Happy Halloween!

Have fun tonight while out tricking and treating, but always remember to be careful, because you never know what ghouls or goblins are waiting for you.

Procrastination. Yup, That’s Me.

I should really get back to actually working on the documentation for The Legend of Pharthia… I’ve just had a lot on my plate recently and now I’m going full-time at work. Of course, I’ve always been a little bit of a procrastinator… okay, okay. A big procrastinator. If I don’t have to do it, it’s hard to make time to actually do it.

Grrr… I’m going to have to cut into “me” time to get this done.

Going Full-time

I’ve finally been offered a full-time position here at the Renaissance Center, but it certainly doesn’t look good for the guy I work with… I think they may be thinking about putting me into his shoes for less pay… that sounds just like them… unfortunately. I’d hate to see him go, but furthermore, I think it’s a bad idea to toss out a guy that’s been here awhile in favor of the FNG (relatively speaking) even if it does save money. There’s still so much more for me to learn from him.

CyberSphere: November-December 2008 Schedule

2:00 PM – Mystery of the Christmas Star

3:00 PM – Laser Holidays

7:00 PM – Mystery of the Christmas Star

8:00 PM – Laser Holidays

9:00 PM – Christmas Laser Fantasy (Featuring Mannheim Steamroller)

D2 full of holes?

I’ve noticed a few “blank” spots while D2 is projecting. It is highly possible it is a problem with the new CRT tube. We’ll have to keep an eye on it. There just might not be anything we can do about it.

Digistar 2 Back in Action

After well over 3 months without the use of the old Digistar 2 system, we finally received a replacement CRT tube. The reason for it taking so long is that the last company to make them, no longer does, and the new company that picked it up, had only recently started attempting to create them… and needless to say, they were failing horribly.

Well anyways, we have it in and installed. We gave it some test running and it works. Just gotta to get it focused and such. Of course, we will be keeping a close eye on it in the coming days. For now, our laser shows can finally be enhanced by its digital goodness, cause straight up laser… well, it’s boring as hell.

What? An Almost 3 Year Old Terrorist?

Yeah, my niece has been visiting for the past week and yes, she’s almost three years old. She has been the queen of the house since she got here and yes, she is certainly a handful. I jest, she’s not that bad. We took her “trick or treating” at the Nashville Zoo on Friday for their Halloween stuff. She was dressed as Supergirl and had a little orange pumpkin bucket to get her candy. Except, supergirl was lazy and wanted to be wheeled around instead of walk.

They didn’t actually give out a whole lot of candy to the kids. Most of it was stickers and other various crappy things from their sponsors. At least they had some fun things for the kids to do: a blowup slide, a merry-go-round, haunted hayride, and some other small games. We spent around a hour and a half in line to get her face painted. Hey, that’s what she wanted, since she actually sat still for it and wanted us to take pictures afterwards.

By the end of the night though, she was ready to go and fell asleep on the way home. Ahhh… some peace and quiet.

Updated to 2.6.2

Although it’s been out for awhile now, I just hadn’t bothered to perform another update until now. Yeah, I know. I’m lazy.

The Sundering

The Lord of Darkness was thought to be banished forever when his battle against Dinvor resulted in the opening of a portal to another world, pulling them both inside. However, Darkness has recently returned to plague the world once again. If indeed Dinvor and the Lord of Darkness continued their epic struggle in this other world, the Darkness’ return can only mean one thing… Dinvor finally succumbed to the Darkness.

History is doomed to repeat itself… this is the Second Coming of Darkness. Rolling over the world like a locust swarm, the horde once again devoured all in its path. The shroud of death moved quicker and with greater blood lust than before. But rather that destroy all life, this time, he chose to enslave it. With an army of mindless drones, the Lord of Darkness, still seething at his being stopped from conquering the world last time, rushed for Pharthia like wind moving through a meadow.

Jarith, Pharthia’s neighbor fell to the Darkness without even so much as a blade being raised. Pledging his undying loyalty to the Lord of Darkness, the king of Jarith slew himself, rising as a horrid abomination, and with him, the souls of his people were harvested. The vile, undead horde shambled its way towards Fort Balias.

Fort Balias lies on the Pharthian border of Jarith. Its magistrate, the wise Balias, is said to be a member of the ancient guild of holy protectors known as The Keepers. Possessing a magical stone know across the land as The Ward Stone, Balias shielded Pharthia from the approaching Darkness for many weeks. But bubbles cannot last forever and can eventually be popped… from the inside out. What the Lord of Darkness’ otherworldly agents could not accomplished, one mortal man would do, sealing the fate of Pharthia.

Za’moroth was once a knight of Pharthia, noble and true, but when his family was slaughtered by a band of marauding orcs, his mind shattered and he cursed the day he was born. In his grief, he was approached by a sinister organization. They offered him a chance to redeem himself and save his family. With vengeful eyes, he accepted and was forever bound to the Lord of Darkness as an assassin in the organization known as the Hand of Darkness.

Sneaking into Fort Balias during the night, his mission would have the greatest impact on the history of the world. Silently eliminating the guards outside the Magistrate’s room, he crept up to the slumbering Balias, his dagger raised. With a quick thrust, he destroyed Pharthia’s last line of defense. Taking the Ward Stone as a trophy of victory, Za’moroth leaped back into the Darkness.

Word of Magistrate Balias’ death was carried to King Halthir on the wings of angels in a dream. Awaking, he was greatly troubled. He sought out the consul of his most trusted advisor, the Arch-Mage Xav’ri. Together they devised a plan that could very well save the world from the doom it lay before. King Halthir prayed to the heavens that his sacrifice need not be in vain and with that, commanded Arch-Mage Xav’ri to begin the ceremony.

Using magic that had been forbidden since the beginning of time, Xav’ri separated Halthir’s soul from his body while he still yet lived and placed it into a dull crystal. The crystal began to shine with a radiance that rivaled the sun. Xav’ri carried the crystal to the Hall of Light, a great room in the palace where the rays of the sun are focus onto one point by mirrors. With the King’s Crystal dancing among the beams of light, the room glowed so brightly that all shadows were disintegrated. Using the crystal as a focus, Xav’ri weaved together a spell so unbelievably mighty that time itself stopped for a whole minute.

Opening high above the Hall of Light, a vortex to another world opened. It grew and grew until the sky could no longer be seen and with a motion of Arch-Mage Xav’ri hand, began to descend upon the land of Pharthia, covering the world in a light so blinding, not even the Lord of Darkness could look upon it. When the light faded, nothing seemed different to those on the outside. The Darkness remained and its lord pressed onward into Pharthia expecting to find something that could rival his might. But there was nothing.

Where is the glimmer of hope? Where is the light in the darkness? Who will push back the shroud of death? There is no one… the Lord of Darkness has won… or so he thought. The spell weaved together by the Arch-Mage Xav’ri was not all what it seemed. What had he done? He had simply given time, a mighty gift indeed, to the land of Pharthia and the world. A glimmer of hope in the darkness.

The Legacy of Dinvor

Though the world is at the mercy of the Lord of Darkness, it is not the first time the world has fallen prey to his terrible might. Dinvor was said to be a great warrior that fought against the forces of Darkness in the age of legend and myth. It was said that he destroyed the Lord of Darkness in a glorious battle on the plains now baring his name. The story goes something like this…

A long time ago, in the time before time, Darkness covered the world in a shroud of death. Otherworldly creatures roamed the lands, slaying any and all they found. Mortal armies trembled in their boots at the horrible sound of the approaching hordes. One by one, all mortals bowed in defeat, either through retreat or pain of death. No mortal soul stood for long against the encroaching Darkness.

The Lord of Darkness rolled out from the Great Sea like a tsunami of death, flooding the township of Bagarnok in Pharthia with unthinkable destruction, turning the fertile plains into a brackish swampland. From out of nowhere, a ray of hope grew, rallying the armies of Pharthia to his side. A man with no past, no future; a true break in space and time. Dinvor, he called himself.

The Lord of Darkness learned of Dinvor, the man giving hope to Pharthia, and was enraged by his seemingly futile efforts to fight back. Roaring over the Bagarnok Mountains, he found the entire strength of Pharthia waiting for him. The two armies clashed in a battle that could have very well been the last battle ever fought. The army of Pharthia was simply no match for the power of the Darkness that never sleeps and doesn’t grow hungry.

Yet, even as the strength of Pharthia wained, the Lord of Darkness grew impatient and sought to end the battle himself. Charging across the battlefield, he challenged Dinvor directly. Brandishing a blade of unrelenting horror, the Lord of Darkness lashed out at Dinvor. Much to his dismay, Dinvor unsheathed a holy relic. A weapon forged with rarest of metals; a metal said to be sent from heaven as a gift to the holy protectors of Pharthia. A group known as The Keepers.

The strength of Dinvor’s holy weapon was unimaginable. When the blades of Dinvor and the Lord of Darkness met, the fabric of reality shattered, opening up a portal to an unknown world. The portal reached out to the surrounding armies, and in all of its hunger, began to pull them into its swirling vortex. At last when the portal had had its fill, it collapsed with a roar of thunder that could be heard around the world, sending out a shockwave that could flatten mountains.

No one truly knows what happened to the two armies and their leaders. Some say that were forced to fight for all eternity in the unknown world, others say they simply ceased to exist.

A large, ancient statue of Dinvor can be found in a small grove of trees in the northern part of the plains.