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Miscellaneous Research

Was there life on Mars? This has been a raging debate since July 25, 1976 when NASA's Viking I spacecraft took photographs of a strange looking rock formation in the Cydonia region of Mars (latitude 41 degrees North, longitude 10 West) that resembled a human or ape head. Further image processing and analysis revealed another nearby object that has been dubbed the "Fortress" because of a modest resemblance to structures called that on Earth. It's linear features and sharp angles suggest artificiality to some. A nearby cluster of vaguely pyramidal objects surrounding some unusual small mounds not commonly seen away from Cydonia has been dubbed the "City". The scientific community has denounced all of this calling it a "trick of light and shadow" as the Jet Propulsion Laboratories original press release described it. They equated it with looking at the clouds and "seeing" artificial formations.

I think it's interesting that the scientific community discounted the possibility that the face was artificially created immediately~~particularly since the original mission of the Viking I was to look for life on Mars. Possible coverup? Let's look at some more information:

There is ample evidence that the Martian climate was in the past more benign than today. Eroded river channels, evidence of glaciation and perhaps even ancient lake and sea beds have all been seen in Viking images. An ocean may have occupied most of the northern hemisphere. There has been speculation that the features at Cydonia lie on the edge of this ancient northern sea. Certainly if the Cydonia remains are artificial, proximity to water would be expected. Water and oxygen may have existed in the area abundantly over on billion years ago.

The so-called "headdress" surrounding the "Face" (with straight lines and 90-degree corners) is highly indicative of a deliberate design. A scientist by the name of Van Flandern concluded that "the combined probability of simultaneous chance ocuurrence of all the features of the Face mesa alone is 0.0000000000000000000000000000001." Well at least these are better odds than the theory of spontaneous evolution has going for it. If these landforms are natural it obviously asks a great deal of nature. How could the same winds produce such differing forms so close by, and what about the precise mathematical angles? the Cydonia area is also right on the old Martian equator. This has only about a 1% probability of occurring by chance.

There are 4 real possibilities here:
1) Natural forcesblindly sculptued the "Face" into its near symmetrical form and the other structures are naturally created as well. It is mere coincidence that they are in close proximity.
2) An ancient indigenous civilization which arose on Mars billions of years ago, when the palnet was more Earth-like perished or evacuated for reasons not yet fully understood when the climate changed.
3) Visitors from beyond the solar system who colonized Mars when it was more habitable, either perished, migrated to Earth or returned home when the climate changed.
4) We (earthlings colonized Mars in the past and were destroyed or evacuated when the climate changed.

Other Mars related trivia:
1) if the lenght of Earth's year was (1), the lenght of Mars' year would be 1.881.
2) The atmosphere is composed chiefly of carbon diocide (95.3%), nitrogen (2.7%) and argon (1.6%).
3) Mars has two satellites (moons) called Phobos and Deimos.
4) If you weighed 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh about 38 pounds on Mars.
5) Surface winds can be up to 40 m/s (80 miles/hour).
6) If the distance of Earth from the sun is (1), the distance from Mars to Sun is 1.524.
7) Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, the next beyond Earth.
8) A Mars day is 27 hours, 37 min, 23 sec, or 1.026 Earth days.
9) The surface temperature averages -53 °C (-64 °F) and varies from -128 °C (-199 °F) to 27 °C (80 °F).

All three of these are names for Greek o Roman gods. The possibility of some of these "Gods" having actuaaly been Kings or Queens who have become legend over hundreds of years of oral tradition is likely. These deified figures may have that in common with King Arthur. It is almost certain taht King Arthur was a real man, but most of the stories associated with his life are most certainly fiction.

Here is a much abbreviated summary of them:

Cronos is the yougest of the twelve Titans, son of Uranus and Gaia. He is married to his sister Rhea and the father of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus. After Uranus had thrust his children deep down beneath the Earth, and out of resentment that she had to bear so many children, Gaia turned them against their father. She incited them to castrate Uranus, but none dared to do this, except for Cronos. He stealthily accomplished the deed while Uranus slept. Afterwards Cronos assumed the rule and under his and Rhea's leadership a time of prosperity and harmony began, the Golden Age. To secure his own dominion, however he had devoured his children after birth, but Rhea managed to save one child: Zeus. When Zeus reached maturity, he overpowered Cronos and forced him disgorge the children he had swallowed. With the aid of his brothers and sister, and other partisans among the gods2, Zeus dethroned Cronos and became king of gods and men.

Apollo was the son of Jupiter and Leto. His twin sister was Artemis. He was the god of sun, logic healing, music, and reason. He was associated with the tripod, omphalos, lyre, bow, and arrow. He could also foretell the future. He's best known as a Delian god and had his temple at the Delphi site. In his temple was the oracle of Delphi. Apollo is best known for killing the serpent, Python. He loved Daphne deeply, but she turned into a tree as she was trying to escape him.

Ares, the god of war, is tall and handsome, but vain and as cruel as his brother Hephaestus was kind. is sister Eris, the goddess of strife, is his constant companion, but he is also attended by his sons Deimos and Phobos, as well as Enyo, an old war-goddess. when Ares heard the clashing of arms, he grinned with glee, put on his gleaming helmet, and leapt into his war chariot. Brandishing his sword, he rushed into the thick of battle, not caring who won or lost as long as blood was shed. A vicious crowd followed at his heels, carrying with them Pain, Panic, Famine and Oblivion. Once i na while, Ares was wounded. He was immortal but whenever he would get hurt he would run back to his farther, Zeus and was healed. Needless to say, Zeus was very disgusted with his son. Ares was mainly worshipped in Thracia, a region known for its fierce people.

The first two pages of book one depict the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Pathfinder Mission that landed on the surface of Mars on July 4, 1997. This is one of the most exciting things happening in astronomy and space exploration today and anyone interested in reading more about it can visit the official website. Matt started the story on Mars because of the planet's association with the Roman God of War.

Mars was the son of Jupiter and Juno. He was regarded as the father of the Roman people because he was the father of Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, and husband to Bellona. He was the most prominent of the military gods that were worshipped by the Roman legions. The martial Romans considered him second in importance only to Jupiter. His festivals were held in March (named for him) and October.

In studying the ancient "Dragon Lines" of legend, many of which cross sacred monuments, stone monoliths and circles of stones, modern scientists have discovered that there is a slight increase in electromagnetic activity and natural radioactivity in the areas examined. These "Ley Lines" are described as "faults representing special energy zones in the landscape" and are "wholly natural." As Pendragon is that these are like two sides of a coin-both electromagneetic and magical. When Jennifer pulled the sword from the stone, magic returned to the earth replacing elctromagetism.

This idea has been around for a long time, but Matt first learned about it years ago from Image Comic's head honcho Larry Marder. He turned Matt onto a book called THE REENCHANTMENT OF THE WORLD by Morris Berman. This is an incredible book. It's a little academic and hard to read in parts, but the reward is well worth the struggle. The idea of magic being linked with Excalibur is part of the legend. According to tradition, Excalibur was the last piece of magic on the Earth and when it was returned to the Lady of the Lake-magic left the earth. It makes sense that when the sword (or swords in Lady Pendragon) return to the earth that magic will return as well. Matt linked these two concepts together and ran with it.

Dictionary defines it as: "1. Magnetic arising from electric charge in motion. 2. The physics of electricity and magnetism." Electromagnetism is what gives us the modern world. Eletricity powers your lights, computers, cars, refrigerators and everything else that we would all find it incredibly difficult to live without. We've all had the power go out at one point or another, but it's usually back on in a few hours/ Imagine the lights going out without any possibility of them coming back on. What would you do? Your money in the bank would be gone. Travel would be nearly impossible. In a matter of days, all of the food in your refrigerator will have gone bad-and there is no more grocery store around the corner. It's a sobering thought. In the story, the world is thrust back into these "Dark Ages" and most of humanity is destroyed. The survivors are struggling and your basic postapocalyptic "might-makes-right" mentality has set in. The aftermath of this world-wide armageddon (for lack of better word) is central to the ongoing storyline of Lady Pendragon. The mini-series introduced the characters and only hinted on what was happening in the world.

Gunpowder and guns work on a chemical process and would not be affected by the power outage-although it will be very difficult to make new bullets or replace damaged parts.

Both Jennifer and Guinevere are empowered by the swords. The swords are incredibly powerful and influence the actions of those that wield them- more on this in the ongoing series (DragonBlade).

The name Jennifer directly descends from the name Guinevere. Drake means "Dargon" and so ties in with both Pendragon and the sword Draconis, plus Matt though it sounded cool.

One of the most amazing historical sites in London, the Tower is actually a large castle that now holds the Crown Jewels of Engalnd and one of the most extensive Medieval military museums in the world.

Throughout the series, Morgana used Black Magic. Anyone interested in reading what black magic and the occult are realy about should read THE DARK ARTS by Richard Cavendish. One of his other books, THE POWER OF EVIL, is also an awesome read. Neither of these books is a "spell book" like THE NECRONOMICON, but a historical look at events and people involved in the dark arts.

The Griffon is a legendary creature with the head, beak and wings of an eagle, the body of a lion and occasionally the tail of a serpent or scorpion. Its origin lies somewhere in the Middle East where it is found in the paintings and sculptures of the ancient Babylonians, Assyrians and Persians. In Greek mythology, the Griffons belonged to Zeus. The later Romans used them for decoration and even in Christian times the Griffon motif often appears. Griffons were frequently used as gargoyles on medieval churches and buildings.

Everyone has a first image when they think of dragons, whether it's Smaug from J.R.R. Tolkien's amazing epic The Hobbit, Anne McCaffrey's dragons from her line of Pern novels or one of several dragons featured in different movies and video games. The dragon myth is very much a part of our culture and almost every other civilization that has ever existed on earth. These dragons come in many shapes and sizes and their differences are largely based on geographic and cultural lines--some breath fire, some hoard wealth, some talk, some fly, some swim, etc... Chinese dragons barely resemble the European variety.

The oldest written record of a dragon was carved on a clay tablet by the ancient Babylonians in their creation epic the Enuma Elish. This record predates the Bible and is based on a Sumerian oral tradition, so the true beginning of the dragon mythology is unknown. The Babylonian myth relates how the universe was created by the dragon Tiamat and her husband Apsu. They were sea-dragons swimming in the primordial chaos of the universe and created the first gods, who later created man.

Historians believe that certain extinct Saurians, including flying models such as Pteranodon and Pterydactyl, were probably primitive dragons. Dragons have been proposed to be the last vestiges of such primeval Pterosaurs. Most of the legends surrounding the dragon are probably purely fictional, but there is always some truth behind every legend. Matt believes that dragons were merely a large winged reptile or snake that became extinct... or did they?

The dragon myth is central to the Arthurian mythology. The very name Pendragon is obviously linked to the legend. The Druid beliefs of the dragon that tie into this are covered in the script. Matt recommend's anyone who's interested in reading about dragons to read Anne McCaffrey's magnum opus A Diversity of Dragons. This book is awesome and has some incredible illustrations and covers dragon myths throughout history.

The best of the "dragon" movies, in Matt's humble opinion, is Dragonslayer. It came out in the early '80's and features Peter Mchnichol, who now plays the Biscuit from Ally McBeal, as an apprentice magician out to slay dragons. If you haven't seen it, then Matt recommends it as a rental.

A line from on of Matt's favorit poems by Walt Whitman:

O Captain, My Captain!
Our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack
The prize we sought is won,
The port is near,
The bells I hear,
The people all exulting...

his is a Tibetan prophecy and ties in with a lot of the dogma Matt has established in the series. According to this Eastern legend, the Spirits of the unholy Powers were incarcerated sealed countless fathoms below in the darkness of the ocean. There they remained imprisoned by the beneficent hand of God, until, once in a thousand years, it was fated that a fisherman had it within his free choice to release the dreaded fiend, unless he cast his terrible catch straight back into the depths.

This tale bears a striking resemblance to the verse "And when the thousand years expired, Satan will be loosed from his prison." from Revelation 20:7. In my religious studies I've found a lot of interesting correlations between the Bible and other ancient texts. The sumerians had a "flood" myth long before anyone had ever heard of Noah. Several people have emailed Matt, who are curious about the Priestess Isuelt's religion; why it was formed and what it's all about. Some of this Matt has intentionally left mysterious and will be revealed in the story over time. The basis for it is Matt's own curiosity about the truth behind the life of religious, messianic figures. Isuelt is a Priestess of a religion who worships the Goddess. They believe that jennifer Drake was the Messiah, the Goddess made flesh, who walked upon the earth and spawned the Awakening of Magic. While most of this is true, Isuelt is discovering that not all of what her religion actually believes is true and we're seeing her reaction to this. What is even more interesting is Jennifer Drake's reaction when she realizes there is this whole religion based upon her.
Lady Pendragon is trademark and copyright 1998 Matt Hawkins