Post by Admin on May 13, 2018 11:20:14 GMT 1
Path to Ascension
Reading Sample
Available for purchase on Amazon. Type B00C70J6CO into Amazon's search engine, or follow the given links if you are using Amazon.com ($ 3.69 USD), Amazon.ca ($ 4.00 Cdn) or Amazon.co.uk (£ 2.00).
Format: e-book
Pages: 232
The idea of Path to Ascension was to turn it into a companion book to Under Dark Wings in the style of a scholarly work / holy book telling the tale of how Gumbrodd the Monk ascended to become Okaya the God.
Participating in the poll:
Additional Reading sample:
Prologue
Looking upon the temple of Okaya in the morning, seeing how the sun is rising in between the two eastern pillars, one cannot but feel awed. It is awe of such a magnificent structure. It is awe, stemming from the knowledge that five generations of men have worked on completing this grandiose structure. And it is awe, stemming from the knowledge that one truly stands in the presence of a God.
Several times I have had the pleasure of standing next to the temple and watching the sun rise between the two pillars of finest marble. I could watch how the Priests lifted their arms in praise of Okaya. I could watch how the rising sun turned into a blinding orb of brilliance. And I knew I beheld the very face of Okaya. I knew I beheld his benevolence. I knew I could bask in his wisdom. I knew I was under his protection.
Then the hymns of praise would be sung, gently echoing from the magnificent structure built in honor of our God.
It is a feeling that cannot accurately be described in words. I would urge anyone to once make a pilgrimage to the temple and to look upon the face of the deity himself.
A small village of the faithful has sprung up surrounding the temple of Okaya. And it was in that village that I had met Heral called the Ancient. And truly Heral has been on this earth for much longer than any man or woman I have met in my lifetime. Next to Heral, even I look like a little child. And I have seen more than sixty turns of the seasons. Heral claims he is more than twice my age. As a young man, from his sixteenth naming day and for ten years, he helped complete the temple. He had volunteered for this work, asking for naught but a bowl of food every day and some straw to spend the night.
Heral is also a well known story teller in the village. Every evening he entertains the people of the village with stories about Okaya. He tells the stories of Okaya when he was still a young monk going by the name of Gumbrodd, before he had achieved ascension. Even Heral is not old enough to have met Gumbrodd during his worldly existence. But the ancient man has assured me that a story teller from his own childhood prided himself not only to have met Gumbrodd, but to have been cured of a debilitating handicap by the young monk.
The Blessed Book of Okaya, written by the priests of the temple, records the wonders worked by Okaya since his ascension. But the Book starts at the point of ascension when Gumbrodd transformed into Okaya and when he ordered the construction of the temple in his honor. The Hierophant deemed it unnecessary to record the deeds of Gumbrodd the monk.
I fear that if nobody writes down the stories told about Gumbrodd, they shall be lost to future generations. Already it is mostly the older story tellers that still know a wealth of anecdotes and stories about Gumbrodd the monk and about the Fallen. One hundred years after the completion of the temple of Okaya, few people know that Gumbrodd had had personal contact with the Fallen. Or more precisely that he had had contact with a ‘Winged One’ by the name of Celyr. In most of the more modern fairy tales the Fallen have always been evil. Few people know that they fell from grace, and thus became the Fallen, barely a quarter of a millennium ago. The Fallen turned against Okaya at the time of our God’s ascension. Before then the Winged Ones were known to occasionally even help humans and cure them of illnesses.
Since there is nobody else to record the old legends, I have collected as many of the stories told by Heral as he could remember. Then I had traveled across the known world in search of other stories, ballades and poems telling of the life of Gumbrodd. I have collected and compared the stories. Out of those I chose the ones that appeared to be the most prominent and collected them in this volume. I have put the stories in chronological order. And I have taken the liberty to turn songs and poems into prose. Or to slightly alter the style of the stories so that the following work appears as a complete and unified volume.
In some instances, the stories told to me were in conflict with other stories told to me. And in some instances the deeds performed by Gumbrodd were attributed to him at different ages or were performed in different villages. Out of these I chose the ones that seemed most logical to me. This process of selection was often based on similarities or differences of the same event told in different stories or ballades.
I do not claim to be the final authority on the life and deeds of Gumbrodd the monk. Like any man, I am liable to make mistakes. It is not out of the question that the teachings of my own mentors have made me consider things from a certain point of view, and have influenced my decisions on which of the stories I chose to include in the following work, and which of them I chose to ignore. But presented in the following pages are stories from the time of Gumbrodd’s birth to the time of his ascension and transformation into the God Okaya.
Some people may criticize me for presenting the Fallen in a much too favorable light. To these people I would like to say that I am not the author of these stories. I just recorded them as they were told or sung to me.
Scholar and scribe Zarlon of Feldria
Reading Sample
Available for purchase on Amazon. Type B00C70J6CO into Amazon's search engine, or follow the given links if you are using Amazon.com ($ 3.69 USD), Amazon.ca ($ 4.00 Cdn) or Amazon.co.uk (£ 2.00).
Format: e-book
Pages: 232
The idea of Path to Ascension was to turn it into a companion book to Under Dark Wings in the style of a scholarly work / holy book telling the tale of how Gumbrodd the Monk ascended to become Okaya the God.
Participating in the poll:
- Please participate only if you have actually read the novel
- If you slam us, please turn it into constructive criticism and start a thread where you tell us what you think is so bad about the novel
- A few kind words are never wrong, feel free to start a thread also when you praise us
Additional Reading sample:
Prologue
Looking upon the temple of Okaya in the morning, seeing how the sun is rising in between the two eastern pillars, one cannot but feel awed. It is awe of such a magnificent structure. It is awe, stemming from the knowledge that five generations of men have worked on completing this grandiose structure. And it is awe, stemming from the knowledge that one truly stands in the presence of a God.
Several times I have had the pleasure of standing next to the temple and watching the sun rise between the two pillars of finest marble. I could watch how the Priests lifted their arms in praise of Okaya. I could watch how the rising sun turned into a blinding orb of brilliance. And I knew I beheld the very face of Okaya. I knew I beheld his benevolence. I knew I could bask in his wisdom. I knew I was under his protection.
Then the hymns of praise would be sung, gently echoing from the magnificent structure built in honor of our God.
It is a feeling that cannot accurately be described in words. I would urge anyone to once make a pilgrimage to the temple and to look upon the face of the deity himself.
A small village of the faithful has sprung up surrounding the temple of Okaya. And it was in that village that I had met Heral called the Ancient. And truly Heral has been on this earth for much longer than any man or woman I have met in my lifetime. Next to Heral, even I look like a little child. And I have seen more than sixty turns of the seasons. Heral claims he is more than twice my age. As a young man, from his sixteenth naming day and for ten years, he helped complete the temple. He had volunteered for this work, asking for naught but a bowl of food every day and some straw to spend the night.
Heral is also a well known story teller in the village. Every evening he entertains the people of the village with stories about Okaya. He tells the stories of Okaya when he was still a young monk going by the name of Gumbrodd, before he had achieved ascension. Even Heral is not old enough to have met Gumbrodd during his worldly existence. But the ancient man has assured me that a story teller from his own childhood prided himself not only to have met Gumbrodd, but to have been cured of a debilitating handicap by the young monk.
The Blessed Book of Okaya, written by the priests of the temple, records the wonders worked by Okaya since his ascension. But the Book starts at the point of ascension when Gumbrodd transformed into Okaya and when he ordered the construction of the temple in his honor. The Hierophant deemed it unnecessary to record the deeds of Gumbrodd the monk.
I fear that if nobody writes down the stories told about Gumbrodd, they shall be lost to future generations. Already it is mostly the older story tellers that still know a wealth of anecdotes and stories about Gumbrodd the monk and about the Fallen. One hundred years after the completion of the temple of Okaya, few people know that Gumbrodd had had personal contact with the Fallen. Or more precisely that he had had contact with a ‘Winged One’ by the name of Celyr. In most of the more modern fairy tales the Fallen have always been evil. Few people know that they fell from grace, and thus became the Fallen, barely a quarter of a millennium ago. The Fallen turned against Okaya at the time of our God’s ascension. Before then the Winged Ones were known to occasionally even help humans and cure them of illnesses.
Since there is nobody else to record the old legends, I have collected as many of the stories told by Heral as he could remember. Then I had traveled across the known world in search of other stories, ballades and poems telling of the life of Gumbrodd. I have collected and compared the stories. Out of those I chose the ones that appeared to be the most prominent and collected them in this volume. I have put the stories in chronological order. And I have taken the liberty to turn songs and poems into prose. Or to slightly alter the style of the stories so that the following work appears as a complete and unified volume.
In some instances, the stories told to me were in conflict with other stories told to me. And in some instances the deeds performed by Gumbrodd were attributed to him at different ages or were performed in different villages. Out of these I chose the ones that seemed most logical to me. This process of selection was often based on similarities or differences of the same event told in different stories or ballades.
I do not claim to be the final authority on the life and deeds of Gumbrodd the monk. Like any man, I am liable to make mistakes. It is not out of the question that the teachings of my own mentors have made me consider things from a certain point of view, and have influenced my decisions on which of the stories I chose to include in the following work, and which of them I chose to ignore. But presented in the following pages are stories from the time of Gumbrodd’s birth to the time of his ascension and transformation into the God Okaya.
Some people may criticize me for presenting the Fallen in a much too favorable light. To these people I would like to say that I am not the author of these stories. I just recorded them as they were told or sung to me.
Scholar and scribe Zarlon of Feldria