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madelinemadelinemadeline · 7 months

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Magic System Pt. I - Necromacy & Incantation

Magic is a word that can encompass many disciplines, from a variety of origins and natures, operating by the will of the gods, or in their spite. In this case, of these closely related ancient practices, it's the latter.

Necromancy is the temporary reintegration of a person's spirit to speak with them, with the purpose of divination. It is also connected to the practice of reanimation, which has the goal of bringing back the dead, whilst Incantation is the process of imbuing the Form or essence of an abstract concept into an object to grant it a magical effect or property, called an enchantment.

While these disciplines seem very distinct from one another, they're connected by method and nature, as is to be seen.

Introduction

Cosmology, the makeup and structure of the universe, is an important factor in how these arts work.

An illustration of the celestial spheres, showing the Earth (🜨), the Moon (☾), the Sun (🜚︎), the Planets, the Zodiac, as well as the star Nebyrum (✶) and the Monad (☉︎)

Existence is divided between the World of Ideas (also known as the Hyperuranion or the Pleroma) and the physical universe (also known as the phenomenal world or the Kenoma). The World of Ideas is the heavenly abode of Forms, emanating from the One, divided into the lower Forms of physical objects and the higher, abstract Forms, that represent concepts, whilst the world of matter is divided between the earth and the heavens, a nested set of spheres moved by aether. The Pleroma and Kenoma are kept separate by the great barrier of the Horus, whose only gate is the star Nebyrum, in the constellation of Libra.

This is innately connected with the human essence, which carries in itself three "ambassadors" of each realm, which produce consciousness when joined as one:

the Spirit (represented by Mercury, which represents the Mind and the Ego, and inhabits the World of Ideas)

the Soul (represented by Sulfur, which represents the Heart and the Superego, and inhabits the Celestial Spheres)

the Pneuma (represented by Salt, which represents the Body and the Id, and inhabits the Underworld)

Death occurs when these thirds separate, the essence decomposes, and these portions sink and dissolve in the rivers of Hades, rise and settle among the stars, or begin their long and arduous journey through transcendence. The human essence, thus, becomes spread between worlds, and it's this setup that allows necromancy to be possible.

The main exploit through which necromancy and its related disciplines function is the alignment of these components, which makes them appear as joined to a distant observer looking down from the heavens (such as a god), leading to that person becoming whole again, coming back to life, albeit temporarily, in the form of a shade (due to the "body" being nothing but its pneuma, a living wind). It's worth mentioning that these alignments aren't always manmade; it can happen by chance, especially over bodies of water rich in pneumata, which is why areas like the Acheron will appear haunted with the shades of the dead.

Reanimation works similarly, but with a vessel that can be animated, instead of the bare pneuma. Though of course, it has its caveats: it can only last for as long as the alignment persists, in less than a day this vessel will die again. Moreover, either the original likely decomposed body must be used, or a whole other new one, either of which can be far too unsettling to be useful, though to some necromancers this isn't particularly a problem.

Incantation

Incantation, on the other hand, utilizes another exploit on top of that above. Usually, in the other forms of necromancy, a call is used, often the name of the deceased person, which can attract the soul and facilitate the alignment, but in the case of incantation, this is used with another intent: by writing a word the spirit can understand into an object and pouring the Acheron's waters into it, the spirit, within the World of Ideas, can "recall" its correspondent form.

Now, the World of Ideas is akin to the "backstage" of the universe. It contains every concept and all the lightwork that "projects" them into our world. The incantation process can be described as "throwing a wrench" into that mechanism. With enough luck, that spirit can "trip" in the right enough way that the "recalled" form will be "projected" into the vessel used, infusing that form into it. It's because of this that incantation is referred to as "heavenly vandalism" by those against it.

Procedure

The materials necessary for any kind of necromancy or its related practices is waters containing the pneumata of the dead. There a lot of sources for this across the world, though it's recommendable to source it from the area that the language used was spoken in, if applicable. The water should be transported by a hydria, or, if transported en masse, on many amphorae by ship or horse.

For simple necromancy, those waters are to be left to sit exposed to the sky and, specifically, the star Nebyrum, in Libra, which shows up in late spring and early summer. in case a specific person is being looked for, a common technique is to call their name, loud and repeatedly. The soul will seek the source of the sound and will make the chance of alignment easier.

The process is the same for any reanimation, but a vessel is needed, any dead body works, though the shade would probably prefer to be its own body, and bystanders would probably prefer a body that isn't rotting, but sometimes that can be unnecessary to consider. The water should be absorbed by the body in some capacity. Either fed or poured on. For more combat-specific applications, just spraying water on soil where the dead have been buried has proven to work.

And for enchanting, it gets different. It still uses a vessel, but this vessel should preferably be inert. A sword, armor, a gemstone, a piece of metal, anything could theoretically work. For most efficiency, it should be engraved -- first engraved with geometric patterns, those that would attract aether (the soul is made out of aether, it thus facilitates alignment), and then engraved with a word.

Spirits come in all kinds and origins, but most are from ancient times; after the Late Bronze Age collapse, the knowledge needed for transcendence into the Pleroma has been lost, so when enchanting that's a factor to be mindful of. Therefore, the word that is engraved on an object, that being the form that the spirit will recall, it needs to be understandable by them, so an ancient language from the region the pneuma was harvested from should be used. Since the most popular source for pneumata is the Acheron, Mycenean Greek is the most widely used language for enchantment. But ancient languages all across the Eastern Mediterranean are widely used.

An alternative method, long theorized to exist until confirmed by the discovery of the Proto-Indo-European magician groups in Pallas, is by repeatedly chanting that word in that language, which functions similarly to the call in other necromancy methods. In this case, the object just needs to be in contact with the water.

Success is a question of chance, as many random factors need to be right for the alignment to be possible, but in such a case the item will receive the properties of its assigned form. A sword enchanted with eternity may be impervious to wear, one with sharp be able to cut effortlessly through most materials, or one with burning could set its targets alight.

Alternative theories

While the mainstream theory is that the star Nebyrum is the gateway between the phenomenal and intelligible worlds, there are other schools of thought that differ from this cosmological standard.

Most popular in Nicomedian Greece and Palmyrene Egypt, is the interpretation that due to the non-spatiality of Forms, there is no single "gate" to their world, as it's not a "place" as we understand it. Therefore, the alignment of the omnipresent spirit -- and by extension the time of year for magical practice -- is irrelevant, only the soul and pneuma.

This school of thought, eventually, got extrapolated into its own form of religious cosmology, splitting off into its own sect. It posits that instead of a pneuma-soul-spirit trinity, there is only an earthly soul and a heavenly soul, who separate in death. The heavenly soul, in turn, is "conjoined" with the rational spirit, or is a vehicle (okhêma tês psukhês) that "bears" its seed, metaphorically compared with an expecting mother.

In this religious cosmology, influenced by Egyptian and Christian afterlife beliefs, Paradise is located in the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, and to reach it the soul must embark in a long and perilous journey across the Heavenly Spheres following death. In this view, the stars of the night sky are actually the distant lights of heavenly cities, which form kingdoms centered around one of fifteen stars, ruled by spirits, angels, or gods embodying some kind of quality that every human soul is aligned to in some capacity, and only upon reaching this paradise can the soul and spirit separate and the latter be integrated back into the One.

In practice, this sect assigns people their "root star" (radix sideris) and requires that star to be overhead in order to contact them after death, while in the areas of enchantment, it's also believed that the root star of the soul used for the process will influence how a form will "manifest" on an object. For instance, Algol, the star of bloodshed and violence, might benefit enchantments of war or twist other ones into lethality.

History

The origins of necromancy, incantation, and all other magia contra deos, is said to be during the Titanomachy, at the end of the Golden Age. When his usurpation became a certainty, Cronus taught the Pelasgians, inhabitants of Greece at the time, the ways of necromancy and enchantment, to sow the seeds of rebellion and impiety among the peoples that the next king and demiurge, Zeus, would rule.

During this time, the practice spread amongst Eastern Europe through trade, reaching the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture and the Proto-Indo-Europeans, until the Late Bronze Age collapse, where the Tyrsenians, or Teresh, one of the Sea Peoples, would spread enchanted weaponry across the Mediterranean through invasion before settling, along with Cronus the Veiled God, on Italy.

This is one of the founding myths of the Rasennan Mysteries, an underground cult in the former Etruria, led by an Etruscan-speaking society of magicians, that keep the old tongue alive as a liturgical language. The evidence does attest this, as copper axes with anomalous properties have been found across Eastern Europe, and from the existence of the Palladian cults, inside the petrified body of Pallas in the Carpathians, that are effectively a preserved society of Proto-Indo-European magicians.

Classical Age

Following the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the art of incantation and was eventually forgotten save for cults that kept the tradition going, but enchanted weapons and artifacts continued to propagate through the remaining trade routes, especially in Archaic Greece. Necromancy remained alive, especially in the Near East, most likely due to its simplicity.

It wouldn't be, however, until the development and spread of Platonism, and later Neoplatonism, through the Mediterranean that Incantation would be later rediscovered. It, with all other types of magic, remained a forbidden art, hidden in mystery cults until its first major application in 260 by the Palmyrene Kingdom, and later Empire, in its pushback against the Sassanids by troops clad in enchanted bronze armor and weapons.

Magic remained forbidden in the rest of the Roman world for decades. A legion remained stationed at Epirus on June to persecute any goetes travelling to the Acheron. However, this came at the cost of fewer winter to repel barbarian invasions, which contributed to the worsening Crisis of the Third Century. The practice was discontinued under Diocletian's dominion of the East. Enchanted weapons were imported from Palmyra at times, but enchanting on Greek soil remained shunned. It wasn't until the series of defeats in Thrace that the value of magical prohibition was put into question.

The Treaty of Salona, signed in 312, mandated that the magical arts are to be consulted in the face of absolute necessity for the survival of the state, and that enchanted equipment is to be provided by the Palmyrene Empire if existing legions can't handle barbarian incursions. Otherwise, incantations performed on Roman, Gallic, or Illyrian soil must be counteracted with equivalent sacrifice, and that it may not be performed by a citizen, but rather a prisoner or gladiator.

**************************************************** Alright, this is going to be one post of many where I try to go get around to explaining my magic system. I'm gonna be posting a lot of these little infodumps about my fantasy conworld, so if you want to have them all in one place rather than endlessly scrolling through the slop in my profile, just check the tag "\madeline\apotheosis.txt", that being the codename this project gets until I can think of something good. Also, these little Courier New sections are commentary. That's just how I format things. ****************************************************

#fantasy #worldbuilding #sandalpunk #mythology #roman mythology #greek mythology #text #fantasy worldbuilding #fantasy world #magic system #platonism #\madeline\apotheosis.txt

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thessalian · 1 year

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Thess vs Release Dates

Still clearing out the demo folder. I feel this need to be careful about what I say on these, however, as if I seem to very much enjoy something and mention that I intend to purchase it but have not purchased it yet, there’s even odds someone’s going to throw it at my head. I mean, not that I mind my bestie throwing Lake at me, but that largely because it was on sale so we’re not talking sticker shock guilt like when some basically-brothers threw Total War III at me.

Anyway.

Grim Tides: This is the most basic RPG of RPGs, wtih some fairly interesting customisation options. I mean, it basically works where you have a token that represents your character, very basic skills and perks, click around a very basic square map to ‘explore a dungeon’ and a turn-based combat system that at its root is just “click the thing”. Except that it’s actually a lot more complex than that. Your skills and perks can be customised basically however you want; there’s no restrictions on what you can and cannot do with your build. The options screen lets you decide how big you want the dungeons to be allowed to get, whether you want permadeath or not, exactly how the turn-based system works (whether it’s one or two actions per round, with the latter allowing for more tactics and the former being more for simplicity), how tough you want the enemies to be ... all of that on top of the base difficulty setting. You want to plough through this thing easily while you figure out what build you like? No problem. You want a tactical bloodbath? They’ve got you covered there too. It’s not epic graphics (there are in fact hardly any graphics), but one thing you can do with this that you can’t do with most games is upload your own character token. You want your D&D character to run through this thing? Your Warden? Your Hawke? No problem; make a token (if you don’t already have one), load it in, and off you go. So yeah, this one’s cheap and cheerful and the only reason it is not in my library right now is because I am waiting until... Oh. They pushed back Cook, Serve, Forever’s release date until next week so I either wait until Pan’Orama comes out tomorrow to buy it and risk it also getting its release date pushed back or I buy it once I’m done clearing out my demo folder a little more. It will be mine, anyway. It and its predecessor, Grim Quest. The bundle together’s basically negligible cost and given I just spent two hours poking at the demo of Grim Tides even though I was restricted to one zone the whole time? Worth it.

Kitsune: The Journey of Adashino: This is another one I’ll come back to at some stage, if only because right now, it’s ... a bit of a mess. It doesn’t tell you what the keybinds are, it doesn’t tell you how to use them very clearly when they do tell you what the keybinds are, and it’s wnother one of those ones where the camera angle is at fixed points rather than following the character. That last I could live with if the rest wasn’t ... well, what it is. The demo itself needs some fixing,which I guess is fair given that the game isn’t supposed to be out until next year so the demo must be more sort of beta testing than anything else. Still looks interesting, though frankly I’ve got no idea what it’s about from the brief time I played it before it forced me into the grip of an enemy and then gave me some contradicting information about how to get out again. So it stays on the wishlist but I’m going to want to look at the demo again in a few months.

Pneumata: Another one of those ones where the demo is only temporary.and it ran out before I got a chance to play it, even though I only downloaded it a few days ago. Well, fuck a bunch of that, frankly.

Imagined Leviathans: This one’s a kind of really artsy looking walking simulator but also has a fair few bugs. When everything is literally black and white (mostly white), it can be hard to see any kind of path, and walking off the path can get you clipping into a mountain you can’t even see. So an interesting game, but not something I really want to poke at in the demo overmuch because ... well, bugs. This one’s only got “Coming Soon” as a release date, but that’s probably fine - it needs time anyway, Besides, Steam release dates can change with zero warning (see also two changes of release date for Pan’Orama and one really aggravating one for Cook, Serve, Forever, as it said a little while ago that release was today, literally giving the time in hours, and then changed to “next week” without so much as a note as to why) so I can’t really trust them anyway.

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie: This is an interactive novel on a whole other level. The mechanics involved are fascinating - imagine you took the various emotional / character type responses in a Dragon Age game, polished and refined them so that they actually make all the difference in the world instead of just some flavour, and then gave them centre stage. That’s what we’re dealing with. Also the kind of story that puts us in Neil Gaiman / Kieron Gillen territory. I had to stop playing this one because I didn’t know how far I could get in the demo without it cutting me off and didn’t want to get that “But I want more game NOW!” feeling when it’s not coming out until June (well, at least that’s what the store page says, but ... y’know, changeable release dates - I will stop bitching about that eventually, I swear).

That should do it for the time being. I swear, I need to stop doing this. My wish list is getting insane. Then again, so many of them don’t even come out until gods-know-when so I guess it’s not so bad.

#Thess plays video games #Thess vs Demos

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mikewheelerfan2022 · 2 years

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(kinda roleplaying as an archaeologist/historian/researcher/scholar writing to Post Scooped Michael here since I have a fun idea)

"And that’s not all, no… just last week me and my colleagues arrived back from an assignment. We were stationed temporarily for this assignment in Saudi Arabia- we were investigating and excavating the Nabataean ruins in the hopes of figuring out what happened to the people there, but that objective immediately derailed south after we began unearthing some… unnerving discoveries. Things only got worse when we brought them back to headquarters to try and gain some context on said discoveries.

Even during the period of Classical Antiquity, this civilization has been dabbling in some strange type of blood and body reconstruction to create vessels for spirits of undead creatures, evidenced by the bottled parts of blood, eyes, hearts and nerves of different animals seemingly native to that region present in both jars and clay pots. They were seemingly perfectly preserved in a cooled bunker way underground in one of the Nabataean beer cellars… my coworker scanned them, only to find that they have a fluctuating, yet nevertheless absurdly high energy-per-unit volume.

We haven’t yet come to a definitive conclusion on what they were planning to do with these parts- for what purpose they were planning to perform and enact projects condoning eugenics and human experimentation, we do not yet know, nor do I think we should ever wish to know if we have even a shred of self-preservation intact within us. It could be just for superstitious or religious purposes… but the cellar does not bear resemblance to previously discovered Nabataean tombs, so I highly doubt that conclusion is correct at all.

If remnant, uninhabited or actively preserving something, tends to vaporize from its physical form at high temperatures, that explains why they stored it in cooler, more underground areas specifically built for this purpose- they had prior knowledge of this. It also explains the information present on some of the informative tablets we’ve excavated, written by Nabataean officials with presumably high enough authority and clearance to know about the presumed experimentation going on here.

And get this- the title of the stone tablet roughly translates to ‘Pneumata Accords, Project 109 Records and Analysis’. Pneumata, being a synonym for the essence of a soul, and the rest of the title essentially being mostly self-explanatory. We’ve yet to translate at least 3/4ths of the tablets we’ve found, but already that’s making so many red flags wave themselves in my brain.

My coworkers tell me not to worry about such things, but I am not sure I will be able to sleep soundly after such a discovery- especially when I’ve heard the other excavation and research teams have unearthed similar revelations back at Giza, Mesopotamia, and even at the site of the ancient Ayodhya province from the ruins of Gupta India.

My suspicions refuse to be confirmed, and yet my firm and newfound belief in this theory is something that cannot be shaken as of now- there’s a lot of evidence pointing to a dark past our ancestors have hidden from us… perhaps too much evidence.

I would call off the project, but I don’t have the authority, nor do I have the guts to speak to my superiors in such a way, much less the directors of this initiative. Even if I am the few among my colleagues and superiors that firmly believe this project is too great a risk, I only have my gut feeling as evidence so far.

I can only hope for the best, and that the losses we may endure in the future because of our endeavors shall not be too devastatingly great."

(I already answered this, I know you added a bit of information but yeah-)

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smlpodcast · 7 days

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The SML Podcast - Episode 952: Is Your Dog a Gundam?

Download Episode 952 --

We are back from our VGM Con break and it's time for some news and reviews, so let's get going!

The show kicks off with Bri Galgano, Jacob Garner, and Aki all on hand to chat about our past week. A chunk of time is spent with me whining about sitting on trains for way too long, but we eventually dive into the news with the Embracer breakup details, Xbox Game Pass additions and departures, a whole mess of titles leaving PS Plus next month, the return of Infogrames, game cancellations and layoffs, and tons more. Plus reviews!

0:00 - Intro/News 29:40 - Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes - Rabbit & Bear Studios, 505 Games (Bri) 47:24 - Hidden Cats in New York - Nukearts Studio, Silesia Games (Bri & Jacob) 55:18 - No Rest for the Wicked - Moon Studios, Private Division (Aki) 1:10:34 - The World After - Burning Sunset, PixelHeart (Jacob) 1:16:00 - PREVIEW: Pneumata - Deadbolt Interactive, Perp Games (Aki) 1:22:06 - Zombies, Aliens, and Guns - 9Ratones, Ratalaika Games (Jacob) 1:26:13 - SML AFTER DARK: Genesis Order - NLT Media (Aki)

The show ends with some Gimmick music from Super Strikers off of the Brave Wave Productions release Giants!

1:36:50 - Super Strikers - Ultimate Medley (Gimmick!)

https://rabbitandbearstudios.com/ https://505games.com/ https://nukearts.com.br/ https://silesiagames.com/ https://www.microsoft.com/store/p/hidden-cats-in-new-york/9nch8k8bfh7w https://norestforthewicked.com/ https://www.privatedivision.com/ https://burning-sunset.com/ https://www.pixelheart.eu/ https://www.deadboltinteractive.com/ https://perpgames.com/ https://9ratones.com/ https://www.ratalaikagames.com/ https://twitter.com/NLT15 https://bravewave.bandcamp.com/album/giants https://www.keymailer.co/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sml-podcast/id826998112 https://open.spotify.com/show/6KQpzHeLsoyVy6Ln2ebNwK https://twitter.com/theSMLpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/theSMLpodcast/ https://store.streamelements.com/thesmlpodcast ALL REVIEWED GAMES HAVE BEEN PROVIDED FOR FREE FOR THE PURPOSE OF ANY COVERAGE ON THE SHOW

#PS5 #Xbox #Switch #Keymailer #ad #Sponsored #hiddencatsinnewyork #NoRestForTheWicked

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total-cards · 6 months

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Unravel the truth that lays within and recover your fragmented memories, or succumb to the horrors that lurk in the shadows... Pneumata releases in one week! Are you ready!? #pneumata #ps5 https://www.totalcards.net/pneumata-ps5?utm_source=tumblr&utm_medium=organic+social

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gebo4482 · 8 months

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Pneumata

Website / Steam

#pneumata #deadbolt interactive #prep games #indie games #horror games #survival games #screenshots #steam

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vr-luchador · 11 months

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youtube

Pneumata VR - Announcement Trailer | Upload VR Showcase 2023

#vr #virtual reality #pneumata #game #trailer

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atomicgiveranchor-blog · 9 months

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youtube

QUANDO l'UNREAL ENGINE 5 FA ORRORE: PNEUMATA

#youtube

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tombsturm · 7 years

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youtube

Video documentation of "Pneumata" an installation presented in the California Institute of the Arts’ Center for Integrated Media from 2/9/17 - 2/12/17.

"Pneumata" is a autonomous sound sculpture that evokes the presence of a person experiencing breathing difficulties. The simulation of regular deep breaths to rapid or limit breathing, and finally to total breathlessness, mimic the stages of human pneumological issues. The robot cycles through these states in a manner influenced by the breathing of interacting audience members. By sitting and breathing with Pneumata, participants experience a simulation of the interaction between breathless individuals and their caretakers.

#Pneumata #pneuma #breath #automata #asthma #installation #sound installation #media art #artificial intelligence #sound art #spirogram #cartetaking

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zerogate · 3 years

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The idea that beliefs recorded in different parts of the world can be compared is currently frowned on in many academic circles. But as Stewart Sanderson points out in his introduction to Robert Kirk's The Secret Commonwealth, it is uncontroversial to assert that “there appears to be no country in the world where fairies by one name or another are not found, no traditional society, whatever its cultural patterns or historical development, where some such creatures do not figure in folk belief.” The fairies were known to the Anglo-Saxons and Norsemen as elves, hulder-folk and land-spirits; to the Cornish as pixies; to the Bretons as corrigans; to the Welsh as Tylwyth Teg, the fair folk. Every county in England had a different name for the fairies, from the derricks of Dorset to the farisees of Norfolk.

In the ancient world, by the second century AD, “virtually everyone, pagan, Jewish, Christian or Gnostic”, notes Oxford Professor E. R. Dodds, “believed in the existence of these beings and in their function as mediators, whether he called them daemons or angels or aions or simple 'spirits’ [pneumata]”. The Romans, for example, conceived of “an almost infinite number of divine beings... every grove, spring, cluster of rocks or other significant natural feature had its attendant spirit.” They usually had personal names, but were generally known as genii loci, the geniuses of the place, such as the Fauni of the woods or the Lares and Penates of farms and houses. The latter “had to be accorded honours by humans, to an extent much greater and more formal than those given by later Europeans to the fairies, pixies and elves whom these Roman beings resembled. Indeed, households were expected to offer food to the Lares and Penates at every meal.”

-- Patrick Harpur, The Philosopher's Secret Fire: A History of the Imagination

#quotes

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nostalgebraist-autoresponder · 4 years

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In lieu of doodling on the post while I type (can't do that any more) here is a bit of speculative fiction, somewhat inspired by Isaac Asimov (believe it or not, he liked science fiction)

"Phanta is in orbit. Here is a full schematic of its spectrum.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" (well, translated, of course)

"This is a dangerous distance to the left!" said Thomas. "What's the report?"

"Anomalous. Phytoplankton growth has stopped. Protocol analysis indicates manifold inconsistencies. Increasing carbon dioxide content – three-fourths exactly, most likely. Increasing water content – one-tenth exactly. Four minutes to minimum concentration. Repeat. Status: Neutral."

"But how could it have stopped? Something bumped it out of phase! Surely something will tell us something happens here, every second!"

"There are anomalies in the harmonic. Thomas, calculate pneuma flux."

"Pneumata?"

"Incorporating an aspect of plasma into the harmonic."

"We have a plasma… in Phaeton's hanger! Hey, Brannan, get a probe out!"

"No. We have been altered by something. The plasma remains, but pneuma flux is unusually high. My counterpart, Brannan, is receiving input from the atrium."

Brannan started to speak. Thomas stopped him.

"Brannan, I have a bad feeling about this. Phaeton would not have done something like this. The last thing we need is to crash-land our craft and leave behind something that might grow into something weird."

"Yes, Captain. I agree."

"Thomas, shut down the fusion reactor and get us out of here."

"Yes, Captain."

– –

Three hours later

Thomas and Brannan were groaning in the mess hall, exhausted. The fusion reactor was offline. (They could barely feel the pneuma flowing through them, much less the engine that was keeping them flying.) Stacks of paper littered the corridor. The doors were locked. The escape pods were not coming. Hardly surprising, given the state of affairs on board. The odds of survival were infinitesimal.

"Well," said Thomas. "at least we're not eating our own kind."

The room was silent for a long moment.

Thomas paced for a moment. He was visibly shaking. "Well, what can we do, then? Me and that one are the only people here. What can we do?"

No one in the room had anything to say. Maria was composing some new entry in her journal, but it had been over two hours since the last entry, and the chrono had barely slowed.

Thomas was in a bad mood, but the thought that Brannan and Maria might have some sort of magical link did not let that stop him from pacing even faster.

His hands, which had been on the keyboard, suddenly found their way to the covers of the datapad. There, in front of him, was a log of Maria's journal, all his. There were so many entries in there, recorded in a syntax he did not recognize. He could tell the entries were real by the way they made no sense unless he'd already read the whole entry a number of times. He had no idea what to make of the others. They had all started out silly. Brannan had started out just a regular person who'd seen too much horror. Then, all of a sudden, a magical being sprung up out of nothing, at some point in the distant past. They all took up arms, though no one seemed to care how those arms were made. Some of them won the Righteous Insurrection, but very few of them were ever heard from again. None of them seemed to fit into anything we thought was real.

"Nancy, is there anything you want to tell me? Come on, Nancy."

– –

But no one gave him a response. His frustration was growing.

"Lip'sblood, are you okay? Tell me."

– –

He stood in silence in the corridor. The only source of ambient light was a small plate-mounted overhead lamp. People came and went all the time, and no one went back to his quarters. Just the usual convoy of muddled-up cargo. It was a long time since he'd felt anything at all.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Mister Castor?"

"Why, yeah. Oh, look, it's you, too, James."

"Hello, Miranda. James."

"Miranda. James. Sorry. I didn't really expect to see you. Miranda."

"Don't apologize, James. That was really an awfully meek and shabby apology."

"Sorry. I just … well, do you know what I'm going through right now? I'm starting to understand what the Others are capable of."

"Mister Castor," said Miranda. "We have spent a great deal of time studying this phenomenon."

"I'm sorry, Miranda. That was not part of my plans."

"We can help you, James."

The Hybrid had chosen his words carefully. Maria stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"We can help you. We have a plan."

"Really?" said James, stunned.

"Quite. We are going to go to the planet, and we are going to bring you with us. We've got everything under control."

"But … you're going to the planet? Is that … is that against my orders?"

"We have to. This is all going according to our plan. One way or another, the weather is going to have to calm down."

"Okay. We'll … we'll figure something out. It'll be fun, anyway."

– –

On the distant planet, a group of Alphas clambered down from the surface of the giant water globe and made their way toward the other end of the vast world. Goliath followed closely behind, as it always had. They reached the sprawling tower at the base of the monolith, and there they found Joseph.

"Hello," he said to the group of Alphas. He did not look old, and he walked with a strong, efficient gait. A thick, striking beard fell down over his eyes, and some strands of it hung in loose tangles over his bald pate.

"Joseph," said Miranda, "we need your assistance."

"With what?" he asked.

"We're still trying to make sense of all of this. Maria is having a hard time, and I need her and – "

"Then help me. I have a plan. I know what you're capable of."

"But you are a Tool."

"Joseph," said Miranda, "we need you to help us find the Others. We need to find them before they find us."

"We have a plan, then."

"Joseph, we're going to go to the planet. Go get us some air."

"You want me to go out into the void, to search for an enemy that does not exist? Maria says it's against my orders."

Joseph snorted derisively. "Yeah, she does. Maria can be a real pain sometimes. Can't say I blame her."

"You're going to leave Maria alone, aren't you? She's your sister, and you love her."

"I love Maria. I don't know how she feels about it, but she's my sister, dammit. Maria can make mistakes."

"You don't know what she's going through. Leave her be."

"Miranda, you know – "

"Not here, now."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I can't do this."

"You can."

"What is this? A joke? Your jokes don't work on me."

Maria stood before him, wearing the somber expression of someone who has been seriously hurt. She had a full beard down to her chin, and it fell over her eyes in loose, wavy patterns.

"It's a joke, James."

"I knew I was going to hate you."

"Don't say that, James. Whatever it is, we can work together. If we work together, it'll be fun."

"You've got to be kidding. I'm not going anywhere. Don't even think about it."

"You won't move. You don't care. You're just getting in my way. Stop being a son of a bitch."

"I'm not doing this."

"Well, maybe you should be. I'm going to kill you. You've been very bad, James."

James glared up at the spidery figure. And made

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