Adversaries

Marcus Dawson is the founder and CEO of Dawson Electronics. Tall, handsome, rich, brilliant - Marcus has it all, including an incredible secret he can never share. Despite what appears to be an enviable life, Marcus' secret has deprived him of love, family, and all that truly makes life worth living. What could be so dire that he deprives himself of so much?

Martin Devilin - brilliant and ruthless, focused and obssesive, he is on the trail of Marcus' secret, and he won't let anything or anyone stand in his way. How far will he go to know, to possess, the power he seeks?

Two men on a collision course with the highest stakes imaginable - the fate of the world. To learn more, click on a character image.

The Village

The village is "somewhere" on the east African continent, "somewhere" because it belongs to no country. It is protected by the power of the Masiah, and is the focal point of our story. The village is where reality collides with legend and myth, and the fate of the world lies within its borders.

The people of the village have lived without the protection of the Masiah for over 200 years. Will the creature return and save them?

Racdiar
is the village Miandai, spiritual leader and protector of the Masiah. Racdair is the first leader to be permanently blinded, and the only man ever to serve as Miandai twice. He is the Miandai of prophecy, the one that heralds the end of his kind. Racdair must find a way to defeat the darkness or all mankind will fall.
Read more about Racdair.

The Masiah
comes to the people of the village as a white elephant. It is born on the birthing stones, three large stone discs in the center of the village. The creature arrives amidst a blazing white fire at the height of a full lunar eclipse. The fire consumes the mother. During the birth, the mystic flames touch a man among the villagers. This man becomes the Miandai, protector of the Masiah and the leader of the village.

Lidea is one of the village's counciling women and friend of Racdair. It is her destiny to discover the identity of the "heart eater".

Chanrille is the essence and source of the story. She was the first character the author saw and remains the biggest mystery. Chan's story is still unfolding, so keep visiting while we find out what she's all about. See what we think of her here.

The inspiration for what elephants know came from a Newsweek article about an elephant that was self-aware. According to the article, only one elephant of all the ones tested exhibited the ability to identify herself in a mirror. I remember thinking, "She's the only one dumb enough to let us know it." I woke up at 3am with Chanrille banging about in my head. It took less than six weeks to write the first draft.

The temporal lobes, which are thought to function in recognition, storage, and retrieval of information related to sensory input, are especially large and enormously complex in elephants. Relative to brain size, the temporal lobes appear to be larger, more convoluted and denser than those of humans. The extremely large temporal lobes may help explain elephants' remarkable capacity for remembering individuals, places and events.

The characters of what elephants know are anxious to get acquainted. Please scroll through, click, and get to know them. Their stories might just surprise you. Oh, and do mouse around. There are hidden secrets here.

At the core of the story is a prophecy, but when it's examined, we find that it's not just one prophecy, but three. The prophecy concerns the saving of mankind by three individuals - the cursed one, the blind one, and the promised one. The joining of the three, the choices made by the promised one, and the sacrifices made by the ones who love them - these are the essential ingredients to victory and survival.

This flame will soon display a sneak peek of a new chapter.

Elefa is how the elephants refer to themselves. They share a common language - elephants understand each other no matter where they're from, and common laws for their kind. They also share a genetic memory. Every elephant, when they come of age, is allowed to share the "knowing", the collected memories of all elefa that came before. They also have private memories that they can share when they like.
(Note: This is part of the mythology of the story, not zoology.)

Social Networks

Elephants are social creatures. They live in herds and share a communal lifestyle. Elephants live in matriarchal (mother headed) families. Mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts all help raising babies. African elephants establish long lasting social and familial ties.

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There are nine elephants in Chanrille's group

Anshir - the oldest bull
Dacdir - a young male attracted to Chanrille
Lujen - a young male
Samsan - the largest of the young males
Baby - the new male calf. He is still too young to choose a name
Kilar - a young and docile female. She is Lujen's mate and mother of the new calf
Shantara - youngest of the senior cows and quite bossy
Grandmother (Fillesa) - the oldest of the cows

Atlanta is the most populous city in the state of Georgia, as well as the urban core of one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States.
With a 2008 estimated population of 537,958, Atlanta is the thirty-third largest city in the United States, and the 28-county Atlanta Metropolitan Area is the eighth largest such region in the United States, and the second largest in the Southeastern U.S. with more than 5,376,285 residents.[8][9] The Atlanta Combined Statistical Area, home to 5,729,304 people, is the tenth largest in the country.
Considered a top business city and transportation hub, Atlanta is the world headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company and Delta Air Lines. The surrounding area contains additional corporate headquarters, including Home Depot and UPS. Atlanta has the country's third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies along with Chicago inside city boundaries, and more than 75 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies have a presence in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is located seven miles south of downtown Atlanta, is the world's busiest airport and the only major airport to serve the city.
Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County and the fifth location for the seat of government of the state of Georgia. A small portion of the city of Atlanta corporate limits extends into DeKalb County. Residents of the city are known as Atlantans.
From Wikipedia

Coming soon - David and Emma's Family Tree

The story began before the start of Book 1. This section will change regularly with links to snippets that give you a look at the history and backstory. The origins of the conflict, like so many others, is love. Click here to get a glimpse of the beginning.

what elephants know is driven by its characters. Meet them all.

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