The Whistlers

CONTENTS, Book 1: A PARANORMAL INTRIGUE [I kill where I please because it is all mine. There is no sophistry in my body: My manners are tearing off heads. - Ted Hughes] Prologue: Chapters1 & 2 1) The Skull of Doom: Chapters 3-13 2) Nobles of the Mystic Shrine: Chapters 14-19 3) Lys No Z: Chapters 20-28 4) A New Skull: Chapters 29-37 5) An Arabesque of Motley: Chapters 38-47 6) Medicated Goo: Chapters 48-56 7) "Who Is Those Two Guys?": Chapters 57-66 8) No Second Troy: Chapters 67-71 9) The Society of Unknown Philosophers: Chapters 72-83 10)The X-Sacrificer: Chapters 84-94 **** PROLOGUE c. 12,000 BCE The mysterious Crystal Skulls are created, possibly by one of the earliest Native cultures of Mesoamerica, possibly on the lost continent Atlantis, and possibly even in another star system. Formed of quartz crystal, exquisitely worked, and anatomically natural, the thirteen originals are considered objects of power which will bring about a great change in the world if they are ever brought together. The world today is flooded with imitations, and there is no certainty that any are original. 10,014 BCE (Traditional Date) Atlantis, an island continent in the Atlantic Ocean said to have been the seed-culture of all civilizations in the Western Hemisphere, subsides quickly into the sea. Some suspect that its obliteration could have come in conflict with an Eastern civilization, the Rama Empire of India, whose traces remain as underwater ruins. It is conjectured that these ancient civilizations had technological achievement at least equal to that of contemporary ones, but using energy sources that were not combustion-based: solar power, weather control, ESP, bio-engineering, geophysics, sound technology, antigravity technology, and crystals. 4004 BC/3113 BCE (Traditional Possible Dates) On August 13 in what the cyclical Aztec calendar remembers as a One-Reed year, a bearded, light-skinned stranger from across the ocean touches down in Mexico, bringing new insights, new arts, and new technology. For the Aztec he was "Quetzalcoatl," "Feathered Serpent," and a figure like him is found in so many widely-separated Native American cultures that most ethnologists believe the legend has some basis in fact. This Quetzalcoatl, though - Kukulkan to the Maya - is an ambiguous character. In some traditions he is a transcendent figure, a solar-prophet-priest who teaches civility and compassion. In others, he is a sacrificer, a chthonic figure like so many other Mesoamerican deities. Some wonder if these are varying interpretations of the same character - or if there could have been more than one Quetzalcoatl. 1500 BC-400 BCE The presumed seed-culture for all Mesoamerica, the Olmec civilization surfaces, thrives, and lapses in the Yucatan Peninsula along the Gulf of Mexico. The Olmec were known for enigmatic artifacts including: "the Olmec heads," multi-ton carvings seeming to portray individuals of non-Native American ancestries, some of them dead ringers for Africans; evocative human statuettes suggesting an off-continent, possibly Asian influence; and depictions of the eerie, metamorphosing character called "the were-jaguar," a key figure of the still-mysterious Olmec religion showing human and animal features and often portrayed as an infant. 273 BCE Disgusted by the bloodshed in the last war he has won, the Emperor Ashoka of India founds the society of "The Nine Unknown Men," nine geniuses in varied disciplines whose original goals may have been to protect humanity's most advanced wisdom against the vagaries of history and societal collapse. Some assert that this order could still be operating, possibly under some or all of its original members who have mastered the secret of extended life. Others suppose that the society's manifestations in the world could sometimes be mistaken for those of a rival group suspected of being followers of the split-personed Hindu goddess Kali. 100-800 AD The pre-Incan Moche culture flowers along the coast of northern Peru and develops a sacrificial cult unparalleled in the Andes. Their pottery and temple murals feature a zoomorphic, blood-drinking god sometimes called "the X-Sacrificer" or "the Decapitator." c. 800 Alarmed by the misuse of the Crystal Skulls and aware due to prophecy of the coming of the Europeans, the Mesoamerican elders begin to acquire the Skulls and redistribute them about the American continents. 900-1400 The human skull emerges as both a motif and a symbol among Mesoamerican societies. It figures broadly in the imagery of all art forms as well as numerical systems and written characters. 950 As a young man, Gerbert d'Aurillac, the eventual Pope Sylvester II, spends time in India and returns to Europe with a divinatory object used to advise him for all his papacy. This strange artifact called "the magic head" disappears from history at his death. 1080 The small but influential society of Assassins is founded in northwestern Iran to protect the intelligentsia of the Nizari Ismailis, a branch of Shia Islam. While the key to their name is sometimes thought to be the word for the m*******a-derived substance hashish, the only thing clear is that some powerful drug experience was the focus of their initiations. 1099 The First Crusade takes Jerusalem. Upon discovering the ruins of Solomon's Temple, nine powerful French aristocrats appoint themselves the Temple's protectors and start rooting through the foundations. Shortly after finding something, these nine form the society of The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon ("Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici"). Fanatical warriors and eventually powerful bankers, this mostly French order is remembered as the Knights Templar. The Templars and their imitators adopt many Islamic symbols and traditions. 1250 The Assassins are dispersed and presumably eradicated by the Mongols. 1304 French King Philip IV ("the Fair") crushes the Poor Knights of Christ, the Crusader Order of Solomon's Temple. Legend holds that the surviving Knights Templar had some connection with the New World and may have been the first historic Europeans to establish bases in North America. The confessions forced by Philip IV's inquisitors include reports that the Templar rituals involved "Baphomet," some sort of idol resembling a human head. 1356 The Thuggee cult of robber/murderers forms in India and may eventually be responsible for two million deaths. Never a military order, the Thugs operate almost exclusively through subtlety, surprise, and infiltration. Their technique is strangulation, almost always with an innocuous-looking sash. 1519 The Spanish conquistador Hernan de Cortez lands on the Mexican coast on April 21, 1519, a One Reed year to the Aztec, and begins his conquest of the Aztec Empire. Because of the year of his landing and his exotic appearance, Cortez is initially mistaken for the legendary "Feathered Serpent" Quetzalcoatl, and the Aztec emperor Moctezuma is at first ready to return to him the throne he has held in trust. Ironically, the final surrender of the Aztec in their capital Tenochtitlan falls on August 13, the traditional day of Quetzalcoatl's Mexican touchdown. 1687 French Gouverneur the Marquis de Denonville launches a punitive expedition against Seneca villages along the Genesee River near today's Rochester, NY. The pivotal clash takes place at the town Gannogaro, which the French and allied forces sack and burn. While the goal of the mission is still debated, Gannogaro was the sanctuary and maybe the gravesite of the legendary figure called "the Peace Queen," a sort of secretary-general to a Native American United Nations of the Great Lakes. Still one of the Senecas' most holy places, Gannogaro is today preserved as the recreated community park called Ganondagan. 1700s In a mountain rain forest near Bambamarca, Peru, the Indios de Lomas have gotten along with all the overlords of their region, including the Moche, the Chimu, the Inca, and the supplanting Spaniards. Still, at some point in the 18th century, a number of their villages collapse under the pressure of the sudden appearance of mysterious beings that prey upon their young. The records do not specify whether this involves all children, the unborn, or the newborn. The villages empty, and the Lomas people leave the troublesome valley. 1830s With Native Indian allies, the British Empire suppresses the Cult of Thuggee. The Thugs were presumed worshippers of Kali, the Hindu Goddess in her dark form, but this does not explain all their actions or their apparent Islamic influences. 1893 American businessman Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) founds the Arts & Crafts Movement community Roycroft in East Aurora, NY. Still stereotyped as more of a showman than a scholar, Hubbard develops a campus of medievalesque buildings, a network of eclectic friends, and the folkloric reputation of an occultist, even a wizard. [To Be Continued...]