tirsdag den 14. juni 2011

Vampires continued, what makes them tick.

And now for the next installment in vampire lore.

With vampires, it's all about the blood. Not just as food, but litterally, a vampires power is in the blood.

As a vampire ages, he or she becomes more powerful. Yet there are some relatively young vampires out there, stronger than vamps twice their age.
How have they become stronger? They've taken the power of an older, stronger vampires. drank his blood and taken his power.

Okay, this is a rather complicated issue, I think better start with the basics. How does someone get turned into a vampire?
By being bitten, drained to the point of death and granted a measure of the vampire, who bit you's blood. The vampire blood mixing with what little you have left as you die and you will rise as a vampire.
Just getting bit doesn't affect you. (except for possibly dying if they feed enough, varies from vampire to vampire)
Now a newly turned vampire, it's body drained of blood will seek to feed as soon as possible, most people will feed on the first person handy as soon as they realize what they need. (the vampire doing the turning will often have a snack handy, as his newly turned servant can't be running through the streets killing at random)
The newly turned vampire is bound to it's master, the one who turned them. via the bond of blood. depending on the strength of the vampire, they can utterly control their subjects and are in telepathic contact with them.
But keeping such a hold on a servant or more is taxing, each time a vampire creates a bound vampire offspring, he divides a little of his own power into the new vampire and grows a little weaker for it. So there's a natural limit to how many bound vampires, one master can hold. well technically their ain't but a vampire that grows too weak will have his slaves turn on him or other vampires take advantage of his weakness. so it's a self maintaining system.
Now, there is one way for a bound vampire to be freed from his masters bond. His blood, another measure of his masters blood will set him free. Given or taken doesn't matter, but it's safe to assume that when taken, it doesn't stop with the one sip. see the reference to young vampires with old vampire strength earlier.

A vampire can use his blood to bind living people to his will. Giving a measure of blood to a living human, will like with the babyvamp, take a measure of the vampires power and bestow it on the human, giving the vampire some control over them. essensially creating a loyal familiar on the fly. 
Familiars arn't living vampires, they're just regular humans with a small powerboost from the bond to the vampire and the blood.
There's actually some brotherhood of hunters that siphon captured vampires for their blood and use it as a combat drug, giving them greater strength and speed. ... EW if you ask me.

A person drained dead by a vampire, can be raised by a bit of vampire blood as a feral undead creature. They're like rabbit dogs and will attack even former loved ones without hesitation if their master commands it and gorge themselves on their blood afterwards.

A vampire can also use it's blood to raise a corps as a zombie like creature. The body having no real mind of it's own, just a puppet of the vampires will acting as it's master without thought or qualm.

That is the power of blood. It binds the vampire Courts together.
At the top of the hierarchy in a coven is the Count, or duke or baron or Marquis. For some reasons they insist on these titles, possibly to infer what rank one master vampire has to another amoung the covens, a collection covens is refered to as a Court. Now the strongest vampire of a Court is called the King (or Queen) who is also the leader of the strongest and/or oldest Coven in the court.
Below the master of a Coven are his liutenants. His confidants and advisors, some bound by blood, others with free will. it varies. Below the liutenants are the rank and file vampires, the real body of the court.
The Master and his liutenants range between 3 and 7, The rank vampires are usually three or four times that in the coven. 
The familiars make up the bottom of the hierarchy, but top of the food chain. Some may even be turned if they've served faithfully and well. Otherwise they'll be feed on and disposed of when their usefulness is at an end.

lørdag den 4. juni 2011

Vampires

This post has been a long time comming, the lore on vampires is quite extensive and will properly take me several posts to cover this particular species of monsters.

But first off; vampires don't sparkel, doesn't glitter, glimmer or shimmer. Some of them properly mousse their hair into ridiculas hairdues and are exceptionally emotional.
Seriously, that book series and the accompanying movies has given vampires more free meals than anything combined.
I could accept if it had been a clever scheme from the courts to "chum" the waters of easily duped teenagers with some crappy writing. But as fare as the rumor goes, the books were actually written entirely ignorent of the true state of things (well that much is evident, but it's be less sad if it had been intentionally misleading)

But just to clarify, vampires are predators. some of them are sadistic assholes, some don't really care which way or either and some of them might even been relatively pleasent and decent people. Just like regular humans beings.
And just like regular human beings they'll eat even their favorit sheep, if hungry enough.
We're livestock, some are shepards or some are predators. But we're livestock to them.

Origins:
Where do vampires come from? There's not much data on it to be honest, much is myth really, hearsay and legends.
Lilith, the first woman, said to have fleed eden and born children with demons. Her offspring was later slain by angles sent to bring her back. It is entirely resonable that Lilith found other ways to make childeren, which would be very much in tune with vampires tendency to refer to their "offspring" they've turned, as their children and have an almost parental regard for them.
Another possibility is Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, that slew his brother Abel. Punished by God for his fraticide to wander the world forever and destroy the souls of men.
Also a good source for the MO of the vampire.
It must be assumed that Lilith and Cain crossed paths somewhere and began the scourge of nosferatu. They are both pegged as father and mother of the creatures in their legends.
But information is scarce, the younger generations of blood suckers honestly have no idea and noones crazy enough to go asking one of the ancients.

But the fact remains, for the last 6000 years there has been vampires lurking in the shadows, feeding on humans.

onsdag den 11. maj 2011

sound advice

When fighting faries, get a nailgun. Remember that.
Oldfashion, compressed air, nail gun. Jury rig to fire with one hand and you got yourself the perfect anti farie weapon. over the counter, no questions asked in any hardware store.

Pardon me for feeling exceptionally clever right about now.
Now I want a beer and an icepack, Ive had a long night and day.

Cause, nail guns fire nails and nails are made of iron and faries can't take iron. real toxic to them, kryptonit to their mojo.

søndag den 8. maj 2011

Gods

Been taking some days off this past week, recovering from a spell backfiring, don't see spots anymore, but I still hear whispers occationally. Hope it'll pass soon.
But while lying love, a friend took me to see one of the new Marvel movies: Thor. okay movie, really. You should go see it.
But it gave me an idea for a post on this blog. You see, gods exist and they're still around.

Well, so the claim goes anyway, I have never personally meet a god (not knowingly anyway)
Ironically, people believe in God (captial G and and everything) Though there's no proof he's around. As I understand it, the angels themselves havn't heard from him in thousends of years.
But, while most people write off most of the old gods as superstition and don't really BELIEVE in them. They are very real. (and not to be trifled with I'm told) and they've been around for looong time.
Some of them even from our worlds creation, if you interpet the scripture a little creatively, they could have given God and hand in it's creation possibly.
I'm no expert on this whole deity buisness, but it's quite obvious that some of them have been around for a good long while. and since they've been alot more forth comming with letting people know what was what. Not too hard imagine they were there at the beginning, or showed up shortly after.
One theory I've heard is that they were they were they were the original angles or possibly a link between angles and humans. you'll notice that they tend to be quite human like and yet have some pretty impressive skill sets and super human powers and immortality.

But it's not really important, interesting, but not important.
What is important is what the gods are doing these days. Broadly you can put them into three kategories. MIA, retired or active.
Missing in action gods, are the ones that just dropped off the grid, wanting to get lost or got lost or maybe even killed. short, no one knows where they are. Trick is, gods can throw some serious weight around (well duh. they're gods) so most organizations that know what's what in this world of ours, keep an eye out for them.
Retired gods. These gods are the ones that dropped the mantle as god and just make it as regular people. They've stepped of the playing field so to speak and lead regular human lives or as regular as you can get being immortal. Word is that Styx (one of the titans) lives a quiet existance in New York, but makes a hobby of flaming people on the internet.
Active gods. Are well, still doing what is their call. Loki is surposedly still around playing mischief, which I find odd since he's suppose to be tied up to a rock with his own childs intenstines (ew) untill the end of all things or so Wiki says. But asking around for an exsample he kept popping up, but he sound like a guy who's hard to keep locked away.

Kind of a strange thought really. Beings that have been around for, well, ever or almost as long.

torsdag den 28. april 2011

Ogres

Ogres, the word usual puts into a mind a large, crude and cruel brute. It's mostly true, but only a part of the pictures of these nasty bastards. While ogres arn't winning any sciences fairs, they're cunning. But their most defining feature is their hunger. They are vocarious, hungering for power, sex and money. But eclipsing all that is their very litteral hunger. Ogres simply live to eat.

Ogres, like many other supernatural creatures have learned to blend into our sprawling society, to greater and lesser success. They are rather easy to spot when you know what to look for, large, thickset and loud. But believe me, when they shed their disguise, they get bigger and louder.
Your average Ogre stands 7-8 feet tall and tend to start at 300 pounds at the lean ones. (If you read comics, think Kingpin from Spiderman, but rarely as sharp a dresser, that'd give you an idea of your standard ogre.) Don't let their width fool you, most of that is muscle. they're wickedly strong and very tough.   
So they look like huge, fat humans, with some serious nasty teeth, I'm talking english royals here. But will still bite through through an arm and the kevlar sleeve it's in.

Ogres as such arn't inherently evil, they're just pathological egocentric assholes. They inherently believe that might makes right and consider themselves the apex predatores so to speak. which puts everyone not an ogre into three categories. competition, slaves and eatiables. 
They don't usually make a meal of people, But if food get scarse, they want some variation or develope a taste, they will put man the menu just as cheerfully as beef.
Don't let their relatively human appearence fool you, they're monsters through and through.

Ogres tend to form clans, with the strongest and smartest (or just strongest) male calling the shots. They tend toward crime syndicates, cause it's easier to saten their vices in that enviroment. But these are general guidelines, Ogres show up anywhere there's power to be had. Just look at secretary of defense during the Bush adminestration.
The trouble with these massive SOBs is that they don't listen to reason, well most of them don't. You can't reason with them or try to reach a compromise. They really think they're doing you a favor by letting you breath and thus you shouldn't borther them or they might revoke this allowance.

Slaying an ogre isn't that different from killing a regular person, it's just alot harder. As ogres got skin like rhino hide and their dense muscles will soak up bullets like you would not believe, wrapped around a skeleton that put old english oak to shame.
When you go to kill an Ogre, load for bear, on coke.

I don't know if the whole, grind bones for bread is true. But I wouldn't be suprised if it were.

lørdag den 23. april 2011

The walking dead.

Or undead as they are also called. A sentient being, who's body is animated though quite dead. There are actually rather few things out there that fall under this category.
Vampires ofcause, but that's so big a subject that it warrents it's own post or maybe several.

Zombies, while not sentient, are the generic undead. There's a real craze these days about zombies, almost as big as vampires really. But is also another can of worms I won't open here.
First off, there are no such thing as zombies, atleast not as they are potrayed in movies and games, virus transmitted via bite, that kills people and raise them as man eating, feral corpses. and thank god for that. Because if they did, the end of the world senario we see in movie after movie would be pretty much a given.
Something that spreads that fast and aggressively, would wipe out humanity in no time.
That is not to say, there there are not things that would qualify as zombies. But they are vampire related and I'll elaborate on it in my post about the blood suckers. But sufficient to say, is that vampires can raise a corps as an obidient slave.
Some of these raised corpses sometimes retain enough sentience to be feral like dog and will, if not controlled, attack and eat anything living it comes across. Though it's victims won't come back (luckily) But I guess that's a scant consolation, with a corps gnawing on you. But they're most likely the course of the zombie myth.

Another form of undead are Liches, mages who's become so strong that when their bodies expire, the magic keeps their soul anchored to their bodies and gives it unlife.
They are immensly rare, I've only heard of two in my life time and while not dangerous per say, they're suppose to be a bit eccentric.
But I must admit that amoung mages, they are like the sort of rumor that everyones heard about, but noone really believes possible or will admit to have taken seriously. Sorta like penis extention. Everyone knows a guy, who knows a guy who heard about someone who meet one.

Now, the final form of undead are actually a little misunderstood. Graveyard squatters, corpse eaters, discount vampires. Ghouls have very few flattering nicknames.
Ghouls are species of undead, who have a really bad reputation, personally I think it's undeserved, but I'm biase on the subject, but I'll get to that.
The theory is that Ghouls are an abiration of vampires (just don't mention it to a vampire or anyone assosiated with vampires, unless you want to insult them grossly) I have to admit that they share several traits, but not many.
There are several reasons for the Ghouls bad reputation, first off is their looks. When someone becomes a Ghoul they go through a transformation and it is not a pretty thing. The skin pulls tight over the body and the body dries up, leaving them a distorted husk. Their eyes sink in and their teeth grow to fangs and their toughs grow long and rough, for better digging out marrow. Their nails lengthen into claws.
That's the obvious reason why Ghouls are hunted so feriously, because they look like genuine monsters (and some are, but that's another matter)
The one, that really marks them are their diet, like a vampire has to drink blood, a ghoul has to eat corpses, human corpses and for some reason they take their dinner seasoned, thus their tendency to hang around graveyards were they can dig up a properly aged dinner.
This is the reason I don't get the hate levelled at them, as a rule they don't kill humans they eat, their chosen victims died of natural causes. I agree digging up your relatives and eating their bodies arn't exsactly a good thing, it's better than them taking live humans and making a meal of them.
All the same they are treated as pestes, hunted ferousiously as monsters and this is odd as most Ghouls are quite harmless, unless you're dead and as they retain their intelligence from their human life, the ones that have also retained their sanity are as such not bad people. Most just wanna be left alone.

Ofcause there are exceptions to the rule, the ones that ruin it for everyone else. Some people, who turn into ghouls lose their minds, either go insane or were insane to begin with or go feral. These bad seeds will hunt and kill and pickle their victimes (ghouls can't eat fresh meat) or even try and force people to become ghouls (that was one ugly job)
So if you end up facing a feral ghoul, be careful. These are dangerous bastards, cause Ghouls are strong, fast. agile and tough and don't have the classic weaknesses of vampires. You can stake just about every organ in their body and they'll just keep truckin. A ghoul will regrow what ever he eats off a corps. so the only sure way to kill a Ghoul is taking off it's head.
They don't like sun light, but mostly couse it dries them up and hurts their eyes. Alot of hunters underestimate Ghouls the first time they encounter them, most are so lucky they meet a ghoul that chooses flight over fight. The ones that meet one that doesn't usually don't get the chance to meet one a second time.

A ghoul is created when a Ghoul feeds him some of it's own flesh, (not as romantic as the vampires, I know) The ghouls flesh is poisonous and the human soon dies, the body then reanimates and come back to unlife. over a periode of time, the person change into a ghoul and must saten it's hunger for corpse flesh or go feral, as it's body will shut down it's mind to get what it needs. this is where most of the insane ghouls come from, because sane people won't want to be turned into a ghoul and tend to go insane as their new reality dawns on them. and if you did choose to become a ghoul, then you most likely had a few loose screws to begin with.
Alternatly, If a ghoul takes a recently dead person (doesn't have to have killed them themselves) and then shoves it's flesh down it's throat, the body will come rise and over time change into a ghoul. This is the most common way for a Ghoul to be turned. At first they will be feral, not much brighter than dogs, but over time their sentient mind will reassert itsel. Most, if not all of their former life forgotten. These have a much better chase of accepting their new existance.

My personal experience is that Ghouls have been given a bad hand in unlife and mostly don't want to make trouble and just be left alone. So they look scary as hell, eat corpses and have a breath that could knock out a rhino. But I still think they're alot nicer than your average vamp and don't deserve the rep that they got.
But again, I owe a Ghoul my life, so I'm not as unbias in my oppinion as others.
But that's a story for another time.

tirsdag den 19. april 2011

The old bedsheet and chain

When something goes bump in the night, it usually not the Bogeyman (sneaky bastards that they are) but infact ghosts.
Ghosts are a breed on to themselves and pretty unique in the supernatural scheme of things. The best way to explain a ghost is to think of them as an echo, shadow or footprint of a living persons soul. Ghosts that are actually sentient remanents of a persons soul are extremely rare.
Most are just a piece of a persons soul, that left a mark upon death. Due to trauma, stress, sadness, fright, anger or hate. The stronger the emotion, the greater the chance of a "impression" being made.
So the ghost isn't the real person, The ghost is more like a copy made of spirit energy and there are no desernable rules for the way a persons death creates a ghost.
Some claim that people with magical talent make ghosts when they die, but then there'd be a shitload of mage ghosts around and there ain't, so that's one theory out the window in my oppinion.
The ghost is by no way an exsact copy of the deceased person, most are just scattered fragments, repeating patterns or specific actions. Moving things or making noises, your typical poltergiests. 
Others are more coherent and will appear as translucent shapes or bodies, following specific paths. But unaware of their surroundings.
Some ghosts might be such strong impressions that they are aware of their surroundings and can act with them. These are your typical hauntings, relatively harmless in most cases. The ghost may move stuff, make noises or appear randomly. spooky and unnerving, but ultimatly harmless.
However, this is not always the case, most people react to ghosts or in some instanses the ghosts react to them. The classical exsample is that a new family moves in and this for one reason or another "wakes" the ghost. where it before just misplaced the occational book or shifted stuff in the drawers or made the roof creak. Something will trigger it and it will lash out at the family.
Don't look for reason in a ghosts actions, they arn't sentient, like you and me. More like frayed patchwork of personality, with some stitched on random thoughts and occational feelings. it's doubtful they even perceive the world like we do.
So a Ghost may lash out seemingly at random or stalk one particular person, or strike at a person or people for a specific reason. I once helped exorcise a ghost that tore the hair of girls at a school, if they had long hair and wore it loose on sundays.
Also, A ghost is bound to something. it's impression is imprinted on something. usually a place, but a thing can also be haunted, the ghost follow it.

The trouble here is, if a Ghosts has enough presense to lash out, it's usually powerful enough an entity to do some damage. ranging from knocking stuff and people around and tossing things at them, not really lethal unless it shoves you down a stair. To tearing at you, breaking limps, tossing people and furniture around. To Ghosts so powerful they can warp their surroundings, litterally turning you're surrounding against you. Ghost possessed Earthmover, bad news, take my word for it.

So, how do we deal with ghosts you ask.
There's some simple facts and rules. First up, the bad news; Ghosts are already dead, so you can't kill them. but despair not, there's plenty of other possibilities.
Ghosts are either incoporeal or coporeal, meaning that they are invisible without form, meaning you can't see or harm them. but on the bright side, they can't hurt you either.
To affect you, a ghost needs to take form, it might still be invisible, but there are ways around that.
There's spells that will show ghosts and they show up on photos, cameras, dogs and cats sense them to (but can't really point) Be aware, that a ghost is strongest when it's corporal and visible, so when you can see it is when you have to be most careful.
A ghost, when it has taken coporeal form and affecting their surrounds will often turn the immedeat area cold, a handy headsup if they're still invisible.
Ghosts possessing something or moving stuff around for a longer periode of time will leave a residue of ectoplasma (magical byproduct, sort of a universal spirit go) it evaporates after a few minuts without trace.
Being composed of spirit energy, a form of magic. Ghosts affect electrical circutes, so their presents can sometimes be heralded by flickering lights and tvs going on the frizz (some hunters rigup little scanners that pick up the interferance, but I'm not tech savy enough for that)
Being spirits, Ghosts aren't fond of Iron and salt, it tears up their form and depending on how good you got them, it'll take a while for them to get themselves together and come at you again. anything blessed by a holy person will work fine too. Supernatural, tvshow with two brothers hunting otherworldly stuff (most things in it are totally off the gird, but some they do get right) shotgun shells with salt, works wonders, if it plays merry hell with the wall paper and be careful with friendly fire. bad enough to be shot, but with salt? That'll ruin your weekend.
A ghost cannot escape a closed iron container or a closed cirkle of salt. Binding cirkles can also lock them in or out.
Destroying or exsorcising a ghost is trickier: if you can get hold of something of the person body; hair, teeth, bone or close personal belonging, such as favorit necklass, glasses, jockstrap (true, if smelly story) or dog tags. There's rituals for banishing a ghost, even non mages should be able to manage. But depending on the strength of the ghost, you might only piss it off.
If you can find the burial place of the ghost how ever, you exhume the remains, salt them, burn them and douse them with holy water (not nessasary in that order) That'll take care of any Ghost.

Ofcause, such extrems arn't always nessasery. Ghosts of that magnitude tend to have left an impression for a reason, either they died something unfinished or never done, or were wronged. Finish the job, do the deed or rigth the wrong and the ghost will calm right down and go back to knock on walls or even dissolve altogher.
Ofcause, with ghosts nothing is absolute, seeing as they are copies of people and as such don't make sense either. So some ghost might just carry on their haunting or even step it up a bit. It's rare, but don't let you guard down right away.

Finally, true Ghosts. not that the others were false, but some rare ghosts, are perfect copies of peoples souls and actually think they are the dead person. (being a copy they, for all intent and purpose, are) and act accordingly, there's even been records of ghosts not realizing they were dead or trying to keep on living their life after they died.
These are easier to deal with if you can reason with them, but far more dangerous if they get pisssed off.

So, to sum up. Most ghosts you barely notice are there, and if you do, most are just a little spooky. But if they go all "Ringu" on you, be on your toes and don't think you're safe just cause you got your back against the wall.

lørdag den 16. april 2011

More magic

A question non mages often ask, when they discover you can do magic is "how do you do it?" and "can you teach me?"
I'll start with the second question, cause it's over quickly and leads to the first. I'd tell them to find someone else to teach them, first off I don't think I'd make a very good teacher and I'm not a very talented mage, so they're better off learning the craft from someone who really grasps what they're doing.
Besides, people with any magic affirmaty usually finds out along puberty, so earlier, some later. So it's not something you can teach, if people doesn't have the connection. might as well try to teach a mute to sing.

Now the how is more tricky, how to explain a sunrise to a blind man. When I first discovered I could do magic or more correctly, a kind old coot explained to me, why my laptop would constantly crash. magic and technology, doesn't go well together, but I'll get back to that.
Now, my awakening, as the circle of mages I loosely studied with refered to discovering magic was pleasent gentle. I've learned that the opening of the third eye (as it is also refered to) can be a harsh experience. mine was more like a slow discovery of a sixth sense.
And what a sense it was, personally I prefer the third eye reference. you see the world differently, when you open yourself to it, you see what's really there or what isn't. you can sense the magic, alround you, like wind across your skin, but more like it's your soul that gets goozebumps.
now you've learned to sense the magic around you, you've become aware of the flow of it. next step is using it and that's the dangerous step, where many mages without someone to guide them come to an ugly end.
To use magic, you have to draw a portion of it into yourself, like filling your hands with water, or drawing a deep breath. First of the it's the drawing in that's tricky, more than dangerous, cause like water, magic will slip from you if you don't control the movement. once you learn that, then it's when it starts to get dangerous. You also gotta know when to stop drawing on the magic you wanna use, like taking a deep breath, imagine not being able to stop. You'd lungs would burst eventually, magic's a little more volatile than air. That's the second step. when you've learned to draw in magic and stop, your body is now a container for pure energy, but our bodies arn't meant to hold onto magic. imagine the handful of water, the longer you hold it, the warmer it gets and eventually it will scald you and beyond that boil the meat right off your bones, if you don't let it go or use it. Magic is like that, and the more you take in, the faster it "heats" up.
The final step is using the magic you have store in your body, that is where you mold the magic with your mind and focus it into the effect you want. But the body can naturally hold more magic than the mind can naturally stand, so if you filled your body with magic and used it all at once, you'd spend the last moments of your life looking at the pretty lights as your mind ignited. Again, it's about control and focus. ofcouse the image I paint of a wouldbe mage keeling over with smoke pouring from the ears, eyes and hair aflame is the worst case senario. But many wouldbe mages, that unknowingly draw in magic and instinctively use it, often suffer an overload in lack of a better term. Their minds simply collapsing under the stress. The lucky ones get by with the worst headarch of their lives, others go out cold or into a coma. Others wake up damaged or changed or worse. Doctors tend to put it down as anuyrismes or strokes when people don't wake up, supposedly the effect on the brain are pretty much the same.

follow that explanation, I tend to get a third question "why do you do it?"
Because magic is awesome, it's magic. I don't have to worry about forgetting my key, cause I've set a charm on my door, so it will unlock itself at my command. Can't find aforementioned key, there's spells for locating it. I've never had anything but a cold beer, since I learne to use magic. and ofcause, a fireball is always handy in a pinch.
and using magic, feeling yourself filled with it, dancing at your fingertips, the secret wheels of the world yours to manipulate and turn. I'd say it was better than sex, but I really like sex. so it's a close second.
Ofcause there's a price, universal rule number one: there is ALWAYS a price.
Using magic wears you out, like any other activity. but not just physically and mentally, but also spiritually. often mages go over the edge, not even aware of it, cause they've lost their sense of self and the lose control and suffer the price of playing with the forces of the univers.

magic and technology: Mages and technology don't work well together, we can use it just fine, it just doesn't always work as it should around us, the more sophisticated, the more likely it is to malfunction.
and that's just when we're around, now using magic around technological gadgets, there's a recipy for disaster. Don't turn on your cellphone on a plane? Don't turn on your mage. =P
I've heard various theories on this, the one I find most probable is this; All human technology is based around electrical circutes, that run on the flow of electricity, which are electrons. charged particals.
Magic is not too dissimilar, being energy. So like EMP screwing with electronics, in a way so does magic.
That's why electricity works just fine without mages around, as magic and it exists on different planes. But when mages are around, we connect to the magic and broadcast interference, that screw with anything electrical.
A final strange detail, technology never gets permanently damaged. When the mage leaves, it works as intended again.

torsdag den 14. april 2011

wizards, warlocks, witches and so forth

Magic is real, tangible and all around us.
I know this for a fact, for I am a magic user. I wouldn't go as fare as calling myself a wizard though. I dabble in the use of the mystical forces, I know a few tricks and a handy spell, maybe two. But me taking the title of wizard would be the same as claiming to be a guitarist, because I can play the first five cords of Metallicas Nothing else matters. (I really can, get me drunk enough and I'll prove it)
but the point remains, it's only impressive to those who don't know anything about it.

Magic is natural force, the fifth element you could call it. Though it'd be a simplification of something that is refered to as magic, cause it's hard to narrow down, what it exsactly is. Magic is energy, but also possibility and life. But not tied to life as such.
Think of it like the earths magnetic field, a second layer of energy evolping the planet, running in currents along ley lines around the globe, there are eddies, currents and malmstorms of it. places of powers, areas of void. It is a living thing, but not alive.
you know, never mind. people have written inch thick teories on what magic is and how it works and where it comes from and where it goes. Magic is magic.

And then there's the users, commonly refered to as mages (magic users). Wizards, Sorcerors, warlocks, witches, sharmans, voodo priests, medicin men and so on.

Wizards are the most common, for the simple reason that they write their knowledge down. where most others magic users are self taught or instructed by exsample or word of mouth.
Wizards on the other hand. Any wizard worth his or her staff (wizards can be both genders) will have a library of books, scrolls and tablets. with spells, theories, rituals, wards, potions and enough self importance to make the better part of hollywood look meek.
Some wizards even gather together in courcils or schools, but generally wizards tend to keep to themselves.
Now magic users are rather uniform from the get go, to be able to able to use magic. you gotta have the talent and be aware of it. The Talent or gift or spark or ninth gate or what ever they may call it is simply the ability to tap into the magic around us. The way a seeing person can use the light of day to see, as oppose a blind that live in darkness. Now you got the talent, Then there's how strong it is and how much you train it.
Wizards employ magic via spells, it's a series of tried and tested ways to get a certain magical effect. The trick is, you use your body to draw in the magic around you, the focus it with your mind and generate an desired effect. Sounds really simple right? try and remember back when you learned how to whistle. Using magic is a whee bit harder.
The use of words and gestures helps focus the mind, the words rarely have direct relevance to the spell, but it's easier to make a fireball, if you say something that sounds fire like. Arch mages are supposedly able to make the heavens rain fire and earth heave, by just willing it. But I doubt that's really true.
So problem is, if you don't have a spell book to give you some hints, you're in for ALOT of trial and error (personal experience btw) Before you get anything resembling the effect you want.
But a spell book really only give you some hints, because it's the mind that focuses the magic and shapes it, and no two minds are totally alike in the way they imagine things. So what worked for one mage, won't most likely work quite as well for another.
Hence a wizard always have a private spell book with their own version of various spells. sorta like a private cookbook, you know your favorite recipies by heart, but most you gotta look up before you use them if you wanna get them right.
Staffs, wizards in particular use staffs. using the right wood or metals, a staff can help you focus your spells better, sorta like a magical lightning rod. popular myth is that old men just felt like having something to lean on and wack their apprentices on the head with and it turned out to helpful casting magic.
Rods are, well shorter than staffs and thus less effective. but on the upside, they are also draw less attention and fit nicely in a coat pocket or back pack.
Wands. Unlike in certain movies, arn't a must have to be able to cast magic. most wands, are more like a ready made spell, you channel magic into them and you get a particular effect out of the other end, usually something that makes things go boom or woosh.

Now opposit wizards are sorcerors and the two are at each others throat like you wouldn't believe. Almost as bad as the darn vampires and werewolves.
Where wizards use spells to use magic, sorcerors weave magic. it's hard to explain, but in a way their connection to the magic is greater and their grasp of it more intuitive. You can compare it someone who only knows the poems they've read in a book to someone who can compose on the fly. It's not, that sorcerors can't learn or use spells. it's just why bother, when they can just wing it and get the same effect.
So, while sorcerors tend to be rather powerful, compared to wizards of like strength of talent. They don't have the same milage, as the way wizards use magic is more controlled. and believe me, using magic takes it out of you. like taking pushups with your brain and mind you, it's pure energy you are using your body and mind to challenge. burning out is a very real and very litteral danger with mages, particularly sorcerors.

clocks a'running. I'll continue this segment in a latter post. It's about time to get to work and got a charm to work a map.

lørdag den 9. april 2011

Heaven and Hell

Crashing at a friends place, she's an angel for lending me her couch, feeding me and letting me leech on her internet connection.
And speaking of angels naturally leads to the subject of the heavenly and hellish hosts. I could properly write a load about either party on their own, but seeing as they are sort of two sides of the same coin, it'd be strange to leave one side out.

The basic story we all know, God created the angels and all was good. Then God created humans and some of the angels felt abandoned as God paid them no attention with the humans around. Chief amoung them was Lucifer, a war in heaven followed ending with Lucifer and his followers cast into hell.
Now that was an eternity ago and the Angels got stuck in heaven and the devils recide in hell, but the war has been raging on so to speak, a subtle chess like covert war.
There are skirmishes where angels and devils duke it out. But they focus on us humans, working behind the scenes.
You see, there is the rule of free will. we humans are free to do anything, choose our own destiny (I suspect this is one of the reasons that some angles and devils look down on us, which makes no sense, but more on that later) But with the freedom of choice comes consequence.
Heaven or hell.
Angels and devils cannot, litterally cannot, even with their impressive powers, cannot force a person to do ANYTHING. They can trick, extort, threaten and kill. But if a person won't do something, they cannot make him. and this is very important. (also the reason it's called demonic possession and not devil possesion, but that is a matter for another time)
Because while devils and angles battle eachother, they also fight each other for us. As fare as I can gather, souls are very important and some people have extraordinary souls or fates or something. But as fare as I've been able to gather, there is a greater plan in the works and the angels and devils work behind the scenes to ensure their side gets the long end of the stick.
I don't know why, I suspect most of them don't either, they just follow orders, doing their job, their duty. Angels and devils are all about duty.

I've havn't had a chance to talk to an angel, I've talked to a fallen one and a few devils and my experience is, that Angels arn't inheriently good and devils arn't through and through evil. They just do like they're suppose to be doing. protect the lords creations according to his will or seduce them into doing evil and twarting the designs of the creator and futhering the fall of man. Think of it as a serious case of OCD. But instead of washing their hands manically or counting sidewalk slabs, angels er obserssive do gooders while, devils gotta make mischief. not because they want to, they just have to, it's wired into them.
Ofcause like humans, they come in all sorts and shades, so some have it worse than others. so there's truely evil devils and there's divinely good angels.
The fallen angel I talked to insisted that the angel of Death infact had a fondness for chocolate and cards, but I think he was a little deep in his cups by then.
But getting off track, the OCD thing is the root of their emmity towards humans. angels and devils resent humans for our free will, the freedom to choose our own destiny. While theirs are set down they day they came into being or were born or turned. The lore is a little patchy there.  
strangely enough as they do infact have free will as fare as I can gather, otherwise they wouldn't be able to fall.
Fallen angels, or devils (or risen if you will, but they're generally refered to as fallen also) have left their respective realm, deserted so to speak. The fallen angel I spoke to, explained that an angels has to lose his wings to fall and a devil his horns. Then they can walk the earth, free to choose their life as a human would. Now being able to make the choice to fall, indicates a freedom of choice. so whats the hazzle. mainly I think the resentmen is there because, it's always been there. there's no real reason. we're the center of their existance and they don't know why exsactly, it's just the way it's always been.

Now, there's more classes of angels and devils than fleas on a dog and the fufill all sorts of functions and gigs. But as far as I can gather, the more powerful, the rarer are their appearence in the human world and according to the bible and other scripture it's something to be thankful for. God might have been viscious in the old testament, but it was the angles that dealt out the punishment.
The fallen angel explained to me that there exist a schisme in heaven, roughly translated into new testament and old testament. the new testament angels are more liberal as he phrased it and tend to genuinly care about us. while the old testament angels view us as cattle to watched over, third reich with white wings were his words. unnerving.
Hell on the other hand is full schismes as I understand it, it's entertaining and keeps people on their toes as it was explained to me.

well it's getting late, time to tug in.
I'm starting to realize what a daunting task I've set before myself.

Introductions

My line of work, or the life, or the call. What I do has a wide range of names, but a pretty vague job description. But to put it in simple terms, I hunt monsters. When revealing this I encountered the response "like in supernatural" a few times. so well... yes like that and no, not at all.

Monsters arn't universally evil, nun eating, ophranage burning, nail a baby to your hat fuckers. They are as a rule like you and me, some are relatively nice, some are assholes. Most just try to make it in this loonybin world of ours. Ofcause, that some have to eat nuns to survive does mottle the goodVSevil a little.
Incidently, word of caution. To non humans, monster has a ring like nigger or spic to it. For some reason it's okay for them to use it, but if you say it to their face, count yourself lucky if you come away all limbs attached. (part of the reason I choose to be annonymous, should a non human read this blog)

But I digress, while I've hunted a non human creature more than once. I consider myself a scholar, sage, book worm, etc. Than a sword and shotgun hunter. For one thing, I'm a coward. Secondly because, unlike a large part of the hunter community (not that there's much of a community real, but more on that later) I realize that a large part of the creatures we share the planet with arn't inherently evil and are perfectly content to live us alone, if we leave them alone.
So you can see where the problem with less than well balanced men and women, kicking in the door and turning over the bed to see what goes bump in the night might upset some non-people. To such a degree that I've heard that there's some non-humans out there, that hunt hunters.
This feud came uncomfortably close recently, close enough to lose me some hair on the head. so I've decided to share some of what I've learned over the years here, partially for the strictly egocentrical purpose of my work not going to waste due to my untimely death.
But also that I might give some understanding of some of the things out there.

This will be a long project, because if you think humanity is diverse, then you havn't see anything until you look into the dark corners of the world.
As a favorit writter of mine once said "if you look long enough into the abyss, it will eventually look back and wave hello"
But I plan to get around to the most common non-humans. that you might run into. Such as Devils and angels, vampires and werewolves, various magic users, dragons, trolls, faries, ghosts, demons, goblins and more.
I'll try and make my blog as coherent and organized as possible, but I might as well admit right now it's most likely a lost cause.
Well, I've almost used up my time on this computer, so until next time.