\tI was there when the elves left their trees, and dug mines in the earth. I was there when the dwarves built ships, and sailed away upon the breath of the air. I was there when orcs and goblins laid down their weapons, and built bright kingdoms of crystal and glass.<\/p>\n
\tIt was an odd feeling, to see the world I had known and loved turned upside down. No longer was there the steady conflict of good against evil, of raving hordes against a small core of the good and the brave. Instead the world became grey, and dull, for evil became the petty theft of faceless bureaucracy, and good became thin, and lost beneath a see of more immediate concerns. <\/p>\n
\tWithout the definition that had once given this world beauty, without the sharp contrast that had given it shape, life began to sag, for the purpose that had given meaning to this world had gone away.<\/p>\n
\tIt was a strange life, and cultures began to fade, lost amidst a general melding of the species into one poorly made whole. In time, politics became the fad of the day, with goblin running against elf again troll against human, each proposing a myriad of complex offerings too convoluted for any to understand.<\/p>\n
\tA general malaise spread across the land, and the peoples of this fair earth felt dull and poor, for their lives had no meaning but a daily trudge, and the earth faded to match their temper, vibrant colours lost amidst a sea of brown and black.<\/p>\n
\tThen all the races of the world met in a great parliament, and they argued long and loud, for some had come to see their current state as an improvement upon those bygone days, while others longed for the heroic age of yore. Hands were raised, in a vote, and when they had been counted, the people had spoken.\t<\/p>\n
\tAnd so I saw an orc kiss his elvish wife goodbye, telling her that he loved her. The next time they met, she would fire at him with bow and arrow, and he would charge her kind with axe and shield, and they would both be happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was there when the elves left their trees, and dug mines in the earth. I was there when the dwarves built ships, and sailed away upon the breath of the air. I was there when orcs and goblins laid down their weapons, and built bright kingdoms of crystal and glass. It was an odd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[36,4],"tags":[21,22],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-6k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":91,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=91","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":0},"title":"Rose","date":"April 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is sort of cheating, since it's a storystarter I created myself earlier in the day, and then I edited it, but it's there. Of course, me being me, I managed to just miss the 500 word limit. I can't seem to write in under 500 words. Ah well. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":387,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=387","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":1},"title":"Prelude to Desperation","date":"November 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The outnumbered army of H\u00e1lsiend faces it's greatest foe yet in this except from Laeccan Waters The army marched onwards, another series of days slipping by in a landscape unchanging. Each day they rose to a white plain, the only distinguishing feature the wide trail laid by the army, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tarranau"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":543,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=543","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":2},"title":"Hum and Interview","date":"August 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"So, you may have noticed I had a sale on last weekend. Well, Jim Bronyaur was kind enough to interview me, and talk to me about sales, selling ideas, and ebook pricing. Wander over to see what I thought, then come back for the #FridayFlash. The hum lived, and silence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":277,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=277","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":3},"title":"A New Eagle","date":"September 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Days passed by, and I wept in sadness for their loss. Months strolled along, and I waved goodbye with my heart aching. Years disappeared into the mists, and I bawled openly. I saw friends come and go, family born and dying, the kindness of strangers, all the little acts of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":123,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=123","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":4},"title":"Five Planets","date":"April 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"So, this is the very first piece of writing I've ever done in a science fiction setting that's been kicking around my head since I was, well... probably since I was in grade school. It's changed and been tweaked a lot, but here's the very first taste of what I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":113,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=113","url_meta":{"origin":392,"position":5},"title":"Legends of the Burning Sands","date":"April 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is one of the short excerpts from Unfolding a New Continent, the next book in The Four Part Land, that I'm currently working on and that Breaking an Empire is also a part of. I'll have a flash fiction piece tonight as well, as I get back into the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}