Skartaris
47 years ago - 4-year-old Machiste first begins receiving battle & strategy training as the future ruler of Kiro.
42 years ago - 15-year-old Deimos becomes an initiate in the Thera’s priesthood. Aram al Ashir is born in Skartaris, the younger son of the king of Kaambuku.
41 years ago - 10-year-old Machiste achieves mastery of his battle training. He ventures forth from Kiro to adventure across Skartaris. Ashiya poisons her teacher, stealing her strength as she dies, becoming the new Sorceress Supreme of Skartaris.
40 years ago - 4-year-old Tara first picks up a sword, learning the ways of battle from her father's soldiers.
35 years ago - 16-year-old Machiste becomes a sailor in a mercenary fleet.
34 years ago - 23-year-old Deimos is named high priest of Thera, the youngest in the city's history.
32 years ago - 12-year-old Tara, renown as a prodigy, has the best battle teachers in Skartaris vie for the right to teach her.
30 years ago - 27-year-old Deimos discovers the scrolls of blood, unlocking the ancient science of the Atlanteans that settled Skartaris.
29 years ago - 15-year-old Tara's father begins receiving suitors for her hand. Advisors to the crown all insist that she abandon her training, but she ignores them. Shakira is born in Skartaris, either a cat that can turn into a girl, or a girl that can turn into a cat.
28 years ago - 16-year-old Tara defeats all of her teachers at once, and is named the greatest warrior in all Skartaris. She begins to set out on adventures to test her mettle, often having to sneak away.
27 years ago - 30-year-old Deimos ascends to the throne of Thera with the power of the scrolls of blood. He begins broadening the reach of the Theran slave ships.
26 years ago - 25-year-old Machiste fights the slavers of Thera, recovering the lost treasure of the Kiro throne.
22 years ago - 29-yeat-old Machiste's ship is taken by slavers. He is sold as a galley slave.
21 years ago - 34-year-old Travis Morgan survives a missile attack while flying a reconnaissance mission with a specially outfitted SR-71 Blackbird. He bails over the north pole as his plain crashes, finding one of the rare openings into the trans-dimensional Hollow Earth, Skartaris. He encounters 23-year-old Tara, saving her from a Terrorsaur. He gives her his wristwatch, which she takes as a talisman. They are captured by the Theran forces of 36-year-old Deimos. He is sold into slavery, and meets 30-year-old Machiste as galley slaves. Tara is taken to Thera as a hostage. 21-year-old Aram al Ashir's older brother dies in a hunting accident, making him the new crown prince. He flees Kaambuku to become a minstrel & rogue.
20 years ago - 34-year-old Travis Morgan & 31-year-old Machiste are sold to a gladiator school, becoming two of the most infamous gladiators in Skartaris. When 37-year-old Deimos attends one of their tournaments, Morgan sees 24-year-old Tara in attendance, and Machiste is able to identify her as the princess of Shamballah. Morgan begins planning his rebellion. Tara rejects Deimos's advances, living as a prisoner in the Theran dungeon rather than his consort.
19 years ago - 36-year-old Travis Morgan & 32-year-old Machiste lead a rebellion against their slavers, building a Gladiator army. Morgan makes 12-year-old Aton, a pageboy, his herald, riding the land to share their dream of freedom for all. They take the city of Thera, freeing 25-year-old Tara and the other slaves. 38-year-old Deimos is cut down and killed by Morgan in their final battle, but his body is secretly taken by Ashiya. Machiste returns to Kiro.
18 years ago - 37-year-old Travis Morgan & 26-year-old Tara depart Thera for Shamballah. They assist a disguised Ashiya in recovering her people's lost artifact, the Mask of Life. She uses it to bring Deimos to a state of living undeath, intent on manipulating him and absorb his death energy so that she can ascend in power. Unable to survive in the constant sunlight of Skartaris, Deimos creates Castle Deimos, a hidden lair that magically transports itself through the shadowlands. Discovering the lost ancient technology of Atlantis, Morgan is separated from Tara, and while drugged he communes with a nameless Atlantean Death Goddess who names him her most loyal servant. He arrives in Shamballah through the ancient computers below the city, reuniting with Tara and discovering that she has born his son, who they name Joshua Morgan. 33-year-old Machiste finds and claims a magical ax, and is corrupted by the demon possessing the artifact, becoming unwilling to let go of the ax. He begins to build up the military of Kiro, intending to begin a campaign of conquest.
17 years ago - 38-year-old Travis Morgan & 27-year-old Tara's son 1-year-old Joshua Morgan is stolen from his bed by a resurrected Deimos and hidden in Castile Deimos. Morgan & Tara quest across Skartaris to find him. They recover the Hellfire Gem. In Kiro, they find that 34-year-old Machiste has been corrupted by an evil ax. Recognizing the evil influence of the artifact, Morgan cuts off his hand, freeing him from his curse. Repentant of his corruption and needing to reclaim his sense of self, he fits a spiked mace prosthetic over his lost hand and joins their quest.
16 years ago - 39-year-old Travis Morgan, 28-year-old Tara & 35-year-old Machiste find Deimos's hidden lair. Deimos magically grows a clone of 2-year-old Joshua Morgan to adulthood and compels him to attach his father, forcing Morgan to fight and kill his son. Ashiya steals the true Joshua and gives him to a woodsman's family to raise in a ploy to deprive Deimos of a pawn. Morgan cuts Deimos in half and knocks his body off a cliff, assuming him dead, but the Mask of Life sustains him as a broken monster. Knowing the blood of his killer will allow him to regrow his body, he begins to magically summon anyone with Travis Morgan's blood. unknowingly begins to effect 12-year-old Jennifer Morgan on the surface through her own magical sensitivity. Heartbroken, Morgan departs to wander the land alone while Tara returns to Shamballah & Machiste returns to Kiro. 26-year-old Aram al Ashir finds evidence of a hidden temple with a vast treasure. He joins a mercenary band to steal their ship.
15 years ago - 40-year-old Travis Morgan travels into the magical tombs of the ancient Atlanteans. He finds the Hellfire Blade.
14 years ago - 41-year-old Travis Morgan first saves 15-year-old Shakira from trolls. She begins to follow him, becoming his new travel companion. They fall in with a mercenary band, and rescue hapless rogue 28-year-old Aram al Ashir, agreeing to help him hunt for a hidden temple with a supposed secret treasure. 30-year-old Tara's father abdicates the throne, and she is crowned the new Queen of Shamballah. Her advisors constantly vie to find her a husband, but she rejects them all, believing that Morgan will one day return.
13 years ago - 42-year-old Travis Morgan & 29-year-old Aram al Ashir are enslaved by a hidden civilization of Snake People. They escape with the help of 16-year-old Shakira, fleeing the undercity. Ashir reveals that he is the lost prince of Kaambuku, and returns to his home to take his crown. Deimos follower Faaldren becomes his constant attendant, maintaining Castle Deimos and bringing him what he needs to sustain his undeath.
12 years ago - 43-year-old Travis Morgan witnesses the Theran army marching toward Shamballah. He warns the surrounding villages of the coming threat with the help of a woodsman, not realizing that he is the adopted father of his son 6-year-old Joshua Morgan. He uses a cache of ancient Atlantean weapons found by 17-year-old Shakira to break the siege of Shamballah saving 32-year-old Tara and it's people. He almost succumbs to the corruption of the Hellfire Blade, casting it aside. He becomes the Queen's consort. 39-year-old Machiste enters an arranged political engagement with the princess of Drakmeer. Joshua's adopted family is killed during the Theran siege of Shamballah. He moves into the city with the refugees of the war.
9 years ago - 19-year-old Jennifer Morgan & 34-year-old Mariah Romanova set sail for the North Pole and find an entrance into Skartaris. They are attacked and captured by Theran slavers. Mariah is able to escape, and finds her way to Shamballah, and tells 46-year-old Travis Morgan that his daughter is lost in Skartaris. Morgan, Mariah, 42-year-old Machiste & 18-year-old Shakira ride off to find and save her. Jennifer is found by Faaldren and brought to Castle Deimos so her blood can sustain the rejuvenating Deimos., allowing him to regrow his body. Ashiya sense Jennifer's magical sensitivity and begins to train her to become an apprentice, intent on using her against Morgan, unaware that Jennifer is secretly beginning to master her own sorcery. 9-year-old Joshua is chosen by thieves guild from the war orphan refugees in Shamballah for his speed and cleverness, becoming a pickpocket and sneakthief.
8 years ago - 47-year-old Travis Morgan, 35-year-old Mariah Romanova, 43-year-old Machiste & 19-year-old Shakira assist 34-year-old Aram al Ashir in retaking a Kaambuku outpost held by the Snake People. When Shakira is killed in battle, Morgan follows her into the realm of the nameless Atlantean Death Goddess, and trades 10 years of his lifespan to save her, forever bearing an X on his chest to show her claim. They are joined by the herald 23-year-old Aton. Machiste & Mariah become lovers. 20-year-old Jennifer Morgan befriends Faaldren, the caretaker of Castle Deimos.
7 years ago - 48-year-old Travis Morgan, 36-year-old Mariah Romanova, 44-year-old Machiste, 20-year-old Shakira & 24-year-old Aton find the restored castle Deimos. Aton is killed in the assault, but they breach the castle, where they confront the resurrected Deimos, whose follower Faaldren turns on him, allowing Morgan to finally, truly kill him. Ashiya attempts to absorb the death energy of Deimos to ascend in power, but she is stopped by 21-year-old Jennifer Morgan, who defeats the Witch & claims the mantle of Sorceress Supreme, and Castle Deimos for her own. Morgan returns to Shamballah, and to 37-year-old Tara. Machiste returns to Kiro and his fiancé, as Mariah begins to travel Skartaris as an adventurer, exploring the history of ancient Atlantis.
5 years ago - 50-year-old Travis Morgan is the victim of a coup, attacked inside the walls of Shamballah, placed in an iron mask in the dungeon and replaced with a doppelganger. He is visited by Tinder, a street thief (whose mentor in the thieves guild, Darvin, is part of the conspiracy) and tells him stories of the surface world. Tinder frees Morgan and he kills his doppelganger and reclaims his place as the queen's consort. Tinder reveals that he has Morgan's watch talisman, and that he is Morgan & 39-year-old Tara's lost son 13-year-old Joshua Morgan.
4 years ago - 47-year-old Machiste & 39-year-old Mariah Romanova reconnect when she comes to Kiro.
People of Skartaris
If you're building a whole new DC Continuity, you'd be doing yourself a massive disservice to overlook Mike Grell's Warlord series. This was a huge seller in the late seventies and early 80s, carrying the banner for sword and sorcery comics for a good long while. Other fantasy stories have bopped up of course (long-term readers will know I'm a particular fan of Amethyst), but Warlord was epic in a way that I think most comics ASPIRE to be. The fact that this was all meant to be literally happening in the same universe as DC Proper (right under their feet!) is a pretty big ask, but you honestly just have to find a way to make this work, because it is some of the most robust storytelling comics has to offer. Also, everyone is practically naked all the time.
|
Skartaris's Comic HistorySkartaris is an invention of Mike Grell, who developed the concept and both wrote and drew the comic for the bulk of it's run. It appeared for the first time in 1975 in Issue #8 of 1st Issue Special, then transitioned to it's own book, The Warlord, which ran for 133 issues (weathering the Crisis), until 1988. Grell is very openly inspired by his favorite childhood book, Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, but he's also talked about being influenced by Prince Valliant, Tarzan, and other Hollow Earth stories like The Smokey God & Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar novels. The concept, very simply, is that the Earth is hollow, with an energy source (tiny sun) at it's center, and Skartaris is the fantasy lands that occupy the planet's inner surface.
Grell's vision of a hollow Earth is a massive undertaking, and also allowed for nearly limitless storytelling potential, as he basically gave himself an entire planet's surface area to build up into a giant fantasy landscape. He seemed perfectly willing to draw from every possible corner of fantasy fiction, depicting sword and sandal Grecian gladiatorial pits right alongside fanciful gnomes and fairies, Lost civilizations of technological marvels right next to high seas pirates. Sometimes his willingness to leap from one idea to the next at such a breakneck speed left very little room for the reader to get their bearings, but taken as a whole it's a wildly impressive piece of worldbuilding. |
|
Grell only drew the first 58 issues, and in fact the series was ghost-written by Sharon Wright in issues #53 through #71, but it's still remarkable just how much this series remains such a clear, singular vision for its entire duration. Plots resolve, the world moves on from one crisis to the next, but the world always feels exactly like it did when first imagined, and that's a real feat.
As the story goes on, we find out that much of the surface of Skartaris is built up over the ruins of ancient Atlantean technology. The Atlanteans, fleeing the destruction and sinking of their home, fled to the Hollow Earth and built a massive technologically advanced civilization, but eventually destroyed themselves in war, and the survivors (who didn't devolve into the many animal-like tribes) reverted back to more primitive lifestyles. Also? Pretty much everyone, man or woman, is wearing a bikini, all the time. |
|
|
Our Skartaris StorySo... bad news first. The actual Earth in our project can't be hollow. I know, I'm as mad about it as you are. We did go back and forth about it quite a bit, because it's such a fun concept and this whole THING is fictional, so why not? Ultimately it just felt, for US, that it strained credibility too far.
Still, that said, We think it's kind of important that this is more than just another of the many fantasy landscapes that populate the Paths Beyond, like Gemworld or Myrra. It needs to, for all intents an purposes, be a magical nexus that does actually occupy the interior of the planet, just not physically. This actually tracks with canon, believe it or not, as in the 2010 series when new characters found their way into Skartaris, it was through magical barriers and portals. There is of course a LOT of content in the ongoing Warlord series, and while I think we managed to put quite a bit of it into our story, we probably stopped somewhere around the halfway mark of the series. What we did take we reshuffled quite a bit, mostly to give the major events more space to breath, because Grell really did love to rocket his way from one storybeat to the next, and we all agreed that this sort of fantasy epic is best told as a marathon, rather than as a sprint. If nothing else, I hope that this might intrigue enough to inspire someone to reach back and read some of the early issues of this really one-of-a-kind comic story. Also there is so much cheesecake, you don't even know. |