Jumpin’ Jack Tash

Here’s some more depictions I found of Narnia’s favorite baddie, Tash!

The illustration above, by Trenton Long, adheres both to the book and Pauline Baynes’ iconic illustration. Tall, skinny, with man-snatching Bandersnatch claws, plus that pectoral collar and scraggly loincloth. The head is more pterosaur-like than avian, but his expression says he’s full of evil business.

This Tash has the head of a … Canadian Goose? And he’s in Native American garb. Granted, maybe he’s not a real Tash, but he sure has the malice and energy of one.

A somber Tash with human hands walks through a silent forest.

Artwork by Alejindio

A simple yet effective cartoon Tash with red glowing eyes.

Tash from a book cover. In fact, he’s the STAR of the book cover, not sissy Jewel the unicorn or the Doorframe of the Apocalypse ASlan creates as the world is ending. He has a writhing Rishda firmly in his grasp.

Art by Joanna Simon

Tash’s head in detail. Looks a bit like a Skeksis, no? But since the Dark Crystal came much later than The Last Battle, it’s likely Jim Henson cribbed from C. S. Lewis’s description, not the other way around.

A hairy Tash without his usual ceremonial wardrobe. He’s shadowy so you can see through him.

Artwork by Joanna Simon

Another Tash that adheres closely to Baynes’ version.

Art by Julianna Mateja

Concept art for a Tash who has a toucan’s beak, or maybe a flamingo’s beak, in Polish. In the largest sketch he looks like he’s taking a dump in a  sack, but I think the yellowish cloud was meant to depict his foul odor, which, if you’ve read The Last Battle closely, almost made Jill faint.

Art by Tomato Bird

 

A linocut Tash with eyes on his wings.

 

Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/3/26: What’s New in Narniaworld for 2026 (Narnia LXXV)

What new things have been planned for Narniaworld for the Summer of 2026?

First of all, the Fire Festival! Based on Edinburgh’s world-famous solstice celebration, this event is for one night only, the shortest one of the year in fact. A parade, stilt-walkers, dancers, acrobats, fire jugglers and the like will entertain guests from sunset into the wee hours of the night, culminating with the marriage of the White Lady and the Green Man! Aslan, Bacchus, and maenads, nymphs and dryads will make appearances as well. All family-friendly and free with admission to the park. Tickets for this event are selling out fast so be sure to get yours now!

Difficulties with the current economy have meant the park could not add new attractions as quickly as was thought. A mermaid show planned to open this year has been delayed, as well as the water park renovation. Admissions costs have also increased as has the price of food, sad to say. But return visitors will still find new things to entertain them.

The Tisroc’s Baths have a new addition, a special section for small children (with parents of course.)

There’s a new addition to the roaming performers entertaining the campgrounds at night: Queen Prunaprismia, who will give hilarious lessons on proper etiquette at court.

A new shop has opened: The Well-stocked Wardrobe.  This store sells clothing items, everything from Narniaworld rain ponchos for inclement weather days to (fake of course!) fur coats, English wool sweaters, dryad scarves, adventuring buskins, and royal crowns. It’s located inside the Queen Charlotte Hotel.

 

Previous Narniaworld posts:

Narniaworld, Part 1 (Food)

Narniaworld, Part 2 (Rides)

Narniaworld, Part 3 (Shows and events)

Narniaworld, Part 4 (Shopping)

Narniaworld, Part 5 (Guest Services)

Narniaworld Extra Credit (AI generations of the park)

What’s New in Narniaworld for 2025

Narniaworld Water Park 

 

Summer of Narnia 2026

Stained glass window depicting Charles Williams (at top) Owen Barfield (right), C. S. Lewis (bottom), and J. R. R. Tolkien (left.) All were members of The Inklings. 

The Summer of Narnia begins yet again. This year, there’s plenty of excitement as Greta Garwig’s Magician’s Nephew movie continues to film and interest in Narnia is again beginning to crest.

Above is a stained glass designed by Marc Burckhardt depicted the Inklings’ best known members. Williams and Barfield are less known than the two writers, but perhaps they shouldn’t be. They likely had a huge unsaid influence on both men.

 

Speaking of stained glass, to the left is a window from St. George’s Episcopal Church in Dayton, Ohio. It depicts Lewis with a rocket ship, imp, and lion, representing his Planets Trilogy, Screwtape Letters, and Narnia series, respectively.

You can see all the windows, some of which depict modern figures such as Lewis, here.

BTW, the shield the lion is holding is that of Oxford University, where Lewis once taught.

 

Worldbuilding Wednesday 5/26/26: Magic of the Five Senses (The Box of Breath Weaponry)

A box designed for adventuring (AI art)

I’m giving this magic item of the Taste School its own entry, because frankly it’s such a neat concept.

One of best-known enchanted items native to the Five Senses magic system, The Box of Breath Weaponry  comes in many sizes and shapes. Basically, it’s a lidded or latched container, of any shape, divided into at least four, and often as many as twelve, partitions. Each partition is magicked to keep a certain food fresh and intact and dweomers it with powerful properties.  For when chewed by the case’s owner, the tidbits enable them to use different kinds of breath weapons.

Some of the foods, and the effects of their consumption, are thus.

Banana peel: Tripping and falling gas

Chicken: Fear gas

Chili pepper: Fire

Cookie and milk / Chamomile herbs: Sleeping gas

Dried peas: Fog cloud

Garlic: Repulsion gas

Honey: A swarm of angry bees

Ice cube: Cold / Blizzard cloud

Salt / Pretzels: Makes victims very thirsty

Mushrooms: Invisible cloud that causes hallucinations

Olive pits: Choking gas

Limberger cheese: Stinking gas

Onion:  Tear gas

Vinegar: Acid cloud

Chocolate covered cherries: Opponents develop a deep affection towards the user, in effect “falling in love” with them

Black pepper: Gas that causes foes to sneeze

Squid: A dense, black cloud forms which is impossible to see through

Wine: Opponents become very drunk

Rock candy: Turns opponents to stone

Breath mints: Magically refreshes the user’s breath after using all the different breath weapons.

There are many more foods and effects, of course, depending on the box’s creator. The magic is native to the box, so the compartments must contain whatever food it was created to hold.

The box can be made of any material and contain any food (AI art)

Except where noted, gaseous weapons are invisible and take effect 4′ from the user, coalescing into a 10′ x 10′ x 10′ cloud, while the cold and fire ones form a cone.

The appearance of the box depends on its daily use. It may be small and plebian, designed for travel, or the size of a briefcase and ornately decorated. Most boxes contain only one use of each food, but depending on the mage who made it, there could be up to four. Those unfamiliar with the item often assume it’s a scribe’s workbox or cosmetic case.

Some boxes can be real luxury items (AI art)

Only a mage of the School of Taste is able to restock and re-magic a depleted box.

Worldbuilding Wednesday 5/20/26: Magic of the Five Senses (The School of Taste)

Instruction in the School of Taste (AI art)

At any Five Senses university, the School of Taste is the largest and most profitable, a cash cow, one might say, to support the other four.

It is also the school with the most non-mage students. Aspiring chef apprentices as well as seasoned masters from all over the world enroll to develop and train their taste buds. A fair amount of herbalists and pharmacists are students too, along with agriculture specialists who cultivate new crops and livestock, and vintners and sommeliers round out the enrollment.

Unlike the other schools, the School of Taste has a two-year curriculum. The first year concentrates on the basics. Each type of taste — sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and umami — receives its own class, as well as one on heat (chilis and the like) and one on texture. The anatomy of the mouth and tongue comprises another course, and the act of digestion, one more. This first year is useful enough on its own, but students have the option to continue their schooling with a second year where they apply their new found skills in an actual cooking school. First year graduates are known as Culinarists, second year ones, Cuisinists.

Two of the delightful dishes created by graduates of the School of Taste.

Students who opt for a magical path must pass both years before learning Taste magic, making this one of the more difficult and time-consuming schools of magic. Graduates are known as Gustamancers and are comparatively rare in Five Senses magic, yet are highly employable by houses of royalty and wealthy aristocrats who seek to outdo each other with lavish banquets. Many Gustomancers also go into business for themselves, often specializing in potion creation and sellers of fancy foodstuffs.

It’s common for a Gustomancer to take on Aromamancer certification as well.

Would-be Gustomancers learn the following:

  • Enhancing / changing one’s own sense of taste
  • Enhancing / changing other beings’ sense of taste
  • Creating false tastes, taste illusions, or adding taste to existing illusions
  • Endowing flavors with magical qualities
  • Using the unique tastes of food or other items as spell components
  • Creating magic items that employ the sense of taste, food most importantly, but potions and medicines as well
  • Magical means of preserving food
  • Magic involving the tongue, mouth, and digestive system

Gustomancers are often derided for being useless or weak in adventuring situations, but the truth is they have plenty of offensive spells that target the mouth, bowels, and stomach at their disposal. Learning other magic is possible using spells modified to include elements of taste, such as a Summon Fire Elemental spell that  uses five  different kinds of rare chili peppers. As with the other sense schools, schooling for the mage must be taken in order and uninterrupted over the term or it is considered invalid.

The School of Taste contains both classrooms and kitchen facilities and is likely to consume a large part of whatever spices, meat, and produce come into its locale. In the basement area ice rooms and pantries, and there is a library of cookbooks, culinary histories, and cooking techniques. Guest lecturers from other lands and races are common.

The crest for this school is a stylized mouth and tongue (similar to the Rolling Stones logo.)

 

(c) 2026 Cobalt Jade

Ringo!

Found on Reddit — AI art

An AI creation, of course. Notice that Ringo doesn’t look much like Ringo. But delightful nonetheless.

 

Worldbuilding Wednesday 4/8/26: Magic of the Five Senses (Taste)

I love generating pictures of cute dogs seated at the dinner table. (AI art)

Though The School of Taste belongs to the three minor sense schools, along with Smell and Touch, it is by far the most popular and generates the most income for the greater college. Why? Because of the quality of its culinary instruction, which creates the world’s finest chefs and chef-mages, professions highly in demand among the wealthy and members of nobility.

Chef-mages are considered careerists and are not found amongst adventurers except in rare cases. Often they are Aromamancers as well, or have graduated the School of Taste as part of their mastery of all five senses. But, it’s also not unheard of for a mage to consider this their basic school, in which case they are known as Gustomancers or Gourmancers, depending on their orientation.

Some may considered the magic of this school weak or frivolous, but it also contains many powerful and unique spells, such as the ones below.

 

Magic of the Five Senses: Taste

Spells Bitter Truth: Spell that creates a bitter taste in the caster’s mouth whenever they hear a lie. Useful in interrogations.

Detect Magic: The School of Taste version of the smell requires the mage to touch their tongue to the item or just stick it out to taste the general atmosphere. The taste also carries the strength of the magic,  which school it belongs to, and its orientation (neutral, malign, or beneficial). Use of this spell over many years causes the mage to develop it innately.

Glassify Food Item: Changes a food into a lovely edible glass and gem sculpture without affecting its taste or nutritional value. The sound of cutlery slicing into it induces such pleasure beings will forget about anything other than eating it and chewing each bite slowly in ecstasy. Afterwards, they develop a craving for more and with this addiction are brought under the influence of the mage.

Salt Egg: Cantrip that sprinkles just the right amount of salt on a hard-boiled egg to make it tasty.

Sourpatch: Makes any drink, even magic potions, taste mouth-puckeringly sour.

Sweet Words of Nothing: Cast on small candies, this spell wraps them in shimmering pastel cellophane on which is written a simple action-oriented, but nonviolent, command of up to four words: Go Away, Put Down Your Weapons, and the like. The command is activated when the recipient tastes the candy, not before.

Transform Clay into Cheese: Works on up to one pound of clay. The clay still looks like clay, but tastes like cheese and has its texture.
Magic Items
 Chalice of the Sommelier: This golden cup gives the drinker the skill to know the vintage of any kind of wine and how much it is worth.

Gagblade: A magical dagger that overwhelms its victim with the taste of the worst thing they’ve ever eaten, causing their attack and defense scores to go down.

Heart of The Cobbler: A smooth red gem that will transform any unappetizing food into a hot fresh fruit cobbler.

Hunger of The Gargoyle: A curse that instills in the target a desire to eat rocks and stones, which they think has the most delicious taste ever, over regular food. Needless to say, unless the curse is removed they will eventually die.

The Phoenix Forge: A small, gold-plated, portable stove, beautifully embellished with bird imagery, that cooks any kind of food in under three minutes.

Ring of Proboscidean Refreshment: Creates enough nutritious food to feed an elephant or elephant-like creature for one meal. Includes mammoths, mastodons, and mumakil as well as fantastic elephantine creatures like Ganesha, Grootslangs, and Baku. The ring is made of silver in the shape of a dozen elephants holding each others’ tails with their trunks.

Tongue Sheathe: A thin, flexible piece of metallic foil that encases the mage’s tongue. It enhances the sense of taste, enabling them to detect poisons, impurities, and magical residue in foods without harm to themselves.
Special Magic Item:

Box of Breath Weaponry: This useful container contains a number of foods the owner can chew on to create different effects. Full description here. 

Worldbuilding Wednesday 3/18/26: Old Christian Sects and Denominations

I’m gonna do something different this week. Religious sects! Christian ones specifically.

There are, and were, dozens, and hundreds, of these. A lot of them arose in the early days of the Catholic Church when it was spreading rapidly and there was no central authority to set the dogma in stone. Thus we get Gnosticism, which was pretty popular for a time, popular enough to generate its own gospels, and Nestorianism which led to the formation of The Church of the East. Later on, the Protestant Reformation came along to further muddy the waters.

This is all fascinating stuff and too much for me to do a deep dive into right now. But if you need an obscure Christian sect for a Dan Brown-like historical-religious thriller, take a look at these.

(I found the painted icon above very odd in how the triplet Christlike figures have triangular halos, not round ones, and the symbolism they sport on each breast. Plus, the painting style reminds me of Talavera pottery!)

 

Old Christian Sects and Denominations

Heresy of the Arian Psyrines

The Narasdites

Independent Holy See of Chaldea

Triathrines

Old Gothic Ochrii

The Orthodox Utheans

The Immersionists

Holymines

 Clay Vessels of Jerusalem

The Euthyric Cult

The Luminists

The Scrollkeepers of Antioch

Deusists

Splendid Brethren

Ans Retaci Templars

Hectorites of Israel