Annals: Year 22
A story fragment and codex entry from the Dustsong Cycle—and more
From the Annals of the Vaporous Realms
Sceg, son of Ghrem, in his eighteenth year, slew a rampaging boar whom Livyat's demons had provoked to madness. Then Sceg offered the creature to the Wright as a gift, laying the carcass upon a bed of stone as was his custom. Yet the Wright left the boar-flesh to rot under the sun, until the flies consumed it. Sceg observed all of this and remembered what he saw. Never again did he offer the body or blood of a great-pig to the lord of the heaven-realm. But his brother, Len, scoffed at him and at the Wright for being so particular.
Codex: Demon
Demons were chaos-spawn, or malevolent sprights, especially when present in the seen realm and visible to earthly folk.
Many earthly folk presumed demons to be more akin to beasts than beings, and to oblige Livyat's whims blindly. But Redeemed scribes and bards often applied the term to the Accursed and their subalterns, whose allegiances and schemes were complicated.
Demon was common among the sundry folk of the Elder World, who sometimes used it interchangeably with spright. The Waveborne seldom referred to chaos-folk as demons, but the word found widespread usage in the Lost and Redeemed Kingdoms.
Author Note
I avoided errands on April Fool’s Day, only to go out this morning—to mail a package I should’ve sent last week—and discover our post office is closed for the hour before noon. If I’d left thirty minutes prior, it would’ve been fine, but I wouldn’t have spent a half-hour (for the first time in a while) on the draft of Sceg’s novella. It’s slow going, y’all, but my lifelong all-or-nothing mindset has more give in it these days. A little progress, a little creating, is better than none.
In the meantime, here’s a loosely ranked selection of the most worthwhile stuff I’ve discovered this past month from other writers and creators:
Eric Falden on “The Failure of Frodo Baggins”
Eric Falden on horses in combat
G. K. Sá Earp’s “Why Did Melkor Fall?”
Michael John Petty’s “Some Thoughts on Biblical Adaptations”
Stephanie Loomis on the fall of Jericho
“The Pain of Home” by Redd Oscar
“King Roibarb’s Feast” by Matt Gerrity
From the Brothers Krynn, the essay series on the Paul, Apostle of Christ film
maryh10000’s “I Drop My Anger Now”
GMaia’s ongoing musings on morality systems in tabletop RPGs
In the realm of podcasts, my current favorites are The Prancing Pony Podcast (for all fans of Tolkien’s world and literature) and Bedroom Battlefields1 (for men-folk who love tabletop wargames but love their wife and kids more) .
Happy reading (and listening), folks!
Technically, The Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast.