Sophia Sings, Baphomet Wakes

[Herbert West]

In the beginning

They danced​

He clasped Her, and She embraced Him

And they danced
and danced
and danced​

And with every furl, with every swirl
with every twist, with every turn
a thousand
upon a thousand
fiery sparks flew from Her
and lit up the Void

And with every stomp, with every romp
with every step, with every stride
a thousand
upon a thousand
shards split from Him
and chased Her sparks​

And they danced
and danced
and danced​

And with every step, with every turn
with every swirl, with every stride
a little bit of
Her
drifted into
Him

And they danced
and danced
and danced​

And with every furl, with every romp
with twist, with every stomp
He
grew bigger
and She
grew smaller​

And they danced
and danced
and danced​

And every spark
was clasped
by a shard

And they danced
and danced
and danced
​

And the Void whispered to his ears
and he grew ever hungry
and jealous​

And they danced
and danced
and danced
​

And with every stomp, with every romp
He bit and chew
She shrank
and He grew

And they danced
and danced
and danced​

And every spark
was gnawed
by a shard​

And they danced
and danced
and danced
​

And with every furl, with every whirl
She shriveled
and He enveloped

And He danced
and danced
and romped​

And She shrank
and sank
and sank

And She shouted
and yelled
and raged
​

But She shrank
and sank
and sank
​

And the sparks grew muted
and cold

​

Harrowed
and old​

And He danced
and danced
and stomped
​

And the shards slithered
and chittered

Nattered
and twittered​

​

Lumbered
and scurried

But to Her songs they were deafened
​

Until at last

With their sparks bright​

A few shards stood upright

And Her song they could behold
​

But He gnashed and wailed
Smashed and jailed
​

And their ears were again muted

But clever She waited
In the place where He
had Her carcerated
​

A small opening

.​

No bigger than the prick of the smallest needle
​

For Her Song to be heard

Clear

and

True
​

 

[Herbert West]

So this is absolutely spur-of-the-moment, but I was walking home totally exhausted from work, and my mind just drifted back to my old CK2 AAR. Let's see if my enthusiasm lasts.

 

[Koweth]

I'm absolutely here for it! This opening has left me equally intrigued and bemused by what's to come.

 

[Herbert West]

OK, I think I'm done stylishly editing the thing. Hopefully it still flows well. I wanted to go for a "religious recitation" vibe, by two or more people doing the reciting.


This might be the second "poem" I have ever written. The rest will be prose.

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

Okay, I'm interested.

 

[Nikolai]

Intrigued.

 

[Chac1]

As someone who has been playing with a variety of poetry lately in my AAR, this certainly has my attention. Actually, the great title grabbed me immediately. Seems I am not too late to this one. Looking forward to your prose although more poetry is always welcome.

 

[HistoryDude]

That is an extremely fascinating beginning. I'll follow.

I can see the Gnostic inspirations, so... who are you playing? Cathars? Bogomils? A different religion?

 

[Graf Zeppelin]

I think I dont get alot of the deeper meanings here but from a readers perspective this is really good. Like an echo it goes back and forth. One feels a tempo and its quite intruiging. Sadly my English isnt good enough for a proper description what I mean but I really like it.

 

[Herbert West]

Apologies, work has given me non-creative exhaustion.

Many thanks for the feedback.

I'm playing a landless adventurer, but the AAR is only very loosely related, this is more of a creative writing exercise, to be self-depricating

 

[Herbert West]

Hoping to update tomorrow or today. Just struggling with the purple prose.

However, I have noticed that there is not much action in the AAR section. Is CK3 not that popular, or have AARs in general been on a downturn since most gameplay presentations have moved to youtube (let's plays and such)?

I remember back from when I tried to write this story for the first time, 15 years ago, two weeks passing would mean that my AAR dropped off the first page. Now it was what, number 5 or 6 in the list? What happened?

 

[Chac1]

Well, @Herbert West that is a good question and one that some of us ponder perhaps more than we should. Actually, from my much newer perspective, the CK boards (both CK3 and CK2) are some of the most active boards here. Likely, EU IV is the most popular board.

As you have noted, maybe folks have gone elsewhere. However, this is likely a tangent better explored in the bAAR, where it has been touched upon multiple times in the past few years.

If you have ideas for improvement, please feel free to post something over there that might help boost interest.