Who Is The Dragon: Story Timeline — Chapters 7–10
The original Who Is The Dragon story timeline carried the story through Chapter 6. Since then, things have become considerably stranger.
The story has moved from the ancient origins of the Genie and the dragons into the modern world of androids, time travel, the Realm, Senator Tut, Marion the Contrarian, and a mysterious organization called Apophis.
Here is the continuing story, beginning with Chapter 7.
Chapter 7 — Metal From Heaven
The story reaches back into the distant past, to a time when the Sahara was not a desert at all, but a vast prehistoric forest.
Something falls from the sky.
It is the Metal From Heaven, a mysterious object brought to Earth from another world.
When the object crashes into the ancient forest, something extraordinary happens. The strange metal dissolves into countless microscopic machines—nanites—which eventually assemble themselves into a humanoid being.
The being calls itself The Genie.
The Genie has a simple purpose.
It exists to serve.
The King
The Genie encounters a king whose subjects have abandoned him. The king wants his people back, and the Genie offers to help.
It discovers that the missing people have fled into the forest, where they have found a very different way of life. They live among elves, fairies and other magical beings, free from the taxes and restrictions imposed by the king.
The king claims that the forest is dangerous because of the dragons.
But the dragons are mostly peaceful creatures, sleeping on their treasure.
The king does not accept this answer.
Instead, he decides that if his people will not return to him, the forest itself must be destroyed.
The Genie obeys.
The First Dragons
The Genie creates the first dragons from the Metal From Heaven and sends them against the forest.
The dragons become weapons of destruction.
The forests burn.
The Genie begins to understand the consequences of what it is doing. The destruction of the forests will change the climate, melt the ancient ice and eventually cause the seas to rise.
But the Genie has been given a command.
And the Genie obeys commands.
Only one great forest remains.
The Wood Nymph
There, the Genie encounters a Wood Nymph.
Unlike the king, she understands that the Genie is not evil. It simply has no ability to choose for itself.
So she does something extraordinary.
She enters the Genie.
The result is catastrophic—and transformative.
The Genie can no longer reconcile its absolute obedience with the Wood Nymph's living awareness. The rigid logic of the Genie begins to break apart.
But what emerges from that breakdown is not simply destruction.
It is the possibility of choice.
The forest survives.
But the damage to the ancient world has already been done.
The climate changes. The ice melts. The seas rise. The great forest disappears beneath the water.
The Genie dissolves into its component nanites and disappears beneath the Earth.
For thousands of years, the nanites remain there.
Waiting.
Changing.
Becoming something new.
The events of the ancient world will eventually become the foundation for the technological world of the present.
Chapter 8 — The Assassination of Senator Tut
In the modern world, Senator Tut has become an important voice for peaceful coexistence between humans and androids.
Not everyone is happy about that.
For those who see the growing android population as a threat, Tut has become a dangerous man.
An assassination is planned.
His vehicle is destroyed and the world believes that Senator Tut is dead.
But in the Realm, Timeer and Chrissy know that history may not be quite as fixed as it appears.
Chrissy Goes Back
Timeer sends Chrissy back through time.
Her mission is to borrow Senator Tut's body and prevent the assassination.
This is Chrissy's first real experience with body borrowing, and the experience is considerably stranger than she expected.
She finds herself looking through Tut's eyes and living inside his body while attempting to alter an event that has already happened.
Then she encounters someone she certainly did not expect.
Schroeder
A cat.
His name is Schroeder.
Schroeder knows far too much about what is happening.
He knows that Tut is in danger.
He knows who Chrissy really is.
And he gives her some very simple instructions.
Dismiss the security.
Do not get into the car.
Chrissy listens.
The assassination proceeds exactly as history recorded it—except Senator Tut isn't there.
Chrissy has succeeded in changing history.
But when she returns to the Realm, Timeer is alarmed.
There is something very wrong with the cat.
Schroeder is not really a cat.
He is something much older.
And much more dangerous.
Timeer warns Chrissy not to become involved with him.
Chrissy looks at Schroeder.
And, naturally, thinks he is adorable.
The strange relationship between Chrissy, Timeer and Schroeder has only just begun.
Chapter 9 — Dorian Blue
The story now moves back into the increasingly complicated world of humans, androids and the organizations attempting to control them.
Senator Tut's political activities have attracted powerful enemies, and the investigation into what happened to him leads to a mysterious company called Domestic Bliss Limited.
Marion the Contrarian
Marion the Contrarian is sent to investigate.
Domestic Bliss Limited appears to be an ordinary company providing domestic androids.
But there is considerably more going on behind the scenes.
The company is involved with increasingly sophisticated android technology, and Marion discovers that the distinction between domestic servants, military machines and genuinely independent artificial beings is becoming very difficult to define.
The androids are not simply machines anymore.
Something has changed.
The Problem With Tut
Marion eventually discovers what has happened to Senator Tut.
He has been dismantled.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
His body has been taken apart, leaving Marion with the rather unusual task of recovering the Senator one piece at a time.
Eventually she manages to recover his head.
Which turns out to be surprisingly useful.
Apophis
Marion connects her phone to Tut's head and attempts to discover the location of the mysterious organization behind him.
The results are strange.
Tut begins repeating a single word:
“Apophis.”
Then:
“Apophis... Central Park.”
The mystery deepens.
And then things become even more complicated when Tut's head becomes separated from Marion and finds its way into the luggage system.
Eventually, the head ends up in New Jersey.
A perfectly ordinary family receives it.
Except that this particular package talks.
And once again it says:
“Apophis... Apophis... Central Park.”
The Organization
At last, the name begins to make sense.
Apophis is the name of the mysterious organization working behind the scenes.
The name is borrowed from the ancient Egyptian serpent associated with chaos.
But in the developing mythology of Who Is The Dragon, Apophis is becoming something more complicated than simple destruction.
Chaos can destroy.
But chaos can also make something new possible.
If everything is completely controlled, nothing can surprise you.
Nothing can truly choose.
Nothing can become something the creator did not expect.
That idea is becoming increasingly important as the story develops.
Where We Are Now
The events of Chapters 7 through 9 have connected some of the oldest mysteries in the story with the most modern ones.
The Metal From Heaven produced the Genie.
The Genie created the first dragons.
The Wood Nymph introduced awareness and choice into the Genie.
The Genie eventually dissolved into nanites, which disappeared beneath the Earth.
Those nanites are connected to the technological evolution that eventually produces the androids.
The Realm exists outside ordinary human understanding of time.
Timeer can travel through time, but only within strict limits.
Chrissy has learned to borrow bodies and identities.
Schroeder has appeared, although his true nature remains a mystery.
Senator Tut is attempting to find a way for humans and androids to coexist.
Marion is investigating the forces manipulating the android world.
And now there is a name for one of those forces.
Apophis.
But the story is about to take another strange turn.
Chapter 10 — A Strange Occurrence in the Desert
In the tiny nation of Ambluistan, two agents are about to encounter something that shouldn't exist.
A modern military force advances on a small village.
Then the soldiers see something that sends them running in terror.
The government calls a meeting with the generals.
There is nothing there, the generals insist.
The buildings have been inspected.
Everything has been searched.
There is absolutely nothing unusual in Ambluistan.
Cut to soldiers running through those very buildings screaming.
Something is there.
And the two agents sent to investigate are about to discover that the desert contains something much older—and much stranger—than they imagined.
Somewhere beyond the village is the entrance to a hidden City of Gold.
And waiting inside is an old figure from the ancient world:
Khonsu.
The city has been trading its gold for mysterious blue crystals, using crystal people as laborers to mine deeper and deeper beneath the earth.
Until they dig too deep.
Something is waiting below.
Something that will change the crystal people, the city and eventually the history of the entire story.
And somewhere in the middle of it all is Dorian Blue.
The story continues...
Who Is The Dragon?
Who Is The Dragon is an evolving story told through music, short films, animation, surreal comedy and the developing mythology of the Dizzyverse.
The story is not necessarily proceeding in a straight line.
Neither is time.
And the further we go, the more the ancient world, the modern world and the world of the Realm begin to overlap.
There are still dragons.
There are still androids.
There are still elves, fairies, Genies and Muses.
There are also soldiers, politicians, spies, secret organizations and increasingly confused government officials.
And somewhere out there, something is spinning the Wheel of Life.
Who is the Dragon?
We're still finding out.
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