Nemesid

By Eric Burns-White

Art and industry are often seen as mutually exclusive, but it wasn't always that way. In this modern myth, we learn the story of a nemesid named Adrastia Young -- one of the spirits of vengeance and retribution, partnered to a spirit of Good Order and a muse.

When Adrastia sees her partners grow closer to each other, she feels excluded. Her response doesn't just affect her relationships, but the world's relationship to the practical and the aesthetic from that point forward.

A story of the Mythology of the Modern World, which seeks to explain the mythological underpinnings of our world with a satirical and sometimes bittersweet bent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eric Burns-White
• Release date: Oct 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301228737

Eric Burns-White

Eric Burns-White is a writer, editor, games developer and poet originally from Northern Maine. He has worked for Steve Jackson Games and Decipher among others, and has produced work for In Nomine, Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game and other such things. He was one of the primary authors of Sidewinder, a roleplaying game nominated for the Ennie for “Best d20 Game.” Sidewinder: Recoiled won the Golden Ennie for Best Electronic product in 2004. Burns-White is best known as the creator and one of the principal writers for Websnark (http://new.websnark.com), a critical commentary blog. He produces fictional work – including the Mythology of the Modern World – at Banter Latte (http://banter-latte.annotations.com). In his civilian identity, Burns-White is a systems administrator at a private, not-for-profit secondary school in New Hampshire, where he lives with his wife, cat, and an increasingly large population of plush, Transformers and Monster High dolls.

Book preview

Nemesid

Eric Burns-White

Copyright 2013 by Eric Burns-White

Published at Smashwords

Let me tell you a story about the spirits that inhabit the world.

Before I go too far, let me explain a few things. The spirits we’re discussing are more properly called daemons. Not demons — those are another thing entirely, and beyond the scope of this story — but daemons. The helpers that move the world along. They’re known by many names — nymphs, for example. Or kami. Or others. It doesn’t really matter. The point is, the daemons are the incarnate spirits of the world — some may represent abstract ideas like creativity (the famous muses) and others more concrete ideas like that tree over there (who’s incarnated as a dryad named Mary Tilson. You’d like her. She bakes. But I’m getting off track). All of these are daemons, and because of them, the world is awake and alive and always a little less predictable than we might like.

Now, there are many kinds of daemon in the world, but only two types. The vast majority of daemons are eudaemons — the helpful and inspirational spirits that keep the world running as smoothly as possible. Eudaemons want humanity to reach farther and better than they have before. However, some daemons are darker — more hateful. They have learned to dislike or even despise humanity and their fellow spirits. These are the kakodaemons — those who hurt and hinder humanity for their own ends or even just their own dark amusement.

This is a story of eudaemons and kakodaemons. And, since we’ve brought them up, the story of a muse, of inspiration, and of helping — and hindering — humanity.

And we know that the muses are those daemons who inspire artistic achievement. They’re not the only eudaemons (or kakodaemons, for that matter) involved in creative endeavor, but to be blunt they get