lords are real / The World is Alive / the trolls were once elves / the Dwarves were once men / there is no south Island / the elves come from the sea / there is no real ownership of land For the Land is Alive and sentient / Find the truth within as always / there is sadness and redemption at the province of the twin towers". (Apparently there's some sort of Tolkien theme going on here.)

Is there any particular logic to the way things have been encoded? Let's see. The forward direction (plaintext to ciphertext) has: a->z, eu->8, o->6, r->5, g->d, hil->l, c->q, dw->m, t->7, f->e. It looks to me as if (1) some letters map to the symmetrically-opposite place in the alphabet, (2) some letters map to other letters near their location in the alphabet, and (3) there are some other rather arbitrary correspondences, perhaps based on appearance (7 looks a bit like capital T, M is W upside down).