'The Volsung Variations'

(Serialization began in Summer 2006; additional information, complete with images, can be found here.)

Thus far in PHANTACEA on the Web, there have been three story sequences set in January-February 1938 ( 'The Moloch Manoeuvres', 'Helioddity' and 'Coueranna's Curse'). Although I've grouped them as the HELIODYSSEY Quintet, the PHANTACEA fact of the matter is the titular character, Heliosophos (Helios called Sophos the Wise, the Male Entity, in his Eleventh Lifetime), only appeared in the last two.

To say the least he hasn't been faring too well. (In 'Oddity' he was shot to shelly hell by his presumed father-to-be, Agenor Heliopolis. In 'Curse' he was so unhinged he actually took sides with Strife, Donar Lancz and his Nazi Hermiones, who were/are anything but harmonious.)

One hopes Herr Hel Helios does better in 'Volvar' but, given his history, don't expect too much of him. One hopes he does better this time around primarily because he's planning to take on the Moloch Sedon directly and, as everyone knows, Sedon is none other than the Devil Himself.

(Recall: Herr Hel's targets in 'Oddity' and 'Curse' were who he thinks become the parents of Helios's original self, Kadmon Heliopolis, who won't be born until 1940, two years from now. Since they still remain safely out of reach between-space in Djinn's Nebuland -- presumably off Crete, which was where we last saw them in Kore-15 -- he seems to have temporarily given up on them.)

One way or another, his target has been the Moloch Sedon ever since he, with considerable help from his Milady Memory (the Female Entity, she also in his eleventh lifetime) and the Undying Utopian Cabalarkon (who's still experiencing, in a manner of speaking, his only lifetime), created the grandfather of all third generational devils in his Fifth Lifetime.

(NOTE: The tail-end of Helios's Fifth, as well as aspects of his First and a couple of other, as yet unnumbered lifetimes, were detailed in the graphic novel, 'Forever & 40 Days - the Genesis of PHANTACEA:', which is still available. There's a detailed overview of the complete package here. There's even a few illustrations from it and lynx to other ones still out here in pH-Webworld.)

He's a decent shot at the Mighty Eye-Mouth in the Sky because, as detailed in Kore-9, the Female Entity isn't being humanized by a Master Deva anymore. That means the mind-of-her-own Mnemosyne Machine is just that, an altogether subservient Memory-Machine: Trans-Time Trigon's innards. In other words, while she's still somewhat independent, she's obligated, as in preprogrammed, to do exactly what he tells her do.

There are complications of course. It wouldn't be Anheroic Fantasy if there weren't complications. One them may or may not be Memory of the Angels, Mnemosyne D'Angelo, whom Helios thinks is dead and who, notwithstanding Unholy Abaddon's remark to Young Death in Kore-5, may yet turn out not to be the Female Entity in her first lifetime.

Three other complications may be the identically teen-aged, Gold, Silver and Bronze Volsung cousins:

• Valfreja (not the Freya Strife's become -- that'd be her horrid mother, Hulga born Volsung become Faust, and then rejuvenated such that she can now pass for her own daughter - or could, rather, until Kore-15);
• Tanith von Blut (who, appearances to the contrary, didn't die in Kore-14); and
• Brunhild von Alptraum (the onetime SOS-hothead {SOS = the Sorority of Sausages}codenamed 'Burning Hell', unless it's 'Torches for Arms').

Not long into 'Volvar' the three Volsungs, splendid specimens all (not that, being Summoning Children, that's a surprise), are going to gain some additional codenames: Cousin Contamination, Cousin Constellation and Cousin Conflagration.

Here's the kick-butter (as opposed to the churned butter) of it: Besides being splendid specimens, nearly every one of the Summoning Children we've met in the 1938 serials thus far are incarnations of Master Devas, third generational devils, which is what makes them supranormals.

So, even if the real Valfreja is more like the other two's aunt, who are the Volsung cousins incarnations of? In reverse order, what follows are some of 'The Volsung Variations' explored during the course of this novel:

1. Might Burning Hell be an incarnation of Methandra Thanatos? And, if so, does that make Brunhild von Alptraum an incarnation of Thalassa and Aires D'Angelo's birth mother? Or might she be an incarnation of Fiery Acheron, one of the Thanatoids of Lathakra's 5-years cathonitized offspring? Other than remarking that, should either scenario be at all accurate, Brunhild would be well-advised to reconsider desiring Airhead as her next boyfriend, I'll reserve comment on that until I finish rereading 'Volvar'.

(NOTE 1: Methandra of Mythland was once Mithras's Virgin and has always been Mediterranean Athena, the devic patroness of the Athenan War Witch Sisterhood. She's also Heat to her husband and immediate brood-brother's King Cold of Lathakra {which was once Sedon's Horn, but now lies off the mid, east coast of the Cattail Peninsula}. As of 5923 Tantal and Methandra together have had 10 fourth generational, devic children, all twins, and a solitary azura. There are some perhaps only superficially spoilsport lynx re them here, here and here.)

2. Might Tanith Silverhair, the unrequited love of wannabe Supra Saviour Jesus Mandam, be an incarnation of Pyrame Silverstar, the possessive half-mother of all the sedons, small case, so necessary to maintaining the Cathonic Zone (Cathonia, the Dome)? I'd say yes. Could Jesus Mandam be Heliosophos in his first lifetime? I'd say hmm.

(NOTE 2: Over the years of PHANTACEA on the Web, I've provided a number of lynx and features regarding the connections between Machine-Memory, the fabulously female Perpetual Presence and Primeval Lilith, the Demon Queen of the Night. Here's a sampling of them > > > > > >)

3. What if Valfreja 'Call Me Fred' Volsung turns out to be an incarnation of Antagone? And what if Uncle Abe Chaos, most recently from 'Curse' (wherein Helios showed up at Castle Nightmare in his guise), finds this out? That'd certainly complicate matters. After all, as detailed years ago in 'PREGAME-Gambit' #s 2, 3 & 4, Unholy Abaddon is a devic suicide who was once the Unity of Chaos.

(NOTE 3.1: Antagone, she of the anti-matter protectorate of Nothingness, on the Cattail Peninsula {Sedon's Ponytail on a map of the Hidden Headworld}, became Unholy Abaddon's beloved post-Thrygragon.

(NOTE 3.2: That being the case then Wolfie, the 10-year old wild child we encounter in Volvar-1, misidentifies Fred as Milady Malaise, whom devils additionally call Sickness. Sickness is one of the female Apocalyptics, a member of Thrygragos Mithras's 10th brood of triplets by the Trigregos Sisters.

(NOTE 3.3: As for who Wolfie grows up to become, well, you knew I'd get to her eventually, didn't you?)

Oh, I should mention Herr Hel Helios is planning to cue-ball the Moloch Sedon. To do that he figures to draw the Devil down to not so much the bottomless pit as to the pit's bottom. That'd be Minius or Absudyl, the lowest layer land of the Mandroids, where Sub-Trig's currently located and wherein he's holding onto Note 2's two-in-one Sed-moms, Pyrame fused with Lilith.

Should also mention that, should the Devil not come calling voluntarily, Helios plans to go visiting. To do that, he figures to ride Incain's She-Sphinx, All the self-proclaimed Invincible, into the Sedon Sphere (the Hidden Headworld's night sky, aka Cathonia, where he commonly appears as a huge eye-mouth) and thereafter render the Devil a Satanic skyscraper, one that could thereupon be deconstructed, as in demolished.

Needless to say, he'd prefer it if Sedon came calling rather than if he had to go visiting. If Herr Hel Helios has somewhere he's at his strongest, it's Trigon. The bottom of the bottomless pit therefore belongs to him whereas, contrarily, the night's sky belongs to the Devil Himself.

'Volvar' introduces a number of new characters besides Wolfie. One of them, Judge Warlock, turns out to be a very specific Sed-son: none other than Sedon St Synne, Cybele's father of record. A Wayfarer in the Wild Weird, it sometimes seems like he's been around forever. (Make that 1996 in terms of PHANTACEA on the Web, though he was alluded to on the cover of pH-1, almost twenty years before that.) He certainly has been around for all three of the main eras covered in these Web-Wheaties thus far.

Another is Tom-Tiddly Taddletale, a blue-skinned faerie type who can't rhyme to save a dime, let alone his life. He may or may not have something to do with Jordan Tethys, the legendary 30-Year Man, who's been a literally recurring character of mine for much longer than his print debut in the graphic novel, PHANTACEA: '4-Ever & 40 Days', which I published in 1990. ('pH 4-Ever' is still available, by the pay-way. Or have I mentioned that already?) May or may not have mentioned that a 5938 incarnation of the Tethys deviant will also be along straight away.

So will the most current Bast. That'd be Claudia D'Angelo's Bast, as opposed to Leonora, Celestine or Mnemosyne D'Angelo's Bast. Which would tend to confirm she is a demon and not an extremely enduring, howsoever hostile, psycho-cat. As for the Horny Ghost herself, yes, she's another character who'll be returning in 'Volvar'(perhaps for last time too, at least for the last time in the HELIODYSSEY Quintet of Anheroic Fantasy novels).

One more new character needs mentioning. That'd be Magnus Minus, the nominal Lord of the Lower Layers (Minius or Absudyl, depending on who's doing the describing), which is where Helios intends to collect the chthonic crud he needs to cue-ball Sedon.

Aka the Midget Minotaurus of Minius, Magnus Minus is a lead-headed (as in lethargic, to the point of falling asleep mid-sentence), thick-as-bricks half-life who's been dead to the world, either side of it, since the Simultaneous Summonings of 19/5920. For some reason he thinks he's Demon King Daemonicus. Rather, he thinks he should be the demons' King.

This only vaguely demonic dimwit is actually angling to become a newly reconstituted Daemonicus, which will no doubt prove yet another complicating factor for a couple of reasons. First of all, the reigning Demon King is the Moloch Sedon. Second of all, the real Daemonicus is, 1938-nowadays, a brainless, hollowed-out exoskeleton composed of shape-shifting subtle matter that's worn like a suit of armour by the aforementioned Judge Warlock.

In PHANTACEA fact, clothing could be something to key-keep your eyes open for, if only because suchlike items will come into runway play before 'Volvar' reaches its high velocity, more so than high fashion, climax on Apple Isle, Sedon's Human Eye-Land, a couple of years from now.

Said clothing would include a sun suit of armour, an Aegis of Athena, a Cloak of Many Colours, a certain feathery regalia and, if you can believe it, some items that actually seem to think for themselves. Indeed, given all the backstabbing that goes on as well, maybe 'Volvar' might therefore fit better in the 'Cloak & Dagger' genre of fiction than that of Anheroic Fantasy.

All in all, welcome to yet another PHANTACEA Mythos reading adventure. For a change I'll be joining you on it. That's because I haven't read 'Volvar' since I wrote it circa 1997/8!

Structurally speaking, 'The Volsung Variations' is divided into three sections: "Fred in Fairyland", "Queen of the Heavens" and "Fred's Inferno". The sectional titles refer to codenames given to the three Volsung Summoning Children. It begins with events that happened off-camera in 'Coueranna's Curse'(between Kore-13 and Kore-14) and carries on from there.

'The Volsung Variations' centres on events that take place on the Inner Earth of Sedon's Head at the end of the Year of the Dome 5937, which is to say it focuses on events that take place near the beginning of 1938, Outer Earth time. For the most part, said events occur in mid to late February of that year, as we westerners count time, and/or mid to late Balek as time is counted beneath the Dome.

Each of its three sections brings with it its own anheroic cast of characters. All of those who appear in "Fred in Fairyland" also appear in "Fred's Inferno". "Queen of the Heavens" isn't quite so populous but, hey, it isn't everyday someone lets their clothes do the fighting. Even rarer is when clothing, and other accoutrements, fight each other.

Then again, this is the PHANTACEA Mythos. As such, whether anyone in this massive, and massively cantakerous, cast can avoid catastrophe, either indvidually or collectively, that may well come down to a cat named Bast.

Warning

A good percentage of the action in 'The Volsung Variations' takes place in Crepuscule, Sedon's Outer Nose. It, the Grey Land of Twilight, as well as the devic protectorate of the Grey Lady, Krepusyl Evenstar, is full of fairies.

Consequently, 'Volvar' contains odious oodles of grammatically incorrect fay-saying. Reading it may prove hazardous to your inner editor.