The Ulangar: Book I, Part 8

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

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

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

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

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

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