The Eternal One

His enchanted beasts pull him through the night
Clouded breath pulsing out of their nostrils with each movement
Eight magnificent creatures, like figures in the Wild Hunt
Straining at the reins and bridle of their eternal master, moving forward forever

He is dressed all in crimson and furs
His vision greater than any mortal man, his ears keen
An immortal force powers his heart and directs his mission
No way is barred to him, for he is invited in almost everywhere

A herald of the cross and its greatest adversary to others,
Children whisper about his movements and if they will be blessed or cursed by his hand
Adults tell many story about him and his ilk to keep the young compliant
And to remember their own past thoughts of nightly visitors

There are others like him that come in the night
That change fate and skulk in bedrooms for boons
But he is the greatest and most discussed
In hushed reverence by the young, mockingly by the older

But they still remember when they weighed their own souls against his judgement
And, to lesser degrees, against the judgment of his brethren
Creatures of myths that made us respect the liminal, the ancient,
The unknown and the passage from night unto day

His image is now used to scare or to sell products
He travels through the ebon skies regardless
The legend that began in the mountains had spread
And we all listen for his signature sound of that pale man

With the aid of his many subjects to commit his deeds
He stalks the planet, taking his payment and giving his boon as he sees fit
He has his season but is a year round figure of rebuke
Always watching, always listening

So, he rides through the night,
Carried forth by mystical Thunder and Lightning
Hunger for what is promised to him through old pacts
Tonight is his night.

How To Create A New God

(an excerpt from The Book of Power by Agata Hekate Newton)

There are six ways to transform a mortal into a deity that are known to man. One must realize that these are dangerous paths and to receive the full power of a god usually causes the human form to be destroyed, along with the potential loss of one's mind and soul.

Proceed at your own risk. Also, when I say god that also refers to goddesses, Old Ones, alien overlords and other beings of power lost to the antiquities.

Avatar- The first course of action a person may use to gain the powers of a god is possession. A person finds a god and allows that deity to enter in and use their body as the vessel for their power on this planet. Usually this isn't the full measure of the god's abilities and only a measure of their great and terrible powers. Alternately, since gods operate in higher dimensional realms, humans for the most part only encounter a facet or aspect of the god they interact with. This lesser portion or version of the god will possess the human fully and there is less of a chance of early death from too much power in the human form. The risk, as always, is losing one's self to the more powerful personality of the deity.

Pregnancy- A person can become pregnant with the child of a god. I use person because gods are not constrained by mortal limitation and can and have in fact impregnated both men and women before. The child that is a result of this process is not a true god but a demigod- a being with a mixture of the abilities and limitations of both its parents. During the course of the gestation, the human parent is protected from harm by the infant inside. There is also a measure of powers conveyed to this parent during the pregnancy that may be employed. It is up to the deity if the human will retain these powers after the demigod is birthed.
Warning- In addition to the usual potential problems, the process of conceiving may destroy the human. A god usually tries to protect the human from allowing this to happen because the human parent may be the conduit for the child to gain power and knowledge on Earth but some of the more alien of gods don't factor this into their chthonic thought process. Be forewarned.

Contract- This path is reserved for those individuals who are well-versed in older magick or have a broad range of esoteric magical knowledge. A person has to figure out how to bind a god or an aspect of a god first. This usually requires a totem of the deity and a Chaos or Seelie trap. (DO NOT USE ANY UNSEELIE OBJECTS OF POWER!) Once the deity is trapped, the mortal must offer a written contract for its servitude with limited freedom to act. This is usually very involved and meticulous, hence why the sorceress or sorcerer who takes this route must be very knowledgeable about The Arts. Any loopholes or errors will result in devastation and death for the mortal and anything they love.
To even get to the point of developing the necessary knowledge to attempt a contract binding requires great study. The magician who obtains this level of mastery usually gets enough power to do incredible things and may not even want to take the next step to gain additional god-like powers. Usually.

Human Sacrifice- The path of sacrifice is viewed to be the most horrible to many outside of the final way. It involves the eradication, whether slow or fast, of the human soul. It has historical precedence but is the way of the most immoral. A person must sacrifice aspects of their humanity to obtain the powers of a god. They either gain the powers of an old god or becomes a new god. It is always a god of bloodshed and pain. The sacrifice always involves blood and murder. Through the process of eroding the soul, the individual gains more space to be filled up with the powers of a god. Focused murder and elaborate rituals brings great power but the person is no longer the person they were before. Or maybe they become the most concentrated form of the evil inside if they are willing to even contemplate attempting this process.

Bloodline Power Boost- This process and the last process following involves temporal manipulation. (See section on Time Travel- page 56) This route requires jarring one's self out of the timestream and encountering multiple ancestors, preferably ones that are directly related to the person making this attempt. During each journey to the past, the magician teaches his ancestor magical knowledge and directs them towards objects of powers and guides them into creating a better and stronger magical being. This will result in a bloodline full of magic users and a being approaching god levels in abilities. The time jumper must then used the gained knowledge and magic in his/her bloodline to push past temporal, spatial and liminal borders into deity territory.

Immortal Looping- The final path to godhood is a combination of temporal manipulation and human sacrifice. It is also potentially the most dangerous and damning. To acquire the abilities of a god through this path, one must go back in time and carefully assassinate their direct ancestors. After this is accomplished, then they must kill their mother a short time before she gives birth to the time jumper. This will create a temporal and spatial paradox that will shake the reality of the universe. The risk with this is a) timing is crucial b) the universe as an organism always tries to defend itself from the cancerous effects of paradoxes and c) a more powerful deity may take notice and destroy the human before they can accomplish their goal or directly after initial success.
This path also only gives immortality. The person must then acquire magical knowledge and abilities through study and objects of power to finally attain true godhood.

These are all paths to achieving the abilities of a god. With these ways and the application of either joyous worship or fearful supplication from others, powers are increased and true godhood approaches the mortal plane.

Drugs

Ultraviolet blue pills from three universes away
Freely handed out on the side, outside of the club
The dealer is a tall brown skin woman with huge star Bootsy glasses
She has on a small red fur coat although it is warm for October
Her purple leather skin pants are tight and her heels are absurd
They give her even more height
She says very few words but the small crowd around her in the club was enthralled
You and your girlfriends followed her outside when she beckoned
"I want you to see the truth" she says
"You seem to be the only truth seekers here,
So the multiverse's stream will be shown to you."

Your girlfriends, bolder than you, smile and dry swallow their pills
You gaze at the blue pill, wary of the sacrament in your hand
But the tall, weird Amazon guides your hand to your mouth
"Down the grezlak hole" she says.
Before you can ask what a grezlak is, the night turns to true night

Silence and then a weird assortment of animal sounds in the darkness
An orange light grows in the distance- alien sunrise
The club is gone
The woman is gone
In her place, an angel
You have no idea how you know this but you know she is an angel
But not the cherubs from greeting cards or the robed figures in church glass
No, a real angel, a true angel

She towers over you, her many wings flowing from her back in a multitude of colors
Colors you have never imagined and don't have the words to describe
They spark as they touch the ground with their tips
Avian wings, insectoid wings, bat wings, all are there
A flickering of blue sparks hover above her head
Her long hair flows down to her chest which is covered in necklaces and jewelry
A sarong like dress covers her legs but one pokes out
It looks like the leg of a giraffe and you are sure you see a lion tail swishing behind
You look up at her face and see the darkest, deepest turquoise eyes
You wish she still had on those silly sunglasses
You turn back to avoid their gaze as she smiles at you like a shark

The sun has risen and the land is alight
You realize that you are on a cliff looking over a foliage thick valley
Weird trees are behind you and your friends
The animal sounds are increasing, mostly coming from the valley
But there are more noise coming from behind you, including an odd buzzing
The fear on you is reflected in the eyes of your friends

"Look up" the angel says in a sweet voice with an undertone of thunder

Above your head, angels are flying towards the valley below you
Unlike the angel standing next to you, these angels have on armor
They have swords and spears and maces, glinting fiercely
The buzzing from earlier was the sound of the wings of angels
They turn in the air as a group and then hover over the valley
The buzzing increases

The animal sounds have become quieter and have quickly died behind them
Suddenly, a sound like a roaring lion mixed with a chimpanzee erupts from the valley
A spear shoots out of the valley and skewers an angel
Silence stretches again and then an angel in platinum armor shouts a guttural cry

The angels dive bomb the valley

One of your friends turns to the angel and asks "What is going on?"
The angel looks down at her
"Bear witness to the ending of the children of the first woman.
Bear witness to us freeing the ground for the rise of your people."

Trees are felled and the battle is able to be seen in patches.
War sounds and shouts and cries of pain rise up from the valley floor.
The noise makes you shudder to your core.
The angel smiles down at your group.
"You humans," she giggles with bass accompaniment.
"You turn your head away from your history of tooth and nail."

"Your history," mumbles one of your friends under her breath.
The angel turns her head swiftly and her eyes crackle with lightning.
"YOU DARE, MONKEY?" she intones.
"WE ARE THE ONLY REASON YOU DRAW BREATH.
YOU WOULD NOT EXIST IF WE DIDN'T KILL THESE DEMON KITH!"

"What makes you better?" you whisper as you fall to your knees.
The sight and sounds have hit you with enhanced drug fueled clarity.
"What makes these creatures monsters? What makes us better?"

The angel seems mad but then she smiles at you
"Nothing," she replies.
"Our master said for us to save you and destroy these mistakes.
Errors that were made by this great being," she says with sarcasm dripping.
"They could not be allowed to live but you lot were allowed to thrive."
She looks around your group of friends and smirks
"I would have chose otherwise. We HAVE chose otherwise."

You look up at her face as these words sink in.
Your friends also look at her terrible visage in confusion.
"What do you mean?" you manage to mutter at her.

She smiles again.

"Your landlord has left this universe, probably to start again.
"He has left my kin in charge in absentia. We are the new judges.
"We will become the old executioners once again."
She backs up and armor slowly flows over her form.
A fiery sword appears in her head
A gold helmet with a single eye hole assembles itself above her mouth.

"The time of man is at an end. You will join your odd cousins in the wastes of antiquity.
"This experiment is OVER!"

The angel raises the sword and you put up your hands to block the strike.
Your eyes close.

Your eyes open when the blade doesn't drop.
You look around and it is dawn on the piers near the club.
Your friends are all asleep on the ground around you.
The valley is gone, as are the angels and the creatures they attacked.

You hear footsteps and turn around.
It is the dealer/angel and she stands above you with a smile on her face.
She looks down with a smile and extends her hand
"Nice trip? Enjoyed reality and the truth?"
You hesitate but grab her hand to stand up.
"What about my friends?"
She looks around at them.
"They'll wake up soon enough," she says.
"The trip only lasts a few hours for most people here."

You look at her and her weird clothes and then laugh.
"Those were strong pills," you chuckle.
"I don't want to do that again. It was freaky and kind of terrible."

The dealer giggles.
She pulls off her shades revealing her eyes.
Her dark, deep turquoise eyes, crackling with lightning.
"Oh, my girl," she says "You know nothing of terror.
"But you will. All you monkeys will."
She pushes her glasses back on her face and saunters off.

The Bastard Knight

His father was a lost king from an ancient land of lost kings
A royal line stretching back millennia
There, land, lost in war and fire and ravaging
Their knowledge, lost in corruption and erasure and ignorance
They're warriors, lost in blood and servitude and hate
But royalty still flowed in their people's veins and their hearts

He was a bastard, as were his brothers and sisters
Very common but still, a bastard he was nonetheless
In name, he was a bastard because his parents were unwed
In deed, he became a bastard because it was necessary
He was noble in that every man that is a man has a code
Love your mother, respect your father, honor your family
But his environs made him a bastard
To protect the ones he loved, he had to be a bastard
To survive in the hardscrabble desert, he had to be a bastard
To rise above his abandonment, he had to be a bastard
To succeed in the world past his borderlands, he had to become a knight
So that is what he became
The Bastard Knight

He fought in secret battles in dark places
He warred in open conflict with enemies great and small
Dragons were slayed, monsters were conquered
Beasts and men alike fell before his blade
He became a warrior like no other and even rose beyond the Bastard Knight title
Gods were brought low by his hand
God Killer, Titan Ender, Heaven Shaker
New names for the same bastard

He grew bored
He lost fights
He lost friends
He lost loves
He returned home

The old man was dying

The Bastard Knight searched him out to see what aid he could provide
The lost king had left him but there was still a code
He was noble in that every man that is a man has a code
Love your mother, respect your father, honor your family
So, he scours the land, he finds his siblings
Old friends appear and family is rediscovered

The Bastard Knight finds The Lost King

Old men state their love in the dark old times
When The Reaper God approaches
It is always the same
For they can see the lonely end on the horizon
And they want to grasp onto whatever life they have remaining
Either theirs or the lives of the ones they leave behind
The Lost King does loves his Bastard Knight
And the feelings are returned
Even beyond the anger and remembrance of past slights
You can love someone and not like them
And at the end, the big emotions conquer the petty ones
Like a Bastard Knight conquers mythic beasts
You say your goodbyes, you remember your code
You lay the king's shield on his casket, you thrust his sword into the ground
You grab your own crown

This is the way of The Bastard Knight
It is hard, it is necessary
There isn't always praise for it
But The Bastard Knight does his duty anyway

Because every man that is a man has a code
Love your mother, respect your father, honor your family

Cartography by Edward D. Smith*

(*actually written by me, from something bigger I'm still working on)

Our hands are clasped in the darkness of your room
Or is it my room? It doesn't matter.
What matters in our shared universes are these moments
The only thing that is important is the heat from where we are joined
I open my mouth and my tongue traces lines
Neck, clavicle, breast, nipple, stomach, below
I enjoy the taste of salt and the smell of peaches
Or strawberry or vanilla or your own aroma
I rise from the depths to gaze into your eyes
It doesn't matter the color of them or your hair
Everyone is a brunette exotic beauty in these pockets of darkness and time
My mouth finds your mouth, my hands find your hips
As we grind against each other, I wonder
What do I appear like to you?
Physiology change, bodies slicken, glisten
I enter and you gasp/bite/yell/moan
This is the paradise that we all search for
You are the secret map that I have been looking for
Rough tidal yearnings, soft mountains, wet valleys of pleasure
I plot out all your skin, all your secret areas
Your lips part as we continue, your hands grip me, demanding
I try to pull back from the edge but you have gained super strength
Somehow I manage to slow down time
I take those stolen seconds to enjoy the aerial view
This is different every time
Rounded hips, swell of breasts, curving buttocks
It is good every time
The moment passes, freeze frame ends, all of the time rushes back in
My control slips and you know it/are shocked/are sad/love it
We crash together and I rest on your shores
I will get lost again and need to explore again
One day I will be a master of your feminine cartography

The Final Flight of the Last Imperial Gestalt Ship

The solar radiation rushes in tidal waves over the hull
The ship slices through gamma energy, trying to maintain integrity
Ragged breaches along the port side are still open
And The Fuel is badly hurt.
Engine holds him closely, she is giving all the comfort she can
Her job is to make sure the ship continues and she can hear Pilot yelling over Communications voice
She is being told to keep pushing the FTL drives.
But her love is losing life fluid all across the lower deck, mucking up her concentration.
His gargantuan frame belies how fragile he really is
Most think Engine keeps the ship going but The Fuel is so important,
Engine needs The Fuel's support to make everything work.
The ship is rocked by another explosion and Engine holds The Fuel even tighter.

Three levels above the lovers on the bridge, two siblings are working frantically
Communications and Scanner are trying to make headway in making sure all the information is flowing
Communications glowing blue eyes and mouth are wide open, sharing with everyone aboard
Outside is the province of Scanner and he searches for anything he can, his eyes glowing with the same blue
Data flows in as he holds his sister's hand to keep everyone in the loop
Their identical uniforms contrasts their sizes but their focus as always remains the same-
Keep the lines flowing with data. Always.

Weapons sits and watches the siblings do their work relentlessly
She is thinking of any way to be of assistance at this time.
Her quick reactions has helped to keep them alive to this point;
Weapons instantly fired off lasers and sonic cannons when Scanner raised the alarm.
If she hadn't the damage could have been worse.
The quick actions of her, Scanner and the muscular, gray eyed Shields saved them.
But it would all be for naught if they didn't make it out alive.
She glances over and knows instantly that Pilot has the same thought.
They had always been good at reading each other, even before they were a crew,
Back in the day when they all had names.
Antje remembers and knows Broddika does as well as she pilots the ship as best she can.
Weapons returns her attention to Scanner's words;
Waiting to strike out if the enemy ship reappears at a moments notice.

Pilot keeps trying to hail Engine as she keeps asking Navigation if he has a course of avoidance set.
She knows that he must be getting frustrated with her constant questioning.
Navigation is good at his job but she can hear the lack of escape routes in his voice.
Pilot can imagine him in his tech nest, his right eye glowing a brilliant yellow,
His face scrunched up in his salt and pepper bearded face, long locks tied atop his head.
If there is a way out, the old man will find it.
He is the ultimate pathfinder.
Pilot just doesn't know if there is a path to be found this time.
She has fear they won't make it out of this one alive but she can't let the crew know that.
You have to maintain a level headed focus and show little emotion.
That was the Prime Rule as a Pilot.
She had to be their brown, curvy space goddess leading this crew, her family, to salvation.
Pilot calls down to Life Support over Communications whispered tones.

Life Support is struggling to hold herself together.
With Engine concerned over The Fuel and keeping up evasion speeds, she is losing her power.
She is trying to work magic in the virtual plane of the ship,
Her armor gauntlets blur through the ether as she works through the subroutines.
She needs to shunt off corridors to maintain ship integrity and cut off any unnecessary systems.
Breathing conditions are deteriorating throughout the ship and decisions need to be made.
Life Support is always working but never moreso than at this moment.
She is alone in her world, always.
The Pilot has everyone on the bridge and Navigation visits them from his creche when courses are set,
Engine and The Fuel are forever in love. The siblings are linked eternally.
She is the one that is always alone inside the ship.
Some days she feels like she is the ship and there is some truth to the matter.
No, Life Support thinks.
I must focus and save everyone; these thoughts are a distraction from my life's mission.
Her hands blur and emergency decisions are made as she relays what the ship has to lose to Pilot.
No, what she has to lose.
Identity is meaningless, Life Support thinks.
Only the mission exists. Survive.

The Last Imperial Gestalt Ship continues it's journey.
Its crew fighting for survival, hounded by an ancient enemy in the slipstream.
They are united in their mission.
As long as they live, so does the empire and the civilization it created.
Their future is unknown but they face it,
United.