CHANNILLO
Series Description:
Azrael has grown throughout the ages as the most well-known and fearsome angel in Heaven. From the very start, he was chosen to be in charge of maintaining the inevitable end for all living things. For Azrael, his role as "Angel of Death" is little more than a desk job.
Death and Human Resources follows the Grim Reaper through humble, ethereal beginnings. From Creation through to the modern day and beyond, Azrael explores the world of the mythical and fantastic through the lens of a 9-5 office drone who just wants to clock off and call it a day. Along the way, he deals with a host of administrative angels, downtrodden demons, and myriads of fey and other magical creatures. As the metaphysical world tries to keep up with the demands of modern bureaucracy, will Azrael be able to handle the pressure?
Category/Genre(s): Fantasy, Science Fiction, Humor, ParanormalUpdated: Weekly
Status: Completed
Author Bio For Mark Andrew Swan:
Mark Andrew Swan is an author and media creator from Denver, Colorado. He grew up in Colorado Springs where he mostly let his overactive imagination get him into trouble with his parents and the law. Mark began writing in middle school for various Nintendo-based fanfic forums. By high school, he endevoured towards more traditional authorial outlets.
In 2018, Mark published his first book, The Book Of Many Little Things: Volume 1.
Acknowledgements:
For Michelle, my motivator, ocassional proofreader, and inspiration.
For my parents, Brian and Carol, who encouraged me to think freely about my beliefs and the beliefs of others.
For John Moore, who exposed me to the likes of Gaiman, Pratchett, and Moore (Christopher, no relation.) Rest in peace on that big open river.
For TW, IS, and NL, but not for particularly pleasant reasons. Thank you for giving me a chance in the world of office drones and wage slaves. I learned a lot, most of all that I didn't belong in that world.
Notes:
Foreward (because I don't have a better place on Channillo to put it)
Death and Human Resources was started in the summer of 2019 on my office computer during office hours and in full advantage of having no office supervision. I had been hired on as an HR assistant, despite having no applicable skills or knowledge on the position. I did not want the position but I had meandered to a point in life where I was good at making money by doing what I was told. Unfortunately for all parties involved, my superiors were so wrapped up with their own workings, they left me with no instruction. Thus, I found myself making up things to do. Often, those things had little to do with work or what was expected of me. Instead, I worked on personal projects. Death and Human Resources was the most significant of those projects.
Despite the title and its origins, Death and Human Resources is not autobiographical. Of course, there are thoughts and experiences that I've borrowed from my life and given to Azrael on his journey to becoming the Angel of Death, but his journey and mine diverge as quickly as the story begins. I feel the biggest difference between Azrael and the author is, while I learned very little from my time as a 9-5 drone, Azrael will learn quite a bit. Still, I must apologize if Azrael's contemplations and revelations align too closely with this author's personal philosophies. Any good writer can tell you that such a relationship is a challenge and, well, I am a mediocre writer at best.
It is also important to note that the bulk of this story was not written with mythological or theological accuracy as a priority. I am no theologian, nor am I a religious man, but I do find fascination in the ungovernable might of myth. Death and HR is many things but, most of all, it is an attempt to explore how the imaginings of entire cultures can create characters that are wholly real and unreal at the same time. Death is a reality, but his depiction as a cloak-wearing skeleton wielding a farm tool is obviously the machination of the overactive human psyche. If the concept is undoubtedly real (and constant, and inevitable,) and the character helps us rationalize the concept, is the character itself real in its own way? Once again, I'm not a scholar so I don't have a great answer to this question. But I hope Death and HR can provide people with the means to consider it.
Death and HR borrows heavily from Abrahamic myth. However, it also borrows from Celtic myth, Greek fables, Paradise Lost, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel Comics, H.P. Lovecraft, and a drug trip I had in 2013. Azrael and the Djinn are interpretted primarily from their depictions in Islamic studies. That being said, Azrael is also inspired from a wild spectrum of Islamic text, rennaisance art, and heavy metal album covers. It is my hope the reader can reconcile these converging inspirations better than I can.
Lastly, I'd like to apologize in advance to anyone reading whose faith is misconstrued or misinterpreted during their reading of this book. I am an agnostic atheist and it is not my intent to deliver an accurate religious story or contemplation on faith. Please consider any offence taken by the reader to be purely coincidental.
Mark Andrew Swan, February 4th, 2o21
References:
Posting references here as I use them:
Death in a unicellular world, Srimathy Sriskantharajah - https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-biology/2010/12/17/death-in-a-unicellular-world/#:~:text=Programmed%20cell%20death%2C%20a%20decision,in%20their%20host%20is%20growing.
Human Sacrifice in Early Civilizations:
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=b7e531fed1414ce3b30a6d2272f9e0e1
On Nephilim:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nephilim
Series Description:
Azrael has grown throughout the ages as the most well-known and fearsome angel in Heaven. From the very start, he was chosen to be in charge of maintaining the inevitable end for all living things. For Azrael, his role as "Angel of Death" is little more than a desk job.
Death and Human Resources follows the Grim Reaper through humble, ethereal beginnings. From Creation through to the modern day and beyond, Azrael explores the world of the mythical and fantastic through the lens of a 9-5 office drone who just wants to clock off and call it a day. Along the way, he deals with a host of administrative angels, downtrodden demons, and myriads of fey and other magical creatures. As the metaphysical world tries to keep up with the demands of modern bureaucracy, will Azrael be able to handle the pressure?
Category/Genre(s): Fantasy, Science Fiction, Humor, ParanormalUpdated: Weekly
Status: Completed
Author Bio For Mark Andrew Swan:
Mark Andrew Swan is an author and media creator from Denver, Colorado. He grew up in Colorado Springs where he mostly let his overactive imagination get him into trouble with his parents and the law. Mark began writing in middle school for various Nintendo-based fanfic forums. By high school, he endevoured towards more traditional authorial outlets.
In 2018, Mark published his first book, The Book Of Many Little Things: Volume 1.
Acknowledgements:
For Michelle, my motivator, ocassional proofreader, and inspiration.
For my parents, Brian and Carol, who encouraged me to think freely about my beliefs and the beliefs of others.
For John Moore, who exposed me to the likes of Gaiman, Pratchett, and Moore (Christopher, no relation.) Rest in peace on that big open river.
For TW, IS, and NL, but not for particularly pleasant reasons. Thank you for giving me a chance in the world of office drones and wage slaves. I learned a lot, most of all that I didn't belong in that world.
Notes:
Foreward (because I don't have a better place on Channillo to put it)
Death and Human Resources was started in the summer of 2019 on my office computer during office hours and in full advantage of having no office supervision. I had been hired on as an HR assistant, despite having no applicable skills or knowledge on the position. I did not want the position but I had meandered to a point in life where I was good at making money by doing what I was told. Unfortunately for all parties involved, my superiors were so wrapped up with their own workings, they left me with no instruction. Thus, I found myself making up things to do. Often, those things had little to do with work or what was expected of me. Instead, I worked on personal projects. Death and Human Resources was the most significant of those projects.
Despite the title and its origins, Death and Human Resources is not autobiographical. Of course, there are thoughts and experiences that I've borrowed from my life and given to Azrael on his journey to becoming the Angel of Death, but his journey and mine diverge as quickly as the story begins. I feel the biggest difference between Azrael and the author is, while I learned very little from my time as a 9-5 drone, Azrael will learn quite a bit. Still, I must apologize if Azrael's contemplations and revelations align too closely with this author's personal philosophies. Any good writer can tell you that such a relationship is a challenge and, well, I am a mediocre writer at best.
It is also important to note that the bulk of this story was not written with mythological or theological accuracy as a priority. I am no theologian, nor am I a religious man, but I do find fascination in the ungovernable might of myth. Death and HR is many things but, most of all, it is an attempt to explore how the imaginings of entire cultures can create characters that are wholly real and unreal at the same time. Death is a reality, but his depiction as a cloak-wearing skeleton wielding a farm tool is obviously the machination of the overactive human psyche. If the concept is undoubtedly real (and constant, and inevitable,) and the character helps us rationalize the concept, is the character itself real in its own way? Once again, I'm not a scholar so I don't have a great answer to this question. But I hope Death and HR can provide people with the means to consider it.
Death and HR borrows heavily from Abrahamic myth. However, it also borrows from Celtic myth, Greek fables, Paradise Lost, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel Comics, H.P. Lovecraft, and a drug trip I had in 2013. Azrael and the Djinn are interpretted primarily from their depictions in Islamic studies. That being said, Azrael is also inspired from a wild spectrum of Islamic text, rennaisance art, and heavy metal album covers. It is my hope the reader can reconcile these converging inspirations better than I can.
Lastly, I'd like to apologize in advance to anyone reading whose faith is misconstrued or misinterpreted during their reading of this book. I am an agnostic atheist and it is not my intent to deliver an accurate religious story or contemplation on faith. Please consider any offence taken by the reader to be purely coincidental.
Mark Andrew Swan, February 4th, 2o21
References:
Posting references here as I use them:
Death in a unicellular world, Srimathy Sriskantharajah - https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-biology/2010/12/17/death-in-a-unicellular-world/#:~:text=Programmed%20cell%20death%2C%20a%20decision,in%20their%20host%20is%20growing.
Human Sacrifice in Early Civilizations:
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=b7e531fed1414ce3b30a6d2272f9e0e1
On Nephilim:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nephilim