Gone to Sleep

Moby and Kelli Scarr make a song based on this picture by artist Phil Toledano.


The video about their creation process (and the song itself) gives a great vibe of eerie desolation.




Author's note: the first night I watched this it inspired a fascinating nightmare about Changeling: the Lost's "Gentry", so I'm considering it prime fodder for that game at least.

Basilisk Images

Exerpt from the comp.basilisk FAQ:

5. How does a basilisk operate?

The short answer is: we mustn't say. Detailed information is classified beyond Top Secret.

The longer answer is based on a popular-science article by Berryman (New Scientist, 2001), which outlines his thinking. He imagined the human mind as a formal, deterministic computational system -- a system that, as predicted by a variant of Gödel's Theorem in mathematics, can be crashed by thoughts which the mind is physically or logically incapable of thinking. The Logical Imaging Technique presents such a thought in purely visual form as a basilisk image which our optic nerves can't help but accept. The result is disastrous, like a software stealth-virus smuggled into the brain.


6. Why "basilisk"?

It's the name of a mythical creature: a reptile whose mere gaze can turn people to stone. According to ancient myth, a basilisk can be safely viewed in a mirror. This is not generally true of the modern version -- although some highly asymmetric basilisks like B-756 are lethal only in unreflected or reflected form, depending on the dominant hemisphere of the victim's brain.

- David Langford

Island of the Dead

By Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin. Likely based on the similarly fascinating Greek isle of Pondikónisi:

Crescent

by Phil Rossi

On the old, massive, half-completed space station Crescent something forgotten is stirring again. This in spite of the influence of the community's ancient crone and the ruthless efforts of it's corrupt mayor.

It's a story old as time: A thing or things want to exist which would better not. Toward this end locations, people and events are being manipulated into the horrific arcane conjunctions necessary to hasten it's arrival.

It could be argued that the story is unevenly paced, plodding over some events while sweeping right past others. Or that it dwells too heavily on scenes of carnage and sexual depravity in an attempt to set the tone of seediness and horror. But in spite of these flaws I found Crescent to be an interesting take on the idea of a Lovecraftian "Great Old One" style incursion in a non-standard setting.


Warning: Heavy adult content.

Here's a direct link to the first episode.

The rest of the series can be found at Podiobooks.com or at the official Crescent Station website.

Cult-reviving politician killed by lightning

Reposted from Mosnews:

A Ukrainian politician who had been excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church for his attempts to revive ancient pagan cult was killed by lightning on Saturday while on a fishing trip, Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported on Monday.

. . .

A former activist in the Soviet youth movement Comsomol, Chervoni started an independent political career in early 1990s with radical Ukrainian nationalists. At some point, the politician joined the religious movement Runvera – a Ukrainian sect that seeks revival of obscure ancient cults, in particular, the worship of the sun god Dazhbog.

When he was retired from the governor’s post in 2006, all Orthodox churches in Rovno Region had a special prayer thanking the Lord for deliverance.

This story was trawled up by the Delta Green folks who had the obvious take that, in the name of nationalist cultic revival, this guy had been dredging up ancient powers best left forgotten.

But from a World of Darkness point of view he might just as easily have been fried by the Technocracy before he could use his newly acquired reality deviant abilities to revive yet another brand of superstitionist practice among the masses. Simple Paradox backlash wouldn't be out of the question either.

Via Tenebrax on the Delta Green mailing list.

Bottled Curios

Unknown Specimen

RECOVERED FROM CHEST CAVITY OF DECAYED ANIMATED CORPSE. ANIMATION OF CORPSE CEASED UPON REMOVAL. SPECIMEN BEGAN TO DISSOLVE WITHIN MOMENTS OF REMOVAL FROM HOST. DISSOLUTION CEASED WITH FORMALDEHYDE AND ACETONE. HAITI, 1894

A handy how-to guide on preparing your own spell components, containing unruly familiars, and formalin-preserving other oddities.


Link.

The Shadows of St. Petersburg

The hungry ghosts crowd in great overlapping mobs, swarming unseen through the places they haunted in life. They search wearily and in vain for something, anything to give their prolongation meaning, to feed the emptiness inside.


Of Alexey Titarenko:

Major photo series include "City of Shadows" (1992-1994), "Black and White Magic of St. Petersburg" (1995-1997), and "Time Standing Still" (1998-1999). In those series Titarenko paints a bitter picture of a Russia (seen through the lens of St. Petersburg), where people live in a world of unrealized hopes and where time seems to have stopped.

More here.

In Crystal Abiding

Blue crystal everywhere. The apartment's interior was completely covered with the stuff.

What ritual needed this as a focus?
What arcane process gone awry left this in it's wake?
What bizarre thing, new to sentience, dwelt here in dark mineral-saturated waters for a time? Or left this residue behind, a spent chrysalis?

Article and video here.


Via Boingboing.

Much of Paul Laffoley's artwork is derived from conspiracy theory, the occult and fringe science. Perfect fodder for transcendent cults and obsessive adepts.

Link


Discovered via Boing Boing.