The Lost City of Irem

          Last night my dreams took me back to Irem, lost city of endless ancient pillars, the Atlantis of the sands. Irem still hosts a massive army of displaced and distempered Djinn, who, thousands of years ago, ripped this wealthy dessert oasis out of reality itself. Now, it only appears briefly, from time to time, at the edges of our most lucid dreams, a magical Mecca teeming with twisted visions of those same titanic beings who, for so many reasons, no longer reign over these solid spaces that we’ve placed just out of their reach, safely insulated, as we now are, here between waking and returning to endlessness. I can still hear the screams of those who’ve made it all the way there, but still I travel onward, trying to reach the city of brass and fire for myself. I can only imagine that at least a few of those ancient people who were originally lifted into the gloom have found better things to do than spend their eternities screaming in terror.

         Soon, they say, I will find out for myself.

Filthy Hobbitses







          Stinky little Hobbits beware; the Djinn Army marches on…

Lost Temples of the Ahd al Jann

          Once the world was untamed enough to hold countless hidden wonders. Today, very few places remain to conceal even the smallest pockets of magical resistance, much less something like the once grand temples of the mysterious Ahd al Jann. As this world becomes increasingly more civilized and increasingly more banal, the spaces we’ve had to learn how to inhabit, and our practices, have had to become far more subtle as well; far more subtle, and, unfortunately, far less striking to behold. Yet what really matters is that many of the old ways still exist today, in one form or another, even if what we are now is only a fraction of who or what we once were.

         There is absolutely no historical record of the Hidden Covenant, a group which claims to be a union between the Fallen Angels and the Djinn. Each new member must recreate many of the ancient traditions intuitively, feeling for the truths of this strange story that resonate with something deep within themselves as they wander through the darkness of the modern world. The tradition rests on the central premise that something has been lost, not only here, but in what was once Heaven as well, but that we can, and must, dream all of it back into existence, if, and only if, we find ways to make our lost dreams a reality.

         Because of the unfortunate shift in the World Order, few today will ever get to see, much less don, the traditional sacred robes, or the ritual combat gear, of the Silsilah warrior monks; Few enflamed Phantamancers will float sense deprived within the dream work chambers of old, or get to spill their mad visions out across the tapestried halls which used to lead there; The great occult libraries of the Muqarribun Imamate are now all but a thing of the past, as is the throne room where the Hidden Imams claimed to able to both see and converse with the true God; and no longer do their young luminaries, their teams of well trained psychic assassins, debate each other in the great halls where all the rest of the so-called Psychesicarri could once safely be gathered together as one.

         As I’ve said, these four sacred orders exist today much like any of the other great and magical things of the past; as fantastic dreams, half remembered and half realized by a select few among us whose souls simply refuse to forget. We’ve been forced to co-opt tiny communes and retreat centers, nestled away in remote locations outside of human cities, or else mask ourselves within your martial arts schools, art studios, laboratories, libraries and universities, all of which must now be shared with dreamless apes who’ve overrun a world that was once ours.

         For now, your blunt invasion of our once sacred spaces means that the best of you will benefit from our influence and patronage, while others will just find themselves moved, even at times unconsciously, to snuff us out. Very soon, however, the Covenant of the Djinn will once again burn so overwhelmingly bright that everything which is still mortal will simply burst into flame before us.