CREATIVE HEADSPACE
Connecting Dreaming Planning Collectively Creating
Lost Legends of OtherEarth
Information
A giant reptile, a greek philosopher, a window between worlds.
TYANID.
THE PLANET MADE ITS NAME KNOWN, SOMEHOW
TO THE MONSTER OF THE SWAMP THAT STARED
THROUGH THE TUBE OF SCRYING. ANOTHER
CONSCIOUSNESS HAD CAUGHT ITS INTERESTS.
WHILE ONE BRAIN TOILED AT COORDINATION OF NERVAL FUNCTIONS, THE OTHER BRAIN DOUBLED
WHAT IT HAD LEARNED. DOUBLED AGAIN.
INTERNALIZING THE LOGIC OF LYING WITH NO SENSE
OF WRONG OR RIGHTNESS...TYANID, AN INNOCENT
LIAR, IS CREATED, AND GROWING.
Via temporal dilation scrying techniques,
light aeons could be foused and filtered
to reveal that which otherwise would be lost --
TYANID, THE MONSTER KNEW THAT TYANID'S
SWAMPS AND LIFE FORMS COULD FEED AND NURTURE
IT. IN THE STRANGE MOVEMENTS BETWEEN
FARAWAY FLESHY THINGS, NOT EVEN BIOLOGICAL
VALUE REGISTERED.
BUT IN THE IDEA OF LYING...IN LYING TO
ONE'S SELF UNTIL THE LIE TOOK A MOMENTUM
TO PULL ONE FORWARD...
"I AM, I THINK, I EXIST, I HUNGER," COGNITED THE
MONSTER.
Observing: FAR FROM EARTH
What: fifty foot tall reptilian. Reminds us
of Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex at the
same time. Scales glisten a medium
green under an orange Star...
TYANID LACKS A CLUE, WHEREVER THE TEMPORAL-
DILATING SCRYING FOCUS CAME FROM, THE MONSTER F THE JUNGLE-PLANETOID ALSO NAMED TYANID
HAS...
HE HAS N CLUE, HE IS WATCHED AS WELL...
Perhaps those who watch him are watched.
they feel themselves as watchjers who watch uninhibited by other eyes. Sad.
It's a levitating disc that the Celestians desigend for themselves...if it were hovering above Elgos prime,
home planet of Dorrinicax the Wize, and azallanthe, the Zerlockian...the fields of ghost crpse at Phovanan, the
ancient battlefield there, would be blocked from the moons from horizon to horizon...if it hovered over the skies of
Earth...
the Ra'ana Language
by Stellus Guardian, Chronicler of Team Virtue
it's awesome to listen to Ra'ana's people speaking their native language, even if you aren't wearing a Translatron. Very musical and breathy, reflecting perhaps the astral breezes the Ra'ana religion and cosmology claims is the source of all their wisdom.
Full and rich, it sounds almost like song, and pitch is also important. The Ra'naa have ears that are very attuned...marvelous!
Void Rerout
Ch'ang Speaks:
We were Ra'ana. Ra'ana, and the seeds she bore and nurtured.
a long time ago our ancestors were apes.
a Long Time ago - as the day star traveled through the sky over and over -
once Ra'ana children were mighty apes who ate leaves and lived in trees.
but the day star changed those mighty apes and we became who we are now, the Ra'ana. One day an ape learned to talk and said the first word -- the first word all Ra'ana say -- Umi, meaning mother.
The great apes still wander the steppes but our tribes diverged.
they only say 'umi' -- but they still eat leaves and play in the sun, on the steppes.
we, meanwhile, developed skills. we learned to forage and build cities...steppe villas where we composed love songs to the all powerful sun, the source of sustenance, and learned from the actions of the apes, our ancestors. but the day star changed us...we evolved. we learned to write things down, we learned art and song and compose elaborate songs of love on integrity-lutes to the day star and the winds that flow from the day star.
and we learned. we sat in the art called "meditation," we learned many different things to do we called skills. and we counted the movement of the different night stars as well as the day star, we counted the times that the Ra'ana spun around letting us see the day star again and again. it is as i write this the number forty two followed by my fingers times my fingers times my fingers, but the mathematicians know more.
--or knew more, before Emperor Hedgewarden and his Dynasts came in their star ships!
they came here and smiled in their strange clothes. laughing at us.
Nariki was the first one who approached them to speak.
"why have you come here, oddly dressed Ra'ana?"
"We are not Ra'ana," Hedgewarden said. "we are from far away, from Earth. we are your rulers."
"What is a ruler?" Nariki asked. We watched from the steppe pass.
Hedgewarden slapped Nariki down to the ground!
We had never seen a Ra'ana strike another Ra'ana -- we didn't know what to make of it.
Hedgewarden bent down and grabbed Nariki by the throat - I remember -
i could hear his strangled attempt to cry out.
"We came to rule you. also own you. you little monkeys will make fine subjects. this is the wonderful world of Hedgewarden now! You will do as we say or get killed.
"You know what killed is, you little ape?"
we panicked in the pass, watching.
they speak Ra'ana but they don't act like Ra'ana.
they look like us too. wait and see.
look at their...clothes!
"Killed is when you don't do what your rulers say. That's us. and also Howerth. Hey, Howerth, get a load of this monkey!"
another one of the strange Ra'ana waked over to Nariki. Nariki has long beautiful black hair.
"i want that hair for my lab, George," and the fat one walked over. it had a fat pot belly - also something no Ra'ana had ever seen before.
i tell you this because this is the time that trouble began here on Ra'ana, for so many cycles we had celebrated the star wind. now these stranger Ra'ana had come.
Jade is next to me with his hand on my shoulder gripping tight. he is horrified beyond question.
they are killing Nariki slowly.
we watch.
we hear.
They have come to Ra'ana to rule us.
Their starships..we have never seen anything like this before.
They are huge and there is something horrifying about them.
and they are killing Nariki -- the first one is Hedgewarden - - it is a name all of Ra'ana will come to know and fear. The other one, Howerth -- none of us has ever seen a fat man before. his belly is round. it looks like sickness, when people once ate bad plants from swamps where gases from the underdark escape.
they strangle and kill nariki and we cannot supress our wails. we have watched the aged die and wept -- but we have never seen anyone killed by another ra'ana before and we begin to wail -
it is the first time we have ever screamed the Ra'ana Death Wail. they look up to the pass and see us and here come their soldiers. but we are hot with a new feeling...
His name was Acanthus Silverhelm.
He had a few secrets.
i looked at him in the icy blue water of the Silverdell creek, (it's almost a crack, it trickles, so) making his way across the blissful Fields of Phovanon.
His reflection seemed to shiver and transform.
Of course...his reflection and my reflection are One and the Same: he is me and I am him.
Once they called me a different name that i had to reject. It was too special and I didn't deserve it. because my crescent moon axe is made of thrice forged Damascus steel and very very sharp they caled me thrice born steel angel of the bloody crescent moon. such were my victory in the otherearth conflict: when the ages-old nemesis, the darkelves, roused from their deep hidden caverns and came to earth, attacking at night.
after the first several waves of attack --
the Wizard Akeis the True and his steadfast Lady, Kayex, the knight regent, assembled the heroes of the surface world to rout the malevolent and numerous dark elves. With the power of the sun and many fell weapons we were victorious...
...that was long ago.
Now I am old. and I am no longer called steel angel of the bloody crescent anymore. it is Acanthus Silverhelm, called thriceborn because of the ways i cheated death at the blood-mottled hands of the dark elves.
This is the tale of what happened in those wars...as i and my friends, who are now mostly retired adventurers, warriors, and odd bards out, can tell you...
this is the tale of the descent into darkness and the return to golden light.
-thrice born steel angel of the bloody crescent moon:
DESCENT
I.1
a bunch of heroes annoying a bad wizard
present:
True Akeis: the worldmage. also known as Bard the Wise.
Kathos Halfelven: his son, an archer
Eclypta Doveling: Ancient. Star - fire of the tarotic elldrich witches called Team Virtue
Marcus Stellus: time and dimension traveller, the spectral world bridger. thief, acrobat, son of Diana
Draic Dragonman: feared bounty hunter, phantom slayer, weilder of the crossbow of Kirby
Emirkol Murdge: Murdge the chaotic, a fallen black wizard. insane and ugly. posessed by demons. serves LOKI.
-
'Wow...i just said 'faggotry,' too,' Acanthus said. 'sup ya rascaly fox.'
'Hello small one.' Kern stares fondly at Acanthus, they have known each other since they were children.
Acanthus, of course, dwarfs Kern now, but Kern will always call him 'small one.' I will too, but we already know i love irony.
'so ya gonna shoot him again?' Acanthus asks Draic.
'well probably. Nice, in the heart. as a keepsake,'
Draic drawled evenly. 'I think i'm gonna shoot it -- him in the heart because the bounty on this guy..well there are a few bounties.'
'you should wait.'
'what for?'
why merge is scared Shitless #43:
kern akeis is a sage of some stature. that is why merge fears HIM.
merge fears acanthus because once acanthus grabbed him in an berzerk adrenaline rush and swung him by the ankles into an oak tree in this very glen. his brains were already scrambled...
merge fears draic because draic's reputation for hunting down and killing evil magi with bad reputations for the money and fame far precedes him throughout this little bit of galaxy. merge didn't fear ME until five minutes ago.
it's cool being magius prime sometimes. cause you tell people you are magius prime and they are like 'yeah right, show me some magic' and i don't cause it's
sacred and not to be wasted -- and they say 'you're no mage,' and then of course, well, chaos is nature's way of saying whatever the fuck she FEELS Like saying and when she says it to really mean remorseless and totally compassionless evil magi like Logun Rathe and Malekith the Accursed and well, now she is saying it to Emirkol Merge and well, she's really just using me.
(nature, i mean, chaos. but i love being the hand of nature. like i said...i tell them i am Majius Prime and they say "bullshit." ten years later: 'welcome! you've got cancer!' i tried to tell them...Diana is my mother. i have to do these things..Diana is a powerful moon god. oh well. what can you do?)
and i all i did was throw a little party.
i don't really think that Emirkol Merge is Loki the trickster king, the name he has used recently. but i think HE THINKS he is, and that was enough reason to bring him here to the Rainbow Conclave's power spot.
i have not seen Eve in many many cycles. but right here on this -- on the other side of the Silverdell Wall actually Eve and I made serious love in late june - and a ranger showed up with a lantern and shone it right on her backside -- he actually lifted the blanket to see...
of all people, a Ranger! GODS...it was the rudest thing? leading to the local Silverdell joke (eve is a yoga master) -- "i don't think the Yogi's gonna like that Ranger."
Silverdell is a good town for bad jokes -- or a bad town for good jokes...
but anyway Eve the Yogini sumoned a TREMENDOUS amount of magical energy that day.
And I have had the most outstanding luck in this glen ever since.
so when Emirkol - who is basically a big bully -- who had already almost burned my MIND out with telepathic attacks a few weeks ago - attacked me on the Silverdell trail i realisd his arroigance had led him to his, well...
'god, shoot the damn thing already.'
'i sort of don't want to completely..' said draic.
' i actually..well my people revere dragons....yeah, i know,' he says at just the suggestion of Kern Akeis; eyebrow.
'he's a man in pseudodragon form...but it is a pretty form.'
'well maybe Lucite is the answer.' kern suggests as a joke.
'Huh?' Acanthus says.
"oh, that's an old one, ' Draic Dragonman says lightly. tracing the wounded fairy dragonbat with his bowman's eye - ' they say if you love something set it free. if it comes back to you it's yours, keep it. if it dooesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it -- or failing that, encase it in Lucite.'
'well maybe Lucite is the answer.' kern suggests as a joke.
'I have lucite.' POOF and now Piera Windflyte is here.
'Oh, no!' two voices say ruefully. Draic is nonplussed.
'who invited you?'
'Oh...the red Conclave...we figure things out. hello sweetie!'
'uh...hi, Piera...look, Great One...do you REALLY have lucite?'
okay, fine. piera windfltye is called the Great One because of: her skill in scrying: her talent at locating lost items: the multi tiered memory and huge amount of accumulated facts of the Worlds and OVERWHELMING talent for detail spotting. but most of all she is called the Great One with near - reverence because she is one of the most beatiful things in the Realms.
She makes Acanthus mad. Kern usually sarts making excuses to go elsewhere because he is UTTERLY infatuated with her...i sort of have to struggle to concentrate when she is around. She is just an utter beauty and whether or not that is part of her magic...
i think perhaps it is not...or then again...anyway,
'i have a LOT of things, kiddo.' she winks at me and says 'so...you trapped evil Merge. this is your power spot, isn't it?'
'it's not MY powerspot...it's...
just a power spot.'
she makes a complicated face.
her eyebrows and lips do seemingly unrelated things for just a split second.
'r-i-i-i-ght. I do understand the way you think, loverboy. okay, no problem.'
she calls almost EVRYONE Loverboy, including her daughters and her cat and the magistrate...i wish...but anyway...
Piera Windflyte gestures - she makes a mystic mudra with her thumb and fingers and says out loud,
'that for you, fuckedwits!'
and just like that their is a dull WHUUMP and there is a package for me.
"package for you," she says, nonchalant. and she actually blows smoke off of her pinky and index finger like a sixgun in a western (interruption: can you draw these pictures? that is really why am doing this. if you can do that - -email me or something: that is -- if you can and you will because i am only a photographer -- i don't do line illustration of the "frequency and duration" i NEED to make this manga more than it is. it is a manga and i do it but it is just picture -- photos of nature and words. i don't draw people with proficiency. mikal devalia - )
sometimes when what you want isn't avaailable one just seems to want nothing in particular
whatever will do or nothing out of the oridinary. there is a line of men who fancy the Great One like a line at the 5,000th world's fair for the ONLY FUNCTIONING PORTA JOHN....
we are kneeling around the lucite block with the frighteed looking fairy dragon trapped inside it. piera is sitting on it in her red dress with her legs crossed and smiling prettily. Draic is ignoring her...Acanthus is attempting to admire the dragon but she's just got it going on and..it's trying to watch the news while porn is on split screen...i feel for him.
"congratulations! and welcome to the Descadar trading bizzare, the Bizzare of the truly bizzare! todays special item is wretch-in-a-box....'
Coll and Colla wagin have wandered in holding hands. the elves..i don;t know if they are brother and sister o husband and wife or what - elves are like that...they are sitting and being entranced by kern's little PT Barnum act while draic and acanthus admire...things...
I read and read and read, and time seems to mean
nothing.
I feel comfortable...and fall into deep and profound
dreams...
II: 2: EVENING AT THE STONE HOUSE.
She waited.
Eyeing him. He was so...there had been no men in the
Land in --
He is not a man, she realised, staring.
This is of the Prophecy, this is of the Jade Warden.
See how he reads his book! See how he just sits there!
he could not...know where he is!
No, or of the dangers that await him.
Let us get him and give him the Air of Eclypta. let us
test this manling from nowhere. look how dark he is!
This is a test from on high.
They scampered out of the trees, leaving clouds of
twinkling dust behind them. Welcome, stranger. They
circled him, staring, smelling the air around him.
She had seen him first. She knelt behind him and took
his head into her lap. She held the cloth to his mouth
and he took one breath and seemed to start! Slender
fingers gripped silvered weapons nervously. Then he
seemed to smile, and drifted away...
Into the forest. Into the glade.
Into the court of the Faerie Queene, the court of
Eclypta the Nypmph Goddess.
1:5
ARIS HUMANA
meanwhile...
"Why are we here?" Asked Kirby, angrily.
"A universal question. Especially considering where we are." Gel seemed passionate and yet witdrawn, as ifhe knew more than he would tell.
"Why would you ask us?"
"Oh, shut UP!" She said, seating herself angrily by the edge of the fire. "I was asking no one in particular," and she removed her iron greatsword from its scabbard. "I would ask the moon, if there were one to ask."
"The moon...oh, God, the moon."
"Yeah," I said out loud, "it has been a long time since we saw the moon. Jail stinks."
Hakima said nothing. She prodded the fire with a stick, and appeared morose.
"I have had it with this whole place! I would easily take this weapon --" Hakima produced a black stone from a pouch, it was wrapped in an oily cloth, and began sharpening the edge -- "and drive it into my own gut, that is the level of abject hatred I have for this entire place."
I looked at her. Then I looked away. "Do you want to leave?"
She said nothing, only the rough sound of stone against the iron blade.
"Murdge is gone -- do you feel more fortunate than Murdge?" I asked her.
"By the Gods. Of course I don't. Murdge was evil, a lying, sniveling, cowardly bag of slime. But he is dead, and no longer here in this cursed prison. So who is more fortunate, Marques?"
Most of the times we spend resting from our journeys here are like this. Debate, existential guessing games...
"You are more fortunate, Kirby Wingfoot. You are...beautiful, and alive, regardless of the wars that plague your soul. Murdge was evil, with pretensions of power."
"Ugh."
Everyone turned to look at Hakima, who had not spoken in days.
"I know why we are here."
"Okay, silent one," offered Kirby, grimly, "spill."
"You, Kirby, are here because the evil empire of the surface world despised wild and free beauty. I am here because I dared preach the religion of willful spiritual freedom on the streets. Marques is here because he is a freak of nature, not to mention a criminal by almost any estimation."
"I thank you." I bowed my head betwen my legs and contemplated the campfire.
"Yeah, well, fine. Why is he here?" She gestured towards Gel.
"Him? Oh, I --"
"I'm here because I want to kill the demons. So why ask her? Kirbs? Y'know? I'm here because -- " Gel got up and stretched his legs. "I'm here because the surface world is a subtly evil place...and NetherHell is an overtly evil place. But the wine is delicious. Mmm?" He grinned.
"Oh, no." Then it began. I couldn't help it. The giggles.
"Yeah, especially the wine. Like that stuff Ackrilar was swilling in Collindale, the purple crap. That probably didn't have too many spiders in it." He smiled. I was rolling on the floor, i couldn't get it out of my mind. Laughing.
"Oh, what is it?" Kirby glared at me.
"This place...it's making me crazy...the friggin' spiders, the friendly spiders with their shrill piping voices...oh, God!" my belly hurt.
"Hey, shut up and get ready. Here they come."
Whenever Gel makes that voice, that voice that tell some that fun is over and danger time is here it kills my giggles. i loked up and Hakima was already chanting. A warband was coming over the hill, their crude weapons drawn, their twisted orange faces grotesque and chilling, howling in their disgusting "language".
"So much for existentialism," said Kirby, grunting and rising.
We have been in this prison for several months. I am sure it is the largest prison in the universe. Basically it is the underneath of the earth. And there are horrid creatures, and demons, and the satanic undead...not much fun. We fight to survive.
We are among the fortunate. The natives here are pale, very pale, from being third, fourth or fifth generation denizens of this very bad place.
Of course, we are also magi. For better or worse. The surface world--ugh, the surface world.
The rulers were harsh and unjust. Everyone they did not like, they killed or put behind bars. they ruled with an iron hand. Soviets, some called themselves, others, Platonists. it was...bad.
There was a big movement several years below we were encarcerated, a Free Will movement. I was a member, so
was Kirby, so was Gellan. We protested, got involved in civil disobedience, and were arrested and sent, for our crimes against the state, here to NetherHell.
My Master, Chang, killed herself in one of the last protests I recall. i hope they are still up there
protesting, but...there are grim problems down here, too. And they are, in a word, evil.
Evil pervades NetherHell, the stench, the horrid stench of it wafts up from disgusting swamps. I am gladdened
beyond exultation that I have not seen Master Chang here; perhaps she has gone off to Nirvana and is waiting for us there. I can only pray.
WELCOME TO DESCADAR
there's no "starting from the beginning" -- all you can really do is catch things already in progress and hope for the best. and hang on.
a flight of phoenii
Basic idea? the hedgewardens are the dynasty that rule the surface world.
They are an old line of sick twisted magi, demon summoners. they decided that the world's nonconformists...freaks...eccentrics...
intellectuals...geniuses...priests...philosophers...belonged in this place beneath the surface of the earth. (we don't know how far. far enough that they had to teleport us. it's called NetherHell.)
I am not sure if it would be night or not; there is no moon, no sun, simply phosphorescent lichens high above our heads. Hakima is meditating and totally ignoring me, Kirby and Gellan are asleep. I am bone weary and wide awake. they will never get the jump on us.
yes, we are among the most fortunate of hellions.
A long journey through the great cave cave me new insight on this place. The Suffering in the faces of the noble, yet deflated seeming soldiers of Fort Cheiron both saddened and compelled me.
Yet, there is this: benevolent lizardfolk?? There was a "town" called ...some reptillian tongue, shnash, or something...i can't pronouce it, and there the reptile people lived as artisans and merchants?
I was shocked, the Lizard Folk that attacked us to the Northeast were evil and aggressive, as well as difficult foes. We avoid
them...but I -- apparently all the lizards...well once on earth there was division in politics as well, before the Hedgewarden
hegemony began. Such it is with the lizard folk...
Until the demons that have been brought to NetherHell have been sent away there is no peace. this place is
just terrible, a humid, foggy place. the Fields of the Nephilim, though, are full of rotted bones:
we are making our presence felt.
i wonder about the good lizard people; one of them suggested that -- oh, God. There is a God,
and I know he/she/they have awareness of the proceedings
here in this place.
But the insight is this:
money rules the society of this place with few exceptions, just like the surface
world.
(It was at an economic protest that I met Hakima, who spoke out profoundly. Since we were thrown down here she has been morosely silent.)
Even we had started a business! Selling the dead flesh armor of the gigantic demon warriors and the disturbing weapons of the reptile sorcerors.
(The forks.)
I put it all together when we went to the Acheron Tower.
They have gated a demon, and it is all very bad there.
So we wander. we gather information. And Kirby is becoming more and more profound, she has taken up the Ankh and become an Isian priestess.
She, like me, is an accomplished mage. But -- she wants to leave, and leave soon.
The little monsters with their spells of dizziness, back at the great cave--
God! That's it! The demons must be destroyed. I realize now, here in NetherHell, why the surface world was so corrupt! The demons manipulate the leaders of the surface world, and have, mayhap, for centuries.
I wonder at this hour of rest and meditation: if we can fulfill our objectives -- destroy the demons and return to the surface -- will it be any different there?
I am too optimistic. We will probably never escape.
There is another group we encountered, a foursome i remember seeing on the news back upstairs. They are
determined to win the day and defeat the evils of this place too.
Marcus Chang:
I put my scroll away and lay his head back. And stare up at the overhead view, the phosphorescent lichens
burning overhead like weird green lightning. I'm wide awake, I'm not sleeping.
-it has been quite a while since we visted the Dharmonanda Witch. She is ancient to look upon. Kirby likes her a great deal, which is what got us to return to the Acheron Tower, horrid place that it is.
Upon returning to her with the news that the Codex of Infinite Planets, the book we were hired to retrieve was nowhere to be found she sent us on another trip, to a place called Paladin's Tower.
Now we are in the inn, and I am daily visited my more odd insights. The barwoman here reminds me oddly of
someone I knew on the surface world. Of course it's not her, but...
I find myself wondering how many of the people who fought the evil empire on the surface we will meet here
in NetherHell?
A word on posessed Magi: Thet 'thing that called itself 'Windflight': I knew a good Windflyte, a witchmage, who
lived on the surface world. She was sage and quite caring. Nothing at all like the bearded hag who now
holds one of the ancient artifacts...it was too obvious. I have ogre blood and can see through her lies.
"Posessions." Now I understand, now I understand.
Dharmonanda is a good place. A strong bastion against the demons and the evil Slithzerikai. Oddly enough the--
Note for later:
A sign made out of rotted wood:
--WELCOME TO NETHERHELL--
--MAY THE FATES BE KIND TO YOU--
Stinks.
Discussion Forum
This group does not have any discussions yet.
Comment Wall
Comment
-
Comment by mikal marques haley on September 22, 2009 at 6:10pm -
hey note to self
always spell marcus with a 'c' and not with a 'q'.
gotta keep truth stranger than fiction...
-
Comment by mikal marques haley on August 27, 2009 at 5:19pm
-
the Ra'ana Language
by Stellus Guardian, Chronicler of Team Virtue
it's awesome to listen to Ra'ana's people speaking their native language, even if you aren't wearing a Translatron. Very musical and breathy, reflecting perhaps the astral breezes the Ra'ana religion and cosmology claims is the source of it's wisdom. Full and rich, it sounds almost like song, and pitch is also important. The Ra'aaa have ears that are very attuned...marvelous!
Void Rerout
Ch'ang Speaks:
We were Ra'ana. Ra'ana, and the seeds she bore and nurtured.
a long time ago our ancestors were apes.
a Long time ago - as the day star traveled through the sky over and over -
once Ra'ana's children were mighty apes who ate leaves and lived in trees.
but the day star changed those mighty apes and we became who we are now, the Ra'ana. One day an ape learned to talk and said the first word -- the first word all Ra'ana say -- Umi, meaning mother.
The great apes still wander the steppes but our tribes diverged.
they only say 'umi' -- but they still eat leaves and play in the sun, on the steppes.
we, meanwhile, developed skills. we learned to forage and build cities...steppe villas where we composed love songs to the all powerful sun, the source of sustenance, and learned from the actions of the apes, our ancestors. but the day star changed us...we evolved. we learned to write things down, we learned art and song and compose elaborate songs of love on integrity-lutes to the day star and the winds that flow from the day star.
and we learned. we sat in the art called "meditation," we learned many different things to do we called skills. and we counted the movement of the different night stars as well as the day star, we counted the times that the Ra'ana spun around letting us see the day star again and again. it is as i write this the number forty two followed by my fingers times my fingers times my fingers, but the mathematicians know more.
--or knew more, before Emperor Hedgewarden and his Dynasts came in their star ships!
they came here and smiled in their strange clothes. laughing at us.
Nariki was the first one who approached them to speak.
"why have you come here, oddly dressed Ra'ana?"
"We are not Ra'ana," Hedgewarden said. "we are from far away, from Earth. we are your rulers."
"What is a ruler?" Nariki asked. We watched from the steppe pass.
Hedgewarden slapped Nariki down to the ground!
We had never seen a Ra'ana strike another Ra'ana -- we didn't know what to make of it.
Hedgewarden bent down and grabbed Nariki by the throat - I remember -
i could hear his strangled attempt to cry out.
"We came to rule you. also own you. you little monkeys will make fine subjects. this is the wonderful world of Hedgewarden now! You will do as we say or get killed.
"You know what killed is, you little ape?"
we panicked in the pass, watching.
they speak Ra'ana but they don't act like Ra'ana.
they look like us too. wait and see.
look at their...clothes!
"Killed is when you don't do what your rulers say. That's us. and also Howerth. Hey, Howerth, get a load of this monkey!"
another one of the strange Ra'ana waked over to Nariki. Nariki has long beautiful black hair.
"i want that hair for my lab, George," and the fat one walked over. it had a fat pot belly - also something no Ra'ana had ever seen before.
i tell you this because this is the time that trouble began here on Ra'ana, for so many cycles we had celebrated the star wind. now these stranger Ra'ana had come.
Jade is next to me with his hand on my shoulder gripping tight. he is horrified beyond question.
they are killing Nariki slowly.
we watch.
we hear.
They have come to Ra'ana to rule us.
Their starships..we have never seen anything like this before.
They are huge and there is something horrifying about them.
and they are killing Nariki -- the first one is Hedgewarden - - it is a name all of Ra'ana will come to know and fear. The other one, Howerth -- none of us has ever seen a fat man before. his belly is round. it looks like sickness, when people once ate bad plants from teh swamp where gases from the underdark escape.
they strangle and kill nariki and we cannot supress our wails. we have watched the aged die and wept -- but we have never seen anyone killed by another ra'ana before and we bgin to wail -
it is the first time we have ever screamed the Ra'ana Death Wail. they look up to the pass and see us and here come their soldiers. butwe are hot with a new feeling...
-
Comment by mikal marques haley on August 27, 2009 at 4:58pm
-
descadata
compIled by
team virtue
legendary falsehoods to beware of
reported by
xorin stellus
-rangers
Elgos scouting reports two famous "legends" of heroic valor. Both are lyrical and have been shared and sung by bards of various realms: both are false in their base and actually created by "powers" to create challenges for young would be heroes and of course to lead the ignorant towards the lessons that will heal their ignorance,
the first is called The Conquerors Creed and was shared by the one known as Azzalanthe rivenstone during his period assisting in the Otherearth wars:
warning: the point of this scout report is to remind guild members that some prophecies are not true prophecy -- follow them to their clogical terminae, and you will probably find many other lost seekers, all standing around sure they had the right idea -- yet unable to go on.
some of renown and great experience -- some even of valor and might -- yet all deluded by the same "myths' or "prophecies that were never actually true.
Xorinna Stellus
the first in this report has several names from the Final Sun era. it was false in two key areas. savvy guild members will be able to pick them out without much trouble. once again - the only thing that is a clue about this bardic legend is that it is puprosefully misleady. XS
"when the war god for peace tries
legions of red against him rise.
the world will end
and we will all DIE."
----last heard sung by known travelling bard
Gabriel Angelicon. It is actually one of several purposefully misleading ruses actually proliferated by Murdge and his band of deception sorcerors, and as such q.e.d is not to be trusted. "Go the other way--" XS.
This is the second, culled from one of the Elgos -worlds - it has several names -- the one reported to this herald is "Return to herospace."
it contains several key errors: it is a dead end prophecy. beware when you see it and beware of wanderers who swear to its validity -- it leads to dead ends, staircases that lead nowhere.
That being said, personal reports sat that the version sung by the elvish bards of the elgos system actually has a nice ring to it.
pretty melodies can hold puzzling enigmas. may you be guided by wisdom and true understanding, the summum bonum.
--XS
SO ON THAT DAY, THE GAMES BEGAN,
BOTH SWORD TO SWORD AND MAN TO MAN.
LITTLE KNOWING THERE COULD BE,
AMONG THEM, CHOSEN OF THE TREE.
THE MONARCH WOULD BETWEEN THEM STAND,
RESTORING NOT THE SHATTERED LAND.
news of the realms
marcus stellus
"WHAT'S A MATTOCK?" Prime Cuts
it would appear that Milandrion of Descadar-4 and the Empress Andromeda have welcomed a new child into the universe! Blessed be!
the child is not on public display: but gifts have been bestowed by the crowned heads of several realms.
Empress Andromeda continues to fairly and decently sheperd the Descadar systems as she has for millennia.
Dorrinicax Knightshade has returned from Underdark worlds. She reports that time travelling is "nerve wracking." Also her topknot is longer than it was since the last time I saw her -- and that's the only way i can guess how long it took her (mayhap thousands of subjective years) to deal with the socalled "Dark-elves."
She says her plans are to cut her hair and relax.
No mention of the Sword of Destiny....we're all guessing. When I asked her if she would say anything about her long lost lover she only smiled and said, 'well there's good news and bad news...' -- typical for the immortal-born...
(Pathetic earthling me, I don't get her...)anyway we welcome her back to the Guild of Virtues...
In Other News of the Realms: beware of Eclypta of the "nymphs."
at all costs BEWARE. do not approach. Things are DEFINITELY not what they seem. DO NOT APPROACH. Lethal...
one Joreck Ackrilar (bard, Guilds) told me a sad tale in the bar the other night, crying into his beer!
it seems the nymph used the following technique to take advantage of poor Joreck, who was not ready to deal:
a weird sort of magic, joreck reported, where several months seemed to whiz by him in ten minutes. the "nypmhs" of course use deception/seduction techniques -- and in particular the "nypmh" Eclypta uses enchantment magic as well...
so old Joreck sends a general help request to any good gentles who can provide him with armor, shoes, a horse, a small caravan...apparently Eclypta got away with it all.
the "Nymph" has been seen in the company of the dragon, Draic.
Monsters are monsters.
I don't believe that "true Nymphs," or anything CALLING itself a nymph (i wish you could see my eyebrow) should be killed...but everyone knows that there is little actual love in a nymph.
So the Bardic Circle shall be passing the hat for poor Joreck, who is now flat broke and heavily in material debt to at least two of the registered religions here...
Master Ackrilar says to look out for a suit of chain mail with his family crest, the Jupiter Glyph(
jupiter_glyph.jpg
it looks like this) and other items which may belong to him.
Joreck, a Guildsman in good standing, reports that he whole experience left him feeling "used and decieved."
Eclypta is a WITCH.
i mean, come on. we were all young once but that sort of humor is only clever to the extremely naive. To some, many things seem humourous that are not so to others...
the Guild is putting up Master Ackrilar for the nonce.
In other worlds news: succubus attack!
It must be said: an incubus/succubus is worse than a vampire. vampires will drink your blood and are notoriously strong and hard to deal with.
At least one succubus was killed in the parking lot in front of the guild by Gabriel Angelicon.
His sister Gabrielle saw the whole thing. Succubi...well they are demonic. It was no match for Gabriel Angelicon, who abjured it HARD with a "mattock".
I don't know what a mattock is, but apparently Gabriel Angelicon has one, and banished the demon with it -- gabrielle reports that he pulled it out of a dimensional poket suddenly and clouted the succubus on the head -- it made a sound that was like a choir of angels, and the succubus screamed out to Lucifer and departed the plane. well struck Gabriel!
anyway, beware of demons. (duh!) I've only lived sixteen years...and i know that...and of course the "Shake Spears In The Parking Lot" festival goes on a pace. the Nightshade Gang is currently devestating all comers, but the two samurai who have been holding their own in the other tourney ranks should prove interesting opponents for the Gang -- and as we noted before, Dorrinnicax, their anchor, is in semiretirement after her many yearstime journeying. (see above article)
She might be watching but she won't be jumping in: the Nagai ninja clans might make the Nightshade Gang buckle up their swash, so to speak. it will be an interesting tournament from any perspective. Look for details on this bulletin board.
Evening at the stone house
"She did WHAT to you?"
Evening at the Stone House. Outside darkness is falling.
A fire roars. The priest of Jupiter, Joreck Ackrilar, is weeping -- he seems inconsolable.
"Nymphs...are they...human?"
"Well, no," she said, "but they are also not elvenfolk. We tend to avoid their kind. Tell me what she did."
"No, Joreck," said Marques, he bodyguard. "Tell US." Brac bristled behind his shirt of chain. "From the beginning."
"Ah, it's...she utterly used me. She took advantage of me, praise Zeus, I'm a fool for letting her get so close to me...and her friends...how could I have not spotted the trap. She gave me that damn fairy wine."
The bar was quiet. Everyone knew what fairy wine was for: it was for decieving young heroes and drawing them into the fairy realms, where often they are never heard from again. there was a sound from behind the bar where someone was polishing mugs and attempting to be quiet. The double doors swung, someone came in.
"Hello, all, what's going...oh."
It was Erosaren, the sword girl who has only been around a while. She made a worried face...
"What's..."
Dorrinnicax put a compassionate arm over Joreck's thin shoulders as he wept. "Hi, Erosaren."
"Hi, Marc, what's his problem."
"Ah...something about a nymph and fairy wine."
"That...sounds..." Erosaren made a strange face, like sticking a tongue in her cheek. "Mmm-HMM."
"I shouldn't have drank it. As soon as i did the whole forest started spinning -- it wasn't like beer."
"Would you like a beer, Joreck?" Dorrinicax asked, patience of a several thousand years in her voice.
"Yes, please."
"I'll get it. Do you have --"
"Leave it to me," came a voice from behind the bar.
the bartender this night was Ajax Larkspur, the paladin. He arrived in his apron with mugs of foamy beer. "Sucks, just...sucks. All right if I sit down?"
"Yeah, sit down, 'Jax. This is Joreck...he's a priest."
"Heard that."
Ajax sat down and undid his apron strings.
"I want to thank you all for being so kind to me," Joreck Ackrilar said. "And yes...fairy wine. Now I know...Gods! I feel so used. So anyway, she was beautiful."
"Nymphs are beautiful," Dorrinicax said slowly.
Dorrinicax has a reputation for extreme prudence in the face of harsh travails -- that she has earned --
--her few enemies steer a wide berth of her, which is one of the reasons we are always glad when she is here. She's been gone for a few weeks...something about killing dark-elves.
"So, what happened next?" Blurted Marq, bristling with rage. he ground his teeth and barely seemed able to hold his feelings in check -- as if he had been personally attacked.
Dorinnicax wondered for a second why her bodyguard was so uptight -- but then it occured to her -- ah...Joreck and Marques are both Humans...a non-human attacking one of his kind is a grim affront.
"Well...I drank the wine, it was purple and it tasted -- By Jove!"
he took a second to get his breath the tears still streaming. "and i awoke and everything was gone. the caravan, my armour, the Mace of Saint Anshelm--"
"Wait a second. What?"
"WHAT??"
there was a suddent intake of air.
We were all really suprised -- well Dorrinnicax didn't LOOK suprised -- but Piera Windflight had suddenly appeared in a flash of light. "YOU had the Mace of Saint Anshelm, the legendary weapon that sends away the undead?"
You could have heard a pin drop.
Erosaren giggled. "Nice towel, Mage."
Piera made a O with her mouth and vanished again.
"Who the hell was that?" asked Marques.
and Joreck LAUGHED!
"Did you see that?" he was suddenly almost merry -- almost his old self again.
The mood several seconds before had been grim and serious, night coming on, Joreck weeping and almost toobeside himself with sadness to tell his tale --
But Pera Windflight, buxom and not unpretty, had suddenly appeared in a bathtowel, her face covered in some sort of greenish goop -- it had been too much weird all in the same place at one time and everyone reacted IMMEDIATELY.
It brightened the mood -- even though the look of consternation on Windflight's face --
Ajax lowered his head to the table, shoulders heaving, obviously finding the situation humorous.
Marques was outdone and looked at Dorrinnicax for some answer. "Oh, that's just the Red Witch of the North," Dorrinnicax replied, her face a mask of calm serenity.
"When you mention famous artifacts of saintly power, she tends to get interested and, well, apparently she was showering or something...heh heh heh...GOD...that's so funny."
----
Time passed.
Erosaren had set up an easel in the corner, she was painting. no one minded.
"Anyway, I was charged by the High Church to deliver the mace of Ashelm to -- well i don't know...i knew the vague direction but it was all in the caravan. Now irretrievably lost."
"So basically, you fragged a run. Rough deal."
Joreck added confused to the growing list of facial expressions he'd shown in the last hour. "Fragged...run...huh?"
"Marques doesn't mean to confuse you...he's from another dimension. So who sent you -- right, the Church. Well...I don't know what to tell you. OWTCH!" Dorrinicax shot daggereyes at Marcus, who was looking at her angrily. "You really shouldn't step on my toes."
"Yeah, well, it occurs to me that, well, you are a lousy liar."
"Who's lying?"
"You said you didn't know what to do. You KNOW what we have to do. I might as well just go get the others."
"OH. Well...No, Marc! I just got back. And you know where i was, too, and what i was doing. and to whom. And why! I'm tired...i need to relax."
"Do you see what this is?"
And Marques rummaged around in his shirt and produced a golden amulet. "we...we have a job to do. And joreck needs help. And besides, what if..."
"Right, right...what if it fell into the wrong hands. You know, I get tired of hearing this speech from you. Fine. And also thanks, cause you know something? You're right. In the name of the sword i wield..."
"No! not here?! have you lost your mind?"
"Huh?"
Everyone looked up for a second. A strange energy had seemed to build for a second, and then pass...Erosaren squinted from behind, her easel, shuddered for a second and continued painting.
"Not here, and not RIGHT now...do you know where we're going?"
Dorrinicax smiled playfully and the hint of pink appeared in her cheeks. "I was just playing around...what's a matter, can't ya take a joke?"
"Ha!" Came a loud manly laugh from behind the bar. "i can take a fucking joke...so are we leaving tomorrow?"
"Beer, please, Ajax, if you would. And, maybe."
"i am soo glad you are gonna help me. You are absolutely the best."
Dorrinnicax leande back in her chair and put her feet up on the table. "yep...that's why i am the man of the house."
"Ouch!" said her bodyguard, seeming to relax for a second.
"But what," Joreck continued, "was all that with the medallions...?"
"Oh. Dorrinnicax was about to do one of her famous naked displays of raw power."
"I bring home the bacon and fry it up in the fucking pan," she added calmly.
"BULL-SHIT," came a voice from behind the bar.
"Well, you'e the expert."
"It's true." Ajax appeared and dropped off the beers. "remember to pay this time, o Guardian." But the voice was tinged with respect.
In fair Silverdell where we make our scene!
present are:
erosaren, the barbarian woman skilled with edged weapons. she is painting a picture of teh assembled.
joreck ackrilar, the embittered cleric of jupiter whose quest was derailed
Ajax Larkspur, the paladin of the paths who usually is found pouring beer and behaving as paladins do. Marcus Stellus, the extradimensional wanderer and partner to Dorrinnicax Nightshade, the green warder.
then the double doors swing open. "We have to find it!"
Everyone looks up. This time Piera Windflytes entrance is less dramatic. "We simply HAS to find it. that relic is priceless to the forces of good in the world. And I am starting--" she said, smiling, "to get a...you know, a fix, a bead..."
"what do you mean?" Dorrinnicax. "hello again, incidentally."
"Hello again Blondie. I mean, i scried it, and, well wherever it is it is moving at dragon speeds in dragon directions. So i brought some of this" And she held up a small bottle. An atomizer, as for perfume. It says Number five in large black letters, it seems full of a purplish liquid. "hello, Joreck! You're such a good boy."
"No, I'm not...how do you know my name?"
"We watched the whole thing. The Red Conclave."
"You saw?"
"Oh yes. May I?" Marcus lazily hooked a chair with his ankle. "thank you, sir. And your name is...?"
"I am Marques...she keeps me around to kill the things she misses. when she misses. simple? "piera nodded. "hey-y-y...you look familiar...haven't i seen you in...towels?" he smiled.
Piera's left eye twitched.
"that was a great entrance, by the way, Piera." Dorrinnicax added hurriedly. Marques had a way of setting things off with just the right words...
The words "...fuck 'em if they can't take a joke..." suddenly appeared in her mind.
thre he goes, she thought crossly, showing off again. "assholes do vex me," she thought back quickly. this all happaned in a second.
"So anyway you were about to explain. there's a dragon involved."
"NO, WAIT!"interrupted Joreck.
"You saw it all. Right. Tell 'em what happened!"
"Right. As Christ is my witness i attest to these facts: You were framed. Nymphs...and such," Added Marc with a wild and unexpected contemptuousness, have been seducing young bards with wine for centuries. Longer."
"I'm not a bard."
"Yet!" And Piera cocked an eyebrow knowledgably. "You aren't a priest of Jupiter anymore. But HOLD ON!" she added as Joreck looked about to burst intowailing again. "let me finish, good sir.
"the Red Conclave were scrying events and suddenly many events of global significance seemd to pale and you and Eclypta, the nymph who took you for a ride were the focus of our scrying. Giviung fairy wine to a human is the -- well thre's no comparing it -- Eclypta is dangerous and so his her Dragon friend. they set you up," she said with touch of contempt. "they set you up and well, in the name of the Gods, it was definitely not your fault. It was cold and methodical and planned. Nymphs are bad news...and speaking of bad news, The dragon she is with is no fun either. No fun at all. there are a bunch of other characters of highly questionable virtue who she has gravitated around to her side. Eclypta the Noisome Nymph...she has a reputation. Put it that way. A bad egg. She uses the innocent and lies through her teeth! Nymphs are like that - their whole way is the same. lust is all, the love of real human beings -- you will excuse me Dorrinnicax ---" "i am not at all offended. Speak on." "thank you! the love of real human beings is an object of derision to a nymph. she used your human feelings against you -- but I must say an uncommon theif. Becaue even thoug hwe all saw her drug you, we did not see her take the Mace of Anshelm."
everyone stared tensely.
"This," instructed Piera Windflight, "is a perfume that should attract Green Dragons. Such as the one Eclypta is riding right now."
"how do you know where she is?" Dorrinnicax wanted to know.
"i am connected to the energies that imbued the mace with power -- i had only to look."
"How do you know that the stuff in that bottle will attract a dragon?"
she shrugged. "Come now, Marques..."opined Dorrinnicax, "a good magician never revelas her secrets."
"that's a myth. actually, good magicians ALWAYS reveal secrets. The Dragon that eclypta even now is riding one of the most ancient -- and unpredictable. It's called a shenlong. And it has the power to turn into the form of a man."
"i get it," said a voce from the corner. "so the nymph is humping the dragon dude. GROSS! Do i get to stick a knife in it?"
Windflight smiled profoundly, and stared at --
Piera Windflyte is an archmage. She stared at Dorrinicax pointedly.
Dorrinnicax actually seemed timid, as the full force of piera's will was focused on her just for a second..."In the morning perhaps."
"Very well!"
--------------
the Stone house never closes. someone is always on duty there, as it is a bard's retreat as well as the local erating and drinkingplace in silverdale of the highest honor.
erosaren and joreck are standing on the edge of a cliff a bout fifty yeards away from the Stne House staring at the moon.
Erosaren is trying to be friendly and make joreck feel like a man again. but she is a barabarian who spends a lot of time foraging -- she's not so good at it -- and Joreck is still awash with emotions...
"this was my duty as a priest. all i had to do was deliver the Mace -- "
"they set you up, big guy. You sure are cute."
"that hardly matters in the eyes of my God. what matters is service, valor...Zeus will watch me carefully now, and if i have been drummed out of the church as the Red Witch says, then...what's the point! and a NYMPH. i failed God, Erosaren...what's the point?" he sat down and looked at the grass, disconsolate.
"well, self pity won't solve anything...damn! what is it with men anyway?"
"ah, it's...the way of the world I guess..."
Erosaren's heart was swollen in her chest! She utterly wanted todo anything, anything to -- but he was a wall behind a wall, he was sick with bad feelings...
"i am gonna get some sleep. i bet we leave by high sun."
she settled down with a bedroll near some trees and thought about it all.
independent anime thanls louis the rune soldier cast and crew!
she had heard tales of the ancient wood, of the nymphs and the satyrs they frolicked with, and of harsh dooms that they had laid down for the other folks, the men and the elves...many sad stories...
she was but seventeen years old but the tales had passed from generation to generation...the painting she was working on showed the whole situation.
the image was in her mind: it was young joreck sitting sadly by a tree, ters from his eyes ran into a babbling brook in the foreground.
she painted marques, dorrinnicax and ajax, piera and herself all drinking from the river of joreck's tears and making nasty faces. salty...and in the background, a slender hand held a flagon of wine. the flagon she had been careful to paint, beveling the edges, it looked, in her mind as she succumbed to dreams, like the sun was catching it just so..and she had given the glass horns. the horns of a moose...she wasn't sure why the moose horns seemd to fit...
it was full of purplish wine...
as she faded into sleep she wondered what would happen to someone like her -- had she been carrying the mace of saint anshelm would a hanmdsome dragon man come and take her away against her will or with seductive words? or would it be worse -- one of the hairy legged satyrs, the tyrannical demons who wandered raping women?
she was a barbarian. that was her family's legacy. but she was no fool. and she made a little promise to herself as she slept...men are weak. it seems the strogrer theman, the weaker his heart. sometimes. this must change...i know who I am. i am Erosaren. independent anime LOVES Louisthe rune Soldier! jeanne is a good erosaren standby for this page. Tomorrow I hunt dragon with the Guardians.
daybreak
-
Comment by mikal marques haley on August 27, 2009 at 4:51pm
-
-
Comment by mikal marques haley on August 27, 2009 at 4:49pm
-
a note
MASAAKI the esteemed manga ka
i thank you for the death of KAGATO.
i need an illustrator and we have two similar characters.
so i am using MIHOSHI KURAMITSU as a stand in for the hero of the story i am writing here, until i can find an illustrator of sufficient caliber. I once again appreciateand thank you for your exquisite swordsmanship
Mikal De Valia
(tenji888@yahoo.com)
© 2012 Created by Bill Hayes.
You need to be a member of Lost Legends of OtherEarth to add comments!