Chronicles of an

Age of Darkness

Volume 15 Era

The Woeful and the Wise

        (17) CHRONICLES OF AN AGE OF DARKNESS: Volume 15


         As Hostaja Torsen Sken-Pitilkin and the wizards of the Confederation tighten their grip on the Circle of the Partnership Banks, it becomes increasingly clear that there is precious little scope for the more ambitious warriors. Accordingly Watashi and others, having come into possession of a star-globe, seek to establish their own empire by opening the Circle accessed through the Old City of Penvash.
        The Penvash Circle runs thus: Old City - Eucalyptus Forest - Ocean Cay - Drangsturm Southside - Mountain Snowland - Plain of Tazala - Jungle Temple - Dalar ken Halvar - Cannibal Beach - and back to the Old City.
        Having opened this Circle, Watashi and his allies must cope with the consequent complications. The Door in the Mountain Snowland is on one side of a high pass. On the other side is one of the Doors of the Third Circle exploited by Morgan Hearst and Thodric Jarl. Near these mountains is the city of the tectonic lever, where Drake Douay resides; and in due course Drake explores to the Door, mounted on his trusty skavamareen.
        The Door on the Cannibal Beach is disconcertingly near Port Domax, the free port where Shabble dwells, and it is not long before Shabble comes bobbing along in company with a considerable retinue to demand access to the Penvash Circle. The Door in the Eucalyptus Forest is in the south of Parengarenga, the continent which is home to the city of Dalar ken Halvar.
        The power-seekers heighten all complications when they attempt to seize the home city of the young Lord Dreldragon, who saves himself by briefly using the tectonic lever. This has has far-flung consequences, including the opening of a sea channel between the Drangsturm Gulf and the Ocean of Cambria.

Things are changing in the world. Dreldragon notices the spiritual climate and the increase in power of the religious. Gouda Muck was a long beset plague of Dreldragon's life and, even now, old cronies still haunt him when they can. He has grown to resent much of religion, but when it becomes apparent that the Watermelon is now claiming he is their number one bad guy it only spurs on the ego of Lord Dreldragon more so to pursue his ambitions in life. Zanya Kliedervaust is his lover and antagonist in many ways. She berates Dreldragon often for his coarse ways and manners but Drake always has the smart word on the situation, and does not relent of his hubristic ways and deeds. Drake has concerns over the world rings in operation, and is thinking hard and fast about how he can gradually gain power in IOWA. The Babel Network again comes into his thinking, and the knowledge he gained from a computing device once suggested there were more of the devices in the city of the tectonic lever. Consulting a semi-functional Dorgi, who's programming has deteriorated over the long years, the dorgi speaks of the cache of telephone devices hidden below in a storage warehouse, and about the power of the tectonic lever, which was to accomplish an old Golden Gulag concern the Dorgi is reluctant to diverge full actual details about. Dreldragon, through his cunning talk, eventually secures the knowledge of how to use the tectonic lever and towards the end of the novel, when the situation looks dire, he decides that the end of the world is a thrill he may as well witness. The lowering of the land between the Drangsturm Gulf and the Ocean of Cambria is truly a sight to behold, and Dreldragon feels alive in ways he never has, again beset with a feeling of raw and unadulterated power, which will propel him later to even greater heights of daring. (In assessment one would imagine Dreldragon rather woeful and Zanya rather wise.)