stonedance – Page 29 – Ricardo Pinto

The Twin Gods

Ricardo on 30th August 2015

This is a drawing I made of the Twin Gods way back in 1986—another indication of how long the Stone Dance had been maturing. The iconography is still mostly valid, though if I was doing it again now I would have had continued the black of the Black God in tattoos all down the left hand side of Their body, in very much the way that the Sinistral Ichorians are marked. Also, the glyphs in the inscription are a little inaccurate and not as refined as they would later become. The Twins are wearing an early version of the Triple Crown.

Simultaneously the Green God (also known as the Jade Faced God) and the Black God (also known as the Lord of Mirrors and the Obsidian Faced God)—the chief gods of the Chosen—both have many names, attributes and associated symbols. Shown are, for example, the rectangular portion of ammonite shell indicating the law; the four ‘dragon’ horns of the Horned God, the Lord of Battles; the dancing chameleon on the fanblade sword representing time, with the small, circular ‘nu’ glyph indicating annihilation; the abacus representing wisdom and control. There are others…

Thuyakalrul (original)

Ricardo on 30th August 2015

This is the original version of the map I used during the writing of The Chosen.

Chapter: Visitors

Ricardo on 30th August 2015

Information relevant to the 1st chapter of The Masters

a map of the Hold

The Hold is a fortress built on the shore of the Isle of Golden Trees, an island in the far north where Carnelian and his father, the Ruling Lord Suth, live in exile with their household

a sketch of the black ship

a sketch of the black ship that arrives at the Hold through the winter storm

the first edition Jim Burns cover

cover artwork for The Chosen © Jim Burns

This is the wonderful artwork that Jim Burns did for the cover of the original The Chosen, volume one of the First Edition trilogy, that in this Second Edition has been split into The Masters and The Chosen—depicting the arrival of the Masters in their black ship

Jim Burn’s original concept—a lesson

Jim Burn's original concept for The Chosen — Jim Burn’s original concept for **The Chosen**

This concept was the concept that I got for my first ever book cover. You can imagine my excitement. Unfortunately, I fell into ‘first cover syndrome’. . . a condition that many new authors suffer from. This was my first book and I wanted the cover to be ‘just right’. So I interfered—and how! Jim, to his credit, put up with endless nonsense about the exact nature of the baran, the costumes of the Masters and a hundred and one examples of my nit-picking. Of course, if anyone had dared that kind of thing with my own work I would have gone ballistic

The way I see it now, Jim’s first concept would have resulted in a more powerful cover. He saw my book through his own mind’s eye, and I should have trusted his vision

the first edition German cover

cover of the German edition of The Chosen — cover of the German edition of **The Chosen**

A more sinister take on the arrival of the Masters in their black ship, from the cover of the First Edition of the German Die Auserwähalten (The Chosen), with shades of Nosferatu…

(I can’t credit the artist because I can find no reference to them anywhere)

the Isle of Golden Trees

the Hold is located on a small, bleak island—the Isle of Golden Trees—north across the sea from the Three Lands, as shown in this detail from the map of the Three Lands

a map of the northern sea—detail from Three Lands map © Neil Gower

The Song to the Earth

Ricardo on 30th August 2015

(a discussion of this is available on my blog here)

The Song to the Earth is a chant that comes from the Book of the Sorcerers, that is part of the Ilkaya, the holy scriptures of the Chosen. It is an essential part of the rituals of the Apotheosis

Creating it was a labour of several weeks for Dr David Adger (a Professor of Linguistics and a friend) and myself

The Song to the Earth in English

Flesh, knit bone to bone
Your withered earth
Oh ancient Mother
Scorched tearless You await
The Sky Lord come to thunder
Rumbling His stormy belly
Withholding His urgent seed
Until He shall pierce You with His shafts
Quench the burning air
Rill and pool Your dusts
Fill Your wombs with spiralling jades
Until Your flesh swells up
In the midst of breaking waters
Clenching for release

Thrust forth the Green Child
Ten thousand times reborn
Squeeze Him into the air
Enjewelled by the morning
To take sweet nurture
At Your breasts
That He might dance again
And once more blow His scents
Beneath the skies.

O Canto à Terra

Carne, um osso com osso
A Tua terra emurchecida
Antiga Mãe
Queimada e sem lágrimas Tu aguardas
O Senhor do Céu que veio proclamar
Atroando o Seu ventre tempestuoso
Onde esconde a Sua semente urgente
Até Ele Te penetrar com as Suas flechas
Apagar o ar ardente
Espalhar e repartir as Tuas poeiras
Encher os Teus úteros com jades a mover-se em espiral
Até a Tua carne inchar
No meio do rebentar das águas
Buscando a libertação

Impele com força o Filho Verde
Dez mil vezes renascido
Comprime-O no ar
Enfeitado de jóias pela manhã
Para receber o doce alimento
Nos Teus seios
Para que Ele possa voltar a dançar
E mais uma vez soprar os seus Aromas
Por debaixo dos céus.

The Song to the Earth in Quya

kuxeqárós-xu txáguda uthe
knákuxeós tsur kókátha tsurán
ksárathas tyeyehue umyártahe xexeles
xáh mánya xáh mumuya
txiyáqeyeke-xu yárex keru
yárexira txiyaqeyenxa-xu qányaye
knátiyeinxa-hue tungóqerónxa
xánguós-xu osráhrata lyeyetxa huágata
kuyuximuntheónxa-xu lyeyexi
txurutniryinxa-xu txuyirutniryike-xu
lyeyehax ksiruxhua keru
knáksyekxákeamha ksóxeáthase
ruyutxádayetnirónxa-xu xile
ruyutxádasetnirónxa-kxu tyeyehue
ksuyiruyitha-xu txarata thumya
juyireithata tyeyerea
qayakáyas-kye tyeyere txáguda
knarenál tyeyehue dájaqea
kxiruis-txe xayaguyas-txe

kureóke-xu káreónxa-xu
tyeyexile tuya kxiranxa
knátsáyanxa miruthe suxeóke-xu
sáxeónxa-xu kxán xile
knápóyánxa káradahua
huáyetxádeqeranxa-hue jirixán
tyeyenán nunyána nangáqeránxa-hue
uthe txyeqetheleqeranxa-hue uthe
lyeyehuea qányátla kise

The Song the Earth vocalized

This is a vocalisation that I recorded of the Song to the Earth, with a certain amount of melodrama…

The Song to the Earth in Quya with glosses

For those of who are linguistically minded, the Quyan text is given here in full with glosses to show its grammatical structure. Underlined syllables are stressed

This is the actual translation that I worked on with David Adger who definitely has been the linguistical brains behind this ‘operation’

Introduction

richardx on 29th August 2015

7 books of the Second Edition and the 3 of the First Edition

The SDC Companion is an online resource that I hope enriches your experience of reading the The Stone Dance of the Chameleon

Selected material from my many notebooks, illustrations and other support work is organised according to the seven volumes of the Second Edition, with a companion page for each chapter

The tag cloud at the bottom of every page gives general access to the material—to avoid spoilers, please use this with care

More detailed suggestions for how to avoid spoilers when using the SDC Companion are available here

some of my Stone Dance notebooks — some of my *Stone Dance* notebooks

Overview of the Stone Dance of the Chameleon

The Stone Dance of the Chameleon was initially published as a traditional fantasy trilogy with traditional fantasy covers. I have now republished it in a new revised Second Edition with my own covers

It is fantasy but perhaps not what is generally expected from that genre. Some reviewers have even described it as science fiction and, in some ways, it is that too

The Stone Dance is a tale of love and a coming of age story. An epic set in a world of wonder and terror, it is an adventure that tells of the struggle to overcome a terrible oppression. At its heart are many of the issues that threaten us today; our time and history appear in it from an oblique perspective. Grim and bloody and cruel, it seeks to demonstrate how compassion can become the most terrible weapon of all

Why a Second Edition?

Once upon a time I said in an interview that there was only a single word that I wanted to change in the whole of the nearly 700,000 words of The Stone Dance of the Chameleon. That I could say anything so ludicrous and pretentious says a lot about who I was then. How things change

By hacking away the excess verbiage, I reduced the text of the First Edition by a quarter. The Second Edition is a much cleaner, leaner and more vital affair

Beyond and above this I took the opportunity to sort out all kinds of problems that I knew were there, and many more that I discovered along the way. In places, where I had compromised, I have restored my original, instinctual vision. Prime among these is that Fern has become Blue—indeed, the desire to rewrite him niggled at me for years, and it was Blue—that he be put right—who helped draw me back to the Stone Dance

I have broken the Stone Dance into seven rather than the original three. There are practical reasons for this, but the artistic ones were the clincher. To effect my new vision of the work, I had to write new material, most specifically the four new ‘hinge chapters’: if the First Edition was a triptych, the Second is a heptaptych

Dragon Fire

Ricardo on 19th August 2015

This is an online companion for Dragon Fire, book five of seven of the Second Edition of the The Stone Dance of the Chameleon. Material relevant to this volume—drawn from my more than thirty notebooks—is laid out in the sidebar, ordered according to the chapters in the book.

The tag cloud below provides direct access to the SDC Companion

SPOILERS

accessing a page for a chapter you have not yet reached or use of the tag cloud may lead to spoilers

If you would like to hear from me and know what I am up to, please join my mailing list below

unless otherwise stated, all images are my own work

The Standing Dead

Ricardo on 19th August 2015

This is an online companion for The Standing Dead, book three of seven of the Second Edition of the The Stone Dance of the Chameleon. Material relevant to this volume—drawn from my more than thirty notebooks—is laid out in the sidebar, ordered according to the chapters in the book.

The tag cloud below provides direct access to the SDC Companion

SPOILERS

accessing a page for a chapter you have not yet reached or use of the tag cloud may lead to spoilers

If you would like to hear from me and know what I am up to, please join my mailing list below

unless otherwise stated, all images are my own work

The Masters

Ricardo on 13th August 2015

This is an online companion for The Masters, book one of seven of the Second Edition of the The Stone Dance of the Chameleon. Material relevant to this volume—drawn from my more than thirty notebooks—is laid out in the sidebar, ordered according to the chapters in the book.

The tag cloud below provides direct access to the SDC Companion

SPOILERS

accessing a page for a chapter you have not yet reached or use of the tag cloud may lead to spoilers

If you would like to hear from me and know what I am up to, please join my mailing list below

unless otherwise stated, all images are my own work

The SDC Companion

richardx on 31st July 2015

The SDC Bible is a companion work to The Stone Dance of the Chameleon. I have selected material from my countless notebooks and organised it according to the 7 volumes of the Second Edition (or the 3 of the First Edition). I have put more general material in a separate section that begins with an introduction to the Stone Dance.

Find the section for a given volume either through the links below, or from the drop down menus above. I have laid out the material for a volume in the order in which you will come across it as you read it. You can access relevant information without risk of coming across spoilers.

I hope this ‘Bible’ enriches your experience of reading the Stone Dance.

Spoiler Alert!

+SPOILER will mark hidden information and tell you which book number in a series—SDC1 for the First Edition and SDC2, for the Second Edition—that you need to have reached before the hidden information is no longer a spoiler.

Second Edition

First Edition

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