Matt's Nasty Mustache

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 16

2011-07-13T22:28:00.002-06:00

This ends Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The death of Sister shook the home

and Adar began to fear for his prize in the Games

loosing his ferocious ways but learning loom

and Nefthys entered the field of blood

wielding the legacy of Creusa's talons

and Ulangar separated from his fellows

and concentrated upon the evolving Universe

outside his little world

Ulangar first noticed life among the stars

when minute traces of khu-like substances

floated within the vastness of Nothing

close to the senses of him

The God-Forger began to visit these wispy creatures

cultivating their spawning intelligence

and as children tend to do

they developed and mimicked their teacher

growing stronger and wiser and virtuous

When the Children of Ulangar came of age

measured in terms of their minds

individual personalities were

distinguishable within these freckles of power

and so Ulangar granted them Sacred Names

and let them squabble within themselves

the first step to his new made Game

borne of the seed which seeks for adventure

The first to gather were known as Spirits

whose Names have been forgotten by men's uncanny ability

[ replace with Summarian/Babylonian from The Treasures of Darkness

The Next to ban became called the Babylonians

who elected Anu Chief of all who rules the sky

Also with him came Anshar of Inky Night and Dahak the dragon of Death

and Druaga of the Devil World and Girru of the Licking Flames

and Ishtar of man's weakness and Melek the slayer of Tiamat

and Nergal of the Underworld and Rammon of the brilliant spears

This group was forged with courage and strength

but were changed to suit the Assyrian's might

]

Next came the [rest of the sons]

[list continues for quite some space ]

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 14

2011-07-11T22:23:00.000-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The team spent three hours moving the earth for the great shell

with silver shovels and golden picks and somber hands and wet cheeks

The body was placed deep within the six feet of walls

covered in a dark red shawl

to blend leaked ichor with cloth

As the caste was lowered into the tomb

Nefthys did sing such lament

[

'The glory which is Sun

hath dissipated in the mist of night

No more shall it sing again

upon the Soul that leaves this dark

'Thy will with Stars is over

and thy will with Nothing has begun

travel far and travel fast

let nothing hinder thy flight

'The moon is rising

and stone makes black

This mirror of glory

shall be thine candle and thy sponge

'Fly sweet essence to that lofty place

and rise again where ever the hand doth wave'

]

The earth was replaced as the black rain began to fall

all about the Great Mountain of Creusa

smudging features blending image

sloppy dirt and tears dark

sinking deep into the craterless moon

and mingled with the silent flesh

As the party left the mound of mud

the memories began to blur

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 13

2011-07-08T22:18:00.002-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The sun did sprawl her tentacles onto the soiled earth

and slowly did vanquished shadow give way

and slower still did the champions rise

All save Creusa the Hawk toes

The remaining seven gathered about her

and waited for her to rise

and they waited waited waited

Nergal lifted his head and did thus speak 'O my brothers

perhaps this sleeping one is suffering from ills and terrors

perhaps Ulangar here stole her waking hours

or perhaps she enjoys Tuoni's game

a silent secluded one this Sea'

and they waited waited waited

Painex rose her shield to the clouds

and smote the earth with her mighty spear point

'Curséd be thy name O Painex

thy fury and anger hath made ruin to this lovely maiden's id

thy stubbornness to refuse ideas maketh her lay in self-destruction

Tunonetar is thy name O Painex and rightfully is it chosen

Then fall, Painex! [Dies '

and they waited waited waited

Inan V closed her eyes and lowered her jaw

[

'Straight forward, strong speech

no big words, everything means

something (no lace on words)'

]

Thunder rang its deep trumpet through the brooding maroon satin

and they waited waited waited

Ulangar stood among his Arkaians and whispered such sounds

'I fear the worst my friends and kin

She failed Tuoni's wind

just as Re'u Raduti and Oudun

and now rests upon his mantle piece

a trophy to flaunt at his peers

and a tool for his pride

Let us bury this shell in the mountain side

and let the rain beat long upon its shape'

None rose their voice in objection

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 12

2011-07-06T22:13:00.001-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

When Ulangar arose from the field of Tuoni

he was still in the arena where he had fallen

the blood was seeped into the moon

becoming one with hearth and home

and thought such words from his lips

'Why have I been left here to sleep

My wife does this act after every Game

And lo too the others are on the field

dreaming through this night

This night

I have awoken before rosy-finger'd Dawn

I am improving so let Tuoni shake

fearing his tentative placement in Universe

and my power to let crumble this position

But now to see the missing wench'

Ulangar raced into the vats of his home

and hurried through his chamber Daleth

This action did rouse from her rest the Nefthys

and she ask'd of him 'O my love

why do you waken so early

from thy Tuonela rest

Apollo has not begun his climb

nor has the Underworld releas'd the cart

Our men do not come forth so early

always on the beginning of the next day is our pattern

It's most unnatural to break it

there is no precedent for such an event'

And to these words Ulangar spoke

'Indeed your words strike home my black-leafed Nef

But dare you deny the flesh which you see

whole and complete in a single glance

wait for light can deceive those oculus

by putting splotchy color in their way

So pluck out thine eyes and hear my voice

but nay again for easily mind mimic paternal voices

So stuff white prongs into thine ears

and feel the touch from my lips to yours

but still that can be false for flesh can take many forms

So remove thy cord thus remove the senses

save only the soul to detect my Love

for no one can deny the emotions of Love

for I am as real as our binding Love

Come join me and Enki to gather the kin my Love'

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 11

2011-07-04T22:09:00.002-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The Games continued

as the days merged into one

as night turns into day without a boundary

Ulangar was victor entirely undefeated

Soon Nefthys wanted to join the Games

and Creusa lent her the claws to practice

but never did little Nefthys enter the ring

Adar trained from Ulangar the ways of magi

being a Very Fast Learner in such methods

and Ulangar in turn trained in the mind from Enki

though he stumbled upon the foreign methods

and the lessons were slow to be learned

'O my brothers how we bicker so

let us not argue which team gains my powers

thus ensuring their victory hands down

I shall make the teams this time Nergal

rest your voice for ye shall need it in a moments time

The teams this time shall be divided equally

unlike the uncountable past

It will be myself and no one against the rest

I shall give thee twenty minutes to devise a strategy

before I enact the laying on of the Game'

And so did Ulangar finish his speech and

wandered off into his distant corner

while the rest remained gawking and stupefied

The twenty minutes were spent by that God-Forger

summoning his powers internal

reaching to the other's minds

grasping for thoughts reaching ideas

and after forty-two unsuccessful tries

he connected with minds

reading thoughts and knowing pre-actions

When that time had passed

Lamaraz beat his Kaph against the ground

three and five and then three again times

He rose from the dusty earth

and readied his sword to do battle

No words did he speak to enrage the opponent

only a peaceful mind he wore open to all thoughts

The many rushed forth to surround Lamaraz

who never allowed himself to be flanked

Daklov drank black gore from the wound of Adar

and bit well the flesh of Nergal

Those two Ulangar had no opposition to

for his trance made well his reactions

Now a shield fell to the ground

floating in the warm sea wine

Next fell the Hammer of Inan

splashing in the rain of the Moon

This all took place within but eight seconds

each falling in blinding speed

When Daklov did feast upon the hawk-wielding woman

it had been after a long struggle

for Creusa did not think her actions

rather her actions were reactions to the stimuli

so Daklov bit with a ferocity matched only by the Red goddess and V

only to take a blow himself

one low but one deep

ripping his innards to the open air

So both man and woman fell that day

gurgling in bubbling gore

and none were left save the spectators

who left in a gust of lust

[

insert Pohjola section

]

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 10

2011-07-01T22:05:00.001-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The crafter of Helethalain next visited the armory

where strong armed Nergal stood admiring the handiwork

of god-forging Ulangar

was not heard by this giant axe-man

and so using this secret he crept up and shoved

with a heave to move the mountains

in a failed attempt to knock the great brown-skinned man from his stance

Nergal rose his mouth in a great laugh that made the metal rattle

against the black marble stonework which encased the earth

and he spoke 'What is it little brother that you were trying to do

Did you mean to make me tumble to the cold floor

like a toddler tipped on the head

You may find me a greater opponent to wrestle to the earth

than Utgard-Loki's cat

and that my little brother is no boast

for never have I met a man who could pin me'

Ulangar rubbed his shoulder in the stinging place

and replied 'Aye so my things which see perceive

and aye again do my shoulder and muscles

that ache at the strain and force agree

you must teach me that trick some time

But enough with this idle chatter

for I wish to gain information on a different subject now

pertaining to the journey to Tuoni

and his curséd lands of eternal darkness'

Nergal settled his weight on a marble bench and nodded in agreement

'I know of that which you speak little one

for all of us siblings have been there and will be there

All the tales which you have heard already

are all you need to unravel the mystery'

Ulangar was taken back by these unforeseen words

'Why use these cryptic syllables Nergal

If you have something to say

than gird up your spirit and speak your mind

we need not keep'

Nergal halted this questioning with a raised index finger

'Why question my actions

we are one in mind snf dpitiy

sprouted from the same seed

I know all our thoughts

and all our feelings

It is just a simple matter of focus

perhaps you should try it some time

perhaps' At this Nergal the bald giant left the room

and left Ulangar speechless and puzzled

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 9

2011-06-29T21:48:00.003-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Ulangar thought long and hard on these words

[

talks about training Adar in magic

]

The next sibling visited by god-forging Ulangar

was black hairéd Creusa

who said of her death

'That meddling Tuoni did not snatch me

nor was he man enough to ravish me

I slayed his minions bred of air

with blinding speed and stunning agility

Each one died by my swift stroke

but Tuoni fearful as he is

ran from our fight and left me to suffer in life'

Ulangar squinted and spake such words in response

'I inquire from you O sister from the now dead earth

a better description of your punishers

of the shapes of the minions

and of the faces of the ruler of the wretched land'

Creusa was long in her reply

attempting to resist memory's poison

and then she tried to reply

many times she attempted

and many times she failed to send her mental picture across the airs

but at last she did and such words erupted from her lips

'My memory is foggéd

for that night or dreary day was as a dream

it does not remain clear in memory long

I only remember of those minions a great blur

of wind and steel

but of Tuoni's haughty face I shant forget

his thick black mane and night beard

flapped to the whims of the four elements

and his wide grin exposed his icy gates

His laugh was like thunder which rips the sky in two

with energy surging from Anshar to Kishar

and his eyes yes his evil eyes

how they pierced my very soul

the fires grew within them

burned my inside and out in flames

colder and blacker than the lost secret of Blackflame

which burns metal and melts trees'

So amazed by the similarities with his own glimpse

of that towering Tuoni was Ulangar

that he could hardly utter a farewell suitable for his sister's rank

hardly

[

insert Inan's story

]

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 8

2011-06-27T21:45:00.000-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

After Ulangar had risen from the sheets

and hastened in his morning duties

of cleansing in the clear waters of Ahto

and dressing into fine fabrics soft to touch of red and black

and eating a hearty feast from cheese to apples

he traveled to Adar's chamber to inquire about the night

'Adar son of Nugredth

valiant giant of the wooden staff

tell me of your death inflicted by my son

of the journey to the dark world which none return save us'

To these words Adar this said

'After falling to Tuonela that dark turf of earth

I felt the presence of a great energy

both racing across the sky and surging from below

And from this below a great fellow clad in robes of black

with silver runes covering his black cuffs

and on an ashen staff wielded in his right

rose from the dust and dirt

Sensing danger as is the ability of all my race

I ran at the figure and attempted to tackle

The figure was too swift and he eluded my grasp

and I was thrown to the ground like a child flinging a toy

The man formed wordless words on his lips

and lightning shot from the sky to my tempered flesh

My body only absorbed the energy

and remained free of mar

I rolled onto my knees as he began singing another spell

and I leaped for his legs

This time my aim was true and my grip was strong

and the cloak fell to the earth in humbled silence

All went black until the light returned to my eyes

when I appeared in my bed untampered'

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 7

2011-06-24T21:33:00.001-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Ulangar awoke in a bed with familiar black formless hair

sprawled across the sheets and bodies

and his stirring awoke the figure beside him

'What is this scar along your back

this unaccounted for remnant of combat

which happened not on that field of battle'

Ulangar rose himself onto his elbows

and responded to his wife 'Indeed for they sprouted

from the flailing of wrights in my death-dream

Tell me of your encounters with these dreams

in the powerful land of Tuoni'

Startled by this change of subject Nefthys sat replacing the pieces

of the memory puzzle before she spoke with such words

'It seems like an eternity ago to my forgetful head

but perhaps this loose-knit story will aid thy inquiries

I remember awaking to a green sun rising from a purple sea of grass

into a lacerated sky black and red and raining fish

but ahead laid a sparkle of clean light which seemed to summon me

Every specific of the landscape was ever changing

and the path on which I traversed

was here and then there and then here again

The path's substance too was never constant

it was mud to stone to pebbles

to mason's medium to Ahto's element

to an ink which stuck to every pore of my body

and at every step I sensed a pair of seeing organs

staring into my heart for weakness

waiting in the shadows of darkness to pounce upon my most sacréd soul

but he dared not a showing of his features

and to the light which was an exit I went

and I returned to this earthen moon to love a man'

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 6

2011-06-22T21:30:00.001-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

When the two lovers rose to the day star's coming

the others journeyed to the surface to divide into teams

Nergal being the creator of the Games of the Immortals

divided the players into teams

On the first team was placed Nergal the axe-man

and also was there Creusa the wielder of the claws

and finally there was Adar the giant of flame

On the other team was chosen Lamaraz the master of sword

and there was also spear wielding Painex

and also Fatirac the hammer carrying woman with the stature of man

So were the teams divided missing the ones not trained in the soldierly ways

sitting on the sidelines to support the fighters

When the battle began with the glittering gear charging forward

Lamaraz in his suit of steel plate ran the fastest and with the most blood thirst

and from the other side Nergal met the fighter's challenge

The two collided with the clang of steel on steel

and Lamara left a bloodied body groaning for relief

while tripping on his innards and slipping in his purple life

Lamaraz regrouped with the women

Creusa at his left and Fatirac at his right each running in step

but Creusa could not withstand the force of Painex's hurled spear

which crushed through the jaw and skull

slicing the brains and moving them to outside the body

in a gory puddle of ichor

With tall Fatirac at his side Lamaraz charged

wingéd Adar and swift Painex

The wooden staff struck the sword master's head

as the herbal blade sliced from right to left through the chest

stopping only at the left nipple of the scaled hide

showering both with a blue fluid

as a fountain shimmers in light

Painex without her spear could not withstand

the smithy blows of red-hairéd Inan's hammer

forged by the master smith Bartoc

when the world was young and the gods

were still enjoying their play with man

The blows melted bone and eroded flesh

forming a puddle of sticky goo

which once was woman fine

So did the battle end with Lamaraz and Inan side by side

soaked in blood of friend and self

and with the black gore gushing in great amounts

and grins of sadistic pleasure coated in black bile

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 5

2011-06-20T21:14:00.001-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996. This
is another section that was slated for rewrite.

[

That night Lamaraz returned to Ulangar

and returned to lay beside Nefthys once again

He brought himself close to his lover

and in his caress of her he spoke such words

`What shall I compare thee to

An Autumn wind or a Winter's flame

Nay your whole cannot be sing'larly described

but aye your eyes

what shall they become

Their glittering glass should be compared to gems

But nay again for they compare oh not to your sparkling marbles

Gems instead should be indeed compared to thine eyes

How then is your hair in place with such ideas

Its flowing formless soft resembles that twice distant creature

that gobbles the worlds and stars and moons

and like that same monstrosity

these leaves consume my heart

What else does that bottomless soul desire

of these petty metaphors and similes between heaven and earth'

Such words were spoken and sweet Nefthys responded

`My sire and keeper speak not in mockéd anger

for it does not become you

Speak only of that poetic thing which you refuse to identify

and that one fire is amor

Compare thine love to whatever thou desires

If thou just speakest it to my things that hear

with your heart of words so pure

then perhaps mine own heart may remember these syllables

and indeed in the positive fourth it may be recalled again and again

my love'

So were the words of Nef

and her ears traded with her mouth

and her eyes failed to glitter

in preparation for his so noble response

But not a sentence nor letter fluttered from his lips

But not a syllable nor chant flew away from his cords

Instead he too shut his spectacles

and with a touch of grace and caring unparalleled in his life

his lips enchanted her mouth with a soft et gentle kiss

]

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 4

2011-06-17T19:05:00.001-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The next day when Dawn lifted her bright wheel into the darkness

and spread her rosy fingers to all parts of the sky

the family gathered together to discuss their future

`I say we shall collaborate and discover the secrets of the world'

spake Enki the Master of Mind `and become true masters of this universe

for knowledge is the true might and answer to all troubles if

IT can conquer us then surely we can discover how to conquer IT

and this is attained only by wisdom and knowledge'

To this Lamaraz responded `Indeed do I take your words for truth

and never shall I disagree for the sake of argument

but some things cannot be taken by knowledge

There are brute forces which only understand their own nature

and thus must be the response in the honorable fashion

What is life without honor What is honor without life

And what is life and honor without Truth or Courage

I ask you this my friend of the Rose and Iron

while Nefthys and Adar stand behind me

what are their answers'

Enki rose his voice and said `I thought you dead Lamaraz

but wrong was I who dwells in harmony and mastery

Your questions mean nothing to me

and your thinking even less

Go back to your caves of moss and grime

and go back to your half-men ancestors of greasy hair tied up in bonnets

We have no need of you and your barbaric ways'

Nergal interrupted the rest of Enki's speech by these words

causing land slides with its force

`Petty bickering does no one here good

now stop that chattering as two little boys

who rest in the comfort of their mother's ever protecting arms

Besides who cares about the domination over other forces

we have everything we need here on this globe thanks to Ulangar

the forger and Kali of worlds

I think we shall play a sporting challenge to pass the time

one that came from my Old Country in the north

The ancient way of playing this game is to gallop on riding mounts

while trying to subdue the opposing team into defeat

We could do this but no equestrian beasts will be used

nor will that singing art be allowed to be woven on this field of honorable battle'

Lamaraz became caught up in the speaking of Nergal

`Yes Yes And the fairy way of subduing will be replaced with slayings

that glorious way of battle that turns grass lands into swamps of gore

Perhaps this will be an excellent way of passing the days

This Game will be perfect for our warlike ways'

Enki glared and Lamaraz and snapped in return

`Speak for yourself you barbaric corpse

your ways are worse than those wintry murderers

that come before my eyes in anger

You all make me sick in your agreement with these boys

and their archaic ways of bloodshed

This is a time for peace and knowledge

not war and battle and its notorious way of death

Go and do your vile and retchéd deeds

but never shall you see me pay heed

to your cries from the grave'

Lamaraz stood now and walked towards Enki of the Rose

with Nergal and Fatirac at his heels all looking in the same fashion

Before the three could strike and deal a mighty blow

to the one wearing robes of white silk

Nefthys jumped from her spot on the ground

to block the charge of Lamaraz and his entourage

and she spoke such words `My love

why does such unwarranted hate fill your eyes and heart

all for one whose hasty and unthought words were spoken

They are gone and with them the idea

but in your minds all your minds you hold these words

with steel bonds and behind steel cages impenetrable

Can you not use your keys and free them

so that they can join the words in the air

so that they too may die

If hatred so consumes your soul that sharp reason cannot pierce it

then let the blanket of my love smother it and make another fire grow'

Lamaraz shook so from the sight

and the feelings which came from her eyes

He crumbled before her

and fell down on his knees with heavy heart eye

reminded of the time on the knoll when the brothers were slain

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 3

2011-06-15T19:03:00.001-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996. This
section in brackets makes references to how it should be changed to reflect
later developments in the story.

Ulangar from these others learned of the remaining two

of Re'u Raduti from Adar

who came from the Sea of Dust

and of Oudun the dwarf of the Crepshaues

the descendants of the first men

from the gigantic Nergal

Thus the ten were known

[ Discussion between Enki, Adar & ulangar (the last 3!). Here is where Adar is to begin training for magic, not book IV. Throw around lots of symbols which will develop later in the epic. Have Adar tell of his children. Discus their origin & why - don't get into Highlander-esque philosophy, but hint at the cycle of threes. Ulangar needs to discuss his vision of Tuoni & have them discuss Phojola, using what they originally said later, put here here instead. Still have Enki discuss heart.

That night instead of Nefthys' loving touch

he consulted Enki about his wisdom

for Ulangar had not known of his new found knowledge

singe the time of the Islands of Iron

Enki started the conversation with such words

`Ah my brother of war and sword

how have you been keeping yourself

I spy your scars and wounds and take note

for the rest have none such things

How did these come about'

Ulangar the master of sword and soul responded

`Your eyes are strong and that mind is swift

Enki of the rose know you not

I fought those Tuoni spawned wraiths in Pohjola

summoned from the deaths

and my guard was lowered and their irons pierced my skins

Your face expresses confusion

Have you not encountered these beasts of shadow

that hunt immortal flesh

until so many have perished by the fist

of one so fragile and strong in bone'

Enki the peace maker and mind master spoke then

`True I have experienced that Surma curse

but these iron wielding wraiths have I not found

Instead I find pastures of green and skies of blue

and trees blooming with fruit painted purple

and I find myself seeking an item

To gain it I must cunningly avoid a guardian

dressed in dark furs with a club'

After such words were spoken by Enki

Ulangar spoke `Ah so I see that you too

have seen that death-master Tuoni who lurks in the dreams

I have spoken to his avatar

and he tells me we cannot be reaped into his grasp

Do you not see what he has told us

We are free to roam without fear my brother

Nothing can kill us and nothing will'

Enki interrupted the speech

`Then explain those who died' he said

`the two who did not survive the ruin of Siglar

We are not free from his grasp

Sometimes we elude Tuoni's grip

but we eight have been lucky' Ulangar kept his tongue still

so Enki continued `My apologies to you

I did not intend to bring your joy to the grave

but my intentions were to gift you with the sight of reality

so come now and cheer that face

and tell me of why you came'

Ulangar sat and collected his thoughts and responded with his lips

`When I first met you on that island

I learned of your mastery of the mind

of those psychic waves and energies

If I could learn to be master of it

then I could truly claim my mastership of the soul

since the mind controls all others'

To these words Enki shook his head and replied

`That old belief was disproved

I reformed that way of thought

and discovered the new part of the body

the heart

If the soul creates the emotions

and the mind creates reason and stores ideas

and the body proper houses all these

then the thing that pulls these three together

is that pumping thing of blood

It must be mastered before the rest

else conflict within will devastate the training of the rest'

Ulangar pondered on these words and asked another question

`What of your system of beliefs

what the ultimate goal of your people

and their way of thinking is'

Enki heard such words and with a laugh responded

`That is a short question which requires a long reply

but perhaps the Muses will aid me in my answer

My peoples believed in the same gods yours did

but the school of thought which I developed

reformed these ancient ways

for the ultimate paradox of religion is that

the gods know

However my belief structure is different than my religion

but it could be called a religion

It does not focus on irrelevant things like

```why the universe was created''' or

```who created the universe'''

Such things can never be answered by us

Instead we focus on each personal ruling force

also known as conscience

and on the mastery of the mind

We strive to be human

because to be a human is to be separate from the natural kingdom

The first human beings tried to do this

with the use of tools and language

but all they did was create an intelligent being

that required from the absence of nature

social interaction

You may ask if this is a contradiction

not calling them true humans

yet saying that they have an absence of nature

Not so

for though they tried to be separate by creating cities

removing much of nature

they still were connected with nature's call

How we strive to be entirely human

is to complete the fissure with nature

by removing all instincts and conditioned responses

so every action is one with the mind'

Ulangar considered this response and worded his next question carefully

`But where I came from

we harnessed our soul to control emotion

to thus be a ```social and complete man'''

Were they wrong in their thought

and you correct'

Enki the maker of peace

smiled at this question and answered with his mouth

`The blue that you learned

is the green that I know'

So was it that Ulangar learned the ambiguous nature of words

]

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 2

2011-06-13T19:00:00.002-06:00

This continues Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Halfway through that day Ulangar spied another soul

in the condition which was earlier Enki's

Upon snatching this one from the vast

and upon her apparition forming her flesh

he experienced the exchange of thought with her

as when Enki glared into Lamaraz's jewels

her deep black hair reflected no light

resembling the Void which surrounded the tiny well

Nefthys and Lamaraz met with rubies

courtship dreamt in woken minds

[add character development between Lam & Nef]

With rosy-fingered Dawn's awakening

whose light fell upon endless burning buildings

covering the landscape

five of the same sire were found

The first was Nergal a gigantic man

with deep ebony skin

from the Western Wastelands

he wielded a huge axe to match his stature

with two blades each five hands long and two hands wide

and a spear point two hands long and a shaft one meter long

[elaborate on story]

The next was Creusa from the Southern Swamps

she had speed beyond compare with long glossy black hair

wielding two rods each two forearms long

with steel talons of an eagle to tip those metal stalks

[blah blah blah story]

Adar was the next brother found

a giant of flame from that Krox Peninsula

with wings spanning ten meters

and a wooden staff unshatterable and tipped with brazen points

which extended to a length of three meters

[blah blah blah]

Fatirac was also discovered and also known as Inan

a manly woman with blazing red hair and a wide jaw

and a stature to match that maw

and in her sinister she wielded a hammer weighing four stones

and its handle was one meter long

She came from the Eastern Barbaric Forests

where men and woman hunt as one

[blah blah blah]

Finally the brown-hairéd Painex was found

who lived in a human village

which lied between those

Giants of Fire on the Krox Peninsula

peaceful at times great wars at others

With skin dark and Golden Glory she carried an

ashen spear eleven forearms long

and tipped with hard steel

and on her left she held a rounded shield

with a brazen boss and steel rimmed with tassels

It hung from its strap while describing the fate of Painex

the wheel revolved depicting the birth from a ravished mother

and her rapid growth was also depicted as was her skill at arms

it showed when she was three completing the Quest of the Warrior

of her entering a cave and battling blindfolded an agéd giant

not of flame but of the mountains and weak in mind but strong in arms

and showing her valiant spear bury itself deep in the breast of the beast

and it showed her gift of the shield

then the bottom half showed things not yet come to pass

of her wandering the desert and the encounter with Re'u Raduti

one of the Ten and of the desert men's tribe

and of her battles with the Giants of Fire

some victorious and others of retreat

and of Siglar's destruction

and of her physical death and spiritual torment

and of her discovery of the Others

and of her battles with Abhorations

and displayed in the center around the boss

was her body sprawled on dust with arrows bristling from her skin

The Ulangar: Book III, Part 1

2011-06-10T18:56:00.002-06:00

This is the start of Book III of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Argument: This is the Book of Immortals, concerning the finding of the Ten and the beginnings of the new universe. It also tells of the refining of the religion Necoism from the teachings of Enki of the Rose.

One prisoner Diomedes asked of the poet these words

"At the beginning you mentioned ten brothers

and that you were one of them

What ever was the fate's will

upon their unearthly flesh O poet and keeper"

These things having been sent through the airs to open ears

Lamaraz responded by drinking ambrosial wine and wholesome bread

and these words "Patience my fellow inmate

you have not listened long enough to answer your question

Now pay attention and your questions shall be filled

After Ulangar forged his tempered steel armor

upon which light glittered off a rounded helm

of a skull and brow reinforce and upper and lower bevor

and rondel and the silvery gorget plate

each four gauge steel hardened to immortal strength

and off of decorated breastplate and its lower

depicting the pinpoint flashes of suns gobbled up

by the black monsters which were then depicted

upon the glittering one gauge backplate

as eating each other off the same platter

and it winked off steel skirt with rump guard

each consisting of sixteen plates riveted with golden spokes

and to these with light of stars glimmering from their rosy heart

the tassets of mysterious steel were hung with the rough hide of Fire Giants

slain in the slaughter of the surface land

and it also flashed reflections off of a shirt of mail

showing beneath the skirt and between the tassets

a coat of mail wrought three-ply with tiny links of gold

and off of the pauldron connected to the breastplate

which then allowed the cowters and vambrace with its cannons

to be hung by golden axles and the gauntlets of well forged tempered steel

and it also shown from the legs of the cuisse and poleyn and greave and sabaton

and thus it shown off the armor whole

he felt his head spin and reel

that feeling of ūser again

So by no natural pull of his own

he led himself to his observatory

where as before Ulangar spied Universe with spinning eyes

but no item save that void of blackness could he detect

Yet that tingling persisted

urging him ever closer to his view

when through the nothing something knotted and twisted

moving silently and waiting

Ulangar wove a net about this knot

and pulled his catch into his moon

When finally the knot was retrieved

a man appeared of familiar shape

Enki of the Rose

Ulangar gave greetings and informed his guest

of the home deep below the surface

Eventually Enki was shown to a bedding chamber

and Ulangar left the brother's side

to pursue untiring in the Void

for signs of other strings

The Ulangar: Book III, Preview

2011-06-08T18:49:00.004-06:00

When I came back to Book III, I found it in a state of needing significant updates. There are large sections simply marked "add more", while other sections were marked in detail with what needs to be placed there. The ending to this book had never been written, as it was intended to be a truely large "epic list". By its nature, that list couldn't ever really be complete. For this, I marked those places in square brackets ("[ blah ]") to indicate where my editing notes were.

Also, there were some just general fixes that needed to be done. I noticed that I had made an effort to remove the letter "z" from standard English words, except in names. I think some of those non-z words made it into the other books, but I've been making an effort to just use the standard spelling.

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 12

2011-05-30T20:30:00.002-06:00

This ends Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Ulanger then stopped his raping of that blistered cord

and with a joyous laugh saw Man yield his power to the reptile folk

His days alone inside his rocky tomb were not uneventful

he crafted recycling agents for his health and enjoyment

and forged a suit of glittering armor

and discovered his dance with sword and soul

and mastered his weaving of the golden thread

leading to a host of new discoveries

no boundary halts the soul

no metal or element may prohibit the tracing of threads

any stone or word or person may inherit one's power

yet only control of the soul is necessary to implement the spells

From this and wisdom a seed was sowed

to spring a belief or system to be called Necoism

that evil and good are but labels

placed by judgmental wills striving for manipulation

This was the first wrung for his religion

and the second was not far from discovery

As age turned to age and the cork grew lumpéd and pussed

Ulanger from his lofty perch viewed the universe wrap itself into a single clump

and to survive this point Ulangar spun a gigantic tapestry

to throw his Volx into a niche in Universe

a pocket dimension protected from the woes of

the monstrous vortexes consuming everything

In the safety of his lair

Ulangar saw with magic aided vision

his universe eat its own tail

and his eyes of godly magic swelled with memory''

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 11

2011-05-27T20:30:00.000-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

It could be heard among one man speaking to his life-friend

`This one demigod has stolen our birthrights

and we succumb to his terror that spreads like fingers from his malignant hair

This god-sent plague will only stop when he is destroyed

and no one save the undying gods in their highest perch can do such a feat

Let us slaughter a first born lamb and two calves to appease these ungrateful deities

so we may at long last rest in peace from horrors in our retirement'

These words were spoken by the townsmen in their laments

and the highest god of that cult

Ukko was unable to save them from his son

for he makemade this Lamaraz's spirit intangible to god or man

His only available option which he accomplished with a prowess unsurpassed

waswillbe to wait and watch his son destroy his world and worshipers

and Ukko sawwillsee in silence Lamaraz leave to his Volx

with the harvest of Ukko's wealthy planet

Lamaraz having returned to his keep in the same way he left

added the furnishings that make house home

In his lair he set a bed lovely in decoration

and he set stands for treasured armor and weapons

In the laboratory he placed beakers and vials of glass

and jars of herbs and regents

In the training ground he placed mats and rings and exercise equipment

And in that armory he placed his many trophies

plundered from the war gear of the fallen

and he placed a forge of sweltering heat

and buckets of coal and barrels of oil

and an anvil weighing twenty stones

and it was mounted on a one-hundred stone slab

of concrete and mortar and brick

and hammers and tongs of iron

to bend and shape the metals of man

and a workbench of oak and walnut to hold these tools

and a vice to work hot metal

Next to this foundry

Ulangar placed a smelting unit

with millions of tons of ores and pig iron

to supply that burning forge

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 10

2011-05-25T20:30:00.003-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Upon reaching the old turf again

he proceeded to pillage and rape the towns of their goods

and slaughter the men without fear

as a worker of the land would reap the harvest

O Muses it is impossible to remember the names of all the fallen

but the figures of import can come to mind with thy help

Juhilad the son of Fadeu from Laywes Dask

with his shining helm and breastplate of gold

was one of the first to fall by the magical fires

Grudsæ the great hero who developed the land near the Yelkin Olem

was a descendant of Ahto the immortal god of the seas

and it was he who possessed the famed Club of Ahto forged by Ilmarinen

that has the ability to shatter stones and rumble and split the earth

and crush steel four forearms thick with the ease of one hand

his nape was removed from his trunk by that comet blade of Lamaraz

The next great man to die by that Surma-possessed immortal was

the ancient ashen spear wielding Fossergrim son of Laogsed

from the mountains of the first men in Hordac

who was the last survivor of the Hudarc Wars

The next great one was the she-devil Kuan from the North Krox Peninsula

who wielded her broad sword and five-layered shield

which was made from four layers of elephant hide

and one shell of heat-tempered steel

that mystical metal that returns to its original shape when bent

The next giant to perish by the fire brand was Swarthi

a bronze covered rider of the plains of Olem Ramsuk

who cut down his enemies like a tiger rips his prey into mangled carrion

or as a boar butchers his victims with his tusks

with two long blades of weighty bronze

and poisoned spikes in lethal places on the armour

The Fire Giants were next to be slayed in their continents to the east of Siglar

though their history is not known to those of the human race

(too much conflict for understanding to be learned)

The first reptile to die by the flaming cross

was Hia'flox-piogenaft of the clan Grwolp'ninoop-quwoca

who used only his natural claws to shred fragile flesh

and no armor or other hand crafted tools of war were equipped

The next gigantic burning beast brought down by stormy magic

was Warthla'mnoquap-tufon of the Aus'in-aup clan

brave in battle and strong with steel tipped spear

The last strongman giant slayed by Daklov

was Sert son of Adar of the Rugan clan

who are renown for their honor in Arés' art

and wisdom in ruling masses

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 9

2011-05-23T20:30:00.005-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996. This is the last section in the epic that uses sections of that made-up language.

Lamaraz walked to the village from the plain just outside it

and screamed such words again and again

`OPIS MULUM CONYED SEMYED

MULATOC CONYED EUSOTOCYED'¹

while the people were slayed by his sword and soul

Around and around the globe he flew

spraying all with lethal venom

and burning houses and slaying all

The wingéd snakes of Surthur's realm would he have saved

they touched not him and then they died

and Ulangar was lost in the Hell and Heaven

as Tlepolemos' sire from Oechalia lost his mental battle

to Hera and slayed his children and his wife

but ulusum stops naught for reason's whim

He alone remained on the moon

When at last the burning buildings were lost in darkness

Lamaraz came to rest at the feet of the body of Farfein

and lamented such words in song

`ADALUTAG CES UMASALETOC

DE OLEM LAT

EUS MULOD ACTA

LENTUTOD BRUDID BRUDIM'²

After such music had left his throat

and his mouth having been closed

Lamaraz was silent in his mourn

Dawn's rosy-colored fingers fell upon ruined turf

and upon charred remains of cities once grand

and nature had proceeded to regain what was lost

and now twenty-three years later

Ulangar awoke in tears and sweat

cold by nightly frost and scarring dreams uncaring

of the vanity of one man's self image

Thus was Ulangar familiar again with the deed of anger

forged in a black pit of despair and loss

and hammered by the pummeling blows of the sword

and tempered in the fire of huts and mortals dead and dying

Thus the deed remained as strong as steel to memory's faulty way

but if by chance this deed becomes hindered by rust's weakening ability

it would be polished in oil and wool by the immortal flames

which dance unending on that bloody monument of flesh

As Ulangar stood and proceeded to accomplish his morning exercises

he recalled the vision and pushed by curiosity and fate

He tunneled a jaw into the burning ground with magic

and went towards that apex of magic

to find a chest of stony adamantine

and Ulangar created a cavity around this rock

which became his lair and home sweet home

Helethalain sweet Helethalain

To this chamber he in the fashion of Dædalus

who created a labyrinth for heroes to perish in

for that king of the half-bull Minos of Crete

Lamaraz devised a maze for home

and did Ulangar carve from the living stone this same design

passages of twisting corners and warpéd cells for special needs

such as a chamber for experiments

pertaining to the mystic power of herbs and string

where new advances in this mediciney science could be discovered

and also a training ground was provided for

with obstacles and the things which test one's magic of the body

and expand this ability to such great heights

limited by the non boundaries of its potential

Then also were tunneled rooms for bedding

and prisons for binding and keeping

and armories for the housing of spears and shields

and other such implements of weep-wail war

which wretches from one's heart that god called consciousness

which reigns supreme over civilized folk

And so did Ulangar like Vulcan forge the home of god

and with such magnitude did that house envelop Volx

consuming the dwelling of grubs and shrews

while kites in the outer dark did feast on roasted flesh

stunken with decay and death dire

In this two-hundred million hectare landscape

which Ulangar tunneléd with flesh and soul

did he perceive the emptiness filled with future lush ornaments

So Lamaraz traversed that first sphere of the universe

like a worm squirming through the earth

eating the dirt and dust of that dismal element

Or as men crawl through muck and mire

drenched with the blood of friend and fiend and self alike

to advance on an unbeatable foe in mass combat of grand scale

with archers and their grand bows of ivory

and pikemen with their long wands of pointy death

and chariot steersmen and their cars of ferocious hate

and the infantry wallowing in the slime of blood and dirt

which bogs down the fastest messenger whether wingéd or un

Footnotes

1. Translated from Dakish as, "The mentor is not alive; you will not live."
2. Translated from Dakish as:
"My city is dead.
Gods, why have you left?
My sword is gone;
I am left alone again.

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 8

2011-05-20T20:30:00.000-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

That night Ulangar was visited by Shai-Thoth

the transparent eyeball glided over the satellite

and Ulangar saw the many features of the moon

the rivers named after hate and sorrow and lamentation and fire and oblivion

Beyond this watery hole north of the ocean

lies a frozen continent where storms rage

endlessly abusing the tormented land

and a building lies amongst this dire hail

seemingly ruin and encased in centuries of snow and ice

that will not thaw for only once a year shines here that closest star

and then only for mere seconds at a time

The land between the snow-fed ocean and the icy terrain

is a wetland profound as the bog of Serbon

Ulangar saw other continents as well on this globe

surrounded by that toxic water of Brokenia

which was moved to Krox after the Ruthzan creation

by that mage-prince Krutan of Slaverec whose mind was bent by wife

and then it was moved to this Volx after interplanetary travel was possible

As Ulangar continued south again over the ocean

his sight detected the weaving knots of magic strings

They wrapped the moon and through it into two identical globes

a northern one and a southern one

They would connect these yellow strands

at the planetary poles and equator center sphere

but for a vortex at the poles in conical form

the base spanning ten kilometers

and both cones converged at the vertex at the center between the two globes

Here Ulangar discovered the apex of universal magic power

but what lay there he could not see

for the goddess withdrew the sight of Hellethalain

and the horn gate closed and Ulanger passed into the ivory gate

Many years passed since that day

and long was the time that Lamaraz

unlearned his savage ways of etiquette and combat

and long was it till Lamaraz learned the ways of Farfein

One day as the two were sparring

Lamaraz retreated from Farfein's lethal blow

and yielded to catch his breath and to speak these words

`O Farfein my mentor and master

I have trained long and hard to become the man I am

When will you give me my adult name O great mentor

and thus settle my inner peace'

Farfein removed his guard of iron magical

and thrust his sword into the earth

and thought hard on this question and responded

`Indeed your time has come to gain your name

you have learned much and left more behind

There is one thing you need to gain before you earn your name

that numerologically correct set of syllabic symbols

and that is manhood

You refuse to accept the burden of mortality

thus I can give you no other name

then that which you give yourself '

At these words spoken by his mentor

Lamaraz stood glassy-eyed until his rage exploded from his soul

He attacked with sword high and foot fast

and Farfein fell to the blade after the failure of his heart

and the empty shell collapsed in a pool of black

drinking in opened eyed stare

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 7

2011-05-18T20:30:00.003-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The green and blue orb rose into the sky

reflecting the vanquished sun's light upon its surface

The fires of people burned low

as men returned to their wives and children from the mines

to relax a short while before returning to the work an endless circle

One fire continued to be fed by dead wood

as the two figures about it talked

'Before you can control a sword

before you can control others

you must learn to control yourself

It takes patience and strength

and a sturn and strict hand

Swordplay and meditation and magick work together

developing the body mind soul

to work as one

Each part of Man is

as a point on a triangle

the distance a point from the center measures its strength

The three must be as the equal triangle

no side longer than another

When this is accomplished

you may begin to expand your Triangle

encompasing other triangles

If the Triangle is expanded

while not in equilibrium

then the Triangle will collapse upon itself

destroying its creator

the one who made it faulty

When you can knowingly shift your Triangle

then Universe shall shift with it

for there is no difference'

Lamaraz sat pondering the words

while Green Eyed Farfein drank

At long last he spoke

unsure of the source of his speach

`What about government

How do the peoples here rule themselves'

Farfein with eyes bright smurked

and shouted in a drunken roar

`Government anarchy government

We are a strong peoples

and need no such foul beast

to scourge our country side

that is what locusts are for

they do a better job and are cheaper to maintain

It is true that people need to be lead

hell they practically ask to be slaves

so every so often a cock-sure fellow like yourself

comes about and declares himself Leader

as children do when they play their games

When such evil happens

we philosophers-artisans-warriors

come down from our mountain

destroy the Leader and the followers

eat their hearts and rape the dead

I think we rather enjoy having

such lads be Leader for a while

it keeps us Righteous with a strong sword arm'

Lamaraz laughed and asked

`What about the other lands about you

on this Asteroidal tomb

They too must have such leaders

but not such Righteous else you would own all'

These things having been said Farfein replied

`Quite right boy

the colony over the ocean to the north

who call themselves the Bonie

consist of an oligarchy disguised as a democracy

where but a select few can vote

and they bury their mistakes in law

The peoples over the river to the east

don't have a physical leader

they get pumped up on some herb

dance around

and consult some oracle to make decisions for them'

Lamaraz lowered his head and spoke in a low voice

`I too once trusted such oracle

it told me of things to come

and gave me a torture'

Farfein gave a harty laugh and said

`Aye and what a torture

wine enough to drink

women enough to eat

and food enough to love'

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 6

2011-05-16T20:30:00.001-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Lamaraz stood upon stiff legs

pondering the sight from Shai-Tahuti

and followed the trail left by his care takers

He walked for several hours in the morning sun

before the tiny village of prisoners was seen near Kishar

The threads were drained from his body

and he assumed correctly that it was from recent demises

and Lamaraz walked with head raised into the town

wearing the black death-shawl

lips and eyes appeared at doors and windows

lips shrieked in terror and eyes gaped in dread

and Farfein with eyes bright appeared to Lamaraz

and spoke such words with his voice

`So you have returned to the master

the one proven better

Do you wish to try your luck again

and return to the bone pile

reaking with putrid rotting flesh

No your eyes do not reveal such wishes

You came under submission with defeated hair

What is it you ask of me'

Such words were heard by Ulangar

who responded with `Farfein of Glaztêal

the only proven better than I with weapon

I approach you this morning bearing humble soul

and palms turned to Ukko's eyes open

to ask for apprenticeship from your trained eye and steady hand'

And Farfein responded `You have the natural ability

and thus I will be the one to hone your skills

You must comply with my askings

you must obey my every wish

you must give all of yourself to this purpose

these you must do without hesitation

These are my requests to you

Accept them and learn or deny them and fail'

This having been said Lamaraz nodded his head deep into the ground

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 5

2011-05-13T20:30:00.001-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Lamaraz felt his body jar and red red mist

became abackground alandscape of mountains and

sky with haunting fugures black or shadow

creeping o'er the rocks and dirt and walkflycrawl-ing

ever nearer to virile brown flesh

standing up up touching sky that red mist

and mountain and ground and shadow shapes

slipped their forms around the flesh which

punched the spine from shadow and iron

ripped into meat hanging useless from the

back with green and blue spurting from

the wound that wound which crushed the

skull of another shadow and glass

rittled the flesh and wound

and the mind lost its eyes as shadow

flew through chest and Lamaraz was

thrown from Pohjola again again

The once dead man now raised himself to

scratch his scars on his left shoulder to his kidney

Looking about himself Lamaraz discovered that

his clothes had been removed and instead

a black cloak was about his darkened skin

He was resting on a pile of dead or fading memories

some rancid some stripped to the bone

But before his eyes appeared a horrific vision

of a gigantic man a god four meters tall

with black curly hair and thick night beard

completely covered from neck down in dark furs

of unknown animals long since dead

In his right hand a huge metal-studded club was wielded

and his left hand rested upon the right and pommel

The vision spoke with whispers in the wind

`Unfortunate am I that your soul is ungraspable

easily would you be in my keeping if

it was otherwise and what a Prize it would make

resting on my mantle as a magnificent trophy

Each time you die my steel bands you must elude

but for now frolic with life those lesser than you

Till we meet again Lemminkainen learn well your son'

Having thus spoken the vision dissipated in the morning mist and open eye

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 4

2011-05-11T20:30:00.004-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Eventually Lamaraz discovered himself out on brown terrain

which save for a lone building there was nothing

The sky was black with the twinkling of stars

and the rising moon with its pools of blue water

and several continents including one that he knew

He was on Siglar no longer now Volx the prison moon

The vessel which housed the white room began to shake

and fire erupted from the tail of its serpent form

which slithered through the rocks

and from the flames

which scorched the lunar landscape

came a raspy rhythm pounding like forty blacksmiths

or the waves crashing against a cliff

The bonds having been removed from Lamaraz

the Gastrov hustled into the snake and

the no-man was left with fellow convicts

More humans emerged from the shadows

to greet the new arrivals

One man strong in years and body

and green eyes bright

came to Lamaraz and over looked him

with the eye of a trained professional

Lamaraz questioned him about the surroundings

and what was to be in this barren wasteland

and the old man said nothing

Lamaraz attempted to get an answer

from him by force

and the agéd man said `I am Farfein of Glaztêal

Defender of my people and liberator of the Red Lizards

You shall receive no reply from me

attack me if you must'

and he drew his broad steel

and Lamaraz spoke `USEROD FEBASYED'¹

which unsheathed Daklov from his hiding place

and the duel began

A circle formed about the two

as kites swarm about the carrion

of heroes and gods long dead from battle

The pair leapt and stabbed and parried in their circular dance

Lamaraz dodged and swept his mighty blade

always looking for chinks in defense

and patterns in the other's dance

One was discovered and Lamaraz stopped his style

to smite the man upon his nape

but the man having been prepared for the no-man's swing

blocked it with his sword and turned and kicked

knocking air from the no-man and breaking ribs

Lamaraz was down spitting his fluids

and the man removed Lamaraz's head and spoke such things

`Shame that you have exposed yourself

for steel can be as lethal as magic my son

You should have asked for the Fate's favor

to help in your struggle but you also needed

Experience is never replaced by luck

for too much luck sprouts false courage

which shortens life's brief spark

Farewell fine warrior

may Tuoni in Kalevala be kind to you'

These things having been spoken Lamaraz's soul

descended into the depths of the mind

Footnotes

1. Translated from Dakish as, "I summon the steel."

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 3

2011-05-09T20:30:00.000-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Lamaraz awoke with a start a pant

and was falling through a reddened void

where only he and darkening red flurted finely

in a drunken dance which seemed to invoke

before his face a ground a mound all round

hard and unyielding to ameshofflesh

Lamaraz's body shook with impact

and he crawled to stand

and spied the rock mountain under

vision aswirling in a blurred landscape

once here now there never alike but red

yellow yarn in confusing knots no longer threaded the land

this being reserved for naturalé real only real though the

skeletons draped in shadows

swirled notly as though the yarnéd

needle held their stable shape togethim

with large rusted

iron weapons flinging merceless

shapes with wicked edge while

Lamaraz shook about in a violent

dance summoning Bacchus and neared the arm-y marching

in a moblike order striving to surround

the Real but a foot shot out

and split a Shadow's skull and all

Shadows shattered shards which

sliced the skin of Lamaraz

ripped and burned and seared

Ulangar

and the dead-knot fell to the earth

and all senseless timeless vanished with the use of his eyes

Ulangar woke with a gentle rumbling

his chest bandaged and head swirling

For a few minutes he sat

trying to remember what happened

and where he was

but instead nothing revealed itself to him

only a blur of red and shadow glass sprayed across his sight

The head stopped its whirl and saw it was in room

in bed with white sheets and green walls

and white stool and white table

The room was ten feet square

and there was the rumbling mumbling rumbling

At this time he noticed Daleth

for it opened wide and silent

and in came a white form in the same style

its long curly hair rolled down

the back and around the small breasts

Lamaraz stared at the form as it turned to face him

as small forest eyes near the nose

looked back in astonishment and dread

He stood from the bed weakly and the metallic tray

clattered to the floor from trembling arms

and the bandages fell to his feet

to reveal unscathed flesh dark and hard

Screaming she left and soon sirens were heard among the rumbling

and from hidden places a countdown began

and by no means apparent the doorway vanished

The counting ended and the room shook with monstrous vibrations

as Nai No Kami trembles the earth with his fists

Minutes later the door opened in the same manner it was closed

and Gastrov entered the room in their green and black

and chained Lamaraz to immobility and shielded his eyes with cloth

and exited the room with the sack

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 2

2011-05-06T20:30:00.003-06:00

This continues Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

From the midday sand he rose

one hour's walk from the city

and ancient language erupted from his throat

`DACLOVUT CILIMAUB LENTUTODIT'¹

and the sword vanished on command

Lamaraz hastened towards Anshar

and a richly dressed caravan was met on its way from Vaclov Dask

Lamaraz's birth place

met the naked figure

who stopped them and asked for protection against open eyes

A man in that party threw to him a long blue shirt

more of a dress than a shirt

and as well a belt

landed at the man-boy's feet

The caravan laughed at this and continued on its way

Wearing these things Lamaraz continued his journey

and entered the walls after probing questions

posed by the guardsmen at the city gates

The keep was no longer the iron militarized locale

once remembered by a crying brat

instead it was a prospering city with a heritage

which could not be defeated by borders or politics

or by inhuman sub-hierarchy who extort money from fools

nothing more than a legal protection racket

Into the alleyways he crept merging with urchins

and upon summoning his sword

began to slaughter them like a chef

who spends all morning hatching and frying

the unborn chicks in spices and oils

To these chicks he felt no pity

no ulusum

only the feeding of the Son in his hands

So into the open he went soiled with entrails

leaving a trail of mourns and shrill shouts

and the screeching of the lamenting women

Lamaraz hoped this would gather the Gastrov

ones skilled in war a challenge

and thus did they come

Riding steeds with saddles and rings on their boots

attached by hide to the sitting gear

and on their forearms cylindrical devices

with flashing lights and hoses running up the arm

to their helms of stainless black

Their armor was green and black

covering shoulders to hands to legs in light ceramics

Twelve surrounded Lamaraz in hating laughing circle

and in modern dialect stated `Yewt wi t' sabāh

Why moot 'a hām dose who'ave noot 'amt 'a

Dis slāin' o' cit'zin unāhmed f' cōmbat

'āst noo honā noo vālā

Ya bleechéd loochs an' dāken' skeen

reflects dis tāstless oose o' fārce

Nā droop ya woopon are prepār t' die'

Lamaraz heard these slurs and cracked a smile

This would be his chance for ulusum

The mistress Moon was rising above Anshar

and her sister Night settled in for reign

Lamaraz remembered well the fires the moon

the gore the energy the ulusum

time was almost aligned

So Lamaraz answered to this mounted man

with the flaming of his blade

bursting alight as a comet

with hair scorching the sky

The Gastrov were awed with surprise

as the first knight fell from throne

burning in the shower of his purple blood

But as Lamaraz turned and ulusum settled

a ball of flame knocked Lamaraz off his feet

His chest was red flames and searing pain

and Lamaraz saw the dark wine pour from his flesh

Then no more would his mind register his eyes

as a dark veil covered them

Footnotes:

1. Translated from Dakish as, "Daklov, leave from sight."

The Ulangar: Book II, Part 1

2011-05-04T20:30:00.001-06:00

This is the start of Book II of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.
You'll notice that in this part, the language becomes a bit more "artistic",
meaning that there are many places that may look like typos or misspellings,
but were intentionally done that way.

Argument: This is the Book of Farfein, concerning the inner changing of Lamaraz from those which would turn into his true religion, Necoism.

Steady Lamaraz stopped the Tale here

pausing in memory of the beautiful blade

He conjured a glass of wine

and from this goblet he sipped the sweet nectar

to quench his uncompromising thirst

The prisoner along with others who were joining

asked for him to continue the story

and with glares at the forming crowd Lamaraz

satisfied their request

``For unknown nights he dreamt

in realms of Stars and Gods and moonlit Seas

filled with blessings from Shai-Nefer-Tmu

and he awoke rejuvenated and vitalated

limbs stiff and yellow ocsnot and brown lusk

From his spot at the charred remnants

he noticed the buds of trees and plants

sprouting from the driéd mud

and as his eyes scanned this beginning

he saw the lake and altar

purified by means unbeknownst to him

So he quenched his nagging thirst

with Ahto's gift pure of venom and of yarn

for the first time since the escape from the mountain caves

Lamaraz then lifted the weapon in his hands to the sky

and spoke to this son with such words `You

have a great life before thee my son

great journeys great battles great slaying

Honor and terror will be heaped upon thy name

but I must grant thee a name which reflects

thy edge thy brilliance thy potential

and the name shall be Daklov the impaler

and all Universe shall remember for eternity

and forever tremble at the utterance of thy name'

The pulsating blue of the fine blade quickened

and in the same way glowed with renewed brilliance

brighter than the Star at midnoon on a cloudless day

and Lamaraz felt this tremendous power through the hilt

He walked to the black altar in the middle of the pond

and on this altar he prayed without arms raised

asking for guidance to any god who may listen to his plead

`O gods of old or gods unknown

show me the Vision of my next labor

being prepared for my completing

and I shall give sacrifice to you

gems and gold and jewelry

and brilliant blades of silvery steel

and virgin lamb

young in years

and unharmed by man or Nature

These shall be yours

if you but grant me my will'

and these things having been spoken with hand on altar

the words traveled to Ukko's pondering ear

and the god liking the spoken sacrifices

though knowing the result

spoke such things to his aids

`My son has learned his lessons used them well

and now asks of me in the proper tradition

Send him what he asks O Tzilsergiza

quickly so the result and wish are not distant'

So Tzilsergiza at Ukko's side

traveled down to Ulangar's right ear

with light feet and spoke quiet words

and the Vision entered the mind

as a sudden ecstasy over his entire being

A burning city under a moon

which he knew from childhood

which filled his body surging with energy

and caked with blood and gore of fallen people

but he also felt from his soul and son

that feeling of ulusum after the

fallen have felt the bite of blade and the sting of steel

and the Vision left with no spoken word

and Tzilsergiza returned to Ukko's side

So Lamaraz stood and remembered that location

and with his sword in his brawny hands

he took the first step towards his downfall

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 15

2011-05-02T20:30:00.000-06:00

This concludes Book I of the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996. The next post will continue on to Book II.

From the blackened earth the figure rose

to stand on top the mud and ash and stumps of char

near vile waters infested death

The being named Lamaraz and Ulangar

strode towards that viscous vile

and wove its spells of words and actions

meaning Nothing and Everything `USUD

SARUD PRULAG POXILIDAC DACAT

JALETUP AELOCENUP NAPLOT

WIDALOTSED SELICYED DACATYEDA FODACTIMYEDA' ⁷

and up from its grave came a black alter

glistening with scum from the last light of day

It rose with a bridge of dirt this obsidian table

connecting to the flooding shores of the lakeswamp

Upon this path to the stone of black Lamaraz trotted

uncaring of the poison that licked his feet with vile tongues

To this stone Lamaraz chanted words and his hand

glowed with unnatural light and through the stone

the arm cut a top separate from the base

and it fell next to the base onto soiled earth

Upon this base and this top his hand of blue

carved the shape of the brazen-horned-tusked blade

and into this cast the hard earned elements

were placed with care to their proportions

three parts Hordac were placed onto the cast entire

one part Surthur in both blade was placed

two parts Blue throughout its length

eight parts Orchid to rejuvenate the magic

and ten for Steel to be mixed throughout

These were crushed and both components were placed

with care upon one another with magic

Ulangar knelt and energy surged with effort

and such words were spoken by use of the voice

`FEBASYED DELATYED MULOM

FEBASIMUP OCOT BROCENUMAT

MEGENAT DELAT ULUDOTIT

HAPTA ACTISOD BRUDEDAG

MYT DUGYED ECAT

BRU RECADOC DIDAC

FEBASYED DELATYED MULAT' ⁸

and from these words the edge was forged

and Ulangar moved the top with the body

and lifted the newly made sword

Its hilt flashed in the fading sunlight

looking like hard blue steel

The length of the keen edge extended one and a half meters

Upon this blade he used his loom

to change its appearance and feel and balance

and Ulangar gave it yarn of its own

Having been completed his first true labor

rewarded with this magnificent sword

which emitted a brilliant blue glow

throbbing to a beat like a heart as if the

thing had Life und Conciousness own

The crossbar was fangs a pair of brazen horns

and the pommel was a dark blue gem

which glittered off the mud like the morning star

which casts away the darkness back into its infernal abyss

And at last Ulangar walked from this altar

and lay down at the foot of the charred ruins

of Tree-Stump-Kindling and with the sword

in his grasp like a lover

Ulangar fell asleep''

Footnotes:

7 - Translated from Dakish as:

Rise

from your watery depths up to this air

and be free of your grave at last

8 - Translated from Dakish as:

This shall be my blade.

Form to sharpness in Flame;

My soul you may share.

Invincible against the many;

Fear you shall inflict.

Together we shall rule!

You shall be my blade.

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 14

2011-04-29T20:30:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The room contained plant-life desks and

plant-life chairs but little concern did he hold

towards these for ūser ⁶ had entered his body

He was drawn out to the hallway

from a northern door and instinct moved his body

in blinding speed downward

through staircases and twisting passages

His body stopped but the ūser was unyielding

His naked feet moved across dirt and

Gray Eyes scanned shelves wood with

jars and vials littering them to the left

and right a waist high table

covered with debris was standing with footsteps

stalking from its darkened side

A man came from this void

wearing a blue robe that turned violet-black in the

orange light of the globes

Eyes met and locked in that position

four eyes like gems cut from the same rock

mirrored each other in infinite pairs

Lamaraz was shook by waves of information

that rumbled like thunder past his brain

This was Enki a master of the mind as Ulangar

was a master of the soul and this other held

the knowledge to the locations of the herbs

They learned this and more as wordless language

passed between four eyes

Timeless flashed up and down as

wordless wisdom was sent and received

These two fell to dirt in silent sleep

and awoke when other

They were brothers of heart

No words were necessary for they

understood the other's thoughts

and ūser left None

New found knowledge was still being organised

as the two stood up and looked at each other

again as though each was a reflection on lead

but which was the originator of the image was uncertain

The robed one nodded in response to

Lamaraz's unspoken desire and moved to a

shelf where he gathered vials and jars

of green herbs blue leaves gray stalks

each with a label in unknown script yet known

He needed not to look upon those labels

for he knew that Enki had done him right

and with another nod he sank into the earth

leaving Enki to his psychic studies

Footnotes:

6 - A word from Dakish meaning an irresistible summoning or calling to go somewhere or to do something. Closest to divine inspiration, which is the drive to act not because you want to, but because you have to.

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 13

2011-04-27T20:30:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

There was the clearing of which he knew before his eyes

by books and tomes of places

but also there was a building which should not be

The fabled pond which sprung life to the stalk was dead

and a building of vegetable matter

was a monument to the stalk's extinction

The dogs sprang from the lightless forest

onto the rugged leafless rock

and spirit sank into the earth

and having been risen twenty meters away

spirit saw old body jumped by dogs

and Lamaraz felt the pain

as his flesh was ripped from the bone

and the stone was sprayed with sticky scarlet

Spirit rose above the flood

and Lamaraz saw his bleeding body disintegrate into dust

as spirit was encased in flesh and bone

Soul and Mind moved to new body

and the dogs fled in fear of Unnatural

New flesh was shredded as old body was

before the reforming to dust and ash

Summoning inner will to move his limbs

he focused his mind and mumbled wordless words

over and over and over andc

`ROMULUT EUSEMUT ECOM DELATYED DUCYED' ⁴

and soul energy entered his body as its breathing mouths

closed themselves and stopped their endless murmuring

and Lamaraz stood one again

He searched around the building all

and to his eyes did no steel stalk appear

Sound of familiar dogs echoed in his ears

and shouts of men quickly followed

The men came out oforest gray

with the dogs in front with jaws agape

The strangely adorned men had metal devices

atop their heads with wires and knobs sprouting from

and in their hands were held strange looking daggers

with holes in the tips and made from yellow metal

The men pointed these devices at Lamaraz

and rays of light erupted from their length

They stretched along the twenty paces to reach

the flesh of the naked seeker of herbs

and continued their path until they reached the vegetable house

Lamaraz did not feel their path and ignored the dog-leaders

his hands reached for the distant

plant-life wall and he focused the energy of the soul

and chanted such wordless words to further this focusing

`LAXOCUTAG DINOCATOC DELAUB' ⁵

and the wall did his bidding

and he journeyed into Reczhac Dask

The room was illuminated by globes

similar to those in mountain caves

but these emitted an orange glow

which covered the room like a cloak of the same hue

and the plants reformed behind him

Footnotes:

4 - Translated from Dakish as "Magic life, enter my body."
5 - Translated from Dakish as "Plants, you will move away from me."

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 12

2011-04-25T20:30:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The mist rose from the forest earth

to collect around the ash of stumps

and the clumped form around Tree

stood above the mist

fell to the starry heavens

grasping for mother ash

The clump of flesh moved from Tree

but could not go further than his grasp on the herbs

Stirred by this action flesh awoke

and withdrew the herbs from the tree

Suddenly to the surprise of the eyes of flesh

the sturdy Iron dissolved and dissipated to dust and ash

the remains of fire and disaster

Thus all trees were identical

Thus all trees were stumps of char

and the vision was forgotten as mist in the breeze

vanishes from the eyes of the onlooker

Vivacity and vigor rippled through flesh

who was naked and held the likeness

of Lamaraz the Mage with magic and life restored

He roused himself from the sleep

and stood upon the ash of the oasis

next to a pond of sludge with

fish dead upon its slick unstirring surface

Hard-skinned Lamaraz dropped the herbs from

the clutches of his steel vice grip

and sank into the mud and ash

to rise again from the earth

on the border between Water and Earth and Air

where the sea runs its endless drift

thundering to pound on coastal mud

with breeze running along its journey

with the flavor of salt and Ahto in its midst

He looked about the sandy beach

and saw a gray forest with a gigantic vegetable building

looming in the background as a sneese hangs on in the nose

Thirty paces he went on the beach of grain

and thence went twelve paces on the grassy mud

to enter that jungle of blacky-white with a hint of green

The forest trees reached forty meters to the air

and were packed together in close-knit families

The sound of dogs was kissed in the wind

as the sun is hinted at by the moon

Lamaraz knew that there was a clearing on this shadowy isle

near the foot hills of the mountains to the north

away from the whistles of curs

So north he went to find the steel stalk

and the screams of wild dogs rang out through the forest

So north he ran from the terror fangs

but faster north came the fury c/fur

Lamaraz knew the clearing not far ahead

so faster his legs went across the treacherous terrain

dodging the towering trees Stopped

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 11

2011-04-22T20:30:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Rosy-fingered Dawn awoke on the knoll

with her digits stretching into the sky

blocked by thick and pendulous clouds

and rain was foretold in the scent of the sky

Æolus urged his beasts still faster

and they raced across the ground carrying with them

sand that had not been moved in a hundred years

They bit into the leather of Lamaraz

who awoke at the snarl of the mighty Creatures

`As told in accurate pages of history

there has never been such weather in this place

Never' thought Lamaraz in complete and Orange Fear

In the wind he heard the sounds of battle

raging between two colossal titans

coming from below the knoll just behind Tree

As he went around this Iron

he noticed snow on what was once burning grass

around the slag of stumps

The wind suddenly stopped

as Lamaraz spotted two great figures

one wearing a cloak of black goat fur

the other wearing a loincloth of red

held up by a great leather girdle

with a silver buckle upon it

which held a strange golden symbol upon it

a vertical scepter in the middle of

a recurve bow with the string pointing up

It aroused ancient thoughts in Lamaraz

as though the past was will be the key to this enigma

so he stored it for future passed recall

This same man in the red of a loincloth

held in his hands a magnificent sword

on which the blade had an eerie blue glow to it

throbbing to a beat like a heart as if the

thing had Life und Consciousness own

The height reached one and a half meters

The head had fangs a pair of brazen horns

shimmering from the cloudy sun

and the eye was a dark blue gem

which glittered off the snow like the morning star

which casts away the darkness back into its infernal abyss

The cloakéd man stood at almost two meters tall

and he too carried a sword of magic

but this weapon did not quite reach an arm in length

Its long curved black blade appeared to absorb

the light that both fell from the sky

and reflected off the powder'd snow

Its hilt carried a short crossbar

with the semblance of wings of bats

and a handle just barely long enough to fit

two hands upon such a wicked weapon

The two monstrous forms charged from forty paces

with blades ripping the distance between them

as a tiger rips its wild prey

The bat wing sword was far lighter and quicker

than its bastard brother slow and heavy

Fast jabs and quick parries out sped its adversary

but the wielder of the Great Sword had youth

His young form moved with ease from the vengeful

Bat while great weapon Blue

sieged mighty blows to his other

This battle continued with no blows to weaker flesh

but suddenly the youth flipped out of the way of the bat

and drew a main gauche of sturdy steel

and the wielder of the bat beamed

Goat crouched for Youth's charge

and slashed Bat and parried Bat

with dagger but resisted not the slash

hit true its target across the belly of Youth

and Blue slid into Goat in an orgasmic scream

slipping through the black gore of innards

The blood ran from the carcass

free at last from that cage of flesh

and dropped to the ground as a waterfall roars into the sea

to traverse the currents crossed by ships

to only end up in the river again

to fall off the falls

But the Bat-wielding Goat did not flinch

and promptly shaved the head off Youth

and pulled himself out of his love-lock with the headless one

and removed the sword from his belly

and picked up the head and body and swords

and removed himself by mending cloak

to disappear into dust and Beast Creature summoned by Æolus

picked up again in speed carrying with it

the sand of ages then sliced flesh into ribbons

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 10

2011-04-20T20:30:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

The oasis was warm with a cool breeze

blowing through the tall tropical trees

rustling the leaves like

the sound of a sea at low tide or as

water sprays into the heavens

to drop onto sandy beaches

The pool of water by these trees

had tiny ripples curling over its surface

making noises on its journey none could hear

too gentle was that summer zephyr

to summon a water sound

Next to that Ahto element

was a field of grass and trees

Next to that was a pool of sand

from whence now did a head rise

The head grew shoulders and then a chest

and then a waist and then a pair of legs

to end with feet in full height of a man

naked with roots in his callused hands

He deposited the roots in Tree

to join with the orange orchids

Ulangar felt his energy sapped

weakened from spilling on frivolous rugs

The meat on his bones hung limp as fish

rotting on lines strung out in the sky

having not rested his gems for many a fortnight

So against Tree sat he

and rested his heavy head upon the Iron

and the jewels went dim

Lamaraz awoke on the sand

it was not cold as he expected it to be

He smelled carbon in the air

as black smoke rose into the heavens from the knoll

The spot of life in the field of lifelessness was burning

Racing up to the top of the oasis

Lamaraz saw the pool of water

burning in blue flame

the light which the gas of fossils gives when ignited

The grass and trees too were dancing in flame

like wheat waving in the wind

Lamaraz tried to knit prevention

but no wool did his Soul possess

So the fire licked its vile tongue about the sanctuary

in a lazy dance which moved from this spot to that spot

never returning to a once spent spot

But then he saw Tree

untouched by fire and heat

Beautiful emerald leaves glistened in the haze

and monotone solid Iron

refuge to the herbs

All rage and sorrow left him

leaving an empty cinder

He looked inside the womb of Tree

to see his herbs unharmed by flame

So Lamaraz settled down around Tree again

and Shai-Maât blessed his spirit with her breath

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 9

2011-04-18T20:30:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

He started to go into his mystic trance

to go to the lands of King Surthur

and his followers the Fire Giants

to gain the fire root

Into the earth he fell

gliding among the rocks and dirt

to rise again on the northern part of the

Krox Peninsula east of the Braken desert

in a small ravine with a stream

that traveled in a southern direction

into the heart of the Red Swamp

The walls of the ravine stretched

up to a full twenty feet

not smooth but broken and crumbling

Lamaraz decided to follow the nameless creek

on its muddy shores

and for a hundred kilometers he traveled

watching the fish in the rivulet

flowing down small falls

with the current of the brook

leaping and diving through the warm water

Down the gentle slope of the bank went he

until he came to a lake one kilometer wide

where the creek and other waterways intersected

with a large river named the Phlegethon

where the temperature is always

ninety-eight degrees Celsius

heated by pits of molten earth

near the surface of Siglar

It is here that the Fire Giants

had their mill one of thousands

operating by wind and gravity

which added ingredients

to the lake to make it nutritious and good

to the owners of the mill

but poison to all else

This same solution surrounds the

coast of the Brakenia and Unikul to the north

where these Giants first began to spawn

It is a gelatinous hot substance

which the Fire Giants learned to make

to move themselves from the Sea of Dust

once bountiful and beautiful

until Prince Krutan spoke that Sacred Name

These figures were at work at the mill

standing half again to Lamaraz

Three meters they stood

with shoulders the length of an arm span

and biceps the size of boulders

The muscles coiled under flesh

like pythons ready for the kill

or springs prepared to pounce with titan power

Their flesh was fire frozen in space

and plastered onto muscles and tendons

as a decorator would apply wallpaper

They had scales resembling flames

shaped like triangles with colors

of red and white and yellow and orange

and straight copper wire for hair

which was bent down their neck

These gigantic men transported brown sacks

of ingredients used to make the poison

not small as small goes

nor big as big goes

just the size of a mature bovine

Lamaraz knew that south of the mill

the Red Swamp loomed just beyond Anshar and Kishar

It was there that the fire root blossomed

by the nutrition of the poison of the giants of flame

It was there he must go

into the middle of the land of these giants

where death held its grim face

in every sloshy footstep

So he went south

where he concealed himself in the brush of the quagmire

against the ever probing eyes of the Giants of Fire

The sludge was acid

hot and fiery and burning

deteriorating unprotected flesh

but the skin of Lamaraz

was hardened by the Desert and Shimir'Leh

which leaves its leathery brand

for all to see for the rest of the victim's life

The liquid also gave off a putrid odor

a combination of roses and mustard gas and sulfur

The brush held many stalks of Flågna

the source of the fire root

Thousands of these weeds covered the marsh

standing one and a half meters

and many did Lamaraz pull

and removed them from the root

Lamaraz after grabbing a handful of the root

was about to meld into the earth

but there was no Earth nor Water

only Air and Fire

So north he went into the dirt and Earth

constantly cautious of the Giants

He went unseen he left unseen

and he faded into the earth unseen

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 8

2011-04-15T20:37:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Meanwhile the students of Norkain proceeded

to trace Ulangar's flight

His craft had left a clever trail

that could be identified and shown as to

where he went through weaving reeds

They found that he went south into the desert isle

where death lay in the toxic strait

By boat they went for the isle

from the hollow mountain Möxien

through the Viscous Sea

No longer did they have a mentor to study from

so no other needs did arise

One boat went for that isle of sand

Thirty students searched for the traitor

A score and ten young men had revenge to strike

its vicious fist upon the deceitful boy

Through Surthur's potion they went

onto the isle of the desert Unikul

to search for signs of the student

One year they spent searching fruitlessly

until one day when a triumvirate discovered the oasis

with a naked man holding herbs

with dark scarred skin standing in its middle

He dropped his orange flowers

and attacked the three students

The students drew knives

weak ceremonial daggers composed of metals unwarranted for battle

Blades snapped like twigs on hard dark skin

Hands grasped heads and skulls smashed skulls

Naked feet knock scribes down

spilling the purple gore across the sand

Serpent arms splintered necks

leaving twisted bodies twitching in the dust

Over this carnage did Lamaraz look

old friends and new found enemies

stared death back at their slayer

from broken bodies and bloody flesh

Lamaraz did not enjoy this

These dead who he once called brothers

should not have died such poor deaths

Fratricide is not a part of war and glory

but a part of nothing greater than madness

He threw the broken bodies into the water

and gathered up his petals

and stored them in Tree

and sung a word a spell about them

to protect them from the toils of time and life

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 7

2011-04-13T20:33:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

He sat on the knoll to meditate

to concentrate on the location

His body surged with mystical energy

his physical form melded with the earth

so the body could not be distinguished from the ground

In this Lamaraz could move to any location

in an eye bat which touches the surface Mother

He moved his essence to the desert the Sea of Dust

called so by the visitors of the water rich world

but was also named Brakenia

by the tribe with its name the desert men

Lamaraz was near the northern border mountains

the Immobile Great Dunes

which separated the desert from the sea

`South' he spoke to himself

`South is the land of the Desert Orchid

that blooms in the desert night

and the petals are colored

as an artist fills the sky

or the sunset reflected off the purple sea

South is where I must go'

And so spoke Lamaraz and south he went

South to the kingdom of the Dark Folk of the Desert

South he went into the burning desert

Sweating his precious water into the

ever thirsty sand and south he went

to see his clothes of organic life

burn into cinders before his eyes

This is when Lamaraz stopped

and this same Lamaraz sat

as the burning sphere of flame

descended below the western mountains

like a lower jaw slowly sinking

its teeth into a green ripe apple

These same mountains were crossed

over a century ago from the west

by Asu the king

searching for more land to conquer

only to see his men conquered by

sand and husband sun

Lamaraz slowly crept into a trance

to quench his burning thirst

for that all too precious element

water

He also took control of his body

to make it cool so sweating was needless

But the sun was lost behind the mountains

and the desert cooled

and creatures of the night slipped out of their burrows

and Lamaraz became cold

having been robbed of his precious heat

that but one hour ago he hated bitterly

and the desert cooled

and creatures of the night slipped out of their burrows

and men walked the dunes

They came from their caves

to be predator to the creatures

On their journey they encountered this solitary man-boy

a very unusual thing for these tribal people

They assumed that his tribe had died entire

and he the lone survivor

Naturally since he was without tribe

they attacked the man-boy

threatened his life with death

but their leader halted them

and spoke in a strange language

with a rumbling voice that echoed through the valley

soothing the earth as the thunder rolls the sky

`This is not one of the Desert

This man-child is too water-heavy

and yet wears no clothes

The Water-Borne cannot walk this deep

into the Desert and survive without their clothes

I say we question him

then discover if he is worthy to take Yama's gift as his own'

Thus the chieftain recited with his voice so raspy

and the tribe descended upon Lamaraz without noise

and bound him without disturbing his trance

and went into their piles without disturbing the sand

Inside these caverns below the artic sands

were spheres with mixtures of different sands

that made an eerie green glow by no fire

that penetrated the moonlessstarlessdarkness

to reveal forms rushing into a chamber

The six shadow forms carried

a man-mass on their shoulders

as one would carry a carpet

Upon entering this portion of the caverns

the shadows set the mass onto a mist-like chair

and made shine the glowing globe upon his eye

which roused the mass from slumber sweet

and proceeded to ask him questions

in their native desert tongue

Again and again they lashed him

with their harsh mouths and vicious tongues

But Lamaraz looked at the shadow men dumbly

as a rodent listens to the compromises of a woman

or as a rock flinches to the overzealous storm

who proclaims its power by displaying the might of its ruler

A MAN came out of the shadows

and the questions ceased

as all eyes followed the mad-like dance the new one strode

There was only Lamaraz chained to the chair

and the man wearing a necklace and grim age

who looked on at Lamaraz

studying his features and movements

In an odd dialect of the common language

the man spoke hoarsely yet gently yet deeply to him

with eyes to match the peace of the throat

`From what clan do you come

You do not have the dark thick skin of the Desert's People

Nor the dark false-skin your people wear

when intruding upon our domain

Instead you are naked

water-rich and smell of demon-wind

and have been in Deep Desert for at least one day

and are alive How

Answer our questions Baka

and we may grant you a quick and painless death

which is far more pleasant than the merciless

Shimir'Leh goddess of the sand and all its perils

can grant you'

After this was said

Lamaraz stared at the leader

and he did with bent lip respond

`I do not belong to any clan

I am free to wander the isles

I do not have the dark thick Hide

that resembles the sand and your gods

I wear no clothing

because it was scorched off my flesh in the Glory

I have survived the desert day nude as do you

for I have my magic to summon the precious Ahto elixir

to quench the fires in my voice

and to cool my earthen flesh

imagine the power I conceal in this water-rich flesh

I only wish to obtain flowers in bloom

the orchids of the desert men

the Brakenia'

Such words did Ulangar speak

thoroughly shocking the man of the dunes

the Genimaitor

who thought How could one man

summon the powers of Frezina

the goddess of life and water and the moon

This one Genimaitor realized that

he could do nothing to this stranger

but allow Shimir'Leh to do

what the Fates told her she would do

as was written so long ago

in the Scrolls of the Law of Kulsus

It was she to decide not himself

So the one of the Nine was released

to do as the goddess of the desert willed

And he wandered for uncountable days

in the scorching heat of light

And he wandered for uncountable nights

in the freezing chill of darkness

He did gain the dark skin of the desert people

that he would show for the rest of his days

and his heart hardened as did his flesh

until both had the strength of steel

tempered by the oil of the sand

and he continued to wander

until he came to the Watch

the edge of the plateau of the desert

and the edge where life and death

met at the gigantic cliff

It was here on the verge of death and starvation

that flowers bloomed

They blanketed the cliff edge in orange

and Lamaraz went about to reap children

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 6

2011-04-11T20:32:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

It was here that this one Lamaraz

sought to make a weapon

`I must make myself a talisman

One that can store the energies of magic

and one that can be used as a weapon

I shall make myself a sword

but this sword cannot be made from ferrus substance

for the waves of magic cannot mix with steel

only that stuff borne from seed

so the herbs shall be the medium of the sword

Besides herbs are far better than steel

if woven with knowledge and skill

They have magical effects themselves

so little energy of me is required for this rite

I must have one herb to use as the form

within it can be herbs with special properties

Around that form must be the green herbs of Hordac

these shall make a field of mystical energy

that makes it invulnerable to all physical attacks

They also make the blade

Sharper than the finest steel

able to cut through nearly anything

except the soul of the body itself

The mixture of herbs to make the main weapon

is to contain the fire root of Surthur

and his fiery kingdom of giants

The property of this potato shall engulf

the base weapon with a fiery tongue

The next herb is the blue leaf

of the Northern Barbaric regions

which gives the weapon a resistance

to the magical effects of other persons

The orange flower petals of the orchid

of the Brakenia the Desert Men

that sacred bloom which fills but one field

shall give this weapon the ability to

regenerate its magic

The main herb is the

Steel Stalk of the Islands of Iron

which shall make the sword as adamantine

The herbs then are separate in body

but must be forged into one

by the anvil of the earth

the fire of my soul

and the hammer of my mind'

These things having been thought Lamaraz sought those herbs

listed in his mind in a manner to not lose it

`The first Prize of the quest was will be

the orange orchid in the deep desert

where nothing lives save Men made from sand

This shall be the first for it is the most difficult to attain

the Brakenia the desert men take not lightly to its capture

for they have been known to slaughter

and scourge and mangle those who

seek to snatch these sons in bloom

Thus it is the first Prize

for if this is failure ending with final death

(as that is the true failure of a man

to die before his time has come)

then I need not toil for the others'

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 5

2011-04-08T12:45:00.001-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

Lamaraz glared at the old sage and responded

spitting hatred and malice through his eyes and lips

`You would call me Probationer

or as in the old language UDDU

You who are only on the circle of SARU

would call a MUXXISHA mage apprentice

Tell me you jest old fool'

Norkain questioned the truth of Lamaraz's words

and Lamaraz showed Norkain the rings he wore

Nine rings on his two hands

One ring for each circle

One left thumb empty for a

blue onyx ring with the two words

`NARILUGACTIM BANRAB' ¹

written on the gem in the old script

now only known to a handful of historians and scattered scribes

Norkain fell dead at one phrase by Lamaraz

`LENTUTOTIP MAGENATYED CIMYED' ²

With the library at his back

flames erupting forth and belching hot breath

Lamaraz closed the door behind him

concealing the door into stone of the cavern tunnel

In seconds the apprentice scribes were on him

everywhere

They beat et bruised Lamaraz

was not able to mumble many spells

`USERAL UNIKULUP' ³

which transported him southwest of

the cave of Norkain

onto a knoll of trees in the center

of a fruitless drifting desert

named by the ancients as Unikul

for its relentless strength

was the only one he could sing

Footnotes:

1 - Translated from Dakish as "The unreachable ring."
2 - Translated from Dakish as "Leave your soul behind."
3 - Translated from Dakish as "Call me to the Unikul."

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 4

2011-04-06T12:40:00.001-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996.

It is here that this Lamaraz learned of herbs

for herbalism was not considered magic

The first day he was initiated into the school

given the gray cloak of the Probationer and

given his secret name

Ulangar

wherein could be divined his sacred life

He was shown around the school

which consisted of caves and tunnels inside

the magnificent mountain called Möxien

The rooms of the cave inhabited by crawling-things

were lit by burning herbs but the hallways

were black with an herb sludge smeared on the walls to

give it a dim iridescent glow that smelled of bilge

To battle this pungency the initiates tended bowls of incense

ingeniously selected to cancel the horrific scent

just as sound can destroy sound

On the second week at the school

this Lamaraz discovered that his teacher

entered a hidden cavern at night

to practice the condemned art of magic

Lamaraz studied him for one month

to discover his patterns his ploys

Norkain went once for three days into that cave

and failed to enter after for four days

So Lamaraz went on those vacant days

to learn the secret way of the magius

The chamber was covered wall to wall

ceiling to floor in wood

with rows and rows of shelves

Covering every imaginable space on these

were antiquated tomes not lost

to the political whim of the day

Therein he learned of the secrets of magic

that there were ten levels of magic

The lowest for the Neophyte is UDDU

The second is called NERGALIM

The third is named SARU

The fourth is called EPADUN

The fifth circle is attained as

a great point for it is the middle of magic

and it is called GIL

The sixth circle is named IRKINGU

The seventh circle is called ASHARRU

The eighth circle is named BALDIKHU

The ninth circle is called MUXXISHA

The tenth circle and the final circle

is not named for only three people known have

attained to this lofty position and never were seen again

This circle is the hardest to attain

for there are the ten the Bovaks

who control magic and all who use it

It is they who grant the increase of magical use

to those who gain another circle

and they give to one who attempts to enter

the Circle of Ten an impossible test

hinted at in ancient texts and molded scrolls

Lamaraz quickly learned how to effectively

harness the essence of his soul

thereby gaining to the Fifth circle

the circle named GIL

in no less than eight days

And in twenty more days

he had gained the rank of the Ninth

the circle of magic called MUXXISHA

On the twenty-third day of his studying

in the ways of the magius

Lamaraz had completed the last of the

words recorded by Melek the Purple

one of the three that had completed the

impossible test of the Bovaks

Lamaraz realized that it did not explain

how Melek defeated his quest

let alone what the enigma was

Lamaraz would have then thrown the book in anger

and burnt the place to the ground

a shrine to the knowledge of men

for all to admire in its blazing glory

except that at this moment Norkain chose to enter

that secret alcove and spoke

`Ulangar you have been forbidden to enter here

as the rules have been put before you

since the time of your entrance

```Do not disturb the quarters of others'''

Your punishment is that of such an error

that has been made by an Probationer

expulsion'

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 3

2011-04-04T21:11:00.000-06:00

This continues the epic I wrote between 1991 and 1996. There may be some lines that look like typos (such as "andc"), but these were deliberate.

``Long ago before this world

before this universe there was a planet

an universe separate from our own

On this planet this glove of earth and sea

lived many creatures of the same origin

But one particular species on this world

was very close to your human race

They built structures of concrete and plants

transported themselves on beasts of burden

They warred amongst themselves

But in one aspect they were different

They studied the arts of the Body Whole

From the mind came psychic energy

from the soul came magical energy

from the body came physical energy

Amongst these people there was a myth

that the magical essence of men long dead

journey to one gaseous cloud just outside their atmosphere

This place was called Davinar of the faceless Moon

When that old Universe's end was near

the red having shifted to blue

The cloud condensed and grew conscious of itself

and split apart into ten brothers

each entity identical in form

Then these forms descended upon the globe

One piece of ten went into a street

cluttered with the aftermath of the looting of the town

It went to a woman who lay on the street

who slept with eyes shut and clothes torn

by the Man dressed in black and green

the colors of the Gastrov

the enforcers of the new faces of power

who dethroned the ancient line of kings

whose predecessors outlawed magic

and items that were used with this energy

they killed and prosecuted the mages

and destroyed the items of magic

but those that could not be destroyed

were buried deep in the earth

never to see the star of dawn again

The astral entity came up to the woman

unseen by unknown powers

and it entered into the womb of the woman

where it entered the now fertile egg

mixing and mutating the chemicals therein

forming something not as planned

The pregnancy lasted from the null moon to the full moon

and because of this rapid rate of development

the profesionals thought the babe a still-born

but the son was the only survivor of the ordeal

The babe was given to the aunt

where she nurtured him on Siglar

for three and one half revolutions when he appeared the

age of a sixteen year old

and had the intellect of a thirty year old

Many men of the scholarly way

wished to study this oddity of nature

but this aunt did not subdue to their wiles

Instead she sent him to the school

of Norkain the sage

the educator of the world of Siglar

when the first triad closed the books

and the new one bloomed

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 2

2011-04-01T21:01:00.000-06:00

This continues Book I of my epic, The Ulangar, which was written between 1991 and 1996. Over the years, the original letters were lost between text file format changes. I've done my best to keep the originals by comparing the files against the last printed versions I have.

The flaming moon ascended to the Stars

carrying with it the essence of Ra's sacred Light

which reflected into the eyes of two companions

one man one woman

with weapons clutched in their fists

The flat stone around they dug

moving points of scorched earth glistening in the dark

The man of the party when the glass was turned

chanted a song of an ancient rhyme

causing basal memories to be aroused in men

And the moon climbed higher

that crafty glinting moon ever watching

how beautiful in origin yet malign in manifestation

Time raced by as would a starving eagle in pursuit of prey

the victim would fall upon the ground

and fail to dodge the searing talons

grasping at its throat

eating its liver again and again

A bolt of blue burst from the yellow clouds

and descended upon the earthen gravel

and enveloped the mighty rock

O shimmering rune covered stone

how thy weight doth disguise thy purpose

Up the black monolith rose into the sky

as mist falls from the moistened mud

Into the clouds it rose

far away from the meddlings of men

opening a vast hole on the plane

painted in the darkest hue

with shape undreamed in Elucid's word

Now did smells and sounds of the darkness rise to the earth

moving those not feeling blind

The none let go the dying ground

and buried their bodies into the soot

Endless journey to the Gate

unlocked with Silver Key

Both were neither here nor there

yet they floated with wind in their glory

trembling in the Cold

bundled about them

touching them like no other had

lovers are like strangers to the Cold and None

The woman did open her gems to black

and saw before her a gigantic gate

double doors made of precious stuff

lapis lazuli and jasper and open

revealing a floor of silver and gold

below mysteries unnamed and yet unsolved

The air contained remnants of

a presence of jasmine and rose

She also saw a great phantasm

clicking in the dark

scratching in the night

the Shadows hid in fear of the gate

not one fell upon it to hinder the Gate's glory

as a beacon refuses to be slain by the rolling fog

The magléd face of Man did weep

His gems did view the Great Gate too

the Gate as his mind did view it

A Shadow moved out from the walls

cautious of each minute movement

avoiding e'r that monstrous lip

The None did perceive the Demon to speak

though no mouth was present upon his vaporous form

``Greetings to thee fair travelers from abroad

seekers of knowledge banned by thy Lords

There is only one way to leave this place

and he who possesses it is Knowledge

Thou may leave the grand city

whenever thou dost wish

But lest thou hast that sacred Knowledge

thou hast better follow me''

So thought the Terrible Shapeless One

and the darkness proceeded into the city

Woman with eyes Open did perceive

a sign on the brilliant Gate

and laughed to herself with Wisdom

and Man shook and trembled away from his Gate

weeping into the palace

Upon their entrance into the Blasted Tower

decorated with burning men and impaled bodies

twitching in their eternal life

Darkness did mutter ``Soon we shall pass

the Chamber of Doors

guarded by the Silent One

He sits in a corner with pleas for help

and screams of agony unceasing

The blacken'd walls with chis'léd windows

of faces twisted in endured anticipation

this his only sight

Rotting corpses and stale vomit

this his only odor

A knotted throne

this his only seat''

Indeed the Silent One did sit alone

in the corner of the circular room

three thousand meters in diameter

and a doméd ceiling half that distance

A white ring was before him and behind him

ten and three meters arc

A window next to the chair was mumbling

``The Tale The Tale

Tell me The Tale

The Tale The Tale''

and he sat without word or movement

The Shadow moved to a door on the wall

and led the pair to a sign a pact

and the window whispered ``The Tale The Tale''

and Lamaraz shifted his head

and the door did close

and the Silent One opened his maw

to begin a story

The Ulangar: Book I, Part 1

2011-03-28T20:50:00.006-06:00

ARGUMENT: This is the Book of Origins, where all things begin and all things meet their opposites.

Death and War I dream

of the Stars and Spirits of night

with brilliance high within

high without

And of Ulangar

the god-child who shaped mankind

the mortal who warred against the

hated One of man and beast

Oh Muse of my inner eye

under the brow of thy heavy foot

wilt thou not offer thy gift

illuminate my senses

Let me clutch that vision in my hand

to cultivate and bloom into words

still remembering that Vision of beauty

how glorious in answer

Allow my ears to hear thy kisses

let me grasp thy voice in my deepest mind

lest I loose it to the rampant winds of time

Beget my ideas and nurse them to manhood

else the whole will be for naught

Touch these weary hands and let them live

how grand the voice to give such vibrance

Exalted by thine name oh my Muse

without whom the sages lose wisdom

hounds are deaf and kings are beggars

Only thy words matter in this shriv'led

life so naked before thy touch

Envelop us in thy cloak and staves

one stave of joy one stave of sadness

for what means this dust without you

The answer lies beyond my reach

how your grasp as kept me tight

eliminating my fears and woes

Life is everything with thee

and nothing

without thee

The Ulangar: Introduction

2011-03-28T20:32:00.008-06:00

No, this blog isn't abandoned. It's just been inactive.

I'm going to continue this by posting up some of my old writing, starting with a big one - the epic that I half completed under the pen name "Viktur Conan Slayson". It's one of those works that took me the better part of 6 years to write, then I essentially abandoned it when my time suddenly disappeared due to work. When I went back to it, I realized that I had become a different person than the one who started working on it. As such, I don't feel that I can properly finish it.

This beast went through an uncountable number of revisions. It started as a dream, I wrote that down as a five page sketch for a story, then started writing it out as a story board for a movie, then switched over to the poetic epic after I started studying different ones. I invented a poetic form, created parts of a musical score for it, half created a language, wrote a copy paper box full of notes, and there's even some parts that are good. It was intended to have a 10 book structure, with an eleventh book addendum; I completed up to book 4 and the beginning of 5, and have notes for the rest of it.

The introduction to the work, which I won't post here, was the poem from Horace's Odes, Book III, 30.

Making a Webcomic - Retrospective

2009-06-19T07:31:00.001-06:00

It's been well over a year since I started my own webcomic, and about 7 months since it ended. Along with this, I've started working on collaborative webcomics. That's given me time to do some navel-gazing.

Here's some things I would do differently:

Don't require people to create an account and log in, just to post comments. That really limits the community base that can be created.
Don't be afraid to use that joke. This comic was an attempt at a mapping joke, and I was tempted to turn it into a reference to the "minefield" Windows game. In retrospect, I should have gone there. There are many other instances of this throughout the comic.
But don't re-hash old jokes that you've already made. That's a gimmie.
Don't finish on a broken link. Yeah, that "Lightning Made of Owls" link is broken. I could fix it, or put a redirection web page there, but instead I'll leave it as a monument to this.

Here's some things I think I did right:

Start it. I had been wavering on starting this, and I'm glad I did.
Give the project a definite scope. I decided to keep myself within the single movie, which meant I only had a limited amount of story to go on. It's not an open-ended project - those kinds of things end up being abandoned.
Give myself a deadline.
Finish it.

A New Webcomic

2008-06-01T20:26:00.004-06:00

I've been irritated at myself for constantly consuming content, and decided that I wanted to change that.

In response, I created a project I've been considering for a long while: The Bloody Nipple Saga. It's a webcomic in the spirit of Shamus Young's DM of the Ring and David Morgan-Mar (et al)'s Darths and Droids.

Yes, it's been a while since I started it, but I wanted to make note of this here.

My Mid-Life Crisis: A Unicycle

2008-01-28T23:48:00.000-06:00

I finally did it. I hit my mid-life crisis and bought a unicycle. What I find fascinating is that, despite the difficulty of learning to ride one in my 30s, I'm finding myself dedicated to learning it.

I finished day 7 of riding it, and I'm able to travel about 6 feet without holding on to anything. Not consistently, but it's a definite sign of improvement.

A Solution to the Debate over Marriage in the US

2007-11-30T20:48:00.000-06:00

I live in the blue dot in the middle of Texas, so the legal issue over what "marriage" means is hotly debated in bumper stickers. There's the "marriage = one man and one woman" camp and the "gay rights" camp.

I have an answer to this whole debate. It seems to me that the whole issue around this debate stems from marriage being a religious union. Since the U.S. government is supposed to have a separation between church and state, I propose that marriage be removed from the law.

So, if you want to be married, by all means go ahead. It's your decision. But the law shouldn't have any special language about it.

However, there should be special accommodations for families. What makes it so special when two unrelated people want to live together, as opposed to, say, two brothers? Yeah, the two unrelated people generally have children, but there's all kinds of circumstances where children are raised by people other than their natural parents.

Blogging A Novel

2007-07-31T19:26:00.000-06:00

I've been turning a fantasy world in my head for many months, now. Recently, I've been making notes on the world, and otherwise trying to assemble it into a coherent form. Then, the inevitable happened.

I added a story.

I created a general outline for a story, added a few rough characters, and now I've got the itch (again). This time I might make it happen.

I'm starting now with exploring the world's people and parts of its history through legends and myths. I'll merge this, soon, with a character study, of which some may enter the main story, others may move into historical characters, and others may be thrown out. I'll also work on the story sketches.

My point of this post reflects a desire to start putting up some of the fleshed out stories that come out of these initial sketches. I'll see where it goes.

Looking Back At My Old Works

2007-07-07T23:45:00.000-06:00

I've recently gone back to look over a screenplay I wrote back in about 2001. It's a slow moving thriller (okay - a yawner) about a set of conspiracy groups all fighting it out over a hidden religious secret which turns out to be the direct descendants of Jesus.

After realizing that I could have cashed this in for millions, I started to rewrite it based around the Key of Solomon. Then I found that Dan Brown wants to turn this into a novel, too. Further investigations show that what I'm really looking to focus on is that .'. (3 dot triangle) symbol used in occult order names, which symbolizes both a mystical secret and that the order knows the Lost Word of Masonry.

I'll see where this next revision takes me.

Iraq War Was For Oil?

2007-07-06T19:47:00.000-06:00

I've been wondering something lately. I've been hearing more and more talk of late that the U.S. went into Iraq for oil. However, I wonder how much oil the U.S. has sent to Iraq for the war. I mean, Iraq doesn't have oil refineries in any kind of capacity to supply itself. That means the U.S. planners had to burn oil to send out the troops and equipment, they had to send oil to power all the vehicles and generators that keep the troops working in their long shifts on patrol, and they had to burn oil to send the oil to the troops and equipment.

So, just how much oil was the U.S. supposed to "win", and how much have the U.S. planners had to burn to get that oil? I don't have the resources to find out personally, but I think it's still an interesting question.

Deeper Look Into Past Presidents

2007-01-26T14:52:00.000-06:00

So, I was curious as to the other previous presidents and their career before becoming president.

Dwight Eisenhower: Supreme Commander of NATO right before becoming President.
Harry Truman: Senator, then VP to FDR.
FDR: Senator, then Governor of New York, then President.
Herbert Hoover: Secretary of Commerce, then President.
Calvin Coolidge: Governor of Massachusetts, VP, then President.
Warren Harding: the first sitting Senator to become President.
Woodrow Wilson: Governor of New Jersey, then President.
Williant Taft: Secretary of War, then President.
Teddy Roosevelt: Governor of New York, VP, then President.

And so on.

My First Run With A Mod Tracker

2007-01-26T12:12:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned earlier, I've been playing around with Mod Trackers for authoring and remixing music. As I've discovered, it all depends upon getting really high quality samples. A few days ago I finished my first attempt at one of these. The mixing needs some work, but overall I'm fairly happy with the outcome.

Now I just need to find some way to get that file onto this site...

Senators Should Stop Running For President

2007-01-23T13:48:00.000-06:00

Has anyone else noticed that current U.S. senators just aren't elected president? You have to go all the way back to JFK before you find a President who wasn't in the Executive Branch before becoming President. Here's a quick rundown of the list:

George W. Bush: Govenor of Texas
Bill Clinton: Govenor of Arkansas
George H. W. Bush: Senator, yes, but also was Director of The CIA under Ford, and was Vice President before being elected President.
Ronald Reagan: Govenor of California
Jimmy Carter: Govenor of Georga
Gerald Ford: Congressman, then VP, then President.
Richard Nixon: Congressman & Senator, then VP, then President.
LBJ: Senator, then VP, then President.
JFK: Senator then President.

All the recent Senator candidates should just quit, and the party conventions should stop voting them in.

A Meta-Blog

2007-01-07T15:26:00.000-06:00

I've started a category for this blog called "meta-blog," and retroactively adjusted some category names. Just as "meta-data" is data about data, a "meta-blog," then, would be a blog about blogs. Although, like this post, I mix terms and blog about blogging. That makes me wonder, what would the verb be for blogging about blogging? I'd probably just end up "verbing" the word nad say "meta-blogging."

("Verbing" is my term for turning a noun into a verb, such as "benchmarking" or "blogging.")

This just makes me wonder just how much meta-blogging people do. Chalk me up on that list.

The Craft of Clapping

2007-01-06T15:03:00.000-06:00

Years ago, I worked as a stage hand for the José Greco Dance Company, back when José Sr. was still in the show (now, Pépé, his son, leads it). I learned there two forms of clapping - what they called the Flaminco style and the Arabic style. I found the different sounds they produced fascinating then, and I still practice and experiment with different clapping sounds.

The Arabic style was the easiest to learn. You shape your hands into a tiger-claw shape, and bring them together so that the fingers interlock. The sound is produced from the two cups of the palms coming together.

The Flaminco style, however, is much more difficult. In it, you bring the fingers from one hand over the cup of the second hand, and the second hand's heel hits the first hand's cup. The sound is very distinct, and appears in all kinds of Spanish music. I've been practicing it off and on for years, and I still have trouble finding the "sweet spot" that makes this sound.

Today, I happened to be wearing a cheap pair of latex gloves, and I found that wearing those while clapping added a nice "snap" to the sound.

Unfortunate Predictions

2007-01-04T01:36:00.000-06:00

Soon after the original movie Mission: Impossible came out, after I realized why Peter Graves wouldn't be caught dead in it, I started making jokes about what shows they'll turn into movies:

The Dukes of Hazzard
Starsky and Hutch
Miami Vice
Lost in Space
Shaft
The Mod Squad

Several more on my list I thought would be impervious to being brought to film. I found myself yesterday proven wrong for these (they're listed as in production):

Get Smart
CHiPs
The Prisoner
The A-Team

There's some that have been or are in planning for a new TV series that, with a little luck, will see a movie deal like Firefly did:

Battle Star Galactica
V

Here, I mean luck in that it'd be nice to see my list fill out. The few that are left on my list that I haven't heard about a movie deal are:

Space: 1999
Buck Rodgers
The Greatest American Hero
21 Jump Street
Cop Rock

I seriously doubt Space: 1999 will become a movie, but you never know. That's one of the reasons why I put it on my list.

I should have put on the bad cartoons I used to watch, because then I would have picked up Duddly Do-Right, Rocky & Bulwinkle, and Scooby Doo.

Here's to watching The Greatest American Hero movie in 2010!

A Journey through OSS Music Editors

2006-12-29T12:44:00.000-06:00

Lately, I've been playing around with different open source software (OSS) music editors, as well as freely available for personal use editors. I've had an itch for a while to get back into composing again, so I figured now would be a good time.

I experimented briefly with Windows-based editors. They seemed to be in the categories of either wave-based mixing programs or MIDI-based. A few of the MIDI ones allowed for limited, proprietary addition of wave channels, but they were fairly limited in their abilities.

The next thing I tried were MIDI-based programs for Linux, since I happen to run a Gentoo distro on my primary PC at home. Rosegarden looked the most promising, but all attempts at getting MIDI to work correctly failed me. Maybe I just don't know enough about it to get it working correctly.

So, finally, I settled down to learn a tracker. Some old school PC users out there may remember the old MOD files that played samples instead of FM synthesis for music. Anyway, for what I'm wanting to do, which includes possibly remixing songs, this looked like the best answer for my needs. Also, with the availability of free-for-use high quality sampled sounds on the Internet now, this is definitely a good way to go.

I'm using Milky Tracker right now, which is based on the old FastTracker 2. The tech behind creating tracker songs doesn't seem to have advanced much since the mid 90's, so I'm pondering developing a studio for music to try this out.

Arts Review: Dada Dora

2006-12-17T23:28:00.000-06:00

After watching Dora discover a lost city hidden by a translucent curtain, ride a train that uses colored sidewalks for tracks, and find a volcano that erupts rubber balls, I'm convinced that the show Dora the Explorer is a minimalist Dada experiment.

Now, Dora isn't not quite as minimalist as Maisy Mouse, but it doesn't have the detailed flair of Max Ernst. For instance, The Map uses simple repetition reminiscent of Philip Glass when describing the path that Dora must take. More so, when viewing multiple episodes as a whole work, the repetition of nearly every element brings one into almost a hypnotic trance; I've seen this in children first hand.

The Dada elements are straight forward to identify, such as when Dora's path is blocked by a sleeping red chicken the size of an office complex, and no one thinks to walk around the obstacle. Some are more subtle. It's common for the characters in the show to respond to one of the repetitious phrases with a dumb look, or to give longing glances to each other.

Overall, the work as a whole succeeds in creating a nearly abstract work out of familiar objects, injecting a social commentary through subtle character movements and repetition of the inane.

Movie Note: Barnyard

2006-12-16T23:17:00.000-06:00

With a young daughter, I've been screening quite a few kids films lately. Most are terribly dissapointing (Dougal), and a few are surprisingly good (Hoodwinked).

All I have to say about Barnyard is that I'm udderly confused (to use an over-used pun). It has cows, all with udders. The leading cow and its adopted parent call each other men, and use the masculine pronouns to refer to each other. I was ready to just mark it off as confused writers who didn't know about bulls, but there is at least one bull in the film, maybe two.

So the only conclusion I can draw from this is that the film is about gender-confused cattle coming-of-age and trying to find their place in the world. Either that, or someone should tell the writers that, for ungulates, only the females nurse their young.

I'm not going to even touch the Freudian implications of grown cattle drinking milk.

Movie Analysis: The Fountain

2006-12-15T13:29:00.000-06:00

Updated 18-Dec-2006, see in-line for their location.

I went to go see the film The Fountain (2006) a few weeks back, and I'm still thinking about it. To me, that's a sign that I consider the film worth discussing. I won't have this be a simple review - you can find those everywhere on the web. Instead, I'm more interested in studying and dicussing the details of the film.

Whether you hated the film or loved it, it must be said that the film contains layers of symbolism. Through the use of these symbols, I think writer/director Darren Aronofsky tries to tell a completely different story, though with the same message. I'm going to explore in this article the various symbols and how I use those to come up with a theory for the "real" story behind the film.

Don't read on if you haven't seen the film but want to. It's filled with spoilers.

As a refresher, the film runs the viewer through three "time lines", all identifiable by the amount of hair on the main character, Tom (played by Hugh Jackman). There's the Sixteenth century, super hairy Jackman, the Twenty-First century needs-a-shave Jackman, and the baldy Twenty-Sixth century Jackman. In each time frame, Tom struggles with coming to terms with his love's death, and in so doing, his own mortality.

My Theory

I believe that there is a fourth story, a "real story" in which Tom imagines the other three.

My theory for the "real story" runs like this. Tom is sitting at his desk in the research lab when his wife, Izzi (played by Rachel Weisz), asks him to take a break from his cancer research to go for a walk with her through the snow. Tom tells her he can't, because he needed to operate on a monkey. Tom then sits at his desk for a while, and ponders a "what-if" scenario - what if I work long and hard enough and find a way for us to live forever? This is where, to me, the film starts, with baldy Jackman thinking about that scene.

The movie then covers these three what-if scenarios (or symbolic journeys, or what have you) as they play out in Tom's mind. The film ends with Tom deciding that he would rather spend the remaining days with Izzi, enjoying her company, than to spend that time in research, even if he did find a miracle cure. Through this journey, Tom faces his own fears of death and learns to accept it, and thus accepts the loss of his wife.

I assume this mostly from at the end when he walks in the snow with Izzi, she hands him a nut to plant with her coffin, and in the last scene he has the same nut. He also says, "Goodbye," indicating his acceptance of her death. And if you look very, very carefully while he wipes the snow off the gravestone with this left hand, you'll see a gold ring on his finger, meaning he hasn't lost it (Updated on 18-Dec-2006 - discovered about the ring). There are other items to help back this up, which I'll get to at the end.

Analysis of The Symbols

In each of the three main stories, we have a set of reoccuring symbols. I'll briefly describe each here, followed by their connection inside each story. Note that most of them refer to standard Judeo-Christian symbols.

The Tree of Life: An obvious symbol, and central to the story. It represents eternal life.
The Wedding Ring: In each story, we have a wedding ring, though it manifests itself in the tatto of rings similar to the rings of a tree in the Twenty-Sixth century story. This represents Tom and Izzi being together. My wife suggested that it can also represent a promise.
The Flaming Sword: At the beginning, the film quotes from Genesis about how after Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, the entrance is guarded by an angel with a flaming sword. This common symbol stands as a barrier to Tom reaching eternal life. In the Sixteenth Century, Thomas encounters an Incan priest wielding a literal flaming sword. In the Twenty-First Century story, Tom must cope with scientific scrutiny over the tree bark's safety or applicability to curing cancer before he can give it to Izzi. In the Twenty-Sixth Century story, Tommy must battle time to keep the Izzi tree alive until they reach the nebula.
Garden of Eden: The Sixteenth Century Story has Thomas searching for the Tree of Life located in what they believe to be the Garden of Eden. Thomas finds this in the form of an ancient Incan temple. Twenty-Sixth Century Tommy journeys towards the Incan nebula Xibalba, which Izzi tells him represents the afterlife. Twenty-First Century Tom is a bit more confusing, but I think it's represented by Tom's hope for a time when Izzi is cured, but manifests itself as her grave in a farm.
The Failure: In the Sixteenth Century story, a ceremonial dagger was used to discover the location of the lost Incan temple that houses the Tree of Life, but it is used to pierce the Tree of Life, which leads to Tom being killed before he can reclaim the tree for Isabel. In the Twenty-First Century story, Tom loses his ring and replaces it with a tattoo using the pen Izzi gave him. In the Twenty-Sixth Century story, the bubble habitat that guides Tommy and the Izzi tree to the Incan nebula of the afterlife cannot sustain the tree's life long enough before reaching its destination

From these collected symbols, and odd references like the Incan priest calling Thomas "The First Father" (Adam Kadmon), I feel that these stories are Tom's attempt at framing his struggle with the acceptance of death question in the context of Adam and Eve attempting to re-enter the Garden of Eden and the blissful, eternal youth they enjoyed there. Tom must make a decision between following Izzi into the light towards death but happiness, or into the darkness for a doomed attempt to cure the human condition, as though to fight against "divine will."

Symbols in the Sixteenth Century Story

This story presents the most straight forward representation of the symbols, which seems appropriate since it's a classic quest/action story. As such, it seems the best vehicle to explain the Garden of Eden framework which Tom creates.

The story, we are told, was written by Izzi in the Twenty-First Century. From the title of the book, "The Fountain," I take it that we are to interpret this story as inspired by Juan Ponce De Leon's search for The Fountain of Youth in the swamps of Florida.

Thomas is offered a quest to save his queen from death if he finds the Tree of Life, and is offered matrimony (shown by the ring) with the queen if he returns successful. He uses a ceremonial dagger to guide his way to a lost Incan temple believed to be the Garden of Eden. Upon reaching it, he faces an Incan priest with a flaming sword. He passes once the priest recognizes the dagger and calls Thomas "The First Father." Thomas then goes to the Tree of Life, stabs the dagger into the tree, drinks from it, and transforms into flowers before he can put on the ring.

During this story, the Inquisitor makes an important speech about how death is what defines us as humans, and how the body is a prison for the soul, which draws parallels to the story Izzi tells of the Xibalba fable.

One reviewer noted distinct sexual connotations when Thomas jabs the tree with the dagger, and drinks its fluids. On one level, I can see parallels between the male as a dagger/pen and female as a tree, and the subsequent secretions of liquid that follow. To me, though, the tree sap looks more like the sap from rubber trees.

Note that Needs-A-Shave Jackman only read the book after his decision to remain in the lab and work separate from Izzi. From the persective of the above theory, this means we must interpret this story as Tom's ideas of Izzi's perspective on the situation, not as Izzi's direct perspective.

Symbols in the Twenty-First Century Story

In the Twenty-first Century story, Tom is presented with a decision to either follow his wife, Izzi outside and enjoy the first snowfall with her, or to throw himself at his work to help find a cure for Izzi's cancer. We see Izzi go outside, with the bright sunlight, but instead Tom decides to find a cure and goes stays in the dark underground research lab, losing his ring in the process. He discovers that the bark of a rare South American tree, which reverses the effects of aging on a monkey. Since the bark doesn't reverse the monkey's cancer, he keeps searching for a cure. Izzi dies right before Tom learns that the monkey's cancer went into recession. In a fit of depression, Tom tattoos the ring on his finger (during which Jackman gives the best performance I've ever seen on the screen). Tom goes to her funeral, but refuses to accept her death.

Through all this, Izzi talks about connecting points like the Incan nebula as an afterlife, the story of living forever by having a tree planted on your grave, and being burried in a farm. That, with Tom's refusal to accept her death, leads us to the next story.

I see this story as Tom thinking of a fanciful story where he seems to ask, "what if I do the impossible and find a cure for death?"

Symbols in the Twenty-Sixth Century Story

This one is probably the most complex of the stories. It seems to represent a metaphysical landscape of Tom's mind, where he explores the different ideas and memories that form his decision to be with Izzi. All the Lotus Flower and Nirvannah symbols stand out pretty obviously here, telling me that this is most definitely not to be taken literally as a space traveller. However, we see the Pen and ring-tattoo from the Twenty-First Century story, Tom is haunted by the memories of that time-line, and in this time he discovers the ending to Izzi's story. Also, I think the director went out of his way to make the audience think the tree was the one planted over Izzi's grave, possibly of the same tree variety that Tom used to discover the cure for aging.

In this story, Tommy spends his days meditating, practicing Tai Chi, eating from a tree, making ink, tattooing tree-like rings on his arms with the ancient remnants of Izzi's pen, and hallucinating, all while taking a several hundred year journey to the Orion nebula. Moments before they reach the nebula, the tree dies. At this point, Tommy has the "enlightenment" moment where he decides that he was wrong those years ago and should have accepted death.

Other Possible Symbols

There are other symbols which merit mention, and some others which I think have deeper meanings than just those explained above. Here I attempt to touch on those.

The Fountain of Youth: I note this one first because it seems significant by its absense. Both the title of the film and the book which Izzi writes are called "The Fountain," which, I assume, is meant to bring to mind the idea of the Fountain of Youth. However, The Fountain of Youth is never mentioned in the film.

Water: With a name like "The Fountain," I imagined water to hold a significant meaning. However, where we see it, I can't come to any conclusions on what it means, or if it's supposed to mean anything. However, we see parallels between Thomas stabbing the Tree of Life and getting tree sap, Tom spilling the ink Izzi gave him, and the water inside the snow globe that both the Izzi tree and Tommy drink.

The Tree Of Life: This is the most obvious, and yet probably the most layered, symbol in the film. The film makes reference to this as being one of the two Trees (with a capital T) in the Garden of Eden. One critic I read berated this, saying that there was only the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, some versions in Genesis 2:8-9 state, "the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” There are other symbols we can bring into this, like the Qabbalistic Tree of Life, but I think that's going far beyond what the artist had in mind with this, even if there are conclusions we can get from that.

Mutinous Friends: This might be a larger symbol, but it doesn't quite fit that mold. Each of the three stories has friends which stand in Tom's way from his goal. In the Sixteenth Century, his crew conspires to kill Thomas so that they can return to Spain. In the Twenty-First Century story, Tom's co-workers attempt to keep him from working so diligently on his quest for the cure. In the Twenty-Sixth Century story, this seems to be Tom's own mind, but it's not as obvious.

Adam and Eve: Another symbol not directly referenced, but inferred via the Garden of Eden analogy, and the Incan calling Thomas the "First Father" (Adam Kadmon). In this light, one can see the whole of the movie as Adam and Eve searching to return to the garden of eden.

Starlight: Of note, we only see the sun at one particular point in the story (more about this later). In the Hairy Jackman story, when Thomas is given the quest to find the Tree of Life, and is presented with the wedding ring, Isabel allows the morning sun into her hall (but we only see the light that is cast, not the sun itself). Also, when he comes upon the Tree of Life, he also sees the morning sunlight. In the Jackman Needs-A-Shave story, Tom sees the sunlight as Izzi walks outside to the first snowfall. He and Izzi look up at the starlight together on the roof of their house, when Tom discovers that her condition has become very serious. He also sees the sun in the hospital when he parts the shades to look out the window while he waits next to Izzi. In the Baldy Jackman story, Tommy is surrounded by starlight. This looks to me to represent the bliss that comes when Tom and Izzi are together.

The Beginning

2006-12-15T08:14:00.000-06:00

After much procrastination, I've finally started a non-technical blog. The technical blog is located over at JRoller. This particular one will be related to other thoughts on politics, movies, and anything else I happen to have on my mind that day.