Wielder of Names 3-39
“Retain not the beast of burden as your pack animal – being made from the effervescent heat of the Flame Immortal, the animal possesses such a weak Atum that he will disperse upon entrance into the Void.
Troublesome as it may be, the only reliable way to carry your heavy cargo is by use of a sorcerer or devil binder who will surely gouge a great chunk of Profit for his services. The Shades of the recently dead are too numerous to count, pliable, and lack awareness – for this they are perfect mounts. The Thrull, the Follower, the Necked – these are fine and cheap forms of Shade and easy to warp.
The only other way is by use of automatons, which will decay rapidly if left unattended, and the poor man’s way, which is by foot. But the stride of the poor man is not lined with gold.”
-Void Trader’s manual, early circulation (Copy purchases from Yellow City underwarrens circa 600 S.C.).
So THAT’S a flensing tree.
sounds like you just need a good pickup truck as long as someone stays in the cab
Aye, such compact self contained machines would be wonderful. Or would be were it not for Jagganoth’s tendency to… rather aggressively confiscate them for his own use.
As it is one must either find the friends to carry the load, found the company to sail a ship or make do with one’s own self.
This talk reminds me of tale of the artificer who sought to imbue an automata with a will so as to walk the king’s road alone and thought himself successful, only to find upon entering the void for his test that he had instead accidentally bound an Aeon, leaving his baggage laying all about and the Angel non-too pleased.
An experiment not often repeated.
Jagganoth’s personal truck: http://www.webcarvideos.com/641-scale-dodge-power-wagon-that-is-actually-a-full-blown-house-powered-by-an-engine/
The sorrow, misery and endless toil of those thrust from their home burdens my heart.
May peace bind up their broken hearts.
May compassion find them in their time of need.
May hope dry their streaming tears.
I pray in vane.
Like a weather vane? I find many of those to be pleasing to the eye, but I am often thought of as somewhat odd.
Or perhaps “Vein” would be more appropriate a metaphor. The kings road being the flowing blood squeezed from the wounds of a thousand worlds
We are getting a lot of lore about this yellow city. Could it be the floating disc in the void Allison and Cio are heading for?
The Yellow City is Throne.
Pretty sure that the Yellow City is Throne.
Throne is referred to as the Red City, a color distinct from yellow. I suspect the yellow city spoken of in the traders manual is a separate location.
You forget that Throne is the Red City. If the city is Yellow, then how can it be Red?
Simple, really; it is orange.
No Allison! You have to be more attentive, listen! We almost got some backstory on Cio.
Also, damn this place new management. Slaves, whores and refugees are indeed signs of the rot plaguing the worlds.
What I’m wondering is how the Demiurges managed to conquer industrialized worlds like our Earth with the sorts of forces we’ve seen so far. I mean, sure, the strange monsters and giant stone battle-angels are sort of impressive and all, but would they really be able to stop a bunker-buster bomb from exploding their giant stone heads? It sounds like planes and tanks would be able to survive for a time in the Void, as long as they were manned, so it’s not like we’d even be limited to defending our side of the portal, either.
I imagine the Demiurges and their generals are capable of wielding the Art to much greater effect than any modern weapon produced by man or servant. Also, remember that the embargo on advanced weaponry only applies to citizens, not the Demiurges and their armies. Jagganoth has huge stockpiles of weapons from every era, I believe.
Oups ! should have read : this place needs new management
but maybe it also IS a metaphor?
…does it represent a different road?
Like the road heroes journey on?
Curse Aesma for drink!
No, don’t thank Aesma for drink. CURSE AESMA FOR DRINK AND THE CHANCE TO AVOID THE QUESTION!
It’s a delight to see Allison take the walking as the real surprise over impaled victims for way markers. I wonder if those traders below are marking the passage of the eight fold paper above?
Really, some of us ENJOY a good wandering. It’s settles the humors and aids in digestion.
Besides, flight is so very…gaudy.
These guys need cars. Or a bus. Or at least some good, sturdy shoes.
Call dibs on the Aeon-lion looking fella
First?
I see that there are quite a few folks that are impaled upon those things by the sides of the road.
I wonder if that is a permanent punishment and what the crime was.
In these worlds, trust naught but your own two feet to carry you where you need to go.
It is by will alone you set your corpse in motion, after all.
Tha will need better shoes.
I bet Zaid is at Mottom’s Palace. Why else would the key bring her to void?
I came here searching something about demons and angel’s spawn and… holy shit, this is the most awesome thing I’ve seen in years!!!
Why are you not selling this? It’s fan-fuckin’-tastic!!!
BTW, cheers from a Spanish lass livin’ in U.K. I do hope to see an end of this, I mean… to you to draw this story right to the end, not leaving it in the middle.
Thank you so much for givin’ me such a great time reading this ^^
Focus Allison! I want to hear this blue flame’s tale ere her face is shorn off by mercenary, angel, or the sphinx’s faceless hounds.
Thrulls, huh? The classic MTG reference warms my cold, old heart ^^
“Persuasion Attempt Failed.”
“Thank Aesma for drink.”
Now that sounds like it could be quite a tale.
Aesma created the demons, so it is their equivalent of thanking god.
I enjoy all this background scenery and then just finding an aeon just standing forever vigilant in its natural habitat.
Better to be riding paperback than horseback through the void.
I will lead my people by the hand along the road until their feet are sure and they know the way. Then they may choose for themselves and rule themselves. Then my work will be done.
Loving that Angel (?) lion guarding the turning fork.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is a boundless Want.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will find recompense.
Blessed are the meek,
for their Want simmers beneath the surface.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for their desires will be fulfilled by those indebted to them.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for their Want is pure and strong.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for their Want will be satisfied by empires united.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for vengeance will be theirs.
Hold up.
So the elephant looking things are altered *human shades*? They’ve got the black flame, so they can’t be servants…
That’s an angel by side of the way, isn’t it?
O’er the road again
Just can’t wait to fly o’er the road again
To walk King’s Road is simply mis’ry without end
So I can’t wait to fly o’er the road again
Behold, the American. Upon seeing a great road adorned with corpses impaled on posts, her surprise is that there are people in this strange land who use their own two feet.
Well, she IS drunk.
strength allows a traveler to endure the journey.
knowledge leads a traveler to the conducive path.
wisdom guides a traveler to use parsimony.
forgetting just one, tempts the gods’ wrath.
=//=
TO BE CARRIED TO A DESTINATION,
IS TO BE TRANSLATED,
TO STRIDE FROM YOUR ORIGIN,
IS TO WRITE A JOURNEY.
I dunno if Abaddon has said this (or if I had brought it up before or someone else did) but it occurs to me how KSBD reminds me of Wayne Barlowe’s God’s Demon art (there’s even a painting of a Demon named Abaddon). Which is all kinds of awesome.
Love how Cio looks when she’s serious xD
I love how Allison is holding onto the conversation bubble as she peers through it to the world below!
Somewhere, far below, there are a million men in cages, with a million pecks, with a million acorns pointed at them.
There is nothing quite like the contentedness of a Feline Aeon as it sits vigilantly in the twitching shade of a recently endowed Flensing Tree
If one must travel the kings road, remember to watch your feet, lest they walk you into trouble, or worse, the enquiring Gaze of an overzealous Aeon who’s Flensing tree lay bare of morbid bloated Fruit
I acquired a new understanding as I walked myself.
Throne is not a city.
Throne is City.
Without Throne, there would be no such thing as City, and without City, there would be no such thing as Throne. One births the other, the other births the one.
Why doesn’t your cargo also fall to pieces? Does it need to move quickly to be kept fresh? Is it because the porters are handling it?
I also wonder if the living victims, impaled along the path keep it in existence. It seems the sort of solution the current rulers would come up with.
I’m imagining that if struck like a tuning fork, each of those gates would sound like Earth.
The band, not the world.
Every 10th flensing tree has a Roads Department sign;
All traffic regulations STRICTLY enforced.
Your Wayne Barlowe is showing in that blurb 😉
I wonder if, perhaps, Pree Aesma did invent drink? It seems the sort of thing she would do- “if you drink enough of this you’ll get REALLY ANGRY and DO DUMB THINGS!!!”
This reminds me of the River Tethys from Hyperion Cantos, the mighty river that runs through the farcaster gates on hundreds of worlds of the Hegemony. It would take you years, but if one wished, one could take a barge and travel through all those different planets and circulate back to your own home world. I remember in that book, farcaster travel was so ubiquitous that it was fashionable for the ultra-rich to have each room of their mansion on a different planet, only accessible via the farcaster portals that served as the thresholds between each rooms. Just a simple stroll through their house would see you under the light of scores of different suns.
From above, one can scarce observe the finer details.
From below, one can scarce observe the grander scale.
What understanding can be gained is best gained by observing both.
El Camino Real. Or Surreal.
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The Winding Path of Primm has taken me down the Kings Road more times than I would care to remember. I do however take care in remembering the listens learnt while traversing this macabre trail.
In love and in glory
We worship her story
The Winding Path of Primm has taken me down the Kings Road more times than I would care to remember. I do however take care in remembering the listens learnt while traversing this macabre trail.
In love and in glory, We worship her story.
Buy a drink thy Successor
Oh ruins of Heaven
Oh ruins of Heaven oh-ohhh-oh