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Special Limited Edition Co-Host / Membership Has Its Privileges |
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 3:31 pm Location: Fort Wayne
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Been wanting a backdrop for scenes in the my Ancients verse. This is what I whipped up. Put my Foam Factory hot knife to good use too. As per usual, I went a little over board while I was having fun. --- To modern day archaeologists, and adventurers through the ages, the ruins submerged in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of Spain, past Gibralter, but before reaching Portugal, have been known as the City of the Ancients. The rocky nature of the region makes exploration difficult, but those who have been able to explore the ruins have been astounded, and the reason is simple. The City of the Ancients appears to have been built of a style like that of classical Greece (though with certain distinguishing qualities). On the one hand, this is astounding in that not even Alexander was known to have expanded his empire to the west... and, most shockingly, the ruins, according to every expert who has had his say - PRE-DATE those of ancient Greece... ...Meanwhile, several thousand years earlier... limáni ton theón. ton theón for short, to those who lived there, or traveled the sprawling port city with any regularity. All too few, it seemed, traveled to it these days, from the locals' perspective. The city was dying, make no mistake. Had the Gods abandoned them?
Worse, had the island folk abandoned them?
Nobody expected much traffic originating from the barbarous tribes immediately to the east, or from the few civilized states even further beyond. Even those people sophisticated enough to have mastered the seas rarely would have even heard of this port city, because it was accessible by sea only if sailing past the Pillars of Hercules...and accessible by land only if willing to traverse many treacherous miles of desert, and the mountains ranging endlessly to the east.
Yet, some adventurous souls did make their way from the east... and, in the city's best days, many many more had made their way from the shining Isle to their west.
Those people, legend has it , had built this city, in their own style, in order to exert their influence over the lands east of the Pillars. Chances are they very well may have. Many ton theón scholars and philosophers believed that all of those with fair skin who populated Europa had hailed from the shining Isle of Atlantis. Thus it was, that ton theón did not strangely look like a Greek city, but instead the Greek cities themselves looked strangely Atlantean.
Though fewer and fewer sails could be seen in the harbor, on this day, as with most, soldiers of Atlantis patrolled the streets. On this day, tribute day, most of the citizens were off to show patronage to their selected Gods. But there was something amiss. Nobody had heard of the fire God, or the God with the all seeing eye. And nobody had seen a new temple take foot in the remains of the old Oracle's palace until this day.
Yet, somehow, tribute was already being paid. And a priestess was enchanting those few followers already in attendance.
That was not to be the only oddity of the day. An Atlantean Captain noticed a strong looking man he had never seen in ton theón before, wearing a peculiar assortment of armor, largely appearing to be of Sparta, but also a strange bone headdress.
Captain: "Good day stranger, who might you be, and what import is your business in ton theon, man of Sparta?"
Man: "Sparta, yes. That much you can tell. I am Ogan, soldier of Sparta, and emissary of King Leonidas. The King did not believe this city existed. But having heard from a very reliable source that it did, I convinced the King to allow me on this journey."
Captain: "Which is?"
Ogan: "Well, the fate of all mankind, it would appear. Sparta is about to fall to the Persians, sir. I have been sent to seek reinforcements from those free folk who would see that their fellow man remain free, so that they themselves might also continue to enjoy the same. Are you such a free man, Captain? Does ton theon allow you this?"
Captain: "ton theon?" he said laughing. "I am no man of this feeble old city. I am a soldier of Atl..."
But the captain's thought trailed off. A member of his guard had yelled: "Halt there sir. Good day, stranger!"
The Captain's attention was now required once more. This day was just getting stranger. Two new men had arrived, obviously foreigners.
While his guard's watch over the city implicitly did not involve harassing those visitors the city longed for, it explicitly required him to do so with men who were so obviously of the warrior class.
The Captain turned, but his new acquaintance Ogan was the first to speak.
Ogan: "I know this man, Captain," he said, gesturing towards the fairer skinned warrior. "He is Jason, and he is an outcast in the eyes of every King of every city-state I know. He is as likely to stab you in your sleep as he is to pay tribute to this city."
Jason: "I challenge any man who would speak of me so to single hand combat, to decide the quality of my heart. I am here as a traveler only. And as amazed as I am to have found that the world continued on beyond the Pillars, so too am I astounded that I must seek to sail once more even further beyond, in search of a place called Atlantis, lest my destiny might never be fulfilled..."
Jason's companion, a quiet man seemingly from south of the opposite Pillar of Hercules, began to scope out the surroundings. The men of the guard backed off, in case the words between the strangers became something more deadly. The Captain quietly snuck into a side entrance of the temple. He had questions that needed answered.
Ogan: "Forgive me, friend, for I have spoken based on rumor and admit freely that I do not know your heart. Let us avoid bloodshed, and instead share some mead."
The others had renewed their interest in the Priestess. She was certainly enchanting in every possible way.
Just as the pitch and pace of the Priestess's words increased, the ground beneath their feet shook, and a bellow and snarl caught the attention of all.
A massive strange beast came bearing down the street upon them.
Hearing the noise outside the temple, the Captain emerged prepared for anything. Or so he had thought, before a live goat came flying at his head...
The battle that followed was marked by various noteworthy events.
First, was the failure of Ogan to ever draw his sword.
Second, was the Cyclops' apparent fascination with one, and only one thing, as well as that girl's apparent inability to run away, as though in a trance.
Third, though not seen by any outsider, was the exchange of knowing glances between Ogan and the Priestess.
But while those facts were noteworthy, their import has not yet been determined.
In the aftermath of the battle, the strangers no longer seemed so strange. And so the Captain made arrangements with the men to hunt down the beast. Nobody seemed to recall that Ogan had not fought, and he stepped forth, seemingly as the leader of the hunt.
_________________ Kwinn_Lives wrote: you have now won more JCAs than anyone in the history of the award. Mysterious Stranger wrote: You sir are the definition of a Renaissance Nerd... you do it all so damn well.
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