Tag Archives: fantasy

The Devil’s Details: I’ve Seen That Minotaur Before

I am admittedly a bit of a technology geek. Not that I’m into coding and all that mess – I just like my toys. Life would be impossible without my iPhone, and very, very difficult without my iPad.

The truth is, though, that whilst I do read, check news, and sometimes even work on these devices, I actually end up mostly just playing games on them. Kind of sad, right?

One of the games that has sucked my time more than others is a thing called Infinity Blade. It’s honestly a pretty basic, boring game: you are a knight, you fight your way through hordes of demons to reach the God King, and try to defeat him. If you don’t, you go back to the beginning. If you do…you go back to the beginning. The main draw of Infinity Blade is that, for a mobile device like an iPhone, the graphics are actually pretty decent.

However, that’s really besides the point. One of the enemies in Infinity Blade is a ghastly creature called a Rookbane, who sports a scary horse head and wields an unpleasant-looking sword:

Rookbane from Infinity Blade. Kind of creepy.

Rookbane from Infinity Blade. Kind of creepy.

The other day, Little Satis and I were watching Time Bandits for the first time. There’s a scene where the little boy Kevin inadvertently helps Agamemnon defeat a minotaur in ancient Greece:

Minotaur from Time Bandits. Also kind of creepy.

Minotaur from Time Bandits. Also kind of creepy.

Is it just me, or is the resemblance uncanny?

 

The Redemption of Erâth: Book 2, Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Among the Cosari

So began a new life for Brandyé, among the people of the isles who he came to learn called themselves Cosari. He lived in the great house upon the height of the mountain, under the lordship of the man whose home it was. Abula Kharta was his name, and Brandyé had not been wrong, for he was indeed lord of his island – Galawōmi – and several of those surrounding them. Brandyé became to him a servant, and was made often to appear alongside his master, sometimes shackled or chained.

Having long since lost all pride, Brandyé was surprised to feel such humiliation in this servitude; he was often the butt of jokes, and the laughter and jesting at his expense often brought tears to his eyes. If his tears were seen they would laugh all the more, and beat him, and so he soon learned that he could prevent them if he bit his lip dreadfully hard with his teeth. Thus he evaded their temper, only to have ever cut and bleeding lips.

He was not always so cruelly treated, however, and there were times when Abula showed him some small kindnesses. He would have Brandyé with him when he dined […]

Read the complete chapter here.

The Redemption of Erâth: Book 2, Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Isles of the Cosari

What now awaited Brandyé was a thing beyond his imagination. Who these men were remained unknown, but where they had come from was now clear, for before him lay a creation of a size and nature that he had never heard spoken of, even in his grandfather’s wildest tales.

It was a water vessel – so much was clear, for it lay half upon the beach, and half in the shallows of the sea. But it was as unlike the craft that had borne him from Consolation as a pebble is to a mountain. The vessel’s hull rose some ten or more feet above his head, and atop that he saw a great mast, towering high towards the clouds, and from which hung vast drapes whose purpose he could not fathom. To the rear of the craft stood another mast, though shorter than the first, and the tapered bow ended in a carving of some fanged beast that reminded him uneasily of the fierundé.

There were perhaps some dozen men on and around this great craft, and Brandyé could see many more animals – small deer, foxes, a kind of wild pig, and birds that resembled pheasants. Each was bound in a […]

Read the complete chapter here.