DESCENDING ROAD: A Literary Macramé

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Welcome to a woven knot of stories set in the fictional world of Tarnus.

I don’t know who you are or how you read, but you can do this in a lot of different ways. You can surf, you can wander, you can explore, or you can just read one scene after another in one story. That’s all up to you. Here’s how you choose what to do.

From here, if you just select “To Ferdinand" below, you get tossed right into the first scene of the main story of Descending Road. The guy who is talking to you sounds insane and raving, so take your time, relax, and sample his madness. It has a lot of clues to the whole world you’re entering.

Sooner or later you’ll run into a character who will tell you that he or she is writing this book. Don’t trust any of these people completely, any of all of them. You’ll have to decide who can get some of your trust. I’m not altogether responsible for them.

Each scene you read has the words “To Previous” at the top of the scene text, and the words “To Next” at the bottom. Choose “To Next”, and you move on to the next scene. Choose “To Previous”, and you go back to the last one you read before the current one. If you wonder what “To Previous” means on the first page, you can try it. Trying things is what you do here.

Each scene page has other marks on it. There’s a vertical wispy line at the left of the text and another at the right. Try them if you want to. If you keep selecting at left (or at right), you come back to the scene page – it’s a cycle.

Above the words “To Previous” you’ll see an icon that looks like tree branches. Choosing it shows you which story thread you’re reading, along with a sizable menu of other story scenes and the threads for each scene. Choose one of those threads, read the scene, and if you finish that scene and choose “To Next” from it, you end up at the scene you were on before you changed the story. Now you’ll just follow a different path out of your current scene.

If you want this menu to go away, just choose the words at the top that replaced the icon, and you’ll get the icon back again.

Below the words ‘To Next” it’s the same kind of thing, except that the story thread you’re on is named below the big menu. Choose it to toggle the menu on and off just as before. If you select a thread from the menu, it comes up as with its own next scene in the new thread.

The last part of the scene page is at the bottom icon. If you choose that one, an OPTIONS menu opens with a link back to this page (Story List), a link to a survey page, a link to the author’s page, a link that reads MAKE ELM MARK, a link that reads SURPRISE ME, and a link that reads PUZZLE ME. I’ll let you figure out what these do, except to tell you that the ELM MARK choice reposts the link to the current scene page in the browser bar at the top in a format you can save as a kind of bookmark. If you want to quit and return to the place you were reading, use MAKE ELM MARK, save the reposted link, and just paste it back into the browser bar when you want to pick up again where you left off, same scene, same story.

You make this menu go away by choosing OPTIONS, and the bottom icon comes back.

So here’s the link to the main story and the madman who is telling it:

If none of this makes much sense, or you don’t want to start with a madman, you can look down below, choose a story thread, and it will open.

Thread Starting Point Links

FERDINAND’S ROAD: FERDINAND IN THE ARCHIVES Opening scene: The main story of DESCENDING ROAD, where we meet Ferdinand, Andrew, Ezzar, Jeddin, Marra, Arlen, and many others – every one of them entangled in the fate of the City and the planet.

ANDREW’S ROAD: FERDINAND AND THE SONG Opening scene: The story of an ordinary man, brought unknowingly as a child into a tangled world that tests him to his limits.

EZZAR’S ROAD: THE LAST ONE Opening scene: A woman’s life is destroyed — she finds her way out of rage and horror into hope.

JEDDIN’S ROAD: FERDINAND DRINKS Opening scene: Reality to this man is discontinuous and unending, and his inner secret leads him on a long chase.

MARRA’S ROAD: FUN WITH FEVER Opening scene: Her charity to a stranger throws her into a most-disturbing world.

ARLEN’S ROAD: THE GREEN OVOID Opening scene: Power and adventure are his to wield, and he does so without reckoning the consequences.

PYRO MAN: MA GETS A BURHOLM Opening scene: The City‘s drugs enslave him, until he finds the courage to face death.

LEJINA’S CHANGE: ON GRAND BEND STREET Opening scene: She travels the City streets in fear, and a bird lands on her shoulder to whisper words that take her on a giddy and horrific dance of transformation.

DERIZAN’S JOURNEY: THE WIND STOPPED ALTOGETHER Opening scene: Uprooted from his home and cast with his family into the wastes, he must save their lives and find his way to justice.

WEAVING INWARD: FERDINAND IN THE ARCHIVES Opening scene: Breaking free from addiction, this created person discovers secrets hidden from humankind for thousands of years.

DENG’S RIDE: THE LANGUAGE OF CITY WALLS Opening scene: A City resident unlocks tales concealed in plain sight — tales that can bring death, healing, or just laughter.

THE SIRATHEN ROAD: PILLARS OF TIME Opening scene: An appalling forest confronts a fugitive, forcing him to choose between a death sentence and a life in wood-shrouded darkness.

SULIMAR’S ROAD: SULIMAR Opening scene: His girlfriend abruptly deserts him for a former lover, and this man starts improvising a new life — with wild and wacky results.

DESCENT TO TARNUS: NO PLACE FOR TEARS TO FALL Opening scene: Asleep for millennia, he awakens to impending death, and finds a surprising existence in a new world beyond his imagination.

EX MURO: TO LAUGH AT THE MAN Opening scene: Escaping from thousands of years of prison, this creature in human form takes out his revenge, only to discover something far greater.

DANCE OF WAR: THE VAT Opening scene: Two lovers, driven to meet by violence and battle, force a bloody trail across Tarnus until at last death confronts each of them.

CITY STREET SCENES: JEDDIN Opening scene: Gran Dar, the mightiest subterranean City of Tarnus, shows the reader a tableau of its everyday life.

EATING, DRINKING, DANCING, AND MORE: FERDINAND IN THE ARCHIVES Opening scene: For the restless visitor, the City unfolds its explosive night life.

PARALLEL STRANDS: BETRAYAL AND DESERTION Opening scene: Andrew, pushed beyond his limits, tries to shift the branching of time.

A CITY TOUR: CITY INTRODUCTION Opening scene: The City Guide ainon of the Archives describes some of the City‘s characteristics.

STAR ROAD: Before The Story Opening scene: Getting to Tarnus took a long, long time – and most who started the journey died along the way.

BACK ALONG STAR ROAD: NOW THERE WILL BE Opening scene: Following the trail back from the beginnings of Tarnus leads us home – to an Earth made alien by our journey.

THE WEAVINGS OF TIME: FERDINAND IN THE ARCHIVES Opening scene: The stories of Descending Road lead in many directions, tangled in the fabrics of history, dream, and circumstance.