The Empire of Raan

Differing Views of Judaism In Canonical and Non-Canonical Sources.

2004-12-11T00:15:00.000-05:00

I just wrote my religion exam this morning and one of the questions was to compare the attitude towards Jews in one canonical Christian text (from the New Testament) and one non-canonical text. For my answer I chose the Gospel of Matthew (hereinafter referred to simply as Matthew) and Melito's On the Passover (hereinafter referred to as Melito). The differencs are striking.
Matthew writes at a time when Christianity is viewed as the fulfillment of Judaism. The Christians of his time believe that the Jews have made some poor choices in the past and their religon isn't quite right but they are close and we owe them a great deal for getting us started. In Matthew's account of the death of Christ he is killed by the Romans through a corruption of the courts. The ones to blame are Pontius Pilate and the Pharisees. Who the Pharisees are/were is a complex enough question that I'm not willing to go into right now, in this story they represent the Jewish leaders of the time. In the story they are corrupt and desperate to destroy the radical Jesus' threat to their status quo.
Melito writes in a very different time (sometime before his death in 190 CE). Some of the conections with the old religion have faded and Christianity is no longer considered simply a sect of Judaism. In Melito the Romans have been excised completely from the text, the Jews are solely responsible for the death of Christ. Melito further refers only to "The Jews", no mention that in biblical accounts it is only some Jews, Melito makes them all culpable. The even more damning aspect of Melito's work is that he makes a strong case for Jesus as God, not only the son of God but part of him. This means that the Jews not only killed Jesus single-handedly but commited deicide as opposed to murder.

I'm not sure why I wrote this, just on my mind. For all his hatred of Judaism Melito writes beautiful, On the Passover is poetic and very powerful. It is fascinating to read Matthew and follow it up with Melito. I highly recommend it to anyone who can get a hold of both works.

Thanks to Professor Wilson for teaching me all this.

Happiness and Virtue

2004-11-30T21:39:00.000-05:00

Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete. (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, I. 7, 1098a16-19; trans. Hardie and Gaye, in The Basic Works of Aristotle, ed. Richard McKeon (New York: Random House, 1941), pp. 943.)

This is, obviously, from Book I of Aristotle's Ethics. Isn't it beautiful? I absolutely adore that sentence. Pedantic note 1: Happiness = Greek: Eudaimonia, virtue= Greek: Arrete. I wrote an essay about this this morning and I'm still a little burned out. I'll explain it tonight or tomorrow I think. Pedantic note 2: I tried posting this without providing the citation and I couldn't do it. The university has trained me well.

Exams

2004-04-22T17:39:00.000-04:00

One more exam, anthro, then I am done. As of noon tomorrow I'll be drinking and partying in HUMS-like fashion, which will like involve impromptu music, phallis chickens and random discussions of religion and philosophy while we pass around bottles of wine. Liam's kicking around in my head again demanding attention so that'll probably force me to actually do some writing soon. I want to write about the Legion of the Damned, which is conveniently where Liam ends up within a year of where I left off. I really should study but I'm far more likely to go read webcomics. Bye for now.

P.S. An honest to God post script, actually written after the previous bit had been published. Turns out my computer problem was user stupidity. So, while the problem hasn't been solved the symptoms are gone for now.

Computer Troubles.

2004-04-17T11:53:00.000-04:00

Dear Everyone,
I had planned to write a little more of Liam's story, jumping ahead a bit, which would showcase some of the Imunorn and eventually he even starts to learn about them. However I am having quite serious computer trouble. Most of the time the computer functions as if the 'windows key' is depressed, so about half my letters become shortcuts. This makes typing impossible. It's okay right now, but it comes and goes, more coming then going. Dell tech support is convinced that windows is fucked (can I say 'fucked' on a blog? Do they censor these things?) and needs to be reinstalled. Since my windows CD is about 5 hours away that'll have to wait until I get home. Can anyone tell me how much data, if any, is lost when one re-installs Windows XP? Specifically, do I keep things like IE favorites and the "My Documents" folder? Argh, well, this is all for now. I'm going to try and write until the problem comes back. Bye for now.

(Not So) Miraculous Returns.

2004-04-14T21:23:00.000-04:00

I'm back! Actually I arrived in Toronto on Sunday and spent some long-overdue time with my family. I arrived back at school about an hour ago. Ireland is a beautiful country with a fascinating, if sad, history. I have pictures but I'm not sure about putting them on the internet, I'll have to ask Kate about that. I arrive back in Toronto for good in 10 days. With any luck there will be much rejoicing.

As to Raan, the land and its Empress are still firmly fixed in my mind, they stick around there quite a lot actually. I'm not sure what writing will come next but hopefuly inspiration will strike. I could write more about the nameless tatooed warrior, continue Liam's story, jump ahead to later in Liam's life (it's a very long and sad saga), or try and come up with story which gives more data about the Imunorn. Exams are coming up so things might be sporadic. Ta ta.

P.S. (Although not really) I might write about Irish things. I'm considering the idea.

The Empire of Raan, I mean Ireland.

2004-04-01T11:38:00.000-05:00

In keeping with trying to do this blog thing more often I'm going to start mentioning when I'll be away for large blocks of time. So I'm going to Ireland, be gone for a week. Likely no updates until around the 12th. Bye.

One Year.

2004-03-28T01:26:00.000-05:00

Hello loyal reader (Laura) and possible silent readers. Today/yesterday/tonight marks my one year anniversary with the delightful Kate. It's been a surprising and rocky road, but we've come through it and thrived. She approached me like a cactus, sneaking past my tough, spiny exterior and finding the sweet pulp beneath. I love you Kate, here's to many more years to come.

On another note, I've now used up all of my pre-written Raan stuff. So now I have to actually start writing new things to fill these posts. Can I run some kind of census? How many people are reading this? And to anyone who is reading: What do you want to know about my little (big) Empire?

The Imunorn. (Just a snippet).

2004-03-25T18:36:00.000-05:00

Alright my darlings, listen up! I know you children hate our little classroom sessions but today is going to be special. Today I teach you what is known about the Imunorn. Ah! I see that gets a reaction. Some of you are afraid, some of you are angry and some are just confused. I’ll start at the beginning and do my best to keep this from being a history lesson. The small nation of Raan has an usually high magical ambience. As such, they faced an abnormally large number of Imunorn incursions. . . *sigh*. I can see most of you have no idea what I’m talking about. The Imunorn can create portals to travel through, we still don’t know how. They can only do this into high magic areas.
Raan got sick of this and they were the first ones to realize that the Imunorn got stronger with everyone they captured. Raan decided to do something about it. So they founded their legions and trained their citizens in self defence. They got good enough to react as soon as a portal opened and have armed people there, even if it was just civilians. Everyone was armed and everyone knew what to do. The gates would open and everyone around would sound the alarm and rush the gate to kill the Imunorn as they came out.
The plan worked. The Imunorn became weaker and weaker until Raan was almost completely free of them. But neighbouring countries still had the same problems as Raan did, and then the Imunorn would come pouring over the borders. So Raan formed the Legions and set about shaping up these other nations. They conquered the first few but offered the others the chance to join the burgeoning empire. Many balked but it was obvious that Raan was solving their Imunorn problem and the protection of the Legions was a considerable benefit. Things got easier and easier for the Empire as they began to have more and more benefits to offer. At this point our beloved Empire owns the entire continent and is now fighting the Imunorn on foreign shores. Trying to wipe them out. That is the Constitution of our great Empire and the oath our leaders swear. To do anything and everything necessary to further the destruction of the Imunorn.
Onto the nightmares themselves. Describing them is difficult. They take a variety of forms and there are a variety of different types. They generally have a roughly similar physical appearance to a human. Very rough. Two arms (usually) and two legs (usually) and a head full of teeth (usually). They seem to have a high degree of mutation. Lots of different shapes and forms. Black skin, jet black. You’ll have to see one to get the full effect. They always have claws and teeth though. Or almost always. I should say that they always have a weapon of some kind. They are killers, very dangerous creatures. We don’t know where they come from, we don’t know what they want in a larger sense. They kill and that’s what we are trying to stop. These basic Imunorn are what you are most likely to see. They come in large bands and are very difficult to kill. Be careful because wounds that would kill a human (like decapitation) will only inconvenience them as it causes physical problems. For example: cut of a leg and it won’t be able to walk, but it won’t die. It’ll crawl or hop after you. Cut of it’s head and it’ll keep coming, it’ll just be blind and deaf.
They are very tough to kill. They have thick skin, nearly armour, and their bones are nearly as tough as metal. They are sustained, at least partially, by magic. Which is why the standard death wounds won’t work. Standard practice is to kill it two or three times. Two or three different ways. Then burn the body to be sure.
That’s the least of them. The very least of them and that’s still not all they can do. They radiate terror. Some people just can’t take proximity to them, there are soldiers who break and run at the sight of them. Normal bravery has nothing to do with it. It’s something special they do. They breed on their own, we still don’t know how but they can also breed from us. The details are more perverse then we want to get into here. They capture men and women and magic-users all for different purposes. The men they torture give them extra power. The women they. . . use to breed more monsters. The magic-users they turn into Mind-rippers.
Mind-rippers are the next most common type. Not so dangerous hand to hand, but smarter. Much smarter. The worst part is that they make all the regular little bastards smarter too. Smart enough for weapons. Smart enough for strategies, tactics, ambushes. Plans. It gets very bad with Mind-rippers around. They also do magic. Anyone who goes up against them had better be strong willed. We call them Mind-rippers because that’s what they do. They hit you psychically and take your mind apart. As well as being better for humans one for one in hand to hand.
It gets much worse from here. Mind-rippers can get special results from their “breeding”. This is where we get Flesh-rippers, Skin-Stealers and Hell hounds. Flesh-rippers are like the regular bastards but bigger and stronger. The largest confirmed reports are up to 12 feet tall. We’ve seen them throw armoured knights, including the horse and the horse’s barding. Taking them one on one is a heroic task. You’ll learn tactics for them later, just be careful if you do run into one.
Skin-stealers are a bitch and a half. They take the form of humans as well as stealing the memories. They can pass for a long time. They have other talents as well. Most relating to stealth and assassination. We’re getting better at finding them but they’re getting better at hiding at the same time.
Hell hounds are what they do with dogs, wolves, cows and other four legged mammals. They’re only animal intelligent but they’re very fast. They act as skirmishers and scouts for larger forces.
Two more we’re going to talk about today. Soul-rippers are. . . probably the worst thing most of you will ever see. They sap your will just by existing. They bring blight and terror in their wake. They enhance the fear put out by the rest of the bastards, and they do a lot of magic. Most of it very very bad. It’s one in every hundred soldiers who can face them. Thankfully their really rare. They break formations and legions just by walking onto the field. We’re 90% sure these things are Mind-rippers gone bad.
The last thing we know about are the Demons. We don’t know much about them. They are big and fast and very mean. They have wings and they’re smarter the Mind-rippers. Scarier then the Soul-rippers. Magic rolls off them like water. We’ve had less then a dozen confirmed reports of them. We haven’t the slightest idea where they come from. We’ve never killed one. They waltz into theatres of engagement and destroy us without fail. They are the worst we have ever seen.

Brief introduction to Raan (incomplete)

2004-03-12T16:29:00.000-05:00

You hear the audience hall quiet as the speaker walks in. He’s a short man, dwarfed by the two guards who escort him. He wears a crisp dark green uniform with gold trim. It is fairly simple even though it is a dress uniform. On his left shoulder he bears a patch with a stylized spider,on his right there are a number of emblazoned slashes whose purpose you can’t fathom. He is armed. Even for a simple press conference he bears a pistol and a short sword. The astute among the audience also note the knife in his boot and the bulk of body armour under his shirt. He is bare headed, revealing close-cropped salt and pepper hair.
The two guards who accompany him are very different. Where he projects smiling good will they are very obviously dangerous people. Their eyes watch the entire room, weapons are ready to hand. They don’t look very different than any well-equipped soldier you’d see around the world. They bear a star burst sort of symbol where he has a spider and they have considerably fewer slash marks on the right arm. The only thing that would set them apart from any of a dozen different types of NATO troops are the axes strapped to their belts, and sword hilts sticking up over their shoulders. Brings to mind days of ancient warfare. They carry assault rifles in their hands however.
The speaker steps up to the podium with a smile that flashes white teeth in a tanned face. When he speaks his voice is melodious and cultured. He has a faint British upper-class accent.
“A hearty welcome to all the press and national information gatherers. This will be a short introduction to the history and culture of the Empire of Raan. I will be available to answer questions at the end of the presentation. Given that the majority of the audience comes from Earth the presentation will be conducted in English, comparisons will be drawn from this planet, and measurements will be presented using the metric and imperial systems. For those who are uncomfortable with English we will be recording and translating this broadcast into all six of the UN official languages. Other translations will be available upon request.
“My name is Captain Amini Roga, captain being a close equivalent to my actual rank. I am from the kingdom of Cri Sal member state of the Empire of Raan. We are a full member state, rather than an occupied province or a protectorate. These are the three types of states who are members of the Empire.
“Member states join voluntarily and bring significant resources with them. These resources could be nearly anything. A large military willing join the legions, money, industry, certain magical resources or natural resources. Whatever it is they are welcomed to the Empire as member states. This allows them to retain internal autonomy within the larger structure of the Empire. Member states are, in general, allowed to deal with internal affairs as they see fit. So long as they contribute to the over all good of the Empire.
“Protectorates are nations who wish to join but have very little to offer the Empire. It should be noted that the Empire goes to great lengths to bring any nation under its aegis up to what you would consider a developed level. The empire sends engineers to improve infrastructure and other specialists to improve education, health and economy. The down side to becoming a protectorate is that internal government is handled by an appointed Governor. Efforts are made to maintain local culture and customs but the good of the empire comes first. In general a great deal is gained by protectorate nations. The early years of a protectorate are hideously expensive for the empire and it often takes several decades to bring them into the black.
“Occupied provinces are an unfortunate necessity. Due to the external threat of the Imunorn certain nations cannot be left to their own devices, lest they fall prey and aid the nightmares in their attacks. In these cases Raan will offer them protectorate status and if that is refused the legions will move in. Occupied provinces are run by local legion commanders and first priority is the good of the Empire, with only limited emphasis placed on maintaining local culture and customs. Over the course of the Empire many different approaches have been taken towards occupied nations. Ranging from slavery or basically unwilling protectorate status. At this point the protectorates are treated well from an humanitarian point of view but it is unlikely that they would survive more than a century before become simply another province of the Empire.
“The largest difference between the treatments of people in the three types of states is that the Empire uses a citizenship level system. People from member states are full citizens of the Empire. They pay less in the way of taxes than people from other nations and they receive priority service for pretty well everything. People from protectorates are second class citizens. They receive priority over people from protectorates but are often bumped by full citizens. They also pay considerably higher taxes than full citizens. A second class citizen can become a full citizen by serving five years in the legions or equivalent service.
“People from protectorates are third class citizens. Given lowest priority for everything from entertainment events to health care they also pay higher taxes than any other citizens of the Empire. They can become full citizens by serving ten years in the Legions or equivalent service.

Problems

2004-02-26T00:29:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers (all three of you),

I am in a quandary. I've been reading a lot of news, I check CNN, Reuters, China News Agency, BBC, CBC and a host of lesser intitutions daily. I wanted to be more informed about current events. Combining that with a degree in Humanities just begs me to rant about everything. I can talk about the Bible until I'm blue in the face. I can discuss the various merits of a Jungian or Freudian interpretation of Euripedes' Bacchae. I can talk at length about homosexual marriage in North America from religious, political and legal points of view. I can blather about cookies and yams. I can blather about books that I read. I can even (with great trepidation) talk about my own life and struggles.

I am enough of a narcissist and (I think) writer to do this in an interesting way. The base data is certainly all there, I'm full of things to say. The problem is that I'm not sure I want to say them. I could continue posting story snippets. I've got maybe a dozen more like what's being put up. Add to that that with the slightest degree of motivation I could probably post a new one (freshly written no less) about once a week. The little snippet scenes just pour out of me, the problem is that they never become full-fledged stories. I could talk about Raan indefinitely. The Empire itself is well-fleshed in my mind.

I have essays, which are certainly not masterpieces but contains topics that would certainly interest some aspect of the world and they are usually good enough to net me a B or better.

I could talk about nerd things. I have enough experience and knowledge that I could be a veritable fountain of information on Role Playing Games, Magic cards, computer games and the like. Just here at university I have over a dozen RPGs (individual RPGs, not just books), enough magic cards to make 7+ functional decks and I read gaming articles voraciously.

I even think I may be able to write humorous posts. I read enough online humour to have some idea of what's funny. Most of my friends spent all their time laughing at/with me. Same thing happens in class. The majority of it is deliberate, I invite people to laugh at me. I enjoy making people laugh. I wouldn't be a Penny Arcade, Something Awful or a Brunching Shuttlecocks but I'd be something.

On to my quandary: I decided not to make this blog about me, not to 'emo' it up. I don't like talking about myself, I would worry constantly about narcissism and the like. I also think that as soon as some of my personal life got on here it would be a slippery slope to every bad livejournal you see posted on the ALOD for all to mock. So what do I do? I'm not even sure why I'm writing this, as it's exactly what I said I wasn't going to write in my first post. Today's been a really weird day for me this way. Restless and headachy and restless. Restless is a weird feeling for me, I'm slothful and easy going by nature so being restless is highly unusual. It usually signals something which turns out to be psychologically significant (I could discuss Jung's theories here but I'll resist temptation). Means something is going on inside that I don't get yet. I want something without quite knowing what it is. I'll be like this until I find the right outlet.

This post is odd in that it assumes people are going to read it and care, as well as being the narcissistic crap I would/am be trying to desperately to avoid. I was hoping writing was the cure to my restlessness, but I could get any more of Liam down (even though I know exactly what happens next for quite some time in his life), and this isn't helping now that it's written. *sigh*

Well world, here goes nothing. My first foray into flooding the world with my very own emo crap. Next will come terrible, terrible poetry

-Nick

The Liam Bungton Saga: Part 2

2004-02-22T22:51:00.000-05:00

The focus of this story, is a young man named Liam Bungton (an unfortunate name at best). Liam (he detests the use of his last name, which is unfortunate as he is generally referred to as Private Bungton, or unsavoury variations on that theme, which is the nature of armies and does not need to be expounded here) at this point in our story is seriously reconsidering his choice of careers. He didn’t mind being an MP, but other then that he really wishes he had a different job. He doesn’t like military food, military discipline, late hours, swords, knives, bows, sweat, guns, bombs (technology in the Realms (where our story takes place) is notoriously fickle, as a result the Legions rely mostly on non-tech weapons) or uniforms. He didn’t even like birds, which was unfortunate as he was paired with a raven upon joining (it being the Legion of the Raven after all), to make matters worse the bird had taken an immediate dislike to him and made life difficult, to make matters additionally worse the bird was now missing (even if he didn’t like it per se it was still a companion and ally). The one saving grace, was that Liam hadn’t liked his commanders either and they were dead now. Which, upon reflection, wasn’t much of a grace. In fact, things had spiralled so far down towards completely awful, Liam almost envied Dirk his insanity. Which was, as you probably realize, a depressing thought.
Liam, as of late, was a depressed man (well, actually Liam was more of a boy, being only about nineteen years of age) boy or man, the point is that he is unhappy, and not only with the situation. He’d always felt that he should do something with his life, the Legions seemed like the perfect idea. See the world, help out the Empire, what more could a sixteen year old boy with dreams of glory want (he’d been sixteen (three years ago) when these thoughts passed through his head)? His girlfriend had been thrilled at the time, she got to tell her friends she was dating a Legionnaire. Everything was suitably melodramatic for her, he could even imagine her tearing up as she told her friends about how “I can’t take the stress of knowing whether he’s alive or dead, no man is worth that agony. Even as much as I love him!” The “dear john” letter had been suitably dramatic as well. His parents had been happy for him, his father quietly proud, his mother quietly sad and proud. A weak jest from her about riding home on shields, it had been fun and exciting at the time. Things seemed a lot less exciting when you were exhausted, hungry and bleeding from a fairly deep gash in your leg. Legs were a bad place to be hurting right now, running was important. In point of fact, Liam was just now waiting for the Nine-Tail scout to return bearing the inevitable news that it was time to ambush the Imunorn and relocate to a new semi-secure location. Liam was, in fact, dreading that command. His leg made running difficult, which meant, just maybe he’d be put at the back with the rear-guard. A sort of sacrificial lamb. His ex would be piqued that she’d lost her chance to be a grieving girlfriend of a medal winner. That brought what could very well be the last amusement of Liam’s life, as he watched the Nine-Tail scout come stumbling wearily back toward them, undoubtedly with the Imunorn at his heels. Liam felt a quiet numbness creeping over him. Not any cliche acceptance of the path the fates had wrought for him today, nor high-minded preparations for his ascent (or descent) into the afterlife. Just an overwhelming tiredness, he was going to fight them (and very probably lose). It was beginning not to matter. The Nine-Tail sergeant did a quick muster with his eyes and detailed three men to be rear-guard in the narrow channel of rock. Liam was (predictably) one of them. He stood and moved into position with the two Nine-Tails who would form the other sides of their defensive triangle. Liam hefted his shield and tightened his hand on his sword, not grim, not determined, just very tired. This would be his first real fighting, so far he’d been mostly helping the wounded. His one leg wounded soldier dropping a sword on Liam’s leg. Not the most noble injury in the squad.
He waited with the Nine-Tails soldiers, who also seemed numb. One smoked a contraband cigarette while the other picked at splinters in his shield. No one spoke. Liam felt that he should be outraged, and that he would be if he weren’t so tired. It seemed wrong to die with a pair of quiet men he’d never met, to make it all worse they were ugly too. It wasn’t the way he’d have preferred to go but who really made these decisions? He felt, too like he should summon the proper determination and grit that a true soldier would have under the circumstances. At least he wasn’t scared.
The first thing he heard from the Imunorn was screaming. Not them screaming though. Human screams. He saw the others getting ready, one throwing away a cigarette while the other kicked apart the pile of splinters. The three of them stood shield to shield blocking the narrow passage of stone. They were ready for anything. At least hypothetically. The reality of those screams was somewhat worse then they had imagined. The Imunorn were carrying a Raven soldier, missing his hands and feet and patches of skin. The partially flayed remains of this poor solider were still alive and screaming as it was carried forward by the Imunorn. What did you expect from nightmares?
Fear was their greatest weapon.

Part 1: The Liam Bungton Saga

2004-02-12T13:01:00.001-05:00

“This is bad, this is very very bad.” Dirk was rocking back and forth as he said this, back and forth, back and forth. No one was really paying attention to him at this point. After all, they were all in the same basic situation, and there were worse wounded then Dirk. Shell shock was more or less a given under the circumstances. He’d be easier to ignore, though, if he weren’t right. The situation was bad, very very bad, although no amount of catatonia was really going to fix it. Reactions like that though, as we’ve said, were to be expected. The battalion (now abbreviated to two platoons) was fighting creatures out of nightmare. To make the problem exponentially worse they weren’t even supposed to be fighting the Imunorn (our aforementioned nightmares). They were the Legion of the Raven, one of the lesser legions of the Empire of Raan. Garrison troops, at best. Actually more like showpieces then real troops, not bad as MPs (Military Police) though. Fighting a three day running battle with the Imunorn through natural predator infested badlands was really out of their league.
A very very bad situation one might say.
Their one saving grace, was that they’d hooked up with two platoons from the Legion of the Whip (this bringing them up, after attrition, to two full platoons). The Legion of the Whip was one of the greater Legions, more famed for their combat prowess. This contingent is largely responsible for the continued survival of anyone from the Raven battalion known as the Desert Feathers. Things continued to go badly however, despite the Whip squads’ intervention (who, by the way, are colloquially referred to as the Nine-Tails). The Nine-Tails have so far been shepherding the remains of the Desert Feathers through the channels and spires of dusty rock that comprise the badlands, helping to set up ambushes and acting as rear guard units. It is perhaps a measure of the relative skill levels involved that the Nine-Tails, through all of this fighting, have lost ninety-three soldiers in total (this is not a bad number even considering that they have only been fighting for the last thirty hours, as opposed to the full three days, especially because they have borne the brunt of the fighting.) In these three days, the Desert Feathers have been reduced from a full battalion all the way to a platoon and a half (A platoon is 60 combatants, a company is 5 platoons, and a battalion is 5 companies for a total of 1500 soldiers). Total losses for the Desert Feathers are in excess of 1400 casualties, albeit most of them incurred in the initial attack. Just to reduce the reader’s need for a calculator in reading, the two groups together have 104 men, 27 Nine-Tails with 77 Desert Feathers.
Clear?
The origins of this very very bad situation are fairly simple, although a testament to the supposed intelligence of the Imunorn (the matter is still under hot debate, whether they are animal intelligent (say like a smart wolf) or human style intelligent (say like a smart human)). The normal garrison for Liance (our location in question), the Bright-Beaks (two and a half companies of Raven troops) were, at the time, augmented by the entirety of the Desert Feather battalion, who were there on practice manoeuvres. When they heard about a smallish group of Imunorn just to the East of Liance (in the badlands), the commanders thought that it would be a perfect field test. They spread out their entire Battalion in a search line and sent them out into the badlands. Sadly, the Imunorn force was considerably larger than the scout ravens that give this particular Legion it’s name reported (ravens are surprisingly intelligent, capable of counting, and speech. Not to mention that the Legion takes only the smartest ravens). As we have fairly conclusively (not to mention mathematically) mentioned, the battalion as a whole was massacred, except for the 2 platoons which hooked up with the remains of the Nine-Tails company which had been shadowing the Imunorn army and harassing it as it approached Raanese territory. As clear as this is, it still leaves these poor soldiers (now abbreviated to two platoons (more or less)), like Dirk, among a Imunorn army which had to number (judging by the destruction they wreaked on the battalion sent out to destroy them) at least a 1000 . . . things (the Imunorn (being nightmares) defy convenient description, unless you count my use of the word “things” which is highly convenient.) Imunorn, furthermore, tend to be considerably more dangerous then the humans they fight, necessitating odds of at least 2-1 (for the humans) to insure any kind of victory, usually with heavy losses, except the better legions (better even then the Legion of the Whip) who are regularly used to fight them. Since the Legion of the Raven are not as good a Legion as say, the Legion of the Rose (the undisputed best unit in the entirety of the Raanese Legions, or anywhere else in the realms, which is obvious as the Raanese Legions are the best, so their best unit would have to be better) and since they were surrounded and behind enemy lines, as well as being outnumbered probably 10-1, they were royally screwed. Confirming Dirk’s assessment of this as being “. . .bad, very very bad.”
You might wonder where I’m going with this, or where all the brackets are coming from. The answer to the first question will be made clear momentarily, the answer to the second question is that you obviously don’t know anything about the Realms or the Raanese Legions, so I just have to throw in explanatory data without damaging the flow of the story (understand?).

Day of the Births.

2004-02-08T12:27:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to all the February 8s. Alison, Andre, Dawn, Jenn and that random pair of twins in texas. Happy birthday to all.

Last night I had a whole massive pile of political stuff, up to the minute news stuff, Raan stuff, philosophy stuff, Yam stuff and movie stuff. Right now I am drawing a total blank. The Raan stuff will probably be up in a few days, unless my natural incompetence shows through.

Might as well get started.

2004-02-05T21:43:00.000-05:00

Her guard jammed a short sword into its stomach. The thing ignored the blade as the sharp steel skittered harmlessly across its armoured hide. It grabbed him by his outstretched arm, flung him almost casually across the room into the brick wall. She focused her attention on the monstrous creature in front of her and saw only out of the corner of her eye his body slam into the wall. She saw shattered stone fly, he'd hit hard enough to break the ancient rocks. The creature in front of her was huge, easily ten feet tall and massively built. It approached her slowly, savouring in her fear as they both knew she was powerless to stop its advance. That was why she had hired a bodyguard in the first place, she was not a soldier by any means. The thing was almost upon her when a voice rang out with a sound that made her think of silken steel. Smooth, beautiful, hard and deadly. Ringing tones not suited to throats of mortal men.
"Turn from her creature. Our battle is not yet finished. You will have to see me dead before her life is yours to play with."
She looked disbelieving as her guard stood, he had changed. He'd looked ordinary before. Now. . . now he looked spectacular. Before he had been mildly handsome, cute maybe. He’d been fit of course, she’d have accepted no less from a guard. He’d moved with the grace appropriate to a warrior, but he’d been nothing special. Now she could feel his power prickling along her skin like she were resting on a bed of nails. His skin was covered with tattoos that she had never seen, she wondered how he had hidden them they covered him so completely. They were interlaced blue and red whorls and sigils. Runes of power that resembled interwoven snakes. The blue was the azure of perfect summer skies, glowing with a beautiful light. The red was perfect crimson. It looked as if sapphires and rubies had been painted onto his skin. They shone and reflected in the light like good steel would. They glowed with their own inner light. The symbols traced their winding path over his entire body that she could see, excepting only his fingers. In those fingers he held a long curving blade with runes which matched his own etched into the steel. In the pulsing light of the marks it was difficult to see where the flesh ended and the blade began.
He walked toward the creature and where once he had moved with the grace of any half-decent swordsman now he moved like something fey. Quicksilver coloured blue and red. The thing turned with a roar and swung its massive arm in an implacable arc, an arc which would smash anything luckless enough to be in the way. For all of its gargantuan size it was terrifyingly swift he was close enough that there was no way he could dodge. Even having seen him survive its earlier absentminded attack she couldn’t envision anything withstanding this new strike. It was a creature designed to obliterate life. It had been very well designed.
Her champion moved like painted lightning, his brands shining fit to eclipse the sun outside. He dropped to one knee, passing under the colossal arm and brought his blade around in a crescent of shining colour whose terminus was the creature’s hip. She realized that she hadn’t precisely seen the blade itself transverse it brilliant crescent, merely the afterimage of the fiercely burning symbols upon it. The creature roared in mingled surprise and agony as its leg was completely separated from its body. She had never seen anyone do more than minor harm to one of the things before. It usually took a full platoon of soldiers to bring one down and their casualties would be high.
Even as she watched her defender’s blade was still in motion. As the thing toppled slowly from its great height he whipped his blade around in another of those impossibly fast movements and passed the blade completely through the creature’s head. The creature’s body finished its collapse, sending shockwaves through the ancient stone of the floor. She saw her champion complete the graceful chain of motions which had begun with avoiding the creature’s blow. He stared at the creature for a long moment, insuring that it would not rise again.
She watched her saviour turn toward her, his skin still glowing like it was made of stained glass and there was a sun trapped behind it. She stared at him and had no idea of what she now faced. His voice still sang with power.
“We must flee Lady. More will come.” She gasped when his eyes met hers. The marks continued even here, the lapis blue of his eyes was worked into the designs but everything else was covered by the red and blue marks. Seeing her shock he reached up with one hand and touched the runes on his eyelids. All of the brands disappeared, he stood before her as he had always been no sense of power, no distinguishing marks at all. She gaped. She’d never heard of such powerful magics which could be so completely hidden so easily. When he spoke again his voice was back to normal. Quiet and respectful with none of the force it had held mere moments before.
“What. . . what are you?” Her voice came out breathy and scared. She hated that she normally worked hard to keep her voice light and strong. She tried again: “What are you?” It was better that time. Not how she preferred but less like a scared little girl.
He hesitated before answering but his voice was not its usual submissive self. “That is a complex question Mistress. Now is not an appropriate time, I will do my best to answer when the time is appropriate.”

Introduction

2004-02-03T23:25:00.000-05:00

I write a lot of little story snippets. I always mean to finish them but I never get around to it. This won't be full of personal details and emo bits (hopefully). I plan to put up the aforementioned snippets and hopefully if I get feedback it'll spur me to actually finish the things. At the very least I hope to get unbiased replies based on quality. Hopefully I'll be getting people other than just my friends so that I can get true feedback (as much as like my friends they're way too nice). At the very least this allows the girlfriend (the lovely, wonderful and intelligent (not to mention sexy) Kate) to play with the formatting.