The Umbra Wars

If you had the pleasure of meeting Martha right this minute, you would think that she is a wonderful little old lady with an infectious smile and a warm heart. And you would be right in thinking that too. But what if I told you that this is not all she is, and that her vocation has been born from a necessity? One deeply rooted in the stubborn refusal of us humans to just be better! What if she tirelessly fights the umbra on your behalf to keep the consciousness of the world tipped in the favour of the Lumna? What if I told you that she is the most powerful Archimage this world has ever seen? And that she regularly wields her considerable power to manipulate the Supreme Elementals. Or that she faces the nefarious Quells to conquer their umbra through the restorative qualities of love and forgiveness. What if she works with the Illuminaries, and has her very own Luminant to help her fight these battles? What if she needs apprentices to carry on this most noble of professions here on earth? If you knew that you could change your thoughts, words or actions to significantly contribute to her efforts, what would you do differently today?

If you had the pleasure of meeting Martha right this minute, you would think that she is a wonderful little old lady with an infectious smile and a warm heart. And you would be right in thinking that too. But what if I told you that this is not all she is, and that her vocation has been born from a necessity? One deeply rooted in the stubborn refusal of us humans to just be better! What if she tirelessly fights the umbra on your behalf to keep the consciousness of the world tipped in the favour of the Lumna? What if I told you that she is the most powerful Archimage this world has ever seen? And that she regularly wields her considerable power to manipulate the Supreme Elementals. Or that she faces the nefarious Quells to conquer their umbra through the restorative qualities of love and forgiveness. What if she works with the Illuminaries, and has her very own Luminant to help her fight these battles? What if she needs apprentices to carry on this most noble of professions here on earth? If you knew that you could change your thoughts, words or actions to significantly contribute to her efforts, what would you do differently today?

"The attack of the French oil tanker suggests Al-Qaeda plans to weaken the petroleum industry by conducting sea-based attacks against large oil tankers." October 24, 2002, Transportation Security Information Report "Osama bin Laden has a 'terrorist navy' of 15 ships [to be used for] missions of destruction. Ship insurer Lloyd's of London is said to be helping MI6 and the CIA trace vessels bought by Al-Qaeda ." The Daily Mirror, February 12, 2004 On and off for the past 17 years, Charles P. Carriere III has been trying to get his Arab terrorism novel published. In June he sent the same letter to literary agents. "All you interested in [a] novel about the plot of wealthy Muslim fundamentalists to devastate the oil industry by running freighters ? Think of it, an insurance agent as a hero who suspects [a] plot using Lloyd's worldwide resources." Angus Lind column, The New Orleans Times Picayune, September 23, 2001 As you read Dupree's Crude War, which forecast events of today's global conflict, you'll wonder if the author is Nostradamus.

Despite the torrent of coverage devoted to war with Iraq, woefully little attention has been paid to the history of the region, the policies that led to the conflict, and the daunting challenges that will confront America and the Middle East once the immediate crisis has ended. In this collection, Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, coeditors of the acclaimed Gulf War Reader, have assembled essays and documents that present an eminently readable, up-to-the-moment guide -- from every imaginable perspective -- to the continuing crisis in the Gulf and Middle East. Here, in analysis and commentary from some of the world's leading writers and opinion makers -- and in the words of the key participants themselves -- is the engrossing saga of how oil economics, power politics, dreams of empire, nationalist yearnings, and religious fanaticism -- not to mention naked aggression, betrayal, and tragic miscalculation -- have conspired to bring us to the fateful collision of the West and the Arab world over Iraq. Contributors include: Fouad Ajami George W. Bush Richard Butler John le Carré Noam Chomsky Ann Coulter Thomas Friedman Al Gore Seymour Hersh Christopher Hitchens Arianna Huffington Saddam Hussein Terry Jones Robert Kagan Charles Krauthammer William Kristol Nicholas Lemann Kanan Makiya Kevin Phillips Kenneth Pollack Colin Powell Condoleezza Rice Arundhati Roy Edward Said William Safire Jonathan Schell Susan Sontag George Will

The Goblin Invasion Is On... ...and a wizard's work is never done! After facing a hopeless siege, an implacable foe and an impossible escape, you would think that Minalan the Spellmonger would be able to rest -- but the armies of the undead goblin shaman Sheruel (known as the Dead God to his human victims) are rolling over the western reaches of the rustic Duchy of Alshar and is headed toward the heart of the Duchy of Castal. Thousands are fleeing for their lives as hordes of goblins pour out of Boval Vale and devastate the rugged fiefs of the Alshari Wilderlands. And the super-charged shamans of the Dead God are making defending the realm almost impossible for the outnumbered Alshari country knights. While the two Dukes play feudal politics to further their own ends, the only people who seem to care about the invasion are Minalan and his outlaw warmagi friends -- and they're busy dodging agents of the sinister Royal Censorate of Magic. But if someone doesn't organize an army in northern Alshar soon, then there will be nothing to stop the armies of the divinely-powerful Dead God from conquering all five Duchies in his genocidal quest for vengeance. But things are just not that simple: he has to cope with a sexy young Shadowmage assassin who works for a mysterious spymaster, a cocky new manservant, a dysfunctional group of suddenly-powerful warmagi, the Censor General, and a bunch of whiny nobles before the Dukes will grant him the troops and money he will need -- and the Dukes have plans of their own. If Minalan the Spellmonger can't lobby the courts of Alshar and Castal to work together -- and quickly -- the hordes of the Dead God will sweep over the frontiers of both states. Worse, the mysterious Umbra veil he has erected around Boval Vale may come to imperil all Five Duchies. Minalan would rather just go home and let the Dukes handle it, but his conscience won't let him. Someone has to stop the Dead God . . . and that someone happens to be him. Beyond politics and plots, goblins and trolls, mercenaries and magic, the Soulless and the shamans, Censors and secret orders, for Minalan there is only the thought that his child is to be born in a world with such dangers, and that is something he cannot permit. It is time for the Spellmonger to pick up his mageblade, grab his witchstone, summon his allies, and go to war again . . . as a Warmage!

The War on Terror Narrative provides a longitudinal and holistic study of the formation, circulation, and contestation of the Bush administration's narrative about the "war on terror."

He was the king of the mercenary world, but he had fallen into a huge conspiracy ...

This was a world where tens of thousands of clans were established, and the strong were revered! The youth carried the Absolute Beginning Holy Body and awakened 720 types of forbidden energies. He appeared out of nowhere and swept through everything in his path, invincible under the heavens! As he raised his cup to boil the world, the stars vanished as he laughed and talked!

War and Rumors of War begins with the death of Carter Lung's wife Samantha, a close friend Marty and Carter's lawyer Greg Simon. A year after the death of his wife and friends he is asked to go on a special mission to eradicate a drug and weapons camp in Brazil led by the Russians and Cubans. Bill Eizen, the leader of the special operations group puts together a team of Carter's former Army Ranger buddies. Their mission succeeds but it also inadvertently causes a major nuclear confrontation among the world's super powers. A confrontation that no one wants, and one that all the nations try their utmost to prevent.

He had seized the nine dragons that defied the heavens! With the Lightning Perception surrounded, one's soul would be reincarnated, reborn into the body of the trash, Lei Nian. What? Cultivation genius? I have the Nine Dragons Stone! Unconvinced? Close the door, let loose thunder!