There appear to be fewer than four copies of the following remaining online, all of which are difficult to locate. So rather than let this die I am archiving it here. Elf Sternberg has never posted any of these notes to his website, and many of them are clearly now inaccurate. As such I have included a list of known inaccuracies after each section rather than editing the text itself. More information on these changes might be found in the Journal Entries trivia. This information is still largely relevant and gives some more background to the Journal Entries. A more current look at the Journal Entries by Elf himself can be found behind the Journal Entries. All emphasis and links are were added. Anything that's blockquoted is a paste, anything that isn't is my addition.
This particular copy of the document is based on that found at http://www.ultrapasswords.com/stories/Secret_Journals/NOTES.TXT.
Archive-name: JourEntr/notes.txt
Archive-author: compiled by Anthony J. Albert
Archive-title: Journal Entries - A Compiled Commentary, Bibliography, Glossary
Recently, there have been several requests for more background information about the Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik,
mainly concerning vocabulary and what the story plot lines are. So I
have compiled a series of excerpts from the occasional administrivia
files that Elf has posted.
For each post, I have taken the liberty of editing out much of the
posting information - what was yet to be posted, etc. - because it
is out of date with this fresh reposting. If anyone is interested, I
have the complete postings available on request. Just send mail to:
=======================================================================
Anthony J. Albert |Usenet is distributed network anarchy
|at its best--or worst, depending on
ajalbert@watson.eece.maine.edu |what is posted on any perticular day.
io00038@maine.maine.edu | --David Fielder in _Byte_
=======================================================================
Enjoy, and I hope this makes at least a few things clearer in this
(IMHO) excellent series of stories.
- Anthony J. Albert
[Editor's Note]
The next segment is from the 'Journal Entry Administrivia',
posted 24 Sep 1991
[Noder's Note]
The following is a 1991 version of and is obsoleted by the Journal Entries FAQ.
The first question is usually "What is all this?"
Welcome to "The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., and Related Tales," a now 55 or so story-long chronicle of the life and
loves of Ken Shardik, whose actual job would be almost impossible to explain. It is set in a science fiction universe not unlike our own,
and spans at this point a period in time from approximately Terran 1883
to Terran 3030.
The stories are mine (Elf's) and I write them for the fun of it.
If you don't like them, that's fine; if you have trouble figuring them
out, stick with 'em and they might become clearer. Never know. I've
been writing them as a series for three years now, although the orignal
Entries date as far back as November 1983.
The second question is usually "What the Hell is the xxx / yyyy"
format?
The date! The first number is the number of days since the New Year, and the second number is the year itself. I keep my archives in a
YYYY.DDD format. There are 292 days in a Pendorian year. (Oh, yeah,
the homering is named "Pendor." The star is "Pin." There's also one
planet in orbit, "Pandora." It provides a place for people to go watch
sunsets and suffiecent gravity to produce tidal effects. Work it out
yourself... As long as Pendor and Pandora are in the same plane, Pendor
does NOT exert a sum total gravity vector in any direction on Pandora).
The third question is "Is there any explanation for all of this?"
No. The stories speak for themselves.
The fourth question is "Are there any FTP sites for The Journal
Entries?"
Not that I know of. Any FTP site containing material of an adult
nature becomes so swamped with requests that it quickly shuts down. And
my 'net access consists of a 1meg Amiga with two floppies... please
don't ask me for copies. I would if I could...
These stories often feature very non-vanilla scenes. Homosexual
sex, Sadmasochism/Sexmagic, and alien partners abound in these stories.
Quite often in the past I have been chastised for posting bondage, gay,
or more "bestial" scenes to alt.sex when there are "appropriate"
newsgroups for them.
I enjoy much of what I write about; some I have only witnessed,
much I have participated in. It is all sexual; it all belongs in
alt.sex. I will not ghetto my stories to one audience, or one
newsgroup, because someone out there thinks it's nappropriate. So
anyone who was concerned last time need not be; all the Journal
Entries will be posted to alt.sex.
Comments and questions are encouraged; I don't get paid for this, I do it for fun. The only way I know if I'm doing well is to get feedback from my audience. So write me! My address is:
sumax!halcyon!elf
or
halcyon!elf@seattleu.edu
- Elf Sternberg
Many inaccuracies, Only provided for historical reference. See the Journal Entries FAQ for more recent information with a known inaccuracy list.
[Editors Note]
The following was taken from "Journal Entries -Commentary, Bibliography,
and Glossary, posted 22 Apr 1991
(Yes, I know these are not in chronological order, but I felt that
there was more continuity in this arrangement.)
[Noder's Note]
I do not believe this was composed by Elf, because in 1993 he stated he had not assembled any sort of a glossary.
SOME VOCABULARY:
- AI
- Artificial Intellegence.
- Angwurth
- "iron death," cancer.
- Ceep
- From CP, Cyberpathic, able to interface with a computer without additional hardware.
- Centaur
- traditional Centaur.
- Coimelin
- Mate, lit. "Love of my life"
- Eldarfaroth
- (left as an exercise to the reader)
- ELF
- eldar-los-faunos, the holographic image an AI uses to represent hirself in public. lit, "ghost of an elf."
- Felinzi
- The smaller of the two feline species.
- Gerion
- A semi-feline race with serpentine lower torsos.
- Markals
- Anthropomorphized rodents.
- Mephits
- Anthropomorphized skunks.
- Mustel
- Anthropomorphized ferrets.
- Nanobiotics
- A specific variety of nanotech for medical purposes.
- Nano-proph
- Birth control-oriented nanotech
- PADD
- Personal Access to Data Display
- Pallaeon Elen
- lit "To the farthest star."
- Pandora
- A planet circling within the orbit of Pendor.
- Pin
- The sun of Pendor
- Pindam
- The moon of Pandora.
- SAE
- Solid Artificial Ergasythesis, a technique of powering nanotech from radiant sources.
- Satryl
- A feline satyr-like species.
- SDisk
- Teleporter platform
- Securor
- A variety of combat-oriented robot.
- Shirow
- A variety of powered armor.
- SSphynx
- A feline hexaped, or Cat-centaur.
- Tindals
- A blue-furred humanoid species with tentacular manipulators.
- TDisk
- A simple conveyance, a self-propelled tray.
- Teek
- from TK, Telekinetic
- Tellakelvar
- lit "The Last, The First To Run"
- Tleil
- Any animal grown in a tank.
- Unczia
- The larger of the two feline species.
- Valturme
- "Powered Armor"
- Vatare
- "Father", hence Vava: "Daddy"
- Vy Dul Moria
- "Head with a Hole," Empty-headed, stupid.
- White's Theorem
- "A space-faring species' first encounter with another space-faring species is most likely to be a distress signal."
Species Notes:
Centaurs, developed and decanted in the year 0000. The first two
Centaurs were Paul and Carroll Lewis. They are classical centaurs, and
as such have a native language of Greek.
Humans. Year 0003. Standard.
Felinzi. Year 0006. A light-weight Feline race, with a muted muzzle
and a wide variety of fur patterns. Traditional Felinzi names consists
of a first name prefixed with the first phenome of the family (or clan)
name.
Unczia. Year 0008. The heavier feline race, averaging over 2.5
meters tall, covered in a grey, shaggy pelt. A design flaw gives them
poor body-temperature maintainence; before this was corrected the
majority of Unczia had established themselves in two climatorial belts
running the circumferance of Pendor. These lands have become extremely
valuable, and yearly physical competitions for the right to hold land in
the UCZ have become traditional, with the land closest to the Vinyare' Ocean being the most sought-after.
Tindals. Year 0049. A less classical species, Tindals are
blue-furred humanoids averaging about 175 cm. The fur color averages
from light blue to deep indigo, although many Tindals have splotches of
fur with no tinting to them whatsoever, making them white. More rare is
a light grey coloring, and exceptionally rare is gold streaking. After
the fur color, the most striking characteristic of Tindals is that
rather than lever-hinge elbows, Tindals have supple tentacles slightly
longer than human arms, ending in a large pad with opposoble thumb.
This pad has no bones, so is extremely supple and variable in geometry.
Although this makes them physically weak as a species, this is made up
for somewhat by the fact that they evolved into a pre-existing
technological base, and by their telepathic abilities, which are the
strongest of any Pendorian species. Other characteristics include
solidly-colored eyes, ranging from deep brown, through green and yellow
and blue, and their exceptionally large ears, which stick straight up
from the sides of the head. Some Tindals have a slight bend to the tips
of their ears.
Satryl. A semi-feline humanoid race, they are relatively
indistinguishable from Humans when fully dressed. Undressed, however,
from the hips down the legs have a distinctly feline appearance,
becoming thinner and stronger, with an even more feline foot than
Felinzi have. A fine, dense fur runs up the back and sometimes exhibits
itself as far as the cheeks of some individuals. The most common fur
coloring pattern is a greyish-white shot through with orange and the
common black circle-and-ring pattern most often assiciated with
cheetahs.
Dolphin. Traditional.
Mephits. Year 0103. A more traditional anthropomorphosis of the
common Skunk.
Ssphynx. Year 111. A hexapedal feline race, i.e. Cat Centaurs. A
rather reserved and private species.
Dragons. Year 118. Traditional, and not quite all-organic.
Dragons can reproduce normally, but the mechanisms of reproduction are
accompanied by a symbiotically linked nanotech mechanism.
Markals. Year 122. Averaging 155 cm in height, Markals are a
rodentine species. Although classically thought of as 'nervous,'
Markals are actually quite calm.
Geryon. Year 116. A feline race with a large, fur-covered
serpentine base rather than legs.
Pamthreats. Year 575. Technically, there were originally only two
Pamthreats, although by accident these two formed a gestalt personality
and are known collectively only as 'Karri.' Since I haven't written
anything beyond Karri's mere existance, I'm leaving the future of her
species up in the air.
Mustels. Averaging less than 100 cm, the Mustels are the smallest
of the Pendorian species. Anthropomorphized ferrets.
- unknown
the Gerion and Tellakelvar species no longer exist in any story.
Unczia have been renamed Uncia.
Pamthreats are now a fully developed species. There are two versions however - sentient and non-sentient. If my memory serves me, Ken says at some point that making the non-sentient Pamthreats was one of his worst mistakes. Most sentient Pamthreats rely use of "Hands", small gravitic devices controled through implanted brace hardware (I think), for tactile manipulation.
[Editors Note]
Here a long section relisting all titles to date was deleted.
And now the part that more or less belongs on alt.angst, but I'm
putting here for archival reasons. Why I started writing the Journal
Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik. Skip it unless you're real curious.
I started writing the Journal Entries down in 1981. At the time, I
was at a very elite boarding school in Pennsylvania, the kind where I
had to wear a tie and go to chapel daily. Daydreaming was my major
source of escape. Especially since at the time I was going through a
major depression, being 1800 miles from home and family. At the time,
that seemed important.
It all came to head on Thanksgiving, 1982, when I was stuck there
for the holiday. By this time I had copious notes on characters,
situations, a few scrawled maps, just to keep my fantasies straight. 'S
funny how badly I wanted continuity. But I wasn't writing them down,
not in any real way. Just keeping track of names and dates.
But I was depressed, and that day, even the daydreams didn't help.
I had created this character who was so much better off than I was, so I
could escape into his world when I was in a bad mood, but it just wasn't helping. I guess if I'd wanted to identify more strongly with him, I
could have given us the same first name, but I didn't.
I can't explain what happened then. But I started talking to Ken, arguing with him. I guess I went just a little crazed. It finally came down to "Well, if you're not going to make me feel better, I'm going to make you feel worse!"
At the time I had a character in my fantasies named "Donna," although everybody called her "Hyzen." (The name is left as an exercise for the reader). Shardik was very much in love with her, in a fatherly way, because she was the firstborn of Carroll, Shardik's firstborn Centaur, and about whom Ken has more than a few hangups. The fantasies about Donna were completely non-sexual; they were about the simpler things in life I wasn't being given because I had to be, well, 'preppie.'
That afternoon I wrote down the first Journal Entry, and it went into a folder. It was six pages of hand-written story, in a very tiny block writing, in which Donna was killed during a visit to Terra, by anti-Pendor protestors. It was a sophmoric story on one level, but deep down it was rather revealing. Ken now was more miserable than I was, and that made me feel better. The villians told me who I was blaming (all of 'YOU', i.e. humanity), for what they were doing to me.
In the end, it was a "write-or-swallow-a-whole-bunch-of-pills-and-see-what-happens-next" night, and I chose to write.
Which is why I'm still here today. And why I'm still writing. I suppose I could have followed the path of my friend, Mark K., whose writing took him down the dark path to madness and murder, and who is now incarcerated in the State Mental Health Facility outside of Montreal. But I chose to keep at the higher side, the more fun.
So why are they being posted now? Well, I've only had my computer for two years. It's kind of hard to post without one. But also, I've only recently begun to move away from the wish-fulfilment tales I wrote when I was younger. Don't take this badly, but while I enjoy writing erotica and science-fiction, this does give me a forum to express my personal opinions and to subject you to them. So far I seem to be doing okay.
But on a distinct level, Donna died for me. And I doubt I could ever forget this. I don't care if you care to disbelive this, but just writing that phrase, "Donna died..." hurts. Hurts a lot. Even now
Oh, and I did mention a soundtrack. Forget it. I looked at the first few entries and said, "They'll never believe me." They were:
I decided no one would ever believe my 'writing' tape has a list like that, so I decided to forgo the list. But, I should mention that two of the pieces on the tape are Tom Leher's "SMUT!" and the opening soundtrack to BubbleGum Crisis (if you have to ask...).
So, what else do y'all want to know? I've been thinking of a B&W GIF of a few simple maps. Shouldn't be that big a deal.
Elf !!!
- Elf Sternberg
To the best of my knowledge the B&W GIFs never materialized. Elf, where are they?
[Editors Note]
Well, this marks the end of what I have that has been posted. I hope
this has cleared up some confusion.
Enjoy!
Well, that's all she wrote. This certainly was enlightening for me when I read it after reading most of the Journal Entries, and I hope it was for you too.