Book I
Book 2
Chapter IV
The Mortal Burden – Part XVIII: Predator and Prey
The Mortal Burden – Part XIX: The Inn of the Laughing Ghost
Category: mythology
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The Mortal Burden – Chapter III
The Mortal Burden
Book IChapter III
The Mortal Burden – Part XIII: Zombie or Zombi?
The Mortal Burden – Part XIV: “I Can’t Take You Anywhere!”
The Mortal Burden – Part XIV: The Third Coast
The Mortal Burden – Part XV: Infinity as My Witness
The Mortal Burden – Part XVI: The 4th Wall
The Mortal Burden – Part XVII: Eternity Is a Concept
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The Mortal Burden – Part XVII: Eternity Is a Concept
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The Mortal Burden – Part XIV: The Third Coast
The Mortal Burden
Book IChapter III
The Mortal Burden – Part XIII: Zombie or Zombi?
The Mortal Burden – Part XIV: “I Can’t Take You Anywhere!”
The Mummy’s Ghost – 1944 -
The Mortal Burden – Chapter 2
The Mortal Burden
Book IChapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
The Mortal Burden – Part IX: Cold Heat
The Mortal Burden – Part X: A World to Die On
The Mortal Burden – Part XI: Boundaries Into the Deep
The Mortal Burden – Part XII: The Singular I
Necrem Ascendant -
The Mortal Burden – Part XII: The Singular I
The Mortal Burden
Book IChapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
The Mortal Burden – Part IX: Cold Heat
The Mortal Burden – Part X: A World to Die On
The Mortal Burden – Part XI: Boundaries Into the Deep
Necrem Ascendant -
The Mortal Burden – Part XI: Boundaries Into the Deep
The Mortal Burden
Book IChapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
The Mortal Burden – Part IX: Cold Heat
The Mortal Burden – Part X: A World to Die On
Necrem Ascendant -
The Mortal Burden – Part X: A World to Die On
The Mortal Burden
Book IChapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
The Mortal Burden – Part IX: Cold Heat
Necrem Ascendant -
The Mortal Burden – Part IX: Cold Heat
The Mortal Burden
Book IChapter II
The Mortal Burden – Part VII: Remember
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
Necrem Ascendant -
The Mortal Burden – Part VIII: Gods of One
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The Mortal Burden – Chapter I
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The Mortal Burden – Part IV: Six feet of razor-toothed bloody destruction
The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter IThe Mortal Burden Part I: Specicide Blues
The Mortal Burden Part II: This Mortal Burden
The Mortal Burden Part III: Blood Furnace
The Colossus – Goya The Mortal Burden – Part IV: Six feet of razor-toothed bloody destruction
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The Mortal Burden – Part III: Blood Furnace
The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter IThe Mortal Burden Part I: Specicide Blues
The Mortal Burden Part II: This Mortal Burden
The Colossus – Goya -
The Mortal Burden – Part II: This Mortal Burden
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The Mortal Burden – Part I: Specicide Blues
The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter II decided to serialize my novel. Chapters are just two big for this media type.
The Colossus – Goya -
Wall of Terror
Sleep ParalysisHad lots of it in my 20s and 30s..I still have them, but they are not as acute as when I used to sleep on my back. I’m conscious, while my brain locks down my physical reactions so I can not move. The opposite of night terrors & Sleep walking.
A wall of fear has kept me from the abyss of eternal sleep.
This wall feeds upon my soul; it hungers for my nightmares, a half-delusional matrix caught betwixt consciousness and the domain of vivid alien visions.
Somewhere in this realm lurks a terrible shadow of my reality. A grotesque mocking of the material plane. It teases and prods me, offering unknown vistas of experience and mind. A quest through the immense expanse of the universe, beyond the normal view of existence, to places where only the mind can enter.
The shadow mocks me with these alien expanses of thought and space; it forces me back with a wall of my own fears. This fear, my loathing, and the inability to take that final step, cross that narrow line that will force me over sanity’s edge—an edge I know I can never come back from.
Yet, I crave the genius of insanity, that foresight of the unkown senses, reaching farther beyond the greatest minds, to have insight into the depth of the soul, to know the mad creator of the universe, to be one with omnipotent existence!
©️ Jacob Pickard 2026.
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The Singular Succession
For whatever reason these four short scifi stories are interconnected. It was never my intention nor concept, these stories were written at different times in my life; yet they all speak to the philosophy & concepts of reality, creation, chaos, order, and individuality.
All works ©️ Jacob Pickard. 1995-2026.
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Edged
Compartmentalized
Accessed when needed
Cached in dust
Pushed away, Given the hand
Boundries surround me, not for thee
Break glass, emergency
Kept to the edges
Unsupported extension
Unable to convert
Purpose lost
Overwhelmed in memory
©️ Jacob Pickard. 2026.
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In Blur – deafheaven
“Forgive the trembling love,
I’m weak and acting bold
And alone”
The rhythmic and melodic layering in this song is amazing. The atmosphere it radiates chills you.
In blur, farther
Glanced over stirred
Imagined you laughing
Muddied feet dancing
What is this aching prism?
This prison wincing
Receiving sudden swaths of dogma
Wandering over royal yonder
Wandering over flooded ground again
(What does daylight look like?)
What does daylight look like in this chaos of cold?
(What does daylight look like?)
Solitude and falling into respites now
In blur, hovered
Accepted devotion
Unearthed, bleeding ark of creation
Wandering over royal yonder
Wandering over flooded ground again
(What does daylight look like?)
What does daylight look like in this chaos of cold?
(What does daylight look like?)
Solitude and falling into respites now
(What does daylight look like?)
What does daylight look like in this chaos of cold?
(What does daylight look like?)
Solitude and falling into respites now
Forgive the trembling love,
I’m weak and acting bold
And aloneWritten by: Christopher Johnson, Kerry Dylan Mccoy, George Lesage Clarke, Daniel Tracy, Shiv Mehra. Album: Infinite Granite. Released: 2021
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Pariah in the company of Phantoms
I am Pariah
A life devoid of touch, love, passion, a pillar of rough-hewn granite, to make other’s lives more comfortable so they don’t have to feel guilt. A mirrored avatar to reflect what they want to see; taking responsibility for the cowardly acts of their Phantoms.
Selfish Ideological Narcissists, making victims that exist in the interstitial spaces, Acceptable losses in the war.
A living taboo, stigmatized, no one wants to touch this flesh, it is taboo made real.
Aged masculinty shattered into dull edges, ego ripped out, longtime ideological identity destroyed; the devouring mother’s hunger satiated.
I no longer want to try to identify with anyone, as anyone, or with any group. All are phantoms.
The gulf is now infinite. Not your spaces in-between, because nothing exists on either side.
Playing my part in the background, while the Phantoms roleplay; it’s the curse of total detached awareness & empathy. Pain hidden in the shadows, invisible to all.
Pariah is my rightful place, I am the sacrificial king: I will let this demon eat my soul.
……and I will REVEL in the consumption
One with the Pariah that haunts the
interstitial spaces
the Pariah that whispers to the
phantoms in your nightmares
©️ Jacob A. Pickard. 2025. Originally
published on SubStack.
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Absolute Favorite Song, Group, or type of music?
Okay people out there in WP land this is a difficult question and one that is very hard to answer.
It gets worse if you have diverse musical genres you enjoy and listening moods that you mold the music around your feelings or state at the time.
Personaly; punk, hardcore, metal, & rock have been my main as well as many of the sub-genera’s of them all. Dark wave, industrial, blues, Ambient, folk, Folk Nordic metal, old country and bluegrass. I also like classical, early rap, more jazzy hip-hop/trip-hop or political (here’s looking at you Public Enemy) rap. I’ve never much been into pop, but PJ Harvey, Lady Gaga & Billie Elish i have a soft spot for because of their voice, they speak their truth’s, and the dark feminine nature they exude (Check out Chelsea Wolf). Im not a swifty but I like that she speaks out her politics and stands her ground.
So I im going to try to answer one of the questions I asked above and of course it is not 100%, but my favorite band(s) of all time goes to CLUTCH. Every song is a story, the lyrics build it into a saga, and the music a foundation for a mythology.
I first saw them in my brother’s basement in Madison, WI. Everytime I see them it’s like meeting up with an old friend.
Released 1991
Released 1995
Released 1998
Released 2013
Released 2022
Clutch Clutch Album Cover 1995
Honorable mentions go to Carcass, The Dead Boys, Mastodon, Gwar, Godflesh, Boy Sets Fire, Paradise Lost, Subhumans, Grinch (west coast progressive hardcore), Bahaus, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Amy Winehouse, The Cure, Beethoven, Curve, Public Enemy, Anthrax, Conflict, Brian Eno, Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, Chelsea Wolf, Suldusk, Swallow the Sun, Red Fang, Melvins, My Bloody Valentine, Coil, etc…etc…etc…etc.…
Released 1986
Released 1992
Released 2019
Released 2006
Released 1991
Released 1977
So what do ally’all like? Can you answer this question?
Ecoheretic 