Principia Discordia

Principia Discordia => Two vast and trunkless legs of stone => Topic started by: The Wizard Joseph on September 10, 2015, 03:07:26 AM

Title: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on September 10, 2015, 03:07:26 AM
Apocrypha Discordia
A collection of mythological rumors and and historical asides that either expand upon the otherwise unmentioned details of a given story or claim special knowledge of an historic event "left out of the history books".

The annals of Dustrael, last of the watchers would qualify. AD may be a worthy fictitious reference book for my own story lines. It might also make a fun project proposal to pitch to PD.com


Sample story from:
The Annals of Dustrael,
Last of The Motherfukkin' Grigori (sic)

The Real Story: Adonis
Section 1

Now some of the few monkeys on this grubby mudball that even know the name of Adonis know at least one actual fact about the fool. He was really pretty looking.  He was SO damn fine that even the goddesses just had to check him out, like all the time. Yes, pretty he was. He was so pretty that Aphrodite, Miss Thang herself, went and started seeing him like ALL the time. This got to be a problem because all the other goddesses started slackin' and jaw jackin' on about how good he was lookin' and how Aphrodite was always hogging up all his face time AND all his below the waist time. Now Aphrodite ain't really into sharing, not part of a goddess' upbringing.

The goddesses were all so obsessed that the male gods weren't getting any at all, not Ares, not Hades, definitely not Hephaestius' gimpy ass (sic again..). Even big daddy Zeus noticed that Hera was spending an awful lot more time chatting with the other goddesses and taking long trips into the countryside below Olympus. This suited Zeus just fine mostly. Zeus always gets his and now he didn't have to sneak around as much. Problem was all the male Gods were getting uptight and ornery as fuck, especially grump-ass Hades and that hot headed little snot Ares. Both of them just HATED Adonis. Ares hated him because Aphrodite had been his main squeeze, and now wouldn't stop playing monkey-stick with Adonis. Hades hated him maybe more because he had to listen to Persephone goin' on and on about him anytime she was in Tartarus, about half a year at a time.

Thing is, Adonis might have been pretty, for sure now, but what most who maybe heard of him didn't bother to look up was that he was also a product of incest. His mama, Myrrah, had tricked her daddy into getting with her during a festival by swapping with a village girl that was supposed to be her daddy's "festival girl".  He had partied so hard that he had had no idea who he was with by evening. Man, that dude could put em' away. Good times!

Anyways, so Adonis was what you might call real, real special. Just wasn't nobody manning the walls, if you follow me. Sweet guy though, he was a real people person at heart.

*background voice of Adonis, absurdly enthusiastic* "Adooonis!! I like helping!!!"

All Adonis really had was his looks and one other redeeming virtue.  I haven't used the word elephantine in a sentence for a while so we'll just describe it like that. Adonnis' primary redeeming virtue was elephantine, and well cherished by Aphrodite. Meaningful conversation was never really her thing anyway.

So the story you can go read varies but here's the gist of how it really went. Adonis liked to hunt. He wasn't good at it; nobody wanted to bring him with them.

*Adonis again, loud as fuck* "I see it! I see the stag! I'll get it! Adooonis!!"

Now most times this meant he and Aphrodite would go out and he'd hunt small game with a sport bow or sling, still couldn't hit the bottom of a canyon if he jumped in. Aphrodite would humor him and tag along, keeping him safe and letting him find game she killed for him and hid. He was ALWAYS far more enthusiastic after a good "hunt", so this became a very regular thing. It went on like this for quite some time in fact. Word got around. Eventually plans got laid to put an end to the situation.

The Real Story: Adonis
Section 2

For time out of mind Eris, we all just used to call her Woe back then, had grown to REALLY hate Aphrodite and just loved fucking with her mind at every opportunity. Oh and she was ruthless! Mmmm... so ruthless. Pretty much any time Aphrodite took a mortal lover Eris would be ready, behind the bar, in the alley, at home, any given stable really, to jump that mortal really quiet like and show 'em the good stuff. For all her looks and power Aphrodite wasn't the best lay ever, Eris was.
HAND TO THE LAWD I SWEAR IT'S THE TRUTH!

Eris would turn that monkey inside out on the sly every time, and leave Aphrodite wondering why they always seemed to "break" after a while and start staring vacantly at nothing, not even seeming to see her. Eris was always happy to suggest, when Aphrodite inevitably came by to gossip, that she just needed to find one that was more lively. This had continued for ages and had ruined kings, priests, adventurers, stable boys, particularly attractive beggars, and even a philosopher or two.

When Adonis' turn inevitably came Eris looked that silly mortal in the eye and just couldn't do it, elephantine virtue or not.  He was just too innocent. Truth was he was just what that vacuous Aphrodite needed really.

Then crafty goddess Eris saw a use for his vacant enthusiasm that would be far more rewarding than the same old games. She patted him on the head and told him she had heard what a great hunter he was and that she was very pleased to finally meet him after all the good things Aphrodite had said about him. She said that if he could keep it a secret that she'd tell him what Aphrodite said she had always wanted.

*Adonis trying to be secretive and "quiet"* "I can be quiet! I keep secrets! III'm Adooo-" *claping sound, voice cuts off*

Eris told the pretty, silly monkey that Aphrodite had always wanted him to surprise her with a big trophy animal, but didn't want to pressure him, and that he had to be quiet about it, and never ever say anything, or her feelings might be hurt because she had told Eris in private.  Eris was sure he'd get a chance one day though and he should keep hunting with Aphrodite, until he could go and find big game one day, like the other men do. Then good old Woe put a finger across his lips and said "SHHH!", and Adonis nodded vigorously.




Now the rest of the story is well documented, but there's a few deets missing. I'll just fill them in as well as I can later, but don't got all night.
Shahrazahd yalls! I'll be back another night real soon. - Dustrael
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: hooplala on September 10, 2015, 03:49:19 PM
That title has already been used.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on September 10, 2015, 06:11:54 PM
Quote from: Hoopla on September 10, 2015, 03:49:19 PM
That title has already been used.

That's ok. It's just an idea that hit me a while back. I'll google it up later. Thanks for letting me know!
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on September 10, 2015, 06:15:44 PM
The Real Story: Adonis
Section 3


One day, years later, Aphrodite was about to take Adonis on a "hunt" and do her usual. By this time she was hooked on him like herion, and Olympus was generally upset over "The Incident". Human love not being a thing gods really experience, she was as close as it gets. Had to have it!

Over the years Adonis had been taking longer and longer amounts of time to satisfy on their hunts and seemed ever more reckless. Unknown to Aphrodite, the cause was that more and more Adonis was hoping to encounter big game and impress her. Aphrodite had to work very hard indeed to keep him safe and had developed a madly over-protective mentality as she feared Adonis would either come to harm or "break" one day as so many other mortals had.

This day started like many others, but just as Aphrodite and Adonis were preparing to leave for their hunt Hermes came runnin' up on them with a message for Aphrodite bearing the seal of Zeus himself. Aphrodite and the rest of the goddesses had been summoned immediately to Olympus. Now Aphrodite might be willing to do some pretty stupid things, like Adonis, but disobeying Zeus' direct orders meant sure doom.

Aphrodite turned to Adonis and said she had to go and not to go runnin' off and hunting anything but the usual small game because she couldn't stand to see him get himself hurt. Adonis' big old grin and vigorous nodding was taken as agreement, and Aphrodite headed off to Olympus to prepare for a high court appearance before Zeus. I ain't got proof, but it's said Eris managed to convince her daddy that a formal court was the best way to address recent problems arising from Aphrodite's scandalous monkey fixation.

So of course while Aphrodite was gone Adonis went off to hunt. The known story kind of tells itself from here. Everybody knows that Adonis met a group of hunters on his way to the wild that teased him about only hunting small game and asked after his missing companion and whether she had gotten tired of him. What happened then, the bits on the record,  was that Adonis swore he'd get himself a big kill and ran off with a spear into the wild, encountered a boar, threw his spear (you're supposed to set it against the boar's charge not throw it), pissed off the boar, and got his cock and balls bitten off and eaten. Then he bled out and died.
Fuckin' Greeks man.

See now what none of you mortals know is that Ares was leading those hunters that day in mortal guise. He was always particularly good at goading folks into doing stupid and rash shit, and this is generally how he won battles.

The spear that Ares tossed to eager young Adonis had been special made by Haphastius and was sure to hit any target it was intended to. It was otherwise like any other spear and could only strike with the force brought by the user.

The boar was no ordinary boar either. Hades had done his part too and unleashed an ancient, terribly vicious devil-boar bound in Tartarus since the Titanomachy known to have a taste for genitals, it's given name in fact simply meant testicle-chewer, and the beast was especially hard even for a god to track down.

Yes, it was a set-up. Adonis got hit, but telling the story was left to the priests and portraying the gods as the dastardly jerks that they are was frowned upon back in those days, with fire usually. His death wasn't the whole story though. The rest of the story I'll finish out in the last section.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on September 10, 2015, 09:04:30 PM
Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on September 10, 2015, 06:11:54 PM
Quote from: Hoopla on September 10, 2015, 03:49:19 PM
That title has already been used.

That's ok. It's just an idea that hit me a while back. I'll google it up later. Thanks for letting me know!

After some reflection and a quick scan of the PDF I like my idea better, but hey it's all good.

An amusing thought did strike me. Is it an "abuse" of kopyleft to decide that the title of a given work is fine and entirely re-purpose the rest of it?

I mean when they say modify how far could one take it?
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: LMNO on September 10, 2015, 09:06:56 PM
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law; but you don't have to be a dick about it."
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on September 10, 2015, 10:24:08 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 10, 2015, 09:06:56 PM
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law; but you don't have to be a dick about it."
:lulz: I very much like that variant!


See but once you add that you're kind of back at the Jesus quote Crowley riffed in the first place without the bit about getting God involved.

Love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength, And love your neighbor as yourself and this is the whole of the law. 

Roughly composited from Matthew and Galatians, which was paraphrasing Matthew.

Crowley goes on in his version to say "love" is the law, love under will.

:sad: it occurs to me I've wasted entirely too much time reading WAY too far into this.

I've got absolutely no intention of being such a dick though. It was just the question that came to mind. I'll just finish up the Adonis story and let the thread sink.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: drjon on September 11, 2015, 03:05:04 AM
Perhaps "Annals Discordium" might be apropos...
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: Doktor Howl on September 11, 2015, 04:17:10 AM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 10, 2015, 09:06:56 PM
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law; but you don't have to be a dick about it."

May not apply in Tucson, Providence, or Portland.  Bite me.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: Q. G. Pennyworth on September 11, 2015, 02:42:38 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 10, 2015, 09:06:56 PM
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law; but you don't have to be a dick about it."

YOINK!
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on September 11, 2015, 04:38:18 PM
Quote from: drjon on September 11, 2015, 03:05:04 AM
Perhaps "Annals Discordium" might be apropos...

Not a bad suggestion, but no. That would be settling for what I don't actually want when I can just come up with something else entirely.

I could easily call it Discordian Pseudepigrapha. The meaning is closer to what I dreamed up anyway
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: LMNO on September 11, 2015, 04:41:02 PM
"Fables of Discord"
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on September 11, 2015, 04:41:42 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 11, 2015, 04:41:02 PM
"Fables of Discord"

I like that!
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on September 26, 2015, 02:46:45 PM
The Real Story: Adonis
Section 4

See now I always have had a burning question on my mind about the whole thing. Did old Haphaestius know that Adonis DIDN'T know how to hunt?  Sorry to say it's too late to find out for sure now, and that's a whole 'nuther story.

I still gotta wonder how it coulda been if Adonis had just been tolerated more by the other hunters and taught, had maybe known to wait for the charge, had set that spear and leaned in, could he have maybe killed the motherfucker? The spear couldn't miss. Adonis woulda been a hero lauded for all time if he'd brought that horrible, ball-snatchin' fiend down for his first big kill.

I think that's just possibly exactly what that wiley tinker Haphaestius was hoping to see happen. What actually happened might even have been more than he'd dreamed possible, as it turned out.

I hear all you skeptical smartasses and disbelieving fools already, "But why make it a conspiracy!?" Put your razors down primates; I got no beef with the Occam gang. Haphaestizzle had himself some serious possible motive. See Aphrodite was his wife and Ares pretty much took her from him. He was hateful and bitter as hell towards them both, and for the Olympians that means forever fool. You might have known that if you'd read more.

Seeing the motivation now? If Adonis had become a hero he might have been a more politically acceptable consort for Aphrodite and Ares woulda been fuck outta luck, probably forever if the kid got promoted to immortal. It was probably his destiny or whatever.  He wound up an immortal after the boar accident anyway.

And so it goes. Here's the fallout of the events as things actually played out. Adonis is associated with several seasonal deities by some of your "scolars", but that's just not accurate. Stories get completely jacked around all the time in theology so I'll give you the as rest plainly as I can.

Aphrodite had herself a 5-alarm breakdown when she realized Adonis had died. I have seen some shit in my time, but let me tell you I ain't never seen the like of it again and I've REALLY been around folks. All the drama came to a head when she threatened to burn down ALL the ambrosia stores and herself with them. She had stolen several large flagons of one of her husband's VERY BEST Greek fire recipes, never did say how exactly, and a torch.

Not long afterward she had herself half coated and standing in a pool of that horrible shit well inside the doorway to the bottom level of the ambrosia silos. She was holding out that torch and shrieking like hell for Zeus, RIGHT NOW. She was only finally consoled when Zeus promised, gave his immortal word as King of Olympus, to bring Adonis back to life so he could live with her on Olympus forever. This is where the term "holding a torch for someone" came from by the way. You're welcome.

"Now please slowly, slowly hand daddy that torch baby, okay?"
It was a great moment, really.
Eris sure was smiling widely.
I never want to see it ever again.

So Zeus brings Adonis back to life and makes him immortal of course, but Adonis' mortal junk had long since been processed into devil-boar spoor and some things just can't be undone. Zeus was obliged to follow through as best he could and Adonis was his old, enthusiastic self again in no time, minus a few not so little deets. There had been no mention of Adonis having to be fully intact in the agreement, and Aphrodite had claimed for years now that she saw more than that in him, really!!

They wrapped Adonis up in some nice, new duds and gave him a little cleaning and grooming. Eris absolutely insisted on cutting his hair for some reason. He looked better than ever and Aphrodite was absolutely beaming all into that evening's revelry. It was fuckin' disgusting. They must have loudly declared their mutual love a couple hundred times. This was also the invention of the drinking game. Eris, Zeus, and yours truly started it. Everyone but "AA" was playing it by the end of the night.

As you might have guessed, Aphrodite wasn't able to admit to a problem with her new love at first. Hephaestius was just chipper as can be though. Ares went off to go kill things and hadn't been back for a while. Hades hadn't been seen for ages, but that was normal. Not having to hear about Adonis was all he had really wanted. Then it went all sideways again.

ALL of the gods on Olympus had at last become united in opinion on at least on major issue. Adonis was the most insufferable shithead ever to walk the face of Terra. Hands down. Eventually even Aphrodite was openly sick of him. He was ALWAYS trying to help with things and talk about hunting with the gods. It was always the same conversation or pushy need to help people. It was all he did. Ever. In the end Zeus did what he had to do.

*Image of Hades speaking with barely contained fury from Tartarus to Zeus through a crystal device while Zeus reclines contentedly*
BROTHER WE HAD AN AGREEMENT! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!? YOU HAVE TO TAKE HIM BACK!!
*Background sound of distant but still LOUD Adonis shouting*
Sissyfuss!! I'll help you! I can push too! Aaaadonnis!
*Hades again, looking and sounding uncharacteristically rattled*
HOW ABOUT WE SPLIT CUSTODY? WE EACH GET HIM FOR TWO MONTHS AND HE CAN SPEND THE OTHER EIGHT TRAVELING BACK AND FORTH ON FOOT? PLEASE BROTHER DON'T DO THIS!!!

Zeus always did know when to call a hard deal good enough.
And so Adonis walks himself back and forth from Olympus to the mouth of Tartarus, season after season, to this day.

That's the real story.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on October 14, 2015, 05:21:38 AM
I'm going to just keep posting some of my alternative stories to this thread for now until I figure out what else to do with them. This next set of three are completed versions of some stuff I had posted in rough form a while back. It's 5 parts total, and I'm hoping that posting the first three will help motivate me to complete the telling. The story is complete in my head, but telling it has been a strangely difficult thing to do. I'm probably just being too fussy and so have made it my next thing to scratch offa muh list.


The following is entitled "On The Secret Genesis of Eris", OTSGE for short. I'll put the first 3 in their own posts below.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on October 14, 2015, 05:23:28 AM
OTSGE
part 1
NYX

There are persistent rumors and disagreements whispered most quietly in the halls of the gods. The best remaining records will agree, and all the gods have seen, Hera declares Eris to be her daughter. Those among the Olympians that have been around the longest, and have seen Eris lose her top a few times, wonder quietly to themselves, and to each other privately, and always with utmost caution, whether the rumor that she is in fact the daughter of dark Nyx, the titan who is the cold, deadly, and radiant night sky, could possibly be true.

I am but a privileged mortal, and so no sure source of the truth. If you have ear though I shall tell you a tale that even the gods may hesitate to utter.

'Tis said that Nyx was most upset by the doings of the gods and their little monkey pawns in the earliest days. They were so loud and obnoxious in the evenings when she displayed her greatness and even the most ferocious creatures felt compelled to their quiet, worshipful night sounds.

The then still newly crowned gods had their revelry and sport, ambrosia and dark wine, their hateful fire. These were bad enough, but far more obnoxious, and puzzling, were the noises that the pathetic human wretches far below Olympus made. Sounds that echoed out from against rough cave walls and from under even rougher furs stolen from other creatures in attempt to keep back from their own, all too thin, flesh her chilling breath. Nyx watched on and approached bit by bit ever closer, rapt by their strange and piercing cries and wondering about what these tiny mortal beings could possibly dare to do in her presence so often, and yet seemingly wish to so conceal from her.

Much was obscured from Nyx's sight by fur and shelter; though it must be said here that she was then quite blissfully unaware of how much more she was truly missing. Nyx's singular obsession in the earliest days had been with the sounds that the humans made in her presence. Rapturous and savage the sounds were. So unlike the sonic nocturnal emissions of all the other creatures they were.

Where most creatures crawling upon the dirt produced a song and began the rituals of survival, and procreation, and rest under forever present stars humanity hid themselves from her splendor. They made not mere music but a riot of sounds so like the revels of the distant gods and yet somehow more. More desperate and savage and needful and so very warm against the unending chill that Nyx was accustomed to. Theirs was a riotous and obnoxious, but so very compelling, symphony that followed it's own rythym and respected no seasons.

Often Nyx believed that perhaps some humans had died after emitting particularly terrible cries only to see faintest movement as her train receeded into the west as she often turned to allow some few of her luminous eyes to linger for one final glimpse. Though it often so happened, often enough to keep ageless and enigmatic Nyx wondering, that one or both stirred no more after she passed.

Nyx pitied or was apathetic toward the humans in every concern other than the mystery of their hidden doings in her presence. Often she would hear word of their deeds during the sport of grand Helios, he who is the riotous day. Her all too brief conversations with him in passing for an age's worth of ages were one of the few things that Nyx could be said to truly enjoy and cherish in any sense that a mortal might fathom. Other than an occasional, and most amusing, scornful eye when his glory proved too powerful for the fragile little wretches, and caused a retreat to their caves and pathetic wooden shelters, he seemed clearly better regarded by them than she. 

Yet still their mysterious cries continued unceasingly in her presence.

And so Nyx continued to listen,
ever more fervently and closely,
to the riot and rythyms of it all
as many ages passed into aeons.

This went on, and was
the way of things until,
as is ever more certain than
even immortals might prefer,
things changed.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on October 14, 2015, 05:28:32 AM
OSTGE
pt2
Prometheus

The gods had long ago won their place on Mount Olympus in a terrible war against the Titans known as the Titanomachy, finally banishing all but the most powerful, gargantuan, and remote, such as Nyx and Helios, to fetid imprisonment in Tartarus. Indeed those struggles had borne the upstart gods considerable fruit.  They had no desire to share this fruit with lowly humanity.


Zeus, upon taking the throne as mighty king of the gods, had outright  forbidden any interaction between gods and mortal men that was not one of abject reverence. He saw fit to declare that humanity's place was to be forever beneath the gods of Olympus. Few of the Olympians had a care about this. No god was fool enough to say otherwise.

It was only the insightful and treacherous titan Prometheus that looked upon humanity and saw a use; as he did when he looked upon all things.
He had betrayed the other titans from the outset of the war and proven  more than once a turning point in that ancient struggle. He had forseen victory for Zeus and his upstart siblings.

In joining the young gods and their campaign Prometheus had sought both to survive the war in freedom and to mitigate the limitless destruction the war would otherwise surely cause to the world and it's inhabitants. He was fond of these things as he had been instrumental in helping to form them from ancient Chaos. He was especially fond of humanity. He alone understood their minds and had granted them much of his own vaunted foresight, mostly to see what would come of it.

The thin hope that had swayed Prometheus was that Zeus would rule more justly than had his father, fell Kronos, the son of Uranus, a usurper who had taken his own father's genitalia, and thereby throne, by force. It was Zeus' fated right to depose Kronos for that crime and also for consuming Zeus' many siblings in rightful fear of this very fate likewise befalling him. Zeus had been quite full of assurances while there was need. Prometheus had not much choice but to believe Zeus and attempt to guide the mighty, ambitious, and reckless young godling. Zeus was often quite heedless of Prometheus' advice and instruction, to the ancient titan's constant irritation.

In the aftermath, as reward for the innumerable contributions and unrecoverable sacrifices he had made during the war, Prometheus had been granted a minor estate upon the lower slopes of Olympus. His place among these fledgling gods, for all time, was to be next to the billowing smoke stacks of the forges that Hephastus and Athena tirelessly worked to produce for the gods their many wonders. It was the least desireable estate upon all of Olympus, and a clear insult. It must be said that even more than the Olympians the Titans are selfish and vengeful beings. Prometheus was also thoughtful, patient, and treacherous.

And so Prometheus watched on even as humanity was being watched ever more closely by his distant aunt Nyx. As Nyx's obsession grew and humanity struggled and strove on for survival Prometheus foresaw that if nothing changed Nyx would overtake frail humanity and in her full embrace they would perish and Prometheus have nothing left of his most interesting experiment, and no notable status upon Olympus,
forever.

And thus Prometheus patiently waited,
and watched, and plotted, and took action,
as he had done by his immortal nature,
since the beginning all known things,
and found the means to bring a change

And so in his irreversible actions
Prometheus would save humanity

And so in his lust for due vengeance
Prometheus foresaw not the true cost
And nearly brought an end to the world
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on October 14, 2015, 05:38:29 AM
OSTGE pt3 Zeus final draft


It all seemed so terribly far in the past now to Zeus, the almighty king of the gods. That daft old coot Prometheus had defied Zeus' commands, stolen from his house, and worse disproven Zeus' claims of omniscience before the other gods, if not ignorant and wretched humanity. Zeus had grudgingly left his revelry and reasserted his authority swiftly and terribly after Prometheus had stolen the fire from his hall, while mighty Zeus slept, and then, damnably, given it to the smelly beasts below Olympus.

In what was to the immortals but a few moments humanity had taken this forbidden gift and with it's powers had spread to all corners of the world and had begun to cling together and yammer and rut in it's warm light. Worse, even as Zeus sought to ensure that humans would use it to make sacrifices that would honor the gods with a portion of all their best produce, and so happen to slow their growth, Prometheus had slyly coached the human priests at Mecone into decieving Zeus.

He had been gallingly duped into accepting a pile of fat and bare bones as his sacred portion, leaving humanity all of the guts, good flesh, and thick skins to work with, and a deal struck by a god is forever; or they are no god at all. The torturous price that Zeus levied on Prometheus for the changes he had so slyly sought, and insubordinantly wrought, is well known to this day and, like all things, did not last forever.

Alas, that cloud headed old fool Prometheus was no longer the problem at hand. A far more urgent matter now roused Zeus from his wine and sport. Fair and deadly Nyx had gone mad with an understandable hatred toward the loathsome humans, but also a dreadful, though notably insatiable, desire.

On seeing lowly humanity bearing flame into her holy darkness.
On seeing their wanton and unquenchable passions and betrayals. 
On seeing their piercingly clever eyes in firelight cast ever upwards.

as though they,
though mortal,
would make theirs,
the whole world,
and also take
dark, dread Nyx
some fine day

She had instead come to them.

In what seemed an unending and horrifically lustful frenzy Nyx had begun madly spawning monsters from the largest and most fearsome beasts upon Gaia and terrible, cannibalistic giants from those poor mortals caught alone by her;

those that had,
quite foolishly
if  very bravely,
wandered too far
from the firelight

The offspring of this horrible spawning had become such a constant problem that Zeus lamented, in an exceptionally loud and open fury before the other gods, that he could not even get properly drunk anymore for concern that yet another terror would set foot upon Olympus while he was indisposed.

Such incidents were becoming ever more frequent. Zeus was most displeased, as ever more were the other gods. He set forth to address the matter, after his accustomed fashion. So it came to pass that Zeus, after so much wine as he dared, declared before an assembly of the other gods that he would resolve the matter by his might, and all in one day.

Up and into the realm of near infinite Uranus Zeus rose. Uranus, whose age and vastness were second only to eldest Chaos, barely noticed as the speck that was the king of the gods rose to harry his little sibling Nyx.

Nyx noticed.
Long had she desired
this encounter.

And so Zeus,
in striving
to return things
to the way
they had been,
would be
irrevocably
changed.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: minuspace on October 14, 2015, 08:15:57 AM
About Kronos (sic.) let's also not forget the thing about his children, for the sake of symmetry, by Zeus :lulz:
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on October 14, 2015, 05:19:21 PM
Quote from: LuciferX on October 14, 2015, 08:15:57 AM
About Kronos (sic.) let's also not forget the thing about his children, for the sake of symmetry, by Zeus :lulz:

Whatchu talkin' 'bout LuciferX?
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: minuspace on October 14, 2015, 08:16:35 PM
Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on October 14, 2015, 05:19:21 PM
Quote from: LuciferX on October 14, 2015, 08:15:57 AM
About Kronos (sic.) let's also not forget the thing about his children, for the sake of symmetry, by Zeus :lulz:

Whatchu talkin' 'bout LuciferX?

I was enjoying this read last night and then felt like "contributing".  Now it feels more like I may have been interrupting the narrative with the tangential concern of remembering what these gods personified. I think a round of Wikipedia should cure my ADD on the subject. 
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on October 14, 2015, 10:32:00 PM
Quote from: LuciferX on October 14, 2015, 08:16:35 PM
Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on October 14, 2015, 05:19:21 PM
Quote from: LuciferX on October 14, 2015, 08:15:57 AM
About Kronos (sic.) let's also not forget the thing about his children, for the sake of symmetry, by Zeus :lulz:

Whatchu talkin' 'bout LuciferX?

I was enjoying this read last night and then felt like "contributing".  Now it feels more like I may have been interrupting the narrative with the tangential concern of remembering what these gods personified. I think a round of Wikipedia should cure my ADD on the subject.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.  :)


I don't feel interrupted at all man. Eventually I'm going to drop this thread because the name is taken. I was just wondering what you were talking about and in a hurry. Were you referring to Kronos' eating of his kids, Zeus' siblings? I lightly cover some of that. You can say or contribute as you please man.

I seem to remember it is written, "The classical Greeks were not influenced by the classical Greeks"
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: Pergamos on May 15, 2016, 03:57:15 AM
I'd love to hear more of this. 
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: Brother Mythos on May 15, 2016, 06:32:25 AM
I've given "The Real Story: Adonis" a careful read, and I have to admit, I didn't see your major plot twist coming.

As far as constructive criticism goes, I noticed the following:

First off, "Hephaestius" is an odd spelling. If you Google it, references to a "World of Warcraft" character come up. The first time I Googled it only three items came up, and one of them was your post! The second time I tried it, a couple of hundred items came up, with almost all of them referencing "World of Warcraft". But, try it for yourself, you may find you're very unique on the first try. 

Anyway, the most common Anglicization of the Greek is "Hephaestus", although Bulfinch's Mythology uses "Hephaestos".

Second, you may want to reconsider the use of the word "Tartarus" for "the underworld".

It's really up to you, as some authors do use the word "Tartarus" as if it's a synonym for "Hades". However, if you're inclined to be picky about it, "Tartarus" is the deepest, darkest, nastiest section of the Greek underworld. But, if that is your actual intent in this story, then so be it.

(As an aside, I've been thinking about putting something in one of my stories about some "special place in the afterlife" that is under the rule of Eris. Do you know if anyone has written something like that already?)

Third, you may want to recheck your story for spelling errors. I'm sure most of them are intentional, but I've run across a number of them that are probably not intentional.

Fourth, in Section 3, paragraph 8, you may want to consider giving your boar a pseudo-Greek name, and perhaps even a lineage. The "English to Greek" translation feature of Google can help you with that, if you're interested.

Fifth, after being made immortal, Adonis became a "fertility god". So ... there's a little problem here. It's entirely up to you, but you may want to consider adding another twist to your story where something, or someone, or some group, helps him to fulfill his godly duties after being neutered.

So, did this help? Or, did it make it worse?

I'll take a look at your second story in the next couple of days.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: POFP on May 15, 2016, 01:10:16 PM
Just read the Real™ Story of Adonis, and it was quite good.

Adonis reminds me of GUTHIIIXXX from the Runescape Gods Exposed show. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc6XUr4kG3A)
This pleases me.

Also, I usually have a detailed understanding of most things literary, but I didn't know the official meaning of "(sic)" until looking it up shortly before making this post.
I knew it wasn't correct, but I always liked to think of it as an aside, an exclamation to the audience that the previous words were "Fuckin radical, siccc as fukkkk."

After finding the actual definition, I like your use of it better.

On to the next story.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on May 15, 2016, 03:09:35 PM
Quote from: Pergamos on May 15, 2016, 03:57:15 AM
I'd love to hear more of this.

Glad you liked it! I've been stalled out on finishing the Genesis of Eris for a couple years. I got uncomfortable with the details as they came to me and unsure of how to express certain elements. I'll see if I can just dam the torpedos and finish 4 and work out the rough draft for 5.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on May 15, 2016, 04:03:42 PM
Quote from: Gray Area on May 15, 2016, 06:32:25 AM
I've given "The Real Story: Adonis" a careful read, and I have to admit, I didn't see your major plot twist coming.

As far as constructive criticism goes, I noticed the following:

First off, "Hephaestius" is an odd spelling. If you Google it, references to a "World of Warcraft" character come up. The first time I Googled it only three items came up, and one of them was your post! The second time I tried it, a couple of hundred items came up, with almost all of them referencing "World of Warcraft". But, try it for yourself, you may find you're very unique on the first try. 

Anyway, the most common Anglicization of the Greek is "Hephaestus", although Bulfinch's Mythology uses "Hephaestos".

Second, you may want to reconsider the use of the word "Tartarus" for "the underworld".

It's really up to you, as some authors do use the word "Tartarus" as if it's a synonym for "Hades". However, if you're inclined to be picky about it, "Tartarus" is the deepest, darkest, nastiest section of the Greek underworld. But, if that is your actual intent in this story, then so be it.

(As an aside, I've been thinking about putting something in one of my stories about some "special place in the afterlife" that is under the rule of Eris. Do you know if anyone has written something like that already?)

Third, you may want to recheck your story for spelling errors. I'm sure most of them are intentional, but I've run across a number of them that are probably not intentional.

Fourth, in Section 3, paragraph 8, you may want to consider giving your boar a pseudo-Greek name, and perhaps even a lineage. The "English to Greek" translation feature of Google can help you with that, if you're interested.

Fifth, after being made immortal, Adonis became a "fertility god". So ... there's a little problem here. It's entirely up to you, but you may want to consider adding another twist to your story where something, or someone, or some group, helps him to fulfill his godly duties after being neutered.

So, did this help? Or, did it make it worse?

I'll take a look at your second story in the next couple of days.

Thank you very much for the feedback! You spotted the Tartarus bit and I didn't. I do mention it properly in other works and am aware of the distinction. I'll sum it up to writing in the character of the narrator. I did this writing while I was down with a nasty chest infection and it was mostly written to be like a messy barroom tale being told by an ex-angel character of mine, in an alt-"earth", whom the story does nothing to explain. That's something I'll fix as I go on here at PD, but I'll probably open a new thread when I do. The spelling of "Haphaestius" was my concession to the character's insistence under the influence of a godawful lot of cold medicine, thus all the "sic"ness..

I cannot take credit for the idea of the nature of Adonis' fatal wound. I don't recall exactly where, but I know I read a version of the story from Greek translation that had both the spear throwing and his injury. Many later tales mutate the story into something less graphic, but it seems the Greeks really did love them some violent slapstick. I recall reading it a long time before I wrote this, but when exactly is fuzzy. I'll have to go digging.

To answer your aside, no. I've never heard of Eris having much domain in the afterlife. Strife isn't usually a thing for the dead. I could see her visiting notables in various afterworlds and refusing to "stay in her own yard" in a mythological sense.
In my own stories she has had "a thing" with Lucifer for.. oh... ages now really, and so has frequent business in "Hell", a subsection of the "3rd heaven" and NOT at all hades, which is a sub-realm of the "earth". Trouble is old "Louie" kinda lost it after the whole Jesus incident and hasn't been paying Eris much attention since. But that's another tale best told after I get other things out first.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on May 15, 2016, 04:35:21 PM
Quote from: Fernando Poo on May 15, 2016, 01:10:16 PM
Just read the Real™ Story of Adonis, and it was quite good.

Adonis reminds me of GUTHIIIXXX from the Runescape Gods Exposed show. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc6XUr4kG3A)
This pleases me.

Also, I usually have a detailed understanding of most things literary, but I didn't know the official meaning of "(sic)" until looking it up shortly before making this post.
I knew it wasn't correct, but I always liked to think of it as an aside, an exclamation to the audience that the previous words were "Fuckin radical, siccc as fukkkk."

After finding the actual definition, I like your use of it better.

On to the next story.
That Guthix character is pretty neat! I'm reminded of Fallout 2, I think, where if you set your IQ absurdly low at char gen there was a village idiot who was suddenly quite pleasant and adroit of word, and stuff.


See the portrait of Adonis is meant to play on the common supposition that an inbred person will be unintelligent, and even the narrator Dustrael makes a point to express his doubts about what Adonis COULD have been. The mythology says he was born from the myrrh tree that used to be his poor mother fully formed. I'm playing it like an unforseen side effect of the goddess' magic that made his mom into the tree. He missed a lot..
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: Brother Mythos on May 16, 2016, 03:21:24 AM
Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on May 15, 2016, 04:03:42 PM
Quote from: Gray Area on May 15, 2016, 06:32:25 AM
I've given "The Real Story: Adonis" a careful read, and ...

I'll take a look at your second story in the next couple of days.

Thank you  ...

You're welcome.

To be honest, even after reading it several times, my mind completely skipped over the (sic again..) after the first Hephaestius'. It wasn't until I read Fernando Poo's post that I suspected I just might have missed something. So, as they say in the military, "As you were."

As far as Adonis' fatal wound goes, I've read two versions of the myth, and the boar wounds Adonis in the groin in both of them. The only significant difference I noticed between the two versions is that in the Ovid version, Zeus appoints the muse Calliope to pass judgement over how Adonis splits his time between Persephone and Aphrodite. And, in the Ovid version Aphrodite is pissed about the judgement and commits a revenge murder on one of Calliope's children. In the other version Zeus makes the judgement himself.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: Brother Mythos on May 16, 2016, 02:22:55 PM
Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on October 14, 2015, 05:21:38 AM
I'm going to just keep posting some of my alternative stories to this thread for now until I figure out what else to do with them. This next set of three are completed versions of some stuff I had posted in rough form a while back. It's 5 parts total, and I'm hoping that posting the first three will help motivate me to complete the telling. The story is complete in my head, but telling it has been a strangely difficult thing to do. I'm probably just being too fussy and so have made it my next thing to scratch offa muh list.


The following is entitled "On The Secret Genesis of Eris", OTSGE for short. I'll put the first 3 in their own posts below.

Okay, I've reviewed your "On The Secret Genesis of Eris", and your classical mythological starting points all look spot on to me.

Please continue working towards the completion of your story. I'm really looking forward to reading the last two parts. I have no idea what you have in mind for your ending, but it looks like it's going to be really good, based upon what you've written so far. Bravo!
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on May 19, 2016, 12:16:29 AM
I'm doing my best to "keep the faith" with OTSGE and intend it as my first major contribution to the Discordian mythos. I'll try to get it finished up. I'm half way done with the writing of pt4 and been holding onto the rest of the story in my head for too long. When I post it I'll open a new thread. This particular thread title is already taken and I'd just as soon get 1-5 into one thread by themselves.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: Brother Mythos on July 12, 2016, 01:38:33 PM
So, how's the writing progressing?
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on July 12, 2016, 10:29:14 PM
Quote from: Gray Area on July 12, 2016, 01:38:33 PM
So, how's the writing progressing?

It's pretty much done in my head. I've made progress on pt 4 and will have it done soon. My week wound up being busier than I had expected, but I have the next three days or so pretty much to myself.

I will keep you posted..

Thanks for your interest!  :)
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on July 14, 2016, 11:44:40 PM
This is the complete form. Might change a few things yet, but here ya go!

On the Secret Genesis of Eris, part 4

It had been twenty three days. Twenty three dark and terrible days passed after Zeus went upward into the endless sky, arrayed for battle in his father's finest armor and upon the last functioning chariot of a Titanic era long since ended, seeking to bring an end to Nyx's mischief.  Zeus had ordered all of the gods under his hospitality to enter into his lofty palace upon Olympus and not to leave, if they valued their existences, until his swift return, save only his brothers Poseidon and Hades. Their abodes beneath wave and soil were quite secure. Knowing their brother, in wisdom they had willfully remained in their own places, and even as Zeus had hurtled ever upwards into the darkening heavens a storm like no other before or since enveloped this ancient world.

To call it merely "a storm" is truly a disservice.
The storm is perhaps fitting.
The storm that filled every part of the sky with lightning and thunder and water and cruel winds.
The storm that shook the mountains and rivers  into new places as even steadfast Atlas groaned and shifted from the impossible force of it.
The storm that covered the world in ruin and buried ancient titanic wonders beneath new-formed seas and mountains alike.
The storm that caused dauntless Helios himself to hide his face for twenty days; and three more in the horrific silence that followed,
just to be sure.

The storm whose darkness froze
all things upon the ground and slew
vast numbers of beasts and plants,
and also nearly slew all humanity,
for warning none had been given..

Now in darkness and silence, Hera, great queen of the gods, stood alone on the private balcony upon which she and Zeus had seen uncountable evenings become mornings. She had stood in this very place with him shortly after final victory over the Titans had been wrought.

Zeus had sworn to her profusely during the war that no more beautiful creature existed than she. The astute young goddess had soon noted that his praise, and often highly assertive affections, were always and only granted during the day as their band of siblings had journeyed ever on in their fateful quest. Hera had seen his gaze lingering upon unreachable Nyx countless times as they made camp in diverse locations on the seemingly endless marches.

He didn't sleep, she'd seen.
He'd look up towards Nyx.
Laying on the ground, yet,
Up and his steel... ready
Yet not Hera's

To assure herself of truly immortal fealty, and in ill-advised and youthful spite, Hera bade Zeus swear until she was satisfied that she herself was the most beautiful being he had ever seen.  She demanded that The King of The Gods declare her superior beauty loudly in eternal oath before Nyx, HERSELF. Zeus knelt in otherwise private, but fervent, plea to Hera to be his great queen. He turned his face upwards and before both of their faces declared so until Hera took him as husband forever.

Five times over,
So did proud Hera bid
Young King Zeus, in glory
To swear thus facing Nyx
Only then did she accept.

And now the bitch had her fool husband, and Hera had far indeed to fall.
During The Storm the gods had all remained sufficiently cowed by the terrible power of it. In the three days of silence following where Helios yet hid his face much had been whispered, and within her own house wise Queen Hera missed nothing. Some believed Zeus dead, but Hera certainly knew otherwise. No, her unaging eyes could not see any sign of Zeus in the empty, impossibly dark vault above her, but Hera was a queen among gods and had other senses far more reliable than even her godlike vision. The Storm had passed, but her immortal spirit would surely know had her eternal husband Zeus, somehow, passed with it.

He was up there,
somewhere,
clearly spent
yet still spending,
far beyond his due.

And so Hera glared at the empty vault,
wondering, as ever wise wives should,
"What has that idiot of mine gotten into?"

Now again, all in one moment, she could sense his return, not in glory but by a secret way that was then known only to the royal pair, a relic wrought by mad Kronos himself, and that only he who was king could open. One that led instantly, from anywhere, to their chambers directly. It was never to be used, and before then had never been by any but the fallen Titan king, and some few times since in infrequent experiment by brave Zeus, while she and he privately played with their new-won spoils from the personal chambers of their wretchedly mad God-king father, and after which he never spoke of it to Hera again. It was the only thing Hera had ever seen Zeus seem to truly fear.

This was not the plan. None of it could be.
Something was terribly, terribly wrong.

Hera, turning with the sense of her king's presence,
Saw not the grand array nor proud stature of Zeus
Instead a wretched and ruined form from shadows
Did lurch forward and in mad frenzy fell upon Hera.
Zeus' flesh, but not mind, nor bearing, nor even might
Sought to subdue the Queen of Olympus, and failed.
No longer did Hera see her husband Zeus, instead
Only a weak and mewling form of withered flesh
And mind unable to order itsself, much less Olympus

This would not do.
She needs her king.
Instead a wretched
Broken thing, Zeus was.

Into the specter
of his foul father,
Into a form as that
Of horrid, old Kronos,
Zeus was now changed.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on April 12, 2017, 05:54:53 AM
I want to get this last part out and get some feedback if possible. It's done, but I'm not fully satisfied with it just yet. Here's the main body of part 5 as it stands and an odd aside from the Narrator I'm unsure what to do with exactly in the post after that. It's very nearly done after something like 4 years. It may never some polish yet in telling, but here's the tale complete.

OSTGE pt5 Eris & Ares

And now the time for the final act of this terrible tale has at long last  come due.

In the smoothly formed and powerful arms of young Queen Hera lay her great King Zeus. In form and spirit Zeus had now become a ruin fit to match the world he had for so long ruled and that he had now devestated totally. In brazenly, foolishly seeking to overwhelm and subdue dread Nyx and seize her and her immeasurably vast realm beyond the eternal vault of the sky for his own, Zeus did indeed strive upon Nyx for twenty days with force enough to sunder the sky and mountains, spill the great oceans themselves, and bring darkness, cold, and death to every part of the world.

When at last Zeus' wind had faded
and his last thunderbolts been spent
and his father's chariot left far behind
in his foolish pursuit of vexatious Nyx
who for many days was in his mighty grasp
and endured all Zeus' lustful fury unbowed
the great king's strength had finally faded
and Zeus could truly strive on Nyx no more
then did crafty, ancient Nyx hold Zeus fast
in arms that saw all the greatest predators
from lost and uncountable ages fall to dust
long before Zeus's father had ever reigned.

Zeus had become Nyx's prisoner in that moment. Were he to remain in her realm long enough to recover his strength and break free it would clearly be far too late to claim any victory. Should Nyx simply choose to cast him down in inglorious and humiliating defeat his very throne would be broken and his kingship most likely ended forever. Nyx knew this all too well and set to Zeus her demand in exchange for his freedom and his kingdom's future. She demanded that Zeus grant her his royal essence with which to make for herself divine offspring of his line. This was something which only the King of the Gods could produce, for only the king can make a new god, and this power was the sole right of Uranus, then fell Kronos, and now Zeus alone. Zeus had little choice, but was still the King, and demanded in return three great concessions of Nyx for the privilege of the one thing that she couldn't take from him as she held him and his kingdom's future tightly in her arms.

Zeus demanded that there be only one such child and that the product of his seed would be his alone, and not Nyx's, to raise as he saw fit.

Nyx agreed with a smile.

Zeus demanded also that Nyx never again directly enter or otherwise  meddle in the affairs of his realm unless he as King gave her leave to do so.

Agreement to this stung dark Nyx's pride.

Zeus demanded last of all that Nyx should be silent forever after, and insisted that this was the most important part of the deal, for he could not long be king were his queen to ever know what had transpired between he and Nyx to win his freedom.

Nyx swore her vengeance, for this meant that she would never again converse with bright Helios, then agreed.

And so as King of the Gods Zeus gave his consent.

In his profound exhaustion and well founded confidence in his might Zeus had not specified in the agreement two important details most vital indeed. The king forgot to state how much of his essence Nyx could take and in what manner, knowing only his youthful anticipation of her finally relenting to him in order to receive her due prize. Indeed even as Nyx began to draw back her starry veil for the first time Zeus had not yet understood the danger until it was upon him, and far too late. The horror beyond Nyx's veil struck out and seized Zeus's body, rending his armor and finding purchase upon and within his flesh as Zeus' startled cry fell suddenly silent and he was dragged deeper yet into Nyx's truly abyssal realm. Not a sound was heard thereafter while for the best part of three days Nyx took her prize from Zeus's desecrated body as the king lay paralyzed in a nightmare laden fugue.

When finally his senses returned to him Zeus had lost more than half of his own being and strength in the exchange and had only one remaining failsafe left to him, lest Nyx take all essence from the young upstart godling-king, and so slay him, and thus nullify the price of their bargain, and gain unlimited power over all things in the Cosmos, forever.

Kronos had in the height of his power and ageless reign built a wonder able to return him to his palace from anywhere in the cosmos, but it came with a price that only an immortal being could ever conceivably pay. The device left one in a featureless null zone for a great amount of time that increased considerably with greater distance traveled. To cross a room to the device's homing point had seemed to  Zeus in his first fleeting experiment with the enigmatic device like a month's long march without any entertainment. This being not of any great concern, but peculiar and not particularly pleasing to endure the effect intrigued Zeus enough to travel for a month to test it again at greater distance. This was worse beyond measure and outright unpleasant, and so he simply never bothered with it again because it had felt like a wasted century, then to him still a meaningful measure of time better spent in revelry. Zeus had brought it with him on his journey only to appease Hera and better assure himself of her open support for his endeavor. It was now the only means available to him of returning to Olympus.

Zeus commanded his withering flesh to obey him once again and wrenced his arm from the grip of Nyx upon and within it and reached within the remnants of his armor to trigger this last hope. And so in that instant was delivered from cruel Nyx and into a torment of a very different sort as the full distance he had traveled was greater than a mere month's march in way that the oceans are greater than a bucket of water. Though traumatized already the full weight of the Ages that had undone the very mind of his mad father Kronos came down upon great Zeus even as his body instantly reappeared in the halls of Olympus before his great Queen Hera.

And now a great secret must be told.
Gods may never truly die,
But they may weaken
and thereby grow old.

But the bond between
The King and Great Queen
Is ageless and their power
As two is greater still
Than either individually
And so victories may be won.

Even when there is little but desperate measures left to be taken.

And so the troubled mind and ruined flesh of Zeus was all that Hera had left of her King, but this was enough for her to give her own heart's essence and hearth's warmth to restore. And even as Zeus' body healed and her own withered in exchange and his mind began to return he took more still of here and in their entwinement said to her only that they must make War. And so in a confusion of madness and terror and passion and agony and even love, such as gods may anyway, was the essence of Ares, who is War and whose name means Ruin, conceived within Hera. And in the aftermath of this conception Zeus told her of the "treaty" with Nyx saying only that she had deceived him and nearly slain him, but that when the child arrived it must be Hera's in all but secret circumstance as much as Ares who even now swelled within her. Hera knew well that it meant their kingdom and so swore as lover and Queen to Zeus that it would be so forever and kept for herself the right to name the child when it arrived.

The gods of Olympus knew nothing but that Zeus had returned in victory though exhausted and desiring private time with his queen. Much was whispered when Hera was seen with child in her belly when she came forward on occasion to transmit Zeus' will that they all stay in their places and pay somber reverence to his hard-won victory over Nyx until he should so choose to present himself in open court. The intention of the royal pair was to present both children as twins at this time, but neither knew how long it would be before the titan Nyx would deliver this child to them. Indeed the birth of Ares was said to be a lengthyand arduous affair indeed as the birthing cries of Hera could be heard throughout Olympus and beyond into the now cold and desolate world. Since Zeus' return Helios had refused his duties and nothing of Nyx' glory was in evidence. Then suddenly in the bedchamber where Ares had already been born for some time Nyx's servant Skiá did appear and render to Zeus a perfectly formed female godling whom Hera did immediately take to her bosom and name Eris as the child immediately began to struggle greatly and cry out loudly, which set her brother Ares also to wailing. And so these did mighty Zeus and Hera present before the others upon Olympus even as their own countenances had become aged and their spirits hardened no god would make mention of this and rather simply paid homage to the new offspring and received Zeus' orders as to their role in setting the world back into proper order again.

For now Strife and Ruin
Eris and Ares both were
The new way of things
Yet once more in time
All had changed
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on April 12, 2017, 05:56:46 AM
Here's the weird bit of whatever it is...




Dear reader know that this simple and silly mortal's tale consists of but the least of the truth, yet it is founded in more than mere conjecture of the doings of terrible, tyrannical beings long dead and forgotten, for they are from us and of our minds' substance, as surely as we are of our own parents' flesh and living souls, and so even our gods are made in our own image and nature. So long as we yet live and breathe them life from the sacred and oftimes awful power of a dream dreamt becoming a tale told they will be teachers about ourselves in return, and in this way they have real substance through us.

Know also that the truth is up to we mortals to determine,
as ever it was and shall remain, and that no god has power enough to ever take this one thing from you should you be wise enough to keep it close to you, and also remember always that grim mortality is not so very bad and trade it for any false and pernicious promise of a more perfect forever.

For to live forever is to suffer forever as well.
And so come to know the true mass of a star
in trade for their innocent and pretty sparkle.
In life forever the unspeakable, holy vastness
of limitless heavens becomes a cage far darker
than the deepest and most vile pit in all Tartarus,
A vastness so beyond the pale that an immortal,
being powerful beyond measure,
could still get lost in it
and so wander blind.
Forever.

And so this remember humankind:

BEING FOREVER
MEANS BEING
FOREVER ALONE.

Mortality does have it's upside.
Title: Re: Apocrypha Discordia
Post by: The Wizard Joseph on September 17, 2017, 08:28:45 PM
Bump to find easily on a friend's computer later. Gonna print off copies of Adonis: The Real Story and the completed Secret Genesis of Eris to show folks. Hope you guys enjoyed these!