Saturday, March 8, 2014

In-class prompt - First two paragraphs of biography: Ziltoid the Omniscient

Last class, we were given a prompt to write the first to paragraphs of the biography of either a person we knew or a fictional character. I chose to write about Ziltoid the Omniscient, a ridiculous character created by musician Devin Townsend.


Ziltoid "the omniscient" always had trouble escaping his caste. No matter how many third-dimensional planets he conquered, no matter how great his taste in coffee - always black - was, and no matter how much time he spent practicing shredding his 7-string, he would always be known as a try-hard nerd in the fourth-dimensional planet of Ziltoidia-9. One might be able to notice Ziltoid's nerdiness upon first meeting him, but it took one ridiculous plan and one determined human to break Ziltoid's facade and expose the "omniscient" being as a nerd; a fourth-dimensional nerd, but one nonetheless.


Ziltoid was born on the fourth-dimensional planet Ziltoida-5, the first child of a middle-class family. Ziltoid's parents would always support him, regardless of the ridiculousness of his ideas. When Ziltoid went to school, his peers either uncomfortably ignored him or downright made fun of him; in any case, from childhood Ziltoid thought himself superior to his peers, and always spoke using a somewhat out-of-place vocabulary. Ziltoid made few friends through school; he filled the void of loneliness with obscene amounts of black coffee and hours upon hours of practicing shredding on a 7-string guitar. It was his passion for somewhat-atonal music that led him to form his high school band: The Gravy Killers.