The Ulangar: Book I, Part 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.