A Children’s Guide to Arkerra 1 (Annotated)
Apparently one of Ardaic’s lesser assignments for the Peacemakers was to have them pose for these children’s scroll illustrations.
I don’t think we completely nailed down that Frigg wasn’t Gastonian– the nuns def were, so it’d make more sense for her to be, despite what the last lines here imply.
Phil and I scrambled to put this filler together as Erica’s new job at Zynga put her into a severe deadline crisis. I made a start on the text, but Phil was always more into Arkerran “race issues” than I was, and this was an opportunity for him to get down some of his thoughts as we prepared to expose the continent’s race crisis. We did have to adjust the font, though, as our love of old-timey s’s was finally pushing some readers too far.
Also, while Phil lays the foundations for Gastonian government here, we would never again call the Hall of Houses a “Parliament,” though we’d sometimes slip between “Hall” and “House.” The number of houses was also not as cast in stone as “Parliament of Nine Houses” implies; even the first time we see the Hall, it will be introducing two new seats.
My initial draft is below:
“HUMANS
The principal race of Gastonia and the first race to develop civilization. Intelligent, compassionate, and above all, curious and resourceful. Such curiosity has led them to develop good trade relations with all non-savage races. But as many have learned, they can be quite resourceful in a fight!”
I like how the feeling of superiority permeates this whole text, giving an insight in how Gastonia (or its leaders) sees itself.
Yeah, they really nailed that with the race profiles. It’s entertainingly blatant.
Indeed. It reminds me of some of the social studies texts of my youth. (Yes, I am that old.)
It reads like something that would come from the North Korean government, especially the last paragraph.
I would have liked to have seen something with humans that weren’t Gastonian something with rival human nations might have been an interesting aside.