War Journals

[Illyiss]

The games, gladiatorial blood sport to feed the carnal desires of the crowd, and drain the credits from their wallets.  The crowd roars and cheers, boos and jeers, ebbing and flowing with the steps, stabs, breaks, and deaths in the ring.  While on the opposite side of the excitement, those down on the sand below, life is condensed to a moment to moment terror of kill or be killed, the endorphins supplying the rush each time the struggle is won, at the price of another piece of soul.  Each champion either wraps their compassion, empathy is a cloak of lead and steel, or has it ripped from them, and either way the scars echo and pulse for the rest of their tortured, twisted lives...

And for those who get away, fate twists back and forth.  Being both what they loathe, and what they are best at, the fight, the deep, slaughtering brutality of the fight draws them back over and over...

[Lord_S_Gray]

Merciless, no redemption...I like that there is really no real start and no real resolution in this chapter...its like just a 'cut' from a week in Tasriis life...the repetition, the indifference...almost learned helplessness in her situation...trying to retain some control over her situation by 'sparing' the human girl in the only way she can.  Great snippet.

[Illyiss]

Reminds me more than a little of the first season of Spartacus, in that regard.

[TheDutchman]

Reminds me more than a little of the first season of Spartacus, in that regard.

A veritable masterpiece, that 

[Illyiss]

So, this is your fault, TheDrunkenConsular, for including a line I wrote, as a line from a poem, in the fictional book I am credited with writing.  So I was inspired to write this poem you referenced, and titled for me.   So I give to you:

Insights for a Broken Man

Advance came the order
Decided in some office
Far from the fighting
Warm teak and Scotch

Sir, yes, Sir
From the soldiers
The lives on the line
Gun oil and napalm
The scents they knew

Another lost objective
This a lonely hill
Faces only last night
Sharing solemn meal
Explosions drown the shots
Faces forever still

One less for cards tonight
Two less to share the rum
Three less to know children
Wives tears to spill
For another lonely hill

Put aside those things
Remember not your life
Think only briefly
If you must at all

All that matters is
One more step
One more shot
One more action

Until you might go home
To where you might recall
That place forever frozen
In night time to recall.

[Lord_S_Gray]

So, this is your fault, TheDrunkenConsular, for including a line I wrote, as a line from a poem, in the fictional book I am credited with writing.  So I was inspired to write this poem you referenced, and titled for me.   So I give to you:

Insights for a Broken Man

Advance came the order
Decided in some office
Far from the fighting
Warm teak and Scotch

Sir, yes, Sir
From the soldiers
The lives on the line
Gun oil and napalm
The scents they knew

Another lost objective
This a lonely hill
Faces only last night
Sharing solemn meal
Explosions drown the shots
Faces forever still

One less for cards tonight
Two less to share the rum
Three less to know children
Wives tears to spill
For another lonely hill

Put aside those things
Remember not your life
Think only briefly
If you must at all

All that matters is
One more step
One more shot
One more action

Until you might go home
To where you might recall
That place forever frozen
In night time to recall.

That...is astonishing...so sparse yet so powerful...the one/two/three...the frozen faces paralleling their frozen images of their home...encouragement not to think...so much to unpack done with such absolute precision and simplicity...that itself reflects the tragic simplicity of the situation the broken man finds himself in - I can't do justice to this.

[Illyiss]

That...is astonishing...so sparse yet so powerful...the one/two/three...the frozen faces paralleling their frozen images of their home...encouragement not to think...so much to unpack done with such absolute precision and simplicity...that itself reflects the tragic simplicity of the situation the broken man finds himself in - I can't do justice to this.

Thank you, Lord Gray, it was humbling to pen.

[TheDutchman]

Admittedly I've never been one to like free-verse...but that is...sublime.

On the other hand, my wife VERY much is; her critique: "excellence in a form most pure."

Damn Illyiss...you just made a person who doesn't care for SW interested in SW!

THAT'S powerful and eloquent rhetoric!




Oh, special mention to LSG for having originated the brilliant idea of the fictional tome of "The Collected Poems of Illyiss!"
You sir are incredible!

And for TDC for his inspired quatrain...literally; it inspired our very own odist!

Damn you fine gentlemen improve upon our SW universe!

[Illyiss]

Admittedly I've never been one to like free-verse...but that is...sublime.

On the other hand, my wife VERY much is; her critique: "excellence in a form most pure."

Damn Illyiss...you just made a person who doesn't care for SW interested in SW!

THAT'S powerful and eloquent rhetoric!




Oh, special mention to LSG for having originated the brilliant idea of the fictional tome of "The Collected Poems of Illyiss!"
You sir are incredible!

And for TDC for his inspired quatrain...literally; it inspired our very own odist!

Damn you fine gentlemen improve upon our SW universe!

*bows*  Thank you, kind sir, and please, pass on my thanks to your lovely lady as well.

[TheDrunkenConsular]

Illyiss, that's incredible!  I'm proud to be blamed for such work!

[Illyiss]

Illyiss, that's incredible!  I'm proud to be blamed for such work!

Thank you, good sir.  I have been writing more again, poetry as well.  And while I don't want to push it here, anyone possibly interested, there is a link on my profile, feel free to look or share.

[Karmack]

Illyiss, that is simply amazing.  Thank you for sharing.  :-)

[Illyiss]

Thank you as well, good sir.

[TheDrunkenConsular]

Somebody give me a prompt or two for some War Journal entries.  I've got a looong car ride tomorrow that I'd like to spend writing, so give me some ideas!

[Illyiss]

More tales of Heddit's absence.

More action reports of the Mandolorian Mercenary company.

A report from one of the Templar teams that stayed on searching temples.