Perhaps it is the truest measure of a society- their artwork. It exhibits the denizens' hopes and dreams. and just like their ideals and desires, it is both easily purchased and easily crushed.

Exhibit C: The AEtheric Flux Agitator, Mark II
Commentary: Lord Richard Crust
Dictated to: Jawaharal Lakshamanan, June 5, Year of our lord 1807

<I can never tell when he is coughing or cackling.> Oh, Jay, old boy, it looks like our faith in A.R. White has finally paid off. Take this down. Oh. You're already writing. Seems that your mystic powers have come in handy after all. <I find his notions that everyone from India has mystic powers to be insulting and innacurate.>

Recently, our dullard of an artistic charge came into posession of a rather ridiculous shipment from his fool of a father. According to legend, his father stumbled upon a cursed diamond somewhere in South America, and rather than sell the damnable thing, he attempted to mount it into a device that could provide limitless power to a small city. What a wonderfully stupid idea, to share free power with people! Pish tosh, I say! Whilst his father is quite the scientist, he lacks a certain businessman's vim.

Diamonds are for selling, and now that I've purchased this device from A.R., I stand to make a fortune! And the little addict sold it for simple writing supplies, no less! I thought I would hire a photographer to document its remains before the device is destroyed. Awful shame, though. It's quite shiny. Like money. <Lord Crust begins to choke. Is he going to die? No... I should take time to reflect upon why I feel disappointed.> <Dictation ends.>

<I humbly submit to you that you may click upon the images to enlarge them.>

Exhibit B: The AEtheric Flux Agitator, Mark I
Commentary: Lord Richard Crust
Dictated to: Jawaharal Lakshamanan, June 3, Year of our lord 1807

<Perhaps unhealthy coughing> And I can send you right back to there, you little- Oh, what are you writing, you blackguard? Leave it to the Easterners not to know when to start dictation. <More coughing. Perhaps he is not well? I should take better care of him.> This pathetic entry comes to me from young A.R. White of Hughestonne. It seems perhaps our rising star thinks he is some sort of scientist in so much that he has created art to resemble science. Perhaps this device resembles the limelights for those theatre-dancing painted jezebels, but nothing more. Pah! Dash it, I say, and cease all of that rannygazoo! All it does is light up!

That is all, Jay. That's the whole pudding, I say! Desist from your churlish quill-scratching, you- <Dictation ends.>

Exhibit A: the Characters of Necro Gnome
Commentary: Lord Richard Crust
Dictated to: Jawaharal Lakshamanan, June 3, Year of our lord 1807

<Perhaps someday he will come to understand.> If money is the root of all evil, then I wish to be as evil as they come, you backwards- Oh we're starting? Blast it, you damnable man! I have a reputation to uphold, and I won't have you <Lord Crust begins to talk about reputation, but he does not understand that all of reality is an illusion. I feel that he would wish the expletives that he used omitted.> And did you get all of that, you blithering idiot?

This installment comes not from the opium-addled A.R. White, but rather from one of his brutish accomplices in Hughestonne, a mister Arthur Brown. Though he looks like a bowery tough, the gentleman takes a rather clairvoyant view into our future- the 1980s. For some reason, he believes that the ever-so-popular pulp and dime novels will one day be translated into plays, and that these plays will somehow automagically be transmitted to patrons' homes! <Lord Crust is wracked with a terrible cough. I should make him something to soothe it.> Clearly, these are the dreams of a madman, yet I find them strangely compelling. I purchased a pack of these hypothetical character designs from the man for two loaves of bread, with the promise that he will one day create more.

Now, Jay, I believe you were telling me the secrets of existence? Whoops! I'm afraid I have a meeting with an investor! Perhaps you can think on all of that rubbish whilst eating your rice and water, or whatever is all of the rage with you poor people nowadays. <Dictation ends.>

<I humbly submit to you that you may click the images to enlarge them.>