The First Shrike

The First Shrike Poems

The First Shrike Biography

If You Only Knew (seperates he from me) The Shrike appears in all of the Hyperion books and is something of an enigma; its true purpose isn't 'revealed' until the second book, but even then it is left a malleable purpose. In fact, this explanation is changed significantly in the latter two books (The Endymion duology) . The Shrike appears to act both autonomously and as a servant of some unknown force or entity, and in the first two Hyperion books, exists solely in the area around the Time Tombs on the planet Hyperion. In the latter two, it is effectively unfettered. [edit] Physical Description The Shrike stands roughly three meters in height and is described as being composed of razorwire, thorns, blades, and cutting edges, having fingers like scalpels and long, curved toeblades. It is basically a gigantic, bladed killing machine. The Shrike weighs over a ton, though it is apparently capable of modifying its density as it sees fit. Though metallic in appearance ('quicksilver over chrome') , the Shrike is also described as an 'organic' machine, humanoid in a general way, but with four 'oddly jointed' arms and intense, multi-faceted ruby eyes. According to all descriptions, the Shrike is immensely horrifying to behold, extremely large, covered in blades and other cutting utensils, strangely quicksilver-shifty to look upon, and essentially something straight out of the most demented nightmares. Upon suffering injury in combat, the Shrike is seen to lose a large amount of cabling likened to intestines, but in no way loses its abilities as a result. [edit] Abilities The Shrike communicates exclusively through pain and death. Throughout the books it is apparent that the Shrike can travel through time, appearing to move much faster than light and appearing to exist everywhere simultaneously if it desires. The Shrike was at one point assumed to be a prisoner of the Hyperion time tombs' anti-entropic fields (the 'time tides') , but as these began to degrade, the Shrike ranged farther and farther and eventually was observed on other planets elsewhere in the galaxy. Preferring to perform vivisections on its victims, the Shrike generally 'appears' near its victims and blinks about them before killing them in a flash of opening flesh and gore; sometimes it leaves its victims alive and transports them to an eternity of impalement upon an enormous artificial 'tree of thorns' in Hyperion's distant future. The tree of thorns is described as unimaginably large, alive with the agonized writhing of countless human victims of all ages and races. The Shrike proves to be more than competent at hand-to-hand combat; it is itself a gigantic cutting utensil capable of manipulating time itself. [edit] Origin Surrounded in complete mystery, the object of fear, hatred, and even worship (by members of the Church of the Final Atonement, AKA the 'Shrike Cult') , the Shrike's origins are as uncertain as are its purpose and its abilities. It is suggested in the books that the Shrike was actually a creation of a distant-future computer god, the Ultimate Intelligence, or UI, which was the end-result of countless years of TechnoCore research and effort. The UI, however, was not the only 'god' to be created - humanity and other conscious life eventually spawned its own god. The UI and the human god apparently strove with one another before the empathy part of the human god fled back in time. The UI then created the Shrike and sent it back to create suffering by impaling people on its tree of thorns, in the hopes that when enough human suffering was harvested and sustained on the tree of thorns, the human god would emerge from hiding and respond to all the pain broadcast by the Shrike's tree. The results of this are not discussed in-depth in the books. In a somewhat different explanation offered in The Rise of Endymion, The Shrike has a connection to a TechnoCore sect called the Reapers, the original programs designed to provide evolutionary pressure on the hyperlife Core entities. The Reapers' motivations are, again, unclear - though in the latter two books, when the connection to the Reapers is made clear, the Shrike acts as a protector of Aenea against the Core assassins. The actual controlling persona of the Shrike is, in fact, taken from that of its nemesis Fedmahn Kassad, the warrior who ultimately defeats it. It is unclear whether this applies to the legions of Shrikes existing by the time of Kassad's final battle, some time in the distant future, or solely to the original Shrike. Top that for imagination.....lol For imaniation is all it is)

The Best Poem Of The First Shrike

I Did Not Write This

People come into your life for a reason
a season or a lifetime

When you know which one it is
you will know what to do for that
person

When someone is in your life for a
reason
it is usually to meet
a need you have
expressed

They have come to assist you through
a difficulty to provide you
with guidance and support
to aid you physically
emotionally or
spiritually

They may seem like a
godsend and they are

They are there for the reason
you need them to be

Then without any wrongdoing
on your part or at an
inconvenient time
this person will say
or do something
to bring the
relationship
to an end

Sometimes they die
Sometimes they
walk away

Sometimes they act up
and force
you to take a
stand

What we must realize
is that our need
has been met
our desire
fulfilled
their work
is done

The prayer
you sent up
has been
answered
now it is
time to
move on

Some people
come into your
life
for a
season
because your turn
has
come to share
grow or learn

They bring you an experience
of peace or make you laugh

They may teach
you something
you have
never done

They usually give you
an unbelievable
amount of joy

Believe it
it is real
But only
for a
season

Lifetime relationships
teach you lifetime
lessons
things you
must
build upon
in order to have
a solid
emotional
foundation

Your job
is to accept
the lesson
love the person
and put what you
have learned to use
in all other
relationships
and areas
of your life

It is said that love
is blind
but friendship
is clairvoyant.

Thank you for being
a part of my life
whether
you were
a reason
a
season
or a
lifetime

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