"When DangerZone Industries released the latest and greatest Virtual Reality MMORPG, James, and millions of other virtual reality players, sought purpose and self-definition in this new world. The tag line 'Live the life your soul was meant for,' captured the hearts and minds of his entire generation. 'The Land' was the largest and most dynamic virtual reality world of all time. As such, James and his friends devoted countless hours to become one of the top teams in the game. None of that mattered after James was actually summoned to this strange world. To his dread, he discovered The Land was not an engrossing game. It was a horrific struggle of life and death. James will have to fight, and kill, in order to survive while becoming embroiled in an age-old war between sprites and goblins, avoiding the machinations of the local king and helping an enslaved woman know freedom once again." --

The Acclaimed Debut Novel of the Best Selling Chaos Seeds Saga A mesmerizing tale reminiscent of the wonder of Ready Player One and the adventure of Game of Thrones #1 Audiobook 2017 #1 in Cyberpunk and Video Game Fantasy Over Five THOUSAND positive reviews on Goodreads Welcome my friends! Welcome... to "The Land!" Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons, goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Land and begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land, with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter's destruction. Can Richter forge allegiances to survive this harsh and unforgiving world or will he fall to the dark denizens of this ancient and unforgiving realm? A tale to shake "The Land" itself, measuring 10/10 on the Richter scale, how will Richter's choices shape the future of The Land and all who reside in it? Can he grow his power to meet the deadliest of beings of the land? When choices are often a shade of grey, how will Richter ensure he does not become what he seeks to destroy? ps - Gnomes Rule

Welcome to Long Awaited seventh novel of the Best Selling LitRPG Saga, Chaos Seeds, by Aleron Kong. A mesmerizing tale reminiscent of the wonder of Ready Player One and the adventure of Game of Thrones #1 in Epic Fantasy -- #1 in Cyberpunk -- #1 in Video Game Fantasy In The Land: Predators, the Mist Village has harnessed its power. Core buildings, Professional fighters and now, their own Dungeon, the settlement is primed to grow into a kingdom of true power and magic. The path to power has not been without risk, however. The MistVillage has been noticed. Evil nobles from the Kingdom of Law, bloodthirsty goblins fromthe Serrated Mountains, an undead lord with a penchant for human sacrifice and fanatical kobolds from the Depths, all plot the village's destruction. The predators are circling. Richter's people are horribly outnumbered by foes whose own power has been entrenched for thousands of years. Richter and Sion need to be stronger than ever before. Luckily, they are. New skills have been learned, stronger enchantments have been wrought and the hundreds of villagers have answered the call to adventure. The Companions do not stand alone. While many eyes have turned towards the mists, wanting to take the treasures within, the Mist Village stares back with a simple message. Come and get it!

The first book that deals with the territorial cults of early Japan by focusing on how such cults were founded in ownerless regions. Numerous ancient Japanese myths and legends are discussed to show that the typical founding ritual was a two-phase ritual that turned the territory into a horizontal microcosm, complete with its own ‘terrestrial heaven’ inhabited by local deities. Reversing Mircea Eliade’s popular thesis, the author concludes that the concept of the human-made horizontal microcosm is not a reflection but the source of the religious concept of the macrocosm with gods dwelling high up in the sky. The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

The well-known historian and political scientist Zeev Sternhell here advances a radically new interpretation of the founding of modern Israel. The founders claimed that they intended to create both a landed state for the Jewish people and a socialist society. However, according to Sternhell, socialism served the leaders of the influential labor movement more as a rhetorical resource for the legitimation of the national project of establishing a Jewish state than as a blueprint for a just society. In this thought-provoking book, Sternhell demonstrates how socialist principles were consistently subverted in practice by the nationalist goals to which socialist Zionism was committed. Sternhell explains how the avowedly socialist leaders of the dominant labor party, Mapai, especially David Ben Gurion and Berl Katznelson, never really believed in the prospects of realizing the "dream" of a new society, even though many of their working-class supporters were self-identified socialists. The founders of the state understood, from the very beginning, that not only socialism but also other universalistic ideologies like liberalism, were incompatible with cultural, historical, and territorial nationalism. Because nationalism took precedence over universal values, argues Sternhell, Israel has not evolved a constitution or a Bill of Rights, has not moved to separate state and religion, has failed to develop a liberal concept of citizenship, and, until the Oslo accords of 1993, did not recognize the rights of the Palestinians to independence. This is a controversial and timely book, which not only provides useful historical background to Israel's ongoing struggle to mobilize its citizenry to support a shared vision of nationhood, but also raises a question of general significance: is a national movement whose aim is a political and cultural revolution capable of coexisting with the universal values of secularism, individualism, and social justice? This bold critical reevaluation will unsettle long-standing myths as it contributes to a fresh new historiography of Zionism and Israel. At the same time, while it examines the past, The Founding Myths of Israel reflects profoundly on the future of the Jewish State.