Telling Tales - Ishtar Legends by brewgirlca
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Ishtar, Ninshubar, Enki and Isimud retire to a poolside groto to hear the tale of Alora. Ninshubar's dragons, Nasim and Elfida amuse themselves teasing Enki's old Abyssinian cat in the cool night air while the group quaffs cups of strong Summerian beer. Ishtar starts the story:
At first when we got to Lagash, we followed my plan and fought our way to the throne room. As you know I only wanted to capture Sargon and show him he was making a big mistake attacking the temples of the Sumerian Gods.
Then we lost track of Alora. She always had other plans for Sargon, given that he had killed her parents, you know. She wanted revenge.
She headed to the throne room on her own. Lagash being her home she knew of a secret entrance.
The Akkadian priestess, Enheduanna, who was also Sargon's daughter, had convinced her father to flee but it was out the same passage that Alora was coming in!
So when Enheduanna opened the secret door Alora turned herself into a cat chimera and leaped on Sargon!
Unbelievable!
Yes, it was amazing. We had no idea she had the power. Ishtar and I were outside the main entrance to the throne room and we could hear this awful cat-fight screeching. Alora screeched out her name and her intent to kill Sargon.
Sargon was yelling back and we could hear this awful battle going on, Sargon roaring in anger and pain and Alora calling him a dog and swearing she was gonna kill him.
Then we heard Sargon pleading with Enheduanna to invoke his patron God, Ishtar's brother Sin. At first she refused but when she saw he was about to die she raised him.
Ninshubar and I broke into the throne room just as Sin materialized. He immediately attacked Alora but I blew him away with two massive energy bolts from my swords.
My Gods, Ishtar, you killed your brother Sin?
No Isimud, I only, oh, let's just say I vaporized his material being-temporarily of course.
Ishtar burned his butt!
Yes, well. That left Sargon and Alora to fight it out. Sargon realized he was losing and pleaded for his life. But Alora would give him no quarter. She slashed his throat and mortally wounded him, but as he fell he managed to break her neck. It looked like they were both dead.
It was a terrible mess.
Nothing worked like we had planned. Ishtar blamed herself for letting Alora come on such a dangerous raid.
And Ninshubar blamed herself for supporting Alora's desire to join us. And poor Enheduanna, who ironically was my priestess in Lagash, had just lost her father. It was really bad.
I'll say. What an awful bloody mess you two were in!
But then Ishtar got this idea. I had no idea what she was going on about. I thought she was just whacking crazy with grief at first! She had me carry Alora to Utu's sun temple while she helped Enheduanna carry her father to the same place. We laid each of them out on a stone slab. I thought it was a total waste, they were both dead. I was so angry at Sargon.
What did you do Ishtar?
Comments (33)
brewgirlca
I had a plan, a really slim and desperate plan. I quickly went and got my beloved brother Utu and asked him for his help. I needed him to go and talk to Sin, who I had just wasted, and convince him to help the two of us raise enough energy to resurrect both Alora and Sargon before they saw their reflections in Ereshkigal’s eyes. With all our power, the Earth, the Sun and the Moon, I thought we might be able to save these two warriors who had bravely died fighting for their beliefs. At the temple Ishtar told Enheduanna and me that we were gonna raise the spiritual energy to save those two. I’m thinking this is totally nuts; Alora and Sargon are dead, they’re Ereshkigal’s now. But I told them no, they had to have faith in me. And then I told them that Ninshubar must attend to Sargon and Enheduanna must attend to Alora! Boy oh boy, did they both go ballistic or what? We did! Ha! Of course! But I told them it would only work if they could cast off their hatreds. They had to have compassion for their enemies. They had to forgive unconditionally. We had no choice. We put our faith in Ishtar and took our positions. I just focused on letting go. Then all three of us, plus Utu and Sin, combined our energies. It was explosive! Alora and Sargon were already on their way to the underworld, but at the gates they were stopped by Ereshkigal's vizier, Belili. She would not take them to meet Ereshkigal! They could not believe it! Belili asked Alora if she has not heard Enheduanna calling her name and Sargon if he had not heard Ninshubar? They both said they had but assumed they were being cursed. Naturally. Then Belili asked where were their wounds? They looked and found they were healed! Belili said: If you come to Ereshkigal wounded she will gladly keep you wounded. Ereshkigal is just, but she is not a healer. If you are healed then it is the work of Ishtar. She sent them back. So we got them back, both of them! And boy was Sargon ever surprised to find himself embraced by Ninshubar and Alora could not believe she was in the arms of Enheduanna! Hahaha! Amazing! I would have loved to have seen that! Yes, it was beautiful and sad and we were all laughing and crying at the same time. Then Sargon stepped up and took ownership of his error in attacking the temples of Sumer, but he was confused at how he could accept the Gods of both Sumer and Akkad and how we could be one? How could I be the Akkadian Goddess of war and the Sumerian Goddess of Love? Then I said, you are both a warrior and, being a father, also a lover. So why cannot a Goddess like Ishtar also be both? Sargon got it! He understood there is room on earth to see our many faces. His faith, his view, was not the only path to the Goddess. Then we asked Alora why she needed to wage war to solve her problems? Why go to war for revenge in the name of faith? Enheduanna, who served both the Gods of Akkadia and Sumer, talked her way through how it is possible that many people can see the same divine, each in their own way and that the many paths to truth can come from the same source. Enheduanna is an amazing woman! She did a great job of enlightening Alora! She made Alora understand that all religious wars are about the blind intolerance of closed minded men! That people’s path to enlightenment can take many routes; there is no sense in fighting wars over faith. So what happened to Alora? Where is my Granddaughter? Alora decided to stay with Enheduanna; her home has always been Lagash. Together they are working to unite the faiths of the Sumerian and Akkadian people. Fantastic you two! I could not be more happy or proud. So I have not lost a Granddaughter? No Grandfather, but you have gained another enlightened being - although a half human one. I'll drink to that! Now you two take your baths and then let’s celebrate the beginning of a new era! To Alora! To Alora!
brewgirlca
I am going to have a lot of trouble continuing this series if Renderosity does not wake up and expand the size of our text entry box. If you love the artists such as myself (and I imagine Rayvn and Arthur) who are telling tales, PLEASE, write to the admins and ask for the boxes to be expanded. It is impossibly difficult to get my 2-3 pages of text done properly in these miserable little boxes. Things will not change if we do not ask and complain.
tommorules
I thought it was my PC JAVA update today that had messed with the box size.... guess not. Simple interim solution would be to write your story in another app (Word, email, even notepad!), then copy and paste it when happy. Best, Steve
Faemike55
Fantastic work on the image and the story. Nice little recount of the adventures. I agree with you on the size of these boxes.
brewgirlca
Tommo - that's what I do but Renderosity reformats paragraphs and all punctuation, which must then be edited... in the tiny boxes.
Tracesl
Excellent - great chapter
SidheRoseGraphics
This is a gorgeous image Roxy. Everything about it is superb! As Mike noted, it's a wonderful recount of their previous adventures and brings everyone up to date. I noticed they toned the white down a bit with some greyish masks and helps some, but I completely agree with you about the text boxes! They're ridiculous. And then they went and put a slider bar on the bottom of the text box, which actually makes it worse because everything keeps shifting...not to mention the issue with the reformating. I noticed that as well. I also type my stories in wordpad and then paste them. This box takes up a 1/4 of the space here. The rest is wasted.
eekdog
superb story and the image is filled with great things to observe Roxy, love your style hon.
vyktohria
You know what I just noticed (literally, like a couple of gallery comments ago)? In the bottom right corner of the text box is a little dotted triangle that lets you resize the box. I know it should default to a normal size, but until it's fixed, just try expanding that little triangle...Makes it sooooo much easier to read & write. :)
ArtistKimberly
Wonderful Work,
RodS
A wonderful refresher on a beautiful tale - one our modern cultures could learn much from. And on top of that, a magnificent work of art to support the story. Magnificent, Roxy - and that (like any words I can come up with) falls far short of what this deserves! As I understand it, the final 'tweaks' including the narratve / comment text boxes have not been completed yet - so I'm assuming they will be addressed in the next few days. I hope... I'm a bit rusty on my HTML, but when I do updates to my website (and I need to....), I check it - on IE, Firefox, and Chrome - BEFORE it goes live.... I have to wonder if Rendo's web designers ever consider doing that...
shrinkers
Great image, and another wonderful Ishtar story! YAY!
FaeMoon
I have to agree with Rod. I Have never, ever done a website that I didn't have on my computer and then load up into several browsers to check to see how it looked before I published it. Any changes were always verified there first. I still had a few 'ooops' moments, but they were few and far between. The way Rendo is going about this seems so on the fly, I have to wonder at the process. Beautiful story, and the illustration speaks of comeraderie and good times. I wish I had the beer, atm. LOL
barryjeffer
This scene and your tale are amazing Roxy... beautiful, the both. I've found that by clicking and dragging the little arrow in the lower right corner, you can expand the box a great deal. Awesome work my dear friend.
magnus073
What a sensational chapter in the story Roxy, you truly are a master of your craft. I'll be sure and write Rendo to let them know you need more space in the text box for your story. I think that is a reasonable request
renecyberdoc
yeah i just posted in the forum. in firefox it works ok i can expand the box. but this is not true for internet explorer. i dont know about other browsers. oh yeah someone wrote me in opera its working fine as well.we get there roxy be patient lol.
MineFujiko
Beautiful and Delightful render, Roxy-sensei! love poses of the left girl. So sexy!
3dpoetry
Awesomely detailed scene, love the expressions
Cyve
Very beautiful scene and great composition... wonderfully done!!!
Ash888
Hey Roxy great to see a continuation on this series. I admire the way you make the stories come to life along with getting your point accross :-) Another option to the box would be to just put in the first paragraph and add a link to a .pdf you upload somwhere in a web domain. There you could include the image in the beginning of the pdf and have the whole chapter underneath to present both together. Blessings Ash
drifterlee
Fantastic scene and posing!!!!!
Seaview123
Nice job on this scene! Great work.
adrie
Amazing cool image Roxy, superb work in every way....love it.
GrandmaT
Excellent work in both art and story.
Dreamdesigner
Just,Outstanding story and supporting render work my friend! I can see your talents again,Also the place that they chatting, is really beautiful:-)))Totally magnificent Art Roxy:-)))) As for the text entry box;I think you mention about the Rendo uploading pages text entry box,If I didn't mistake,there's no Max.Character limit, I tried but couldn't enlarge that box today,I use Mozilla but, this happens now,While My previous uploading process,I Wasn't encounter with this kind of problem before!?It seems, we need to corresponding Rendo admins!...
adorety
I remember well the previous images documentig this part of the story and this is a great summary and re-telling of the event. Really fantastic setting. I love the soft and misty atmosphere and all the detail that is part of your art. All those subtle details add so much to the image. Great costuming and great poses and expressions. The play of light and shadow is exquisite. I really hate these little boxes too. It makes editing nearly impossible. I use the free 'Open Office' software to write, then transfer that to note pad. In notepad I space the paragraphs. I don't use quotation marks in my writing anymore, because they can't be translated here, but I use to change the quotes to apostrophes in notepad. I've only posted one story in this little box so far, but I had to preview to really proofread therefore adding yet another step and work. I guess it will make me doubly attentive to the initial write. At Deviant Art, there are no major limits, in image size or word count and $30 a year to have that is a small price to pay in my mind. I have a strong feeling we're stuck with this.
pregiato
Excellent composition and great characters.Well done.
vitachick
Excellant render and as usual your postwork is awesome!! Great story!! Use IE so a few problems with the new rendo pages.
JuliSonne
The picture is just as wonderful as the story magical. I'm amazed where you hernimmst the time to create much. You really are very creative. Rendo your wish has apparently not yet heard ... shame! Maybe would also other user to like to write their thoughts...
nefertiabet
Wonderful scene and story my friend!!!