#what’s its history?? was it destroyed during the red raids or another conflict??

[cicadaknight]

So there’s a path here that you can’t enter. And it looks like it leads up to that white fortress ruin at the edge of the Daunt.

There are climbable beams and a rappel point, so clearly there were plans for this place. But you can’t even fly in its vicinity. Tell me your secrets, GG. What did you scrap here?

[cienie-isengardu]

What's with the Black Dragon in MK, they confuse me?

I know they are a branch off of the Red Dragon, who they left because they thought the Red Dragon was too moral.

And they are lead by Kano, who has no morals and as an absolute piece of shit.

Kano doesn't confuse me.

Kabal "I used to be B.D. but decided to be a good guy cop, and even Raiden wanted on his team" and Erron Black "I might be a feminist/sexist man, because I never throw the first punch with women, and also seem soft of kids, unless they pay me a lot to shot them"

Both of these guys, who are the only other B.D. members I know of, are morally gray at best, which is what the what the Black Dragon left the Red Dragon because of?! So why aren't they just Red Dragon, and why does the Black Dragon even exist (other than to pad Kanos crotch)?!

To be honest, I’m not sure myself what is the deal between Black and Red Dragons (not the fraction / era of games I’m familiar or interested in) but I suspect it is something similar to the situation of Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu. At some point some rogue element decided to leave and created his/her/their own organisation and since then both groups hate each other’s guts. And somehow along the line Kano took over Black Dragons and extended its operation to Outworld. I’m unable to comment on the “moral code” of Red Dragons because really, what is an honor in a crime organisation anyway, but sadly, alternative timeline doesn’t focus much on this conflict so Kano has (on screen) monopoly on dealing with weapons and other black market deals.

Whatever the excuse was to split, it was most likely about power and control or revenge than any morality whatsoever.

As for the members alone, I think it is less a matter of their morality and more why they joined or worked with Black Dragons in the first place. People join criminal organizations for money, for the thrill of danger, for protection or because they lack better options. Not sure how it was before Outworld Invasion and Netherrealm War, but the game does not show us the actual state of modern (alternative timeline) Earthrealm, or at least modern USA society. I mean, in a short period of time, out of nowhere came armies of monsters twice, murdering people right and left, destroying cities. The rebuilding for sure took time but beside the lasting psychological trauma, I’m sure the survivors demanded answers as to what the hell happened and did the governments know about other realms. It is not stated how much common people know now about Mortal Kombat and Outworld or general history of conflict, but the last invasion and the Netherrealm War changed the world in an irreversible way. We don’t have an idea about the situation of average citizens nor how countries managed to stave off political, cultural or economic post-war crises. We have a clue about show business like movie making and military operating inside and outside Earthrealm and cooperation between fractions representing different countries and/or continents. Our main heroes seem to do well, money-wise at least, but they all are in this or another way related to the military thus working for the government (or United Nations / NATO / whatever political-economic union happened post-war). That however does not rule out the possibility there are people who were abandoned or forgotten by their government, who were marginalised for whatever big or small reason. With what happened it is easy for me to imagine how humanity was militarized in case of another attack, and in result, how societies were controlled more tightly by their governments. In theory all for the security means but it easily could escalate into social inequalities increasing with each passing year.

There is a lot of worldbuilding the games did not tell us about but would help greatly to understand the relationship between characters, fractions and countries. Are there arenas that are now closed off due to some magic contamination or became the lawless zones but people live there because they are too poor to move into safer places? Are there more young people with special powers due to raping or magic means, as the remnant of the war? How religions work now, when humanity saw an army of demons? Are religious wars escalated, especially if faith in Elder Gods get renewed? Did religious fanatics start cultural crusades against certain social groups (like LGBT+, atheists, anyone tied to Outworld or at least looking unnatural, like orphaned Frost?).

And the more society is tightly controlled, divided into poor, unwanted and written off against the privileged ones (military), the more people rebel against authority. Which is how Black Dragons may fit into the new times, as a niche for desperate, angry people with little to none perspective on life. Under Kano’s guard, they can be as violent and uncaring as they want. They can hurt a government (military), get good money and fun and until they are caught, there is only Black Dragon’s laws (or lack of therefor) to worry about.

(Looking how extremely violent the Special Forces were during the raid on Black Dragon’s hideout, how Cassie went straight for killing instead of just injuring to arrest the criminals and put them before justice, I wouldn’t be surprised if the army was not popular anymore. And yeah, Cassie wanted to save her parents but as a soldier, she is bound to respect law… that may be much different than we known from our reality)

We, as gamers (viewers) know what scumbag Kano is because we see his crimes and how he interacts with other characters. To what awful level he managed terrifying strong heroes like Sonya. But most of Black Dragon members may know him just as the charismatic leader that time after time outsmart the Special Forces and always get a good-paying job for them, whatever it is a deal in the country or a totally different realm.

And those named characters that left are those who actually experienced on their own skin what a nasty bastard Kano was. Like in Mortal Kombat X Comics Series, Erron joined forces with Black Dragons out of desperation to help Kotal which ended badly for him because Kano left him to die, thus Erron’s personal hate for Kano and his buddies. Similar thing seems to happen with Tremor, sent on a suicidal mission and then also left behind without any care or remorse. Frankly, only MK9!Kabal seems to have left Black Dragons for moral reasons and actually made proper life changing decisions like joining the police and help citizens instead of serving criminals.

Because of that, I can see why Kano, despite his true nature, is actually admired or followed by a bunch of angry, rebellious, sociopathic people and why Black Dragons are doing well despite Special Forces (and Red Dragons) hunting them for decades.

[dweemeister]

49th Parallel (1941)

The Allies were losing the Second World War. In London in 1939 or 1940, the Ministry of Information (the propaganda house of the British government) met with film director Michael Powell and asked if he might want to make a film about minesweepers. Powell’s interest was piqued, but then he suggested making a film that might inspire the United States to abandon their neutral stance on the conflicts in Europe and Asia. His new partner-in-crime, screenwriter Emeric Pressburger (Pressburger would soon become Powell’s co-director on their subsequent movies), relished the prospect, hoping to “scare the pants off the Americans” with this newest project.

By the second half of 1941, the situation appeared dire. The Allies evacuated Dunkirk (their last foothold in continental Western Europe) the year prior; Nazi Germany was making advances in the Balkans; Fascist Italy was reclaiming the former African lands of the Roman Empire that it long sought; Imperial Japan had completed its military stranglehold on modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the most vocal in pleading with the United States to enter the war, but still Washington sat on the sidelines, adopting the policy of appeasement. Michael Powell’s 49th Parallel is an unusual propaganda feature film, and ultimately did not inspire the Americans to declare war on the Axis. Though released in the United Kingdom in late 1941, the film was not given a general release in the U.S. until April 15, 1942. By then, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor already provided the impetus for the Americans joining the Allies.

Powell and Pressburger’s newest work was no longer needed to scare the pants off any American. With 49th Parallel (originally released in the United States as The Invaders, which is also how it is listed in the records of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences), they introduced a narrative centering around Nazi soldiers looking to impose their values an ocean away from home. Many WWII-era propaganda movies have lost much of their watchability given time, but that is not the case here.

A German U-boat has surfaced in Hudson Bay in Canada. Six sailors are tasked by the captain to search for foodstuffs and supplies, but shortly after they reach land, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) has destroyed the U-boat. The six Nazi raiders are now at large, looking for ways to return to Germany or to rally the Canadian people to their side and begin an insurrection. Their commanders, Lieutenants Hirth (Eric Portman) and Kunhecke (Raymond Lovell), push the men forward. The raiders soon terrorize a band of French-Canadian trappers led by Johnnie (Laurence Olivier with an atrocious French accent) and murder a local Inuit named Nick (Ley On; whose people is described by Hirth as, “sub-apes like Negroes, only one step above the Jews” – this line was cut from the American release to avoid offending segregationists). Kunhecke is killed by an Inuit marksman as their raiding party attempts to steal a floatplane, and becomes the first casualty as these six are picked off one after another. Their mission to return to Germany will encounter several stops, including a community of Hutterites (a Germanic Anabaptist group, similar to the Amish, that fled Europe in the nineteenth century due to religious persecution) that they will attempt to convert to Nazism and Banff National Park.

Also featured are: Hutterite leader Peter (Anton Walbrook), Hutterite villager Anna (Glynis Johns), writer Philip Armstrong Scott (Leslie Howard), and Canadian soldier Andy Brock (Raymond Massey). Rounding out the U-boat’s raiding party are Vogel (Niall MacGinnis), Kranz (Peter Moore), Lohrmann (John Chandos), and Jahner (Basil Appleby).

If 49th Parallel was not a propaganda film, it would be more commonly labeled a war thriller. Editor David Lean (1962′s Lawrence of Arabia, 1965′s Doctor Zhivago) was one year away from directing his first feature film, and his ability to string together frantic images in the handful of pursuit scenes means that 49th Parallel never needs spectacular violence nor masses of soldiers engaging in a firefight to send hearts racing. Lean’s future cinematographer for both Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, Freddie Young, is also involved. And though the widescreen camera lens of the 1950s and onwards had not been standardized yet (the film is in the typical 1.37:1 ratio for the time), his opening images of Canadian mountains and the nature photography found in the film’s second half are spectacular to behold. For eighteen months, the filmmakers traveled over 50,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean and Canadian wilderness to shoot this film. 49th Parallel is a cross-country, cross-continental effort. When put through the paces of Lean and Young’s work, puts into doubt the certainty of any propaganda movie’s ending – even for a few minutes.

Emeric Pressburger’s screenplay keeps the war thriller based in Western anti-authoritarian rhetoric. Pressburger, a Hungarian Jewish refugee who fled continental Europe and whose command of English was imperfect, allows the Nazi characters to spout dogma without challenge; their ignorance and contempt for anyone not like them obvious soon after the U-boat surfaces in Hudson Bay. Their victims are never entirely helpless, often challenging the Nazis with celebrations of Western democratic and classical ideas championing a person’s fundamental rights to free thought and to live the life they please. Unlike a typical, pure war movie, 49th Parallel is a Nazi struggle to escape North America contained within a grander ideological dialectic. The film makes no pretense on what side it is on (it should not in any case). Its messages are articulate, achieving its initial goals to disturb and terrify the audience with the mindsets of men willing to slaughter their way home.

Uneven performances are expected in propaganda cinema, and 49th Parallel is no exception. Established actors like Leslie Howard and especially Laurence Olivier are serving overcooked ham with their performances. By the midpoint, Eric Portman, as Lieutenant Hirth, begins to dominate the proceedings – all of the scathing and pedantic lines penned by Emeric Pressburger go to the unshakeable Nazi commander. As a result, Portman’s performance lacks any nuance or self-doubt, as he becomes the equivalent of a tea kettle that has been left on the stove whistling for too long. Nevertheless, Portman is also involved during 49th Parallel’s most blatantly political, yet most effective moment. At a community meeting, Lieutenant Hirth, believing that the German-speaking Hutterites are closeted Nazi sympathizers, begins to traffic slogans of racial superiority, shredding the Allied nations as unwilling, unmanly combatants. Hirth has misinterpreted the people who have offered them food and temporary shelter. The Hutterite community’s leader, Peter, played by future Powell and Pressburger regular Anton Walbrook (1943′s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, 1948′s The Red Shoes), dismisses the hateful rhetoric by invoking the history of his people – a history, defined by personal freedoms and the intolerance of others, that makes their existence a living refutation of Nazi doctrine.

Concludes Peter:

You think we hate you, but we don’t. It is against our faith to hate. We only hate the power of evil which is spreading over the world. You and your Hitlerism are like the microbes of some filthy disease, filled with a longing to multiply yourselves until you destroy everything healthy in the world. No – we are not your brothers.

One could say that Walbrook is over-explaining the film’s subtext here, but other propaganda films released from the Allied nations were far more heavy-handed than this to insensitive faults (see: 1944′s The Negro Soldier – an American propaganda piece meant to increase black enlistment which celebrates black cultural excellence, yet completely fails to mention slavery or racial segregation in its historical passages). Walbrook’s presence, however brief, electrifies the audience’s energies in the scenes that follow.

The individual whose work on 49th Parallel could be called transcendent is English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Those knowledgeable with classical music probably just read that last sentence in disbelief but, yes, Ralph Vaughan Williams composed for films. In fact, 49th Parallel contains the first Vaughan Williams score for a feature-length film. Decades earlier, Vaughan Williams studied under Impressionist composer Maurice Ravel (Boléro), and the Frenchman considered his English pupil among his most gifted. Influenced by English folk songs and Tudor-era modal music, Vaughan Williams’ rhythmically complex style did not cohere until shortly before World War I. He served in the Great War, returning home emotionally traumatized, his hearing permanently damaged. For 49th Parallel, Vaughan Williams wished to invoke musical nationalism in ways he believed no composer had yet accomplished in British cinema.

Recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, Vaughan Williams begins his score with the “Prelude” – a molto legato statement of an opening, meant to invoke the lyricism of Christian hymns that extol freedom and human fellowship. One can hear the influence of Ravel’s Impressionist roots in this music, rejecting Wagnerian leitmotifs and versatile enough to adapt to 49th Parallel’s shifting moods and settings. The majesty of the prelude shares few similarities to “Hutterite Settlement: Anna’s Volkslied” (“Volkslied” is German for “folk song”). Wandering flutes, wisping the rural landscape along with the solo German-language vocalist. It is a peaceful, somewhat elegiac cue – combining Vaughan Williams’ strengths of string-led pastoral stillness, pre-Baroque influences, and the sweep of North American music. Throughout, Vaughan Williams will alternate between non-resolving passages for the Nazis to juxtapose a musical uncertainty to their ideological rigidity, as if their experiences in Canada may be inspiring second thoughts; the early Hollywood musical-esque bustle of a large city; and an Englishman’s interpretation of Native American music. Much of the music is written not to respond to what is occurring on-screen, but to empower the images. It is a virtuosic composition from Vaughan Williams that sounds as fantastic within the film as when listened to independent from it. Vaughan Williams would work on ten more movies until The Vision of William Blake (1957), with his efforts for 49th Parallel displaying a remarkable musical versatility in style and in musical medium.

During production, Raymond Massey, Leslie Howard, and Laurence Olivier all agreed to half-wages during production to assist the war effort. An aberration the year of this film’s release, the remainder of the cast was not comprised of just English actors (more specifically, London-area or Southern English actors), but Scots (Finlay Currie) and Irishmen (Niall MacGinnis). Few British films had ever been made with such a stacked cast, let alone being set on a grand international stage. Lawrence of Arabia this might not be, but this is as close to being an epic film as any British film production was able to be by the 1940s. The film’s financial success across the West allowed for the creation of independent British film production companies like The Archers (Powell and Pressburger) and Cineguild (David Lean), among others. The face of the non-Alfred Hitchcock British filmmaking industry would be strengthened by the marvelous reception given to 49th Parallel, securing the nation as one of the greatest forces of world cinema.

With its value as propaganda ended due to the course of history, 49th Parallel should be watched as both a historical landmark for British filmmaking as well as an excellent, potent thriller. It may not have changed any of the military or political outcomes Powell and Pressburger and the rest of its cast and crew were targeting, but the positive impacts of this production – for audiences and within the film industry – have outlasted many other works of propaganda.

My rating: 8.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

[euroman1945-blog]

The Daily Tulip

The Daily Tulip – Archeological News From Around The World

Friday 18th May 2018

Good Morning Gentle Reader….  Lovely morning, a little cool 11c with a cool wind from the north east, a sliver of Moon hangs in the sky bathing the little streets and alleys in the town of Estepona with its pale moonlight… the smell this morning is of the Orange Trees, of course I happen to be allergic to the Orange Blossom Pollen but it’s no big deal.. The sound of the water fall in the park catches Bella’s attention ..it turns on at 4:00 am and the resident ducks quaking as the water splashes … we reach the top of the hill and turn, food drawing Bella, she knows the routine and me Coffee this morning to easy the tiredness of the antihistamine tablet….

19TH-DYNASTY PRIEST’S STATUE UNEARTHED IN HELIOPOLIS…. CAIRO, EGYPT—Egypt Today reports that two artifacts have been discovered in northeastern Cairo, in the ancient city of Heliopolis. “The digging process uncovered a statue of a royal compartment’s priest,” said Mamdouh Eldamaty of Ain Shams University. He added that the compartment dates to the Ramesses dynasty, during the thirteenth and twelfth centuries B.C. “The area witnessed important incidents of the ancient Egyptian history, including King Ramesses II to King Ramesses IX,” Eldamaty explained. “The royal compartment was considered as the first of its kind during that Late Dynasty of Egypt.” Eldamaty’s team also found a second, small artifact that has not yet been identified.

CONTINUOUSLY OCCUPIED CAVE EXCAVATED IN EAST AFRICA…. JENA, GERMANY—Haaretz reports that evidence for 78,000 years of human occupation has been found in Kenya’s Panga ya Saidi network of caves, ranging from the Middle Stone Age to the present day. The cave’s main chamber measures more than 1,000 feet square, and could have housed hundreds of people, according to Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, although it has recently been used just for burials and rituals. Stone arrowheads, blades, and tools with a dull edge for attachment to a shaft first appeared in the cave’s layers dated to about 67,000 years ago, or some 10,000 years after the first inhabitants, who used larger stone tools, moved in. Kenya’s oldest-known bead, dated to about 65,000 years old, was also recovered. Carved bones, tusks, and worked pieces of ochre were found in layers dated between 48,000 and 25,000 years ago. Petraglia explained that the turning points in technologies were marked by mixes of tools and artifacts, rather than sudden changes. He thinks the cave’s inland location, in a transitional area between the forest and the savannah, may have provided generations of residents with a stable environment at a time when other areas of Africa experienced drought.

HEPATITIS B DETECTED IN 4,500-YEAR-OLD REMAINS…. CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—Science Magazine reports that a team of scientists led by Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge has detected the virus that causes hepatitis B (HBV) in the 4,500-year-old remains of a man who lived in what is now Osterhofen, Germany. In all, the team sequenced the genomes of 304 people who lived in Eurasia between 3500 and 500 B.C., and found the virus in 12 of them. In addition, geneticist Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and his colleagues found traces of HBV in the teeth of three skeletons, also unearthed in Germany, dating from 5000 to 3200 B.C. Krause said the liver-destroying disease “seems to have been pretty common in the past.” The oldest-known hepatitis B virus strain before these studies were conducted had been found in a sixteenth-century mummy in Italy

NEW KINGDOM TOMB DISCOVERED IN SAQQARA…. CAIRO, EGYPT—According to a report in Ahram Online, a tomb dating to the reign of Ramesses II (1279–1213 B.C.) has been discovered in Saqqara. Ola El-Aguizy of Cairo University said that inscriptions on the tomb walls indicate it belonged to General Iwrkhy, his son Yuppa, and grandson Hatiay. Iwrkhy is thought to have moved to Egypt from another land when he began his career under Seti I, and to have attained his high rank in the court of Ramesses II. Images on the walls relate to Iwrkhy’s military career, including an infantry unit and charioteers crossing a waterway dotted with crocodiles, presumed to be Egypt’s eastern border, and relationships with other countries, such as pictures of Canaanite wine jars being unloaded from boats. Other images depict daily life in the military garrison. The tomb features a forecourt, a statue room, plastered vaulted storehouses, a peristyle court, and chapels. Excavation of the tomb will continue.

ON NOVEMBER 13, A.D. 1002,…. DORSET, ENGLAND- Æthelred Unræd, ruler of the English kingdom of Wessex, “ordered slain all the Danish men who were in England,” according to a royal charter. This drastic step was not taken on a whim, but was the product of 200 years of Anglo-Saxon frustration and fear. Vikings, who had long plagued the Isles with raids and wars, had taken over the north and begun settling there. Concerns were growing that they had designs on Æthelred’s southern realm as well. Æthelred’s order led to what is known as the St. Brice’s Day Massacre, named for the saint’s feast day on which it fell. The event has long been cloaked in mystery and misinformation. Archaeology, so far, has had little to offer in the matter of what actually happened and how many people died that day, but two mass burials recently unearthed are beginning to expose this turbulent period around the end of the first millennium. Could they be the first archaeological evidence of the massacre? Or might they offer a glimpse into some other aspect of the conflict between Anglo-Saxons and Vikings? Archaeologists are examining a trail of clues, including historical sources, wound patterns, and isotopic analysis of teeth, to put what was no doubt a violent series of deaths into perspective.

Well Gentle Reader I hope you enjoyed our look at the archeological news from around the world this, Friday morning… …

Our Tulips today are unusual to say the least..but I love the contrast between the blue and the Red...

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Friday 18th May 2018 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in

Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus #robertmcangus

[theroseandcrown]

The Rose & Crown: Chapter Six

Rating: M Chapters: 6/24

Summary: The villain-ess we all love has revealed herself to be part of the mystery the Doctor and Clara are trying to solve. But how far does her reach go? The Doctor discovers what Missy has been up to since he last saw her back on Skaro.

Read this story on another platform: Archive of Our Own Fan Fiction WattPad

“Missy,” the Doctor whispered through gritted teeth. He could feel anger building inside of him. He should have been able to sense her presence before yet was too preoccupied with his companion’s unknowingly dark secret to detect her. The last time he saw her was back on Skaro amidst a civil war raging between the living and dead Daleks. She had locked Clara away in the armour of a deceased Dalek and tried to convince him to destroy her. If it weren’t for his intuitiveness of the inner workings of their species and knowing a Dalek would never utter the word ‘mercy,’ Clara would be dead. He had no knowledge of what became of her after he and Clara escaped. He left her behind to fend for herself during the chaos. Knowing her, she probably found some clever way off of the planet. All he did know was that he told her to run and run she had. Even now, as she stood high above him, all the risks he took to save her in the past came rushing into his mind. He realized how stupid he was for falling right into her trap yet again.

“I don’t believe it,” Clara admitted in shock. She would never be able to understand why the Doctor let her escape that day. He and the Master’s history went so deep in time it would take an eternity to grasp what they were to each other. Friends? Foes? As much as she tried to be understanding, his weakness was the hope that one day she would change her ways and be the friends they once were so many years ago. Back when they were just children.

“I’d like to thank you all for coming to my little soirée,” Missy continued, wielding her signature sonic-parasol beside her. “The auction will begin shortly. So until then, keep your panties on. Or don’t! Either way, we’re going to have a bit of fun now, aren’t we?” The crowd shouted their cheers to her as she stood above them like a Goddess, all except for two. Her head turned towards the cheerless guests sulking below her, her eyes connecting with her old friend. A smile peeled over her lips as she descended the stairs, greeting her followers in the crowd with her devious flirtatious behaviour. Approaching the Doctor, her smile widened. “My my my, I knew you could never stay away for very long,” she gloated as his eyes burned with anger. “I have to say, this obsessive infatuation you have with me is rather sexy.”

“I should have known it was you behind all of this. What are you playing at this time, Missy? Are you planning to turn all these people into more Cybermen? Or perhaps you’re in league with the Zygons now. I can never seem to keep up to speed with all of your charming charades.” He held on to his temper as best he could.

“Oh, Doctor,” she pouted her lips. “You’re so predictable when you’re wearing your cross-pants.” She noticed Clara standing next to him. “And Clara, so good to see you again! How’s my girl? Have you been treating my boyfriend well?”

“I’m not your girl. Or did you forget that little bit where you tried to have me killed?” she fumed, resisting the urge to hit her in her evil face.

“Let’s just consider that my way of flirting, dear.” She watched as Clara turned red with hatred. “Whew! It must be absolutely boiling with all these sweaty bodies about. You look a bit flushed. By the way, how are you feeling these days?” she provoked her, looking her up and down.

“Stop playing games,” he interjected. “What’s this auction really all about?”

“Charity, darling,” she teased.

“Charity for whom?”

“Why, for me of course!”

“What could you possibly need all that money for? Planning a holiday somewhere? Off to some hot spot all the kids are talking about these days?” Missy laughed at the old man which only made him more furious. “Oh, you silly little man. There’s more to life than just money. Here we are a trade-way where just about anything can be considered payment.” She glanced at Clara. “Including pets.” She watched Clara’s heated reaction, grinning to herself. “Listen, just between us girls, with a dress like that you don’t have to stick around this frumpy old face. There are plenty of younger men in this room willing to sweep you off your feet faster than you can drop your knickers!”

“What’s with the brain scanners?” he interrupted before Clara could say anything. “Or did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

“Can’t be too trusting these days.” She reached up to straighten his jacket. He grabbed her wrists harshly to stop her. “Oh, I didn’t realize you liked it rough,” she insinuated, snapping her teeth together provocatively.

“Why did you bring us here before? What are you really after?” He squeezed her wrists tighter.

“Well now, that’s my little secret. You wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise! Besides, I know you better than anyone. You’ve never been able to resist a good mystery.” Before he could say anything more, the sound of bells chimed overhead. The guests sat down their beverages and began to gather like a herd of cattle towards the open doors on the other side of the room. She pulled herself from his grasp and joined the others before turning around towards them once more. “Coming? You wouldn’t want to miss out on all the fun now, would you?”

The Doctor and Clara reluctantly followed the crowd hand in hand. He had a horrible feeling coursing through him, but he couldn’t turn back now. Not when they were so close to discovering the truth of why they were there. As they walked through the threshold, their grip on each other’s hands tightened in anticipation of what was to come. They entered like a great flood sweeping over every inch of the room. Whatever this was seemed to be incredibly popular amongst the several species they could see. The room was certainly large enough to house all of the people in attendance. A massive stage stood in front of a double hanging grand curtain as if they were about to watch a play. In the middle of the stage sat a short pillar on display. On one side of the stage was a podium. The seats were arranged in rows with no particular order or reservation. Staying mostly behind, they chose two seats in the back for better observation. He took the opportunity to look around the room for anything out of place while the guests were filling in their seats. Emergency exits on the sides, unmanned and unlocked. Another brain scanner on the ceiling. Nothing that would seem to suggest a trap, yet.

“I don’t get it,” Clara stated, breaking the silence between them. “With all these different species here from all over the galaxy, why have we never heard of this auction going on before? If it were this popular, you’d think someone would’ve mentioned it by now.”

“Yes, it would appear this is the best-kept secret in all the universe,” he agreed. He had been thinking the same thing from the moment they arrived. He watched as Missy made her way to the stage.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, lads and lasses, lords and mistresses!” she began, fluffing her hair at her own recognition. “If you will be kind enough to take your seats, we can get started.” She waited a moment for the guests to settle quietly then reached into her pocket. The Doctor observed closely as she pulled a pair of reading glasses matching the ones he had been given earlier and placed them on her face. “There now, that’s better! I’d like to begin with our very first item this evening. I believe you’ll find no other in the universe quite like it.”

From behind the curtain appeared a beautiful young woman of no more than twenty bearing long auburn hair and sparkling brown eyes who seemed familiar to the Doctor yet he could not recall having ever seen her before. She was dressed in a long-sleeved gown and wearing an identical pair of glasses. She held a brilliantly decorated layered necklace fastened to a blue velvet display in which she placed upon the pillar. The chain was made from a mix of different types of gold. The gems themselves were mostly diamonds ranging in various sizes. The lights reflecting upon the surface of the gemstones embedded into its metallic fixings sparkled in a million different places. Truly an unmistakable work of art.

“Nicknamed ‘The Eyes of the Galaxy,’” she continued, “this piece is amongst the rarest in the universe and was one of two precious items to have been smuggled out of the Halassi vaults during the great raid. The chain is composed of blue and yellow gold mined from the Flidor moon and Jupiter’s orbiting asteroid Voga. The diamonds were mined from several different planets including Arcadia and the reefs of Kataa Flo Ko. Each link was hand-dipped in the golden whirlpools of Catrigan Nova, my personal favourite...”

“Is she serious?” Clara finally spoke, trying to keep the agitation in her voice to a minimum. “Did we really come all this way for a bit of jewellery?”

The Doctor remained silent. He too was in disbelief that nothing had blown up, setting the walls ablaze and trapping everyone in the room. None of the guests were being captured or forced into some kind of slavery which would have been so fitting for someone like Missy, at least the Missy he knew. His mind was in conflict over knowing what she was capable of yet saw no one in distress. No world he had to save from her evil plans. He’d be a fool to believe she wasn’t up to something. So what was he missing? What should he be looking for that no one else could see?

His eyes searched the room for anything representing danger when he noticed something rather odd. The guests were too busy with chatter to realize the young woman who presented the necklace was pulling an object from one of her sleeves. Perfectly sphere-like in shape, it was hardly larger than her hand. But the Doctor recognized it almost immediately, suddenly realizing why he had been sent the mysterious gift. Great fear tore through him. No time to save anyone else, only enough to save her. “Clara!” he called, scrambling to get the pairs of glasses out of his pocket. “Quickly, put these on!”

“What? Why?” she asked, cautiously taking a pair from his hand.

“No questions, just do it! Do as you’re told!” he ordered her.

She hastily did as she was asked as he did the same. Before she could inquire any further into what they were for, a sudden flash of blinding white light engulfed the entire room followed by a deafening silence. They felt themselves shielding their eyes from its intense glow. After a moment, the light simply faded away. When he felt it was safe, he returned his attention towards the front of the room. It was completely quiet, not a sound to be heard. No shifting of the seats, no speaking, no one was moving in any way at all. The entire auditorium was under some sort of trance-like state. All pairs of eyes were fixed towards the orb.

Clara uncovered her face as the Doctor had and observed the guests in their stillness. “The people,” she noted as her fear began to rise inside of her. “They’re all frozen! What happened to them?”

“They’re not frozen. They’ve been put into a comatose state. By that,” he gestured towards the sphere.

“What is it?”

“It’s a Comasphere, nearly impossible to come by. It puts whoever looks into it in a trace. They have no idea anything has happened to them. No knowledge of time passing.”

Before Clara could say anything more, they heard the shrieking cries of something approaching them as if it were moaning in pain. Terrified, she took the Doctor’s hand. Suddenly from all around them appeared the ghost-like creatures from her dream. They passed through the walls and floors from every direction. “Doctor!” she nearly screamed in terror.

“I know, I see them too.” He tried to count exactly how many there were. Dozens at least.

“I saw one in my dream right before you woke me.” They watched the spectres quickly making their way over the crowd of comatose people. Each of them appeared to be searching for something as they began to scan the guests one by one. After a moment, one became fixed on a man in the audience. It lowered itself upon him and placed its ashy fingers upon his temples. The Doctor and Clara observed as the creature let out a horrible shrieking sound then entered the body of the man and disappeared inside of him. “What just happened? Where did it go? What are those things?!”

“They’re called Persuaders. Highly telepathic creatures. They can convince you to do whatever they want you to. But they can only enter a body if that person’s mind is completely open. Which is exactly what the Comasphere does. It opens your mind so you don’t even know what’s happening. The guests can’t see the creatures or even know they’re there. But we can.”

“Why weren’t we affected?”

“The glasses, they must shield the effects of the sphere.”

Before they could determine anything else, the Comasphere began to chime. The Persuaders in the room screamed and disappeared behind the walls and floors from whence they came. On the last chime, the guests began to regain consciousness, talking amongst themselves as if nothing happened. The Doctor and Clara stared in disbelief over what they just witnessed.

“Congratulations on your winnings, Baron von Kinloss of Hedron,” Missy applauded, addressing the man in which the Persuader had entered. “We give our thanks for your generous donation to our cause.” The room filled with the sound of cheers and applause for the gentleman as he nodded in appreciation. “Do be sure to collect your winnings afterwards.”

“What? I didn’t hear him bid anything, did you?” Clara asked.

“No, but whatever he offered was done telepathically by the Persuaders. Missy must share a link with them.”

“What are you saying? That the Persuaders are convincing people to make bets for them?”

“Not for them, for her.” He glared at Missy, the gears in his head turning. What is she after? Do these people have any idea what they are promising her?

“Doctor, we should go,” Clara advised, placing her hand on his. Something didn’t feel right to her, she just couldn’t place it. “Let’s just forget about this memory hunt and get out while we still can. I don’t know what Missy is up to, but I don’t want to stick around any longer to find out.”

He looked into her eyes. At any other time, he would have scoffed at her ridiculous human emotions while embracing whatever challenge may have found its way to him. But she was right. He couldn’t risk putting her and the child in danger any longer. He needed to protect them. This was something he’d have to do on his own. “Okay, we’ll go,” he agreed, taking her hand in his.

“And now we’ve come to the next exciting item this evening,” Missy shouted over the chatter. Two large men entered from the sides of the stage and removed the pillar from the centre. “Get your credits ready for this one, ladies and gents. I hope you’ll find it to be quite the addition to your private collection!”

The Doctor couldn’t help but remain seated as if frozen with curiosity. The large curtains hiding the remaining stage behind it slowly began to slide open. He found himself unable to move. The anticipation awaiting the reveal of what was to come consumed him. The curtains soon parted from each other, fully exposing its wonders concealed behind it. As he and Clara realized what they were looking at, their jaws dropped in utter shock.

It was the TARDIS.

[newstfionline]

The U.S. joined the ‘Great War’ 100 years ago. America and warfare were never the same.

By Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post, April 3, 2017

At night when things were quiet in the “jaw ward,” the wounded doughboys would take out their small trench mirrors and survey the damage to their faces.

Noses had been shot off in the fighting at Saint-Mihiel. Chins were destroyed in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Mouths had been torn apart in the battle of Belleau Wood.

It was 1918, and Clara Lewandoske, a 25-year-old Army nurse from Wisconsin, was caring for these cases in a Red Cross hospital in Paris. “They were wonderful boys,” she recalled, and rarely complained.

But at night, if she saw one with a mirror, she would go to his bedside and start chatting. “Get them off of the subject,” she said. “Invariably, you’d get them to sleep.”

In time, they got used to their injuries. “We all did,” she said. “It was just one of those things.”

Lewandoske and her “boys” were among the millions of Americans who served in World War I--soldiers, sailors, nurses; white, black and Latino--who were caught up in the cataclysm, which the United States entered 100 years ago on April 6.

Among them was an Army sergeant from Iowa named Arnold Hoke, who would one day become Clara’s husband.

Tens of thousands from their generation would perish on the battlefield--25,000 in one six-week period alone--and many thousands more would die of disease.

Others came home physically or emotionally broken.

This month, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National World War I Museum and Memorial, in Kansas City, are marking the anniversary with exhibits, lectures and commemorations.

World War I started in Europe in the summer of 1914, and ended on Nov. 11, 1918. The United States entered the conflict after France, Russia and Britain had battled Germany and its allies for almost three years.

And American might was brought to bear against Germany only in the closing months of the conflict, but just in time to help reverse the enemy’s huge, last-gasp offensive and end the war.

The United States, although badly divided, had been provoked to join the war by the sinking of neutral American ships by German submarines, and by a secret German deal to offer Mexico the states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona if it joined the German cause.

The offer, outlined in the “Zimmerman telegram,” was sent in code by German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to the German ambassador in Mexico.

It was intercepted, hit the newspapers March 1, 1917, and created a national uproar.

Five weeks later, in a one-paragraph congressional resolution, the United States declared war.

In those days, it was called the “Great War,” or simply “the world war,” because no other like it was imaginable.

Along with staggering death tolls, it generated memorable literature, geopolitical upheaval, hope, disillusion, Hitler, the Russian Revolution, and the seeds of World War II.

For Americans, it provided, among other things, trench food called “corn willy,” the Selective Service System, the double-edged safety razor, and George M. Cohan’s anthem, “Over there.”

Send the word, send the word over there That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming The drums rum-tumming everywhere.

But over there, the Yanks would find nightmare landscapes scarred by trenches and shell holes, and “mud that swallowed men, machines and horses without a trace,” wrote historian David M. Kennedy.

There were horrific weapons like the flamethrower, the machine gun, and phosgene gas, and the bullet-swept region between the lines known as no man’s land.

It was “industrialized death,” as the late art critic Robert Hughes put it.

When the U.S. entered the struggle in 1917, the conflict already had claimed 5 million lives.

But the Yanks were game.

So prepare, Cohan’s lyrics went, say a prayer, Send the word, send the word to beware We’ll be over, we’re coming over And we won’t come back till it’s over, over there.

Sgt. Arnold S. Hoke and his men had just hauled a supply of rations and ammunition overnight to their comrades at the front, and by the time they arrived the food was cold and congealed in grease.

In the dark and the rain, he and his detail had gotten lost, and they had not found his company until after dawn.

But the famished soldiers gathered in a patch of woods in the Argonne Forest, in northeastern France, to devour the food anyhow.

“The men lined up, and they started to dish out this food to them,” Hoke remembered. “The captain told me to--he knew I’d been up all night--and he told me to go over there in the basement of this farmhouse and get a little sleep.”

Hoke, 25, was a veteran who had served on the Mexican border in 1916.

He had been honorably discharged and had reenlisted after the United States entered the war.

A native of Spaulding, Iowa, he was assigned to recruit local Iowa men for what became Company M of the Army’s 168th Infantry Regiment.

By mid-1918, he and his men already had been through a lot, he recalled in a tape recording he made on April 12, 1971, that is now part of the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.

Often, the soldiers would talk about what they would do when they got home, “all kinds of silly things,” Hoke said. He planned to go to the local drugstore and have a thick pineapple malt as soon as he got back.

One doughboy, a man he had recruited from Atlantic, Iowa, said he figured he would be wounded, lose a leg, and meet his comrades at the train station. “I’ll get back home before you guys,” he told his buddies.

He’d have a hollow artificial leg, fill it with whiskey, and pass it around so all the boys could have a drink.

As Hoke rested in the farmhouse that day, German artillery had zeroed in on the trees where his comrades were eating.

“They threw a salvo of shells into this woods,” he said. “And they caught our men all lined up waiting for their chow.”

Fifteen to 20 men were killed, and about 30 were wounded, he remembered, including the man from Atlantic.

One of his legs had been practically blown off, Hoke recalled, and was just hanging by a few ligaments. He was conscious as he lay on the ground, and didn’t seem to be in a lot of pain.

“You guys thought I was kidding,” Hoke remembered him saying. “I’ll meet you at the depot with that wooden leg full of bourbon.”

Hoke said the soldier was taken to a battlefield dressing station, where the damaged leg was amputated. But the man died in an ambulance en route to the rear.

“I apologize for a rather unpleasant war story,” Hoke said on the recording. “Let me assure you there’s nothing pleasant about war, in any shape or manner, and I just hope that nobody will ever see another one.”

The day after he got home from France, he went to the drugstore and got his pineapple malt.

Nurse Clara Lewandoske recalled only one night when she fell apart during the war.

It was in Paris’s Lycée Pasteur, a high school that had been made into a 2,400-bed hospital, during a period of heavy fighting, when the wounded and sick soldiers would come pouring in from the front.

Some of the cases were horrific.

She once found a soldier who had wandered from his bed.

“It was a gorgeous moonlit night,” she recalled. “I came out in the hall. Here was this patient sitting in the doorway. He had taken his bandage off, and it looked like half of his head was gone. It was a horrible sight. It shook me more than anything else in the whole war.”

“We got him back to bed, and he died before morning,” she said.

Lewandoske had 36 patients in four wards to care for. At night, she and other nurses walked the corridors with lanterns shrouded with denim, to guard against air raids, she recalled.

They often worked on patients by candlelight.

One night it got to be too much.

“I was a pretty calm individual,” she said. She had been orphaned at 9 and raised by the family of a local minister. Back home, she had once assisted at a surgery done on a dining room table.

But during an awful night in the hospital, with soldiers crying out from all over, “I did cave in,” she said. “I got hysterical.… We just couldn’t get around to everything. We had hemorrhages … [and] a lot of sick boys.”

It was heartbreaking. “We were mother and sister and home to them,” she said.

On Nov. 11, 1918, the war ended with an armistice. She happened to be in downtown Paris when word came.

“All hell broke loose,” she recalled. “It was a terrific thing. You didn’t know whether you’d survive to or not.… It was just the wildest time.”

American nurses were hugged and serenaded, she said. “We saw our chief nurse … she was quite old, and they had her on a cannon, pulling her down through the main streets of Paris.”

Clara and Arnold came home from the war in 1919.

In September 1921, she was a delegate to the American Legion convention in Kansas City. Also in attendance was Arnold. They met and fell in love. They were married Nov. 22, 1922, lived through the Depression, and raised two children.

Arnold died July 30, 1971, four months after they recorded their memories. He was 78. Clara died June 27, 1984, at the age of 91. According to granddaughter Patricia Munson-Siter, they are buried side by side in the military section of Greenwood Memorial Park, in San Diego.

[adventures-in-everhaven]

The History of Everhaven

(Note: Everhaven as a setting uses the pantheon from Green Ronin Publishing’s The Book of the Righteous, so all the gods mentioned are from that, and draws on Matt Colville’s Strongholds & Followers for some past history of the setting, especially the Ganarajyan and Xin Empires during the Age of Wonders and the Caelian Empire during the Age of Conquest; the Age of Giants and the Thousand Year War as a general concept comes from Wizards of the Coast and Dungeons and Dragons. I do not own that stuff.)

The Age of Gods

             The Creator formed the planes and the five elements: fire, earth, water, air, and arcana. Having formed the worlds, the Creator made a servant He named Kador. Kador was placed in control of fire. Then, the Creator made more servants: Rontra, who was given earth; Urian, who was given air; and Shalimyr, who was given water.

             Shalimyr and Rontra together planted a seed (given to them by the Creator) that grew into a great and lovely tree. Urian tended to the tree and called it Eliwyn. Kador came to hate the tree, for he had become corrupted with his power. He began to believe he was better than the other three.

             The Creator made more servants, for soon He would form the mortal races, and servants would be needed to guide them. He made Terak, Tinel, Morwyn, and Zheenkeef. Kador asked Terak and Tinel which was older, and both claimed they were the eldest. Thus started the Lesser War of the Gods, for Terak with his axe and Tinel with his magic fought to rightfully claim to be the eldest of the two and Zheenkeef believed that if she could destroy them both, she would take that title. Morwyn looked on in horror as Zheenkeef tricked the brothers into killing each other with Eliwyn, destroying the tree in the process.

             In the moment that the two brothers were slain, the Creator formed Mormekar, the Shadow. Mormekar formed a pyre from the wood of the tree and burned the bodies of Terak and Tinel upon it. Zheenkeef was so entranced by the flames that she leapt upon the pyre and was consumed. Seeing Morwyn weep, the Creator reformed Eliwyn, Terak, Tinel, and Zheenkeef; at the same time, he created Maal. Morwyn formed three laws for the gods to obey from that day forward:

·       The gods would never again make war upon one another;

·       The gods would do as the Creator commanded and use their strength to guide mortals;

·       No one god would rule over the others. Morwyn would lead, but she could not order the others to obey and follow.

With these laws agreed to, the gods turned their attention to Kador, who by this point they knew was evil. They attacked Kador in the Great War of the Gods and smote him down. The Creator cast Kador into another plane to serve as his prison: today, it is known as Infernus.

             There was peace, for a time. Morwyn took Terak as her husband, and they tutored the new servants the Creator formed: Anwyn, Korak, Darmon, and Aymara.

             Then, the Creator set to work creating mortals. With Aymara and Urian, He carved from the wood of Eliwyn the elves and the fey, who were placed on another world from the other mortals; on Korak’s anvil, He forged the dwarves from Rontra’s earth and stone; with Zheenkeef’s blood He formed the gnomes and halflings; and with Morwyn He made the humans.

The Age of Heroes

             After this was the Age of Heroes, when the gods walked among the mortals and the giants warred among themselves. It was during this time that the Creator made the last of the gods: Naryne, Thellyne, and Canelle.

             Although the gods had been barred from waging war directly against each other, they found that they could pit their servants against each other. Eventually, though, the struggles of these servants grew so ugly and intense that the gods almost went to war again. To prevent this, the gods agreed on the Compact: the Lords of Good would set themselves apart and would no longer dwell in the Material Plane, and they were to return to it only in times of great danger to mortals. Nor would they ever again be able to directly order the mortal races to do their bidding.

             The Compact created a system whereby mortals might be given powers to serve the will of the gods only if they came, of their own free will, to follow that god.

             During the Age of Heroes, the gods also warred with the aboleths. During this time, seven gods were slain, their power spreading to the mortals around them. These bloodlines founded the first mortal empires, but now they are rare.

The Age of Wonders

             During the Age of Wonders, mortals began to create great things with magic. Mighty empires were formed, such as the Ganarajyan Empire and the Xin Empire in the east. The greatest of these was the Ganarajyan Empire, of course, but the last and most feared was the Spider Kingdom.

             In his time, Vecna was one of the mightiest of all wizards. Through dark magic and conquest, he formed a terrible empire and even threatened other planes. For all his power, though, Vecna couldn’t escape his own mortality. He began to fear death and took steps to prevent his end from ever coming about. Orcus, the Demon Prince of Undeath, taught Vecna a ritual that would allow him to live on as a lich. Even though his body gradually withered and decayed, Vecna continued to expand his evil dominion. So formidable was his temper that his subjects would not say his name. He was the Whispered One, the Master of the Spider Throne, the Undying King, and the Lord of the Rotted Tower. Eventually, the Spider Kingdom was brought down from the inside: Vecna’s greatest general, Kas, took the sword his master had made for him and attacked the Undying King, until all that was left behind was the gem Vecna had replaced his right eye with centuries before and the lich’s gnarled, six-fingered left hand in its black gauntlet.

The Age of Giants

             After their civil war during the Age of Heroes, the giants became united in purpose. They easily took over the small races, and thus was formed the Ostorian Empire. The storm giants ruled the tritons from undersea fortresses and the rest of Everhaven from cities in the sky. The cloud giants served as their seconds-in-command, living in floating castles. The fire giants forged weapons and the stone giants made great works of art and craft. The frost giants defended the realm from what enemies there were. The hill giants subjugated the small races in more immediate, local terms.

             For four thousand years, the Ostorian Empire dominated Everhaven. There was relative peace. The only beings who could truly challenge the giants were the dragons, but when they did it was always local, personal conflicts that were resolved through tests of skill, strength, or wit. That is, until the red dragon Garyx railed against the prosperity of Ostoria. “We are dragons: why should we not be the masters of this place?” Garyx and several dragons who had been stirred by his words rose up and attacked Ostoria, and thus began the Thousand Year War.

             There was no front line or safe haven. The war was a mess of endless ambushes, sieges, and atrocities committed on both sides. Eventually, stronger forces got involved. For the last time, Bahamut, king of the metallic dragons, and Tiamat, queen of the chromatic dragons, husband and wife, joined forces and battled the children of Annam.

             It was at this time that the elves came to Everhaven. Fleeing from their enslavement on another world, some elves arrived in Everhaven. Seeing the plight of the mortals, the elves sought to protect them, and their valor won them a hearty welcome to the world.

             Finally, a fourth side joined the war: the gods. They sought to end the war to protect the mortals who were caught in the crossfire. Terak and Canelle begged the Creator for warriors, and thus He made the orcs; then Bahamut petitioned the Creator for defenders for the mortals, and thus He and Korak made from the flesh and blood and bone of the eldest dragons the dragonborn, whom Bahamut charged to defend mortals everafter.

             In the end, Ostoria was broken, the grand capital Voninheim frozen over, and over the next thousand years what remained of Ostoria fell. Never again would such a war be fought.

The Age of Conquest

The Coming of the Goblinoids

             Nobody is sure where the goblinoids came from, but they were not recorded among the small races ruled by the giants. The goblinoids name themselves the Eliksni and say that they used to be blessed by gods. They controlled great amounts of land until one day their gods seemingly abandoned them. This triggered a cataclysm known as the Whirlwind, and it caused a breakdown of goblinoid society. Eventually, the civil war was tentatively ended and the Eliksni set out for a new home, as theirs had been ruined.

             The goblinoids are recorded by the dwarves as coming from the sea. They terrorized humanity and the other races when they first arrived, conducting raids and attacks against outposts. As time wore on, the Eliksni began to understand that if they wanted this new home, they would have to take it by force.

             In an attempt to truly begin their new home, the Host of Devils staged a coordinated attack on the human city of Mandrake Keep in what would come to be known as the Battle of the Six Fronts. During the battle four groups of soldiers protected the newly constructed walls of the city against six enemy approaches, and not a single front faltered. There the Devils faced off against many warriors who would later become known as legends.

             The Warlord of the Host of Kings, manipulating the other Hosts, pushed for a united effort against Sturm, the greatest city in this or any age. The Hosts of Kings, Devils, and Winter stood together against Sturm in what would later be known as the Battle of the Twilight, with the Devils leading the charge. Sturm managed to push back the united goblinoids, with Marshal Zander Goranir leading a counterattack that broke the Hosts. At the end, the legendary paladin Brennan Embersword led a bloody assault to dislodge the remaining goblinoids that directly surrounded Sturm. In what would become known as the Embersword Crusade, the brave warrior fought against Solkis, Warlord of the Host of Devils, killing him with a headbutt and bringing the offensive to its final end.

The Caelian Empire

             The Caelian Empire was the most magnificent human empire seen since the Age of Wonders. It stretched from Logres in the north to what are now the Red Wilds in the south, and from Valumar in the east to Oriellon in the west. It was brought down, however, as much from internal turmoil as from the Dragon Empire.

The Dragon Empire

             The dark elves arrived in Everhaven after their kin. They decided to stay in the mountains and live in the caverns. The presence of the dwarves, who didn’t respond well to these newcomers, caused the dark elves to retreat further than even the dwarves were willing to delve, into what is known as the Underdark.

             On this journey, some dark elves found five white dragon eggs. These were cared for until they hatched, and then the wyrmlings were trained to obey the dark elves. Recently, the dark elves had come under the influence of a faction that urged for them to conquer, and now the opportunity was seized. With the power of their dragons the dark elves began to spread, forming what is now known as the Dragon Empire.

             The Dragon Empire was finally brought down from the inside. A prince of the empire who had soured against his cousin the emperor went to the high elf cities, the dwarfholds, and the human realms that remained independent and offered to lead their warriors through the labyrinthine network of mountain valleys and Underdark tunnels that led to the empire’s capitol. The humans agreed, and so fell the Dragon Empire. The capitol was sacked and put to the torch, the dragons slain, and the dark elves were broken.

The Golden League

             It was some time before another great organization rose to power. When it finally did, it was mostly human and it was an alliance.

             Good King Arthur was something of a reformer. When he looked at the world, he saw the opportunity for the various races to work together and develop. He went to the various other realms and brought them together in what is known as the Golden League.

             That was eighty years ago. For twenty years, Good King Arthur has been dead, and the Golden League is quickly approaching collapse.

The Modern Age

             None may yet say what the current age will be called, but it is an age of chaos.

[project1461-blog]

We are becoming what we hate

Trump’s agenda erodes the very foundation our nation was built on: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…

Immigration is a contentious debate. It has divided our nation. But the human story here is one we can’t turn away from, not when so many lives are being ruined. Living in our country elevates people’s hopes. Many who came here illegally have children who have served or are serving in our armed forces, in Iraq, Afghanistan and were under the assumption that one day they too could become American citizens. Their children risk their lives for our country, and some paid the ultimate price.

We are now in an era of zero tolerance. ICE is rounding up those who are the most vulnerable. We were all forewarned. Many who snuck in here made mistakes. In their defense, fleeing oppressive regimes and gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and areas of Mexico forces people to do desperate things. And for those who simply wanted to provide a better life for their family, they sadly were fooling themselves that this day would never come. Now facing the painful drive across the border, with no idea when they will ever see their wives, husbands or children again.

 Lives are being destroyed and we must not be silent.

We have all heard what happened to Guadalupe Garcia de Royas last week. Guadalupe is no threat to our society.  She lived in Phoenix for over a decade. She made a mistake when she first came here and made up a social security number. She now finds herself on the wrong side of history. She showed up at her local immigration office, every year for the past ten years and followed orders. Once again this year, she came with all her documentation. But instead of her green card being stamped she was taken into custody, a mother of two American teenagers, and deported to a small city deep in the heart of Mexico, where she hasn’t been for twenty-one years. 

Per Trump’s orders ICE is storming people’s homes, workplaces, schools, bus stops, outside of markets, laundromats… On this past Sunday, thousands protested in Milwaukee to stop Sheriff Clarke from appointing his deputies to act as immigration agents.

Something very wrong is happening in our country today.

It is up to us now to create a firestorm of opposition.  We may not have been able to impede Trump’s cabinet appointments, but the public is showing up on the streets, in town hall meetings across the U.S., and we are defiant. 

Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, cites a new study that finds foreign-born residents contributed $233 billion to Los Angeles County alone in 2014. The mayor is implementing a program to help veterans, who come back from their tour of duty and find their parents deported, and they have nowhere to live. I spoke to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office and they released this statement:

"Mayor Garcetti spoke to the Deputy Director of ICE’s Los Angeles Field Office and made it very clear that he wants greater transparency about ongoing operations and the status of all Los Angeles residents who may have been arrested or detained. He told the Deputy Director that he will do everything in his power — working alongside our City Attorney, the LAPD, immigrants’ rights advocates, congressional delegation and outside lawyers — to make sure that the legal rights of all Angelenos are respected and upheld at every stage of the enforcement process. Angelenos should not have to fear raids that are disruptive to their peace of mind and bring unnecessary anxiety to our homes, schools, and workplaces. The Administration should take a just, humane, and sensible approach that does not cause pain for people who only want to live their lives and raise their families in the communities they call home."

Zero forgiveness is what the alt right wants in place. What goes on in the minds of Americans who have become so headstrong they can’t find forgiveness?

I wanted to try and understand this far right white mentality, and their obsession with discrimination. I decided to interview Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minute Men. I was apprehensive about meeting Jim Gilchrist. My aim was to learn more about Operation Normandy, a movement he had hoped to launch in 2015, right before Donald Trump stormed through the 2016 primaries.

I met with Jim about a year or so ago, before the election of 2016 got underway. Jim believes the critical problem of immigration in the US today is the malfunction of our government to protect our border. He was quick to blame Obama and his failure to stop illegals from taking our jobs, being treated at our hospitals and securing free education for their children. Odd when Obama was often called the Deporter in Chief and under his administration over 2.5 million were sent home. Jim and his Minutemen believe in zero forgiveness that includes prohibiting citizenship to children born here, if their parents are not in the U.S. legally. I learn about Project Normandy and their mission to bring together a citizen watchdog patrol, from California through Texas, to take the law into their own hands.

We decide a field trip to the Southern California border seems the best way to get a real sense of the extreme conditions, and to view the new Israeli designed fencing system.

En route, our conversation in the car is broken up between three radio interviews, with Gilchrist as the featured guest. At one point I had to take the wheel so Jim could speak to Rush Limbaugh and his audience without the distraction of driving. Jim tells his listeners that 31 million illegal aliens are in the US today, posing a real threat to our homeland security. Buzzwords are used ISIS, ebola, and terrorist attacks on the home front. He arouses them with conspiracy rhetoric and mentions that he’s on his way down to the border to check that border patrol is doing their job.

We finally arrive at a dead end dirt road, a mile and a half from the border.

Jim is confused because the gate is closed and there is no one around to grant entry. Jim is hesitant about how we will get to the border. I suggest we walk the distance, even though it’s isolated terrain. I carry my backpack of camera equip, water, hats, sunblock, passport. Jim is holding a 4 oz. bottle of water. A woman passes us on horseback and shouts back to watch where we walk. She just saw a rattlesnake. Jim and I begin the trek making small talk at first. The brutal surroundings encourage me to search for a more compassionate side to Jim. He admits he loathes all cruelty to animals, listens to Bob Dylan and is entertained by Jon Stewart. When he isn’t pushing his extremist rhetoric Jim is a good conversationalist. There isn’t a soul around and we both get a real sense of what it must be like to be stuck out in this arid, lifeless plain, open to all the elements. The brush is the only protection yet it is craggy with razor sharp thorns. The sun beats down on us and I ask Jim does he think about the conditions that force human beings to risk their lives crawling through this unforgiving landscape? He does express empathy for those who make this journey, but that doesn’t change his stand on zero entry.

To understand Jim Gilchrist is to go back to 1969 with his tour of duty in Vietnam and his purple heart. He was not prepared for the hate he felt upon his return. He did not see himself as a baby killer but as a hero. He says would never risk his life today fighting for an America he no longer believes in. I learn he was a Democrat and then a Republican and then an Independent before signing on to the Republicans again in 2009. He was against Bush’s war in Iraq and against all war, knowing personally the toll it takes on a human being. His views are conflicted. He says he’s not a push over for the usual spin on Fox News, although he watches Fox as well as Aljazeera and BBC. His views are

Independent of the Republican platform but he admits he leans towards a tea party doctrine. I ask him if Obama were not black would there be such obstruction from the over sixty white male conservatives in the US today?

 “Could be a factor, “ he replies.

We get to the border and I see the wide expanse of steel fencing that’s constructed outside the older primary fence. The Trojan like barrier presents a foreboding message, even though its not completed. Flashing red lights, and a patrol car pulls up out of nowhere and stops. The border patrol agent asks what we are doing there? I look to Jim to explain, thinking he’s been here multiple times before. Jim doesn't respond. I thought he was well known at the border? Before the agent can tell us to leave I explain I am photographing Jim on the job. That’s when Jim identifies himself as ‘ the head of the right wing group, The Minute Men’. The agent nods with a smirk, “Oh yes, I know who you are.” I add that Jim has come down today to check up on how things are going down here.

There is an awkward moment and the agent tells us that he cannot be in any photos. This is his first day back from a five-month field case where he made a key drug bust. He explains he must be very careful since the arrest. Jim asks a few questions about the bust but the agent will not discuss it. The agent is of Latino descent. Jim asks what country he was born in?

 “Guatemala,” the ranger answers. Jim then continues, “When did you become an American citizen?” The agent proudly answers, ”Seven years ago. I have taken an oath to protect our country’s border everyday, and risk my life doing so.”

Just then Jim’s phone buzzes and he treks up the hill for another radio interview. I am left with a dumbfounded look on my face. I am embarrassed being here with this man who rallies extremists to take the law into their own hands.

The ranger reveals to me he left Guatemala during the civil war in the 90’s. We have an open conversation about some of what he sees are the biggest problems at the border. I think to myself if he were to catch me in the dark of night, I bet he’d show me compassion. I can see how complex his job must be because of his background.

Jim is finished his fourth radio show of the day. We head back down the dirt path, with little conversation. I stop and take a photo of what looks like rags in the field, tangled in tumbleweed. Jim goes over to inspect them. He picks up a mask and black material stitched together which resembles a boot. Jim explains that when “they” sneak across they wear masks to hide the reflection of their skin from the searchlight. A look comes over Jim’s face, like he’s holding up a dead rat. I try not to react. He is clearly disturbed finding evidence so close to the mother-lode fence. I walk behind him, snapping pics of the parched scenery. I am no longer able to curb my disgust.

I remind myself Jim Gilchrist is entitled to his harsh opinions. I don’t know what I expected from him, but he has been honest with me. He makes no excuses for being a zealot. He’ s convinced himself that today’s multi cultural America resembles a nation he no longer can respect. But I wonder if he realizes that he’s able to lash out at the government he’s so critical of because, like all Americans, he can exercise his First Amendment Rights.

Enrique Marones, President/Founder of Border Angels, gave me his comments. His words reflect a powerful message, in context to today’s assault on immigrants and their human rights:

“Human rights has no borders. Its time the US practices what it preaches. Mr. Gorbachov tore down his wall. Ten years later the US builds our wall - Operation Gatekeeper. It has led to the death of more than 12,000 human beings. Ni una muerte mas, reforma ya!"

Towns across the U.S. will be holding meetings with their elected officials, during the winter recess. In Los Angeles Rep Karen Bass will be holding a town hall, specifically to advise residents regarding the wave of immigration arrests and how best to protect and help our fellow citizens. In Los Angeles, In the three days since these raids began, over 200 people have been detained and are expected to be deported.

Originally from New York City, Tish Lampert began her work as a photojournalist in London where she freelanced for numerous publications and newspapers, including The London Times, The Evening Standard, and Time Out Magazine. She distinguished herself as one of the only women who photographed inside the mines at Abergavenny, Wales. Lampert created a series titled “Exiting the Metropolitan” tracing the closure of rural farms as the British M1 highway was extended.

Tish Lampert’s sixteen years of chronicling U.S. citizens exercising their First Amendment Rights has evolved into two books, America Speaks and I Protest. Ms. Lampert is a 2013 recipient of a Nathan Cummings Foundation Grant for America Speaks. A copy of the book was presented to Michelle Obama. Both America Speaks and I Protest are endorsed by Martin Sheen, Harry Belafonte, Dennis Macdougal, and Greg Palast. In June 2013, Ms. Lampert exhibited at the United Nations. In the fall of 2013, Lampert’s photos from her book America Speaks were on view at the Dan Eldon Gallery in Malibu. Spring 2016, Lampert’s I Protest is featured in an exhibition in Los Angeles with A&I and Harmon Press.

More information about Tish and her work can be found at tishlampert.com.