The Castle of Forever

The Castle of Forever

Original Plot by Ty Gorton (tWISTEd sPINe), and Alison Rice (Moon Mistress)

Later Additions to the Plot by Anna Kuyper (Deaderman), and Jack Danya Kemplin (Holy Guyver)

The Castle of Forever was started by Ty Gorton and Ali Rice in the year 2000, with some later additions by Anna Kuyper. C3 is now looking for writers and artists to create novels or comics based on the concepts and story ideas that Ty, Ali, and Anna created, while interjecting some ideas Jack Danya Kemplin, the current Editor-in-Chief of C3 wishes the stories to include. Below are Jack’s additions, followed by the plot summaries Ty, Ali, and Anna came up with.

Mythology: The Pantheons of Xsara and Sera

At our human limits, when we've gone as far as flesh and imagination can take us, we meet the Eternal One, The Crow. His alabaster delicate features tell of his ivory goddess ancestry. Immemorially old, and inconsolable, he is there only for those who seek both revenge and love, and are willing to go all the way - and beyond.

For a hundred thousand years, the greatest of the gods was the crow, the dream-carrier, who brought civilization to the people in paleolithic times. Mammoth-ivory carvings found over a vast area from Europe to the Near East depict a goddess with the raptor traits of a carrion bird: three fingered talons and a beaked face - a predator crow with breasts.

About ten thousand years ago, when the goddess became a god, the same winged omnivore continued as chief deity almost everywhere: the archaic greeks called him Cronos, literally The Crow, the tireless traveller and hunger machine the romans renamed Saturn, god of time, the sun god Apollo, whose name means The Destroyer, was another greek avatar of the crow, as was the norse king of the gods, Odin. To the celts as well as aboriginal american nations, this scavenger bird carried the cosmic significance of The Great Benefactor, the creator of the visible world. The germanic and siberian tribes similarly worshipped the crow as an oracular healer. And in china, the black-feathered predator was the first of the imperial emblems, representing Yang, the sun, and the vitality of the emperor.

During medieval times, "the shadow of the sun" was how european alchemists defined the crow, their symbol for the "nigredo", the blackness of despair and its poison-cure, the unity latent in chaos. That unity is the crow's rapture, a lifeforce so powerful it can actually live of death itself. That - and its outer space color in broad daylight - is what impressed the first people. The crow is the hunger of the sky. When it comes down, it eats everything, including the dead. And it rejects nothing. it is invulnerable, it is wider than time.

At our human limits, when we've gone as far as our bodies and imagination can take us, we meet the eternal ones, the powers that built our flesh out of the mineral accidents of creation and that are now building our individual fates out of time and the accidents of our hearts. They are spaceless and timeless as numbers, and yet, as with numbers, all order in space and time comes from them. In a glare of earthlight, the crow emerges out of the super-real. He is the appetite of the eternal ones for the mortal powers of the world.

The crow is an excarnation(defleshing) of this celestial devour, the crow is the same melancholy avenger who castrated his father, king of the mountains (Uranus), 10,000 years ago in the first kingdoms. He is immemorially old and inconsolable because he is his own Hades. Ghost dwell in him. His clown white and feminine features harken all the way back to the Ivory Crow goddess of a hundred thousand years ago. The maker as the taker, the blood drained face of Mama death, her ghost crows descending to pluck the souls from our corpses, the blood remembers this.

As with every true ritual, it is a killing floor. The more sacred the ritual, the more messy and gruesome the blood-letting. Saturn disemboweled, Odin pierced and hanging from the storm tree - the crow creating a zombie to destroy dozens of violent, evil lives. This purging of evil is a primordial fantasy prominent even at the deepest range of consciousness - because it is rooted in the suzerain truth that we are all equal before death. No mortal has the right to take another's body or life. Yet people are raped and killed every hour. The whole world is infected, and the innermost secret spirit inside the recesses of inert matter watches without blinking.

A myth of why crows are black: a long time ago a snow white Crow was left by the god Apollo to watch his woman Coronis. Even though she was pregnant, coronis admitted her passion for another man. The white crow flew to tell Apollo the news, but before The Crow could tell Apollo, the sun god had already divined Coronis' infidelity, which makes you wonder why he needed a sentry in the first place. At any rate, Apollo turn The Crow black in the fires of his revenge against Coronis. Since then, the crows have been spirits of revenge. but even though Coronis died, Apollo managed to save the life of her child, Asclepius. Asclepius grew up and Athena gave him blood from the veins of Medusa the Gorgon. The blood possess the power to cure the sick and even raise the Dead. But Asclepius' power made him powerful enemies and including Hades, who complained to Zeus that Asclepius unjustly depleted the population of the Underworld. Zeus killed the physician with a thunderbolt, but the crows kept the gorgon's blood. They bring back those who have been wronged in their lives to set the wrong things right and it is said crows will remain black as long as violence is repaid with violence.

Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race, whose life is but darkness, as unreal as a shadow, the illusion of a dream, hearken to us, who are immortal ethereal beings, for we shall tell you all celestial matters; you will know the nature of The Crows, and the origin of the gods.

In the beginning, all of creation existed in primordial unity, like an endlessly flowing black sea, a living water. For untold aeons this was as things were, until one day from the primordial black sea of Time, Anatu, a black winged bird flew forth, and hovering over the primordial waters, there laid an egg. The shell of which became a firmament parting the waters, creating a great chasm in the deep. For ages Anatu sat upon this egg, and eventually things began to grow within it. From the blackness within it rose the planets and the flames of the stars ignited, illuminating Anatu’s black feathers, revealing that they were a brilliant ivory. The nutrient waters within the egg began to stir as life sprung from the sea and the clay, enumerating into all forms of creatures. But there was danger, as coming forth from the great black sea of Chaos, wrapping around the outside of the egg, was Lotan, a massive serpent which sought to destroy the harmony of the egg, feasting upon and killing the life within. Anatu called upon the first of her creations, those born from the night as she was, The Crows. They pecked at the great Snake and clawed at it with their talons, protecting the egg. Alas from each gash they made sprung forth countless serpents with poison for blood. The snakes fought off The Crows, and Lotan the Great Serpent struck, wounding Anatu, and the drops of her blood fell upon the clay of the egg. The clay was gathered and the clots of blood breathed into it forming Adamah, man. The Adamah looked into the sky and from it came down messengers with wings of feathers, messengers from creation, warning of the eternal battle between The Crows and the Snakes.

The Eternal Mother Anatu The Ivory Goddess of Winter, in The Castle Lore, is based on the real world goddess Inanna, who is also known as Ishtar, Aya, Anatu (a Semitic warrior goddess), Anunitu (an Akkadian light goddess), Agasayam (a warrior goddess), Irnini (the goddess of cedar forests in the Lebanese mountains), Kilili or Kulili (the symbol of desirable women), Sahirtu (the messenger of lovers), Kir-gu-lu (the bringer of rain), and Sarbanda (the personification of sovereignty). So you can take inspiration from any of those real world goddesses, she can also go by or be referred to as any of those names in the Castle Lore.

This is a real world ancient sculpture of her: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/British_Museum_Queen_of_the_Night.jpg

In real mythology, Anatu has a son named Shara or Šara, where as in The Castle Lore Anatu of course has a son named Sethala from the realm of Xsara, who resides on the land of Sera. Inanna-Ishtar-Anatu is also associated with Venus - The Morning and Evening Star, also known as the Red Star, which is how Xsara, the realm of the gods, is described in our series.

Interestingly another name for Anatu is Antu, who is also the mother of the  Anunnaki and the Utukki, an utukku (Singular form of the word utukki) is the raised spirit of a mortal, which is what the avatars / champions are.

Anyway, here is more description regarding the Goddess: As you have seen she is referred to as, "The Winter Goddess" She is also known as, "The Ivory Goddess" Thus explaining why I mentioned that she is pale and dressed in white. She should also have a cloak made of white feathers, with a hood topped in a giant bird skull; I believe their our some similar being in the attached art in the google doc.

So, sort of an ivory version of this:

https://www.iamag.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/The-Art-of-Gerald-Brom-29.jpg

The deities can speak like this, "I am Anatu, the Ivory Goddess, Inanna Ishtar, who dwells within the morning and evening star."

The Sparkle Horse is a horse in which sparks come out of its eyes, nose, and mouth, it assist the avatars or champions. The spirit of The Sparkle Horse often inhabitants and resurrects the body of a dead horse, just as the Crows gods and goddesses resurrect the bodies of dead people, turning them into avatars or champions.

XarX is both male and female, their gender changes, as one of the powers of XarX’s mother, Anatu-Inanna-Ishtar is that she can change the genders of other beings.

I also have other inspirational images of XarX at different points in their transformation from pure to corrupted. XarX becomes more reptilian as they are corrupted, and also begins to take on features of a mask they once wore, the mask perhaps merging with their face.

You could view them as not gods, but as super-powered Venusians whom the Serans believe to be gods.

God does actually fit into it, at least in the Horror sister-series, within that these other ethereal beings are those Watchers mentioned in the old testament who slept with mortals and begot giants.

Anatu, though she could be called a lot of other names, as detailed above.

Do we know where she came from?

Xsara, same as the other gods and goddesses in this fantasy; though in the Horror series they all come from the unknown, formless, all consuming creator God who made all things.

The creator God of course being the God of Israel, but we don't overly dwell on that except in the few series which directly deal with such, like our Horror story Brother's Keeper, which is a retelling of the story of Cain and Abel; in that Anatu comes to Abel and says she is an angel sent from God.

But since our fantasy series takes place on a different planet in a different dimension, I don't plan on it making any direct reference to Israel. Our horror series takes place on Earth.

As you can see with that name from real mythology and with what I was saying earlier with XarX becoming part of the living world, it's very much like the Tolkien story with Morgoth/Melkor.

Also well I was getting the links for you regarding the primordial void, I came across another deity which you could use for the snake pantheon in our series:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiamat

[Tiamat] taking on the form of a massive sea dragon...she had brought forth the monsters of the Mesopotamian pantheon, including the first dragons, whose bodies she filled with "poison instead of blood".

So just as the goddess Anatu is also the goddess Ishtar, and the goddess Inanna, XarX/Sethala can be Sara, Ningishzida, and Nirah.

I did a lot of this in another comic book series I worked on called Asterion, in it I retold Greek mythology but I merged many of the gods and goddesses into a single character to simplify it.

It is called syncretizing, the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans did it to incorporate the gods and goddesses of other cultures into their own religions like for instance merging inanna and Ishtar, which the Egyptians, and the Greeks, and the Romans did do.

When the gods of Xsara or the beings of Sera become corrupt, influenced by The Pit, they become more serpent-like.

So as XarX became corrupted and fell from grace, s/he became serpent-like in appearance.

I also wrote in one of the messages I shared with you the other day another God for mythology that would be good for him, perhaps like his mother there can be many deities which represent them.

Ningishzida In Sumerian mythology, was the son of Anu, the heavens, even though the myth Ningishzida's journey to the netherworld suggests he is the son of Ereshkigal. He was sometimes depicted as a serpent with a human head.

His wife is Azimua and also Geshtinanna, while his sister is Amashilama. In some texts Ningishzida is said to be female, which means "Nin" would then refer to Lady, which is mostly how the word is used by the Sumerians. He or she was one of the ancestors of Gilgamesh.

If you would like to read more on that void, chasm, abyss, chaos, which seems to exist in most mythologies here are some links:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_(cosmogony)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tohu_wa-bohu

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_primordial_deities

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_(mythology)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_creation_myths

Throughout our horror serieses we have a very detailed pantheon and it's the same pantheon that would be in this series. In our horror serieses the way that works is throughout all different time periods throughout all different cultures different gods from each of these different cultures in each of these different time periods manifest as a crow, either black or white, and resurrect these dead people. The stories that they tell is similar to their stories in their own actual mythology and yet somehow even though these are all unrelated mythologies, they all through the totality of the series are merged to create one mythology. It is our mythology that all of them came from this great eternal all-consuming void that created all things, this being the primordial creator God, the god of Israel, and then these other pantheons in our mythologies evolved from that; which actually is sticking true to the Bible. The Bible says that the angels, known as Watchers, lusted after a human women and that born to them were the giants, the heroes, the warriors of renowned, and this suggests from the Bible itself that all the mythologies of all the other cultures are true, but they are the ethereal beings who are jealous of the god of Israel which then if you look at the other books of the old testament you can see signs of this, in that the god of Israel seems to be at war with with Baal, and Mammon, etc. So really the pantheon of our series contains every god and goddesses that ever existed in every mythology, but then also this fantasy series includes a few new ones that are totally fictional like XarX's and so on.

Unlike many pantheons, ours doesn't have gods of water, gods of air, gods of whatever, that's not how our serieses works. Since ours deals with every mythology, it doesn't really have any particular God of any particular thing, though each of these gods and goddesses do claim to be a god or goddess of a particular thing, but it's not as simple as in a water, air, or the underworld, or anything. Most of the gods and goddesses in the series are gods and goddesses of justice. Some of the ones mentioned in our horror series are: Thoth, Ma'at, Hugin and Munin, Inanna-Ishtar-Anatu (The Ivory Goddess), Yatagarasu, The Morrígan,  Ereshkigal, Coronis,  Nephthys, Mahākāla, Shani/Kroda, the Sparkle Horse, Angels All Fire (Tamiel-Temeluchus), and more.

Our pantheon is called The Murder.

We also have a demonic, an evil pantheon comprised of snakes and various gods from various mythologies which take the form of snakes, such as Nure-onna, The Gorgon, Tiamat,

If you are going to write things related to deities of The Crow in mythology, here is some research material:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morr%C3%ADgan   The Morrígan - Celtic'"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn   Huginn and Muninn - Norse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna  Inanna - Sumerian*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar   Ishtar - Mesopotamian*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ereshkigal   Ereshkigal - Mesopotamian*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronis_(mythology)    Coronis (mythology)  - Greek

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat   Ma'at - Egpytian^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephthys   Nephthys - Egpytian^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth   Thoth - Egpytian^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-legged_crow   Three-legged crow / Yatagarasu  - Japanese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah%C4%81k%C4%81la   Mahākāla - Buddhism*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shani   Shani/Kroda - Hinduism*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_ravens   Cultural depictions of ravens

*I realise that this deity is mainly associated with a different animal, but after extensive research one of the lesser representations of this deity is a Crow.

^ There are no Egyptian Crow deities, but these are close enough and bird related.

'" Badb specifically is Crow related, Morrigan is also associated with horses though, thus bringing in Sparkle Horse mythology as well.

Champions / Avatars / Crow Immortals and Rules of The World

The protectors of the Castle of Forever are going to be avatars of The Crow, just non-earth-based ones. No the townspeople will not be avatars of The Crow, they will be normal barbarian, elf, dwarf villagers, but non-earthling avatars will be the champions, the guards, the Crow Immortals.

So see, Isis Reen (Fantasy series) can be an avatar of The Crow, but she cannot exist in the same world as Eric (Horror series).

They exist in two different realities, Earth vs Xsara and Sera, and the only ones who can visit both realities are Sparkle Horse, Angels All Fire, Huggin, Muninn, Badb, Thoth, Ma'at, Inanna, Ishtar, Anatu, etc.

However, in the earth realm these gods and goddess can only take the form of black or white Crows, where as in the realm of Xsara and Sera they can appear as either Crows, or as humanoid gods and goddesses.

After reading the sections about Isis Reen in the Castle Lore, and her own story: I can say that her story didn't follow the one in the main lore, so if Moon wrote both, she did not follow her own story and wrote two stories inconsistent with each other (which makes me think that maybe she was not the author of the original Lore, that maybe Ty wrote it). So with that being known, I would say she wrote very well, but she has got to make her story consistent with the other one. That doesn't mean she has to throw out anything major from hers, just add in the parts from the other, though there are some aspects of hers that are so out of line with the main lore that she would have to completely change a few of the elements towards the end once she gets to the castle.

To Moon's I would say, "Beautiful story, but what happened between these two version? They are completely different. Looks like you need to either merge them or pick one, and I suggest merging them, as they both sound good."

Also I would say, "Hey, her horse, that is a perfect place to insert the Sparkle Horse into the Lore, so add that."

As long as you keep all of the events as described in the lore written by Ali/Moon, expanding upon them, you can of course add other things 😁.

The Castle of Forever will be an Epic Dark Off-World High-Fantasy series of comics, novels, and short stories published by C3. This series will be a sister series to C3’s Horror series, however while the Horror series takes place on Earth, in a reality that is basically the same as ours in every way, including the same history. The Castle of Forever take place in a different realm, another dimension, where our solar system formed without our sun, instead the planet Venus became a red-dwarf star called Xsara, and orbiting it is the world of Sera.

Sera is populated by many diverse beings typical of high-fantasy, such as: adamah (humans), gobbolin (orcs), elioud (elves), nibelungen (dwarves), seraphim (dragons), nephilim (giants), tannin (merfolk), and others; as well as animals which are identical to earth-based animals, such as horses, snakes, birds, etc.

The characters of Sera in C3’s The Castle of Forever series are not able to travel between their dimensions and that of C3’s Horror series, and therefore cannot feature in the Horror series, likewise the Earthling characters of the Horror series cannot feature in The Castle of Forever series. The exception to this being the gods and goddesses who reside on Xsara, they are interdimensional ethereal beings who can cross between realms.

The gods and goddesses form two pantheons:

One pantheon is known as The Murder, taking the form of black crows and white crows, it seeks balance, justice, and the righting of wrongs.

The other pantheon is known as The Pit, taking the form of snakes, it seeks disorder, violence, and power.

The Murder is also assisted by The Sparkle Horse, and Angels All Fire.

The Sparkle Horse is a horse in which sparks come out of its eyes, nose, mouth, and hooves, the sparks encircling the horse. It assist the avatars or champions, the spirit of The Sparkle Horse often inhabitants and resurrects the body of a dead horse, just as the Crow gods and goddesses resurrect the bodies of dead people, turning them into avatars or champions.

Angels All Fire was Ramiel-Nathanael, the sixth angel created by God, one of the divine archangels, along with Lucifer-Satanel - the first angel created by God, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael. He was appointed as one of the 20 leaders of the Ir-Grigori, The Watchers, angels chosen to guard over humanity, he was a guardian angel who looked after unborn babies and pregnant women during childbirth. He however chose to follow Lucifer-Satanel when he rebelled, and along with the 200 other Ir-Grigori fell to Hell. In Hell, he was called Tamiel-Temeluchus, the leader of the Tartaruchi, the demons of torment. He struck down children while they were in the womb, and tormented couples who longed to have a family; becoming a complete perversion of what he was, he became a merciless angel, all fire. After so many millennia, he could no longer stand what he had become, so, at last he have chose to rebel against the rebellion, and become an angel of retribution, watching over those who rise from the dead in need of vengeance. Now Angel All Fire appears as a living statue in the shape of a life-size angel, helping to guide the avatars / champions.

In C3’s Horror series these gods and goddesses can only manifest in the form of their respective animals: black or white crows, and snakes. However in The Castle of Forever series they can appear either in their animal forms or in humanoid-like angelic and demonic forms.

Alphabet and Writings

As I don't think language is going to be a factor in the Castle of Forever, since it is never referred to. It is obviously not English, or even any Earth tongue, but it is clearly translated into English for the reader. As for their written language, we actually have a sample of that already, two different ones in fact:

Moon created an alphabet made of gold plates with patterns of holes in them.

However when I redesigned the website, that alphabet looked odd with the new background, so I replace it with black plates.

The Obsidian alphabet.

A sample of the gold version:

As you can see, the language I created was highly based on the original one she created for the series, though I created mine so it could be better seen on the new webpage background, whereas her's is the original one she created for the world.

Imagine them writing in glowing red text on obsidian plates.

And although Moon's original writing for them was on gold plates, I think we should change that to silver, so imagine them having more ancient texts written in the glowing red on silver plates.

Xsara and Sera

This takes place in a different dimension, one where the Planet Venus is in a sunless solar-system, and Venus has a moon circling it; Venus is the red sun Xsara, and its moon is the planet Sera.

The Ivory Goddess Anatu-Inanna-Ishtar is associated with the red star, the morning and the evening star, and that would mean the red star, their sun, would be Venus.

Xsara is where the gods live.

Sera is the planet(moon) where the non-divine humanoid characters reside.

Parts of the story can take place on Xsara, think of it like Mount Olympus (but a red star (the planet Venus) ), and the rest of the creatures live on Sera (a Venusian moon that no longer exists in our dimension).

So the main place the story takes place is Sera.

There is definitely horses, there are also orcs/goblins, elves, dragons, and all of the standards of high fantasy.

I did some research as to what having a red sun would do to a planet:

If sunlight was red the sky most likely wouldn't be blue.  Our red light would follow a black body curve centered on red, so the plants and animals wanting to reflect the light would be cyan or blue, and would blend towards white as they reflect more and more sunlight. Ones wanting to absorb the light would be red and blend more towards black as they absorb more and more light. Green always has a more efficient alternative so there would be no pressure for green and probably very little of it, if it appeared at all, Vision would be adapted for red. This means the natives would most likely see in shades of red with maybe some yellow mixed in for shades of orange. Likely their visible spectrum would be shifted to see infrared and so heat would be visible to your average creature. If it was useful to distinguish between plants and animals that might use the other colors they could end up with a visible light range similar to ours, plus heat vision. Similarly the rainbow would be red-shifted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf

So imagine your map in those colours: blacks, reds, cyans, vivid blues, silver, and white.

When someone enters a black forest, it will literally be a black forest.

Imagine a forest of black and red plants.

So imagine saying, "A black forest." And literally meaning it. The differences in colour will make for a very cool world.

If the sky is red, the water will be either red or wine coloured.

In fact imagine a wine coloured sky as well, with a big dull red star.

The Lore

The Castle of Forever:

A Dark Tale

The Castle of Forever, as its name suggests, has existed since the very beginnings of time. In a Land beyond distance and an age before remembering, there was a Being that knew the powers of darkness and controlled the flow of life and death itself. This creature went by many names, but was most commonly called XarX... and by that name became hated. It was the nature of this otherworldly Being to find entertainment by wreaking havoc upon the lesser inhabitants in the world. Sometimes...there would be good fortune in the lives of people, and they would not know why, and a joy unlike any they had known would befall them. This was XarX, on those occasions of euphoric peace. But often, the mood was far from euphoric, and joy was replaced with tremendous sorrow and suffering.

Something ominous was twisted into the fiber of this Being... something ugly, and at first XarX would fight the demon within; but victory never came. As the ages passed, XarX became more and more vile, and soon spread nothing but pain from clawed fingertips. Finally, the people could take no more, and opened blind eyes to see that their anguish was not chance, but caused by a creature of their most demented nightmares. The cry to battle was echoed across the seas and deserts, and soon all of mankind was united, swords raised with the cries of war. The armies sought out XarX, and despite the Being's tremendous powers over wind and earth, the people came on and on, wave after wave, wading through their brother's and sister's blood to face the creature that had caused them so much suffering. As the years wore on, and the rivers themselves began to flow red with the stench of death, even XarX became disheartened.

The Being fled.

Finding some uncharted corner...XarX decided to construct a home, a stronghold where mortals could not dwell. The walls were made of starlight and dreams...and the floors were stitched from the fabric of eternity. It was truly a living fortress, a place with eyes and a soul, and within it XarX existed for thousands of years. Undisturbed. The guilt of all the Being had done became more vivid within the purity of the Castle... and soon XarX felt the pull of insanity like a seductive voice in the shadows of loneliness. With the weight of all It's evil crushing down, XarX broke, and Its overwhelming powers boiled up from within and burned the Being into a scatter of white ashes.

The world felt that death like a ray of sunshine after years of rain. People were drawn from all corners of the globe to XarX's stronghold, guided by a bright Red Star in the heavens that glowed night and day. Millions came. But only one could gain entrance into the Castle. Only one because this was no ordinary human, but a person born on a different plain of reality. Every age has a Champion, and while sometimes that Champion goes unrecognized, they exist, and are constructed of more than flesh and blood. In their veins flow the secrets of Forever, and all it takes is some event to awaken that knowledge for them to come forth and claim their rightful place in existence.

And so it came to be that the first keeper of XarX's stronghold was Isis Reen, the daughter of a King and an Angelic Ivory Goddess that broke the ancient laws to marry a mortal man. It was the atomic encoding from the Ivory Goddess that gave Isis the power to pass by unharmed the Eternal Altar which stood before the stronghold as a warning to all mortals.

Isis Reen entered the Castle Gates and walked where no others could. It was that power that made her Queen of XarX's glorious domain and a Hero to the inhabitants of the world. She looked down upon the people from a tower balcony, and she spoke these words, "This domain, once XarX's, is now ours. This will be the home of immortal warriors and saviors, and the world can look to the Red Star and know that they will never again have to suffer under an evil Being like XarX. This place shall be called The Castle of Forever, and it shall never crumble or fall to an enemy, and will always hold the essence of Good for every Age!!" The masses cheered, and formed massive camps around The Castle of Forever to celebrate the coming of a new Age. A better Age.

As time went on, new enemies of the mortal realm came to be... but none so devastating as The Dragons Of Minth. Two ancient brothers united all but a few of the existing Dragons together in an attempt to take over the Castle and make it an impenetrable domain for The Dragons of Minth. The brothers were named Krontak and Meelkurge; their fiery breath and blood-stained talons filled even the bravest of warriors with terror. For a hundred and thirteen years the keeper of The Castle of Forever fought against these Dragons, alongside brave men and women of the mortal realm.

The Castle was nearly destroyed, the fabrics that XarX brought together almost tearing apart, but in the end Isis Reen and the mortals were victorious and the Age of The Dragons of Minth came to an end, and their massive skeletons became landmarks for travelers.

Centuries passed, and other Champions rose up to take their place within The Castle of Forever. While these Beings are Immortal, they can only hold the imagination of the people so long, and when their tales fade away, a new Champion must rise up and win the hearts of all mortals.

There was Obliosch, the silent warrior that let his mystical blade speak rather than using words.

Then came Kaztik Yi. No one is sure of his origins...and while his sheer intensity kept most mortals at a distance, none had ever fought harder against the tides of darkness. Those that came to know him told tales of his wicked sense of humor and his morbid lust for thrills.

After Kaztik, into the Castle came Fasson Burr, an outcast from a very young age that took to wearing masks to hide a large scar along her face. She soon found that behind the mask, her mind could travel the corridors of consciousness and bend the equations of reality ever so slightly. Fasson Burr led the mortals to many victories, and hers was a time of great happiness.

Razuul rose from this celebrated time of victory and ruled The Castle of Forever quietly and without commotion.

Things were neither joyous or sad, but continued onward for hundreds of years without any significant war or event, an achievement often overlooked. After Razuul, there was a century of bloodshed.

iVi emerged as a Champion, but many feared this Being's quick wrath. Some whispered that the essence of XarX had somehow infected their new Champion, but the wiser mortals knew that if such a thing were to happen, the result would be far worse.

iVi's time did not last long, thankfully, for the people soon grew weary of senseless battle and lost faith.

That brings us up to the current Age. Through all of this, The Castle of Forever was ever changing form, and could never be found at the same location. It is an incomprehensible sanctuary, sometimes a ruin, sometimes a magnificent structure. The white ashes of XarX still travel the halls, pushed along by an eternal current. Many believe that XarX still lives in those ashes, and awaits a chance to become whole again...but that cannot happen so long as a champion comes forward for each Age and rules The Castle.

Age after age, the essence of The Crow has risen to take residence in The Castle of Forever. Each Champion presides only so long as the mortals of the land believe...and The Crow is cherished and respected in all parts of the world. All things would point to a rule without end, and one of overwhelming Love and Justice.

Each new Crow Immortal makes the essence of The Crow stronger, and brings The Castle of Forever closer to its original glory during the ancient times of Isis Reen. Only when all mortals are able to conquer the evils of death and greed and corruption will the wrongs of the world be set right, and the powers of darkness be forever vanquished.

So that is the tale of The Castle, and it is a tale that you are now an important part of. It is up to you, Crow Immortal, to protect the innocent from the evils of XarX, and to ensure that The Castle of Forever continues to grow strong in the power of light!!

 To become a Crow Immortal, you must prove your ability to swiftly seek out your enemies and bring vengeance crashing down upon them like a poetic blood red rain. Only the strongest willed, the most persistent, will ever walk the path of a Crow Immortal. Only the most clever and faithful will master the inner workings of the CHAMBEROOM to vanquish all their foes and be set free for all eternity.

The Castle’s Story

or years XarX, now defeated and humiliated, roamed the deserts of the realm of Sera. He was ousted by the humans and became a laughing stock. He had no more strength to fight. During his many years of exile from the divine lands of the Citadel he came across a vision of Anatu, his Eternal Mother. He fell to his rotten knees and begged forgiveness in the native tongue of the Eternals which, at that moment, sounded so uncouth from his lips. She spoke unto him harsh words of truth and clarity which cut him to the soul. She spoke of him never being allowed to his rightful place at the Eternal realm of Xsara. But she gave him an ultimatum, a last guidance from the pincers of doom, "Go forth, and build another fortress. May its walls be of white marble, and its halls decked with fine gold. Go to the place of the mortals of 'Larinthe', for they have yet to know of your existence. Go forth and live among those people, here you shall dwell and if you cannot redeem yourself, may your own wrath and blackness be your own destruction. I shall protect your hideous flesh no longer." With this, the beautiful form vanished leaving her voice to eternally chime in his ears. He wept crude tears and grasped this piece of knowledge in an effort to heave himself from the pit into which he had fallen.

He followed the divine Red Star 'Xsara' over tundra and desert and forest till, at length, he reached the exalted citadel of Larinthe. He saw structures there that no eyes had yet seen; people garbed in strange clothes and selling exotic and foreign objects. They spoke a foreign tongue and nothing they said could be deciphered. Yet this was a strange place: a place that was like no other for it was closer to 'Xsara' than any other land. The Red Star shone day and night viciously onto his skin and he felt a familiar sense of calm. No one looked upon him with strange glances, for many different people in different kinds of flesh and attire walked this city. There seemed to be no trace of the evil which had once contaminated Sera; minds were untainted. He looked on in wonder and saw that these people were almost god-like in their dealings, mannerisms, and thoughts. In the many centuries that he had inhabited Xsara, he had never set eyes on this haven of humanity. It seemed that Anatu the Eternal had kept this place hidden from his eyes. He found courage and hope and threw back his cloak to reveal his flesh which he had hidden from human eyes for so long. The people of Larinthe were terrified at the monstrosity that they beheld, they were afraid of him: some wanted to kill him. He felt such sorrow and pain at their reaction and barely escaped the maddened crowds. Only with the help of a destructive wind and a torrent of rain was he able to escape and as he was carried away on a cloud. He realised that he had come to be the embodiment of the terror and the disease he had so fought to wipe out.

It was then and there that he realised that he could never redeem himself the way Anatu commanded. He decided to seek out a place far away from the eyes and the reach of humanity and found a deep valley enveloped by steep mountains. Here he built the Castle of the Immortals, with all that Anatu had told him to use. With not a single mortal eye able to glance on this magnificent building he lived there in utter self-imposed exile. He roamed the beautifully crafted halls; trod through the wondrous garden which he had helped create with the last dregs of his Eternal goodness. Strange plants grew there, organisms that needed no water, no air even, just light. The walls shimmered as if alive, they subtly changed colour as if by whim. There was no need for light, for the very ceiling seemed to be possessed with a slither of the sun and come night-time it swirled and donned the hue of blue velvet embellished with ever-changing stars. Powerful magic held together the foundations and the atoms of this structure all weaved in one last blast of the wretched creatures god-given powers. Here he hoped that away from the humans who despised him and away from their judgement and the Eternals wrath he could dwell not harming anyone and surrounded by the loftiest of his fancies. Such a Castle was never built, nor will there ever be, nor can it be destroyed, for it was built from stardust and time and the love of the Universe. It was blessed and what's more...it would only open its gates to those who were destined to be its master.

Here he lived, XarX, the damned, on the outskirts of Larinthe. In a place like this he could be sure never to return to those thoughts and those deeds that had scarred his soul, distorted his figure and murdered his mind. Such ever-changing beauty was captivating. Everything that he desired to see, every beauty of Xsara was moulded and was present here in these holy halls. All that is, except the sustaining and nourishing light of the Red Star. He thought he was safe in his haven, he thought he  was kept from his evil self: he was wrong. No matter how close he got to the light source, he couldn't achieve peace of mind. His demented human body was at odds with his Eternal soul. In all that silence and solitude, a preparation of war began. But this time it was within his own mind. He was deserted by human and by heavens, and this rejection weighed heavy on him, so heavy that the conflict was already beginning to show around the castle. There would be rain for many days; thunderstorms would grip the world of Sera destroying lives and people and crops. Word spread that XarX was still alive and reached all four corners of the known world. People started to fear for the future of their world and of what this foreboded for every living creature. News was spreading from one traveling shaman to another that the time for Chaos had come, but the people could not read whose chaos this entailed. Lenoch the Seer entered Larinthe and gathered all the inhabitants in the marketplace and uttered there his blind-eyed truth "Beware citizens of Larinthe, the Gods are wrathful. They disown their own beloved Son! From these soils born and bred and suckled from the Eternal mother herself shall spring a leader fine and strong! Look amongst you! You shall have unprecedented good fortune! Your lives shall be spent safe from the 'black heart' disease! Soon your fortress shall be unfolded...and the truth shall be heard!"

That night, after many years of roaming in the castle of wonders unbeknownst to mortal minds; its master was putting an end to a war that he had fought within himself for centuries. The pain and remorse of his rejection from creatures much lower than himself and of those he had shared soul-fibres with broke him completely. Gathering over the castle were immense storm clouds with lightning and thunder coming to the beck and call of XarX. Pity and bitterness shook his frail twisted form as every atom of his being convulsed violently in the quiet brooding Towers of the castle. His screams split the heavy air as his being exploded and accelerated to all corners of the castle. Thousands of millions of specks gushed through the rooms and filled the whole castle with an indescribable gloom. Outside the people of Larinthe and many other villages close and far witnessed the climax of this eventful night. Such thunder and lightning was never seen, a single stalagmitic crack halved the heavens from right to left causing the very earth to roar. Many thought that this was the end of the world. The next morning however when they looked to the east, they saw the high mountain split in half, and from within shining like a secretive pearl was a castle that shimmered and moved as if it were alive. People from all over the lands who heard of this miracle came by whatever means possible to worship this sign. The lands were filled with much jubilation, a renewed light shone on the lands brighter and clearer than before. The night sky was clearer, the air cleaner, and all evil seemed to have dissolved. Yet none could approach the castle; every time a mortal came near its gates an emotion so sad gripped the throat that a step further would have meant death.

But one found a way in, a person who was the warrior that Lenoch prophesied on that fateful day in the market. A warrior came forth in the unlikeliest of guises and found their rightful place in the Castle of Forever. The name uttered by many was 'Isis', and no one knew whence she had come…

XarX

ack in the days when no mortal walked the barren earth and time flowed unbridled and past and present intermingled; and future was non-existent, there was a place called 'Xsara'. Here everything floated in a state of chaos; everything existed in a limbo of darkness and light, completely intertwined with one another. The void that was called 'Xsara' became the dwelling place of the 'Eternal Gods', the never-ending forces of spirit that fill the void with their shining presence.

In these idyllic times the beautiful and generous hearted Queen of Eternals The Ivory Goddess separated light from dark, and formed the terra-lands which were named 'Sera', a shadow of a world that is 'Xsara'. Many of the Gods and lesser Gods put their powers in use and created the creatures of Sera, giving them each a task on the planet and an ability to use to help them with their destiny in life. For a long while (for what is time in the ages of the Eternals?) Humans and creatures lived happily together; they worshipped the Holy Goddess of Winter for her benevolence. They gave sacrifice and prayer and song to all those greater beings that stood indestructible and mighty in the great heavens of the skies, in the star that glowed red. And the Eternals looked upon their creations with love and compassion, and saw that they were blessed with all the things that the flesh might need to stay alive. But things soon began to change.

Humans were made of flesh, of the earth, of things that were material and crude; of mud and clay and dirt. And soon that dirt seemed to make the people of the Sera desire to be back in the earth that was made and fashioned into them. They began to desire death. This came in all forms, some killed themselves, and some killed others. There were some awful beings that took a strange lust to watching others come and go on the sacred brink of suffering; beings that held others in that excruciating state and offered them no relief. No relief of death that they so desired, and no relief to return back to health. The earth became diseased, and through all this hurt and turmoil, people soon forgot the Gods. 'Anatu' The Ivory Goddess, the High-Goddess of Winter, saw this blood-shed; saw the very marrow of the created world weep with sorrow and gathered all the Eternals together to discuss what should be done. Some suggested annihilation of the populous of Sera, some thought of removing those who had begun the 'death'. But Anatu knew that this was a disease that festered in all flesh, and was dormant in all of man. She called for silence and proclaimed the coming of an 'Eternal' to the lands of Sera. A deity that was a lesser God, and that reminded the people of their origins, a protector, a being borne with one purpose in mind and that is to be a saviour.

So Anatu, the Mother of all beings in the Universe took particles from her own luminosity and sewed them finely together with star-dust and morning-light. And thus came about the exalted birth of the Son of Anatu. His name was 'Sethala'. A more beautiful deity was never born to those Eternals such as Sethala. His vivacious beauty excelled that of his mother, Anatu, who was proud of him and she covered the whole of Sera in a rainbow to celebrate his coming. The people were already beginning to forget about their earthly desires and hope filled their souls again, and they remembered their old songs to the Gods. The people turned their eyes towards the heavens and prayed. It was a time of great prosperity. Sethala became the guardian in the heavens for the people. He kept their demons at bay, but little known to Anatu, he had developed innocent desires of his own.

Sethala started to become fascinated in the world of flesh and mortality. Being an immortal and born of light and of things incomprehensible, he couldn't understand what made people think these wild thoughts as he battled with them day and night. He approached Anatu and asked her divine permission to enter the world of mortals and live among them so that he might learn of their disease and cure them better. Anatu smiled and granted her son the wish. She knew that he would ask her for this, for she had created him, and it was in his destiny to go forth and explore the lands that she had created. Thus he donned a habit of flesh fashioned for him by Anatu and went forth into the lands that pulled him with their strange culture. There the people greeted him with astonished fervour; the knowledge of the Gods will be finally revealed with the coming of his much-loved lesser-God. He set up a Castle there, of immense beauty and ruled like a King these people that loved him so. Indeed, Anatu would look down and see the fruit of her labours and warmth would fill the heart of the Winter Queen. Sethala loved his place on the earth of Sera, he emanated an unearthly glow that filled one with joy and delight and dispelled the urges they had of death, and over the many hundreds of years that past, the humans of Sera even grew an immunity for it.

So it was like this that it came to pass that Sethala was called for less and less, and wanted by the people no more. And so he came to shut himself up gradually in his grand castle and brood on how to gain the love of the people back. Slowly, in his ethereal mind, the seed of reproach grew. He wanted real human skin, real human blood. His thoughts drove him little by little to hate his eternal roots, and he started to search for desires of the flesh. Soon the thing that he had fought to defeat consumed him little by little, and his strange, unreal human flesh. The delicate fibres which hummed with beauty and exuded vibrancy soon began to sag and he became warped and gnarled under the impurity of his thoughts. His body could not handle the strain of earthly dooms, because it was not made of earth. There was no defence against the worm-like tongues that found sound in his mind and bore holes in his trust and shattered his vision of clarity.

He came to stalk the dark hall-ways of his castle, bearing no heed to the desperate calls of his mother Anatu. He came to hate her for all that she was, and soon became to hate that of human-kind too. He despised being in the half-world that he was forced to inhabit, he loathed the fake flesh that was cast upon him, for by now he discovered that his want of this earth was bound to his soul by Anatu. He desired to kill, and so he set about setting up armies against all those who had  abandoned him, who had used him and vexed him so. After years of being shut-up and forgotten about the Gods and the humans, he developed a plan: to destroy the belief of the Gods. He begun to spread hate and vengeance to people, he became the vehicle unto which all history and memory became lost. Humans became savages again, they fought brother and father and son. Chaos reigned, and Anatu saw all. There were some humans that came against the violent attacks of Sethala, those of fair kin and noble blood. And one brave man and his kin even managed to defeat the evil Eternal in his struggle to spill the poison of vanity and hate and pity. It was called the 'Battle of Nabrax', and of that we shall not speak here for the accounts of the beautiful knight and his fair blooded kin are lost, save for one. But legend goes that Nabrax the Fair defeated the evil Sethala and before all his army tore off his hideous armour and revealed to the people under the grace of the sun his wretched form. Sethala was no more, for those that saw him in this degenerate state turned away from him in disgust. Nabrax the Fair declared to his people and all those that share the righteous cause of the Eternals that Sethala was to be no longer hailed by his divine name, but to be cursed with the evil label of 'XarX'. This is the how Sethala the beautiful Eternal came to be the evil and empty soul-less 'XarX'.

Isis Reen

he opened her eyes and was assaulted by the hot red glow of the sun. It pierced her brain with its white-hot fingers and made all thought impossible. Closing her eyes again, she began to probe the deepest recesses of her mind in an attempt to understand it all.

The last thing she remembered before slumping into nothingness was coming face to face with the iron mask of death. The being had been perched atop a handsome black steed holding out its sword to greet her. She couldn't make out its features from behind the iron mask it wore, but its presence filled her with a foreboding she'd never known. This was her destiny. She knew it, but couldn't explain why or how. She took a deep breath and spurred Zinder, her beloved white steed, on toward the figure. Brandishing the sword of Almed, she cried out as she lunged at the elusive figure in front of her. Suddenly, all went black. All thoughts were gone. She had no sensations of any kind. She was aware that she was in a pit of silence, but knew nothing more.

Her father, King Stod of Glaussen, had been ill for some time. He'd passed on to another realm just two days before. On this beautiful spring day, Isis was feeling a plethora of emotions. How could a person experience joy and sadness all in the same moment? The loss of her father pierced her to  the root of her being, yet she was elated at the prospect of being crowned Queen of his realm. Her head was full of the ways she could perpetuate her father's legacy of ruling with a loving hand. She'd be a queen for the people and ensure that the kingdom was happy and prosperous.

Suddenly, Isis heard the clamor of armored footsteps. She waved the maids away who were putting the finishing touches on her ceremonial coronation gown. She felt her stomach tighten with anticipation. Someone rapped loudly on her chamber door and she bid them enter. The soldier bowed low before his queen and told her that the war had begun. He needed her orders to proceed. Isis slowly nodded her head. She would prepare for battle as well. She'd not be left behind during such a time of crisis for the land. She motioned to her maids to come help ready her for her journey. The ominous feeling swept over her like a thick blanket of snow and chilled her to the bone. Something was different this time, but she wasn't able to see it...not yet.

Isis Reen had never known her mother. She died in childbirth and Isis had been raised by her father. Although he loved her, Isis knew that he had hoped for a boy. A son who would one day be king. She was determined not to disappoint her father and strove to make him proud of her. She learned the art of weapons and war. She learned to read and studied classic literature. She took part in all the war games and planning. She was an exceptional rider and learned everything quickly. She had a superior strength that none could explain. This enabled her to excel with weapons and, often, she bested the males in combat scenarios. As the years waged on, Isis gained strength a soon became a formidable force with which to be reckoned.

As a result of her extreme military prowess and skill at staging battle plans, Isis' father had reluctantly allowed her to lead his troops into battle. Everyone began to notice that the she always seemed to win her battles. None could out think or out fight her. Her drive was beyond that of mortal man. She was different, but the kingdom didn't seem to mind. They were content in the fact that she protected them and didn't question these oddities.

The horn sounded as the troops prepared to move forward. Despair rained o'er the earth like a black plague. Something evil lived at the edge of the horizon and Isis was determined to stop it...or die trying. The castle gates slowly opened and the troops marched forward in unison. They would travel west toward the red star. It would be their guide in the vast emptiness that had suddenly descended upon them.

Isis slowly lifted her hands to shield her eyes from the light. She opened her eyes and inspected them. They were splattered with blood. She realized that it was her own. The masked figure had plunged its sword into her body over and over again as she tried to shield herself from the blows in vain. She reached for the cool grass and pushed herself upright. She stood and looked around her soaking it all in like a sea sponge. The fields were empty. Where had everyone gone? Where was she? How long had she been here? Why was she alive? Surely he'd killed her. No one could withstand the abuse her body had endured.

Something was gnawing at the back of her brain. She grasped for it with the fingers of her intellect, but it seemed just out of reach. It had pushed its way forward just before the pit had opened beneath her and sucked her in. What was it? Come on, Isis, she told herself; you can do this. You can...you must...remember. She turned her head to the left and saw a shimmering castle in the distance. Instantly, she knew what is was all about. The Castle of Forever. The temple of XarX. This was her destiny. She had to make it there. She looked around for Zinder. Where was her beautiful beast, her best friend? She saw a flick of his white tail behind a tall oak on her right. She raced to the tree and there he was, white and glorious as always munching quietly on the fertile green blades.

She patted his nose and gave him a hug. He must've hidden during the encounter or he wouldn't have survived it. She was glad he had at any rate. She slid herself up and onto his back and they trotted off in the direction of the Castle. She had work to do yet. Things were unfinished but she knew what she had to do now. Follow the red star and ye shall find your way.

Isis reigned in Zinder as they neared the Castle. The gate was open and people were milling about. It all seemed odd to her. She was suspicious and thought it best to approach with caution. Slowly she rode over the plank prepared to turn and flee at a moments notice. She reached the doors and dismounted still wary of the situation. She stood silently assessing the black doors that loomed in front of her. Time froze as she reached out her finger tips to push the right door open. Not a sound was uttered. No one breathed. All was still around her and she felt as though she were moving through quicksand. Before she could touch the polished onyx, the doors slid back slowly and soundlessly allowing her to pass. It was as if the Castle recognized her.

Suddenly, the crowd that had gathered to watch through the open gate erupted in cheers. She was their savior. She was the keeper of XarX's stronghold...the Queen of XarX's glorious domain. She had passed the Eternal Alter and entered the Castle Of Forever where no man had gone before.

In time, more would join the immortal realm and Isis Reen would lead them as they defended the land for all mortals. The quest for peace would never end for there were always new foes. The immortals would dedicate their lives and powers to keeping the mortal realm safe for eternity.

Continued in part 2.