***NECROCOSM***
This will be the first of many journal entries where I come
up with an idea for a setting and hopefully a short story, D&D campaign, or
novel will snowball from there. What are we kicking off with? The Necrocosm, of
course. People who read my poetry will remember a heavy metal song called
Necrocosm which basically described the audience at WWE Fast Lane 2015. Even
though there was excitement and action going on in the ring, the Tennessee audience acted
bored out of their minds. Therefore, they’re living in a necrocosm, or a death
world (because they’re a dead audience). It seemed like an apt description to
me.
The suffix “cosm” in the Greek language means “world”. I
know this because I used to spend my time surfing You Tube for Clerks videos
and in one of them, Randal says to Dante, “This is a life of convenience for
you and any attempt to change it would shatter the pathetic microcosm you’ve
fashioned for yourself.” I looked up the word microcosm on dictionary.com and
it was defined as a “little world”, micro meaning “little” and cosm meaning
“world”.
So then I thought, what other Greek prefixes could we pair
up with the suffix cosm? I’ve done this exercise plenty of times with the
suffix “mancer” and thus we have short stories like The Aeromancer (wind
wizard), The Hydromancer (water wizard), and The Cryomancer (ice wizard). Let’s
see what we can do with the word “cosm”. A pyrocosm would be a world of fire
and can actually be an alternative word for the sun. A cryocosm would be a
world of ice and that’s basically what Pluto is. A thermocosm would be a world
of heat and Mercury would qualify since it’s the closest planet to the sun.
So what could we do with a necrocosm, or a world of death? Lots
of things, actually. Some would say the earth in the year 2016 would qualify as
a necrocosm since a lot of mass shootings and celebrity deaths took place. Some
would say heaven and hell are necrocosms since according to Christianity,
that’s where dead people go. Maybe the word necrocosm could apply to
graveyards, funeral homes, and morgues.
Those are all valid interpretations, but what if I took it a
step further? What if there was a planet in our solar system governed by an
alien race of zombies? It doesn’t even have to be a structured government. It
could be anarchy with zombies rising from the dirt to feast on trespassers.
Maybe it could be an autocracy with an evil necromancer governing everything so
that one day he can use his minions to conquer other worlds. Maybe it’s just
one big farm where souls of the dead are kept and harvested. I’ve often thought
of the possibilities of entire planets being used as seals for demons and
undead creatures. Once that seal is broken, all bets are off, motherfuckers.
Keegan Day from “Occupy Wrestling” never thought of this shit. Or did he? Hmm.
Okay, so we’ve got this world of reanimated dead bodies.
What we need now is a reason for an adventurer to go there. Surely, traveling
to such a violent and savage place would be a suicide mission. There must be
something or someone of value on this necrocosm that would be worth wading
through an army of dead bodies. A villain to fight, a prisoner to rescue, an
artifact to steal, these are all good reasons to risk life and limb for a
journey to that planet. If you know how to build tension, you can pull off this
storyline and be successful at it.
So how about it, ladies and gentlemen? If this became a
D&D campaign, would your character have the cajones to venture onto such a
planet with the lingering fear of having his flesh and organs gnawed on? Would
you have the solid steel spine to read through a novel that went behind fierce
enemy lines like the war zone the necrocosm is? Could I possibly fit an entire
world’s worth of action and drama into one short story? So many possibilities,
so little time. Hell, if somebody else wants to expand upon this idea and do
something with it, I’m not against it as long as you remember where you got
this juicy creative fuel from. The table of opportunity has been set, people.
What are you going to do?
***WEEKLY SHORT STORY CONTESTS AND COMPANY***
It’s a brand new week and a brand new prompt has been put
into place. Apparently, this suggestion was from many years ago when a former
admin named Mike Ragland first posted it in the prompt ideas forum. The theme
is Crumbling Well (that definitely has Mike’s fingerprints all over it), so my
story this week will be called “The Ophidiomancer” (more Greek wordplay, for
sure). It goes like this:
CHARACTERS:
Shaun Goldberg, Sheep Mask-Wearing Giant
Carlos Pierre, Psychotic Snake Handler
PROMPT CONFORMITY: Carlos keeps his poisonous snakes in a
crumbling well in the middle of the field.
SYNOPSIS: Shaun is a thirty-year-old man child who recently
escaped from his abusive mother and is wandering the plains like a mindless
zombie. He stumbles upon Carlos and his followers in the middle of a snakebite
ritual. Carlos offers to heal Shaun’s soul with a “test of faith”, but when the
snake bites the man child, he goes berserk and starts throwing the followers
around. Carlos tries to get out of dodge, but he keeps stumbling and rolling.
FUN FACT: For all of you WWE fans out there (both old school
and new), these two main characters are based off of actual wrestlers that
worked with the company. Shaun Goldberg is likened to Erick Rowan and Carlos
Pierre has similarities to Jake “The Snake” Roberts. They come from two
completely different eras of wrestling and bring their own form of creepiness
to the table. Since a match between Rowan and Roberts won’t actually take place
due to Roberts’ old age, this short story is the next best thing.
***DARK FANTASY WARRIORS***
Elizabeth Wilson has been knocked out of the park and now
it’s time for someone new. That someone is Desilu McCourt, the Amazonian hammer
swinger from “Occupy Wrestling”. You know the one. She’s the ogre chick who
nearly snapped Debra Winter’s spine in half before Mitch McLeod came to the
rescue. I’ve done a drawing of Desilu in the past, but I don’t think very
highly of it, so I’m going to attempt her again. Wish me luck!
***MOVIE REVIEWS***
The last time I did a movie review, it was for Zootopia and
that was many months ago. I don’t do movie reviews very often, but that’s only
because I can count the number of visits to the theater I’ve made this year on
one hand. I don’t plan on doing a review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens,
because I’m still afraid of pissing off people who haven’t seen it yet with
plot spoilers. That leaves me with two items on this short task list: the 2016
version of Ghostbusters and a little known documentary called Lucha Mexico . Ghost
hunting and masked wrestling: such a delightful combination. Both movies will
receive passing grades (four stars). It’s all a matter of putting the words and
debating points together in a clean and crisp manner.
***BOOK REVIEW***
As most of you know, I’ve been doing some beta reading for
my wonderful author friends Andy Peloquin and Marie Krepps. Their deadlines for
publication are drawing near, so you can expect book reviews for them around
those times. The first one to come up will be of Marie Krepps’ teen romance
novel “What Money Can’t Buy”. It’s being published on August 11th,
the same day as my Slipknot X Marilyn Manson concert. We both have things to be
excited for!
***COMEDIC QUOTE OF THE DAY***
“School uniforms: bad theory! It’s the idea that if kids
wear uniforms to school it’ll help maintain order. Don’t these schools do
enough damage trying to get these kids to think alike? Now they’re going to get
them to look alike too? And it’s not a new idea. I once saw it in old newsreels
from the 1930’s, though it was a little hard to understand because the
narration was in German!”
-George Carlin-
