Spooktober 2025: Ring
Welcome to a Spooktober 2025 article that also celebrates the 70th Anniversary of the publishing of The Return of the King.
I'll be exploring the point of view of the Aleph Zero Syndicate, an adversarial organization in my world devoted to "demi-human" supremacy. They seek to return elves, dwarves, and men back to a place of dominance over the so-called rightful place o fdominance over the "lesser races."
For each prompt, I'm writing a bit of verse from the Aleph Zero point of view. I'm particularly focusing on the "Dark Fellowship", a dark reflection of Tolkien's heroes. I'm pairing them with a bit of pre-existing art, touching it up as little as possible.
You can find them all on my Spooktober 2025 Hub. I'd love to hear what you think!
Only the innocent can bear,
The Ring's corruption beware.
From one hand to the next it flew,
How many hearts has it burned through?
No mortal mind can last for long,
It takes them all, both weak and strong.
Nice! I really like the notion of doing short little bits of verse alongside these. Maybe I'll try that next year (assuming I do this next year, which maybe I shouldn't because stress and all that).
We should learn whatever lessons we need to from each other to make things easier on ourselves!
Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. Visit my Worldember 2025 Hub as I work on 50,000 words in December!