Dramatis Personae

The Empire of Blanche

Ordine vitae est.

• Princess Ekaterina Lucia Blanche (daltar)
• Sergeant Able Foulke (Hourai Rabbit)
• Irana Canos, Paladin pilot (Solus Lupus)
• Lord Serrick D'aven Rubengal (Nick the Swing)
• Fangs the Battle Droid (Imca)

The Empire of Noire

Rhyddid i bawb.

• Prince Wilhelm IV du Noire (Dragon 573)
• Bryant Wulfren, Goliath pilot (Taco)
• Lieutenant Henry Yu (desdendelle)
• Harold "Harry" Rearden (nman)
• Corporal Zia Fahan Zaman (Lt.B Gob)

May victory come to the fated.

So. There's that. Let's get to the worldbuilding!

First.

Also, brownie points to anyone who can find the tongue in cheek joke in Wilhelm's equipment.

edited 11th Oct '14 6:42:56 AM by Dragon573

Warhammer forty derps?

Was that a guess? If so, no, though good guess, given I called it a bolter. I just now realized that.

You're looking at the right item, though.

Oh, by the way, those imperial mottos up there are "Order is life" and "Freedom for all'' in Latin and Welsh, respectively.

We can build on that when we think up stuff for the empires.

I'm guessing there's a secret police organization for the Blanche or maybe that's more up Noire's alley since they don't want their people to feel oppressed or strangled by having the police stand out.

edited 11th Oct '14 6:58:45 AM by Questor

Haha. Noire is notoriously lax at enforcing anything other than military discipline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq5kz2LNjA8 Noire's secret police.

So people enforce themselves? And duels are the usual manner of settling differences?

I'd imagine there's a police force. Just that they really don't care about petty stuff.

Arson? Okay, people, coffee break's over. We'd better find this pyro before its our houses he/she starts burning down.

Murder? You're going down.

Jaywalking? I don't get paid enough to deal with this.

The prince hath spoken. Hail, Wilhelm!

But what about duels? Do only the nobles do that or is it vogue with the commoners as well?

I'd actually think Blanche and Noire would be fairly accepting of the Code Duello. Blanche would appreciate the ability to settle violent disputes in a controlled way, and Noire understands that citizens have every right to make a mutual decision to fight. What should be considered, then, is who can challenge whom—could some random schmuck with a bowie knife challenge the Princess to a fight?

Well you can always be challenged to a duel, however, you don't have to actually accept.

If I set things up on Blanche, I'd make an institution dedicated to management and settlement of duels by setting up judges. Anyone can challenge anyone to a duel, however, nobody has to accept anything. There would be three types of duels, friendly, friendly staked and of justice. First one is a duel only for the sake of the duel, completely friendly. Friendly staked, is a nonlethal duel without any true grievance behind it but on which both contestants set up some sort of stakes, victor obtains what the other staked or what they desired. Finally of justice is a more serious duel. Only this one can be to the death and can also have stakes attached. This one is to settle true grievances and matters of honor and justice. You need to declare a very strong reason to dare anyone to this kind of duel. However, for the chance of claiming a prize and perhaps killing the one who harmed you or your own, they get the chance to do the same and also clean their name of the dishonor in the field of battle.

There is social repercussions to setting forth as well as denying a duel. If you challenge someone you have no business fighting for petty reasons and the like, your reputation can be tarnished and will look insolent for wasting people's time and for sheer pride. If, on the other hand, you are accused of a rightful duel and keep denying it you start to appear cowardly.

Additionally, the actual fighters in the duel not always have to be the ones with grievances. If you are signed up as a duelist in the institution of duels then you can challenge and be challenged by others. However, if are not, you can have a duelist take your place acting as your champion or you can challenge someone who is not a duelist for them to use a champion of their own.

He who makes the challenge can pick the weapons of the match, however, they who are challenged can pick the place and time. Additional details can be worked out between the two parties until a mutually understood and accepted agreement is reached. This is submitted to the institution who reviews the case. Once stakes are made, by law, they must be met as a binding agreement. Judges are well versed in law and will repeat the set upon terms of the duel to the fighters, trying to explain all the ramifications of what is accorded so that nobody is cheated by loose wording. The judge is also impartial and often does not have any links to either of the people they represent. Both fighters can cast a veto on their judge if they don't like him or her and be assigned a new one and particularly vain duelists can spend months just shuffling around judges.

Finally on the members of the Royal family... by social tradition it is a grave faux pass that sometimes can be punishable by law to defy them to duels, specially those of justice. In general, for their dueling career, it is the royal family who makes friendly challenges to other people of court or even famous common duelist, significantly increasing their fame. However, there are times when for example, the Princess opens herself up for dueling, letting people challenge her and she picks the best invitations to do so.

I think there should be some differences in accepted forms/styles of the arts and music between Blanche and Noire:

Blanche would probably only be accepting of portraits and landscapes, with accuracy and realism being prized - expressionism, fauvism, etc. would be laughed at and unpopular. Their music would be predominantly classical, very well structured and technical aspects praised with the more emotional aspects or styles leaning towards jazz/romanticism again shunned. Overall, very focused on precision and emotional expression considered silly or unskilled.

Noire would be big on fauvism and impressionism, very supporting of expressing the feelings or perceptions regarding what is painted/drawn/sculpted. Their music would be a bit more modern but eclectic and very accepting of new sounds. Overall, they'd appreciate expressing ones point of view or emotions and finding new styles but less impressive technically on the whole.

What'd ya think? Stupid?

So for animus Blanche has Kyoto Ani and Noire has Shaft, got it.

And yes, that does sound quite right.

Bingo, Nman! Brownie points for you!

Yay!

Dueling system- absolutely awesome, Dalt.

Hey, are there any shared aspects between the nations? They may have vastly differing ideals, but they descended from the same place...

Oooh so we can settle things in the circle of equals? Trial of Possession for your nice shiny sword, princess!

edited 11th Oct '14 4:22:27 PM by HouraiRabbit

Thank you very much! Glad you like the dueling system!

As for the duel for the shiny sword, just how many chocolates would you have to hoard to make it equivalent value?

...That is awesome, daltar. Wow.

@Dragon: Well, both nations still worship the Regi. The interpretation of said worship...well, that's where things get different.

All that fancy dueling sounds like the stuff of pre-Industrialization European intrigue, particularly English nobility, which is good for Blanche. I wonder if Noire, having had time to develop its own independence should have a more rustic feel, what with the lax police and the whole " freedom, liberty, and the right of every man for himself" to the point that dueling's almost entirely gone and replaced with a more Wild West style of justice mixed with the operational mentality of Russian mafiosos.

edited 11th Oct '14 5:37:00 PM by nman

I agree with this. Basically, if some guy shoots a guy in broad daylight, and it was proven he was justified, he just got out of jail free.