GHOST VAN OF CASCADE HIGHWAY 213
This was a story I wrote in 2010 as an introduction for my personal as TalismanSkulls for an online social game I had joined originally in 2009 till its shutdown at the end of 2016. I based it on a real vehicle I used to drive, similar outfit I used to wear in real life and the name itself being a nickname often shorted to Talis to some, Tali by girls, and more formerly as Mr. Skulls. I used these variations elsewhere online.
THE STORY
The Ghost Van of Cascade Highway 213
In the small towns along Oregon’s Cascade Highway 213, a chilling legend persists about a phantom van and its enigmatic driver. Unlike typical ghost stories tied to tragic accidents or restless spirits, this tale defies convention. The vehicle, a spectral one-ton cargo van adorned with camouflage paint, a deer skull on the grille, and human skulls atop the cab, emerges unpredictably, often cloaked in a greenish-blue haze. It appears only on rainy or stormy nights, materializing at high speed and vanishing into fog, leaving no trace.
First reported around the late 1980s, the van is described as a menacing sight, with oversized tires, a lifted suspension, and eerie yellowish-green lights—some claim the skulls themselves glow. Witnesses note a silent glide, though some hear faint heavy metal music. The van’s horror-movie aesthetic, complete with billowing fog beneath and behind it, amplifies its otherworldly presence.
The driver, a tall, pale figure with long auburn hair, scars across his face, and a gothic-punk style, adds to the mystery. Dressed in a black top hat with animal horns, a studded trench coat, and skull-themed jewelry, he’s been called a demon, a death spirit, or even a manifestation born from collective belief. Some locals whisper his name as "Tanis," though its a later error.
Since 2004, he’s occasionally been seen with two female companions, dubbed Carry (a blonde) and Marry (a brunette), both in biker-goth attire. These women, sometimes appearing bloodied or as skeletons themselves, are said to revel in startling passersby. By 2006, four black wolves with glowing blue eyes—named Grey Paws, White Fang, Blind Eye, and Big Wolf—joined the spectral entourage, adding to the lore’s complexity.
The legend’s origins trace back to an investigation in 2010 at Molalla’s Pioneer Cemetery. Seeking to debunk local ghost stories, a skeptic deployed cameras and recorders, capturing what they believed were cougar sounds mistaken for supernatural wails. Yet, one daylight photo revealed a ghostly figure near a vandalized grave, possibly Mr. Dibble’s, sparking curiosity about other local hauntings. Locals, initially reluctant to discuss such tales, eventually shared hushed accounts of the ghost van, fearing ridicule or bad luck.
Sightings span from Ashland to Longview, Washington, often along Highways 213 and 99E, with the van and its driver most active during stormy weather, particularly lightning-filled nights. Reports describe high-speed chases by police, with the van vanishing inexplicably.
In one Portland encounter, an officer described confronting the driver, only to be briefly overpowered by the entity, who laughed off the encounter before disappearing. Other accounts tell of the van delaying travelers, possibly saving them from accidents, or aiding the homeless with blankets and money. Some claim it drives through vehicles, leaving them stalled, only to vanish in a fog bank.
Despite official denials, witnesses—including police, mayors, and truck drivers—report unease and reluctance to discuss sightings. The legend, dormant from 2000 to 2003, resurged in 2004, evolving with new details. Whether a trickster spirit, a protective entity, or a collective myth, the ghost van of Highway 213 remains a haunting enigma, its lore whispered cautiously in Oregon’s small towns.
Trademark Character; TalismanSkulls in his usual outfit with dark wings and holding his sickle blade. The added polarity to the character was if he was dressed in reversed colors of white, he was in a very bad mood.
I tried creating a new 3D model for this character but ran into several problems with rigging and animating, as well as getting textures correct. I eventually gave up and trying to do this on my own and didn't have the $$$ for someone to improve or create a better version for a virtual world I was intending to create, but also didn't get any financial support for it.
Real Ban but edited so as to look like and parody other fake images online, and blurring out the original license plate. It was originally a white 1992 Dodge B250 Ram Van Automatic 8 Cylinder that was used previously on construction sites and as a buss for migrant workers.
This was a 2010 version of Talis. The story behind this was he stole a UFO from Grey Aliens he got drunk and left outside of Area 51, and flew off. The then converted it to so he could use it alone and replaced the navigation with a fat panel computer screen and an automatic Ai based weapons array to have three plasma guns in a triangle pattern while the antenna dish allowed him to hijack commercial satellites for free movies and TV shows. One scene had him pull up to a McDonald's Drive Thru window and played off of the concepts of flying vehicles from the old Jetsons cartoon. The Ai as a joke also tended to give rude responses, especially to strangers.
Very old example of a shrine with a haunted constructed image and old symbolism that began as early as 1987. I also had created the symbolism of the Decagram with a skull at each point combining the inverted start of physical incarnation and upright of death and ascension to express the concept of transcendence.
The original design also had a cigarette gripped between the teeth, however, since I had quit smoking completely on my 50th Birthday, I have since removed it and and other reference to tobacco from my character representations.
One symbol that was originally being used to represent the One and Three at this time was composed of an upright triangle with three lines as rays, ending in three inverted triangles to suggest the distinction of the One Male God and the Three Coequal but Separate and Distinct Goddesses, a concept realized and formulated in 1989.
You can learn a bit more about all the features of how this persona had evolved over time online the NRM Wiki. It's a sub category on the NRM Wiki Fandom page. You can also view some of my art and designs and concepts still on the Deviant Art website.
CHURCH MASCOT? Maybe
BONE MINIONS
The Bone Minions are a set of original characters I created, inspired in part by my personal avatar—TalismanSkulls—though with key differences such as the exclusion of horns and other distinguishing traits. These characters are envisioned not only as extensions of the Druwayu aesthetic and mythos but also as a potential foundation for a broader franchise. The aim is to create a revenue-generating venture that supports our Church's mission while offering the public engaging, usable character concepts with rich symbolic and creative potential.
Elaboration: The Bone Minions serve a dual function. On one hand, they’re symbolic projections of themes rooted in Druwayu: death, transformation, protection, and perhaps even cosmic mischief. Styled in visual and thematic resonance with my virtual persona but distinct enough to stand as characters in their own right, they, being three in number, express the concepts of Logic, Humor and Absurdity, the motto of our Church's doctrinal elements and more accessible creative platforms—games, stories, merchandise, and even cultural satire. It should be noted they are entirely heterosexual characters.
The idea of having these three express the triadic motto is partly inspired by the Three Monkeys of Japanese culture more family known as "See No, Hear No, and Speak No" Evil. In some Buddhist interpretations they can also be alternatively expressed as avoiding evil or destructive thoughts, feelings and actions. It, should be clarified that the factor the three One Minions are actually associated with Logic, Humor and Absurdity as embodying principles that bring about the Death of Ignorance and making room for the Life of Truth they should not be equated in the same contexts.
By forging a semi-commercial identity around them and my own avatar and his symbolism, I create a foundation and bridge to a tricky divide: preserving the integrity of spiritual themes while allowing for public interaction in a playful, narrative format and somewhat gothic influence. Franchising them doesn’t dilute their meaning— they are tools that disperses it into a world hungry for archetypes and avatars that say something deeper than standard fantasy flare or religious extremism.
As such, I have created a few expressions of these concepts such as including some of the old Skull and Crossed Bones pattern from some of my earlier gaming designs and means of creative expression, while being open to and welcoming the expansive creative contributions of others. Thus, I make these expressions nut just intellectual properties, but also specific Trademark concepts for the church and religion as a whole without trying to be "sacrilegious" towards the beliefs of others.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I sported horned hats—a magician’s top hat or a western cowboy hat—paired with a skull-beaded necklace, laying the groundwork for my TalismanSkulls persona, a blend of reality and fiction. The name emerged one night when a drunk man, stumbling into me outside a bar, slurred, “Whoa, little talisman skulls” after eyeing my necklace. Friends and strangers adopted it, and I embraced it as a fit for my style and energy.
My aesthetic drew from my January 10th birthday, evoking winter’s eerie festivity and themes of death and renewal. Capricorn’s horns, Pan’s wildness, Janus’s duality, and the Chinese Ox shaped my identity and symbolism, forming the core of TalismanSkulls’ spiritual and visual framework. My mischievous humor and love for dirty jokes also wove into this persona, which solidified long before I ventured online.
Over time, others saw echoes of fictional characters in me—Beetlejuice, Drop Dead Fred, The Mask—and an ex-girlfriend noted similarities to Baron Samedi. These comparisons highlighted my mix of nerdy intensity, humor, and seriousness. My sports background in school added another layer: too quirky for jocks, too athletic for nerds, too serious for clowns, and too absurd for the conventional. TalismanSkulls became a way to unify these contradictions.
A lingering quirk was my shyness around women I was attracted to, marked by clipped speech, reserved demeanor, and an odd urge to sneeze—a nervous tell I couldn’t hide. These quirks, though embarrassing, shaped the raw, human side of the persona that became TalismanSkulls.
The phrase “blame it on the hat” started as an inside joke when a woman asked me what was wrong, deflecting my shyness or awkward moments. Over time, it evolved into a playful persona for the hat itself, as if it had its own will. Some mistook this for schizophrenic hallucinations, but it was rooted in my First Nations relatives’ belief—by blood and marriage—that symbolic headgear carries its own spirit and power.
I leaned into this, crafting the idea of the hat being possessed by a “thought form” with a stoic, detached personality. It spoke sparingly, with cold logic, but wasn’t above delivering sharp, sarcastic jabs when the mood struck. This added a dynamic layer to TalismanSkulls, blending humor, cultural influence, and a touch of mysticism.
A Home World location.
This was what remained of the old Party In My Hat location a virtual world, originally called Party in my Head, and the open area had, among other things, gardens and a cemetery that actually honored the memories of past gamers who passed away in the real world.
Before it was starting to get dismantled, on the left side was a graveyard, where there were names and pictures of actual gamers who actually passed away that were friends. And there were many. Some were placed on request as a result of locations being discontinued so I tried to rescue with others what we could and added it to the location. On the right side was a maze of bushes and as a joke, portable toilets that when someone entered, one would either kick them out of the zone, another would make a flush sound and they would fall through into a hidden club location called The Down Below, and another shoot them straight up into the sky passing through a cloud ring into another hidden club called Cloud Nine. Another spot was a trick bridge that if you stepped on the wrong spot, you'd fall for about an hour periodically passing signs with messages like "Are we there yet? This was a bad idea. How long are you going to let yourself fall? Getting bored yet? Still falling. You're dedicated! Yes, still falling. You know you can stop.......next sign...any time now!" Things like that. I did time it so it took and hour of falling before reaching another spot called "The Void" which was a bunch of platforms floating around that you could hop across with a warning that if you miss this time, there is no hidden place. It had a bunch of dance floors and bars floating in nothing. Some still took the chance and missed on purpose but after two hours of falling an inactivity the game eventually kicked people out, but originally there was no booting from inactivity. So some let their character fall for hours. Some experimented and went to bed and got up the next day letting their game run all night to find they were still falling and then finally stopped.
Another area behind the camera view not visible was a garden area with a central tree that had white dressed and black dressed versions of my character/avatar floating down like ghostly leaves and fading as they got near the ground. What no one ever figured out was that there were three boulders with flat tops like tables and there were three objects you could find in different spots of this location. They were random items with no particular meaning. An apple, an orange, and a pear. Then you had to place them in the right pattern. If you got it wrong, the order would automatically rearrange. If you got it right, a phonebooth would rise out of the ground and you would go in and dial a # code that was given when the booth was unlocked. Do it wrong and the booth vanishes leaving you standing there and having to find the objects and do it all again. If they got it right it change the location to an area intended for adults only, so it would remain unlocked to them, but they wouldn't be able to interact or see much of anything till they had an active adults only pass that they had to buy from the company that hosted these virtual worlds end users made.
Trying to get Ai to create content (unsuccessfully)
I asked Ai to create its own interpretation. The result was rather interesting. Below is the result of the reimagined structure taking on more of a castle like town form.
I rather not get into how many instructions and precise prompts I provided (which is one of the major reasons I detest the majority of Ai art renditions), this tower like design is at least interesting in concept for Skullsgard. It's not "horrible" but it lacks a lot.
PRIOR MORTAL LIFE
The background was simple enough. When he was a kid, he found an old box hidden in the walls of the room that was to be his when his parents were removing the sheetrock to renovate the place. Inside were a bunch of old books seemingly in another language. His parents let him keep them as the had no interest in such things and just wanted to get things done before the onset of fall. When he looked through the pages he felt strange but in a way he didn't understand, but not in the sense of fearful. Just different. Eventually he found his skull beaded necklace and its crystal skull pendant hidden in a false bottom of the book box. So he put it on and kept it under his shirt while others were around because he didn't want someone to try and steal it from him.
The story basically progressed to learning in his dreams what each symbol represented with their letters and numbers and secondary concepts and eventually having gone to libraries and searching carefully with a lot of research, came to realize the books were written in several different languages put together as one and also carrying in them coded messages even in the pages themselves. It wasn't long before it became obvious he was reading a book with an assortment of philosophies, theological discussions, scientific contemplations, both chemistry and alchemy and much more.
He soon learned the necklace was created as both an item of power, guidance and protection as it was made of several diverse materials including bone, metal, stone and glass to name a few. In time he more or less became a Warlock. He also eventually came to draw the affection and attention of two young ladies that eventually hooked up with him exclusively and mutually. Wanting to have more in common with him they learned from him and became Witches.
One of the ladies got deathly ill and was later diagnosed with an extremely aggressive cancer. Despite the tomes specifically warning not to troy with forces of life and death because there was always a chance of a heavy price to pay, especially for a novice in such matters. His confidence proved to be detrimental to a factor as he weaved the arts he learned to try and remove the cancer from one of his ladies and made sure to weave a shield of sorts around the other. The end result was he actually pulled it off and both were safe. The problem was he was now essentially a living ghosts having lost much of his connection to this world as a backlash for his actions he was not ready for.
As they got older, he stayed the same age. He could only touch them in their dreams but he was never able to sleep, nor eat, or drink, or enjoy any normal pleasures the living take for granted. They could periodically see him as a haze, or here him as though he was an echo from a far off source. So they tried to pull him back, and they couldn't hear his warnings to stop. By this time he had learned much more from those books as he had nothing better to do which is part of how he could get them to see and sense something of him and periodically hear him.
Despite his pleas they continued and with a flash and indescribable pain he was surrounded in darkness. Rather than pull him back to the normal realm they banished him to another, an empty place, a universe or reality of perpetual chaos and decay but never ending. And he, he alone, was the only presence there. No other entities of any kind. Not a heaven, not a purgatory, not a perdition either. Just a state of existence that simply exists without intent or purpose, or a byproduct of other things where things do not get sucked into black holes but spat out and debris of somewhere else. For the first time in a long time, however, he felt tired and was able to sleep, almost instantly in that dark place.
THE POINT
The point of this was to show his once existing humanity and what would end up contributing to other areas of role play games that further developed his character and others along with him and independent of him. It was also in that real he came to his full power where past, present and future are of no consequence because that reality was more or less a static state universe; or at least something close to it as it was in a stage of neither expanding or contracting in an endless looping cycle. Eventually the character becomes so insane that he regains sanity having pushed past the depths of complete madness and learning the hard way madness has its limits, just as much as sanity. The joke ended up being he is so insane he achieved sanity beyond sanity.
He ended up building his home by himself, but also grew in immense power and intended to find the two women that caused him to end up in that place. However, it was not out of anger or vengeance. He missed them. He missed company. He missed people in general even though for a time he chose not to like very many. Eventually he did find his way back to this world, but by the time he did, even though time has no relevance in his realm which was by all simple measure truly his, they eventually got old, went their separate ways, married, had kids, grew old and died never knowing he was alive.
From the best of his memories, he created the image of all thee o them together. What he didn't realize till later is in this world, unless he concentrates on it, he still bears his primary outfit but appears more of a skeleton being in a sense half dead to this world. Back in the one he dwells he has his fleshy form but because of his odd nature, the minds of most unconsciously refuse to perceive him as a defense mechanism, which he learned later.
Certainly now he could resurrect them with relative ease. However, he developed an odd sense of ethics and concluded it was long over do for him to live it up and maybe of this universe allowed it, he's run into their reincarnations perhaps, though he had his own reasons for considering the chance of that far less likely than running into their ghosts at some point (which never happened). So form then on there was always an air of sadness to the character but not to the point of depression, and he certainly came to love his immortality even if his transfiguration was an accident. He considered it part of the humor of "the ones beyond all."
Among his many oddities, he has two major addictions which if he was mortal would be really bad for his health. Pizza and Cheese Cake. Doesn't matter the kind. Its food he can enjoy now that he is able to move between his universe and this one he originated from. He just has to be careful not to freak anyone out unintentionally when he stops focusing on not appearing like a skeleton in this world. He also doesn't worry about anyone threatening him for the reasons already covered.
He doesn't bother with killing someone fully aware their mortality will catch them, although he did scare someone literally to death once without meaning to. He felt bad about it but got over it. Others, he's not that concerned about if he does scare them to that point, especially of they are particularly bad and nasty people.
He also did find and recollect all the books his dead ex girlfriends more or less inherited in his absence, hid them in his realm and eventually found the author's grave once he got curious to figure out who was behind such a thing. In that story the author was already 987 years old and was ready to let go of the life threads. That's one's journey started with his desire to counter death completely, especially his family, but they rejected him for it, considering it an evil deed and against the natural and divine order of things. In that one Mr. Skulls looked himself over and nodded in agreement it is definitely not a good thing, but there is much worse.
Conclusion.
So that is where I will conclude this bit, but overall, these are some of the many features I have applied to this Church to open the doors of creativity and allow room for people to write all manners of morals and ethics teaching lore for now and for future generations.