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The Volsung Variations6. "Subterranean Trigon" ... 7. "Celestial Supras" ... 8. "Monolithic Monotony" ... 9. "Grail Knight's Sky" ... 10. "Subterranean Queen" |
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- Helio-notes & Page Background Details -
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6. The Volsung Variations: "Subterranean Trigon"
That's how VolVar-5 ended
That's how VolVar-6 begins. Mr Handsome is of course Helios called Sophos the Wise. As for Tanith Silverhair, the fact Magnus Minus, the Midget Minotaurus of Minius [Absudyl, the Lower Layer land far beneath the Weirdom of Cabalarkon, Sedon's Devic Eye-Land on a map of the Hidden Headworld] obeys her rather than Helios is highly significant. Make that lowly significant, doubly so since we're in Sub-Trig and Tanith evidently has acquired aspects of Primeval Lilith to go along with those she acquired that, at least nominally, belonged to Pyrame Silverstar. ========
Tanith doesn't stay feline-faced throughout VolVar-6. Neither does Helios stay mouse-sized (though it might have been fitting, if he had, because Olympian Apollo, who took the classical Helios's place as the ancient Greeks mythological Sun God, was first worshipped as a mouse god). However, when she was feline-faced and he mouse-sized, she did threaten to swallow him. ======== To say the least, having finally attained her Summoning heritage, Tanith's got brass -- as well as a splendid ass, as Tom-Tiddly might say if he could rhyme worth a sprig of thyme. In addition to a newfound assertiveness, she's also got smarts; more than she's demonstrated thus far anyhow. After she lets Magnus Minus return Heliosophos to his regular size and masculine good looks, Tanith figures out the trick the wannabe-Daemonicus must use in order to work his wonders:
Jordan Tethys, the legendary 30-Year Man, being able to draw someone, anyone, anywhere against his or her will? Can't be! Unless, that is, something else happened to Jordy (aka also 30-Beers) during 19/5920's Simultaneous Summonings besides becoming a vamp; something that we don't know about as yet. Might the fact he asks Tanith (by now codenamed Cousin Constellation) to call him Pictor or Painter, after a constellation in the southern hemisphere, mean it's her, not him, doing unto Herr Hel Helios what Helios wanted to do unto her? On the other hand, might he, like so many of the Summoning Children, have become a supranormal as well as deviant? Hmm. Hey, I thought Tom-Tiddly was in love with Fred, not her simultaneously born cousin/niece. So why did he ask her to marry him? More to the point, why did she accept? The answers are in VolVar-6, though the queries still warrant a hmm. And what's with Heat and Cold (Methandra and Tantal Thanatos) coming in at the end? Is it because Fred's still in love with Airhead and they feel, like Sea Stuff probably does if asked (which she couldn't be because she went back to the Outer Earth after events described in VolVar-4), that Tom-Tiddly really should be falling in love with her and not a Volsung? Hmm again. Silverhair equals Silverstar. Ah, but does that mean Silverhair can mother Sedon's Sed-sons the same as Silverstar, along with her demon queen, did before she-they got stuck in a tub of Cathy perhaps forevermore? Magnus Minus did obey her after all. He did so unquestioningly as well and he fancies himself King Daemonicus. Demons are products of Mother Earth. That makes them matriarchal, doesn't it? Quadruple hmm. Or is it just an elaborate scheme to get the one to release the other, complete with Primeval Lilith, the Demon Queen of the Night? Might it not, equally likely, be how the Dual Entities hope to lure the Moloch Sedon deep downstairs to Minius/Absudyl, the bottom of the bottomless pit, where they can and will cue-ball him. Quintuple hmm. Of course, given it's no secret she's already pregnant {though, admittedly, she isn't sure who by, hence most of the reason she's tried to kill herself once, if not necessarily twice let alone thrice, already) barring miscarriage or abortion, it'd be some time before the Mighty Moloch who-definitely-didn't-impregnate-her might be tempted to find out. No hmm about it.) Top of Page |
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7. The Volsung Variations: "Celestial Supras"Got another chat-chapter here. To start, just to reiterate an earlier note:
The Legendarian's joke refers to the Silverspoon crack Jesse's been enduring since, in terms of these synopses anyhow, VolVar-5. We're back at the DDD by the way, albeit only in time for breakfast, so Jordan Tethys is opting for a mug of steaming hot Cathy instead of his first beer of the day. He's just recently drawn himself back from Sub-Trig, where Tanith's still walking around in conversation with whom (as opposed to what) she's walking around on. As for Jess, his night has been almost as eventful as Jordy's. (I just avoided detailing it, primarily due to a desire to retain a PG rating for pH-Webworld.) Jordy picks up on Jesse's (dare I say it?) cocksureness right away.
======== Good for Jesse, I suppose. You're going to be more than a wannabe Supra-Saviour, surviving lesser perils, like nipping and napping (as opposed to sleeping) with a silver-haired vamp, is a definite prerequisite. For her part, Tanith's more concerned about surviving having a Vampire Maker's son.
Meanwhile, back in the DDD, Jesse and Jordy are chatting away just as amiably. The latter has suggested that Jess forget about Second Fangs. He'd be far better off hooking up with Barsine (his twin sister or half-sister or non-sister) and seeing the Hidden Headworld. He even knows the ideal guide, Pusan Wanderlust, whom we last encountered on Battle Beach and its semi-reconciliatory aftermath up in Eventide (which is at the far north of Crepuscule-Twilight, Sedon's Outer Nose on a map of the Hidden Continent). Jess asks if she's a scar in her forehead the same as Tethys and Abe Chaos do -- in other words, if she's a devic suicide. Tethys hems and haws. He'll neither admit nor deny he was once Rumour of Lazareme and isn't about to confirm Pusan was once Amal-Althea, Lazareme's female healer. He won't even say if the faeriedust with which Tammuz Rhymer of Dukkha got faerie-dusted, when he thereby became Tom-Tiddly Taddletale, was what'd become of Rumour. (As, you may have picked up from the end of VolVar-5, Helios does and, at the risk of having to correct myself later, it is Rumour's dust.)
======== Their discussion eventually returns to Jesse's friend Fangs. In it Tethys even mentions Fish's hubby, an Inner Earth Summoning Child, Achigan Auranja, Greater Godbad's hereditary king, who's also discussed, though doesn't appear, in VamVar-2.
And so it goes until Tethys lays a heavy on young Mandam over their bacon and eggs:
All of which leads to this somewhat abridged revelation:
That explains that then. Huh? All right, if you don't want to read or re-read VolVar-7, the long and short of it is Rhea Sangati, always Ararat, stayed young so long because she was born with Nergal Vetala inside her. Rhea lost Vetala during the Summoning, whereupon she started aging again (and became the Norma, the Deadly Druidess, whose story was in part told during Mole-8). She lost Vetala not so much to her first born, Olympias by then long Kinesis, as through her to Olympias's Summoning Child. ========
Whereas these two would be . . . . Top of Page |
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8. The Volsung Variations: "Monolithic Monotony"
Lots to get to in VolVar-8 and, despite its title, none of it's monotonous. Well, Tom-Tiddly Taddletale's efforts to rhyme, if only to shave a lime, do get somewhat tedious after a while of smiles but, hey, especially when Young Death's around thing's never get dull. Should forewarn you, though. If the preceding paragraph didn't twig you to it already, another thing there's a lot of is fay-saying. ======== Let's get a revelation contained in this chapter out of the way first. I quote it not just because I'll be coming back to it either. I quote it because it answers one of the most long-serving and, thus far, ever-unresolved issues in the entire PHANTACEA Mythos: namely, just who were Mater Matare, the 3 male Apocalyptics and, presumably, the Smiling Fiend possessing when she, Mother Murder, conceived the fourth generational Quadrang Nucleoids of 'War-Poc' fame? Since they probably weren't around circa 5850 YD, it likely wasn't the Dual Entities, the same as Heat and Cold were starting in 5919. While, admittedly, given the improvised nature of PHANTACEA, I can't say that with 100% definiteness ...
At this point in our synoptic proceedings I once again feel obliged to raise a cautionary flag about trusting anything Helios thinks. I mean, just because she's mostly a machine, he really should know better than to take as gospel everything Machine-Memory tells him. Pardon the foreboding but, as she's proved over and over again in these web-serials, she's a mind of her own.
======== Next, let's get confirmation on something else I'd speculated on before I re-read VolVar-8: [NOTE: In this quote, the male trickster's with Unholy Abaddon, Jesus Mandam and Dand Tariqartha in the latter's Hall of Mirrors. About a month has passed since Herr Hel Helios, succumbing to pressure exerted on him by Machine-Memory, but much against his better judgement, let the non-boorish troubadour twang himself and the potential Pyrame/Lilith Volsung Summoning Child out of Sub-Trig unscathed.]
======== Should mention Tom-Tiddly and Tanith remain unmarried. They are still together, though, and as those in Centurium can far-see, thanks to Time-Space's mirrors, are living in Tammuz Rhymer's homeland. That'd be Dukkha, Sedon's Upper Lip-Tip, the north-westernmost area of Sedon's Moustache on a map of the Headworld. He's telling her a story, without daring to rhyme, that he calls 'Mirrors and the Monolith', hence at least in part this chapter's title. The other part's how bored the Monolith, Tvasitar Smithmonger, who can never leave Sedon's Peak (on the Cattail Peninsula, northwest of where Lathakra, once Sedon's Horn, now lies), becomes after he loses his azura-love, Mirrors herself -- that'd be Klannit Thanatos, the Thanatoids' Haunted Angel -- circa 2000 YD. And how bored might that be? Try stiff, Tom tells Tan. As per here, I'll remind you. It's such a good story I decided to preserve it for future reference (as well as for any eventual comparison with Smiler's version of much the same saga), just as I did Kore-8 and a select few others. Consequently, I'll skip synopsizing it and return to some other events detailed herein. ======== Dand Tariqartha is having a very bad time of it in 5937/8. He's having such a bad time of it that, at the beginning of the chapter he'd gone to Tympani, the Isle of the Undying One, in the midst of the Aural Sea (Sedon's Ear on a map of the Hidden Headworld), looking for Abe Chaos. Instead, temporarily anyhow, he ended up with Young Death. The problem as he sees it is his eldest, therefore deviant, half-son (other than Akbarartha, I should stipulate) is successfully leading a rebellion against his authority. Said son is Kronokronos Mikoto, the decades-fully-alive, though one-time Japanese mantel (think replica) from the Tokugawa Era Cavern. We're to assume, as does the Dand, that the consequential loss of worshippers is slowly killing him. (We'll learn what the real reason is in due course.) The highborn devil figures his eldest, presumably still extant children, the aforementioned Awesome Akbar and his sister-in-Oberon, whose name is Meroudys, could handle Mikoto if Chaos won't. The devic suicide will, for a price. He wants Devil Doom (Zuvem Nergalis, who's also known as Gravedigger and who was last seen around the end of the 55th Century of the Dome; last seen beyond doubt, that is), which means he wants Time-Space to locate him via the revelatory mirrors in his Hall of Mirrors.
======== It turns out, as we've known since VolVar-5, but his devic half-father has only just learned, that Akbar's back on the Hidden Headworld. It also turns out that he and Jordan Tethys are already in Temporis. Except, it further turns out that Mikoto's conquered cavern after cavern of what's self-evidently no longer altogether the Dand's protectorate and, even more curiously, Tariqartha can no longer use his mirrors to see into any of them. He can and does use them to far-see Tanith, whom Jesse will always love, and Tom-Tiddly, whom Jess speculates is the Summoning Son of Agenor Heliopolis. (Despite his blue skin and sunrays hair that's not such a fanciful notion, I trust you'll agree. After all, Tom-Tiddly thinks he's Herr Hel Helios's boy and Helios thinks his original self was Agenor's yet-to-be-born son Kadmon.)
Young Death and Abe Chaos both think Devil Doom is possessing one or another of the Etocretan Extremists in Djinn-Ghoster's Nebuland somewhere between-space on the Outer Earth. He isn't of course. Truth told, in all likelihood he's still cathonitized. (So, who is in the Nebuland with Agenor et al? For some reason I feel obliged to say I've forgotten!) Nonetheless, as the disgusting little trickster puts to Tanith and Tom-Tiddly after he reaches Dukkha thanks to their freshly slaughtered supper:
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9. The Volsung Variations: "Grail Knight's Sky"Got ourselves a not at all surprising guest star in VolVar-9. Give a great round of boos (or booze) to the greatest villain any epical, yet resolutely anheroic fantasy could possibly have -- none other than the Devil Himself! His hosts are -- well, there's a reason those in Dand Tariqartha's Hall of Mirrors spot a different Sedon returning the Elemental Twins to the Inner Earth:
Them would be Aires and Thalassa's other lost siblings. Always provided the Elemental Twins are Thanatoids (hence, of the Devils) and not of the Angels of course. (As for who put them there, some of that story is recounted herein. There's also a snippet of the same story told in the opening chapter of 'The War of the Apocalyptics', which is still online.) ======== On to our titular fellow -- and his computer wall and floor and the rest of Sub-Trig's innards.
======== Oodles of noodles more to note re VolVar-9. Except I won't do any; not today anyhow. Defeats the purpose of PHANTACEA on the Web, doesn't it? As always, good reading! I'm back. So are Young Death, Unholy Abaddon, Jesus Mandam, Dand Tariqartha and ...
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not sure Takeda nee Mikoto eventually Power has made an in-person appearance in pH-Webworld as yet. There was, you might recall, this Strife-impersonage (as opposed to impersonator) in 5960, however. Be that as it may, just in case she hasn't, allow me to introduce Crystallion's eventual mom. Glad that's done.
So, not that he needs the added incentive but, if I was to tell you that our series- as well as chapter-titular hero, Herr Hel Helios, is about to fall under the baleful influence of the Trigregos Talismans, most specifically the Crimson Corona, would that ruby-ring any bells? It's certainly provoked blings of blue lynx from me, hasn't it? Top of Page |
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10. The Volsung Variations: "Subterranean Queen"You knew there was yet another, PHANTACEA-famous big battle coming, didn't you? You pretty much had to what with all the apparent cameos and hints I've been noting in these synoptic proceedings re "Queen of the Heavens". Does that mean Sub-Queen's ENDGAME-Queen? Does indeed. As for who's in who's corner and who, be it individually or collectively, is teeing off to battle whom, well, it isn't quite as simple as Young Death put to our titular queen and a certain faerie fart who can't rhyme to peel a lime. So how about we start with a Gold-Mining Box re one of the combatants and move on from there? Certainly sounds like a plan to me.
Given whose abilities our titular heroine seems to have acquired, does that make Warlord Mikoto a 5938 good guy? Put it this way, when was the last time a PHANTACEA-heroine needed rescuing by anyone? Put it a different way, when was the last time a warlord was a hero in PHANTACEA? If never's your answer to both then take a bow. Or a bough, if you're a dryad. Because you're mostly correct. (There was, I believe, a somewhat exception to that general rule not so very long ago.) Lynx, we established in VolVar-5, is a constellation. One guess (out of three alternatives) as to who gets all Pretty Pussy, Moggy Maat-like, again. (There are plenty more lynx to the correct guess here.) One lynx but one ago poses a chapter-significant hmm. Another hmm along the same lines is here. Yet another poser presented previously (Are we soon to be done with Chaos yet again?) gets, after additional re-reading, a provisional yay this time. You get the picture. Or you should. In this corner, put up to it by Sed-Skunk in VolVar-9, it's Memory v/s Hotstuff. In this one, for a dick-dildo, it's Herr Hel Helios v/s King Cold. In this, it's Aegis-Jesus against ..., in this it's one Artha v/s the other Artha, and in this it's Uncle Abe Chaos against everyone. Have we run out of corners yet? Might need some more rings -- besides those everyone's favourite Sun Knight is wearing, that is. (As for what else he's wearing, other than Grail Goodies and, by now, pants, I did warn to watch out for him.) There are winners and there are losers. There's a cavern collapsing and a cavern compacting -- and Dand Tariqartha, the devic underlord of Temporis, isn't causing either. There are ringots. Which explains why it isn't Dand Tariqartha causing either. There's also a constellation called Lyre. Twang! And a wedding. Non-Twang! As for wedding rings, see ringots above. As for who's in the other one, does the statement that Herr Hel Helios is one of the ones marrying help answer that? Does a certain subterranean, tri-peaked island go green with envy or flush red with anger? Might the next, and final, section of The Volsung Variations be better entitled "Memory's Inferno"? As always, good reading! Top of page |
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Synopses of Volvar 1-5 |
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Page background is a whitened, then lightened even more, shot of the famously transplanted temple of Abu Simbel in Egypt. Jim McPherson, the creator/writer of the Phantacea Mythos, spotted and shot it in 2000. A peculiar perspective side shot of the same massive monument to the absolutely astonishing ego of Ramses II (BCE 1303-1213) can be seen here and here. Quite a few more phantacea-related shots taken in Egypt on that same eventful trip are preserved in the Winter 2000/1 update of pHpubs. There are also a pair of long-serving photo essays re Egypt 2000 here and here. Additionally, as per here, it turns out these two Helio-heads are actually of a Shelios. In 2004 the Musee D'Orsay's explanatory placard didn't note that the sculptor François Rude (4 January 1784 - 3 November 1855) used the bust as a model for "Le Départ des Volontaires" (aka La Marseillaise), his contribution to the Arc de Triomphe in Central Paris. - Double-click image in this panel in order to open background gif in a separate window - |
Webpage Last Updated: Spring 2015There may be no cure for aphantasia (defined as 'having a blind or absent mind's eye') but there certainly is for aphantacea ('a'='without', like the 'an' in 'anheroic') Ordering Information for PHANTACEA Mythos comic books, graphic novels, standalone novels, mini-novels and e-booksDownloadable order form for additional PHANTACEA Mythos Print PublicationsCurrent Web-Publisher's CommentaryJim McPherson's Worldwide Email Address -- jmcp@phantacea.comPHANTACEA: The Web SerialspHantaJim's WeblogWebsite last updated: Autumn 2015 Written by: Jim McPherson -- jmcp@phantacea.com© copyright Jim McPherson (www.phantacea.com) Websites featuring, at least in part, Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos
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