Alterpedia: Golems

January 29, 2016 Jeremy Varner

In the Alters’ World (and the series of books found here), creatures of legend reveal themselves to the world. Born through genetic abnormalities, defects and mutations, the Alters have lived for centuries as outcasts of human society, hiding their true nature from the world while colorful stories have been written by many to describe what they’ve seen. How are these creatures different from what was described in the stories? What relationship do they have with humanity? Every entry of the Alterpedia will delve into a new creature from around the world. This week we cover:

Golems

Brought to life with sacred rites by holy men in need, the Golem is a symbol of divine protection. As time goes on, these creatures have evolved from simple living clay statues to elementals willed to life by a variety of means. However they’re depicted, these creatures stand as guardians over those who have summoned them and the people of their community.

But where would the Jewish have gotten the idea to bring to life earthen figures? How would they know that such a feat were possible? Why is it that they were so sure such a spell would work when few miracles of this sort did not involve actual intervention from the heavens?

Are Golems truly among us?

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Mythology

Mythology Monday – Garlic

January 25, 2016 Jeremy Varner

Walking through a dark and creepy part of town, near the woods and under the shadow of the house no one goes to, you feel a great tension. Rumors have churned for as long as you’ve known about who lives in that place and you can only imagine the sort of things going on inside. Though you’ve never been afraid of it in the daylight, the sight of it at night is a whole other story.. And that feeling, deep in your gut, just won’t go away.

And then you hear the rustle of bushes.

Your heart races and you start running before you’ve even had a chance to think it through. You have no idea what is behind you, but you’re certain that it came from that dreaded house. To your horror, it even feels like whatever was in the bushes is now following you, making no sound of footfalls but still practically breathing down your neck. To your shock, suddenly a well dressed man emerges from hedges directly in your path. Screaming, you reach into your pocket and take out something you kept for just such an occasion: a clove of garlic!

Wait, clove of garlic? What? Did… did you keep garlic in your pocket? Why would you…

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Writing

Regaining Momentum

January 20, 2016 Jeremy Varner

Getting in the zone can be difficult. It’s not simply about finding beginnings, but about keeping momentum when you have it and not letting it slide. Mental exercises take a lot of dedication, focus, and clarity to be able to pull off. So, when something happens to make you lose that momentum, it can be incredibly hard to get it back. Maybe the holidays got in the way, maybe you were forced to work on something temporarily more important, or maybe your motherboard burned itself in such a fashion that the marking looked like a shit stain on your life.

But whatever happened, it can be incredibly difficult for some people to get back into the swing of things and back on top of it. Hell, I know I’m struggling with it right now after having finished my recent repairs and the holiday nonsense. Momentum is, by its very nature, a form of inertia and inertia tends to be hard to start and stop without some outside force. So you’d be forgiven for sitting back down and realizing that the forward motion you had before has suddenly turned into spinning your wheels like you’d just rolled into the mud.

So, how do you do it?

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About me, Miscellaneous, Observations, WTF

Ringing in the New Year

January 15, 2016 Jeremy Varner

Ah, 2015, the year of the goat, but also the year of the bullshit. It’s not that it was particularly worse than any other year, but no year’s been the same since 1999. That was the one and only time Prince got to party like it was the correct year and we’re really just hoping to run out the clock now. That’s why people got so amped up about Y2K. That’s why everyone was wondering if the Mayans got 2012 right or forgot to carry the snake monster. And that’s why religious nutjobs keep trying to predict the end of the world with the same sort of zeal as Hollywood’s trend of teaser trailers to advertise the coming of trailers.

But have we traded up? Do we have a crystal ball to tell us if we should just try to sleep through this year and hope for 2017? Was 2015 really all that bad? Did anyone get a flying car?

Truthfully, no one cares. But as this is my first blog post back from a lengthy, forced hiatus (more on that later), I feel it’s my job to make… Continue reading Ringing in the New Year →