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For other people named Ethan Ash Casner, see Ethan Ash Casner (disambiguation).
Ethan Ash Casner
Ethan casner
Pen nameTheodore "Shakkles" Ganes
OccupationVideo Game Developer, Musician, Project Manager
GenreScience Fiction, Heavy Metal
Literary movementAtheism
Literature portal

Ethan Ash Casner (October 2, 1980 ? ) is an American Video Game Developer and Musician as well as the creator of the Divergence universe and founder of Stainglass Llama.

Biography

Early years

Because he avoids speaking about his younger life, exact details of where and when Ethan was born and raised are as of yet, factually unsubstantiated. It is commonly accepted he was born in Decatur, Illinois on October 2, 1980 as the eldest son of Kenneth and Donna Casner.

2006-2007

Casner's relationship to (name redacted) had become increasingly volatile. She had finally turned old enough to buy her own alcohol and that coupled with her inherit bouts of violence and infidelity (likely attributed to Bipolar Disorder) made an already volatile situation even worse. Relations strained to where at one point reportedly Casner (in a phone conversation to her grandparents) requested they "take her back". The resulting argument and refusal of Casner to apologize ended in her punching him in the face, resulting in a broken nose. Such injuries were common in their relationship however.

In 2006, Casner began dreaming a dream of creating his own MMORPG and after describing the idea to friends Rick Chidress, Chris "Alam" Flak and Trevor Travis, the group agreed to form Stainglass Llama LLC with "independently wealthy" Travis as the financier for the project. Casner began quickly putting the ideas and concepts he had amassed for years into form and gave it a name, "Divergence". This name would have a dual-nature, describing himself it's "mentally divergent" creator and also the game's (and subsequent IPs) underlying theme of a new vision of the future, and it's "divergence" from the path all others have traveled before it into something new and unseen.

2007-2008

.

"Sometimes, something happens to you that is so devastating that your life seems forever divided in half; That which came before, and that which has come since."

Casner's girlfriend and longtime fiancée at the time (name redacted), had been living together in a house they bought years before when the two finally split over her most recent affair, this time with one of Casner's closest friends. Although far from her first affair, this pushed Casner over the edge, sending him into a spiraling depression over the betrayal. Unable to eat due to Bleeding ulcers forming in his stomach, Casner's weight dropped to staggering lows as he grasped to come to terms with the obliteration of the life he knew previously. However his former fiancée would not go so easily. During this time she would make many attempts to regain him sometimes violently


As winter approached, Casner began to slowly regain his health and strength, however friends would note he was not the same person. After a brief interlude in November of 2007, Casner allowed her to revisit his life for Thanksgiving only to result in serious injury to both his eyes, nearly resulting in permanent blindness and crippling him for over a month. Ethan began working out intensely as a means of coping with depression and loss. The Ethan Casner that emerged in 2008 was far removed from the person friends and family had recalled.

By the time January of 2008 came around Casner had been spending every waking hour furiously constructing the framework for his most important project to date, Divergence and also a business entity to facilitate it's development, "Stainglass Llama". Casner began spending a fanatical-amount of hours devoting himself to the creation of his brave new world and all within it. He grew a beard and by this time relied completely on wearing glasses due to his severely-impaired vision. The subsequent world that was created in his mind slowly began to express itself more and more in the real world through the increased capabilities of Divergence: Online. For the first time, the character, places, and events taking place only in Casner's tortured mind were taking form and moving about. They were walking, talking, and rapidly growing.

During this time, Ethan's family began to show serious concern over his mental state. Their family's financial state had worsened which added to the already large weight of having little to show for two years of work due to a lack of funding. Ethan's brother, Miles, began to suspect Ethan of harboring symptoms of schizophrenia deriving from Ethan's speach and mannerisms. As Miles would allude, "It was the small things. You'd see him occasionally walk around something that wasn't there, lash out at a comment that nobody made... The worst part was, I started to suspect that he was, at least on some level, aware of what was happening to him. Like... he'd look like he was actively trying to ignore someone who was talking to him that you couldn't see or here. It was tough."

Later confronted about the issue, Casner reportedly began to weep openly and confess that he had begun heavy dosages of Sertraline (a potent antidepressant) and Seroquel (a powerful antipsychotic). What was worse was that he apparently had been having a mild allergic reaction to the [[Sertraline] resulting in "his entire face feeling like it's on fire". Casner however continued to take it in heavy dosage as between the two available medications, Casner reported they slightly lessened the ongoing sense of loss he felt on a daily basis. This diversion of emotional pain to physical pain, Casner stated "allowed him to function and do what he needed to do right now". However he agreed to stop taking Seroquel when he was convinced it was having a reverse affect on him, inducing medicinal psychosis.

2008-2010

Over a two-year span of time, Casner began to find success as a game developer however the snail's pace continued to take a sizable toll on his mental state. Although small-time angel investor's had come through, they were the only ones. In truth the large-scale funding Stainglass Llama had been promised never came through as Ethan began to fully accept that his longtime friend and colleague Trevor Travis was all but a fraud. Since 2006 in fact, Travis had been seeding Casner, Childress, and Flak that he was "independently wealthy" and wished to fully-fund the project provided ample time to liquidate his assets. However in almost three years time not a single penny had entered Stainglass Llama from Travis despite weekly reassurances. Upon realization of this reality, Childress and Flak both abandoned the project. Refusing to concede defeat, Casner alone soldiered on, re-filing Stainglass Llama LLC as Stainglass Llama Corp and refusing to miss a step despite an entire ocean of funding separating the project from completion.

Health

Main article: Robert E. Howard's health

Physically, Howard had a weak heart, which was treated by taking digitalis.[1] Diagnosis stated that his heart had a mild tendency to race under stress and a heavy blow to his chest could be fatal.[2][3] This almost happened in a traffic accident on December 29, 1933. However he escaped with just bruised ribs.[4][5]

Religious Views

Ethan refers to himself as a "Militant Atheist". Whereas many atheists actively avoid confrontation with religion and it's practitioners, Ethan is known for actively speaking out against this practice, which he believes to be a great apathy currently in the modern world. In Casner's opinion, the only way for the world to truly progress is to take an active approach towards stamping out religious beliefs founded on ancient superstitions which are no longer relevant. The methods of this ideology run the gambit from refusal to swear upon a Holy Bible in court proceedings to even the more overt, such as phasing out religious phrases such as "thank god" in everyday life.

This burning hatred of all theistic faiths is evident in virtually all of the projects and tasks Casner devotes himself to, even going so far as to remove all mention of a God or Deities from anything related to Divergence, even renaming commonly used words and phrases such as Christmas to Xmas.

To Casner, religious beliefs (especially Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) are at their least, embarrassing and at their worst, extremely detrimental to the evolution and growth of mankind as a species.

Casner openly endorses the practice of Church burnings and believes so long as the progressive and truly intelligent people of the world continue to tolerate well-known criminal organizations such as the Catholic Church, the evils of religion will continue.

Writing

Series and genre

Although he had his faults as a writer, Howard was a natural storyteller, whose narratives are unmatched for vivid, gripping, headlong action. His heroes ... are larger than life: men of mighty thews, hot passions, and indomitable will, who easily dominate the stories through which they stride. In fiction, the difference between a writer who is a natural storyteller and one who is not is like the difference between a boat that will float and one that will not. If the writer has this quality, we can forgive many other faults; if not, no other virtue can make up for the lack, any more than gleaming paint and sparkling brass on a boat make up for the fact that it will not float.

Howard's first real success was the Sailor Steve Costigan series of humorous short stories.[6] Howard wrote stories in many genres, but his most famous were Sword and Sorcery, a genre of fantasy based on history, action and the supernatural. Indeed, many consider him the father of the genre in the same way that J. R. R. Tolkien is considered the father of epic fantasy.[citation needed] Howard created one of the most popular of all fantasy characters in the barbarian warrior Conan[citation needed], whom he based on a Celtic warrior, drawing inspiration from his own Scottish Gaelic descent.[citation needed] Conan first appeared in December 1932.[citation needed] To add realism and depth to his new character, Howard developed the fictional Hyborian Age.[citation needed] His other characters include the Atlantean King Kull, the Puritan adventurer Solomon Kane, the Pict Bran Mak Morn, drawn from the pre-Gaelic people that inhabited Scotland till the early medieval period, and the female warriors Dark Agnes de la Fere and Red Sonya of Rogatino, the latter the prototype for the better known Red Sonja of Marvel Comics fame. Another barbarian hero, an Irishman named Cormac Mac Art, was descended from Kull and lived in the time of King Arthur (shown as a Romano-British warlord); he had a Dane friend called Wulfhere the Skull-Splitter.[citation needed]


Influence and influences

The oil boom in Texas was "one of the most powerful influences on [Howard's] life and art", albeit one that he hated. Howard grew to despise the oil industry along with everyone and everything associated with it. The oil boom heavily influenced Howard's view of civilization as a constant cycle of boom and bust in the same manner as the oil industry in contemporary Texas. A town such as Cross Plains was built by pioneers. The boom brought civilization in the form of people and investment but also social breakdown. The oil people contributed little or nothing to the town in the long term and eventually left for the next oil field. This led Howard to see civilization as corrupting and society as a whole in decay.[7][8]


Themes

Multiple themes appear in Howard's works. Direct experience of the oil booms in early twentieth century Texas tainted Howard's view of civilization. The benefits of progress came with lawlessness and corruption.[9] One of the most common themes in Howard's writing is based on his view of history, a repeating patter of civilizations reaching their peak, becoming decadent, decaying and are then being conquered by another people. Many of his works are set in the period of decay or among the ruins the dead civilization leaves behind.[10] The Kull stories contain a constant theme of the confining nature of laws and customs.[11] "Howard wrote about rebellion and throwing out the rules of society to make an ideal life for oneself."[12] Howard's heroes are usually Irish and Howard himself was proud of his Irish heritage.[13] Even Howard's non-Western stories nevertheless draw heavily on the traditions and style of Western fiction.[14] One of his favorite themes was that of past lives and reincarnation.[15] Howard's later fiction often includes a damsel in distress to add sex appeal to the story. This addition was likely an effort to earn the stories the honor of being illustrated on the publishing magazine's cover. A story with a cover illustration would normally earn an extra payment on top of the initial sale.[16]

References

  1. ^ Lord (1976, p. 77)
  2. ^ Lord (1976, p. 77)
  3. ^ Burke (¶ 13)
  4. ^ Lord (1976, p. 76)
  5. ^ Burke (¶ 40)
  6. ^ Finn (2006, p. 66)
  7. ^ Finn (2006, pp. 12, 49–50, 181)
  8. ^ Burke (¶ 6)
  9. ^ Finn (2006, pp. 49–50)
  10. ^ Finn (2006, pp. 78–79)
  11. ^ Burke (¶ 22)
  12. ^ Finn (2006, pp. 187)
  13. ^ Finn (2006, p. 80)
  14. ^ Finn (2006, pp. 115, 173, 203)
  15. ^ Finn (2006, p. 161)
  16. ^ Finn (2006, p. 173)

Sources

  • Blosser, Fred (1997), "The Star Rover and 'The People of the Night'", The Dark Man (4): 16–18
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Divergenceeditor1/Ethan Casner.
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Robert Ervin Howard
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Biography

Scholarly sources

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