• Announcements

    • Robin

      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
Sign in to follow this  
mlooney

Story Friday April 3rd 2020

Recommended Posts

6 hours ago, hkmaly said:

To be fair, it IS possible he was more bureaucratic when younger (it presumably happened more than 15 years ago). However, I still consider 'hidden agenda' more likely.

It totally happens. There are places in Europe (and middle east) which changed hand lot of times and were part of no less than four completely different countries. However, I don't think Adrian's place of birth is in or near Russia.

Getting a rail ticket may not be so simple if you lack cash. So, it's possible his only option was to fly at least to the place where he could recover (part of) Sirleck's money.

If it was "more than 15 years ago", it may even have been long enough ago that the USSR was still around, assuming that EGS is taking place in a year closer to the year Dan started publishing the series rather than our current real-world present.

As for whether Magus had any cash on him, presumably he received a duplicate of Elliot's wallet and its contents, just as Ellen had received a duplicate of everything that Elliot had been carrying when given a body by the Dewitchery Diamond--she explicitly lists getting a copy of the car keys, for example. Of course, Elliot being a high school senior not presently earning any wages, he probably had less than $100 cash on him . . .

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I don't have enough information to agree or disagree. Why do you think, "Not Russia?" Where do you think he's from?

His father's name, Blaike is similar to Scottish and English names, but no hits on the Google monster, one syllable, so likely to occur elsewhere. The setting looks fairly generic.

The in canon answer would be England, France or Germany, based on what Pandora says here.  I think we can safely assume that the United States isn't where he is from.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Just now, mlooney said:

The in canon answer would be England, France or Germany, based on what Pandora says here.  I think we can safely assume that the United States isn't where he is from.

Did a search and Blaike is apparently an anglo-saxon name from the Yorkshire region meaning Black or Dark (like German Dunkel), of course in this case we're looking at it being a first name but it still seems to be anglo-centric in its usage so my guess is that Blaike Raven was born in England, being an adventurer though, he might not have been in England at the time Adrian was born, France of Germany wouldn't be out of the question as a place of birth, I guess it would depend on where Blaike and Pandora decided to settle down to raise Adrian.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
32 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Did a search and Blaike is apparently an anglo-saxon name from the Yorkshire region meaning Black or Dark (like German Dunkel), of course in this case we're looking at it being a first name but it still seems to be anglo-centric in its usage so my guess is that Blaike Raven was born in England, being an adventurer though, he might not have been in England at the time Adrian was born, France of Germany wouldn't be out of the question as a place of birth, I guess it would depend on where Blaike and Pandora decided to settle down to raise Adrian.

Was it spelled Blaike? I got hits like that for Blake.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
33 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Did a search and Blaike is apparently an anglo-saxon name from the Yorkshire region meaning Black or Dark (like German Dunkel), of course in this case we're looking at it being a first name but it still seems to be anglo-centric in its usage so my guess is that Blaike Raven was born in England, being an adventurer though, he might not have been in England at the time Adrian was born, France of Germany wouldn't be out of the question as a place of birth, I guess it would depend on where Blaike and Pandora decided to settle down to raise Adrian.

Of course it's not "our" England, France or Germany as the lack of Dragons and Magical Lion Bears would indicate.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, mlooney said:

The in canon answer would be England, France or Germany, based on what Pandora says here.  I think we can safely assume that the United States isn't where he is from.

I agree, I was assuming Europe.

Pandora may not be giving a comprehensive list of places he's lived, but with lack of other evidence, I'd say that short list is mist likely. So, yeah, no Russia.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Was it spelled Blaike? I got hits like that for Blake.

I got a ton of baby name sites, which are of questionable accuracy1 using the Blaike spelling.  Just for what it's worth, it's split almost exactly 50/50 as to being a boy or girl name.

1Speaking as an former SCA herald, baby name  sites and books are not considered as documentation for registering a SCA name.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
6 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Was it spelled Blaike? I got hits like that for Blake.

Here's the page of the "Blaike as a surname" origin, and it even mentions that the rules of spelling were quite lacking in ye olde times, so variations of the name existed but generally they were the same family.

 

8 minutes ago, mlooney said:

I got a ton of baby name sites, which are of questionable accuracy1 using the Blaike spelling.  Just for what it's worth, it's split almost exactly 50/50 as to being a boy or girl name.

Blaike as a first name was found on a baby naming site as well, the only real info I got from it is confirming that it's of English origin.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Here's the page of the "Blaike as a surname" origin, and it even mentions that the rules of spelling were quite lacking in ye olde times, so variations of the name existed but generally they were the same family.

As an example of the loose standards of spelling, we have six surviving instances of William Shakespeare's signature. In no two of them did he spell his surname the same way - and not one of them has it as "Shakespeare". (He spelled his given name as "William" in three of the six signatures.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, mlooney said:

The in canon answer would be England, France or Germany, based on what Pandora says here.  I think we can safely assume that the United States isn't where he is from.

From what we have been told, he presumably predates the existence of the USA as a government. He would also predate a unified Germany (mid 19th century).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
18 minutes ago, ijuin said:

From what we have been told, he presumably predates the existence of the USA as a government. He would also predate a unified Germany (mid 19th century).

True, but Germany as a recognized area predated unification by quite some.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Scotty said:

... it even mentions that the rules of spelling were quite lacking in ye olde times, so variations of the name existed ...

Oh, yeah, good point.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
15 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:
2 hours ago, Scotty said:

it even mentions that the rules of spelling were quite lacking in ye olde times, so variations of the name existed ...

Oh, yeah, good point.

Modern rules of spelling are a 19th century invention.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:
23 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Not knowing the law is no excuse. Again: it doesn't need to be logical. It can be catch-22.

It is generally meant that not knowing the law is no excuse if you ought to know it. It is not generally taken to mean, "We have this secret law, and if you violate it, you have no excuse". However ...

Yes, generally. In this specific case however ...

19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

My understanding is that DGB essentially is threat response, and operates outside the law.

My understanding is Dan is nowhere near good enough to just think about answering this. Pity.

Some things in comics imply there is some global coordination, and that implies international agreements.

19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Of course, if Magus is as powerful as he seems to think he is, they may have a battle on their hands.

Everything points to him really being that powerful. On the other hand, maybe we didn't saw how good wizards DGB has. Luckily, neither Magus nor DGB want to cause more collateral damage than necessary.

19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:
23 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Magus has much more magic knowledge and experience. Probably knows how to possess someone as well.

I'm not seeing that as being in his normal repertoire. He saw Sirleck as pure aberration, and that is basically all Sirleck did. Even with Elliot and Ellen, he seemed to feel he'd incurred a debt. I don't see how his power particularly helps him in this case. Will, maybe, but Elliot is strong willed when others are in danger. I'm going to stick with 'it's an anomaly'.

It may be something he knows how to do but doesn't want to do. Or it's somehow related to the TF beam.

19 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:
23 hours ago, hkmaly said:

It totally happens. There are places in Europe (and middle east) which changed hand lot of times and were part of no less than four completely different countries. However, I don't think Adrian's place of birth is in or near Russia.

I don't have enough information to agree or disagree. Why do you think, "Not Russia?" Where do you think he's from?

His father's name, Blaike is similar to Scottish and English names, but no hits on the Google monster, one syllable, so likely to occur elsewhere. The setting looks fairly generic.

 

Blaike Raven is certainly English name, however as an adventurer, he might traveled. Still, in those ages, Russia was far away, and it wasn't even in list of countries Pandora named. And Raven doesn't seem like someone who would protest that he's not from Russia this way if he would be from some nearby country.

Of course, the meta answer is that Dan doesn't seem to have knowledge necessary to imply Raven being from anywhere else than England. It's not so simple. Xmung from MagellanVerse had local expert and still failed on first page of Russia-themed comics.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
21 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

My understanding is Dan is nowhere near good enough to just think about answering this. Pity.

Some things in comics imply there is some global coordination, and that implies international agreements.

Just for what it's worth, if there is a masquerade in place with regards to both magic and aliens, aliens can't be person by law.  US Law defines natural persons as being homo sapiens.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
16 hours ago, ijuin said:

If it was "more than 15 years ago", it may even have been long enough ago that the USSR was still around, assuming that EGS is taking place in a year closer to the year Dan started publishing the series rather than our current real-world present.

Sending Adrian to the other side of iron curtain would be VERY mean.

16 hours ago, ijuin said:

As for whether Magus had any cash on him, presumably he received a duplicate of Elliot's wallet and its contents, just as Ellen had received a duplicate of everything that Elliot had been carrying when given a body by the Dewitchery Diamond--she explicitly lists getting a copy of the car keys, for example. Of course, Elliot being a high school senior not presently earning any wages, he probably had less than $100 cash on him . . .

Elliot being a high school senior not planing to go outside might meant he simply didn't had ANY money on him. Also, using duplicated money is risky, remember that there are numbers on them (serial numbers, I don't mean value).

8 hours ago, mlooney said:

Of course it's not "our" England, France or Germany as the lack of Dragons and Magical Lion Bears would indicate.

How well were you looking? :)

Of course there are no Dragons and Magical Lion Bears in England NOW. Someone happened to them.

8 hours ago, mlooney said:

I agree, I was assuming Europe.

Pandora may not be giving a comprehensive list of places he's lived, but with lack of other evidence, I'd say that short list is mist likely. So, yeah, no Russia.

Pandora might be giving a comprehensive list of armies Raven failed to get into. But yes, unlikely she would miss Russia.

6 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

As an example of the loose standards of spelling, we have six surviving instances of William Shakespeare's signature. In no two of them did he spell his surname the same way - and not one of them has it as "Shakespeare". (He spelled his given name as "William" in three of the six signatures.)

I would argue that just as now, signature had little to do with how is the surname written normally, however it seems that there was no consistency as how was his name written on the plays either.

6 hours ago, mlooney said:
6 hours ago, ijuin said:

From what we have been told, he presumably predates the existence of the USA as a government. He would also predate a unified Germany (mid 19th century).

True, but Germany as a recognized area predated unification by quite some.

But it would make more sense to use different name, like Prussia.

5 minutes ago, mlooney said:
29 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Some things in comics imply there is some global coordination, and that implies international agreements.

Just for what it's worth, if there is a masquerade in place with regards to both magic and aliens, aliens can't be person by law.  US Law defines natural persons as being homo sapiens.

That's OUR version of that law. It's possible it's different in EGS universe. There are certainly ways how to word the law in way which doesn't immediately confirm existence of aliens and yet allows them same rights.
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
12 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

There are certainly ways how to word the law in way which doesn't immediately confirm existence of aliens and yet allows them same rights.
 

Oh?  How?  And do it such a way as to not make chimps and whales persons.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, mlooney said:
1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

There are certainly ways how to word the law in way which doesn't immediately confirm existence of aliens and yet allows them same rights.

Oh?  How?  And do it such a way as to not make chimps and whales persons.

I didn't said I can do it. I'm not even lawyer.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I didn't said I can do it. I'm not even lawyer.

It's tricky enough to define a natural person as a born alive homo sapiens.  Having a legal definition that includes infants humans, but doesn't include chimps but does include random aliens with out saying that aliens exists might be close to impossible.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
12 minutes ago, mlooney said:
20 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

I didn't said I can do it. I'm not even lawyer.

It's tricky enough to define a natural person as a born alive homo sapiens.  Having a legal definition that includes infants humans, but doesn't include chimps but does include random aliens with out saying that aliens exists might be close to impossible.

Yet there is no word "homo" nor "sapiens" in Geneva Convention, nor on Universal declaration of human rights. Do you claim such important documents are written incorrectly?

I'm actually surprised that in country with so many people who don't believe in evolution the words "homo sapiens" got into law.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
11 hours ago, mlooney said:

Of course it's not "our" England, France or Germany

Well, if we want to throw out all connection to our reality, we could postulate that the young Raven family called Doggerland their home.
Maybe the EGS version of the place sank/flooded just a few (that is 9,000) years later?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Well, if we want to throw out all connection to our reality, we could postulate that the young Raven family called Doggerland their home.
Maybe the EGS version of the place sank/flooded just a few (that is 9,000) years later?

Hmm.  That might work.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, mlooney said:

Just for what it's worth, if there is a masquerade in place with regards to both magic and aliens, aliens can't be person by law.  US Law defines natural persons as being homo sapiens.

Different universe, some official knowledge of contact by an alien race, perhaps they've made accommodations.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
8 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yet there is no word "homo" nor "sapiens" in Geneva Convention, nor on Universal declaration of human rights. Do you claim such important documents are written incorrectly?

I'm actually surprised that in country with so many people who don't believe in evolution the words "homo sapiens" got into law.

They didn't, the link was to a legal commentary.

(The religious right chimes in with, "We don't want no Home Sapiens, only Hetero Sapiens.") ... which should allow the whales and such, right?

Edited by Darth Fluffy
Fixed typo

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this