[I Hate All Life]

Do you like the Elemental Dragons from Dragons of the East and wish to discuss them? Or do you not know much about these technocrats, and would like to know more? (Maybe you just want a break from Rekka No Ryo's endless stats threads?) In any case, I welcome you to the Middle Kingdom forum to a thread discussing these enigmatic and "unConventional" mages (heh); click here to go right to it. I posted a faily detailed synopsis of these guys, and I don't mind you checking my work or commenting. What would you change about the Dragons, if anything? Any contribution is appreciated.

[Aleksanteri]

I'm a little perplexed about their hardline about exterminating [other] Shen. It probably wins them some appeal from the Western Techies, but I don't know how much it makes sense for them...I mean, if they bent to the Western Technate, why wouldn't they adopt a similar strategy towards the Shen, like trying to use them as pawns against each other, to manipulate them...surely they recognize the OTHER problems the Middle Kingdom has that are, uhhh...a little more sadistic?

[I Hate All Life]

I'm a little perplexed about their hardline about exterminating [other] Shen.  It probably wins them some appeal from the Western Techies, but I don't know how much it makes sense for them...I mean, if they bent to the Western Technate, why wouldn't they adopt a similar strategy towards the Shen, like trying to use them as pawns against each other, to manipulate them...surely they recognize the OTHER problems the Middle Kingdom has that are, uhhh...a little more sadistic?

Agreed. They hold to beliefs not in keeping with the realities of their situation. But this principle is true of all supernaturals, really, as well as humanity as a whole. I have severe doubts that the Elemental Dragons have the power necessary to both remain entities somewhat independent of the Western Technocracy and continue persecuting the shen like they are. The Dragons lack a true functional unity with one another, they lack full influence and control over their own regions (having to share or cede power to the Technocracy), and they fail to truly understand what they're up against. (Hell, at least the Union was well-established before it moved forward with its pogrom, though that impractical policy has been backed away from in light of recent events.)

To call the supernatural denizens of the Middle Kingdom an organized community that responds in a coordinated fashion to any and all threats would be wrong, but the shen do have diplomatic relations and a reasonably fuctional information network, and they can and will trade information if it's to their benefit (unlike, say, the balkanized and less homogenized West). Consider Asia's Mystics & Monsters a huge, extended, and severely dysfunctional family whose members bicker, snipe at and even kill each other on occasion, but that lock step when facing outsiders and that show unified resolve against things that threaten them all -- for example, the Yama Kings & Co., foreign supernaturals... and soon the Elemental Dragons.

I imagine that the Elemental Dragons, as they exist now, have a limited shelf life.

(Just curious: Why not post this in the MK thread?)

[Aleksanteri]

(Just curious: Why not post this in the MK thread?)

uhhh...I dunno...

[I Hate All Life]

Lemme clarify something. The only reason I said anything is, while what you said is certainly topical in the Mage forum, it was a response to something in the other thread in the MK forum and seems a little out of context here by itself.

[Aleksanteri]

Lemme clarify something.  The only reason I said anything is, while what you said is certainly topical in the Mage forum, it was a response to something in the other thread in the MK forum and seems a little out of context here by itself.

oh...uhhh...I was encouraging people to go read the MK thread! Yeah! Then you'll know what I'm talking about!

[I Hate All Life]

Ah, gotcha.