Love At Last Sight

Here's an original 50 word story published through FiftyWordStories.com.  Please read and rate using the tool on their site.

http://fiftywordstories.com/2013/08/30/chris-griglack-love-at-last-sight/

Magic!

Some authors are very good at explaining the workings of their magical systems, others are good at leaving an impression of a very powerful force that is not fully understood even by those who dare to use it, and others are just downright terrible at providing any insight as to what the hell is going on.  That's why I've composed these categories to give fans a better understanding of how the most common magic systems work in fantasy literature.  They're by no means official or set in stone as the only types of magic which are effectively used, in fact, they're not even mutually exclusive.  Hopefully there will be more categories to come as I continue to expand my fantasy repertoire, but for now I give you the four categories of fantasy magic.

Like For Like Magic
This is a type of magic usually associated more with darker worlds or characters.  It requires sacrifice or payment to accomplish.  This can be through the methods more traditionally associated with sacrifice, or simply through conversion of materials or forces into other materials or forces.  For instance, alchemy or magics involving consumption of particular ingredients (potions, tonics, etc).  This may also apply to magics drawn from a source if the source has limited power.  For example, a magic stone or talisman infused with power which is channeled until consumed.  Of course, this category also includes demonic pacts, bargaining or trading something for power, whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual.

Magic of Will
Magic that is determined by the mental strength of the user.  This is the most classically associated form of magic, and is often found in high fantasy.  Whenever magic is an art that requires studying and practice to apply it is generally magic that is determined by the will of the user.  A novice will never be as adept in any of these schools of magic as an expert unless they are meant to be some sort of prodigy.  This could also include forms of magic which are powered through divine sources, in other words, magics which are temporarily granted to the highly devout based on the strength of their conviction.  A priest or cleric whose powers may no longer work if they were to stop believing, or whose powers may be granted by a different benefactor if they were to convert, though these users may also be considered magical by association depending on the circumstances.

Innate Magic
This is magic that is best thought of in terms of an inherited trait.  Much like some people are born more athletic than others, some may be born with higher aptitude for magic than others.  It may be something that can be balanced out by practice, knowledge, and experience, but this type of magic is largely defined by its users potential at birth, whether this be an inherited genetic trait or random selection.  A great example of this would be the Aes Sedai in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.  While even the weakest Aes Sedai are able to train and learn how to better use their power, they will never be able to draw in as much of the power as those born with stronger gifts.  In some cases this may even be a racial distinction, eg. all elves are born magic users, some humans, and no dwarves.

Magic By Association
Usually the worst kind of magic.  This is when the magic user themselves does not possess any particular ability for magic, but may wield an item that allows them access to it.  A staff that allows its wielder to ignite fires is a magical staff, but the person who uses it is only magical by association.  Even cases where a character is in an event that triggers powers they otherwise would not have had.  In some cases, the magical item/area/event may only be accessible by some, due to any of the things mentioned above, but until they can use magic without its aid they are not generally considered to be magical.

Rainmaker

Original prose poetry flash fiction "Rainmaker" is now available on LinguisticErosion.com.

http://www.linguisticerosion.com/2013/06/rainmaker.html

Woof!

One of my original micro fiction pieces has been republished by FiftyWordStories.com.  Check out "Woof!" for free, and be sure to leave a rating.

http://fiftywordstories.com/2013/06/13/chris-griglack-woof/

Consume Some Knowledge

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children with strong reading comprehension skills.  I return briefly to the real world today after an extended stay in my preferred fantasy realms to attempt to dissuade you from your rampant consumerism.  I know it's been done a million times before in a million different ways, but I'd like to do it through promoting a different set of values which can replace the emptiness of body image and ownership obsessions.  I'm here today to tell you why intelligence and strong, self-realized ethical values are vastly superior.

So here it is:  You are not your possessions.  The clothes you wear, cars you drive, homes that you don't really own are not a part of you.  Not even your effortless weight loss, miraculous hair growth, or discreet penis length increase is you.  You're not who you vote for, or how many Facebook friends you have.  There is only one thing which can accurately be labeled as "you," and that is your mind.

Your personality, your experiences, and how you interact with the world around you is what defines you.  You could be the richest most attractive person in the world and still be a terrible person.  In fact, most of the richest and most attractive people are also the worst people.  When all is said and done, your money and your possessions and your physical image will be gone, but the person you were will still live on.  That's what a legacy is.

Kings, queens, presidents, and dictators are ultimately judged in the same light as poor, nameless peasants: for their actions.  The only difference is the level of influence each life has, but influence is not always measured in power, wealth, and fame.  Every one of us is shaped by those that came before, be they our teachers, family, or communities, we our all constantly pushed and pulled in all directions by countless influences.  Some are naturally stronger than others.  Family supersedes most influences, especially early in life, and we live in an age of tremendous monetary, media, and societal influences, but strongest, most lasting influences are those of free thought and self-realization.

If society were to collapse overnight and it was left to a handful of survivors to rebuild the world, the civilizations that their efforts would create would bear little resemblance to ours.  Except in one aspect: their principles of science, logic, reason, and discovery would be nearly identical to our own if left unchecked.  These are things which cannot truly be forgotten because they are not truly taught, they are discovered, invented, innovated.  The sun will set tomorrow for the same reason it set yesterday, and if this reason is ever forgotten, it can be rediscovered.

But if we all do our parts there's no need for society to crumble.  This isn't done through supporting your local economies through consumerism, it's achievable simply by being ethical and passing this idea along.  And I don't mean ethical in a religious or governmental sense.  I mean the strong kind of ethics that come from seeing a good deed have a good effect on a person.  The type of ethics which come from feeling bad and not wanting others to feel the same.  No threats of damnation, imprisonment, or even death can replace these ethics if properly passed along.  Nothing can take away your ability to do a good deed, to see it's effect, and to feel it in your heart, just as nothing can stop the force of discovery and progress.  These things can only be halted for a time, for they are universal.

So where are your efforts in life truly best spent?  In building knowledge, character, empathy, and understanding, and then passing these things along to others.  If you put your time to these, people will remember you and how you affected their lives and they will do the same.  Your legacy could burn bright then fade out, or consume the lives of others, but the best legacies are those which spark in others and lead them to their own understanding.  This is the unstoppable force greater than economy and government combined.

Hellfire

So thoroughly they burn,
Stilling, killing, willing
All to ashes filling urns.
The flames so bright
They stir the dead,
And frighten souls interred.
And each one has its turn.

None

Solitary, I
Watch the duality
Of the Triumvirate play
Out before my weary eyes,
Their pent up rage boiling over
As if hexed.  How they fall to
Pieces like trees in September, though with less
Height, the simplest of breezes able to break them
Like a flimsy set of nine pins.  Fools!  Only the
Rarest of men may bask in the decadence of power uncorrupted.

Sacred Pasture Sacrifice

In sacred pastures they lay me down to die
Bleeding out beneath the pale blue sky.
A melody so softly hummed
'Mongst winds and rippling grain;
I pray that this day's sacrifice
Will not be in vain.

Dream of Tomorrow

Man's nature is to dream;
Whether awake or sleeping.
To dream of things that are not, but could be.
Should be.
Of all things that can not be;
But one day, maybe.
To see the future 'fore it happens
And shape it in the image of the past.
To know the universe,
And others,
And dream until the dream does last.

Firearms: Humanity's Worst Invention

If I had to pick a single invention which has had the most impact on civilization I would bypass the commonly thought of light bulbs  automobiles, and the computer and go back a bit to the firearm.  While all these other inventions can be shown to have had massive, incalculable effects on our daily lives, only the firearm has uprooted societies and precipitated the wholesale slaughter of entire races of people.  Of course, firearms have undoubtedly done some sort of good for societies and individuals throughout the years, and while I'd like to argue that our world would be far better off had they never been invented, the argument is impossible to prove without the aid of some sort of time machine.  Instead, I'd like to try to make the case through a look at how firearms have changed our perspective of killing.

It would be impossible to have any sort of discussion about the impacts of firearms without looking at how warfare has changed as a result of their invention.  Today firearms and explosives are the weapons of choice for waging war, and it's clear why: they're effective.  Warfare before the invention of the firearm was an arduous process which took years or decades to resolve.  Single conflicts could take days of fighting (the Battle of Varna is reported to have lasted four days) and sieges of individual cities or fortresses took years or even decades (the Siege of Candia lasted 21 years).  Even after the completion of these conflicts, the death tolls were minuscule compared to the wars of recent history.  

Some might argue that the expedition of warfare is a good thing as wars today last years rather than lifetimes or generations.  But of course, this is only because we've developed weapons capable of killing the same amount of people in far less time.  The reason wars took so long before the firearm is because they were fought with the sword, spear, and bow, weapons which took extensive amounts of training to use properly and were capable of far less damage even in the hands of the most skilled.  Warfare today is not based upon the skill of the soldiers, but on their quantity and their armaments.  After all, the most disciplined armies and talented marksman are completely helpless against nuclear arms, or even less devastating explosives.

The best illustration of this point is the child armies which have become commonplace around the world.  Before the firearm, the notion of sending children to fight wars was ludicrous.  Children had neither the strength nor skill to properly utilize the weapons war was waged with.  In times of desperation societies would recruit adolescents (which we think of as children) and the elderly to assist them, but they were never the major components of any legitimate army.  This is still true to some extent today: no army of children will ever be as capable as one of well-trained disciplined men and women, but unlike the weapons of old which required strength to use, a gun in the hands of an untrained child is every bit as effective as one held by an untrained adult.

The problem with firearms is that they make it so effortless to kill.  Soldiers no longer have to look into the eyes of their opponents as they kill them.  Killing is no longer a massive struggle of swords raising and falling, it's a trigger being pulled with all the effort it takes to change TV stations.  It has become a deeply impersonal thing to take another's life.  We kill thousand with the press of a single launch button, and we destroy cities and topple societies in minutes.  We have the ability to kill entire peoples without sending a single soldier into battle, and we don't bat an eye at this practice until we feel it is being "misused."  And to top it off: we spend more money funding military pursuits than we do to advance the lives of our own people (here in USA at least).  Our capacity and appetite for destruction is so great that the majority of our war efforts today are reconstruction of the things we were so quick to shatter. 

So why are firearms the worst invention we've ever come up with?  Homer said it best centuries before these weapons were even developed: "The blade itself incites to deeds of violence."  Even then they knew that the sword serves no purpose but violence and ownership of a weapon is meaningless unless it used.  Sure you could perform acts of violence with just about anything imaginable, but firearms have no other purpose but to commit acts of violence.  And even though we've since developed amazing technology which allows us to defend ourselves without having to use lethal force, (mace, stun-guns, rubber bullets, etc) firearms have so disconnected us from what it means to kill another human being that we seem to prefer lethal force.