((sad grey ghost amidst the filthy rain)) -- The River

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 19:52:35 05/03/03 Sat
Author: Erashun
Subject: ((sad grey ghost amidst the filthy rain))
In reply to: Rachedith 's message, "Absolutes?" on 18:07:56 05/02/03 Fri

((Rachedith-- Ooh, my bad. I'm so used to Erashun being the biggest white around that I didna think to check yer height. I'm sowwy. ^_^;;))

"I can." Erashun's silver eyes glitter with an odd sort of cold, distant anger. "I know the origin of this tradition, as I know many things that most Korats would label me insane for knowing." Though the male has let the mothers verbally settle down and the two striped adolescents become acquainted, to say that he missed the situation would be an outright lie. Erashun knows when not to interfere. But back to the subject at hand...

The silk-furred white turns his muzzle to regard the river, long beard and full leonine mane rustling with the otherwise-silent movement. "You've nothing better to do at the moment other than listen to a weary Korat tell tales, so why don't I do so. Deyt is curious, after all." His bass voice drops half an octave and his volume decreases to little more than a whisper as the massive, snow-white Korat settles to his haunches on the bank of the river, whitely silver blade resting against his same-hued claws with a musical clink. "Facts first, mri'tho. Stripeds are the most sickly and weakest Korats alive. Most die as infants, many are stillborn, and so few survive to even adolescence that it's no wonder that they're so rare to begin with. Korats do not like weakness. They take note when a striped's cubs are all unhealthy and unable to survive on their own. Lavana is a harsh mistress, and Korats want their race to be the strongest of them all, despite the danger of life. It was begun as a simple common sense matter to kill stripeds at birth, not only to preserve the genetic integrity of the Korat species, but to prevent a striped's often... 'different'... mind from suffering through a life almost impossible to survive. It was mercy in its purest form."

The white half-closes his eyes, silver orbs now glazing over as though looking into the much-distant past. Before, perhaps, the white Original Glace even existed. The wind, warm and soft, toys with his long fur as he continues.

"There is a legend, a mere myth, that has been passed around from non-Koratian sources for ages. This myth permeates most stripeds' minds, whether they realize it or not. It is their sole hope, the flame burning within them that drives them to live and prove the Koratian majority wrong. Only in recent years -the past century or so- have stripeds had better physical and mental chances at surviving to adulthood. And by that point, even though they would've had a less torturous life, Korats were accustomed to eradicating stripeds. No longer common sense, it had become genocide. That's still how it is, except for precious few individuals who know better, such as Jysulehn and Rachedith. You two are part of a pawful of Korats -most mothers- who are beginning to change the stereotypical view of hybrids."

"Stripeds themselves are helping change this view as well. Young adults and mature adolescents, such as Zrego and Adi, are surviving to adulthood and proving the world wrong. They exploit their interbreed qualities to keep them alive, often turning out to be superior warriors with supremely keen senses, due to being hunted all their lives. In a part, this stereotypical hatred and genocide is making the striped variety of Korat a far stronger, more hardy, and more skilled group than anyone could've imagined. It's also twisting their minds. There is self-pity, self-destruction, a death wish, and angst where there never was before. Korats aren't built to deal with these feelings, as they were never intended to have them. Stripeds are more than just genetic mutations... they are also psychological mutations."

"But as I was saying... this myth. This burning desire, this raw hope that didn't even originate among Korats, but outside us. Night Cats, mostly, with some Nigias and other well-known Lavanians. They began whispering amongst themselves when stripeds first came into being. No striped is Of the Line, did you know that? The Lineage is shattered genetically in a hybrid. Otherwise, Zrego would be Of the Line, as his father is..."

"Stripeds came into being when Korat numbers began growing rapidly, a few thousands years after Redwood was Created, which was in turn a few dozen years after Kaili, followed by Ana, were Created. Stripeds began showing up in litters, very rare but still enough to be noticeable. Other Lavanians had ideas as to why this might be, due to the oddity of we Korats having more than one Original, but they said naught to us for the longest time. It was the stripeds themselves, those who survived and were harbored amongst other species, that began to hear this rumor."

"It was and still is said that there are not four Originals. There are five. This fifth is called Cawralla, a striped female of all four breeds. Though stripeds came before whites, she is part-white, and thus indicates to us that the Creator who made Redwood (and unbeknownst to most, over whom she held considerable sway) had planned whites for a long time. It would not surprise me had it indeed schemed and thought this out long before Creating Glace. Cawralla is thought to be the striped Original, though her place and method of Creation is unknown to all, except perhaps Redwood herself. The Creator who deals solely in Korats is a shrewd figure and a genius mind - he knew that Korats would one day become more numerous than almost any sentient Lavanian and would eventually grow out of our Tri-System. Though this has not happened yet, a few thousand years in the future will tell."

"Thus Cawralla was Created to be the epitome of Korats and everything that we are. Her First Fifty were all stripeds, and the traditional weakness attributed to mutations was not present at all. They truly were the best of the best, mixing two breeds into both physical and mental perfection. However, the Creator had specific plans for Cawralla and placed her on a planet he had made not far from the Tri-System, but far enough so that no communication would be possible, and the Olashi would not know. The theory is that, when stripeds began showing up in our genome, Cawralla had been Created using small parts of the other four Originals' long-gone shadows somehow. Pieces of her genome slipped over into theirs and thus into Korats as a whole, producing erratic mutations that were truly lesser stripeds than the actual powerful hybrids. This planet that Cawralla and her breed are supposedly on is referred to simply as Hope and only spoken of in whispered tones. It is Paradise to all stripeds who live in this prejudiced, terrible world that, long ago, common sense created for them. Only there might they rest and heal from life-long torture."

Erashun falls silent after his long narrative, eyes closed by this point and chest rising and falling evenly with silent breathing. He stays motionless except for the slightest movement of his ears, a subtle angling as he waits for the responses to come from his companions. He expects the most out of Zrego, as a 'fre now, and as a striped himself; so the white listens, he who had spoken, and waits.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Yowber! -- Rachedith and Adi, 22:52:51 05/03/03 Sat
- ~!@#$%^&*()_+ -- Deyt, 10:48:46 05/08/03 Thu
  - I got a heart full of pain... head full of stress... handful of anger... held in my chest.... -- Jysulehn, 13:29:49 05/10/03 Sat
    - Coming at you from every side...! -- Zrego, 13:59:09 05/10/03 Sat
      - Right on! -- Adi and Rachedith, 16:44:04 05/10/03 Sat