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A few things I've been wondering about

1) How did Fred get to the caves? Horse?

2) Same question for Astra.

3) Why haven't Velus' village members moved? With the dragon harrasing them...

4) Who is King Emry's advisor?

5) Exotica: Spoiled teen brat or heroic wiccan?

6) Is Allaria -liked- by the neighboring countries?

7) The Wizard Of Kamiro: What the hell is up with him? Guy gives me the wiggins.

Lots42 wrote:A few things I've been wondering about

1) How did Fred get to the caves? Horse?

2) Same question for Astra.

Probably, given that substantial distances are involved. Against that, if they knew that they might be a long time in the caves, then it would be cruel to leave the horse tethered.

Lots42 wrote: 5) Exotica: Spoiled teen brat or heroic wiccan?

Heroic wiccan. (Andrea has the role of spoilt brat sewn up.)

Lots42 wrote: 6) Is Allaria -liked- by the neighboring countries?

Depends on the thread. Relations between Allaria and Aqualaria vary between hostile and friendly. Allarian relations with Hespan seem to generally be bad.

Thanks for the information (Even though I never asked for it )

This is just what I was looking for at the time.

I like your latest episode. Though Exotica isn't a spoilt brat, she isn't usuially portrayed as a warrior, as Allaria tends tyo have very "traditional" ideas about suitable roles for women. Also at one point near the start of your episode you accidentally call her "Astra".

You were right. Fortionatly, I could still edit it so I changed Astra to Exotica and didn't state her as a warrior. You've seen one nakid woman, you've seen them all. Thanks for pointing that out.

This is all just in my own mind, of course...

1&2--I'd assume they did. How Fred would keep his horse tied up outside for all the time he's in the caves' I don't know. Does he leave it at the nearest village? I do remember Anableps once mentioning him having a squire who takes care of it.

3--Well, poor people who live in the country and have to rely on their own labor for existance tend to be very tied to tradition. And the people of that particular village are probably pretty stubborn and they don't want to show the dragon he can scare them off.

4--Among others, Sir Robert Cecil, who may or may not have once been the infamous outlaw Robert Billingsley.

5--I wouldn't say Exotica was an adolescent--I see her as being about the same age as Fred and Astra. Nor would I think of her as a Wiccan, Wicca not having been invented until about 1950. As a member of the nobility who had a certain amount of education, she would tend toward a more intellectual and abstract form of magic, similar to alchemy or mathematics. More nature-based magic involving herbs and such would be the property of the vairous village wise men and women who are strictly speaking outside the purview of the White Hand. Not that there's no overlap.

As for Exotica as a warrior--in the real-world Middle Ages, especially the early Middle Ages, there tended to be more women warriors than you'd think, although they were always an anomaly. This is partially due to the influence of the Germanic societies which the medieval societies evolved from. Those were set up along kinship lines, and conflicts of war were very personal affairs in which the family was involved. So women tended to be formidable and sometimes involved in warfare, as well as playing a major role in counselling rulers. Of course, like all scolarship, this is somewhat debatable. It's hard to tell where Allaria would stand in relation to this, though--sometimes, it seems more like an early-middle-ages society that's still somewhat "barbaric," sometimes it's more high medieval, and sometimes even Rennaisance-like.

Exotica, being the beloved daughter of the king (and only child as far as we know), would have somewhat more freedom than other women in some ways, though as royal heir her interest in magic would be frowned upon were it more widely known. She was trained somewhat in battle and educated somewhat as well, enough to be able to understand magic without others knowing it. I also suggested in one version of Allarian history that part of the reason why Exotica knows how to fight was that there was a serious war going on with Tetrilonia (well, one of the nations of that name. That's a topic for another time.), of comparalbe scope to WWII, and so women had to learn how to fight to defend themselves and their homes, and as in WWII gender roles were loosened somewhat as a result of most of the men having to go off to fight, althoguh this led to pressures of conformity afterwards. Wow, that was longwinded. You can tell I've taken a lot of history classes, huh?

7--The Wizard of Kamiro is a jerk. I let him borrow my TV for one of his spells but he never returned it. Jerk.

"4--Among others, Sir Robert Cecil, who may or may not have once been the infamous outlaw Robert Billingsley."

I think this link arose through a writer getting their Roberts mixed up. When I created Sir Robert Cecil, I had Elizabeth the First's (?) spymaster in mind, and didn't intend him to have any link to Robert Billingsley.

"5--I wouldn't say Exotica was an adolescent--I see her as being about the same age as Fred and Astra."

I see her as aged eighteen or nineteen, and thus perhaps three or four years younger than Fred and Astra.

*waits*