Mindstream

According to my little counter-thingy, I’ve done about 500 posts. Which is good because I’ve been plotting grand new things.

One of the interesting things I’ve learned lately is that I can’t actually do all the things I’ve been wanting to do by myself. This is unfortunate since I have rather big plans. However, just because I can’t do it myself doesn’t mean it won’t get done. It means I simply have to delegate.

So, I’ve been looking around and plotting and have recruited a few talented individuals to help me get everything up and running. I of course need more talented individuals to finish things, but this is a start.

The biggest thing that will probably happen is peeling off the blog. I’ll keep my personal blog here as always and continue to update about the random things going on, or even the occasional rant o a topic, but I’ll be starting a bigger blogger network that will cover a range of awesome.

We’ll be talking about games, politics, current events, science, that sort of fun things, this blog will be the forefront of my new media empire.

The second thing I’m trying to get started is a range of webcomics. I love webcomics, and have always wanted to get involved in one, since I utterly fail at art and bad art has become cliche in webcomics, I’m stepping back and letting others perform arts for me. I’ve found an artist or two and am always looking for more, anyone who wants to get in on a new and dedicatated artists network should just let me know.

Third, and somewhat in line with the first will be a line of podcasts and skits. I’m going to shortly be opening up our very own youtube channel. We’ll have podcasts, vlogs, and tons of awesome things to once again get the word out.

So, that’s Atomic Ninja Media.

Hopefully you’ll be hearing more from us soon.

Symballius is was born in a small desert tribe in the desert. She was raised by her harem-mother in the comfort tents of the Tribe’s slavemaster. Her exotic features proved to be very popular and she was sure to fetch a high price when she was finally sold. She was given a comfortable life in public, well fed and clean, as it is a status symbol to have healthy slaves. However in private she was abused continuously, the bruises that no one could see would not lessen her value. No one knows the exact nature of what happened to her, as she herself would never speak of it, and those who did know are unable to speak at all.

The tribe wandered around the desert picking up strays, foolhardy people who tried to cross the desert on their own. The desert was vast and magic did not work well there. It was nearly impossible to summon any sort of provisions in the field and everything needed to be taken along. The Shyrr raided caravans, while the Trogh, undermined any attempt at creating a stable route. The human nomads dealt in slaves, and traded their captives for provisions such as water and food.

This was the only life Symballius had ever known. Her harem-mother tried her best to raise her properly and protect her, but the cruel slave master hated her. It was suspected that her birth-mother who died during childbirth was his favorite. He resented another man fathering a child through her and resented Symballius even more for the murder. The innocent girl was shown no mercy and quickly knew the harsh realities of desert life.

There passed a day, she had had enough. Symballius, raised as a devour follower of the gods, prayed fiercely for retribution, her wish was granted in the form of a divine boon, she was granted a spell that caused anyone to experience anything they had ever put anyone else through, granted to her by Valgodth, the god of Vengeance. She discovered the spell as the slavemaster came to claim her as his new wife. The resulting trauma destroyed his mind and left him a lifeless shell. She escaped that night into the desert fearing for her life and fearing her own power.

She was followed by a Shyrr known as Gil. He had kept an eye on her for quite some time; following the tribe monitoring them. Gil was a scout for his clan, and as such was honor bound to capture anyone roaming their territory without permission. As Gil approached the girl to take her, he found himself unable to take her. When she awoke, he was standing by her guarding her and offered to take her to safety. In doing so, Gil knew he would be forever exiling himself from the tribe, but he had no other choice, such was the power of fear and awe he felt.

In the port town, Gil helped her get passage on a boat to the other continent. Gil had noticed someone following them for some time, and went to take care of that. Symballius waited on the boat for Gil, but he never came. As the boat was launching, she was once again scared and alone. She tried her best to make herself hidden. She was used to hiding and being unseen. However someone on the ship was looking for her. Whoever had been following them had boarded the ship as well and was searching her out. He must of killed her only friend she thought in horror.

Exhaustion and fear finally caught up; to her. A gang of local slavers caught up to her and were preparing to have their way with her. Suddenly a knight rushed in and saved her. Quickly dispatching the small group, he protected her for the remainder of the trip. The young knight was known as Sylagrin and belonged to an order of knights pledged to protect the innocent. He was handsome and strong, and he vowed to protect her on her journey. His endless energy was only matched by his enthusiasm. Unfortunately she had no idea where she was headed. The knight explained how he was tracking down the mercenary known as Basloc Arpaggio. And had heard he had recently made his way to the continent she was on. He lost track of him and was on his way back home in defeat.

When they disembarked, Sylagrin actually spotted his quarry once again. Basloc had been on another ship ahead them, and it was him who had ordered Symballius’ capture. Basloc quickly fled losing himself in the mountainous terrain. The two followed him, as best they could. Occasionally given help by mysterious signs warning them of danger, or pointing them in the right direction, or showing them shortcuts. Symballius gave thanks to the gods for their providence and Sylagrin gave thanks to his. Soon they tracked Basloc to an ancient temple deep within the mountains.

Symballius and Sylagrin had grown quite close during the journey. In the weeks they spent together travelling they had both saved the others life. Symballius found she had a knack for healing and defensive magic, while Sylagrin’s Sword was the best in the land. The two braved a great many perils before finally reaching their destination. They knew Basloc was inside and there was no way out of the temple. This was going to be their final confrontation. At camp outside the temple, the two consummated their love for each other. Afraid of what might happen in the future. The portents warned that they were both in grave danger and neither was likely to survive to see the next new moon.

Gil watched the two growing closer, growing ever jealous. He had been the mysterious benefactor. He had hoped that Symballius would have realized and tried to drop subtle hints she would recognize. She took those to be the portents that drove her closer to Sylagrin. Gil finally made himself known n the morning of the final assault. Pledging his loyalty to Symballius and vowing to protect her. Sylagrin welcomed him as an ally, seeing what he believed to be a peer. Symballius was happy to see her old friend alive. They went into the temple together to confront Basloc.

Basloc revealed that he knew the world was dying. He didn’t know how much longer it had, but he knew of this ancient ruined temple that once was used to escape. Basloc had spent the majority of his adult life trying to find an escape, and while he found the temple long ago, he had never had the ability to unlock it’s secrets. He lacked a massive power source to open the gate once again. He revealed that both Symballius and Sylagrin were descendants of a long lost order of shaman; able to channel energy in different ways, while Symballius was turning out to be a powerful priestess, able to channel her emotion into magic, Sylagrin was able to channel his emotions into stamina and strength, either one of them should have been enough to power the machine, but together, he would be sure to escape.

The battle quickly equpted; Sylagrin confronted Basloc while Gil stayed behind to protect Symballius. Unbeknownst to either of them, Gil had poisoned Symballius with a paralyzing agent. She was growing weaker and weaker each moment, Basloc was furious since that had rendered one of his power sources useless. Gil pointed out that the two of them would be able to easily take out the other power source. Together they rushed Sylagrin and overwhelmed him. Symballius had lost conciousness and fallen into a deep state of shock. Gil knew he could revive her at a moments notice, with Sylagrin out of the way, she would be his alone.

Sylagrin was sacrificed in the temple, his energy being used to open the gate. Basloc, let slip how he had no intention of letting the two of them through the gate with him, since there was only enough energy for one person to be let through. Furious Gil tackled him through the gate. What Basloc had neglected to mention was that he was also a member of the shamans, and himself a great source of energy. Such that the gate was overloaded and exploded, taking everyone in the room to a strange and alien world.

The lizards have their story, but the humans have a story very much their own.

In the ancient days, before history was lost, the gods created the Guardians of Earth and Guardians of Wood. The Guardians were aspects of their home given life to guard it from the rest of the world. The Guardian of Earth resembled large boulders, they were barely mobile, rolling from place to place. The Guardians of the Wood resembled large trees fixed to the earth, but tall and watching over the groves beneath them. The two wielded magics as well, the Guardians of Earth commanded the rocks beneath them and caused the very ground to tremble and quake. The Guardians of Wood whispered on the winds and caused furious gusts to blow and protect them.

However a new creature came weilding magics that connected the heavens and the earth. The lightning weilding creatures moved quickly upon it’s limbs and crashed down electricity splitting tree and bursting rock where it went. The Guardians were very jealous and never forgot the affront. They waited until their chance for revenge, and pleaded with the Gods for a fresh start.

When the world was made anew, the Guardians were given a chance to remake themselves. Many fled to avoid being remade, having made piece with their forms, they shied away from the Gods and remained hidden. Those who were remade were given forms closer to their hated enemies. The Guardians of Earth were remade as Dwarves, stout and sturdy, born of the rock and content to die there. The Guardians of Wood were remade into Elves, lithe and flowing, free like the wind their ancestors commanded.

A few of those who did not flee were not remade and remained as reminders to that which was. Those who did flee however were cursed by the Gods for avoiding their fate. The Guardians of the Earth were given the mobility they desired. They were granted the many limbs of their enemy and were allowed to keep their tough skin. However they were no longer one with the rock, instead forced to burrow through it and never again able to become one with their ancient home. They took the name Trokgh in painful memory of what they lost.

The Guardians of the Wood coveted mobility more than anything and sacrificed their stature and majesty to gain it. They became small crawling along the earth like spiders. They lost their whispers and even their mouths. Becoming little more than an eye mounted on four limbs. The limbs were extremely flexable and the creatures themselves were quite mobile. Instead of whispers on the wind they whispered directly to eachother’s minds. However being scattered as they were, they quickly became feral and roamed the corridors made by their bretherin the Trogkh.

<geh really rough draft I need more practice next up (hopefully soon) the history of magic itself>

In the Ancient Times, when the world was new and unsoiled. Two great races roamed the lands. The Snakes, Nagheri, and the Birds, Haprin, the two races were bitter rivals.

The Naga claimed the cold damp underlands. They were granted command over ice and water. They lived in the dark and cold and feared the sun. The Naga worked and became great warriors and wizards having total dominion of the underearth.

The Harpy took to the mountains and skies. Fire and Wind were granted to them in accordance to their homes. They ruled the skies and spied on all those who walked upon the land. They were unchallenged in their glory, controlling all they surveyed.

The Harpy and Naga rarely saw each other, the Harpy feared the underworld where they could not use their great vision, and fly where they chose. The Naga rarely ventured to the sunside, unused to the bright light and harsh temperatures.

The Naga had claws they used to grasp and manipulate objects, however they had no feet and slithered around where they needed to go. The Harpy had claws to stand upon but they were ill positioned to hold things.  They used their great wings to fly about where they chose.

So they stayed for a long time, locked in a rivalry since the beginning of time. It came, however, that the Harpies spied a new creature on the land. This creature was naked with neither feathers nor scales, and while they had limbs for moving and limbs for grasping, they lacked the talons and claws of the Harpy and Naga. The Harpy were confused by this strange creature walking along the earth. The they asked the creature for a toll to cross their lands, the creature responded with a fierce magic that the harpies had never seen before. The new creature commanded the very bolts that connected the sky to the earth.

Fearful the Harpy chased the creature to the Naga. The Naga, however were watching and refused the new creature passage. They too were assailed by the new magics, electricity reverberated around the tunnels and through the pools where they lived.

The Naga and the Harpy banded together and fought this new enemy. United together they chased their foe from the lands. They soon realized the strengths and weakness of themselves and the others, and sought to balance them out.

Wielding arcane magics and rituals, they made themselves a new creature in their own image. However they differed in how they should go about making such a creature, one that would be stronger than the both of them. The different views caused the magics to go awry and two creatures were made, each combining the different aspects of their being.

The Drakes, Winged Serpents, had the magical powers of both races, they commanded the elements, however they lacked the limbs of their parents. This only increased their dependency on the arcane to move and manipulate the world around them. They were equally comfortable in the sky or underground, and equally verse in all the dark secrets of their ancestors.

The Shyrr, or Lizardmen, were the opposite of their brothers. They were given the claws and talons of their fore bearers, but they lacked utterly the magical gifts. Instead they inherited the keen sight, smell, and touch of their Harpy and Naga. Not only were they unable to use the magics, they were also resistant to them.

The races saw that they were strong, but in themselves they sensed separate strengths. The Harpy, Naga, Drake, and Lizardmen, all were powerful in different ways, given gifts and abilities unique to each of them. They envisioned a being with their combined powers, Tail, Wings, Claws and Talons, both strong in Magic, and strong in it’s defense. A creature large and magestic, that will inspire fear in all those around it, able to see and sense all it’s domain.

Again they went to the rituals and spells, their vision unified, they created their most dazzling creature, the Dragon. Thus Dragons roamed the land, feared and powerful

In the first there was a crystal. The crystal was a dream, and the crystal was a reality. As time passed the crystal began to sing and it was beautiful. The crystal sang and hummed and all was good. However the crystal was impure, over time the singing grew dissonant and discordant. The crystal experienced strife. The singing grew louder and the disharmony grew stronger, it was eventually so strong that the crystal shattered.

The shards of the crystal awoke seeing themselves seperate from the whole. The largest pieces of the crystal declared themselves gods and it was so. The four largest pieces of the crystal were Fate, Change, Irony, and Death. Their true names lost to us now. The crystals soon found that they could make new harmonies and sang again. Each shard had it’s own voice, and they learned to work together to make things greater than themselves.

It passed that the shards themselves had childred, lesser shards between them. These shards were paired together. Plague and Rebirth, Luck and Writ, and Vengeance and Betrayal. The children fought bitterly and again the disharmony grew. The children sought to usurp power from their parents and created their own children, each to oppose the greater shards. Chaos, Trauma, Fear, and Destruction. The lesser shards fought bitterly with each other, and goodness fled.

The shards took little notice of the motes and dust of the Mother Crystal. However these motes became aware and soon grew themselves. The Gods ceased their fighting to watch the new motes dancing about. They danced everywhere and all about. Glittering and glowing, each unique, and the gods were quiet.

The Gods so loved the motes that they wished to preserve and protect them. Working together they forged a sphere for them to dwell upon. They granted the motes awareness and form and watched them live in their new world. The Gods filled the sphere half with water and land giving them places to stay. The motes were allowed to chose their own form and each chose differently and there were many forms upon the land.

The Gods grew jealous of the gifts they had given the motes. For the motes knew not from where they came. The Gods soon demanded tribute from the motes, but the motes did not understand. The motes stopped dancing and now focused themselves upon their own endeavors, the Gods were displeased.

The Gods destroyed that which they made. But the motes are not easily lost. Free from form the motes danced again and pleased the Gods once more. But the Gods grew lonely. They missed their creations and vowed to begin again. This time the God worked together to bring their creations to live. They remembered the songs of old and gave the motes forms representing that which they most desired. This time, they vowed to not aid the motes, but grant them understanding of whence they came.

The motes grew and florished and eventually became the races we know today, Kogari, Trogg, Drake and Wyvern, Shyrr, Human, Elf and Dwarf, Yarin, Gnome, Dragon and others.

The creatures were granted understanding of the world around them and about that which created them. However the creatures coveted the power that made them and sought it for their own. Thus they learned to harness the energies in the sphere and created Magic. Great Wizards rose up, more powerful than their kin. They ruled over their kind and flourished. They gave the Gods the worship they craved, yet all the time coveted that worship for themselves.

The Leader of the Archmages, Loam, had a wife who was taken away from him by Death. Loam felt this intolerably cruel to grant the power to love so deeply only to have that love perish. Enraged by the injustice Loam sought revenge against the Gods. Together with the other Archmages a war was begun. The power was terrible, but the Archmages prevaled, striking down thier Gods and shattering the sphere. The Gods bowed down to their creations and granted them all that which they desired.

However the Gods are cruel and tricky. They twisted the wishes of the Archmages, giving them power, but also a curse and thus the Gods were in control once more. Loam was granted the power over death he desired, but he was unable to bind the risen dead to their soul. Others were granted powers according to their desires and each was similarly cursed. The Gods were pleased with themselves.

The Gods however were no longer alone. The Cracked Sphere, now repared was incomplete and things began to fall into their relm. Things from outside that were foreign to the sphere. Worse, powers greater than their own had invaided and also demanded worship. These were the Cyclic Dieties and they opposed the Crystalline Gods.

The Cyclic Dieties include: Harvest, Storm, and Planting, Victory, Challenge, and Struggle, Truth, Secrets, and Lies, The Dreamer, The Watcher, and the Teller, and others. There were also Dieties who coveted the motes. The Collector, The Remaker, and the Devourer. They fought the Gods for control of the motes, and thus began a great struggle.

Time passed and all was forgotten. A leader rose up among the world to unite once again against the Gods. The leader banned all magic, knowing it to be a source of great pain the cuase of the ruination of the world. The leader conquored the lands around him and built a great tower to the heavens to challenge the Gods. In time the tower was completed, and the Emperor revealed himself to be the lost Archmage. The Tower reached to the apex of the sphere, and in his folly the Emperor looked through.

The Tower was cast down and lay ruined across the land. Such destruction was not seen since ancient times, and now they remembered. The people of the land knew struggled and fought against the world around them, allying themselves with the Dieties and Gods. Until the end.

The Archmages were biding their time and preparing for their final battle. They were bitter themselves for the what the Gods did to them. They now sought to become Gods themselves and overthrow both the Dieties and Gods. They hid in their dark places and prepared for war. The Dwarves and Humans built great machines to oppose the threat of the Archmages and tensions grew.