Frightful Fridays! Forlorn Kaida

Frightful Fridays! has returned once again (many apologies for the long absence), and it does so with a new kaida, albeit an undead one. The little bit of mythology I have developed for these dragons and their affinity for particular objects, ideals, or areas, caused me to question what happens when the focus of their affinity gets destroyed or (worse) abandoned by others. The fact that I'd let this feature go dormant provided some impetus to the idea, and I had a new monster.

 

Serendipitously, before I could seek out an image to match the concept I had in mind, Theodric got me in touch with an artist who agreed to provide the first ever commissioned piece of art for Frightful Fridays! I was quite excited to see the piece below, which captures the forlorn kaida's essence. This link takes you to her DeviantArt page. I look forward to future collaborations with her, and you may see some of her non-FF creations in this very blog!

Thanks for reading (and your patience during the long downtime)! I plan to be back next week with a new monster.

This little draconic creature seems to fade into nothingness; its sorrowful expression hints at a great tragedy that befell it.
Forlorn Kaida CR 4
XP 1,200
NE Tiny undead (incorporeal)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9

Defense
AC 18, touch 18, flat-footed 15 (+3 deflection, +3 Dex, +2 size)
hp 37 (5d8+15)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +5
Defensive Abilities incorporeal, rejuvenation; Immune undead traits

Offense
Speed fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Melee incorporeal touch +8 (2d6)
Space 2.5 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks breath weapon
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +8)
At will—touch of fatigue (DC 14)
1/day—ray of exhaustion (DC 17)

Statistics
Str —, Dex 16, Con —, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 17
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 17 (21 vs. trip)
Feats Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Knowledge [arcana]), Spell Focus (necromancy)
Skills Fly +23, Intimidate +11, Knowledge (arcana) +12, Perception +9, Sense Motive +9
Languages Common, Draconic
SQ bond focus

Special Abilities
Bond Focus (Ex) A forlorn kaida retains memories related to its former bond. The kaida can take one of the following as a class skill: Appraise or any Craft or Knowledge skill (the default is Knowledge [arcana]). The selection for the kaida's Skill Focus feat matches its chosen class skill.
Breath Weapon (Su) A forlorn kaida can breathe out a 15-foot cone of gray mist once every 1d4 rounds. Those caught in the cone must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or suffer from the effects of crushing despair (–2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, ability checks, skill checks, and weapon damage rolls). The spell good hope counters the breath weapon's effect. This is a mind-affecting affect with a Charisma-based save DC.
Rejuvenation (Su) Simple combat does not usually destroy a forlorn kaida. It instead restores itself in 2d4 days. Truly destroying a forlorn kaida requires some action related to the formerly living kaida's bond (recovering a lost bonded object, finding a new item to which the kaida's spirit can bond, or the like).

The vast majority of bonded kaidas discover new items with which they bond when something destroys their bonded item. However, some kaidas become so attached to their bonded items, they die when the items are destroyed. The dragons' spirits remain behind as forlorn kaidas to haunt the locations where the destruction occurred. Other forlorn kaidas form when their bonded items' owners casually discard the items. All forlorn kaidas take on the same appearance regardless of their former physical appearance, suggesting to sages who study the dragons that the kaidas all bond similarly with the despair they experience regardless of the cause.

While forlorn kaidas detect as evil creatures, most kaidas do not wish to inflict harm on others. Unfortunately, they seek release from the all-consuming sadness they do not understand, and people who come across the dragons experience a portion of that sadness during the encounters. The forlorn kaidas' bonds provide them with unique knowledge, and those who communicate with the dragons may gain information about their former bonds. This in turn, may provide some understanding of the way to put the kaidas at rest. Those kaidas that have given into their despondency often find themselves as companions to more powerful undead creatures.

 

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Dungeons & Drawings!

It's here!  The first illustrated bestiary from Dungeons & Drawings, an art blog that I have recommended before to my Rambling readership.  US buyers will pay for the UK exchange rate, but this delightful, creative take on D&D monsters includes not only the art, which is why I bought the book and why I imagine anyone would, but also a nice, simple take on the monsters that together with the illustrations would allow GMs and DMs to reimagine and tweak these monsters for any game system or campaign setting that make the price well worth it.  I highly recommend this collection of 40 or so creatures and give it a solid A.  Great first book, Blanco and Joe.  I plan on collecting them all.

All rations are iron rations...

...when you're a rust monster.  I recently rambled across Satisfactory Comics, where Isaac is indulging in an activity that never fails to charm me: the Illustrated Abecediary.  By his permission, his happy old school rust monster graces this post above.  I love how he's captured the glory of its dorkiness.  The original post may be a year old, but it clearly deserves more love and in it he sketches a nice, abbreviated version of the creature's history.  In addition to Mike & Isaac's blog, check out their online store.

This reminds me, I still haven't set down my ideas about this classic monster.  I've got to do this one of these days, as it builds on an element of folklore that I like that D&D has pretty much ignored.

Another Mythopoeic Art Cornucopia!

Just in time for the season of Thanksgiving, I think it’s time for another fantasy art appreciation post.  In addition to enjoying the art in the products that you purchase, the internet has made it possible be to exposed to and enjoy more fantasy art than ever before -- good news for both artists and consumers of all kinds. And so, here are some artists I’ve been enjoying, featured on the sites below.

Paizo has become one of the great patrons of fantasy art, and has been often featured on this blog due to their generous fan policy.  Art director Sarah Robinson has started her own blog.  While it has not been updated in some time, maybe with a little encouragement she will give it more attention.

Check out the work of multiple awards-nominated Lucas Graciano. (Well, yes, he has  done some beautiful work for Paizo as well, like the cover of Artifacts & Legends  to the right. Another recent contributor has been Michal Ivan. From RPG to comic covers, one of my favorites right now is Erik Jones.  If you haven’t seen his gorgeous PF comic covers, check them out on his site.  

Just so you know I’m also digging people who are not doing work for Paizo, let me recommend Mike Nash, Graeme McCormack, and Sean Andrew Murphy.  Also, Lamentations of the Flame Princess  introduced me to the wonderful Cynthia Sheppard.  I've also been enjoying the work of Kim Kincaid.  And thanks to Patrick Curtin for reminding me of Aaron Miller at a timely juncture.

Some illustrators band together, like a party of adventures.  Check out Shadowcore for one such illustrious fellowship and Muddy Colors for another. There's also a new online magazine for digital artists: The Round Tablet.

Finally, we do well to remember that art occurs in many mediums.  Daren Horley does a lot of work for films.  Sometimes, the art is wondrous even when the film as a whole is not, so look for inspiration in unexpected locations.  What eye candy have you been feeding your mythopoeic imaginations?  What artists do you think are not to be missed?  Let me know and maybe, just maybe, I'll get this Mythopoeic Monday feature back on track.

By the way, a big thanks to all my friends who are pitching in to keep the blog active, especially Mike Welham, Paizo's 2012 RPG SuperStar and his Friday Frights!  However, there are other friends active behind the scenes and I expect you will be seeing more new contributors in the days to come.

Paizo and the Art of Book Covers

 The older Planet Stories covers above are awesome.  Above is a selection from my library.  Most of the covers are by Andrew Hou.  The Kline covers are by Daryl Mandryk and Brandon Kitkouski, respectively.  The Moore cover is by Arnold Tsang.  Sadly, at this point, I'm still missing from my PS collection Brackett's wonderful Skaith books.  James Ryman did the covers for Paizo.  Let's not deprive ourselves of the pleasure.  Below is his illustration for Hounds of Skaith.

After the redesign of the Planet Stories line,  Kieran Yanner appears to have gotten a lock on the series.  I struggled a bit to get decent shots of them, so I took doubles.

Leaving aside any judgment on the two different formats (I'm truly torn on which I like best), the suspended series did a wonderful job of taking inspiration from the past and producing new, attractive art that generally was well-grounded in the contents.  When Paizo started its Pathfinder Tales line, it faced the new challenge of providing quality covers for the much smaller mass market paperbacks.  I guess it is not surprising that a line of new fiction, tied to the RPG setting would go with totally different artists than those used for the reprint line named for a classic pulp periodical.  But while I enjoy most of the illustrations, and they aren't bad, I generally haven't loved them like I have most of the PS covers.  Check out the line so far below.

 Of these, the best so far of PF Tales seem to me to have the same kind of feel as the best PS covers.  Those would be Lucas Graciano's for Master of Devils, Kekai Kotaki's for Death's Heretic, J.P. Targete's for City of the Fallen Sky, and Tyler Walpole's for Nightglass.  The latest volume, Blood of the City, unfortunately has the weakest PF Tales cover so far.  (While the colors are nice, and the attempt to at a high action scene is laudable, I don't think Adam Danger Cook pulls it off here.  Hopefully, this remains an anomaly in the series.)

So, this is my question for Ramblers who are more skilled in the criticism of art than I: what is that I am drawn to in these Paizo cover illustrations?

Fantasy Illustration: The State of the Industry in Brief

So the ineffable Theodric has requested I write a blog entry on the subject of the current state of fantasy art. As someone who occasionally thinks of himself as a fantasy artist, it seems I'm obliged to answer the call. In brief, we seem to have entered an interesting time in the world of fantasy illustration.

With the ever-rising popularity of role-playing games such as Pathfinder and D&D 4.0, the demand for fantasy illustrators has reached new highs. In addition, the influx of new material from major publishers has also caused a surge in the popularity of products produced by smaller, third-party companies. As a result, the market is becoming flooded with new artwork on a daily basis.

This, as I've come to find, is a double-edged sword. The glut of phenomenal artwork has driven a small number of talented illustrators to the forefront, with a much larger number pushed to the sidelines, or, more commonly, forced by the nature of the market to imitate the artistic styling of more popular artists. Illustrators like Wayne Reynolds, Tyler Walpole, and Todd Lockwood have definitively set the standard for others to follow, with somewhat mixed results. The competition for top jobs has led smaller-name illustrators to abandon their own artistic directions to follow in the footsteps of the industry trend-setters.

 One other side effect of this is that art directors, in many cases, will not give art orders to illustrators that they feel do not "fit" with their particular "style," meaning that artists who fit with more comic book-esque styles (such as Steve Ellis and Peter Bergting) or less realistic work (such as Jeff Laubenstein, and Kev Crossley) are not hired as frequently as those who imitate the big names.

Still, the market is still massive, and up-and-coming illustrators have more of a chance than ever to break into the industry through third-party publishers like Fantasy Flight Games and Headless Hydra Games. If you want to keep an eye on the next big thing, here are some links to the portfolios of a few up-and-coming illustrators in the field:

Noah Bradley
Mike Burns
J.S. Choi 
Hugo Solis
J. Edwin Stevens

- Dave Mallon, freelance illustrator and writer

Brusting with Artistic Inspiration

If you've been following the MR blog, you know that this has been the year in which I finally got around to reading Steven Brust (or at least, the Steven Brust that everyone else was reading), and enjoyed his work a good deal.  If you are a Brust fan, be sure and catch this interview with him on Atomic Array.

Brust work's has inspired some gorgeous artwork over on DeviantArt that is not to missed.  So, with the kind permission of the artists, please feast your eyes on the these gorgeous and evocative interpretations, and if you aren't familiar with these artists, head on over to their DA sites (linked below) and give yourself an eyeful and them some love.

Vlad Taltos by Ashley Cope

Jhereg by Kerem Beyit

Mythopoeic Monday Helps Find the Way!

FREE FANZINE!

Pathfinder fans:  Issue #7 of the excellent fanzine, Wayfinder, is now out!  Download your copy of the pdf here for free!  Friends and fellow Ramblers contributed both art and articles, so brace yourself for excellence.  It's packed with 94 pages of Pathfindery goodness.  Check it out to see Western Avistan in the Golarion setting developed.

Once you given it a look through, you can go enjoy the ever-improving art submitted at DA.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place ~or~ A Room of One's Own?

Time is not a luxury I have had in the past month.  I had really hoped to get my Ygg PbP going this month, with support from my faithful interested, and while I might have been able to find time to play some, there is no way I could have GMed.  Summer school at the new school is more compact and intense than any other in my career.  Sleep has been an issue, and as you can tell, blogging hasn't really picked up to its pre-move level.  Still, I am planning and preparing for the future in which I and the school will have settled into one another and I have significant free time again for things mythopoeic and luditory. 

First one must create space.  The space in the mind is created, but with space in life unavailable I turned to my physical space.

I have an office space in the apartment, but with a dedicated classroom and an office for all of my academic stuff I have no need to set up an office dedicated to work.  The apartment was set up and it already contained a part of my game collection, so I took the space and tried to make it inspirational for my imagination with the materials I have at hand.
 

Recent finds from Goodwill and Half-Price Books mix with the Free RPG haul and the contents of the lately arrived Pathfinder subscription package.  Not the largest or the most extravagant setting and supply, but plenty here to work from, easily in reach, and a display for the eyes to feed on. 

Artist Appreciation: Anna Christenson

Yes, a hot elf chick to kick-off the weekend and shamelessly pander Google hits.

I had seen one of her works (above), but now I have identified her and her body of work.  She has been a busy gal, producing quality gaming illustrations for a number of companies before her work for her Paizo.  I also particularly like the pieces she's produced for the Dragon Empires, Golarion's oriental analogue.  If you don't know about Anna Christenson's art, check out DeviantArt, her site, and her blog.  I look forward to seeing more of her contributions.

Good Joss Tomeful Tuesday

Lovely cover art by Rowena Morrill

After my good fú trip to Hole in the Wall Books, I started The Devil Wives of Li Fong (1979) by E. Hoffman Price, one of the pulp writers, who later in life combined his fictioneering skills with his study of Chinese religion and culture (he became known as Tao Fa in San Francisco's Chinatown) to produce this fun novel based on the Legend of the White Snake.  I finished Devil Wives this morning, and it exceeded my already good expectations. Magic, strong female characters, action, religious reflection, and intrigue are served up in this Szechuan hotpot.  I think this is worth a chance even if you are not particularly into Asian fantasy, and a necessary part of any Asian fantasy lover's collection.  While it's not perfectly written and perhaps a little predictable, overall it earns high marks and does a good job of conveying the fantasy reader into the ancient Chinese imagination.  I found it a quick and entertaining read as well.
Grade: A-


Travel Map for The Devil Wives of Li Fong

View Larger Map

So Much Art

Female Pan Queen by Marta Nael

Fantasy art is really thriving today all over the world.  With all the crap art that has flown under the avant-garde flim-flam flag of Art that us poor middlebrow orangutans can't get, we can exult that we live in the days of Donato Giancola, Alan Lee, John Howe, Todd Lockwood, Dan Dos Santos, Luis Royo, Victoria Frances, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, and Eva Widermann.

But in addition to all the names you know are many artists you have never heard of, though perhaps you have seen their work without learning or remembering their name.  They are doing wonderful work -- whether for products, patrons, or just their own enjoyment.  It's appalling how young and talented some of them are and it's astounding the amount of work they are producing on a regular basis.

I have been swimming in art lately, thanks to my discovery of the blog Art is the Weapon and my insane urge to view every page and track down every artist I like.   They send you to places like Deviant Art and CGHub and you go crawling around amongst a visual feast, shoveling rich chocolate cake in your mouth for breakfast and then again after you brush your teeth and for every meal.  I have to take breaks.

I'm going to cue you in to some artist websites that I like, and also just plunk some names down for Googling.  In both cases, they follow no particular order.

WEBSITES
Jean-Baptiste Monge
Tim Mcburnie
Kyoung Hwan Kim
Takashi Okada


GOOGLE THESE NAMES
Jana Schirmer
Marta Nael
Wei Chen (Lorland Chain)
Melanie Delon
Viktor Titov
Jasmin Darnell
Tom Bagshaw


Finally, there are artists you know and, as I intimated, forget about for awhile and then rediscover how awesome they are.  Benita Winckler was a recent example for me -- if you don't  know her, add her name to your web-crawling.

Of course, for many of us, artists give us new perspectives on things we have already been exposed to and so their work mainly feeds the imagination or challenge our perspectives.  But the more widely you view art, the more you will discover new things, as well.  Case in point: Reynardine.  I had never heard of werefoxes (for lack of a better word) in British folklore -- I always associated them with Chinese and Japanese folk stories.  Ulafish's illustration alerted me to the presence of at least one in a British folk song, named Reynardine.

How have  you benefited from the work of fantasy artists?  What favorites would you share?  I hope that these will enrich the visual smorgasbord that you spread before yourself when you feed your mythopoeic appetite something other than text.

U is for URBAN SETTING II

Due to losing some family storage, I've recently had to go through a lot of old things (see my Nostalgia post).  I came across the remnants of what was once a mighty collection of illustrated children's books of the better kind.  The collection was shared between my daughter (the child in question) and myself (for use in the classroom in my previous incarnation -- okay I shared the books with my students as well, but they were taught to be careful with books from Dr. Obscure's Special Collection).  Sorting through them, I kept a few for myself, a few for my daughter, and the rest went to the shelves of Half Price Books.  Among those that I kept were two really cool books -- A Seaport through History: from the 10th Century BC to the 20th Century and A Central American City through the Ages: San Rafael.  These books by Hernandez, Ballonga, et al. are out of print and appear to have been published under somewhat different names by different publishers.  They trace a fictional Mayan city and  a Low Countries seaport through their histories, showing maps and cross-sections, with relevant information about them that would be enviable in a game setting book.  The fact that they are historical and yet fictional would make them perfect for just such a purpose, so I intend to eventually use them for just that.  It looks like there is at least one more book they did together, so I'm going to try to remember to keep an eye out for the one on the Islamic city.

Note that I just snuck in a Tomeful Tuesday, which we haven't had in a while!  Finding good material for an urban setting in unlikely or perhaps just new places, especially for cheap or free, is quiet satisfying.  I've used old National Geographics in the past, but I really like that the unique characteristics of these two books, and that they have the feel without the danger of being recognized as real places.  What resources have you found for creating urban settings?

T is for TAROT

Regular ramblers know that, in spite of being an old fogy who never got into any of these new-fangled card games, I am still fascinated by card decks.  I created a way for generating classic fantasy role-playing characters using a standard card deck.  (The world wasn't as impressed as I was, but what-ya-gonna-do?)  I've emoted about my love for Paizo's Harrow Deck and the old Deck of Many Things.  So I was always looking for a good deal on a Ravenloft Tarokka deck or a tarot deck.  Well, I finally got the tarot deck the day before T!  (The artist is David Palladini.)  I got a great deal at Lucky Dog Books.  (I'm still working on forgiving them for closing their old Paperbacks Plus store in Lakewood.  So many great memories in that place over the years.)

I wish I had some cool new idea to share, but I don't.  I started playing around with a use for the tarot during gaming, but it is still in the early stages of development.  Therefore, I'll share the picture of my deck in action and promote my old post (linked as "card deck" above), Paizo's Harrow, and Charles Williams' The Greater Trumps.  Don't hate me for one day of show-and-tell and sell.  ;-)

Q is for QUEEN MOTHER OF THE WEST

Hsi Wang-mu or Xi Wangmu is a Chinese goddess of death, immortality, and the Western Paradise.  She is described in the HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion as having a leopard tail, tiger teeth, a spool-like headdress, sitting on K'un-lun mountain by a sacred tree preparing the elixir of immortality and being accompanied  by the jade hare, the three-legged bird, the toad, the nine-tailed fox, and in some accounts, an armed guard.  She hosts feasts at which seekers are served the peaches of immortality. 

I'm having trouble finding images that fit that description, but check out the following for some other ideas.  Check out this site for not only other illustrations, but the most information I found about her online.  I do not have enough expertise in Chinese religion to judge that online article by Max Dashu, but it is fascinating and packed with details and suggested interpretations of the evidence regarding this goddess.  Yumiyu's illustration is here.  Izabeth's is here.  A more modern looking illustration that looks like it may go with a video game is here.

A number of goddesses have caught my attention during this year's challenge. This one seems to combine a number of elements of Chinese religion, including the alchemical and perhaps the shamanic.

The association between the West and Paradise persists in forms of Pure Land, whose Western Paradise is overseen by Amitabha, or the Buddha of Infinite Light (known in Japan as Amida Butsu).

Art Fuel for Mythopoesis in Big D

Readers of this blog know that find art a major source of inspiration for the sub-creation of secondary worlds.  There are two local opportunities I want to highlight for locals or folks who will be visiting the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex during the upcoming months.

The first is a SMU Meadows Museum exhibit of 15th century Portuguese tapestries featuring scenes from the Bible, mythology, and a Portuguese conquest of North Africa.

The second is a photography exhibit at the Trammell Crow Collection of Asian Art of Shinto shrines.

I'll be hitting these in the coming months, and will update on what I find at these exhibits to fuel the mythopoet within.

Now for some art inspiration that you don't have to leave your computer for!  Here is an artist that may be new to you if you are unfamiliar with past volumes of the Pathfinder AP, Planet Stories, or Victoriana, check out the line art of Sara Otterstätter.

Mail Call!

I was pretty busy yesterday, so today I get around to the mail and, lo and behold, it was a great day for mail, thanks to Paizo and New Big Dragon: a veritable Oriental Postal Adventure!  (Goodies pictured above.)  Thanks go especially to New Big Dragon, since his was an act of pure generosity.  And check out that attention to detail on the envelope.  You've got to respect that.  Of course, now I wish I had a logo for my blog so it could be put on cool stuff like buttons and envelopes and such.

Thanks to the latest Ramblers for following the blog.  Reminder: there is only one day left to enter the contest for a free fantasy paperback.  I hope you all are having a good end of February and a good Year of the Dragon so far.  Here, the winter is disappointingly mild.

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

"Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return."

One of the greatest facts of human existence is mortality.  Our mortal nature touches our yearning and our dreaming; our loving and hating, our creating and praying.  Nothing human completely escapes the cold clay. Any mythopoesis that does not come, as far as it must within the limits of its art, to grips with the finite end of humanity is so far incomplete, imperfect, just as is any life that does not come to grips with it.  This Ash Wednesday, I wish you nothing that I do not wish for myself.  Death.  And life.

ASH WEDNESDAY by T. S. Eliot (1930)

I

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

II

Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
In the cool of the day, having fed to satiety
On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained
In the hollow round of my skull. And God said
Shall these bones live? shall these
Bones live? And that which had been contained
In the bones (which were already dry) said chirping:
Because of the goodness of this Lady
And because of her loveliness, and because
She honours the Virgin in meditation,
We shine with brightness. And I who am here dissembled
Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love
To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
It is this which recovers
My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions
Which the leopards reject. The Lady is withdrawn
In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown.
Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness.
There is no life in them. As I am forgotten
And would be forgotten, so I would forget
Thus devoted, concentrated in purpose. And God said
Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only
The wind will listen. And the bones sang chirping
With the burden of the grasshopper, saying

Lady of silences
Calm and distressed
Torn and most whole
Rose of memory
Rose of forgetfulness
Exhausted and life-giving
Worried reposeful
The single Rose
Is now the Garden
Where all loves end
Terminate torment
Of love unsatisfied
The greater torment
Of love satisfied
End of the endless
Journey to no end
Conclusion of all that
Is inconclusible
Speech without word and
Word of no speech
Grace to the Mother
For the Garden
Where all love ends.

Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other,
Under a tree in the cool of the day, with the blessing of sand,
Forgetting themselves and each other, united
In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.

III

At the first turning of the second stair
I turned and saw below
The same shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitul face of hope and of despair.

At the second turning of the second stair
I left them twisting, turning below;
There were no more faces and the stair was dark,
Damp, jagged, like an old man's mouth drivelling, beyond repair,
Or the toothed gullet of an aged shark.

At the first turning of the third stair
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
Lilac and brown hair;
Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind over the third stair,
Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair
Climbing the third stair.

Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthy
but speak the word only.

IV

Who walked between the violet and the violet
Who walked between
The various ranks of varied green
Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour,
Talking of trivial things
In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour
Who moved among the others as they walked,
Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs

Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand
In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour,
Sovegna vos

Here are the years that walk between, bearing
Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing

White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.

The silent sister veiled in white and blue
Between the yews, behind the garden god,
Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word

But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down
Redeem the time, redeem the dream
The token of the word unheard, unspoken

Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew

And after this our exile

V

If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

O my people, what have I done unto thee.

Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice

Will the veiled sister pray for
Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee,
Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between
Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait
In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray
For children at the gate
Who will not go away and cannot pray:
Pray for those who chose and oppose

O my people, what have I done unto thee.

Will the veiled sister between the slender
Yew trees pray for those who offend her
And are terrified and cannot surrender
And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks
In the last desert before the last blue rocks
The desert in the garden the garden in the desert
Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed.

O my people.

VI

Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn 
Wavering between the profit and the loss
In this brief transit where the dreams cross
The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying
(Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things
From the wide window towards the granite shore
The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
Unbroken wings 
And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
Quickens to recover
The cry of quail and the whirling plover
And the blind eye creates
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth 
This is the time of tension between dying and birth 
The place of solitude where three dreams cross 
Between blue rocks 
But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away 
Let the other yew be shaken and reply. 

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated 
And let my cry come unto Thee. 

LaForce to be Reckoned with

Diesel LaForce now has a Kickstarter project to reproduce his Deities & Demigods art.  Very cool!
Check it out and support one of our original illustrators.

EDIT: There appears to be a pretty full resume of his work here.  Let me know if there is a better one out there.

Candlemas 2012

The Presentation of Christ at the Temple by Hans Holbein the Elder

I got a kick out of Sword & Dorkery's post today, as if there were a group of hardcore liturgical campaigners for the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple, AKA The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary AKA The Meeting of our Lord with the Prophets Simeon and Anna or CANDLEMAS out there to put down that blasted meteorological rodent once and for all!  Man, if there were, that'd be the culture war for me to join!  I hope we'd use spiked thuribles and aspergiliums:  Take that, you buck-toothed varmits!  WHACK!

On a personal note, this has been one of those days in my life were big things have happened coincidentally over the years: both tragic and joyful, so it remains a particular observance for me and for Mrs. Obscure.  A Clerk in Oxford has had several recent blog posts that I recommend to increase your medieval knowledge or to simply enjoy the beauties of the day. 

Best wishes for bright days ahead,
Theodric