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.

1 comment:

La belle fille said...

Comments! Yay! Okay, Comment time: I like it. I think that it's a good idea. I cant' wait to see how it turns out!