Hello, Hyehoon

Still recovering from the NTRPGCON, but hey: Why do you guys enjoy another cool piece of David Lewis Johnson Strange Stars art?

This is a hyehoon, an avioid humanoid species you may remember from this post. Or not.

NTRPGCON After Report

The curtain falls on NTRPGCON today and it's all airports and getting ready for the work week. Though it lacks the scale, I think I enjoyed this convention better than my trip to GenCon a couple of years ago. Part of that was getting to meet (and consume alcohol with) blogger/Google+ compatriots like Chris Kutalik, Robert Parker, James Aulds, and Brad Ncube, and renew my acquaintance with Justin Davis. I also found that I am not wholly immune to the thrill of getting to meet the celebrity of luminaries of gaming history: it was a kick to listen to Jim Ward spin tales of the TSR of yore, and to hear Chris Holmes reminiscences about his father's gaming and writing.

Of course the gaming was great, too. I played in Tim Snider's SyFy channel creature feature-esque Cryptworld session, and got to try Jeff Dee's Bethorm (my first actual Tekumel game, despite years of loving the setting) with the author himself gm-ing.

All in all, it was a good reminder that G+ Hangout games are great, but there is something to be said about being present in the same

Gone to Texas

Not actually a hill giant, but Robert Parker

As Wikipedia will helpful tell you: "Gone to Texas (often abbreviated GTT), was a phrase used by Americans immigrating to Texas in the 19th century often to escape debt incurred during the Panic of 1819. Moving to Texas, which at the time was part of Mexico, was particularly popular among debtors from the South and West."

In this case, however, I'm just at the NTRPGCON with the likes of Justin "A Field Guide to Doomsday" Davis, Robert "Rogues and Reavers" Parker, Chris "The Hill Cantons" Kutalik and a bunch of other ne'er-do-wells.

Say What?

Art by David Lewis Johnson

While I've tried the render the names of the various species and cultures in the Strange Stars in the closest to a phonetic pronunciation in English as possible, while still being (relatively) elegant on the page. This still usually means a good deal of ambiguity.

To try to alleviate that, here's a pronunciation guide with the best IPA approximation and a plain language description:

djägga [d͡ʒɛɡɑ]: JEH-gah.

Dzrrn [d͡zr̩:n]: dz (as in adds) uhrn.

hyehoon [hjɛhu:n]: HYEH-hoon.

ksaa [ksɑ:]: ks (as in axe) ah.
kuznuh [kəznə]: KUHZ-nuh

ngghrya [ŋ̍ɡ͡ɣɾjɑ]: ng (as in sing)-gh (a sound not in English) ryah.

vokun [vokʊn]: vo-KUN (u as in put).

ssraad [ʂɹɑ:d]: shrahd.
yssgalahl [jiʂɡaɫaɬ]: Just call them "Slavers."
Zyanthian [zjænθiæn]: ZYAN-thee-an.

Wednesday Comics: Dreamsend

Here's the next installment of  Jim Starlin's Metamorphosis Odyssey. The earlier posts in the series can be found here.

"Dreamsend (Metamorphosis Odyssey Chapter XII)"

Epic Illustrated #8 (October 1981) Story & Art by James Starlin

Synopsis: The light cutter arrives at Dreamsend and finds Zygoteans already there. Aknaton and crew fight their way toward the temple built by the ancient (now disappeared) Kalloombrians. There the Infinity Horn is hidden inside.

A stairway opens in the floor at Aknaton's command, spiraling into black infinity. It's actually a multi-dimensional corridor leading to a plane where the Horn will work and also the conduit by which its power will be transmitted back.

On the other end of that corridor is...

With the Zygoteans on their heels, they make their way into the skull. Before them they find:

Juliet says she can't go through with it. She's only 15 and she doesn't want to die. She, Whis'par, and Za will survive to be the future of a new mankind. Vanth and Aknaton will not be a part of this new world. They will hold off the Zygoteans until the Horn is blown.

Aknaton asks Vanth why he didn't come in to see the Horn. Vanth says he realizes he didn't belong there--and neither did Aknaton. They are yesterday's mistakes; the other 3 are hope. Vanth summons his sword. The Zygoteans approach. Aknaton asks Vanth to stay close...

Things to Notice:

• Vanth is still not completely convinced Aknaton's solution to the Zygotean menace was the only one.
• Kalloombrians?

Commentary: 
If there is a silver lining to Aknaton's plan (other than the obvious extinction of the Zygoteans) its that intelligent life in the Milky Way will live on through the three horn blowers. What that exactly means isn't clear.

Vanth believes (or at least hopes) they violence and killing won't be part of their new world. He doesn't have see the Horn they've come so far to find. Aknaton doesn't really express these same hopes; His revenge against the Zygoteans apparently just ends in his death, joining his extinct people at last,

The Gods Themselves

I've being thinking on the idea that all deities in fiction can be defined by two axes: Mythological-Literal and Transcendent-Physical. Mythological gods have origins and interactions that don't make sense in a literal sense; Think gods born from salt licks or jumping from their fathers' skulls. On the other end of the scale are literal beings whose origins are at least logical and generally pretty much biologically or technologically similar to other classes of lifeforms. Transcendent beings are bound by the usual limitations of single body, mind, and/or perspective, while physical beings certainly are.

The gods from the Greek or Norse mythology are typically mythological, but either physical or transcendent. (They tend to be physical seeming in the texts of the myths, but seem somewhat transcendent in terms their actual historical worship.) 

The Asgardians of Marvel Comics or Apollo of the Star Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonis?" are mostly literal and mostly physical in portrayal. The Asgardians of the movie Thor and its sequel are entirely literal and physical.

AI masquerading as gods? Literal, transcendent or physical. 

The Endless from Sandman? Straddling the literal-mythologic border, transcendent. 

Kirby's New Gods? Slightly mythological, physical.

So there it is. There may be other factors I haven't thought of.

A Place Called Darksun

Still thinking a bit about Dark Sun as a Western.  Here's the set of inspirations I would probably throw into that (which would work well for any relatively post-apocalyptic science fantasy Western):

Books:
The Gunslinger by Stephen King (less so the other Dark Tower books, though they're good too).
The Half-Made World and The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman.
The Eric John Stark novels/novellas by Leigh Brackett.

Comics:
Hex
Madame Tarantula

TV/Movies:
BraveStarr
El Topo
The Road Warrior