Tons of societies worship their ancestors. It's common as dirt when it comes to belief systems. Most others still build in some kind of respect for those that came before. But when you think about it, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I mean, you're better than your ancestors. More advanced, smarter, why should you worship them? In something that I right soon, I'm going to explore the idea of a society that worships their descendants - specifically, the culmination of the human race to which they will eventually give birth. Rather than worship a creator, they worship a creation that will eventually come to pass.
An interesting variation on this is the idea of a circular god. It states that this end point of creation will eventually go back and create the universe in the first place. In short, we are the product of our own ingenuity. Eventually, we will evolve to the point where we can create ourselves. It ensures that life goes on indefinitely - in a way.
Jonah deserves some credit for this random train of thought, since it was my pondering of his incredibly bizarre universal soul theory that led me to come up with it. I will post that intriguing theory here if he says its ok.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Monday, September 27, 2004
Concerning Doom Pixies, pt. II
On their warfare, family structure, and life-cycle.
Doom Pixie warfare is unique among all the peoples of the world. Because doom pixies are so small, for them to use the conventional tactics would be absurd. Instead, the have three major tactics they use in combat - Sabotage, Sorcery, and Sight-seizure.
The first tactic is sabotage. If the pixies have some grievance with a group of people, they will send warriors to break things, steal food, move objects from one side of a house to another, and cause general mischief. They are also fond of stealing one half of a pair of socks, and hiding all the writing utensils so you never have one when you need it. If this fails to get results, however, they move on the something a little more dangerous.
The next tactic is sorcery. This involves getting the most powerful of the Ojeki to get together and wreak havoc on the enemy, by summoning up a storm or some kind of monster under their control. This is sufficient to get all but the most stubborn enemies to back down.
If an enemy won't back down at this point, they'll generally decide to fight back by finding and attacking the pixie colonies. This is when pixies resort to their final tactic. If a mob is approaching a pixie colony, the Ojeki will make a general announcement giving the assailants one last chance to turn back. Then he lets out his cry of "Carpe Occulum!" and swarms of pixies will surround each member of the mob and gouge their eyes out with toothpick sized spears. The mob members often strike out in a blind rage and end up impaling each other. This is a deterrent to most mobs.
If it doesn't work, pixies consider themselves defeated and move on to form a new colony elsewhere. These migrations are very dangerous, and it can be years before a colony finds a new home.
In part one, the unusual family structure of the Doom pixies was alluded to, but I think it would be a good idea to elaborate somewhat. For the most part, Doom pixies do not mate for life. The dominant religion among the Doom pixies, in fact, encourages promiscuity, and since children are raised by the entire colony anyway, pregnancy is seldom a concern. Most Doom pixies, therefore, take part in a free love sort of philosophy, living alone or with close friends of either gender.
In recent years, however, Christianity has been growing among the pixies of many colonies. Christian pixies prefer to couple permanently, which authorities frown upon, but generally don't mind. More of a problem is the desire of some pixies to raise their own children exclusively.
In pixie culture, children are generally left to themselves to wonder the colony freely and discover the world for themselves. It is the responsibility of every pixie not only to care for the young and protect them from harm, but to take an interest in them and make them feel loved. On the rare occasion parents wish to raise their own children, they are seen with a mixture of scorn and pity. "Seperation anxiety" is seen as a disease of the mind, and such people must be kept away from babies until they get over it.
An interesting side-effect of this is Doom pixies names. Generally, as the colony gets to know a pixie child, a nickname sort of naturally emerges, based either on some physical trait, a personality trait, or something amusing that happened to them once. These names, like Eriswalneth (Triangular ears), Gunalae (Curios one) , or Tumtakolesthemwallock(kept trying to climb the walls until he broke his leg), generally stick with the child until the child grows his or her second set of wings. When a Doom pixie is able to fly (usually around 15 or 16 for girls, 17 or 18 for boys), he or she is considered an adult and allowed to choose a name which better describes them.
This is also the age where a young Doom pixies decides if he or she wants to be a sorceror or an artisan, in which case they are apprenticed, or just be a warrior/drone, in which case they go out into the wilderness with other young people and try to catch some local animal. The tradition varies based on what wild life is available, but the fundamentals are the same. Until the creature is caught and tamed, the group will be considered children. They will not be called by their chosen names, allowed to work in adult jobs, or do any adult things. They are also denied the priviledges of children. Because of this severe punishment, most groups return with a tame rodent of some sort, which is used as a hunting, herding or pack animal.
What you've just gotten is a basic overview of Doom pixie culture. It should be enough for you to better understand the stories which are to come.
Doom Pixie warfare is unique among all the peoples of the world. Because doom pixies are so small, for them to use the conventional tactics would be absurd. Instead, the have three major tactics they use in combat - Sabotage, Sorcery, and Sight-seizure.
The first tactic is sabotage. If the pixies have some grievance with a group of people, they will send warriors to break things, steal food, move objects from one side of a house to another, and cause general mischief. They are also fond of stealing one half of a pair of socks, and hiding all the writing utensils so you never have one when you need it. If this fails to get results, however, they move on the something a little more dangerous.
The next tactic is sorcery. This involves getting the most powerful of the Ojeki to get together and wreak havoc on the enemy, by summoning up a storm or some kind of monster under their control. This is sufficient to get all but the most stubborn enemies to back down.
If an enemy won't back down at this point, they'll generally decide to fight back by finding and attacking the pixie colonies. This is when pixies resort to their final tactic. If a mob is approaching a pixie colony, the Ojeki will make a general announcement giving the assailants one last chance to turn back. Then he lets out his cry of "Carpe Occulum!" and swarms of pixies will surround each member of the mob and gouge their eyes out with toothpick sized spears. The mob members often strike out in a blind rage and end up impaling each other. This is a deterrent to most mobs.
If it doesn't work, pixies consider themselves defeated and move on to form a new colony elsewhere. These migrations are very dangerous, and it can be years before a colony finds a new home.
In part one, the unusual family structure of the Doom pixies was alluded to, but I think it would be a good idea to elaborate somewhat. For the most part, Doom pixies do not mate for life. The dominant religion among the Doom pixies, in fact, encourages promiscuity, and since children are raised by the entire colony anyway, pregnancy is seldom a concern. Most Doom pixies, therefore, take part in a free love sort of philosophy, living alone or with close friends of either gender.
In recent years, however, Christianity has been growing among the pixies of many colonies. Christian pixies prefer to couple permanently, which authorities frown upon, but generally don't mind. More of a problem is the desire of some pixies to raise their own children exclusively.
In pixie culture, children are generally left to themselves to wonder the colony freely and discover the world for themselves. It is the responsibility of every pixie not only to care for the young and protect them from harm, but to take an interest in them and make them feel loved. On the rare occasion parents wish to raise their own children, they are seen with a mixture of scorn and pity. "Seperation anxiety" is seen as a disease of the mind, and such people must be kept away from babies until they get over it.
An interesting side-effect of this is Doom pixies names. Generally, as the colony gets to know a pixie child, a nickname sort of naturally emerges, based either on some physical trait, a personality trait, or something amusing that happened to them once. These names, like Eriswalneth (Triangular ears), Gunalae (Curios one) , or Tumtakolesthemwallock(kept trying to climb the walls until he broke his leg), generally stick with the child until the child grows his or her second set of wings. When a Doom pixie is able to fly (usually around 15 or 16 for girls, 17 or 18 for boys), he or she is considered an adult and allowed to choose a name which better describes them.
This is also the age where a young Doom pixies decides if he or she wants to be a sorceror or an artisan, in which case they are apprenticed, or just be a warrior/drone, in which case they go out into the wilderness with other young people and try to catch some local animal. The tradition varies based on what wild life is available, but the fundamentals are the same. Until the creature is caught and tamed, the group will be considered children. They will not be called by their chosen names, allowed to work in adult jobs, or do any adult things. They are also denied the priviledges of children. Because of this severe punishment, most groups return with a tame rodent of some sort, which is used as a hunting, herding or pack animal.
What you've just gotten is a basic overview of Doom pixie culture. It should be enough for you to better understand the stories which are to come.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Monday, September 20, 2004
Concerning Doom Pixies
In an effort to be more like my brother, I'm close to starting my first story feature, the Doom pixie Saga. Before we do, you'll need to know some things about the background. I wrote this introduction in Study Hall today. Hope you enjoy it.
Concerning Doom Pixies, pt. I
The piece you are about to read deals rather heavily with Doom pixies. The author, therefore, has thought it prudent to include in this short segment some basic information about Doom pixies, their culture, and how they differ from regular pixies.
The thousands of creatures which inhabit our world range from the three and a half kilometer Leviathan of Mograb to the diminuitive angel, twenty-three of which can dance on the head of a single pin (unless they're swing dancing. That takes more space.) The temptation, when dealing with such creatures, is to assume the largest to be the most dangerous. This is, in fact, seldom the case. The aforementioned Leviathan, for instance, is completely harmless to most lifeforms because it moves so slowly that it takes sixty or seventy years to blink. Contrast with ten centimeter pixies, who could the traverse the Leviathan in a matter of hours. (Unimpressive as it may seem, it's comparable to one of us encircling the globe in an hour.)
As well as being fast, pixies are incredibly strong, capable of hauling up to one hundred times their body weight. Even a colony of regular pixies is not something to be trifled with.
Doom pixies are far worse . While normal pixies have some inborn magical qualilties, most notably, the production of valuable pixie dust, these pale in comparison to the powers of the doom pixie. Doom pixies have been known to perform higher-level wizard spells without books at the age of twenty-five. (It's worth noting that this is closer to twelve in pixie year. Pixies live fast, but they don't die young. While they mature at the age of twenty-five, they can live up to two-hundred and fifty years.) Unlike wizards, however, few Doom pixies can control this talent, so spell-casting is usually pretty random and inefficient.
Doom pixie is, in fact, something of a misnomer, as they are not especially prone to evil or violence. They call themselves the Ojeki-milunn, which means 'Pixies with better magic' in their language. The name doom pixies comes to us through one Sir Edgar Flemmington, who, mistaking them for regular pixies, attempted to extract some of their dust for a potion. When one frightened pixie accidently summoned an enormous demon which ate four of Flemmington's men, he wrote the following in his famous Journal:
"While most pixies be of a
friendly nature, and of a
generally good humour,
these be pixies of a highly
irregular sort. Yeah, verily
these be the pixies of doom,"
The journal was wildly popular, and the name stuck. We have called them Doom pixies ever since.
Besides the obvious magical advantage, Doom pixies resemble normal pixies in most ways. They are slightly taller, averaging ten to twelve centimeters for males and eight to eleven for females. Their skin has a light blue or purple coloration, and their wings are tinted in the same color. Their hair tends to be blonde, green, or occasianally turquoise, with yellow-green being overwhelmingly the most common. Their eyes are bright red.
Most Doom pixies live in large colonies, in chambered hives which they carve out of rock. They are amazingly resilient, thriving wherever there is adequate rock for hive-building. They can eat almost anything, but require massive amounts of food. Doom pixie colonies have minimal division of labor. All pixies in a given colony can be hunters, warriors, miners, farmers, or scavengers, as the need arrises. There are two exceptions - the few artisans, who strive night and day to produce high quality clothing and tools for the whole colony, and the Ojeki, or sorcerors. Each colony generally has one, the Ojek prime, who rules the colony. Under him are the rest of the Ojeki. Since Ojeki are by nature ambitious, they are always suspicious of each other. An old saying goes the only one who can't trust an Ojeki is the next one up, as they resort to any means to advance. This is odd, because most Doom pixies are incredibly honest and industrious.
Doom pixie children are raised by the entire colony. Most grow up with no knowledge of their parentage. Children who show exceptional paranoia, decietfulness, or ambition are trained as sorcerors. Magical aptitude is seldom a factor. Those who are especially clever or hard-working tend to become artisans. Most become workers, and are generally happy.
Occasionally though, someone doesn't want to share their land with Doom pixies. Maybe their afraid. Maybe a magical misfire destroyed a crop or killed an animal. Maybe someone was trying to steal the pixies' dust. Whatever the reason, sometimes the Doom pixies are forced to go to war.
That's all for now - prt. II will be up next time I get that bored. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Now for my first real post: A new TV show idea! Since Stargate: Atlantis stole enough of my most promising idea that it would be plagiarism to use it, I've needed a new one. I really like this one, though. Right now I'm calling it Exodus.
Ok, basically, way in the future, the solar system is controlled by a ruthless theocratic dictatorship. The church controlls everything, and only their twisted religion is allowed. This religion prohibits intersteller travel, and the technique for it has been lost to time.
This all happened because, hundreds of years earlier, humans traveled the galaxy freely. One hapless human angered an extremely powerful alien race, and they responded by devasting human colonies on a drive towards Earth. Earth repelled the attack, but soon after the church came to power, and destroyed all stardrives, and anywhere where knowledge of them was kept, in the interest of protecting the planet.
Anyway, now some other religious groups still survive in secret, but heavily persecuted. They've formed an alliance to help eachother survive. When a Mormon teraformer, surveying a small moon of saturn, discovers a buried stardrive, this alliance prepares a fleet for the next great Exodus.
The pilgrims narrowly escape the Solar System, but outside must contend with hostile aliens as well as internal power struggles in their search for the "promised land".
Ok, basically, way in the future, the solar system is controlled by a ruthless theocratic dictatorship. The church controlls everything, and only their twisted religion is allowed. This religion prohibits intersteller travel, and the technique for it has been lost to time.
This all happened because, hundreds of years earlier, humans traveled the galaxy freely. One hapless human angered an extremely powerful alien race, and they responded by devasting human colonies on a drive towards Earth. Earth repelled the attack, but soon after the church came to power, and destroyed all stardrives, and anywhere where knowledge of them was kept, in the interest of protecting the planet.
Anyway, now some other religious groups still survive in secret, but heavily persecuted. They've formed an alliance to help eachother survive. When a Mormon teraformer, surveying a small moon of saturn, discovers a buried stardrive, this alliance prepares a fleet for the next great Exodus.
The pilgrims narrowly escape the Solar System, but outside must contend with hostile aliens as well as internal power struggles in their search for the "promised land".
It was a good idea, but there was to much pressure to get it right. From now on, this is my place. It will have no order. Sometimes it will contain your typical blogging fare, but I reserve the right to post anything I want to. The purpose of this blog is not to entertain anyone but myself, but if it does, I won't complain. If it doesn't, however, you should not complain. When I get settlewd in, there will probably be short stories and everntually I may attempt a novella. These you may critique at your leisure. everything else you may disagree with, but you may not complain. That is, feel free to make comments critiquing my opinions, but not my presentation of said opinions. So to reiterate - this blog, mine. It is not for your personal entertainment, so don't complain about it to me. When a section is intended for your entertainment, you will know.
Have a nice day.
Have a nice day.
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