Midian

Midian was the city of monsters. Located east of Peace River, near Shere Neck, north of Dwyer in the province of Alberta it was an isolated place. Approaching the town named Midian it looks to be yet another abandoned mining settlement of the far north. On the other side of a slight rise lies the cemetery, a complex of tombs at least as large as the town itself, massively larger than a town of Midian’s size could ever have required.

It is under the cemetery that the true city of Midian exists. There are two access points, a large double gate facing the town and a small side gate in another wall. Inside there were tombs and crypts of every size and style. Built by the Nightbreed that were the residents of the city. Unfortunately most of it was destroyed in an assault by local law enforcement and residents.

Clive Barker described Midian in the book Cabal. There is also a movie by the same writer, but with the name Nightbreed.

Midian

The 2002 studio release from the gothic, black metal band Cradle of Filth.

Track Listing:


1. At The Gates Of Midian
2. Cthulhu Dawn
3. Saffron's Curse
4. Death Magick For Adepts
5. Lord Abortion
6. Amor E Morte
7. Creatures That Kissed In Cold Mirrors
8. Her Ghost In The Fog
9. Satanic Mantra
10. Tearing The Veil From Grace
11. Tortured Soul Asylum

This is the album usually referred to potential fans as a first time experience with Cradle of Filth. This entire opus is based partially on the fabled(?) city of Midian and partially on necrophilic poetry. This album was quite a change for Cradle of Filth due to the fact that it is a bit more processed (digitally) than any of their previous releases. This 2000 release has gained new fans and dismissed old alike. I personally believe that this is one of their better works.

The real Midian, if anything was, was a land on the Red Sea, presumably part of the Sinai Peninsula, at the time of the captivity of the Hebrews in Egypt. In Exodus 2 and Exodus 3 it is told how Moses, at first found in a bulrushes and brought up as an Egyptian prince, kills an Egyptian and flees to the land of Midian.

Here he meets seven daughters of the local priest, called Reuel in Exodus 2 and Jethro a few verses later at the beginning of Exodus 3. He fends off some local shepherds preventing the girls from drawing water form the wells, and in gratitude he gets invited to meet Dad. The upshot is that Reuel or Jethro gives him his daughter Zipporah to wife. Moses had two sons by Zipporah and entered the shepherding business. The Bible does not appear to record whether he then adopted the local custom of scaring away virgins from wells.

After forty years of tending sheep in Midian, he was up on Mount Horeb when he noticed a burning bush. The life of a shepherd is a model of tedium and unvaryingness, so he noticed little things, did Moses, like a bush burning and not being consumed. The bush then spoke to him, claiming to be God. If this had been a Warner Brothers cartoon, Moses would have whipped the bottle of Old Overcoat out of his shepherd's scrip, smashed it on a rock, and hastily recited a pledge; but it was the Bible so Moses took the God idea seriously.

Moses, Zipporah, and the kids returned to Egypt and his brother Aaron to lead the Israelites out of bondage, away from the plagues, through the Red Sea, and so on.

Just as he's leaving Midian, God tries to kill him. His wife prevents this by circumcising their son. It doesn't say why: perhaps his first reaction had been to ditch the Old Overcoat.

Read about it in the Bible here on E2, or look at
www.interhack.net/projects/library/antiquities-jews/b2c11.html
for the version told by the ancient historian Flavius Josephus.

Address: midianmud.com
Portal: 3456

It is common for a MUD to die - it is almost unheard of for a MUD to make a comeback.
But Midian: Funnest Mud of All is doing just that.

The MUD began in 1990, before surfin' the 'net was a phrase. In its first incarnation, it lasted until 1994, when its server went down in the USA. It existed for a couple of years as a memory on Yahoo groups - until as much of the original code could be brought together.
Early 2002, it spent a short burst of it's revival in Sweden, but now it exists again in the USA - not quite restored to its former glory yet.

Things that make Midian stand out:

• There is no PK. When Midian began, there was no PK - and many MUDs were in this category. But slowly, as the wheels of time rolled on, more and more MUDs succumbed to PK in various forms. Midian stood firm. Not registered or free-for-all PK entered the MUD.
• It uses LPC code. LPMuds were very common in the early 1990s. But now, MUD's have much more sophisticated underlying code. But the ideas are what make Midian great.
• The essence of fun. Midian is kooky and fun. An important social tradition of Midian is the Midian MUDwedding - you haven't seen a MUDwedding, until you've been to one on Midian. No doubt, when the player base picks up, so will the number of weddings. (These are not to be taken seriously - although there have been times when that has happened... but Midian will not be held responsible for the outcome of any such action/understanding.)
• But most importantly, it's the players and the ideas they bring to the MUD that make it so different.

For those of you who are interested in independent film making, I just saw a screener for a new movie in La Crosse, WI called Midian. It was the first motion picture from the midwest and it was really good! You'd expect some kind of hillbilly tarantino rip-off, but it wasn't. I heard it cost them 250k to make and they used all local talent.

The director is Reuben James Steindorf, a La Crosse native. He wrote the script, directed and produced it. They plan to get it out to 154 film festivals in 2006, so most likely, it will be in your town soon enough. There is a guy named Igor who is the world's 2nd tallest man, and he is carrying around these rocket launchers on his arms, literally knocking attack helicopters out of the sky. Pretty intense.

Midian is quickly getting national attention and I hear the director is keeping the final version for only private showing up until the end of January where he is gonna release it in the local theatres again. After all, they sold out all of the shows the last time. Is Mr. Steindorf box office gold? We'll see soon.

Here's a couple links I found on the Movie:

www.alienglaive.com

www.wpr.org/news/midian.cfm

www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=14980