Post-Synopsis

By now you’ve hopefully been reading and enjoying the Endosym scifi/mystery series. A least you have read to this point in my blog, so something must be right.

My goal was to develop a series of novels involving a creature both human and something else. When I first started looking at the idea of an endosym, I was looking at demonic possession — maybe mixing religion and the supernatural with the demon running the show, kind of like the movie, “The Exorcist”. Although I have been careful to make each book stand on its own, for the full impact, the complete series provides far more “bang for the buck”.

In book one you are introduced to the characters and teased about this whole endosym thing. Although the West Africa stuff may seem a bit far out, bear in mind that I spent two Army tours of duty in Liberia, including one solitary year in the jungles living with the native peoples. A LOT of this stuff is based in reality! Hard-to-believe stuff. Scary stuff.

In book two you see humans running the show, and not the demon. We see the endosym named Sarday trying to open a portal to the demon world, allowing more of his ilk to travel here — to possess more humans. Lets just say the “stuff” now hits the fan.

In book three we find that Sarday’s portal is between earth and a planet in a distant galaxy, where the demons live. I even add a romance between two endosyms.

An endosym is more than just a magic thing, more than a spiritual demon — it’s actually the culmination of an other-worldly being melding with a human. Consider the following when contemplating the nature of endosyms and what they do:

1. Endosyms have been around for centuries;
2. Stories about vampires, werewolves, wacky leaders (think Hitler; Mussolini; Stalin, etc …) may in fact be about endosyms;
3. The endosym is a hybrid creature, both human and demon;
4. Once a human and demon combine they cannot be separated, except by death. When the human dies the demon cannot maintain its existence very long and it, too faces death;
5. Endosyms are not all created equal: A Priest. A mayor. An army officer. The Speaker of the House of Representatives. A President;
6. Depending on the intellect of the possessed human, some endosyms, even though both human and demon are not capable of making big decisions or running complex organizations;
7. The endosyms can communicate telepathically with other endosyms. However, the distance between the endosyms is limited. They can’t communicate by thought between cities or countries;
8. Endosyms can read the thoughts of most humans in close proximity. The Zoutari can block their thoughts from the endosyms. Likewise, they can’t read Anaya’s thoughts;
9. Endosyms are more powerful than humans. They can also increase their strength when they consume the essence of a human that they kill. Killing and absorbing the essence of the dying person gives them not only a heroin-like fix, but also makes them stronger;
10. Endosyms can hide their presence from the general public, co-workers and even their families. Only the Zoutari and Amy (aka Anaya) can see their aura. Of course, endosyms can recognize one another;
11. When the demon and human combine to become an endosym, there is a battle between the demon and the endosym to determine who dominates;
12. A narcissistic, autocratic and unscrupulous human makes the best endosym. A person wanting to control others at any cost is the ideal candidate. For example, the endosym that was a friend of Joe Weah’s dad is The Chief of Staff of the Liberian Army. He had no problem staging a coup. I’m guessing he wanted to be in charge;
13. Endosyms can grant power or strength to humans that serve them — followers. Without getting into religious philosophies or anything else, for whatever reason, endosyms can allow a follower to become more powerful. I’m guessing they enhance their followers’ brainpower, making them capable of physical feats — kind of like the story of a mother lifting a car off of her child, exhibiting superhuman strength;
14. Unfortunately, being a follower of an endosym can have a bad side effect: they can become zombie-like. In book two, Brian Bishop, the Chief of Police of Johnsonville, Virginia, and Tim Martin, fought dozens of followers of an endosym. The followers continued to attack, unarmed and even fatally wounded. They kept coming until they bled out and died. The only way to stop them was a heart or head shot;
15. Humans under an endosym’s power are not only stronger, but they can take a tremendous amount of abuse before they actually succumb. Obviously, that makes it extremely difficult to destroy the endosyms and their followers;
16. Finally, endosyms can live an extremely long time, maybe hundreds of years. The endosym in book three was alive during the Revolutionary War. Yet, becoming an endosym doesn’t make them grow younger. Rather, they cease aging from the time they become an endosym.