A Map of Reality I Drew While I was Waiting...

...for my car to get repaired.

It's a bit incomplete--and not up to the standards of the illustration my posts usually have--but it summarizes what I've discovered so far about the multiverse of the Strange New World.

For instance, the Positive Energy Plane is just the beginning of the Prime Material--or the etheric echo of that beginning.  The Negative Energy Plane is the other bookend.

The highest Heaven is the domain of the Creator(s).  Most dead don't make it to the highest Heaven but maybe some lesser "heavenly" realm--like maybe the Elysian Fields (also called Summerland or the Fiddler's Green).  It's the counter-plane to the Wasteland, embodying "hope."  There are more of these heavenly realms.

At the "bottom" of reality is the Pit, the Abyss.  It's the place that fell the farthest in the Fall.  The place of beings with no place in creation who want nothing more than to tear it all down--the demons.  "Circling the drain" of the Pit, falling into it at different velocities, are hellish realms of various sorts.  Hell (appropriately) where the fallen angels hope to stage a coup in creation and then forestall its slide into the Pit.  Closer to the ultimate nullity are the Wasteland and the grim Black Iron Prison (which I left off the my map!) where the odious Deodands (named, interestingly, for an archaic legal term for a thing "forfeit onto God for causing a death") imprison, punish, and re-educate souls caged in their Escher maze prison hell.

Between Heaven and the Pit are planes more neutral to "good" and "evil"--or more accurately, they're places where the struggle between angels and demons is seen as beside the point.  The denizens of Machina (polyhedral nanomachines, forming the distributive conscious of their Singular god(dess), and other worshippers like the Mantid Warrior-Nuns) believe that only absolute order can restore creation to an unfallen state.  In constrast the formless, fluid intelligences of the Gyre (who often send technicolor clowns as their emissaries) believe that endless change is the only hope to recreate the conditions of the original Singularity of All and lead to the multiverse's reunion with the Godhead--or at least that's one of their myriad ideas.

Warlord Wednesday: The Path Branches Ahead

Though we’re not quite at that point yet, there are some branches ahead in the trail, Warlord fans. Issue #71 is the last that bears the name of the series’ creator Mike Grell--though as I’ve noted before, since issue #53 it was actually written in part or in whole by Grell’s then wife Sharon Wright. Given that Grell returns to the character in a 1992 mini-series and then in a 16 issue on-going in 2009 (which brings an end of sorts to the saga), it would be reasonable to jump to reviewing those series after #71 on Warlord Wednesdays and view the remainder of the first series as apocrypha.

On the other hand, Dan Jurgens starts as regular penciller when the Grell’s are still writing it (#63) and continues through #93. If Grell is the Warlord’s father, Jurgens is at least an uncle. He’s responsible for a number of Morgan’s appearances in other DC Comics after the end of the series, and he drew the Grell written appearances of Morgan in Green Arrow (and apparently was instrumental in them occurring in the first place). Also, Cary Burketts stories in the near post-Grell period deal with important plot threads like the secret of Tinder’s origins and Tara’s relationship with Graemore, and introduce some cool new characters like Scarheart and Krystovar that seem to “fit.” Plus, I just think the "Time Paradox" and "New Atlantis War" storylines are cool.  Finishing all that would take us to issue #100.

The third option is to follow the series until its actual end. The last writer Michael Fleischer does have a Sword & Sorcery bent (giving a nod to the Clark Ashton Smith story “Isle of the Torturers”), but overall, the issues after 100 and until its end feel different that what came before. Part of it is more crossovers with the mainstream DCU, but also it just seems more like "generic fantasy comic" than Warlord. It’s not bad (mostly) and some of its pretty good, but its a new direction and less “of a part” with what went before.  But it is a part of the "official" series.

So it’s time for the mostly reticent Warlord Wednesday readership to make itself heard--if it exists, which the number hits I get on Wednesday’s suggest it does. I’ll probably put up a poll at some point, but I wanted to go ahead and throw the question out for comment. After #71, where does Warlord Wednesday go next?

Wonders from the Planes

Besides the gray dust, other outer planar artifacts sometimes turn up in the more thaumaturgically-oriented private markets of the City, or end up in some structure of the Ancients to be found be adventurers. Here are a few of them:

Skeletal key: A minor artifact of the demonic gaolers from the plane called the Black Iron Prison. It’s a six inch long key that does indeed appear to be made out of bone. It can open any non-magical earthly lock, and a specific cell block within the plane of confinement, though it will be impossible to find out which one without magical or extraplanar aide.

Madness record: Condensed from the substance of their realm by the polychromatic clowns of the Plane of Chaos, these appear to be mundane 78rpm phonograph records. If the record is played, all those who are able to hear the strange and indescribable sounds on it will be affected as per the confusion spell.

Fabrication fog: A swarm of minuscule, polyhedral automatons from the Tesseract of Machina, the Plane of Order. These beings are packed into a small square box of some light, but extremely durable alien metal with cautionary text in several different scripts (but no earthly ones) engraved on it.  When the box is open the automata appear as a glittering swarm of fly-sized bronze shapes. They will be bound to the one who opens the box and serve him for one year (their power runs out then without recharge), until he is dead, or he gives them to someone else. They act like the fabricate spell, making whatever the owner desires within the restrictions of the spell (other than the need for the craft skill--the automata can manufacture anything non-magical item with a model or reference image). There are rumored to be versions of these which perform healing functions.

Strange Encounters

Fiction isn't the only place to get inspiration for events tinged with the supernatural, horror, or just the weird.  Peruse any book or website on unexplained phenomena and you ought to able to turn up quite a bit of usable material, depending on the genre you're gaming in.  Here are a few choice proportedly true vignettes I found on this UFO-oriented website.  There are hundreds more where these came from:

Location. Spike Island, Cork Harbor, Ireland
Date: June 1914
Time: afternoon
The 6-year old witness was walking along a path next to the sea with her eyes mostly on the ground. She happened to look up when she was about five yards away from the wall of local doctor's house and saw something bizarre. A strange figure was looking over the wall across the harbor to Cobh. She walked a few more steps nearer before she realized that what it was--and then she became rooted to the ground with fear. It was not ten paces away and she could see it only too clearly. It must have been a very tall creature, because she could almost see it to its waist---and the wall was at least five feet high. It was in the rough shape of a human being---that is, it had a head and shoulders and arms---though she didn't see its hands, which were behind the wall. Except for two dark caverns where its eyes should be, the whole thing was of one color, a sort of glistening yellow. As the wall was parallel to the road and on her left, the thing was looking past her---across the little road and straight across to Cobh. As the witness stood petrified, the thing began to turn its head very slowly toward her. At this point the young witness heard a voice in her ear: "If it looks straight at you, Eileen, you will die." Her feet seemed to be anchored to the ground by heavy weights, but somehow she managed to turn and run. She ran into a nearby cottage about 15 yards away. Her next memory was of Mrs. Reilly (the owner of the cottage) sponging her face with water, as she shook all over with shock and terror. She told Mrs. Reilly that she had seen something dreadful in the Doctor's garden. Mrs. Reilly told the young witness that she was not the first to see it and would not be the last.

Location. Linaalv Lappland Sweden
Date: 1919
Time: daytime
9-year old Ragnar Byrlind and his brothers & sisters were inside the family's house playing games when their mother called for them to come to the window and look. About 400 meters away some sort of object was coming along the road. It was a dark gray object, longer than the timber lorries of the present day. On what appeared to be a coach box at the middle sat a figure and two others were running in front of it carrying flashlight like implements in their hands. The entities looked like human beings and wore some kind of headgear but it was impossible to discern any details at the distance. When the object was at some distance from the observers it suddenly released a light smoke and disappeared on the spot. The family investigated the area but found no traces.

Location. Camperville, Manitoba, Canada
Date: winter 1930
Time: late night
On a cold winter night as the whole family slept they were suddenly awakened by the keen howling and frenzied barking of their dogs. Several family members quickly rushed out after getting quickly dressed. The dogs acted as if they were rabid but never approached the figure of a strange man that was standing by the fence next to the road. He was not wearing proper clothing. In the dead of winter with temperatures below 30, this figure wore a black tailed tuxedo and a white shirt. He stood there watching the dogs, and then he looked at the family. They walked towards him to see what he wanted but he backed up to the dirt road. Two of the men walked towards him. He watched them approach him and then walked backwards down the road. No matter how fast the men walked they could not get close to him. He seemed to be walking backward one step at the time but no matter how fast they ran they could not reach him. The men gave up and returned home. They never saw the stranger again.

Location. Northwest of Stewart, British Columbia, Canada
Date: 1938
Time: unknown
While searching for a missing trapper in a remote glacial area near the Alaskan border, constable Larry Requa entered a cave and discovered 5 “alien skeletons” which had extended craniums. One of the entities had a metal medallion on, imprinted with star symbols. All 5 entities were facing a stone altar and it was Requa’s impression that these beings had been “stranded” as they could not leave the earth. The cave had unusual characteristics as it appears to wind in a vertical configuration and the walls were extremely smooth as if these beings had used a “boring device” to make the tunnels within the cave. Apparently as of July 2000 the skeletons were still in the cave. It is not known what the present status is.

Location. Sonoma County, California
Date: 1950
Time: afternoon
Two men and one 17-year old boy were exploring some old mine shafts when they started hearing clicking noises. They could smell a fire so they were curious as to what was on fire all the way down in a mineshaft. They went further down and they started to see a weird substance on the walls of the mine. Then they saw the fire farther down and they noticed that there was something near it, but they could not make out what it was. Upon closer inspection they realized that it was some sort of hideous beast that resembled a boar with human features. It had hands and patches of red hair on its body. It appeared to be bashing an animal skull of some sort against a rock to be cracked open. As soon as the creature saw the witnesses it charged after them. One of them suffered a deep gash on his back as he crawled out of the shaft.

Location. Oracle Arizona
Date: 1950
Time: daytime
Juan Urrea was playing in the yard when suddenly the door of the outhouse creaked open. There, to his surprise, lurked a tall, kangaroo-like creature with blazing red eyes. It peered out around the edge of the door, and then beckoned him to come forward. Urrea believed the creature meant to do him harm. He ran and never saw it again.

Nautical Fantasy Inspirations

The maritime musings over at the Hill Cantons got me to thinking about inspirations for nautical fantasy games.  What follows is pretty much off the top of my head and it sticks to nautical or sea- themed fantasy (so no Horatio Hornblower or Treasure Island here), but I figure its a backbone to start with.

Classical Literature:
The Odyssey
One Thousand and One Nights. Particularly the Sinbad stories, of course.

Modern Literature:
Alan Cole and Chris Bunch. The Anteros series.
Leigh Brackett. The Sword of Rhiannon, “The Enchantress of Venus,” and “The Moon that Vanished.” These last two are on (or under) the strange gaseous seas of Venus, but I think that only adds to their exotic inspiration value.
Robert E. Howard. Conan stories: “Pool of the Black One,” “Queen of the Black Coast,” and “The Black Stranger.”
William Hope Hodgson. The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" and other nautical horror stories. "The Derelict" and "The Voice in the Night" are probably my favorites.
Ursula K. LeGuin. A Wizard of Earthsea.
Fritz Leiber. From the tales of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser: “Their Mistress, the Sea,” “When the Sea-King’s Away,” “Trapped in the Sea of Stars,” and “The Frost Mostreme.”
C.S. Lewis. The Voyage of the Dawn-Treader.
Abraham Merritt. The Ship of Ishtar.
China Mieville. The Scar.
Tim Powers. On Stranger Tides.
Cherie Priest. Fathom.
Karl Edward Wagner. “In the Wake of Night.” Okay, only a fragment of this exists, but the idea of the story is great.

Movies:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). The original novel might be inspirational, too, but its this films visuals that really capture the imagination.
Jason and the Argonauts (1963).
King Kong (the 1933 and 2005).
The Lost Continent (1968).
Pirates of the Caribbean series.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977).

Animation:
Pirates of Dark Water (1991).
One Piece. Which is also a manga.

In the Gloom

This is a follow-up to my discussion of the gray dust earlier this week. Experienced astral projectionists and other sorts of planar travelers from the City know that all the outer planes between the unassailable heights of Heaven on high, and the abyssal depths of the Pit where the qliphothic things dwell, are conceptual places--and the prevailing concept of the Wasteland is gloom.

The Wasteland, Plane of Despair, is an expanse of cinereous, dessicated land and sunless, graveyard skies, but its not entirely featureless. An arthritic creaking might announce the appearance of corroded and broken playground equipment from the mists. One might stumble into a mire of quicksand ash or find a burned out and derelict house from either a recent or historical era.

Then there are the human forms coated in hardened ash, like the victims of a volcanic eruption, dotting the landscape at intervals like anguished sculptures. These are said to be the final remains of souls given over to an afterlife of despondency.  They arrive in the Wasteland as filmy shadows and over time petrify to immobile, tortured forms.

The inhabitants of the Wasteland are just as grim. The Faceless Mourners appear as women dressed in funeral veils and black dresses of a century ago. Sometimes they carry straight razors and sometimes ink black ichor drips from underneath their long sleeves and runs down the creases of their ashen hands. Sometimes they can be glimpsed in mirrors by a person contemplating suicide. It’s said that their appearance unsummoned on the Material Plane harbingers death.  Their keening causes stillbirth.

Particularly loathsome are the Lonely Husks. These creatures appear as androgynous human skins, as if the skin was shed whole like a snake’s. They attach themselves to sentients and slowly drain the life from them. They lie in bed. holding the victim close like a lover, whispering in the person’s ear of their undying devotion and begging--pleading--for the victim never to leave them, and to love them in return. First, the victim is weakened and fatigue, then over days, paralyzed. Finally they die in a period of 4-8 weeks as their lungs or heart gives out.

There are also fiends, likely relatives of demons or devils, which have adapted to life in the Gray Gloom. These entities claim rulership, but no one truly rules the Wasteland; It’s sufferings domain.

Hassled by the Man

My Strange Trails download is nonfunctional for the second time in two months.  Suspended.

It appears all anyone has to do is say to Mediafire "take that down" and it goes down.  Last time it was a film company saying I was violating their IP related to a film of their's I had happened to review (favorable) on my blog.  The fact that there was absolutely nothing in Strange Trails relating to their IP made no difference--since of course nobody actually read the file.  I'm sure if was just an internet search then seeing a download and the assumption was dread piracy.

So this time, I don't even know what the complaint is--just the name of the company that made it (which is a non-American media company I've never heard of).  At least this time I'm given the oppurtunity of rebuttal--which would be great if I knew what I was rebutting.

I suppose its time to go looking for a new host.  It's just frustrating it doesn't even require an actual allegation, just the suggestion of one.