Maharg67

Magical theatres where magical entertainers project illusions to entertain people (magical cinema?) Golems, big animated figures of various materials such as clay being used to carry goods, deal with fires, dig big ditches etc. Large Ayleid ruins being used by a large research group (mages, scholars, others combing skills and experience and being based in the ruins. Civilized goblin creatures serving in the sewers where the do various duties including trying to keep down rat numbers and dealing with real goblins.

Banning floggingmolly for ALWAYS talking about chelsea. (Hey, I lived in Indonesia, and there's a bomb recently in my city. And MU should be visit here soon, I hate them but I don't wanna a bomb killed them. Rest in peace, for those who died. MU, be safe). Update : MU isn't visiting my country, damn those terrorists. (Even I hated MU) Banning Ancient Aeon for banning floggingmolly for always talking about chelsea. (Been to Indonesia but faced more danger from IRA bombings in London in the 1970s.)

A dream car would be a nice compromise between reasonable city, highway and rough country performance. It would be able to go four wheel drive, be able to carry 4-6 people at least and a reasonable amount of stuff and yet still be fairly speedy.

to wealthy customers

Banning floggingmolly22 for not mentioning the wonderful BBC television series and, of course, the earlier BBC radio series.

Love chocolate but taste varies. Dark chocolate when want something with richer taste and more bite. White chocolate when want something sweet. (Love cookies and cream flavor!) Good coffee and rich chocolate together.

Story is good! A little more description would be good! Looking forward to seeing how the Devil's daughter fares.

FOUR Martinpolis was a large walled city east across the waters from Imperial Island and Imperial City where now only the TriImperials were allowed to go. The bustling city had arisen for the need of the TriImperials to link with the rest of the TriEmpire. So the city supported a large public service sector, was a big transportation hub for goods going to and from the island (mostly stuff going to), had many artisans making fine goods for the Imperial City and did other important services for them. It also held the various Central Headqaurters for the dreaded TriEnforcers, TriOrderators and TriBeholders. These were in turn elite military, paramilitary and security-intelligence forces created to deal with any festering or actual rebel activity on the Tamriel mainland. The city also had other, darker purposes in serving the TriEmpire and the Master Spell. While K'Martina sat meditating in the basement level of the old fortress preparing for a big fight and the Eternal Champion worked with the marshfolk in Argonia, a young man awoke in a small mansion structure of fine ornate stone built close to the western, shoreline wall of the city. Except that in some important sense it was not really part of the city at all and had only been there since the midnight before. Yet nobody seemed to notice this or at least not many. As he sat up in the very large bed in silken pyjama shorts he looked around at the two dogs, the pig, the mother cat and her kittens, two older tomcats, three minidragons, a long thick fur-python, the three beuatiful young women in silken nightshirts and five oddly muscular chubby like ever-babies. Of the last there were two males and three females and all were in lightly fluffy white nappy-pants. He yawned and stretched. Then he ran a dusky white hand through his dark blonde hair even as the very handsom young man spoke in an ancient language. "Mahargastle, we are inside your structure but outside of Sanctuary Zone!" The voice was warm, female and sleepy. It came from all over the chamber. "You have sensed correctly but we are well secured and isolated behind multiple layers and network-systems. You are on the great continent of Tameriel on the world of Mundus. You are in the city of Martinpolis." He frowned softly and picking up a couple of ever-babies, he lay them against his slimly muscular chest. "I remember no city called Martinpolis and we were only here about five hundred years ago. The city is named after Martin the last Emperor, I take it." The ever-babies settled against him, one boy and one girl, and smiled blissfully in their sleep. Mahargastle responded. "I am still waking but from what my external senses have picked up, that is not only correct but the city began as a town where rose the Order of Martin who believed that Martin had become the Hero-God Martinus who can take the shapeform of a great dragon. He is the God of the Dragon Blade and of the Order of the Sage-Warriors. The Order of Sage-Warriors believes in seeking out lost knowledge and history in armed expeditions to various parts of Tamriel. Or at least all of this was true. When the Master Spell fell upon this continental mainland and the TriEmpire came, the lot became suppressed." He cursed very softly lest he wake or upset the babes in his arms. "So it has come at last to Tamriel, the ancient curse of the Master Spell. Then those of Leirmat finally threw it off." Mahargastle responded. "As yet I do not know. We are very close to Imperial City here and to the TriImperials including the TriEmpress and TriEmperor. We need to act with great caution. All the information I have gained, am still gaining, comes from and through our immediate surroundings in this city." He burped the small male figure. "The people suffer from the Master Spell?" She responded. "Less so than before for the TriEmpire is providing for free powerful serums that seem to assist folk against the extremes of the Master Spell." He nodded thoughtfully. "A shift in TriImperial tactics. Perhaps our awful prediction is starting to become true. Let us hope not." "Martinpolis is not the place for us to learn the truth of this." She responded. "It is central to the new empire and gains stability from being so close to the TriImperials' actual home. I wonder what they have done to the fine old city." He sighed. "Good chance most of it is well cared for but empty of people. Yet I also have a strong but subtle sense that things are changing in the TriEmpire. Time for breakfast." Mahargastle laughed softly. "Yes, time to get up that mob and get them organized. Food, drink, water and other necessaries are already arriving at the big dining room close to here from the central dispensaries of this structure." To be finished in FIVE!

I ban Ancient Aeon for banning Malachi because he is insane and enjoys it Its everybody's right to be a happy loon. Its the unhappy ones I feel sorry for.

Back to Front!

A car that is actually a TARDIS! In reality a TARDIS that appears at this moment like a car! (For those unfamiliar with Doctor Who means Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) (a space and time travel vehicle that is bigger inside than out).

Walking Alone in a Smashed City (Darwin after Cyclone Tracey, 1975) Walked down the middle of a street that once was familiar with bustling folks and moving vehicles But now it was empty but for me Silent but for me and the noise of distant moving traffic This place that I had known for many years since early childhood and where friends had lived This street that once held many normal houses where people lived That now held ruined buildings where some had died It shocked It was more alien because it was familiar It saddened It taught me that nothing is permanent and that nothing is to be taken for granted and that it is best to live day by day though that is a lesson that I have had to learn again.

Three At first the basement level came across like any abandoned underground fort area. It was a complex of stone block hallway tunnels, stairways and bigger rooms with more complicated details to them. As soon as K'Martina slipped ghost like down through the slab, which was now a magical door of sorts, she found herself on on stairs in a sunken stairwell. She brushed away cobwebs and stepped downwards over pieces of metal armour and skeletal remains. The place echoed eerily and smelt of unpleasant things but mostly it was dank and stale. Some air ventilation was taking place because the air was quite breathable. She walked past a wooden handcart upon which lay a stretcher and more skeletal remains. As she stepped around the handcart, the first of the skeletars came rushing at her. Sensing and desiring her life-energies to drain, the armoured animated skeleton was surrounded by a ghostly like aura of a human body. The Master Spell sometimes caused the rise of the undead as a kind of mirror effect ot its own powerful nature. It was faster and more skilled than a normal undeathly animated skeleton. It sprang forth and sliced a steel sword through the air at her. A silver axe lay on the floor but the undead could not use silver which did them harm. She ducked beneath the swing and struck her flamlight lit hand into the solar plexus area of the lesser undead. It burned away in front of her and the empty armour, along with the sword, fell to the hard stone floor with a clang. Then she picked up the silver-alloy axe. Past a row of hastily stacked barrels, a couple of sacks of stuff and the skeletal remains of a mage complete with rotting robes. It was hard to say why some remains remained dead and some became undead when it came to such as the Master Spell. More skeletars came at her, the lesser undead of animated skeletons. She again moved so fast that these undead warriors, bits of captured life force and not captive souls as such, were too slow for her. K'Martina kicked hard into a shield and as she did she released a pulse of silverlight energies that exploded a skeletar backwards. It fragmented, burning away, even as it flung a second skeletar backwards. She swung the well made silver axe and smashed through the skull of the off balanced skeletar and it also burned away. These wer lesser undead. What really divided lesser undead from mediate undead was that the mediate undead had captive souls such a deluded lichs or vampires while the lesser undead had only captive bits of life energies. For the moment no more undead came at her so she went back and started looting items. When she found something of use or possible use she made it vanish with a sparkling shimmer. Then once more the young woman was plunging deeper into the maze of spaces made that way to make it more difficult for attackers. For a while she walked through abandoned training areas, dormitories, common spaces and other features of an old active fortress. She looted more items of many kinds including scrolls, books, tools, weapons, arrows and many other items. More lesser undead came at her in this next level. Shambling zombies with out weapons but sometimes in armour, faster moving zombars with weapons and often with armour and of course skeletars. They came at her and this time she struck them down with arrows that exploded on impact with one with such savage flamelight blasts that they destroyed two to four enemies at a time while damaging and weakening others. Problem was that these exploding arrows were also destroyed and could, of course, not be reused or even recycled as arrows. Now and then she also hurled a flamelight or a silverlight ball or a spreading out horizontal pattern of pulses. Then there were no more lesser undead in that great big chamber with its great big supporting pillars, its great statues that also helped support the ceiling and open archways through walls leading into other large chambers. Statues were of heroes but also of famous other figures like philosphers, poets, politicians and priestesses or priests. Who had ever decided what to put into the decorating of that great chamber wanted the fortress to represent more than conflict. There were also nine statues of the Nine Divines being Akatosh the Dragon God of Time, Arkay the God of the Cycle of Birth and Death, Dibella the Goddess of Beauty, Julianos the God of Wisdom and Logic, Kynareth the Goddess of Nature, Mara the Mother-Goddess and Goddess of Love, Stendarr the God of Mercy, Zenithar - God of Work and Commerce and also Talos the God of War, once known as Tiber Septim. Yet there were also some other deity statues there that had been lost in time, that were mysterious, that were simply alien to Tamriel as most knew it. Three Goddesses were Amazoniss the Goddess of Protection of Nature and Life, (Great Slayer of Undeath and Twisted Nature), Panyre the Goddess of Natural Magic (Wild Magic) and Gaigia the Goddess of the Cycles of Birth and Rebirth, Healing and Compassion. Arkay and Gaiga were not of the same responsibilities for one was of the Cycle of Birth and Death and the other of the Cycle of Birth and Rebirth. These were related but not the same. Amonziss, Panrye and Gaigia had flourished on Liermat so why were statues of them there on the other side of the world in Tamriel and if them why not the others of the Nine Holies of Liermat. She walked amongst the pillars and statue-pillars, amongst more left overs of what had been a bustling fortress, and cursed softly the Master Spell. There were secrets in that place but she had yet to deal with the real threat in that place before she sought them out. The young woman was Kurikondi, the ancient druidic people who were reflections of the very essesence of life but she faced something Kurikanzi that was warped unnatural Kurikondi, perhaps antinatural undeath. Kurikanzi once served the TriEmpire when it oppressed Leirmat but had become sundered from the TriEmpire before the Great Leirmattin Rebellion had driven off the TriEmpire. Some said it was the Kurikanzi who had tried to betray the TriEmpire and some said it was the oppsoite but both were right. TriEmpire and Kurikanzi had tried to betray each other and yet in this case the TriImperials had better reason to do so for the Kurikanzi were causing trouble for them long before the sundering had taken place. Kurikanzi in general were monstrous but sometimes Kurikanzi individuals reformed and deserted from the Kurikanzi. Some went to the Kurikondi and if they proved not to be false, to be infiltrators, they were accepted back into the fold. Others became wandering Kurikuri moving alone or in small groups. Kurikuri were also known as Kuri Gypsies. These and other such peoples, even the cursed Kurikanzi except those those who actually became undead, were known as belonging to the greater classification of the Kuri. There was, in one large stone alcove, a place of mages, battlemages and battlehealers and there she found alchemic devices, crystal-balls used for scrying and communications, a slightly cracked magic-mirror, a flying-platform of ornate bronze reinforced hard wood complete with a semi-open cabin and safety-rails, racks of precharge magic-staves of the kind that could be used by non-magefolk and even spell scrolls. But the lizen-energies in the chamber, as weak as they were, and the Master Spell, had leached the magic out of all there so that the scrolls were cracked and shredding uselessly while the devices were all with only weak charges. Battlehealers were warriors with also healing training and magical skills focused towards Restoration. K'Martina knew she could salvage all of the stuff in that alcove but at cost. Doing so would also attract the real threat in that place, a threat that lay in self imposed semiconsciousness in continous sentry status. She kept looking. Next to a row of now uncharged magical swords, axes, hammers and crossbows was an ornate wooden chest with both magical wards, now useless, and very well made mechanical locks. She got past the locks in seconds. Inside were some books on magic (not magic books), books of spells (not spellbooks) and a leather bound journal. The leather bound journal was the writings and daily reports of a mage-sage in the fortress. Juliarna Safess, a mage of much experience, skill and learning, had written in ornate but easily read lettering even when in a rush. For at the end she was in a rush as she wrote about the last terrifying hours as the TriImperial forces, the now treacherous puppets of former allies and the Master Spell itself had attacked the fortress. But in those words of desperation and wonder, for the mage-sage had truly wanted to know more about this Master Spell, she had hidden a coded message. The coded message was brilliantly well done but it hinted at some kind of hope. After laying some warning-emblems around the opening of the alcove, K'Martina sat cross legged on a mat with her back to the back wall of the alcove and meditated. Then she slept in the very same position. A zombie-rat scuttled across the floor in a distant part of the chamber. A big black hand-spider crawled across the roof, a deformed hand like thing that was an extension of a very much more powerful creature, but it failed to detect K'Martina. It did find the remains of the battle, the residue of spent magic and the destroyed undead. At once it alerted its master. The twisted undead Kurikanzi became fully conscious and he grinned, he stood up, he stretched his distorted body all muscular and massive in layers of armour plating, and he stood then in a meditative stance as he prepared for battle. It was failing, it was slowly collapsing away and was wishing for death as many of the mediate or greater undead often did as they realised the horrific trap that they had found themselves in. But it wished to die fighting its oldest and greatest enemy the Kurikondi and now it sensed that it, once a Kurikanzi man, had its chance to do just that. K'Manvor stood there in a graven metal skull like helmet in a very powerful undead body that no longer could shapechange fundimentally or even do lesser shapeshifting. In both metallic spiked fists it held a magical grandsword, a two handed monstrous sword, with its tip pressed down against the floor. He had nothing to lose and if he won he won, if he lost he died and he still won. Ironically he couldn't even remember what he was supposed to be guarding. All he rememberd was that his Kurikanzi Overlord had left him there long ago to guard something and had promised to return in no more than a year. That was now over a century ago or maybe two or maybe three? His decaying mentallity and the ever present background pressure of the Master Spell made it impossible for him to tell any longer. But then he sensed new danger and it was not Kurikondi for that was familiar and this was strange, was new to him. He prepared for battle though he felt frustrated that he might die at the hands of something other than a traditional enemy. Sensing trouble, K'Martina woke and came quietly, quickly, smoothly up into a crouch. She focused and prepared to deal not only with one traditional threat but now more than one powerful threat. It was time for a great battle to take place, it was time for death and destruction to be unleashed! To be continued in FOUR!

Two The old man walked out of the isolated and long forgotten cathedral. He stood in the darkness beneath a cloudy sky in the area known as Black Marsh. Once the Cyrodilin Empire had controlled that part of Argonia but that was a long time ago. Yet the Argonians, the amphibious people, had not at any time tried to do any harm to the human built structure. As the old man stood there in his long hooded robe with his hood pulled up over his head, he noted a fair few Argonians, or marshfolk, gathered around the ruins of the old imperial settlement that was on a large firm island in the marshes. They were quiet but intense. They were all adults and they were all armed and armoured but there were no magical weapons or armour amongst them. They were all in pain. He looked up at the sky, at the strange broiling clouds and could sense the Master Spell pressing relentlessly against the island, the cathedral and its holy aura. The aura weakened and kept back the full power of the Master Spell. Above, way above, there was a lightening like flash but it was not lightening. It was holy power spent against the Master Spell as the Nine Divines launched yet another attack against it. They were trying something new, had called upon all their wisdom, brilliance and powers to try to find a weakness in the Master Spell but this attempt was also failing. The Eternal Champion felt the cold rain begin to fall in a season when no rain should be falling let alone cold rain that caused the marshfolk to shiver horribly. There was much to do before he even tried to leave the island with its ruins, its shanty town of magical Argonians seeking shelter from the Master Spell. He nodded to the reptilian people, turned and walked back into the cathedral. They began to follow him into that big old structure. With out one word spoken they had already decided that they would work with this tall old man who radiated such a powerful presence. Once inside the cathedral they began to make plans. Out in the marshes three copper metallic troll creatures moved powerfully, smoothly and quietly through the muddy, reedy waters. They glimpsed the cathedral, or at least its broken spire, but they ignored it for the Master Spell had them seeking something else. Something big moved in the brown waters but only to flee from these mockeries of real life. It sank deeper into the mud and sought warmth, sought shelter, sought hiding from this strange new Tamriel that disturbed it so much. To be continued in THREE

One (Continued) K'Martina pointed to the bag. "Look inside?" Ratty had learned to listen to and understand a fair few basic words thanks to the phantoms he spent much of his time with. He seemed to sum things up. He sniffed at the metallic leather bag and stepped back in obvious distaste, not liking what he smelt there. Then his large black eyes, somehow both rat like but not sinister at all, met hers and she understand. He wanted to know what was in the strange bag but he knew better than to meddle with what was inside. She could have it and he would have all of his new stuff. Then she dropped three more wrapped ration-biscuits on top of the other prizes causing Ratty to wriggle with delight. "You are going to spoil him." The Blade Knight said but with a smile in his voice. "The most non rat like rat I have ever met. Perhaps I have not told you everything." She shrugged. "Perhaps I knew that. What else is down there? Any rebels?" The Blade Knight shook his head. "Not as such! A whole lot of rebels got destroyed, captured or scattered when the Hunterers found a large underground base, actually part of a long broken down castle. Soon after that the last rebel fighters came here and brought with them refugees, young and old magefolk, nullfolk and antimagefolk who could not hope to survive the tough conditions of guerilla warfare. The rebels fight on and it is whispered that out of fear for their own future that Summerset Isles elves are secretly sending them equipment and supplies." She snorted. "Indeed they are doing so and they are doing more than that. Kurikondi agents landed on that great island over there a fair few years ago. We learned a few things that surprised us as they would surprise anybody who assumed they knew about those so called High Elves. My people made an agreement with them. We would help them to prepare their realm against future TriImperial invasion, which will happen sooner or later, and they will carry out a series of actions. I am not at liberty to speak of such. Indeed I do not know much at all about it. I can't give over secrets I don't have. The TriImperial Emperor and Empress are far from fools. In many ways she is more deadly than he is though he is more directly powerful. They will have sent their own agents and other means of espionage over there by now." K'Martina carefully picked up the metallic leather bag and sniffed at it. Then she frowned. "You phantoms come up here on a regular basis?" He nodded. "Three of us are up here on sentry duty at any one time. Or at least that is how it used to be. Now most of us sleep most of the time and it is hard enough to get one of us up here. Why do you ask?" She held the sack with her left hand and pressed her fingers of her right hand against the bag. Her hand shimmered and the cord simply slipped open. As it did there was the discharge of red sparkles, the breaking of a security trap spell. Then she uptilted the bag and out of it fell a small blood red metal star-ring emblem, a small red fleshy clay figure and two smaller metallic leather bags. The rat sniffed eagerly but not too closely. With a frown she scooped all the items off the ground and back into the metallic leather bag. "You missed at least one powerful intruder but do not be surprised for such are amazing at stealth as are my people. You would not have found me if I did not want you to. Now, truthfully now, how do we go downwards." He shrugged. "I only have some clues. Ratty goes up and down through ways you could never fit through. There is one way but a fairly large, thick and heavy slab of stone covers it. I doubt that you could move it." K'Martina smiled some more. "Show me this slab!" Ratty was happy to let her carry a bag full of his goodies while he darted along with them through the broken fortress. A black crow came flying down and landed on Ratty's back but the rat only made noises of pleasure. Ratty, it seemed, had a few unusual friends. They came to the slab which had crashed down over a rampway pit that led down to the basement levels. It was the defenders and not the attackers who did this to give time for those underground more chance to escape. It had worked and a fair few soldiers had gone out through a complex cave system, one of the amazing ancient systems that Tamriel boasted of. Those still above in the fortress had paid a heavy price for this brave decision. How did she know about the fate of the fortress and those in them? Because somebody or something had been secretly sending information to her people ever since the TriEmpire had invaded Tamriel but her people did not know who or what was doing it. She slipped a very small white-gold sphere out of a pouch and simply dropped it onto the slab. The whole slab sparkle shimmered for a short moment and then it looked quite normal. But she spoke. "Now it is a magical door. I will teach your folk how to use it." The phantom yawned. "I may have forgotten to tell you that down there are lesser undead and a few other dangers. We phantoms don't go down to those particular chambers, hallways and other spaces. Ratty and his friends avoid them also. The TriImperials sent something down there but I suppose it has left by now or been taken away. Please don't look at me that way, Martina, I am so damned sleepy all the time." She nodded. "Let the Three Guardian Goddesses assist you then to become a Light-Guardian. Goddess of Flamelight, Goddess of Silverlight and Goddess of Lifelight. Through light is life supported and through light are the undead dealt destruction. All abilities strengthened but one area may be more enhanced than others be it of flamelight, silverlight or lifelight. Or perhaps you will truly phsical again as a Life-Guardian but with enhanced body, mind and spirit but with one of these gaining more enhancement than the others for you; physical is endurance, speed, strength, agility and other related. Mind is memory, calculations, clarity, psychic and related. Spirit is spritual, magical and related. There is a price! This is the only way I can offer you escape from being a lizen-phantom except killing you." The rat looked worried. Henric reached down and scratched him behind a ear. The crow took a half hearted peck at the phantom and earned a scratch on the head as punishment. Then Henric stood up. "What would Ratty do with out me here to look after him? I choose this assistance." K'Martina closed her eyes, bowed her head and chanted in some ancient language sweet and song like. Then she switched to New Cyrodilic. "I beg the Blessing of the One, the Three, the Nine and the Eighty-One. Bring this moment into fruitation. Know that I only ask this of you because of the dire need of it. Yet I also ask of you to show this one the full price that he must pay in turn for this powerful blessing." At that moment Henric shimmered with energies of various lights and then so did the rat and the crow. The blessing had been accepted by Henric after an agreement of sorts had been made. To Henric it would have seemed like a good deal of time would have passed in those seconds. Henric suddenly became translucent looking but no longer tired. He was healthier and a very soft shimmer of silverlight surrounded him but then faded away. Ratty was suddenly gifted with warm brown eyes and thicker, softer fur while his tail was sweeter looking, longer and far more flexible. His front paws were more flexible. He looked more rounded off properly, more streamlined. The crow was larger, had a bigger skull area and gave off the impression of being faster, stronger and more agile a flier. Ratty grinned with wonderful polished white teeth and then spoke in New Cyrodilic. "I wish I could talk, I really do." Then he wriggled with delight. "I can talk, I can. It's true!" Henric nodded. "I believe you. Crowdee can talk and maybe now he will give you back those trinkets he stole from you?" Crowdee cawed rudely but then shook his wings and relented. He spoke. "Very well then, trinkets are back times double with extras that me, crow, found. Saw dark thing one dawn come and bury that bad bag in ground. Did not like it. It was fast. It was powerful. It was dangerous. It smelt of death and of undeath. I hid away. All animals hid or ran away from it. Did not have thoughts or words proper before to report such things. Thoughts bigger and clearer now. Words come painful but not like before." K'Martina nodded to the crow. "Things are all different now. Now we have to go below. You can go with Ratty the safe way. I think you should now. Henric can go with you and make sure you are safe. I have to do this alone. I sense now that something is down there that I must deal with, that I have been meaning to deal with for a very long time. A blessing to all three of you." The parted ways with Henric now easily taking Ratty's bag of goodies. K'Martina turned and faced the slab with a frown. She focused, cleared her mind and prepared for a fight to the death. To be continued with TWO!

One It was dimly lit of dawn when the white golden globe appeared out of nowhere, sparkling shimmering into solidity out of mid air. The young woman could feel the oppressive presence of the Master Spell of the TriImperials as soon as she stepped out of the white golden orb and the orb-door slid closed behind herself. The three metre wide and high transorbican floated just above the water for just a moment. Then it vanished with a sparkling shimmer. She stood on the beach with small harmless mudcrabs, sand-crawlers and seagulls around her. More dangerous clawcrabs were in the distance but they did not bother to come to attack her. Before her up on the beach was a smashed and burned stone-block fortress where the Cyrodlin Empire had put up a fight against the invading TriImperials with magic, magical weapons and desperate courage. That is until they found themselves attacked not just by the TriImperial Wizards and Wizardesses but by their own people, those now under the control of the Master Spell. It was on a lonely point of Cyrodilin land, fairly rocky and sandy, where wind blew in from the sea. She stood there in typical mid priced Cyrodilic travel gear including boots, trousers, jacket, buttonshirt, large frame-backpack and cap. Her only weapon was a steel shortsword that was used also for other reasons, a couple of big knives in scabbards and a hunting bow in a scabbard-quiver over her back along with a whole lot of arrows. It was a powerful composite bow. Lightly tanned white skin, long silken black hair, she set out up the beach and found herself enjoying the natural scene. In the distance was the rotting shape of a galley ship lying high on the rocks where a crazy wild storm had thrown it. The Master Spell caused odd effects on both climate and weather at times. Shipping had been cut back both by TriImperial Ediction and the weather madness. Outlanders no longer came to Tamriel though in truth they had done so uncommonly before. There was a loneliness and isolation about the place made more haunting by the presence of the fort that reminded one that humans and other folk in service to the old empire had once thrived here. Getting into the old fort was easy enough. She slipped through a hole in one wall, blasted there by a Wizard's disintegrator spell. Walked past a loose pile of bones, old armour and weapons and into a great courtyard proper. Stuff was piled in corners such as old archery targets, broken wagon wheels, pieces of pottery, odd bits of steel or bronze and much else of the kind. There were white bones. She felt the odd fading residue of TriImperial lizen-magic and felt repulsed by what she experienced. Lizen-magic was lethally powerful but it was dark magic and it was not only antinatural in many ways but darkly costly in the way it was created, charged and in the side-effects that it caused. Still the fortress had not taken much of a blasting to fall thanks to the ill preparedness of its defenders. It took only a month for the whole Cyrodilin Empire, the whole of Tamriel, to fall to the TriImperials and outer areas not conquered had become so quickly isolated and cut off from resources they often knew little or nothing of what was going on. For the major cities had fallen first with the Imperial City being the very first target. Yet the Master Spell was not consistently strong through out Tamriel and here in this isolated part of Cyrodiil was a weaker patch due to a series of factors such as there having been many magical battles of traditional magic fought there, the composition of the ground and even the kind of stone used to make the fortress. Yet there was another reason and it was part of the reason she was there at that spot to being her infiltration of the TriEmpire. The fortress had basement levels, that was normal enough, but hidden beneath those basement levels was an Ayleid underground city. Ayleid ruins had a powerful resistance against lizen-magic. The TriLord high servants of the TriEmpire could not find such places with their magic instrumentalities. Puppet-minds of the Master Spell were free inside Ayleid ruins. This was why the TriEmpire had isolated and covered most Ayleid ruins with great mounds of stone and dirt that were guarded heavily by various kinds of mimickrions plus TriImperial Legionaries. She would start the makings of an infiltration base here for her people the Kurikondi. Then she felt it, saw it, walking towards her all semitransparent and human appearing but very much a ghost. The ghost was a Blade Legionary, a human with Akaviri blood meaning immunity to lizen-magic. He wore traditional blade armour and carried an Akaviri sword. He was tall and broad shouldered with brown skin, brown eyes and dark brown, almost black hair. He wore no helmet. Both his sword and his armour were of traditional magic. Then it came to her that this was no ghost as such but a lizen-phantom, a man of body, mind and spirit trapped in the so called Lizen-Zone. He had the sleepy look of one trapped long in such a horrible half-awake half-asleep half-dreaming place but as yet he was not curled up somewhere fallen away from all outside awareness. Once, when her people had unwillingly served the TriEmpire, many of them had suffered such punishments when they dared to rebel or even question TriImperial Ways. Oddly enough sometimes victims were accidentally sent into the Lizen-Zone with lizen-magical side-effects. The victim stopped and looking hard at her, as if seeing her only with some difficulty because it was true, he spoke in an oddly muffled voice in the language called New Cyrodilic. "You are not as you seem. You are an elemental shapechanger of great power. You are a stranger to Tamriel and to Cyrodiil. Perhaps you are a stranger to this world. Where do you come from? I can not see your true shapeform." "Be thankful you can not see my true shapeform." She smiled. "On the very opposite side of the globe that is this world of Mundus there is another continent almost the exact same shape and size of Tamriel that is known as Leirmat. It is from Leirmat that I come. I come seeking information about the TriEmpire. Once the TriEmpire ruled Leirmat before it was both thrown off and left voluntarily. You are awake then though trapped in the Lizen-Zone." The Blade Knight shook his head as if at something in his own mind. "Voices, voices that echo in my mind. Only when I sleep do they go away and then I dream strange sometimes peaceful but sometimes disturbing dreams. Still everything is numbed here. Nothing is of extreme pain or pleasure. When I go down into the Ayleid ruins things change. There I am no longer numb. There my mind is clearer. But there I also feel loneliness and pain unless I keep at least fairly close to other phantoms down there. We tend to dwell in large chambers where the lesser undead do not go for they seem to be repelled by us. We are even more revolted by the undead now than we were when we were normal for we can see truly what undeath is, even so called lesser undeath. To think I once thought that necromancy was fairly harmless. The Mages Guild was more than correct in trying to get rid of it." The woman spoke. "Call me Martina! I need to go down into those Ayleid levels." He sighed. "I can only get down there by sinking down through layers of rubble and then finding myself in the old fortress basement levels that have survived. I am Blade Knight Henric Arano. I fought in the War of Five Emperors that weakened the empire and made it easier for the TriEmpire to conquer Tamriel. Bad luck for us and good luck for them." Martina looked around and noted a large slightly mishaped metre long rat digging at the ground furiously. The creature's head bulged oddly and hinted at greater brain capacity than that of normal rats. She smiled for she sensed no real threat or aggression in the black, grey and brown splotched creature but a surprising level of intelligence plus a great deal of curiosity. Lizen-toxins sometimes produced some favourable effects but the poor rat was also sick of cancer and was due to die horribly. Except that she had other plans that would assist both the rat and herself. The phantom nodded. "That's Ratty! Friendly, talkative and likes to hang around us phantoms. We protect him from the lesser undead. We can read his mind in a basic fashion and we learn what he knowledge he has gained on one of his crazy trips searching for curiosities for his collection. He has pain sometimes that we can suppress to some extent and he is sexually frustrated because the big female rats in the area reject him." Ratty stopped digging, sat up on his haunches and looked around to see Martina and the phantomic Blade Knight. He chirped excitedly and K'Martina found that she knew that the rat was digging at what the rodent thought was something of much tingling interest. That is he could sense something of strong magic. Then he shot downwards to begin wildly digging away again. She sighed and walked over. Ratty stopped digging, turned his head to look up at her with some wariness. She sighed and spoke. "No, not steal prize." The rat creature chittered happily and then dug some more. Then, very carefully, it uncovered what looked to be a thick metallic leather bag. Then he clamped his teeth carefully around a fold and pulled it up out of the ground. He plopped it onto the dirt. There was an odd hollow metallic noise. The bag was bound tightly closed with a magical leather cord that was beyond Ratty's ability to open. Henric wandered over with a sleepy amused and curious look on his face. He crouched as did K'Martino. Ratty pawed at the strange leather bag. Henric shook his head. "Very exotic material! What is it?" "Trouble!" She slipped a ration-biscuit out of a pouch, carefully took off its metallic paper wrapping and then gave the ration-biscuit to the hungry rodent. He sniffed at it carefully, seemed satisfied and then ate it sitting up on his hind legs while holding it cleverly with his front paws. She put the silver metallic wrapping, neatly folded up, on the ground in front of Ratty and added to this a shiny copper-1 coin, small ruby, an emerald, a diamond, a shiny pearl and shiny rubbery sphere dotted with small metallic shiny buttons of different colours. Ratty kept on eating but he turned and examined the newly revealed items with much evident excitement. Martina reached out and scratched him behind his nearest ear. As she did she spoke. "What of the rest of Tamriel, of the remains of the Old Empire?" He shrugged. "Sometimes rebels used to come this way. They found another way down into the old fort basement levels and into the Ayleid city. They stored items in the Ayleid city and asked us to keep an eye on them. The last such visit was about five years ago. From what they said life is surprisingly normal for most people in the TriEmpire. There is no magic around and all the magefolk have vanished. The nobility, all the guilds but the Mages Guild, the town councils, the Sheriffs and other aspects of life are still there. The Order of the Nine is gone and the old cathedrals, temples and other buildings are either closed off or are used for other reasons now. Magical creatures have vanished from areas closer to settlements and roads, be they good, bad or neutral. Some areas have been closed off. People can use the TriImperial Communications, Rail-Wheel, Highway and Teleport Networks, can travel by rail-wheeler, wheel-flyer, highway-wheeler or teleport-carriage if one has the permits, payment and smarts to deal with TriImperials they might meet. TriImperials never forgive any of us Tamriellans if we break the Coda of Society's various rules. Only few non TriImperials get to use those networks. We travel mostly the old ways of horse, stagecoach, by foot, by boat or by any means we can. What with the passbooks that need to be gained and signed, the permits that need to be gained and signed and all the payments that need to be made, small but they add up, few can afford to travel openly. Still trade is brisk. Secret travel takes place fairly commonly. Guild and co-op profits are fairly high. Taxation is modest." K'Martina nodded. "It was the same way in Leirmat when the TriEmpire ruled there. The TriEmpire is a seminomadic empire. It conquers a region, rules it for a while and leaves when it can no longer get what it wants from there. Please do not look so hopeful. When it does leave it leaves behind a horrible mess of dreadful lizen-toxins, wastelands and other problems. Tamriel must get rid of the TriEmpire before it reaches this stage." Ratty finished eating the ration-biscuit, both very filling and very nutritional, and ogled the prizes that the Kurikondi had put on the ground. K'Martina scooped them all up and carefully placed them before the rodent. She spoke. "Ratty has prizes." Ratty made a few noises of joy.

Tameriel is much bigger because I have expanded it out and added new settlements, forts, other features for writing as compared to being part of a game. From seemingly nowhere have arisen the TriImperials of Air, Water and Land. Unleashing the Master Spell upon all of Tamriel (excluding Summerset Isles) they have: suppressed all powerful magic except their own. have set up a series of special magical service-support networks of communication, teleporation, flying, rail-wheeling, wheeling and aquatic unleashed their magical creatures of air, water and land to serve them and their needs and to oppress the rebel Tamriellans blocked all summoning spells of the undead and the daedra have taken over the minds of most non-magical peoples, turning them into unquestioning puppets. Exceptions are those of intrinsic magical, nullmagical or antimagical ability to be added to: TriImperials appear openly as tall beautiful humans of golden, silver or copper skin and folded or open exotic metallic wings. Are normally hairless. Creatures of air, land and water are mimickrions who take on the physical outward form of certain creatures but with noticable colouration of gold, silver or copper TriEnforcers elite TriImperial military TriOrderators elite TriImperial paramilitary TriBeholders elite TriImperial security-intelligence Imperial City and Imperial Island are now closed to all but the TriImperials. The Forbidden Faiths of the Nine and the Daedra are suppressed and have been driven underground. A young Cyrodilin Empress leads a rebel imperial group with the Blades, the Holy Free Orders and other groups. The Imperial Island where stands the Imperial City is now open on to the TriImperials (the new ruling people) Copyrighted as follows @ 2009 (basically want people to ask before they use any of these concepts and to acknowledge where they came from). TriImperial TriImperium TriEmpire TriGoldate TriSilverate TriCopperate Kurikondi = druidic, healer, battlemage oriented people Kuriyanwi = very psychic Kurikondi cousin minority Kurivezzi = very magical Kurikondi cousin minority Kurikonddis = Enclave on western coast of Cyrodiil Kurikondor = Mysterious continent far west of Tamriel the continet on the world of Mundus. druidgon = druidical dragon like creature, magical Kurikanzi = zruidic people, once Kurikondi but broke away to take a dark path zruids = a dark form of druid believing in twisted nature, forms of demonism and even unique forms of undeath Omnicronos Opisoriti-Opisori gobbit = goblin like creature gobgoblin = hybrid goblin-gobbit muckopus Kirndu Kirnduite Cartorari Cartorariata skeletar = undead animated skeleton skel = animated skeleton of special kind zombar = more alert, faster, armour and weapon using zombie Waymer Aymer Oomir elementathrope Great Cluster = Oztralia, Taziland and the Triple Zealands. Amazoniss the Goddess of Protection of Nature and Life, (Great Slayer of Undeath and Twisted Nature) Panyre the Goddess of Natural Magic (Wild Magic) Gaigia the Goddess of the Cycles (of Birth and Rebirth), Healing and Compassion. K'Martina K'Mortina (extension of K'Martina) Ratty Mahargrah Mahargrassa Conanar the Paladin (Eternal Champion) Jasmine the Battlemage (Eternal Champion) She'Ralla Tre'Ralla Bono Broothada (K'Makra the Kurikanzi) [/color]

Installment Twenty-One With a sparkling shimmer a tall slimly muscular figure appeared in an amazing white-gold outfit of tophat, cape and trousers. Otherwise he had a black silken shirt with white-gold buttons, black leather long trousers and black leather boots as well as a black leather belt with a large springback-pistol holstered on either side. Each springback-pistol had an ornate white-gold butt. He held a magic wand in one hand of the kind used in some far off lands but not normally in Tamriel. In this case it was all black with a white-gold tip. The Mahargrah like figure spoke with charm and exaggeration. "I am Mahardrake the Magician! Yes, I can really do magic! Its true! How amazing is that?" The others all stared at him, except Omnicronos of course who had no eyes as such or at least no visible ones. K'Mortina sighed. "Father, you are one aspect of one of my fathers, you are on Mundus that is a world of magic and you are surrounded by magic but also you are a highly magical being. Oh, where do you get all this foolishness from?" Mahardrake looked sulky. "That's not very nice." He took off his tophat and it slipped off to show another smaller but otherwise identical one on his head that quickly expanded to normal size to fit normally on his head. He grinned cheekily and showed everybody the inside of the hat. "Nothing inside the hat, you can see it is very empty except for the white rabbit with the pink eyes. In a moment, amazingly enough, I shall take from the tophat a white rabbit with pink eyes just like the one you see here inside the tophat." The Blade Sister bodyguard made a ouch noise, jumped up and then frowned hard around while rubbing her right buttock. "If I find out who did that I will cut your head off." Something giggled in mid air, a strange high pitched male noise, and then there was a sound of pattering feet and foot marks forming in a dusty area of floor. The giggling and foot prints both abruptly stopped. Mahardrake aimed his wand and out of it spat a single small sizzling blue pulse of magical electricity. It struck something in mid air, fairly low to the ground, and a high pitched voice shreiked in pain. Out of mid-air formed a metre tall leprechaun figure in guady golden cloak, trousers and shoes, a black dinner vest and tophat. His skin was dull emerald green, his nose was sharply pointy as were his shoes and he was clutching his buttocks as he jumped up and down. Mahardrake spoke with a grin. "Now, Oh'Gaydorus O'Mickus, you promised me no shanigins of that kind. No pinching of the womanly buttocks, no stealing of warming pies on window ledges, no happy spice in people's coffee or peeking at dressing women while invisible. That is you being the invisible one of course." Gaydorus scowled and whined with self pity. "Aaahhh, its a cruel world when a young leprechaun can't have any innocent fun." Mahardrake snorted. "Be useful and look around. You know the drill. Don't attract attention to yourself for your sake as well as mine." Gaydorus grinned and nodded. Then he vanished with a soft sparkling shimmer. Omnicronos spoke. "You are an aspect of Mahargrah. You are the Great Trickster God, linked with the magical creative chaos of the Retirw, the sower of ordered chaos. That leprechaun you released into my base here in the Secondary White Gold Tower, it is a powerful one of its kind. What does it seek? Does it seek my secrets?" The magician placed his tophat on the end of a curving bench-table. "I say the magic words Abra Kadadraba Wax Oh Ear Pearls of Taxation. I tap each side of the tophat thus and wave my magic wand over the top of it and out comes a white rabbit with pink ears." The white rabbit leapt out of the tophat and landed on the top of the bench-table with its white-golden tap dancing shoes. It wore the shoes, a white-golden vest and a white-golden tophat of its own. It had a wand big enough to be a dancing stick for it. Then the rabbit began a dancing routine and as it did it tapped the table with its tap shoes. Music started to play and the tapping was amplified. Mahardrake grinned mildly at the others. "Just a white rabbit with pink eyes, just a rabbit, hhhaaa! Am I not the amazing Mahardrake the Magician who can hypnotise horses into flying and rocks into rolling? Yes it is I!" He lost his grin. "Omnicronos, you big silly thing, are you still playing those foolish games of yours? I know you mean well but really, you need to be more straight forwardly honest like I is." Omnicronos spoke. "I am!" Mahardrake grinned. "Touche! Very good and very true! These people are not dead though not alive. Nor are they undead. Do you want me to save them so you can question them, so we can question them?" The minister frowned. "Is this some kind of necromancy?" At that the magician figure looked annoyed. "I am no necromancer! No, the act of death simply did not complete itself. Since these folk are not truly dead I can not be bringing them back from the dead. Billy Bunny, please desist in your dancing for though it is wondrous to look upon and listen to I need your assistance." Billy sparkle shimmered and now she was a young woman of snow white skin, silky smooth, and a black tight leotard that left buttocks and upper back bare as well as too much else skin. She had a white bunny tail and a black tophat. She was beautifully exotic with pink eyes. In one hand she gripped a magic wand and the other a small disk shaped shield of white-gold with a black rim. Hartin frowned. "Enough of this over exposure of womanly skin. Are you a pevert oh Mahardrake the Magician?" Billy Bunny smiled warmly over fairly large breasts and much exposed cleavage. "Oh he is very much of a pervert! Very perverted! But that is not why I am dressed this way. It is simply tradition that I do so as his female assistant. A male assistant would be young, handsome and slimly muscular. He would only wear tight black shorts, a much open black vest and a black tophat. Now we must focus on bringing the true truth out of Omnicronos who believes it is speaking the the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Do you have any questions to ask of Omnicronos, Hartin Tane, Imperial Minister for Public Service who is indeed one of the most powerful, wealthy and influential individuals in the whole Cyrodilin Empire with strong links to the High Guilds, the Order of the Nine, the Legionmark, the Seamark, the Airmark and other interest groups." The minister frowned. "Who were the young adults on the metal tables and in the glass cubicles full of mist?" Omnicronos responded. "People from the far future. Immortals of a dying people, the superhumans, each with elemental powers that they dare not really use back home in the far future lest they draw the wrath of Magicus or Antimagicus. Bringing back people through time is very difficult as it is with any mortal or normal immortal folk. Myself, I am special and made to move back and forth or sideways in time across streams of probability and possibility. The one hundred flesh-golems and fifty-eight golem-humans I created here. The machinery I brought rapidly decayed but I was able to copy it with local resources before it time-reverse decomposed. The humans and test animals I brought back are having troubles. Spirit is most fragile, mind comes next but even body has troubles. So far there are one hundred humans, one hundred dogs, one hundred test rats and five hundred and twenty-eight mice for the mice, for reasons unknown to me, seem to have survived the best. I should not be saying this to you but I can't seem to help myself." The minister frowned. "Are you trying to invade Tamriel?" "It is not our first choice but if we fail to invade and conquer the Sanctuary Zone then it is our second choice." Omnicronos sounded embarrassed. "Really, I should not be saying any of this. Opisoriti-Opisori would not be pleased with me, will not be pleased with me. Opisoriti-Opisori is the one of many of one. Opisoriti is the hub-mind, the one linking all. The Opisori are the individuals, the superhumans, linked with the one. Together, as they always are in a semiautonomos sense, they are the Opisoriti-Opisori." Mahardrake then spoke. "Do you know all of what is going on here in this White Gold Tower?" Omnicronos spoke. "Now that you mention, no I do not! I had assumed that I did so. There are the service-support areas, the laboratories, the dormitories, the time travel chambers, the storage areas including armouries and treasury vaults, the elevators and the rail-cars plus a few other spaces and facilities. Now I think of it I only inhabit the middle third of the tower. The bottom third is open to all visitors, if briefly but is largely unused. The basement levels are closed off and, I think, unused. The top third of the tower is unknown territory except on a frequent daily basis I send resources up there including information. From there come instructions and sometimes other items." K'Mortina then spoke. "What sort of resources go up there and what sort of items come down?" Omnicronos spoke with a frown. "I simply do not know as if the data has been wiped from my hub-mind. Nor do I know what information I sent up and what instructions I got sent down to me." At that moment a strange bonging noise began to echo through the big chamber. As it did so a yellow mist suddenly started to vent into the big council chamber. The horrible mist came from many very small vents opening in metal doors and metallic sections of wall. But from the tophat lept a white bunny rabbit that expanded into a young white handsome man in black shoes, tight black shorts, a black vest and a black top hat. He took his tophat off and began passing out odd white masks, thick and bulky, to cover the face and even the eyes with transparent areas. The filter-masks were grabbed up by one and all, were put on by even Mahardrake and himself. A metal door began to shudder as if they were tightly locked and something big, powerful and aggressive was trying to get into the chamber. To be Continued!

Mildly Blue Day On a busy morning I get on the TransPerth bus, a public transportation bus, going from the outer suburb where I live in Perth, Western Australia. Sometimes I chat with people but even if I do it is only brief good mannered stuff. You know, talking about the weather and or how buses are so often late. Got to admit it the routine is enjoyable sometimes and boring at others but mostly it is just something that one does, that one quietly and unthinkly endures. Being a pensioner I place my discounted SmartRider card against a reader device, tagging on they call it, and find a seat. Always the bus goes to a transition station at a place where there is also a shopping complex. Sometimes the bus changes over to a number that I can ride further into the city so I don't get off but many times I have to change over at once to another bus or just wait for another bus. Lots of aboriginal people where I live and African immagrants which makes life interesting. Security guards are there with tazers. Saw one screaming at a young black man once until the black guy reacted and the security guy had an excuse to zap him; he zapped him. Sometimes there is trouble but I have heard it was worse before I came along. Must be because of my good influence (yehhh right!). Go into the city, not a big city with only a million or so folks that somehow manages to still feel like a big town at times, get off close to the CBD (Central Business District), go to the studio but on the way pause to buy a not so cheap take away coffee. Mildly flirt with a young woman behind the counter who is of course desirous of my short, fat, ugly poor self. (Can't help it, those supermodels just keep on begging me to go out with them but I just have to refuse; I mean I have my reputation as a loser to protect!) Studio means painting or doing 3D montage stuff. Creativity is sometimes stronger or weaker as is focus and sociability. Its good to get something strong happening but I am still newish to being an artist, an aspiring artist, and it's hit and miss. Results are mostly not satisfying to me even if others are pleased. Still, some items are pleasing even if only because they show my abilities have improved. Running out of money! Used to do more shopping for luxuries like computer games, graphic novels, figurines but now I have to be more careful. I am far from alone from that even though Australia's economy rode out the big world economic troubles better than did those of many other countries. Am still short, fat, ugly and poor so I should attract a young beautiful wealthy woman any day now who will take me away from all this! (Yehhh right!) Life goes on!

Feature

No Masculine Wash?

Once more, yet again! 1 A zero gravity chamber for doing lots of interesting things in like just sleeping comfortable, blowing huge soap bubbles, etc. 2 A super amazing virtual reality machine that exercises the body while one uses it so one can play in a virtual real Tamriel or go to virtual Hong Kong or etc. 3 A magical chamber much bigger inside than out perhaps used to conceal many wondrous secrets from strangers and where I can store all my junk.

Banning Ancient Aeon for automatically banning practical jokes when some are better than others!

Go on and race! What have you to lose?

Great stuff! A short story that conveys much. Who will win, the dragons or the humans? You never cease to pleasantly surprise me with your prose or your poetry.