Song of the Eastern Sands: Slight Delay (And Olympics)!
Hey folks! Sorry, but we need to push the page update a couple days to Monday this week. No new excuse, just the typical packed-schedule and last-second deadlines that have previously accompanied delays.
In honor of the Olympic ceremonies being held this evening, I figured I would take this opportunity to resurrect a classic series of images from the last Olympic Games! First up, Quinlan takes on the uneven bars! He’s got a routine that lasts 42 minutes and involves no fewer than 87 flips before he even thinks about touching the ground. Not surprisingly, the Tamian have a pretty extensive collection of gold, gold, and also gold medals for gymnastic events.
Dakkan’s representing Lutra in any number of swimming and diving events. He can hold his breath for ten whole minutes! Or wait, no, that’s somebody else. They say that when he dives, he’s in his own little world. Or wait, no, that’s also somebody else.
The Canid are very good at punching things. They’re so good at it, they’ve managed to focus that energy into winning medals devoted entirely to the act. Most of the time the competitors aren’t even aware they’re earning medals — they just keep punching things until they get bored.
The Ermehn, with their lithe frames and cultural background in one-on-one fights to the death, took a keen interest in Judo. Fun fact: nobody gets their throat cut open in judo championships anymore. There was that one time, but the rules have thankfully changed since then.
The Polcan live most of their lives on the open sea, so rowing is really less a sport and more a matter of survival. Heck, their nation’s flag is a ship — the sea defines the Polcan, perhaps even moreso than the Lutren. The Lutren may be at home in the sea, but the Polcan are at home anywhere on its surface.
What’s a fun sport to play in the searing desert heat? How about jumping over Sandskimmer maws and trying not to fall in? If you’ve seen Return of the Jedi or played SimAnt you know what I’m talking about — Sandskimmers are like Treewalkers, only instead of rampaging through the trees, they prefer to hide in the sand and catch wandering travelers unawares. The Vulpin, perhaps after having a little too much wine to drink one day, decided that leaping over their open jaws could translate into some manner of competitive sport. Soon they realized they didn’t need the Sandskimmers there — death counts dropped dramatically, and the Vulpin long-jump became a thing.
Somewhere in Gair, eleven Felis stood on one side of a field, while another eleven stood on the other side. Perhaps they were there to fight a small-scale familial war? Maybe it was a party of some kind? The exact details are secreted away high in the Spire of Gair, but that’s not the important part of the story. Nobody is quite sure how it happened, but a ball was dropped in the middle of this field, between the two groups of eleven Felis. Soccer was, as the story goes, the natural result of 22 cats chasing a ball around.
We’ll update the page in the next few days. Have a great weekend!
So where are the Olympics hosted this year? Aisling is def out.
No worries. Take care of yourselves first
what shield said. in light of recent events, it’ll probably be a few more years til Aisling is qualified to host the Summer Olympics. will it be at Gair this year? (considering Rio de Janeiro is known for soccer and soccer is the Felis’s sport)
ok ,I was laughing out loud when I was reading through the descriptions of each race’s sports. is Tesque included? and what about doing a hundred-meter dash running away from a Canid army? and archery? fencing? rifle shooting? weight lifting?
I swear I have some doodles of the 7 races doing different sports of my own buried somewhere in my files… I think I’ll put ’em on tumblr later if i actually manage to find them
anyway, good luck with whatever you’re doing, guys!
found them!
http://jeri-june.tumblr.com/post/148544948685/summer-olympics-related-doodles-featuring-the-7
Very nice!
So just so there’s no confusion:
-Dunia has Sandwalkers.
-Dune has Sandworms.
-Tatooine has Sandcrawlers.
Take all the time you need for the next page.
Tatooine also has Sand People
They make the best sandy things.
Sandcrawlers are those big metal vehicles the jawas drive. Tatooine also has Sarlacc pits.
Tamian = Wood
Lutren = Water
Canid = Metal
Ermehn = Earth
Polcan = Even more water
Vulpin = Light
Felis = Air
Interesting. How does light and not dark qualify for an element? And where’s fire?
Tamian- Wood
Lutren- Water
Canid- Metal
Ermehn- Earth
Polcan- Wind
Vulpin- Fire
Felis- Lightning
You could switch the Polcan and the Vulpin- the Sand Ninja (hey more sand!) in Naruto use wind, and you would have the fire vs. water element of the Polcan and the Lutren, but the Lutren and Polcan going toe to toe on their ships via wind vs water bending is too awesome/hilarious to pass up, imo, and I feel like the Vulpin nomads and scholars would have two different schools of thought on fire- the latter that it’s destructive and dangerous, and the other that it’s life incarnate and can be used for healing.
The implications of the Tamian controlling wood are interesting, meaning they probably have limits on how much they can affect/manipulate the Great Trees, if at all, but this also probably allows them to make houses in the trees that don’t hurt said trees.
Of course, while these are generalities, I feel that sometimes an individual’s personality might lend very well to one type of element, so other elements among the species aren’t unheard of either. Quinlan being an airbender, for example, fits very well with the philosophy of the ATLA universe because of his personality although Tamian are generally slotted for wood.
Light exists, darkness doesn’t.
I think wood manipulation would be a god-send to any naturalistic forest dwelling race, since it would allow for excellent housebuilding without killing a tree. Maybe someone sees manipulation as iffy, but if there’s one thing we sapient beings are good at is being hypocritical and/or delusional.
I like the Polcan = wind idea. A very nice, subtle contrast
I’d forgotten how great these “BWD”/Olympic pics were. Wonderful seeing them again, and with revised text too! Oh, and Cain and Yurk are always worth seeing again as well, even in duotone!
Yes, I do love the new descriptions.
Question: So how long can the Lutren hold their breath?
About 4 hours.
So I hear.
when i read the description of “the natural result of cats casing a ball around” all i could think about was the seagulls in finding nemo… “mine!”