HOME | DD

Description

There are instances when a person’s name is turned into a title.

But in the case of Kendru, it was just the other way around. Once being the Kendru, a spiritual guardian of the Dakini of Yian-Ho, she long since became simply Kendru, because there is no longer anyone alive understanding that this is actually a title.

Her age is unknown, maybe even to her. If there were records of it, even if they did not turn to dust by now, who could read them now.

She was one of the three Fates that brought down the King in Yellow, Tillian-Ayr, the first and most powerful Harverster Overlord. The Gasturians called her, Medusa and Rakan the Gorgons, and there is a grain of truth to the myth, though little more.

She was the Guardian of the Tomb of the Avatars, part of the former palace of Dazzle, now covered by a glacier wedged in between two mountains peaks. Maybe she was already there, when Njord brought the remains of Skadi to be entombed in a secret place. Certainly she was charged with protecting that place at the end of Age of Terror, and she was ever the enemy of Tillian-Ayr who searched for that place and the ultimate power it would give him. At one point she fell into his hands, but this may have been a ruse. She conceived the plan to bring him down with the help of Medusa and Rakan, and though the Stranger may have had his hands (and words) in this, so goes the tale, and so she is venerated for her wisdom.

Still, the Dakini may be enlightened, but they have a vested interest in this world. Theirs is the oldest religion (spiritual path if you prefer) among mankind, and they don’t have much patience for fools. The name of Yian-Ho is ominous for those that sought it and perished, wandering in nightmares until they died.

And being from the elder human stock, as Rakan was, our kind does not rate highly with her, little more than spiritual cripples...

Kendru is a no-nonsense woman, though she can beguile people as she sees fit. Only once she got matched against an equal opponent, when Rakan either by accident or by fate broke through the seals that hid the secret tombs away and took, what Kendru herself coveted. They fought for the price in the spiritual domain for centuries, and when Rakan finally escaped her webs, shaken yet alive, a shadow of her former self stumbling into a Sarmatian village, Kendru was in no shape to pursue her, nor did she ever dare to attack her openly again.

Still, she pursued her, even when Rakan changed her name and guise, through her agents and traitors, forcing her to flee eventually into a nightmare of her own.

But Kendru remained and bides her time until the stars are right, to finally claim what is hers, to sit on the throne of eternity, on the pinnacle of this world, and to rule its fate.

But times have changed. The year is 1972 and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some self-proclaimed Guru in India.
When she came down from the mountains, followers flocked to worship every word passing over her lips as long as they could get seriously stoned in between.
Yet there was something disturbing about this new 'Devi', the unconscious fear of accidentally having stubled upon the real thing...

DAZ3D Iray Render, minor PS post work.

Aeons - a primerYou find the complete texts including images here:RRakans TaleIn the year of the consul Metellus, two youngAAurora Borealis - Present(France, the express train from Paris to TolouseAAurora Borealis - Magos TaleThis is the very beginning of Aurora Borealis. AsSome confusionSo you have come across some Aeons related pictures, maybe something tagged Aurora Borealis, but there’s no Aurora anywhere in sight and there’s a lot of pictures and walls of text, but what is this stuff? So it’s a story, but right now and given the format of DeviantArt you can’t push through to figure out stuff like in a regular novel. But you’ll find links to the stories above, in a compiled format. It is still shortened and adapted to go with the pictures, a slightly different than the original written version. Meanwhile here’s a little old-fashioned primer for your convenience.Worldbuilding Aeons?Aeons is the story of our world. Yet based on the mysterious Apeiron sub material entity that is the missing link of the universal theory of everything. What we call reality is the primary thread, were causality and probability behave more or less normally and fuzziness is minimal. But it’s actually a multiverse of less likely and stable event lines all interacting through the dance vector of the Apeirons. If your brain starts shutting down, don’t worry. Since our science has not discovered the Apeiron, you’ll never ever hear it mentioned inside the story again. Uhm… not counting the Troodon civilization of the Jurassic nor… No matter. Genre?So let’s talk genre. I mean books and movies are put into those boxes for good and convenient reasons after all. Is it Sci-Fi then?(Read the following paragraph only if you’re into Sci-Fi)Well let’s say there is no magic, but that what Clarke said – any techie stuff sophisticated enough will look like magic if you don’t know how it works. There is a lot going on in the galaxy but no FTL, no time travel. But using the principles behind the Apeiron you CAN create effects that would seem exactly like this without Einstein ever breaking a sweat (but if you’re at that point, it would be pretty melodramatic to do so). It’s a grim galaxy, too. Genocide for the greater good is commonplace and our biosphere only barely managed to survive a number of wipe outs attempts. Otherwise all that remains would be a Banshee Wail, like in the Vega system. This is no Clarke, certainly not Star Wars. Don’t worry too much. Just be afraid. Remember William Dyer. It’s better not to know stuff. (Ok everyone back?)It’s not really fantasy either even though some parts have a lot of that R.E. Howard mood. And Zelazny. We must not forget Zelazny. No high fantasy, no elves and dwarves, guaranteed. Folklore, superstition and myths may be the warped shadows cast by things better not mentioned. But no pointy ears but for the meowing kind.So is it historical fiction? Yes, to quite a degree. The story takes historical events seriously, even if it’s only hinted at. But in between the gaps and holes of history a lot of seriously queer things happen.Long ago this was called adventure or fantastic literature. Oh crap.Who am I kidding? Forget all I said. It’s a goddamn love story, even though it took me some time to figure it out. TimelinesNow that we got that sorted out, some real information on the storylines!Troodon AgeBack in the Jurassic (dinosaurs did manage, and they weren’t even the first) we have the Troodon civilization, that exceeded our own in terms of technological level. So they set out to the stars, most famous is the flight of the Wendigo, but the stars didn’t appreciate. There is little left of the wreck of the planetary destroyer under the Yucatán Peninsula and the fact that it did not succeed is no comfort. In more than one way. Still, the Troodon were more or less done for. Full sized biological attack apart from the impact. Imagine a highly evolved civilization broken and predicting their extinction within a set timeframe that still covered generations. So they built the sarcophagus bunkers. These were built to last. And just outside the prime thread far enough to be hidden from the CGF. Of course the Troodon could not do this. But the Avatars could. They’re not named sarcophagus for nothing. For all their technology, Troodon civilization was a religious one. The Troodon left another thing. The Karylon genetical programs within the biosphere. Of course the CGF dropped their own genetical bombs. Then time seriously began to pass and the war was fought between strands of DNA.CGF means Central Galactic Federation. Sounds like Star Trek? But just imagine yourself on the opposite side of some self-righteous bastards…Time of LegendsAnd boy did it pass. But at some point, intelligence began to surface once again. Mammal this time, not scaly reptiloid. About 40k years ago, mankind for the first time became aware of this legacy. From this encounter came what is known as Dakini shamanism, culminating in the teachings of the ‘Sorceress’ Dazzle who was the first to rediscover a lot of the principles of that legacy, longevity being one of them. From the Dakini roots another civilization rose, calling individuals from all across the world, even as far as Lemuria, which is now fallen below the Pacific Ocean. Together they build the first city around 30K BC, and after its downfall, the survivors recovered Dazzles teaching and begun raising the Hyperborean Theocracy in the Kolyma region. With access to the sarcophagus bunkers it was the foremost civilization in the world, when most of our ancestors still had to figure out how to paint their cave walls. The Hyperboreans weren’t our ancestors, they were more closely related to Neanderthals or Denisovians. Which couldn’t work out in the long run. Our ancestors got their Prometheus, they got their fire with which they almost wiped out the Hyperboreans. Those that escaped went on the long trek along the polar ice circle to the west. The few that managed to reach the western ocean disappeared. The rest ended up as main course for dinner, literally. But speaking of fire, Homo sapiens sapiens (or less gloriously, the Horde) managed to burn themselves, inevitably. Age of TerrorBy 10K BC the Ice Age was about to turn into slush and our ancestors had bitten up their piece of power just to realize that they couldn’t quite swallow it. Those few that could turned into monsters. For seven millennia these beings that later became known as Harvesters ruled supreme. Harvester refers to archaeological finds in the Central Asian area, Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea especially. But of course they existed in places as far as South America or New Guinea. In between were the power struggles of groups like the Yellow Monks, Shimmu, the Magi or the Gasturians. And the original Dakini were around, too. This happy situation ended around 3K BC, when the Gasturians (ironically, for they started the mess) got everything in place to wipe the Harvesters from the earth, more or less, and established what archaeologists like to describe as rites and religious or ceremonial purpose, when they actually have no clue what they had dug up. Of course with so many bigwigs in the game, there were some serious plans and counterplans that would have made a Harkonnen Mentat dizzy, but for the mythology there were three ladies involved in ousting the Harvester boss, one Tilian-Ayr who had been around since the Hyperborean Exodus. Two already appeared in pictures, like the Treefolk girl Rakan, the princess Medusa. The third is in the title picture, the spiritual leader of the Dakini, the Kendru. Part of the price for getting rid of the old bastard was becoming harvesters themselves, and truth be told, you don’t manage this kind of stuff without being tough as nails and power hungry yourself, so they have a shady reputation, especially in legends promoted by the Gasturians. As you might guess from one of the names, ‘Gorgons’ was one of them. Fates, Crones, Artemis, Athene and Aphrodite, take your pick. Don’t be fooled, those were only stories to cover up actual events that couldn’t be quite hushed up.Aurora Borealis – Late Roman Republic (to build an Empire)68 BC – 44 BCMago by birth was the heir and owner of a decent sized land hold in Spain that was managed by his younger brother, Gabal. They were Punics, settlers from the town of New Cartago (todays Cartagena) but, unhappy with the rural surroundings, Mago followed the Trader Rufus to Massilia and later befriends Rufus’ nephew Lucius. After Rufus’ death they met the mysterious woman Scythe during their travels, and together they lived through a couple of adventures trying to figure out their heritage, until Scythe und Lucius both got killed during a surprise attack on a Gaul village they visited. Mago returned home following Scythes’ death, and after a period of depression gets involved in local affairs again, also living with a freed slave woman, Maat, with whom he had a daughter, Elisha. Maat died of a sickness some years later, though, and Mago got drawn into the wars between the Romans under Caesar and revolting native federations. He joined Caesar to become a trusted cavalry commander. Later he set out to scout the eastern provinces and their support for Pompeius, but also to find some clues about Scythe and her past. On the Crimean peninsula he got involved with remnant of the remains of a Scythian people reduced to small tribes and joined one of them. Returned to Rome Caesar proposes invading Gaul on the information of a Druid ally who also names the culprit behind the death of Scythe and Lucius. Thus Mago and the Scythians became involved with the Roman conquest of Gaul. After the war and Caesars death, Mago rode one last time to Gaul with his daughter Elisha, telling her of the events of his life along the way.Dido and Cleopatra44 BC-24 BCElisha, better known under her Romanized name of Dido, got introduced to Octavian, Marc Antony and Cleopatra of Egypt. The two queens (yes, she actually is a Scythian queen) became close friends, but when they chose the side of different men in the coming conflict, their friendship is overshadowed by their involvement in the war. Dido was instrumental in setting up Octavian as Caesars heir and emperor, and the final confrontation with her former friend had to come.That’s secretYes I’m bad, I know it I’m bad. There’s a lot of stuff going on here, but honestly, I told you too much already!Tomb Raiders1880-1933This is the great age of scholars, Egyptologists, explorers and, well, con artists. People like Amelia Edwards, Carter and Henry Stone measure and explore the Pyramids and decipher cuneiform, Knudtzon and, yes, Strindboem translate them, Weyerhun and Stockhammer discover the astronomical use of Stone Age monuments. The collaboration and competition and great advantages in archaeology paint the picture of the past ages new. And sometimes there are ominous patches in those paintings, patches someone meticulously overpainted, not anticipating the niceties of modern science.When these people meet on the Capricorn on its way to Alexandria, it’s the start of the race for the ultimate secret, the discovery that would catapult the discoverer onto the Olympus of science, that would make finding the tomb of Tutankhamen look like the unwanted penny piece nobody picks from the sidewalk. But then the Great War and the aftermath of the Russian Revolution puts the hunters off the trail, and brings some new players to the game. The British pilot Isaac Durand, the Armenian refugee turned brigand Ghevorgina Ozanian, the Dynamitero Michele Askar and the bourgeouis young lady Louise who finds her calling as a jewel thief, when her father loses the family fortune in the wake of Black Friday. Within the uneasy times of the interwar period, Stone, Carter and the others finally solve the riddle, but what they find will never fit in a prominent spot in the British Museum.Fleur de Resistance1933-1945Now dedicated to keep their findings from the eyes of the world, the conspirators try and solve the mystery they discovered themselves. It has turned into a curse, leaving a black mark on Carter and Stone, spreading treason and distrust, and causing the death of Ghevorgina in the process, after the birth of her daughter Severina. Despondent, Michele Askar joins the International Brigades, and dies at Guadaljara. And the obscure Montague Summers, a college acquaintance of Isaac, makes them aware of the fact, that their secret has a long history of being known, guarded and forcibly forgotten, and of a new lead to southern France, to an obscure site of medieval erudition and knightly ambition, of such bad repute, that attempts to stamp it out had been made in medieval times at several points. But now again feverish research is commencing, just as another ill-fated war shakes the world. The conspirators join the Resistance, but their loyalty is no longer to anything but the secret that they regard their eminent domain. Aurora Borealis1972Inez, just transferring from another school in the Swiss Alps and Myriam, from the channel island Jersey meet on their way to their new boarding school in a small town in southern France. As different as they are, they become friends. It is the end of a beautiful summer in that little world in rural France, hanging out with the other kids, sneaking out to spend the evenings with some Hippies camping on the banks of the Tardoire and at worst having to cope with tedious school routine. But autumn comes, a girl disappears and it turns out she might not have been the first. Then Inez falls ill and the friendship between the two girls becomes overshadowed by intrigues and suspicion.Katanga!1978Within the chaos of a rebel invasion Inez and Myriam meet again in Zaire. Together with a small platoon of Legionnaires they travel up the big river in search of Myriam’s Father. A journey for her into a forgotten past, a journey into the past in more than one sense. It’s the Zaire of Dictator Mobuto, whose reign only reaches as far as his money and the few reliable units of the army will go. The rest of that country rich in natural resources is in the hand of mercenaries and warlords either in the hands of multinational mining business or cold war power games. It’s a journey always one step ahead of death. What will they find at the end, what about the outcast Barega girl Itoli that shares a bitter memory with Myriam? What of Inez, after the events at the school, five years ago, and why did someone sent her crack parachute unit up the river, for all their friendship? How did she manage to enter a military that only had one single woman ever in its ranks before?ErebusDid I mention multiverse, time travel and stuff and then dismiss it? Imagine waking up one morning in 1978 and everything looks like 1902, just numbers…It’s The de Villefort from Luxembourg that steps from the central African jungles, in a place where the Holy Roman Empire never experienced the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss but still thrives under the wise rule of Emperor Henry XXIII of Luxembourg. The de Villefort that traditionally commands the Praetorian Legion, fought the traditional rival, the British Empire into an unexpected and unquiet peace. A world where Britannia rules the waves with its majestic ironclads, but the Imperial Armada still keeps the convoy route to the Americas open, with submarine cruisers and Transocean Zeppelin flights. The Americas? A world where Napoleon never invaded Russia but carved out a new Greater French Republic, where no United States ever came into being, but the States General of the New Netherlands and the Canadian Provinces of the British Commonwealth further north contest the Cotton Elite of the south.It’s the time of the race to the poles. Will Myriam, Inez and Alexey, Emissary of the Russian Tsar, reach the place hinted in notes taken from the frozen hands of Scott and his men?And for Myriam, after discovering her friend to be the grey (well rather dark) eminence behind the imperial throne, not even the terror of the frozen wastes compares to having to debut at the Grand Officers Ball in Vienna…They do find their legacy in those frozen wastes. But that is only the beginning...

Description

There are instances when a person’s name is turned into a title.

But in the case of Kendru, it was just the other way around. Once being the Kendru, a spiritual guardian of the Dakini of Yian-Ho, she long since became simply Kendru, because there is no longer anyone alive understanding that this is actually a title.

Her age is unknown, maybe even to her. If there were records of it, even if they did not turn to dust by now, who could read them now.

She was one of the three Fates that brought down the King in Yellow, Tillian-Ayr, the first and most powerful Harverster Overlord. The Gasturians called her, Medusa and Rakan the Gorgons, and there is a grain of truth to the myth, though little more.

She was the Guardian of the Tomb of the Avatars, part of the former palace of Dazzle, now covered by a glacier wedged in between two mountains peaks. Maybe she was already there, when Njord brought the remains of Skadi to be entombed in a secret place. Certainly she was charged with protecting that place at the end of Age of Terror, and she was ever the enemy of Tillian-Ayr who searched for that place and the ultimate power it would give him. At one point she fell into his hands, but this may have been a ruse. She conceived the plan to bring him down with the help of Medusa and Rakan, and though the Stranger may have had his hands (and words) in this, so goes the tale, and so she is venerated for her wisdom.

Still, the Dakini may be enlightened, but they have a vested interest in this world. Theirs is the oldest religion (spiritual path if you prefer) among mankind, and they don’t have much patience for fools. The name of Yian-Ho is ominous for those that sought it and perished, wandering in nightmares until they died.

And being from the elder human stock, as Rakan was, our kind does not rate highly with her, little more than spiritual cripples...

Kendru is a no-nonsense woman, though she can beguile people as she sees fit. Only once she got matched against an equal opponent, when Rakan either by accident or by fate broke through the seals that hid the secret tombs away and took, what Kendru herself coveted. They fought for the price in the spiritual domain for centuries, and when Rakan finally escaped her webs, shaken yet alive, a shadow of her former self stumbling into a Sarmatian village, Kendru was in no shape to pursue her, nor did she ever dare to attack her openly again.

Still, she pursued her, even when Rakan changed her name and guise, through her agents and traitors, forcing her to flee eventually into a nightmare of her own.

But Kendru remained and bides her time until the stars are right, to finally claim what is hers, to sit on the throne of eternity, on the pinnacle of this world, and to rule its fate.

But times have changed. The year is 1972 and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some self-proclaimed Guru in India.
When she came down from the mountains, followers flocked to worship every word passing over her lips as long as they could get seriously stoned in between.
Yet there was something disturbing about this new 'Devi', the unconscious fear of accidentally having stubled upon the real thing...

DAZ3D Iray Render, minor PS post work.

Aeons - a primerYou find the complete texts including images here:RRakans TaleIn the year of the consul Metellus, two youngAAurora Borealis - Present(France, the express train from Paris to TolouseAAurora Borealis - Magos TaleThis is the very beginning of Aurora Borealis. AsSome confusionSo you have come across some Aeons related pictures, maybe something tagged Aurora Borealis, but there’s no Aurora anywhere in sight and there’s a lot of pictures and walls of text, but what is this stuff? So it’s a story, but right now and given the format of DeviantArt you can’t push through to figure out stuff like in a regular novel. But you’ll find links to the stories above, in a compiled format. It is still shortened and adapted to go with the pictures, a slightly different than the original written version. Meanwhile here’s a little old-fashioned primer for your convenience.Worldbuilding Aeons?Aeons is the story of our world. Yet based on the mysterious Apeiron sub material entity that is the missing link of the universal theory of everything. What we call reality is the primary thread, were causality and probability behave more or less normally and fuzziness is minimal. But it’s actually a multiverse of less likely and stable event lines all interacting through the dance vector of the Apeirons. If your brain starts shutting down, don’t worry. Since our science has not discovered the Apeiron, you’ll never ever hear it mentioned inside the story again. Uhm… not counting the Troodon civilization of the Jurassic nor… No matter. Genre?So let’s talk genre. I mean books and movies are put into those boxes for good and convenient reasons after all. Is it Sci-Fi then?(Read the following paragraph only if you’re into Sci-Fi)Well let’s say there is no magic, but that what Clarke said – any techie stuff sophisticated enough will look like magic if you don’t know how it works. There is a lot going on in the galaxy but no FTL, no time travel. But using the principles behind the Apeiron you CAN create effects that would seem exactly like this without Einstein ever breaking a sweat (but if you’re at that point, it would be pretty melodramatic to do so). It’s a grim galaxy, too. Genocide for the greater good is commonplace and our biosphere only barely managed to survive a number of wipe outs attempts. Otherwise all that remains would be a Banshee Wail, like in the Vega system. This is no Clarke, certainly not Star Wars. Don’t worry too much. Just be afraid. Remember William Dyer. It’s better not to know stuff. (Ok everyone back?)It’s not really fantasy either even though some parts have a lot of that R.E. Howard mood. And Zelazny. We must not forget Zelazny. No high fantasy, no elves and dwarves, guaranteed. Folklore, superstition and myths may be the warped shadows cast by things better not mentioned. But no pointy ears but for the meowing kind.So is it historical fiction? Yes, to quite a degree. The story takes historical events seriously, even if it’s only hinted at. But in between the gaps and holes of history a lot of seriously queer things happen.Long ago this was called adventure or fantastic literature. Oh crap.Who am I kidding? Forget all I said. It’s a goddamn love story, even though it took me some time to figure it out. TimelinesNow that we got that sorted out, some real information on the storylines!Troodon AgeBack in the Jurassic (dinosaurs did manage, and they weren’t even the first) we have the Troodon civilization, that exceeded our own in terms of technological level. So they set out to the stars, most famous is the flight of the Wendigo, but the stars didn’t appreciate. There is little left of the wreck of the planetary destroyer under the Yucatán Peninsula and the fact that it did not succeed is no comfort. In more than one way. Still, the Troodon were more or less done for. Full sized biological attack apart from the impact. Imagine a highly evolved civilization broken and predicting their extinction within a set timeframe that still covered generations. So they built the sarcophagus bunkers. These were built to last. And just outside the prime thread far enough to be hidden from the CGF. Of course the Troodon could not do this. But the Avatars could. They’re not named sarcophagus for nothing. For all their technology, Troodon civilization was a religious one. The Troodon left another thing. The Karylon genetical programs within the biosphere. Of course the CGF dropped their own genetical bombs. Then time seriously began to pass and the war was fought between strands of DNA.CGF means Central Galactic Federation. Sounds like Star Trek? But just imagine yourself on the opposite side of some self-righteous bastards…Time of LegendsAnd boy did it pass. But at some point, intelligence began to surface once again. Mammal this time, not scaly reptiloid. About 40k years ago, mankind for the first time became aware of this legacy. From this encounter came what is known as Dakini shamanism, culminating in the teachings of the ‘Sorceress’ Dazzle who was the first to rediscover a lot of the principles of that legacy, longevity being one of them. From the Dakini roots another civilization rose, calling individuals from all across the world, even as far as Lemuria, which is now fallen below the Pacific Ocean. Together they build the first city around 30K BC, and after its downfall, the survivors recovered Dazzles teaching and begun raising the Hyperborean Theocracy in the Kolyma region. With access to the sarcophagus bunkers it was the foremost civilization in the world, when most of our ancestors still had to figure out how to paint their cave walls. The Hyperboreans weren’t our ancestors, they were more closely related to Neanderthals or Denisovians. Which couldn’t work out in the long run. Our ancestors got their Prometheus, they got their fire with which they almost wiped out the Hyperboreans. Those that escaped went on the long trek along the polar ice circle to the west. The few that managed to reach the western ocean disappeared. The rest ended up as main course for dinner, literally. But speaking of fire, Homo sapiens sapiens (or less gloriously, the Horde) managed to burn themselves, inevitably. Age of TerrorBy 10K BC the Ice Age was about to turn into slush and our ancestors had bitten up their piece of power just to realize that they couldn’t quite swallow it. Those few that could turned into monsters. For seven millennia these beings that later became known as Harvesters ruled supreme. Harvester refers to archaeological finds in the Central Asian area, Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea especially. But of course they existed in places as far as South America or New Guinea. In between were the power struggles of groups like the Yellow Monks, Shimmu, the Magi or the Gasturians. And the original Dakini were around, too. This happy situation ended around 3K BC, when the Gasturians (ironically, for they started the mess) got everything in place to wipe the Harvesters from the earth, more or less, and established what archaeologists like to describe as rites and religious or ceremonial purpose, when they actually have no clue what they had dug up. Of course with so many bigwigs in the game, there were some serious plans and counterplans that would have made a Harkonnen Mentat dizzy, but for the mythology there were three ladies involved in ousting the Harvester boss, one Tilian-Ayr who had been around since the Hyperborean Exodus. Two already appeared in pictures, like the Treefolk girl Rakan, the princess Medusa. The third is in the title picture, the spiritual leader of the Dakini, the Kendru. Part of the price for getting rid of the old bastard was becoming harvesters themselves, and truth be told, you don’t manage this kind of stuff without being tough as nails and power hungry yourself, so they have a shady reputation, especially in legends promoted by the Gasturians. As you might guess from one of the names, ‘Gorgons’ was one of them. Fates, Crones, Artemis, Athene and Aphrodite, take your pick. Don’t be fooled, those were only stories to cover up actual events that couldn’t be quite hushed up.Aurora Borealis – Late Roman Republic (to build an Empire)68 BC – 44 BCMago by birth was the heir and owner of a decent sized land hold in Spain that was managed by his younger brother, Gabal. They were Punics, settlers from the town of New Cartago (todays Cartagena) but, unhappy with the rural surroundings, Mago followed the Trader Rufus to Massilia and later befriends Rufus’ nephew Lucius. After Rufus’ death they met the mysterious woman Scythe during their travels, and together they lived through a couple of adventures trying to figure out their heritage, until Scythe und Lucius both got killed during a surprise attack on a Gaul village they visited. Mago returned home following Scythes’ death, and after a period of depression gets involved in local affairs again, also living with a freed slave woman, Maat, with whom he had a daughter, Elisha. Maat died of a sickness some years later, though, and Mago got drawn into the wars between the Romans under Caesar and revolting native federations. He joined Caesar to become a trusted cavalry commander. Later he set out to scout the eastern provinces and their support for Pompeius, but also to find some clues about Scythe and her past. On the Crimean peninsula he got involved with remnant of the remains of a Scythian people reduced to small tribes and joined one of them. Returned to Rome Caesar proposes invading Gaul on the information of a Druid ally who also names the culprit behind the death of Scythe and Lucius. Thus Mago and the Scythians became involved with the Roman conquest of Gaul. After the war and Caesars death, Mago rode one last time to Gaul with his daughter Elisha, telling her of the events of his life along the way.Dido and Cleopatra44 BC-24 BCElisha, better known under her Romanized name of Dido, got introduced to Octavian, Marc Antony and Cleopatra of Egypt. The two queens (yes, she actually is a Scythian queen) became close friends, but when they chose the side of different men in the coming conflict, their friendship is overshadowed by their involvement in the war. Dido was instrumental in setting up Octavian as Caesars heir and emperor, and the final confrontation with her former friend had to come.That’s secretYes I’m bad, I know it I’m bad. There’s a lot of stuff going on here, but honestly, I told you too much already!Tomb Raiders1880-1933This is the great age of scholars, Egyptologists, explorers and, well, con artists. People like Amelia Edwards, Carter and Henry Stone measure and explore the Pyramids and decipher cuneiform, Knudtzon and, yes, Strindboem translate them, Weyerhun and Stockhammer discover the astronomical use of Stone Age monuments. The collaboration and competition and great advantages in archaeology paint the picture of the past ages new. And sometimes there are ominous patches in those paintings, patches someone meticulously overpainted, not anticipating the niceties of modern science.When these people meet on the Capricorn on its way to Alexandria, it’s the start of the race for the ultimate secret, the discovery that would catapult the discoverer onto the Olympus of science, that would make finding the tomb of Tutankhamen look like the unwanted penny piece nobody picks from the sidewalk. But then the Great War and the aftermath of the Russian Revolution puts the hunters off the trail, and brings some new players to the game. The British pilot Isaac Durand, the Armenian refugee turned brigand Ghevorgina Ozanian, the Dynamitero Michele Askar and the bourgeouis young lady Louise who finds her calling as a jewel thief, when her father loses the family fortune in the wake of Black Friday. Within the uneasy times of the interwar period, Stone, Carter and the others finally solve the riddle, but what they find will never fit in a prominent spot in the British Museum.Fleur de Resistance1933-1945Now dedicated to keep their findings from the eyes of the world, the conspirators try and solve the mystery they discovered themselves. It has turned into a curse, leaving a black mark on Carter and Stone, spreading treason and distrust, and causing the death of Ghevorgina in the process, after the birth of her daughter Severina. Despondent, Michele Askar joins the International Brigades, and dies at Guadaljara. And the obscure Montague Summers, a college acquaintance of Isaac, makes them aware of the fact, that their secret has a long history of being known, guarded and forcibly forgotten, and of a new lead to southern France, to an obscure site of medieval erudition and knightly ambition, of such bad repute, that attempts to stamp it out had been made in medieval times at several points. But now again feverish research is commencing, just as another ill-fated war shakes the world. The conspirators join the Resistance, but their loyalty is no longer to anything but the secret that they regard their eminent domain. Aurora Borealis1972Inez, just transferring from another school in the Swiss Alps and Myriam, from the channel island Jersey meet on their way to their new boarding school in a small town in southern France. As different as they are, they become friends. It is the end of a beautiful summer in that little world in rural France, hanging out with the other kids, sneaking out to spend the evenings with some Hippies camping on the banks of the Tardoire and at worst having to cope with tedious school routine. But autumn comes, a girl disappears and it turns out she might not have been the first. Then Inez falls ill and the friendship between the two girls becomes overshadowed by intrigues and suspicion.Katanga!1978Within the chaos of a rebel invasion Inez and Myriam meet again in Zaire. Together with a small platoon of Legionnaires they travel up the big river in search of Myriam’s Father. A journey for her into a forgotten past, a journey into the past in more than one sense. It’s the Zaire of Dictator Mobuto, whose reign only reaches as far as his money and the few reliable units of the army will go. The rest of that country rich in natural resources is in the hand of mercenaries and warlords either in the hands of multinational mining business or cold war power games. It’s a journey always one step ahead of death. What will they find at the end, what about the outcast Barega girl Itoli that shares a bitter memory with Myriam? What of Inez, after the events at the school, five years ago, and why did someone sent her crack parachute unit up the river, for all their friendship? How did she manage to enter a military that only had one single woman ever in its ranks before?ErebusDid I mention multiverse, time travel and stuff and then dismiss it? Imagine waking up one morning in 1978 and everything looks like 1902, just numbers…It’s The de Villefort from Luxembourg that steps from the central African jungles, in a place where the Holy Roman Empire never experienced the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss but still thrives under the wise rule of Emperor Henry XXIII of Luxembourg. The de Villefort that traditionally commands the Praetorian Legion, fought the traditional rival, the British Empire into an unexpected and unquiet peace. A world where Britannia rules the waves with its majestic ironclads, but the Imperial Armada still keeps the convoy route to the Americas open, with submarine cruisers and Transocean Zeppelin flights. The Americas? A world where Napoleon never invaded Russia but carved out a new Greater French Republic, where no United States ever came into being, but the States General of the New Netherlands and the Canadian Provinces of the British Commonwealth further north contest the Cotton Elite of the south.It’s the time of the race to the poles. Will Myriam, Inez and Alexey, Emissary of the Russian Tsar, reach the place hinted in notes taken from the frozen hands of Scott and his men?And for Myriam, after discovering her friend to be the grey (well rather dark) eminence behind the imperial throne, not even the terror of the frozen wastes compares to having to debut at the Grand Officers Ball in Vienna…They do find their legacy in those frozen wastes. But that is only the beginning...