HARVEST OF HORROR
ORIGIN OF THE PANGORIO STORY BY K.S. BISHOFF
In 1913 Joyce Kilmer wrote a poem titled Trees. I first read it as an assignment. Somehow, its words stayed with me, falling into my memory as though they were meant to live there. A weird happening, really, as my memory tends to be a sieve. Years and years went by and I the poem slept until I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. My first character encountered a treant, a tree creature that could walk and talk and flail about with deadly purpose in defense of its forest.
“I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.”
I eventually became a Dungeon Master. And the idea of trees filled with thoughts and purpose captivated me. Creating monsters and bad guys to thrill and challenge my players became an obsession.
“A tree whose hungry mouth is prest against the earth’s sweet flowing breast.”
A tree that hungers sounds like a great monster but… what does it crave? Power came to my mind. What kind of power?
“A tree that looks to God all day, and lifts her leafy arms to pray;”
I decided my monster tree would not stare up at the sky. Instead, its leafy canopy would serve it as hair, absorbing power from the sun. Like hair, the tree could ‘toss’ it to show emotion. This tree would also not be looking to a higher power but to itself. It would be the one others looked to and obeyed.
“A tree that may in summer wear a nest of robins in her hair;”
Just like in the poem, the monster tree’s leafy canopy would serve as hair. As such, it could ‘toss’ its green locks to show emotion.
“Upon whose bosom snow has lain; who intimately lives with rain.”
Well, this inspired the image of a man possessed by a demon falling upon what had once been an innocent tree. And in that intimate moment, the man died. The demon moved on into the tree, melding its evil into it. Like rain brings gloomy days, the tree darkened into a monster.
“Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”
This new demon tree would capture the foolhardy and unwary. Drag them to its roots to feed it not only nourishment but also their likenesses and memories. And from that, it would grow gourds of a size to develop simulacrums to serve it. These would be called woads. And they would never disobey as they spread the tree’s domain until only it and its woads walked the world.
Big dreams for a tree possessed by a demon, but unlike most creatures, neither ever grows old. Long-term plans that could take centuries are nothing to the ageless. Delusions of evil grandeur lay in the heart of every great villain and Aichil the demon tree has embraced theirs to the very core of its heartwood.
With a wonderful monster and villain created, it was time to create the rest of the story. The original of a villain is always a good story as well as the new villain’s first endeavor. Will Aichill, succeed or fail? What about a hero? Will this be a tale of their victory or defeat?
That is the story “Harvest of Horror” waiting to be read in Macabre and Monstrous
