Reminder: this isn’t due until Monday morning. Have a great weekend!
http://www.astronomytrek.com/constellations-2/
DWP #5: Twinkle, twinkle little star…
Reminder: this isn’t due until Monday morning. Have a great weekend!
http://www.astronomytrek.com/constellations-2/
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Daily Writing Prompts 
After the universe exploded into existence and life itself was shaped, old beings sprung forth in the absence of light. In their efforts to destroy the young species of the earth, they created giant horrors, waiting until it was their time to undo the magnificence of the universe.
One such monster was a kraken: a humongous purple being with writhing and wriggling tentacle appendages, and an uncountable number of beady black eyes. It slept at the bottom of the Veiled Ocean until the first humans began to venture in search of new land. At every attempt the kraken would create a colossal maelstrom to swallow the ships, and soon great tales would be told of the leviathan’s maw and the absence of light within.
It would take several decades until a human commander of the royal navy named Akador would brave the seas. He summoned his fleet and led them on a ship with a stem of blessed steel. The fleet blasted their cannons at the great beast, yet they were soon overwhelmed by this godlike tentacled creation.
In an act of great sacrifice, Akador sailed his ship straight into the kraken’s maw, with the mermaid figurehead at the bow looking ever forward, dauntless. Though he thereby doomed himself to the great depths, the beast was slain, and humanity finally ruled the seas.
Even hundreds of thousands of years later, sailors navigate the Veiled Ocean through the kraken’s bright constellation, namely through the brightest star of them all, which was in the middle. It was the spot where Akador drove the blessed stem straight into the maw, and it is said that his act of heroism purified the beast, allowing it to ascend into the heavens to guide brave souls across the waters for all eternity.
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You captured the feel of ancient story-telling well. Superb twist in the end, with the beast being granted redemption and his transformation from a maw with no light to the brightest star. I love the term “brave souls”.
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Ashyante, the wider universe. Eons ago the idea of different lifeforms and interplanetary travel was nothing more than common knowledge, there was no need to look far or wide, the Old Gods made it possible for races from across the universe to meet each other. Pathways they where called, folding of deep space capable of transporting goods and people across unimaginable distance, there was no need for vessels to roam across the vast expenses of space, no need for one to delve into the astral sea only to be consumed by its depth.
Ashyante wasn’t perfect, but the Elder Titans, sworn champions of the Old Gods kept it a relative state of peace, that is until the Ancients sought to expend their territories. Nobody minded it at first, the Ancients where the progenitors, the first ones to walk the pathways and the oldest race known in Ashyante, it was expected that they would want to grow and develop further and more. However unknown to most the Ancients where a greedy and prideful race, they saw themselves as the chosen of the Old Gods, the blessed race who’s sole purpose was to expand across the wider universe, bathing it all in the rays of the divine light and creating a universe spanning empire, one that would purify Ashyante and achieve the perfection they so desperately sought.
And thus the war started, the pathways soon became a curse of every planet. The Ancients used their vast technological superiority to conquer one planet after another, soon enough it was nothing more than a domino effect, that is until the peace keepers came. The Elder Titans sole purpose was to protect the peace in Ashyante, but the Ancients proved themselves to be a worthy adversary even against the Titans, their connection to the Old Gods made them strong, the Titans could not defeat them, however they could still seal them away.
Vaysorien, Khasara, Luca, Bartholomel, Ingrif, Fasilieh, Shantara, Galilah, Mathalon, Pasel, Qhalia and Zarayon, the 12 oldest Elder Titans performed the sacrificial ritual, their bodies be the price. Through it the Elder Titans where able to severe the Pathway connection between Ashyante and the home planet of the Ancients. Without access to their command and supplies the flames of war where soon extinguished, yet before that happened one more thing befell the Ancients. The 12 lambs as the oldest Titans came to be known had one more trick up their sleeve. With their combined power they where able to seal the Ancients in a pocket universe, away and far from the wider space, this place was cold, no sentient life to be found for light years around and with the Pathways cut off, no way to return to Ashyante. The Ancients punishment was solitude for eternity, a universal prison cell from which there was no escape.
The Celestial Lock. The 12 lambs sacrifice was heard across all the wider universe and even further beyond eventually even reaching the Old Gods, under their decision it was decided that the Titans would become celestial being, bright stars that illuminate the space of both Ashyante and the locked away space, a locked gateway between two planes of existence, a warning to all about what happens to those who fall to corruption, a Celestial Lock set into the night skies to remind the Ancients of their mistake while they stare up at it from their home planet of Terra.
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I like the depth of your story-tellling, using various (groups of) characters and planets and letting the constellations serve not just as heroes but as a warning. While reading it the Ancients and their greedy exploration gave an inkling of being used as a metaphor for humans… if so, I find the use of Terra as the last word very clever.
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Travel the world and the seven seas, the phrase we all use but do we know where it came from? Well, I discovered the truth.
Once upon a time, yes it’s going to be a fairytale kind of story, one man was surrounded by water water and nothing more than water. He was the only existing create you could see and was amongst no others, than drops of rain who created the seas. This unknown, but such a special man was Kærlighed.
He had no existents, what could a man do alone on water (other than swimming)?
Instead of drowning in his own thoughts, he created a game ‘Travel seven seas’.
The game was simple, well at least it sounded easy; creating a world were one man ruled the seas.
The first thing he had to do was visit his friend Anaximander, he was that smart guy (at least, he acts like one) who knows where all the people live and where all the land is stored.
After the visit at Anaximander Kærlighed colour-coded all the places where water was found. He created a rainbow of seas.
But how would he show to people, that he was the boss of it? Well, as simple as the plan the resolution was as even; use pigment to create the rainbow of seas.
And so he did, he travel the world and the seven seas and was sailing with a tank full of (biological) colour paint. The North Atlantic became red, the South orange and so on …
The world should be a colourful place, everyone should have a Kærlighed in his/her life to guide him- or herself to colourful happiness.
Martine Schrik – VO Docent Engels 2C
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Great introduction: I want to know the truth! I would love to sail through different colored waters (imagine what Earth would look like from space!). Wonderful, the line “instead of drowning in his own thoughts’. I miss the connection to a constellation in the sky, but am delighted with the idea of having a Kærlighed in my life. I hope you’ve got one.
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The constellation Vexia tells the story of divine wooers chasing a celibate young woman. Vexia was the name of a fair maiden in ancient Greece, where her heavenly eyes made her subject to the fancies of men. She caught the attention of the big three, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. These rivalling brothers fell for the allure of a mortal lady, much to the dismay of the other 10 Olympians. They feared a war would erupt between the heavens, the high seas and the underworld. Thus, they demanded the girl be sacrificed to assure peace.
The big three were not prepared to let Vexia perish but also not willing to give her up and allow one of the others to have her. They could not let go of their petty competition and so the Olympians were forced to take action. Aphrodite, who had been jealous of beauteous Vexia for threatening her title as most heavenly, persuaded the gullible mortal women to commit a horrendous act. She whispered fraudulent prophecies, commanding them to sacrifice poor Vexia for her chastity. The foolish females thought this would grant them an increase in fertility and allure.
Vexia died after being pushed off of a cliff but her immortal lovers were able to hold her one last time during her demise. Zeus embraced her as she was falling, within his domain of the sky. Poseidon clutched to her body as she fell onto the rocks at the bottom cliff, where the waves washed over her. Lastly, Hades clung to her spirit as what was left of her entered the underworld.
The constellation Vexia was made by Athena, recognisable by the shape of a waterlily. The waterlily has been Vexia’s favourite flower and has since then been a symbol of purity is ancient Greece. The constellation was put in the heavens to remind the big three what would overcome them if they ever began such a nonsensical contest again. Coincidentally, it was also considered to be one of the most beautiful constellations in the sky and reminded Aphrodite that even in death, Vexia would remain gorgeous.
Juliet Wind, 1D
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Marvelous use of adjectives and adverbs. The description of Vexia’s death, combining the three elements, was wonderful.
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Divided stars
You have all heard of constellation such as the Big Dipper, Orion ‘the Hunter’ or Ursa Minor but here is a story that you haven’t heard yet. It is the story of the divided stars. It all started with the constellations Alexandras and Prince Ianthosas, for short Alex and Ian. Like any constellation, these stars had their position in the universe. Ianthosas had the task of leading his nearby constellations into the right orbit. Alexandras happened to be a smaller, insignificant star on the other side of the orbit.
However, occasionally, a crack in the universe appeared allowing these fated celestial bodies to meet and merge into one. It was starstruck at first sight. The rules of the Milky Way state that constellations that merge into one must abide by the aerospace laws. One of which, almost like an unwritten rule states that some constellations may not be altered or joined for longer than half a neo (neo being an equivalent to an eon). Almost as if to say that the universe is stating that you are not compatible. May this rule be broken; unbalance and chaos will ensue.
Upon collision, everything in the universe was seemingly perfect for them. They were immaculately within rules of orbit, so they thought. Be that as it may, the star-crossed lovers hadn’t realized the damage that their joint constellation had inflicted upon the universe. Stars started plummeting towards the earth, creating a blinding stream of light and irreparable damage to their fellow constellations. The once full universe of stars started to become less each passing neo.
The couple now realized the widespread damage they had inflicted and knew that something needed to be done to restore the balance. They tried and tried to restore the peace of the Milky Way together but failed each time. Frustrated and running out of time, the couple started to split up, moving further and further away from each other. Instantly after the separation, the universe repaired itself, almost as if nothing had happened. They had been just on time for the cosmos to be restored, but it had been too late for the star-crossed lovers. Alexandras’ light had died down due to heartbreak and disappeared altogether from space.
Upon hearing the news Ianthosas lost all will to function, causing the previous chaos to start overall again. The universe realized that by separating these two, more harm had been done than good. In order to fix all of this, it decided to bestow Ianthosas with a gift. The gift later to be known as little Alexanthosas.
BGM:
Stars – Dead hearts
Sabrina Spaan – VO Engels 2C
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What a wonderful and terrible tragedy, Sabrina. In such a short space you were able to infuse your piece with such poignancy. I really enjoyed it, especially with the highly inventive addition of the song. At first I thought the lyrics would be very similar to the story, but instead they were a great addition to your piece.
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Veronite
A long time ago, there was a young and beautiful couple living in a old town in ancient Greece. The woman of this couple was called Veronite, she was later be seen as the godess of the broken hearts. Veronite was in love with Zeus. But Zeus had other intentions than loving her till the end of time! Zeus was a man that we know know by the name of ‘player’.
Veronite was blinded by love, until one day she found out that Zeus was cheating on her. This made her so angry, that she cursed his whole family and Zeus included. He would never know how it felt to be loved, just like she felt when he broke her heart.
The star sign ‘Veronite’ stands for power and selflove. Also, it reminds people to not trust anyone. The sign is seen in the stars as a broken heart.
Veronite is best seen in the summer months, while the sky is heavily bright.
Hanneke Hiemstra, 1B
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I feel this piece was inspired by personal experience. It certainly resonated with me. The strength of your emotion comes through, but I think it might have shone better with a little more descriptive language and elaboration in the storytelling.
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The gods created the constellation Audra when they saw how lonely some humans were and how much they were hurting. They created it with the thought and hope that the humans would be happier in pairs. The gods worked and worked until they were content with what they had created. They had created a constellation that they hoped would help fix human loneliness. Once they had made the constellation they watched and soon saw the world become a better place one pair at a time.
Whenever a star would fall from the constellation and two humans would wish for a lover at the same time fate would bring them together and they would fall in love. Their wish would create a loving bond so strong that it could not be broken. The gods would watch the pairs and root for them, even though they knew the bond was unbreakable. The pairs would all live happily ever after and would, as a pair, become a new star; investing their love into the bond created from the next wish that was made when their star would fall. Their love would live on into the next couple and so on.
Samara Sahar 1b
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Wouldn’t that be wonderful. Those gods can get to work on this right away. I find it original and courageous that you have no tragedy at all in your piece.
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Delphinus
Once upon a time there was a young man named Christopher. He was a sailor and therefore he traveled by ship quite often. On days where the wind was calm and the sun was shining on the oceans surface Christopher would take a break and dream of his family back home in Athens. He thought of the hard and dry land and the lively markets which he would stroll through on days as such. In his head he heard the warm laughter of his brothers and sisters surrounded at the dinner table. Soon he will be back he thought, soon he would be able to laugh along with them.
Today, however, was not one of those lovely days. The grey clouds were started to fill up the sky and the sailboat was rocking from side to side. Christopher knew he had to lower the sails and be prepared for the roughness awaiting. On days like these he would reminisce his home even more but he knew he had to focus on the storm ahead. Usually the thunder and rain would pass quite quickly and the sun would peek through the curtains that are clouds.
Today was different. The waves keept growing and growing getting big enough to easily engulf ten daily boats just like Christophers. He didn’t want to worry but he was holding on for his life. He felt his grip loosening and as he saw the enormous wave he knew it was time to let go. With memories of his beloved land he let go of the wheel and let himself get pulled into the stormy sea.
He thought he had died and as he opened his eyes a flash of light was blinding him. Heaven, he thought. He blinked a couple more times and looked out onto a great field of blue. He didn’t understand. Why was he still at sea? A wave had killed him, or so he had thought. To his left he heard a clicking sound. He looked and saw a marvellous creature of the sea. It was a dolphin with blue and white stripes shimmering from the suns reflection.
“How am I still here?” Christopher asked the dolphin.
“I heard your screams and smelled your fear and helped you survive the storm” replied the dolphin.
“Where are we? The wind must have blown me off track” asked Christopher. The dolphin nodded and said they were heading back to Athens. He said Christopher should lie down and get some rest when home and only return back to sea when he is healthy again. Christopher took his advice and fortunately never witnessed such a bad storm again.
He is forever grateful for his friend in the deep oceans and sees him in the sky every night as a formation of stars. He believes the dolphin was given a place in the sky because of the heroic act of saving a dying man.
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Disclaimer: I had a hard time coming up with a story as I really wanted to write something fun and creative. So usually when I’m in need of creative ideas I go for a walk and while I was walking I listened to some music on my phone and the next song on my playlist was “Drunken Lullabies” by Flogging Molly and that inspired me to write this story. Because let’s be honest, what great story doesn’t originate from alcohol?
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Have you ever looked at the sky to discover something hilarious? A constellation in the form of a butt? You probably shook your head and looked again but it was still there, and as you point towards it your friends see nothing and laugh at you, calling you a crazy drunk. Well, you’re drunk for sure but not crazy, that constellation is real and it’s called the Callipygian constellation, meaning “butt” in Ancient Greek. Here is the story of how the Callipygian constellation came to be.
It was a great night at Mount Olympus, Dionysus the son of Zeus had created a drink that he called wine and offered it to the Gods of Mount Olympus. The wine, described as a liquid delight was a huge success among the Gods and they enjoyed it a lot, maybe a little too much. As the night continued more and more wine was consumed and as you might imagine, the Gods didn’t drunk from puny bottles, no they created an entire river of wine. All night long the Gods drank from the wine river, not knowing the after-effect it would bring. As the night progressed the Gods started getting drunk. They sat around a bonfire telling each other stories and making each other laugh, this new thing called wine was amazing!
As the Gods drank more and more the mood changed as well and all the Gods started daring each other. After Hephaestus had forged an impressive sword that could take lives and bring people back to life everyone clapped. Zeus didn’t like the fact that Hephaestus was getting all the attention and he wanted to do something even more impressive but he didn’t know what to do so he asked Hermes who sat next to him what he should create. Hermes looked around for inspiration and saw the beautiful stars in the clear night sky and pointed towards it “Make a star Zeus, if you can” he said. Hera snickered “a puny star? Anyone can do that!” and the other gods started laughing as well. Zeus got mad, lifted his arms to the sky and yelled “behold, for I will create not just a star but many!”.
Hermes grabbed Zeus his shoulder “hold a second, I dare you to create in the form of a buttock!” the other Gods laughed and agreed “yes, a buttock Zeus!” and they started chanting his name. Zeus focused and suddenly a collection of stars appeared in the sky and the brightest would form a buttock if one was to draw lines between them. “There! I did it!” he exclaimed and everyone clapped and praised Zeus. The night went on and everyone was having fun until the next morning and the Gods didn’t feel so well. They all had headaches they had never felt before and no one knew how to feel better so they rested and tried to get better that day.
As the day ended, they got a visitor, Asteria, the goddess of the falling stars and she wasn’t exactly happy. “Zeus, can you explain to me why there is a bunch of stars in the sky looking like a buttock?” she asked quite annoyed. Zeus looked at the sky and laughed “oh yeah, I did that last night” he said semi-proud, as he tried to feel whether she was angry or just curious. “By Gaia, Zeus you fool! What made you think this was a good idea? What will the mortals think!?” Zeus understood that she was mad at him and looked at the stars again to realize this was quite stupid. In order to save himself, he tried to shift the blame onto his son. “Well Dionysus made this damned drink called wine and it made us stupid! So really he is to blame!”. Asteria shook her head “Now what will we do, we can’t just destroy the stars, I’ve never destroyed stars before!” and she walked around worrying.
That’s when Hades walked up “I have the solution!” he cried “What if we cast a curse on mankind so they can’t see the stars?” Asteria nodded “that sounds good, let’s do it” Hades raised a finger “but, as with any curse, there is a caveat, when a mortal drinks too much they’ll be able to see it,” he said. Asteria sighed and rolled her eyes “fine, fine, just do it” and so Hades cast a curse on all of mankind. Now no mortal would ever see the stupid mistake the Gods made when they were drunk, except for when they’re incredibly drunk.
So when you see a buttock in the sky, be not mistaken, your eyes aren’t lying, it’s really there and you should probably put down the glass of whatever you’re drinking.
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This was definitely worth the wait! You richly infused the gods with down-to-earth, all-too-recognizable human traits, making the story (too?) relatable while somehow at the same time unpredictable – very clever! I’m very impressed with the pacing as well: the humor was judiciously meted out so as not to take over the story. I still find myself laughing. Superb.
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