#ephemeracrux

Az ember tragédiája ("Tragedy of Man" by Imre Madách) Setting #1, to be precise. Tragedy of Man tells the story of God creating the world, kicking Lucifer out of Heaven, then Adam and Eve meet him, eat the apple, get kicked out, yaddayadda. THEN Adam asks Lucifer what will happen to his offsprings now that they are out of Paradise. Lucifer takes him on a dream travel across various ages of history, and into a dystopian future as well. Lucifer’s goal is to show Adam how rotten humanity will become and he is better off killing himself to stop it from happening. Adam almost does so by the end when he wakes up in his own time, however, Eve announces that she is pregnant, which would make his suicide pointless. The final lesson of the story is that even if we know one possible outcome, we should always fight and keep hoping to change things. Setting #1 was the most impactful to me, even though the ending message is important as well. At the time I’ve read Setting #1, I was very... on the fence about Christianity. It didn’t feel right to me, but I couldn’t articulate why I didn’t want to go to church. And then I read the start of the book. After creating the world, God takes a break while all the angels praise him like there is no tomorrow... except for Lucifer. He points out that God demands respect and adoration from everyone, even though he, Lucifer, could see the flaws in the creation already. In fact, Lucifer is not some “big evil”, he is the “Spirit of Denial” to be precise. God kicks him out from Heaven for not praising him, but in the meantime they make a deal - God gives him two trees in Paradise (The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Immortality), and Lucifer swears he can use those two trees to ruin God’s creation. And he almost succeeds, although his plan is foiled in the end. Now I get that Lucifer is not the good guy in this, in the slightest. He’s an asshole, by all accounts. But the stuff he says to God, about how arrogant and mighty he is - that resonated with me. This constant begging for forgiveness and praising a (more than likely made up) god who appparently created a world so damn flawed, that innocent children can die of the most horrible diseases out there, and he won’t help anyone... yeah, screw him. No, I did not become a satanist. I am more of an ateist, or a deist. The latter being - I can imagine there had been some kind of higher being/sentience that set in place the rules of physics and chemistry that later formed the universe itself, but that sentience has long since buggered off and doesn’t care about what is going on in that vast place. -

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (before he got unbearably super woke) Percy Jackson is the typical YA adventure-novel series that mixes Greek mythology surprisingly well into the modern world. The guy’s knowledge of the source material is incredibly detailed and well-researched, he goes far deeper than the typical “kid’s story” would. That alone earns him respect. But the story has an incredible style about it, the smoothest and most captivating I have ever read in anything. It is genuinely difficult to put the books down, even after multiple readings. Rick Riordan is a big inspiration for me... I mean, before he got superwoke. Thankfully his earlier works, Percy Jackson, The Kane Chronicles and Heroes of Olympus are all safe from that. Trials of Apollo is on the very edge of this, I could still enjoy it, thankfully. Magnus Chase? From what I’ve heard with my half ear, I’ll pass, thanks. -

The Inheritance Cycle (”Eragon series”) by Christopher Paolini I actually never read the Lord of the Rings. I am sure it is a wonderful work. Maybe one day I will tackle it. My first introduction to a more realistically built fantasy world with an actual medieval setting was with Eragon. Random farmer kid finds a dragon egg and accidentally becomes a dragon rider, realizes he is not such a random farmer kid after all, and ends up saving the kingdoms from a mad king and his big-ass black dragon. The basic settings is very simple, but the twists and turns and obstacles Paolini puts into the book makes it far more complicated than it first appears. And makes the world a more living, breathing place with a complicated long history that has some of its details lost to time. And on the side, many aspects of the medieval life itself is shown very well, as well as warfare, and how do dragons screw up the rules. The world also features a hard magic system as well, with well defined rules and interesting ways to use. First time I’ve ever read one such system and since that day, I also want to create more well-defined magic systems for my stories as well. It is far more work than the so called “soft magic system” (what Diablo has, for example), but coming up with solutions to a problem using a well-defined magic is far more satisfying for both author and reader on the long run, in my opinion. Not gonna lie, soft magic systems are also hella fun, tho... -

Storm of Light (Diablo 3) by Nate Kenyon Now I will be the first to admit that the Diablo books are mostly... okay. Nothing great, nothing terrible, they serve their purpose. Storm of Light has a special place in my heart, tho. For one, it is the piece of media that, to this date, shows the most details about angelic life, and you all know me - I’m a huge Diablo angel fan. Like... goddamn astronomical. Any lore crumbs I can squeeze out of the Diablo media about them is a gold nugget on its own. Second, in the book Malthael is just... holy fucking shit. If you have seen evil. Like, real, ACTUAL evil. Not that bitch-ass Diablo and his army of shitbags, all they can do is destroy this, corrupt that, posses some people and summon lesser shitbags in their wake. Nah, bro, that’s amateur hour. That shit is so obvious, so straightforward it is not impressive in the least bit. Diablo is goddamn overrated. There, I’ve said it. This is the hill I am damn willing to die on. Malthael is so, sooo much worse. It comes from my own experiences, definitely, but the lengths he is willing to go to in a seemingly noble goal (to end the Eternal Conflict) hits so damn close to home, it’s painful. The manipulation. The scheming. The willingness to throw his own family to ruin. Holy hell. Even his shitty Chalice is an absolute bundle of evil.The thing makes you actually addicted to it, and AND it makes you insensitive towards other people’s feelings and experiences on the long run. Cuz that is what Wisdom is, right? RIGHT?! The series finally has a true Prime Evil - and his name is Malthael, Angel of Death. Don’t ask me why I am trying to redeem him in my fanfic, I guess I am just unwilling to give up on a compelling character like him. -

Gergő és az Álomfogók (”Gergő and the Dreamcatchers”) by Gyula Böszörményi An amazing multi-book series that is once again a YA “urban fantasy” adventure story. The catch is - it is entirely based on nomadic Hungarian pagan religion. I’m not sure if it got translated to other languages, unfortunately. This series had been a staple of my childhood, it paints a vividly beautiful and intriguing world of magic our nomadic ancestors had once believed in. Featuring old-school shamanism (not this bullshit New Age kind), throwing curses at each other using small magical leather whips, spirits, totem animals and a World Tree of the nomadic belief kind, Gergő and the Dreamcatchers is one hell of a ride into a world just below our own, and was one of the main nurturing sources of my now undying-love for fantasy adventure stories.

And thus, with that, I think I listed the most important ones. I actually read a shitton when I was small, but I think these are the ones that stuck with me the most. I hope I could interest you with some of them at least! :D Take care!

We can get a sense of which months take place in which season as well. (I am assuming Sanctuary is a spheroid planet, like earth, and orbits a star, just to make life easier.)

Solmoneth and Montaht are months where "day and night are equal". Ergo, this would be one of the equinoxes, likely the winter one. Right after them is Ostara, the month of rebirth, followed by Vasan and Lycanum, the months of sowing and fertility. In other words, the end of spring, and beginning of summer. Lunasadh is the harvest month. From here we can hazard a guess about the rest of the months.

I would peg the seasons as being:

Winter: Esunar, Kathon, Solmoneth, Montaht

Spring: Ostara, Vasan

Summer: Lycanum, Kale Monath, Lunasadh

Fall: Jerharan, Damhar, Ratham

Notably, some of the seasons seem to be named after notable nephalem and angels. Esunar, Vasan, Lycanum, and Ratham would be Esu, Vasily, Lycander and Rathma, respectively. Kathon could also be a reference to Bul'Kathos.

Esunar is the month of elements, linking it nicely to Esu, the patron of the Zann-Esu/sorceress clans. Esu herself was a master of storm, earth, fire, and water.

Interestingly, Vasan and Lycanum are supposed to represent the duality between male and female, in addition to sowing and fertility. What exactly this has to do with Vasily and Lycander, and what they have to do with each other, is anyone's guess. Vasily is one name for the brother of Bul'Kathos and forebear of the druids. Lycander was the angel who fell in love with a nephalem, and went on to become part of the amazon pantheon. The two don't exactly have much relation, and Vasily may have been retconned out of existence.

Gotta love Diablo Lore.

Like Esunar, Ratham is a month easily linked back to its namesake. It is the so called month of the dead, likely the equivalent of real-world October. Summoning and binding is easier during this month. Aptly named, for Rathma was a summoner and binder of the dead.

Aside from the slight similarity in name, there's not much linking Kathon to Bul'Kathos. It is a month of destruction, and honors Baal more than anything. Interestingly, the month is sandwiched between Esunar and Ratham, the other two ancient nephalem months.

It is a personal head-canon of mine that the nephalem were born in the months they're named after - there is no canonical base for this though. Lots of winter birthdays.

This page talks in a little more detail about the months - finding it was kinda tricky. I believe the wiki is still undergoing a restructure right now, makes information digging a bit harder.