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Jorahl

Why Romulans Are Just Better Than You

53 posts in this topic
I think that's what I've always found so interesting about them, is how honor-bound they are, and how complex the honor system is. With a Klingon, it's usually just personal or house honor that's spoken of, but for a Romulan it seems so much deeper.

 

Speaking of something I find it interesting, and this comes again from drawing from Roman-ish cultures. While they seem to value power and honor, it always seems that this is tempered by it not being personal power. Romulans who seek power for themselves or at the expense of the Empire seem spurned, which was something related to the Romans (see: Caesar.)

 

On the Xenephobic issue, to sort of expand on my own thoughts of what Blu said, yes, the Romans were fairly open to new cultures, but unlike the Romans, the Romulans had a unique experience during their the "Sundering" and even before, where they were raided by Orions and sold into slavery, which made them wary of other races.

 

It's more than just xenophobia though, it has to do with their notions of power, another great maxim: "If knowledge is power, then to be unknown is to be unconquerable."

 

I will note that such an approach to the Romulans is fun to play against. Many alien cultures are relatively simple, and tend to get played shallow and stereotyped. I've fond the combination of honor and mystery creates a better rounded place to develop a character from than most other options.

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Seriously though, we have a Romulan sim in the forum..we have a set history that we use, and it's in our Welcome packet. Not sure why you're trying to make 'changes' to how we run things...when you haven't even applied to join us and see how we work?

I can't imagine anyone, beyond the actual host team, is able to change the established canon for a particular sim - in this example, for Talon. I think players, within the bounds set by their own hosts, should be free to develop additional breadth for the race they play there. If Jorahl wants to weave in something non-Rihanssu for his Romulan and his host is good with it, so be it. It's one of the freedoms and frustrations of sim discontinuity.

 

The great Andorian gender debate comes to mind. Nothing in TOS or Enterprise suggests the Andorians have anything but the basic male / female dualism that most species demonstrate. But the Pocket Book series, particularly the DS9 relaunch, developed an intricate four-gender system based on Data's throwaway comment that Andorian weddings require four people. Which is right? Is one canon and the other heresy? Since there are relatively few Andorian characters, it looks like hosts have given freedom to let Andorian characters decide which background they'd like to use.

 

For Talon, I imagine an established in-sim canon is a must - which elements of Duane to embrace, which elements of Nemesis to ignore, and internally developed stuff like political families and leaders. But as rich and well-developed as it may be, other players in other sims are free to utilize and ignore it at their leisure. If one sim gives a race and name to the Council President of the Federation, it doesn't mean the other sims have to use it or like it. If the Romulans launch a war on Talon, the folks on Aegis or Republic might choose to keep sailing through Pax Galacta, make some news references to distant, or jump right into their own Romulan battles. I don't think you're suggesting otherwise. But I also don't think Jorahl's details are meant to (or can) impose on how Talon runs things - that's for its hosts (with player input) to choose.

 

Different, related note:

Crossovers are awesome. Even when continuities don't line up exactly, intermeshing storylines between two sims is just fun. If you can find ways to do it and pull it off, you usually wind up with a pretty memorable event.

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I can't imagine anyone, beyond the actual host team, is able to change the established canon for a particular sim - in this example, for Talon. I think players, within the bounds set by their own hosts, should be free to develop additional breadth for the race they play there. If Jorahl wants to weave in something non-Rihanssu for his Romulan and his host is good with it, so be it. It's one of the freedoms and frustrations of sim discontinuity.

 

The great Andorian gender debate comes to mind. Nothing in TOS or Enterprise suggests the Andorians have anything but the basic male / female dualism that most species demonstrate. But the Pocket Book series, particularly the DS9 relaunch, developed an intricate four-gender system based on Data's throwaway comment that Andorian weddings require four people. Which is right? Is one canon and the other heresy? Since there are relatively few Andorian characters, it looks like hosts have given freedom to let Andorian characters decide which background they'd like to use.

 

For Talon, I imagine an established in-sim canon is a must - which elements of Duane to embrace, which elements of Nemesis to ignore, and internally developed stuff like political families and leaders. But as rich and well-developed as it may be, other players in other sims are free to utilize and ignore it at their leisure. If one sim gives a race and name to the Council President of the Federation, it doesn't mean the other sims have to use it or like it. If the Romulans launch a war on Talon, the folks on Aegis or Republic might choose to keep sailing through Pax Galacta, make some news references to distant, or jump right into their own Romulan battles. I don't think you're suggesting otherwise. But I also don't think Jorahl's details are meant to (or can) impose on how Talon runs things - that's for its hosts (with player input) to choose.

 

Different, related note:

Crossovers are awesome. Even when continuities don't line up exactly, intermeshing storylines between two sims is just fun. If you can find ways to do it and pull it off, you usually wind up with a pretty memorable event.

 

 

I think there has to be, however, some sort of generalization of what "canon" is because you have situations where someone will want to come in and isn't playing the same sort of canon that others are using and it's messy. Again, I think someone pointed out that it should and is a decision of the hosting team.

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