Monthly Archives: August 2014

Creationivity

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I’ve been working away at this concept of a novel series, Elyen, for over a decade now, though it’s gone by a number of other names in its earlier forms. Maybe it should not be taking me as long to make the kind of progress that I have in that time (which I will deliberately not specify), but the fact is that the story has changed immensely from its original concept.

I think that, out of all of the changes, the most profound is that of my role as the story’s author. In fact, I seriously question if ‘author’ is even now the right word for it anymore. What I mean by that is this: When I first set out to work on what is now Elyen, I had no doubt in my mind whatsoever that I was the story’s author, it’s creator. It wasn’t even a question. There was no alternative way of looking at my relationship with that early body of work, no other function to it beyond that which you would expect to exist between an author and his story.

Now, I see myself as being more of a reporter, if anything. The story might as well be its own living thing, and I am merely studying it. The universe (/multiverse/metaverse) that is Elyen, and the world of Drendast in particular, have become their own sovereign domains, into which I am now little more than a privileged guest, granted the freedom to write about anything I see.

I am become Marco…

Anyways, I’m sure you can imagine how perplexing it is to arrive at a conclusion like that and then pair it with the notion that I likewise exist as some unknown element within that same story as well.

So now I question whether I have ever created anything now encompassed within the body of work that is now, and will yet be, Elyen. This threw my head for a little spin when I really started thinking about it last night. My conclusion, however, is that I have created (and now maintain) the means by which I observe and report the goings on in Drendast. And that’s still a very vital part in the grand scheme of things, though not as dictatorial (why can’t we just shorten that down to just ‘dictorial’??) as what I believed my role was when I first began.

I now believe that the events which unfold in Elyen do so largely independently of how I might wish for them to, and that the characters have every bit as much free will as I believe that I, myself, have. I am unaware of what influence or impact I may or may not still have, if I ever had any to begin with. In either case, when I record something and it goes into the body of work known as Elyen, I understand that such things could just as easily have gone any other way. More accurately, given the multiversal nature of Elyen, it should be stated that anything I record is simply only one way (out of countless other ways all taking place simultaneously and in parallel) that things are going.

And if there’s one thing I wish to convey through the writing of Elyen, it’s that anything and everything that can happen, is happening. The question is not “what happens in Elyen?“, but rather, “which version of events am I seeing unfolding in Elyen?“

…Polo.

Viria: Mamissamus

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In Elyen, or at least on Drendast (or rather in Drendast, given how most Drendains reckon their orientation to the planet that birthed them, even though, like us, they live on its surface), there are those of the synthetic variety who keep viruses as pets for themselves. You might think that that would be a bad idea.

Sometimes, you’d be right.

Mostly, however, the worst thing that ever happens is that the viruses, or viria as they are known as here, get misplaced. Sometimes, that can cause a great deal of harm, other times, a great deal of hilarity. In one case, there was one Synthetic Intelligent entity (SI for short) that had a pet virus called Mamissamus, and… well… It got lost somewhere in a physical domain populated with animal kind. If memory serves me correctly, I believe that even the ancestors of your human kind were among the affected. 

For what it’s worth, this is approximately what Mamissamus looks like when rendered into a physical manifestation:

            Don’t let the classy act fool you, Ma’am is one cunning strain, and not
                                        to mention totally into cross-dressing.

For the life of me, I still don’t know what the big draw was, but apparently Mamissamus (or, as you may have gathered already, Ma’am for short) had a particular penchant for mammalia DNA specifically. Without getting into too much detail, it wound its way right up there into the ancestral roots of warm-blooded, sexual vertebrates and latched on. Though mostly harmless, Mamissamus’s occupation within the mammalian lineage triggered a biological response that ultimately resulted in what is known today as “menstruation” — a rather messy business, from what I understand.

I should be honest with you, when I say “was” and “had” and otherwise treat this little anecdote as though it all took place a long, long time ago in the distant passed, the fact is that Lynic, the SI alluded to in the above, has been in a real tiff for the passed few days, which is about how much time has passed since he realized Ma’am was missing. How did a virus that only went AWOL a few days ago come to be responsible for eons worth of bleeding and serious discomfort, you ask? Well, being of Drendain origin, it has the ability to time travel. Obviously.

So anyways, it’s fallen to me to try to locate and retrieve the poor, lost virus. With any luck, Lynic and Ma’am will be re-united before long (and you warm-blooded folk will hopefully go back to not bleeding in strange places periodically). But please, whatever you do, don’t get your hopes up. Honestly, I really do have better things to do, and if I can’t track it down within the next day or two, I’m writing it off as being gone for good. If it comes down to that, you’re just gonna have to keep putting up with the after effects of Ma’am’s tampering until you figure out a way to adapt all on your own, mkay?

Have you tried, I don’t know, not letting yourselves be on biological autopilot? Really, going through the reproductive motions only when you actually want to reproduce is the way of the future. Just saying. Anyways, good luck with that!

 

As it Turns Out

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The other night, I was visiting some new friends, one of whom practices witchcraft. It happened to be the night of the super moon, and I had just seen a shooting star. It was settled: spells were to be crafted and cast! At (or around) midnight, a candle was lit, and some other things happened that ultimately lead to the first participant naming that which he desired to see (more of) happen in their life. In this case, they just wanted to be/remain happy. Apparently, there was no stipulation about keeping one’s wish to themselves or anything like that.

This looks way more evocative than what we actually had to work with. Punked from http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130717123049/glee/images/7/72/Hands-cupping-candle.jpg

This looks way more evocative than what we actually had to work with.
Punked from http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130717123049/glee/images/7/72/Hands-cupping-candle.jpg

Next thing I knew, it was my turn. I was to understand that there was nothing I could want that I should feel guilty about asking for even in the slightest, and that the only rule was that, whatever I asked for that was intended to be directed at others, positive or negative, would come back on me three fold. After much deliberation, I said that I couldn’t go through with it because I had no idea what I wanted.

There were a lot of things I could have said, owing to the fact that there are a lot of things that I want, but I had no idea what I would have went with if I could only specify one thing. Maybe I didn’t have to narrow it down. Maybe I could have stated more than one desire. Maybe I could have said something that’s closer to number 7 on my list of 10 things I desire most in life (not that I really have such a list, but still, bare with me) and it still not ruin my chances of ever attaining items number 1, 2, 3 or 4, etc. in the future.

Maybe, it would have been okay to simply say, “I don’t know what I want” as the official utterance bound to the workings of the spell. Who knows?

Anyways, time has passed, and having given it further thought, I feel more confident about what I would have liked to have said instead. I am relatively content with my place in life. I get by on little money, I have great friends, and all of my basic needs are pretty much met in a relatively stress-free manner. I don’t require anything to increase my own personal happiness and well-being (though improvements would not be turned away). Instead, I want my life to have a positive influence/impact on the lives of others I come in contact with. Basically, I don’t really want anything for myself if it doesn’t come alongside of improvements (whatever form they may take) in the lives of others.

I’m not sure if I believe in witchcraft, or, even if there is something to it, if I particularly care one way or another, but I will state my wish here and now without concern for super moons, shooting stars, candles, or other trappings that I feel the universe ultimately sees through in discerning the desires of a person’s heart:

I want other people’s happiness to increase.

I feel that I would be satisfied in knowing that some of that increase in happiness comes from my place in their lives, subtle or otherwise, but more than that, however, I want this to apply to all people as a whole, regardless of whether I have any direct or contact with them or not. The fact is that there is a lot of strife in the world. A lot of that which depresses me comes from reading the news, hearing about the state that other places in the world are in (and more than a few that are much closer to home), and feeling helpless to do anything about it. So, if I could expand on that, my wish would be the same as that good old cliche line many of us hear over the holidays:

I wish for peace and goodwill for all.

If I can help facilitate the manifestation of that wish into the actual, help make that desire a reality for others, then like my friend Emily at seventeenbutterflymug, I would be happy to do so 🙂

Flora: Alluem Numana

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Care and effort are hard to exhibit in the face of apathy and laziness. Such is the struggle I deal with when it comes to describing some of the finer details of Drendast. In this case, I have a very, very pretty picture in my head, but when I try to find the words to describe what it looks like, I lose interest. The struggle continues, such that I am determined to press on despite the lack of enthusiasm for doing so. Perhaps, that is a quality that sets me apart as a truly awful writer.

Perhaps, I am okay with that.

With that said, I have always loved trees. I know almost jack shit about them as they are in the present day natural world, but maybe that is for the best. I have more blissfully ignorant wiggle room to work with when when trying to describe the kinds of vegetation that exists in my mind’s world. In this case, I wanted to share some thoughts concerning a species of tree known as Alluem Numana.

The name “Alluem” just sounded cool to me, and “Numama” hints at a source of magic(k), and otherwise paints a more enchanted picture in one’s imagination. At least, that’s the hope.

I wish I had a great deal of plant taxonomical details to relay, but instead, all I’ve got are the gists: Alluem Numana are very much like oaks in that they are very large, green and broad-leafed, deciduous hard woods. Being as they are native to Drendast (and Drendast is nothing if not Earth enlarged in many respects), they typically reach the heights we see more commonly seen among Coastal Redwoods: that is to say, tall as fuck — and yet, like oaks on Earth, they’re far from being the biggest trees on Drendast.

Apart from their height, however, there’s also the fact that they glow at night to take into consideration. I could be wrong but, in my mind, the idea of trees that light up and give off an aethereal, enchanted aura of one sort or another after twilight has set in seems to be a fairly well established fantasy trope at this point in the history of fictional literature (and other media). I can’t trace where I first got the idea from, but I know it was before the release of Avatar. In either case, it can hardly be avoided in a place like Elyen, given that nightfall only takes place once every three years (or months, depending on your reckoning). Well, months or years all the same, the point is that there are long periods of darkness for one third of the time at any given point on the surface of Drendast on a consistent basis. Therefore, it should not be so strange that the ecology reflects that fact in unique ways (in this case, with vegetation that lights up when the suns finally take their leave).

Other than that, it should be mentioned that they belong to a family of temperate rain forest trees.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate_rainforest

Like so, only with, you know… actual oaks… and glowy bits at night…

So, giant-ass oaks that glow at night. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Alluem Numana of Drendast. I will have a little more to divulge about them in a second entry I will link to from here in the future.