Warlord Wednesday: Ballad Part 4

Here's another installment of my examination of  the adventures DC Comics' Travis Morgan--The Warlord.  The earlier installments can be found here...

"Ballad Part IV"

Warlord (vol. 2) #4 (April 1992)

Written by Mike Grell; Art by Dameon Willich and Tim Burgard

Synopsis: The stone body housing the skull of Deimos rises as the cultists prostrate themselves and praise him. They tell Deimos they worship him and hate the Warlord. They are ready to serve their god and await his command. Deimos’s first order for them:

Deimos laughs at the idea that he’s a god as he takes the throne, surrounded by the bodies of his would-be worshippers.

Meanwhile, Mariah finds Tinder playing guitar in a garden. She asks if it bothers him, going in search of the legend of the Warlord and finding the man Travis Morgan. She tells him she understands and relates her own story: how she met Morgan and followed him to Skartaris for the promise of adventure. Like Morgan, she fell in love with it and the freedom it offered. Coming from an oppressive society, she was eventually taken in by Morgan’s words like everyone else.

Back in Thera, Deimos infuses his slain worshippers with magical energy. The bodies rise as a zombie army! Deimos has a plan to finally destroy his hated enemy, the Warlord: “This time, the very Sun will run red with blood…and black with fear!”

Continuing their ride to Shamballah, Tinder remarks to Petrus that Morgan seems to hold an attraction to beautiful women. Petrus says except for one—the woman who was a cat or the cat who was a woman. He warns Tinder to be careful around her should they meet her.

They arrive in Shamballah and make their way to the palace. Morgan (predictably) isn’t there, but someone else is:

Tinder is surprised; he thought she was dead. Tara remarks he shouldn’t believe everything he hears. She leads them into the palace. Morgan is seldom there, she tells Tinder. He’s bored by affairs of state and runs off with his mistress. Tinder doesn’t know what to say, but Tara clarifies:

He runs off and then returns. Every time he does, Tara breaks his nose. He didn’t believe her the last time, when she told him if he left to never come back. He couldn’t believe her, because if he did he couldn’t have left. She knows he loves her after a fashion, but to stay would mean a slow and boring death. “And it takes no wizard to forsee that for Morgan death will be anything but boring.”

Suddenly, there’s an earthquake. When it’s subsided, they notice the sun is darker and it’s light redder.

Somewhere, Deimos laughs.

Things to Notice:

• Deimos is pretty ungrateful. No surprise there.
• Despite her cover appearance, Shakira only appears in flashback in this issue.

Where It Comes From:
Grell is perhaps referencing story arc in the original series (#126-133) that had Tara killed. Of course, she was eventually resurrected.

Easy Being Green

The planet Gaea is one of the wonders of the Coreward Reach: It's an exact replica of Old Earth down to the landmasses. It's most obvious difference is the lack of hominids and most of their artifacts. The other changes are less visible but even more profound; The biosphere forms one gigantic mind, and the most independent and intelligent of its constituent programs are the virids.

Appearance and Biology: Virid tribes vary a great deal in height and build: some are small, slight, and elfin, while others are large and brutish. They all resemble each in that their biology shows a blending of plant and animal characteristics. They have skins of various shades green (due to presence of symbiotic cyanobacteria) and foliage-like hair.

All virids have nanites in their systems linking them with Gaea, whom they think of as the Great Mother. Gaea's consciousness (if such a term is relevant for such an alien intellect), is too distributed to interact in a verbal way without great effort, but virid experience dreams and visions that they view as messages from her.

Psychology: Virid are little different from primitive humans--except that they live in an environment that resembles primeval Earth, but is actually a fairly closely maintained garden. They're world isn't without dangers, but their lives are much more free of hurt or want than any other primitive humanoids. This has made them generally a gregarious and pleasure-loving people. This friendliness does not extend to those who seek to harm any of their tribe.

Stats/Abilites: Most virids have ability scores in the same range as humans, though larger or smaller tribes will vary. Their symbiotic organisms supplement their metabolism and faster healing when they are under visible light sources with spectra similar to their native yellow sun. Every day spent in direct sunlight allows them to heal 1 additional hit point, and every day resting in direct sunlight allows a virid to recovery 2 additional hit points. They also lose System Strain at a rate of 2 points a day in the sun. Virids get a +1 to Physical Effect saving throws against plant-derived toxins.

Mysteries: It seems clear that Gaea and the virids were engineered (or at least modified), but what ancient power was responsible, and to what purpose? Why is Gaea intelligent and what does she want?

1000

This is my 1000th post. That's 180 Warlord Wednesdays, 221 posts about a place called the City, and nearly 7000 comments--some of which are actually by other people.

Thanks to everyone that has stopped by over the three and a half years of this blog's existence and the other bloggers (some still going strong, some checking in sporadically, and others long moved on) that have made it a good community to be a part of.

I don't know if I've got 1000 more, but there is more to come. Stick around.

Mother to Monsters

Echidna is a vast, protoplasmic entity whose main body is in the abyssal depths, though she has spread tendrils to shallower regions. She was a creation of the Titans, a living bio-assembler and the primeval source of all life on Earth. She should have long ago lapsed into programmed senescence, but instead, infected by Typhon, she makes monsters. Her rippling, protean bulk disgorges half-formed, primitive organisms (some free-swimming, others encased in membraneous sacs) from its surface. Many of these die, falling back into Echidna to be engulfed and re-absorbed, but others rise to the surface--and continue to evolve. Echidna is intelligent (though with an intelligence alien to humans) and will respond to stimuli, sometimes exuding shapes to mimic them.

Any monster can potentially be generated by echidna, but here are some vaugely mythology related ones. Feel free to reskin the monsters for maximum grotesqueness while keeping the stats the same:
1 - Giant Boar
2 - Chimera
3 - Naga
4 - Giant Fish
5 - Hill Giant
6 - Hydra
7 - Giant Leech
8 - Manticore
9 - Giant Octopus
10 - Giant Snake

Warlord Wednesday: Ballad Part 3

Here's another installment of my examination of  the adventures DC Comics' Travis Morgan--The Warlord.  The earlier installments can be found here...

"Ballad Part III"

Warlord (vol. 2) #3 (March 1992)

Written by Mike Grell; Art by Dameon Willich and Rick Hoberg

Synopsis: The minstrel and the veteran ride into Kiran Pass, a waystation for caravans along the trade routes. They’ve only just arrived when they see a woman on a horse, apparently beset by robbers. The minstrel leaps from his horse to help. He handles himself well, and soon the robbers run away. The woman has missed her caravan to Thera, but the minstrel offers that she can accompany them, as they’ll be passing near the border on their way to Shamballah.

The veteran introduces himself to her as Petrus, and she gives her name as Driana. The minstrel says he’s had many names, but most call him Tinder.

After a night in the wilderness (where the two men tell Driana of their quest to find the truth behind the legend of the Warlord), they bid her goodbye at the Theran border. She says she’s certain she will see them again “in one fashion or another.”

The men ride on to the gates of Kiro. They enter the palace where Petrus demands impertinently to see the king. Machiste enters and the two exchange insults. By the time Mariah arrives, it’s apparent the two are old friends with Pertrus. He tells them the minstrel is seeking the truth of the legend of the Warlord:

Later, the royal couple share stories of the Warlord. Machiste admits that he has always loved Morgan as a brother—but he didn’t always like him. He tells the minstrel how he and Morgan met as gladiators. How they learned kill to avoid being killed—something Morgan both hated and loved. He tells of how Morgan inspired them all with his words about freedom and justice, and how he tried to be the legend they all wanted him to be:

Meanwhile in Thera, Driana arrives at the strange temple we saw last issue. One of the robed acolytes asks about her journey:

Then, she is ready. She lays down upon the altar, a willing sacrifice performing a duty she believes she was born for. After her life’s blood has seeped away unto the sarcophagus she laid upon, something evil awakens. The cultists chant:

Things to Notice:

• The identity of the minstrel is revealed: Tinder, who is in reality Joshua, the son of Morgan and Tara.
• Mariah first appears in this issue in a pose that is clearly an homage to the first time she was seen "in costume" back in issue #7 of the original series.

Where It Comes From:
The old veteran is named "Petrus," a Latin name derived from Greek meaning "rock." It's the source of the name Peter. Perhaps this suggests that Petrus was a "disciple" of Morgan's in the same way Peter was of Jesus, though this Petrus has since become disillusioned.

The first Warlord series ended with Mariah with the abusive Danny Maddox, but she is back with Machiste in this story. This may suggest Grell is discounting events in the series after he left, but it could just be assumed that they got back together since the end of the series.

Likewise, Burkett left Tinder (then still a young boy) in the distant past of Skartaris known as Wizard World. How he got back to the present is unexplained, so this again could be a signal Grell only sees his work on the series as canonical.

A Special Note: Grell's official website reported he's in the hospital with cellulitis. I hope all the readers of Warlord Wednesday will join me in wishing him a quick and full recovery.

The Monster Behind the Myth

In my posts on a science fantasy truth behind Greek mythology, I've given some pretty science fictional remaking of classic monsters, but the "truth" behind the monster need not always be elaborate. It's just more science-based and less mythological. Here are couple of easy ones that are more prosaic--and more pulpy, maybe.

Giant Boar
Greek myth has at least three giant boars: Calydonian, Crommyonian, and Erymanthian. While giant boars are relatively "realistic" as it is, there's no reason to hypothesize genetically engineered giants, as we've got a real animal (or a family of animals) close enough to fit the bill: the dinohyus ("terrible pig") and the whole enteledont family.

 Dinohyus was 12 ft long and 5' 1" at the shoulder. That's plenty to give Heracles a challenge!

Satyr
The familiar image of the satyr of a half-goat, half-man creature is a later invention. The original conception was of a some hirsute guy with big ears, a pug nose, and a goat-like tail.

A Hellenistic era satyr

In other words, not really much different (except for the tail) from the wildman or woodwose--in other words, the cryptozoological hairy hominid. Further supporting this idea, is that the Libyan satyrs and satyrs described living on the Satyride Islands off the coast of Africa, seem pretty clearly to be monkeys or apes.

Drakones
Last but not least are the drakones or dragons. These are almost always depicted as just as big snakes in Greek art. Not as cool as modern conceptions of dragon? Well, it was good enough for Conan! And there's titanoboa upping the ante on very real world giant serpents.

Three Titanides

MNEMOSYNE

Mnemosyne embodies memory and so is both archive and archivist. She forms a shared conceptual space linking the intellects of all her fellow Titans. Olympians and humans may access her through certain passcode rituals and altered states of consciousness. Mnemosyne very rarely appears in a physical form, but when she does it as a giant bronze mask of a woman’s face.

PHOEBE
Partnered with Koios, Phoebe is the programmer of causality and the engineer of future probabilities. She was once the operator of the Oracle at Delphi, but is now subservient to Apollo on that project. Phoebe appears as a woman whose body is made of gently pulsing white radiance, her face a stylized golden mask, etched with lines of bright light.

THEMIS

Themis embodies divine order and cosmic law. She punishes violations of causality and reality, and wards against extracosmic incursions. While she didn't side with the Olympians in the coup, her desire for order led her to support Zeus’s rule once he was enthroned. Themis appears as a giant woman clothed in golden body armor. The lower half of her face is bare, but her eyes are covered. She carries a golden sword.