(kinda like most Appalachian Hillbillies are seen to be, before we prove them wrong).
lole im reminded of that "exhibition" football game from last year or so, where the superpower team went in to play the appalachian team for like practice and got their faces handed to them. ;D for the win.
That wasn't Exhibition... that was a full-on game for ranking in the league. They went in thinking they'd mop up the Mountaineers, who were low-ranked last year. WVU had nowhere to go but up.
Yeah... I might be a Marshall University alumni, but that beatdown made me grin.
Dogs are Man's Best Friend
Cats are Man's Adorable Little Serial Killers
LOL it wasnt a personal jab, I just thought to myself that Flinder might interpret all those dragons flying away after he landed as avoiding him ;D He very much looks forward to meeting everyone. :)
So Charon, youre writing K&J as open and amiable to the 'Weavers, correct? In discussions with Havoc he imparted on me that the RAAF is mistrusting of and generally avoids interactions with weavers. I took this as a parallel of White Australia's feelings towards aboriginals in general. What are K&J's feelings about Aboriginal Australians, then?
Well for one Kunja and Jake were from a breeding colony, so they're fairly friendly with most kinds of dragons, even the ones apt to try and kill them. So Kunja and Jake didn't get too much RAAF style discipline, let alone ideology. As for the Aboriginals, they tend towards some racism, they are aboriginals after all, but if they can captain a dragon that is the big thing in their eyes.
In discussing with Havoc, the ideas that we came up with regarding aboriginal society and dragons is that the dragons live with the bands as part of the family group (if youve read the books, I considered it to be very similar to how dragons were part of tribes in Africa, in the 4th book). Usually one dragon per band, and not every band has a dragon. As centers of family and spirituality, theyre generally not used in confrontations or war like other dragon breeds might. However, they are very protective of their family and society, and are excellent hunters and survivors in a unrelentingly harsh climate, so they should not be discounted as fighters.
I have imagined that as White Australia expands, theyve largely retreated from the edges of civilized society, encouraging their associated aboriginal groups to go with them (sadly of course, in this history, despite having the dragons as a centerpoint for their culture, a great many aboriginals will still be lured into white society by alcohol and drugs). I would predict they would be pretty rare (either rarely existing or rarely seen is up for debate) around southeast australia, that being the area most heavily populated by whites.
If you have additional/opposing ideas id love to discuss them, since you also have a lot of backstory youve worked out. If some of my ideas dont work for you I hope we can compromise.
No that makes sense. The main reason Jake's good at telling dragon breeds is as much because he's studied as the simple fact that he's been around a lot. When he finally settles down he's probably going into his father's business. It's not improbably, I'd think, that Kunja and Jake have managed to once meet a Dreamweaver, especially with how much they like to wander. Though I did get much the same impression that Weavers were not common, especially in the white areas of the continent.
Charon wrote:No that makes sense. The main reason Jake's good at telling dragon breeds is as much because he's studied as the simple fact that he's been around a lot. When he finally settles down he's probably going into his father's business. It's not improbably, I'd think, that Kunja and Jake have managed to once meet a Dreamweaver, especially with how much they like to wander. Though I did get much the same impression that Weavers were not common, especially in the white areas of the continent.
Oh yeah i agree, im sure theyd be curious and bold enough to fly up to one and say hi if they encountered him/her ;) Weavers wouldnt spend 100% of their time with their aboriginal band, and one could argue that a few might be lured away into white society by the same or similar vices that attract the human aboriginals :/.
Charon wrote:No that makes sense. The main reason Jake's good at telling dragon breeds is as much because he's studied as the simple fact that he's been around a lot. When he finally settles down he's probably going into his father's business. It's not improbably, I'd think, that Kunja and Jake have managed to once meet a Dreamweaver, especially with how much they like to wander. Though I did get much the same impression that Weavers were not common, especially in the white areas of the continent.
Oh yeah i agree, im sure theyd be curious and bold enough to fly up to one and say hi if they encountered him/her ;) Weavers wouldnt spend 100% of their time with their aboriginal band, and one could argue that a few might be lured away into white society by the same or similar vices that attract the human aboriginals :/.
What part of Australia are K&J from?
I never really decided on that before. But maybe along the Northeast. Still close to white settlements, but far enough away that if one of the "trouble dragons" goes nuts and gets lose you don't see them getting into heavily populated areas. Plus it's more room to fly around freely.
That would make perfect sense, since Havoc puts one of the largest training camps in the country in Cairns which is right there in north queensland. So a dragonbreeder would have to be within reasonable flying distance of such a major RAAF installation.
Its sparser-populated than the south, but theres still people scattered around. A lot of cane plantations on the coast and cattle ranching inland. The rainforest and the reef are up there too :D
Resubmitted for approval again, also I apologize to those I may have offended with my absence, I had net problems and my house had to be TOTALLY rewired.
Captain's Name: Captain (and Lord) Andrew Walder the Fifth
Captain's Age: 22
Captain's Description: A tall Welsh man with braided beard and massive muscles, Andrew is also a former tank driver driven into air corps service, something he is not extatic with. Much preffering the solidarity of mother earth to the wind and rain of the skies. He takes a typical tank driver mentality with social situations but is suprisingly tactical in his manuvers in combat. He hates being nobility and will shy away from any questions about his heritage and how he became captain of a Anglewing. With the recent deaths of his three older brothers (two of whom were air corps, one of whom was a radar operator), and his father's debilitating heart attack and stroke combination which left him a vegtable, Andrew has been thrust into two services he would rather have never taken on.
Dragon's Name: Tempero
Dragon's Age: 40
Dragon's Breed: Anglewing
Dragon's Description: Born in 1899, Tempero was pressed into the service of Lord Admiral Johnathan Walder, and loved every second of the command it gave him. He is somewhat boistorous and exudes an aura of leadership but unfortuantely with the untimely change in his first Captain's condition, he has been thrust into service with the youngest of the man's sons and into a role where he is taking orders, not giving them.
Background: Raised on a large acreage in the northern Welsh hills, both Tempero and Andrew have a great appreciation for natural beauty and motherland of England. They were never the greatest of friends when Andrew was just a lad, infact Andrew secretly as a child almost hated the air corps because of it keeping his father away so much. With the deaths of his three older brothers and the insistiance of his sister that she wished to remain out of the war, Andrew was pressed into service as captain of his own Anglewing.
Tempero is a veteran of the First World War and a very tactical commander. He chooses his angles of attack and defense with precision not known to most dragons. An expert at dealing with Bavarians and other middleweights, he is known to carry a slightly lighter crew of men then the average middleweight so that he can manuver more elegantly and quickly. He is very set in his ways about being a commander but now that he is just your averae dragon he is very good about giving "advice" as he calls it, to other dragons.
'Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all'
-- Sir Issac Asimov
The True Resurrection would undo the chartrusing of the Gnome
-- My friend figuring out how to permanently turn a gnome chartreuse
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents
--HP Lovecraft in Call Of Cthulhu
Also, I realized in retrospect that what Veritas said was actually very racist. It was in no way intended to be, and was instead merely a sarcastic observation that the Captain of this particular Dreamweaver appeared, in fact, to not be black.
It was also meant to be an escalation of the battle of wits he and Captain Braithwaite were having at the moment, and one where Veritas was winning.
"Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes."
- William Gibson
Josh wrote:What? There's nothing weird about having a pet housefly. He smuggles cigarettes for me.
rhoenix wrote:Also, I realized in retrospect that what Veritas said was actually very racist. It was in no way intended to be, and was instead merely a sarcastic observation that the Captain of this particular Dreamweaver appeared, in fact, to not be black.
Ths is the problem of doing something in historical context. Racism was still alive and well, althogh lesser in England from what I understand. Judith and Jeb would see nothing wrong with it, an probably would refer to any black man as a Negroid, or in their slang, Nigger
Dogs are Man's Best Friend
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Just for the record, in 2004, "blackie" was still a very common euphemism, at least in north queensland. Not always used negatively, sure, but sometimes it was. >.<
in other news, Havoc expressed some concern about Flinder and prescience, so I thought id address it here in case others were worried. I think what i've just posted is gonna be my big peak for now and then itll tone down considerably for the time being (although random comments will continue on occasion). I explained it here with stress and hunger, once he settles in itll be much better. One of the rules Havoc decided for this feature of the Dreamweavers is that adrenaline lowers the rate of mental wanderings and fits considerably, except every once in a great while when it makes it much, much worse.
I've had a lot of soul-searching myself on the subject of "period" racism, which, to be completely frank was utterly endemic in America, Britain, and probably everywhere else you guys are likely to go. A white officer circa 1940 would openly refer to a black soldier, even a black officer, as a "nigger", be they British, Australian, or American. I've pushed myself to go so far as to use "negro" (which was considered entirely devoid of negative connotations then), but I've avoided being too realistic beyond that.
Basically, I leave it to all of you how "realistic" you wish to be in your characters' reactions to the various non-white ethnicities you shall encounter. We all understand that it's the characters talking, not the player, just as we all understand if you wish to avoid such terms that it's not because you don't understand the period, but simply because such words are thoroughly distasteful in a modern setting.
Gaze upon my works, ye mighty, and despair...
Havoc: "So basically if you side against him, he summons Cthulu."
Hotfoot: "Yes, which is reasonable."
It was pretty ugly back then. A large number of people weren't racist, but racism was socially acceptable. It's part of playing a game set in that time.
It's not that I'm unforgiving, it's that most of the people who wrong me are unrepentant assholes.
I was just telling someone last night, i never knew that the "Eeny Meeny Miny Mo" rhyme used to be racist until my grandmother accidentally said the racist version once when i was 15. My mom SCREAMED at her. it was hilarious.
I don't know if nigger is one that Jake would understand since the blacks in Australia are completely different from the ones in the Americas/Britain. So he probably won't use that one.
Also, Avian, what's the racist version?
Last edited by Charon on Mon Dec 22, 2008 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
They went in thinking they'd mop up the Mountaineers, who were low-ranked last year. WVU had nowhere to go but up.
But first they need to go be stupid.
