Kalawan Rising

 

Hi, I'm Legend, she/ze, and I'm running this show here in the Teashop Between Worlds. Today we welcome two new friends, Artura and Glynn, from William Dymock-Johnson's Kalawan Rising. ​

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Legend: Welcome! First of all, please introduce yourself. Name, pronouns if you wish, and tell us an interesting fact about yourself.

 

Glynn: Hello, my name is Glynn and I'm the Coordinator for the Coalition of the Liberated. I don't want to be though, there must be someone else who’s better qualified.

 

Artura: And I'm Artura. Don't believe what Glynn says. He's the reason the Coalition is even here. I've been a member of a secret society since I was 1500.

 

Legend: Ooh, 1500. It's not often I get to interview people older than me.

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Artura: That's 1500 days.

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Legend: So you're very rapidly grown? You've picked some colours for yourselves, too, very pretty. Can you tell us a bit about the world you live in?

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Glynn: Exchalal? It's no mammal’s first choice, it's a…

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Artura: Ze means originally.

 

Glynn: Oh right, we’re originally from Kalawan,

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Artura: Earth.

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Glynn: Right, yes it was called Earth before Contact. Are you sure of that?

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Artura: Yes, pre Contact Humans called our world Earth. That was before Contact. Our conquerers, the Invar, call it Kalawan.

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Glynn: Yeah, that. Anyways Kala, um Earth was a mess at Contact. The Invar helped clean it up. In return, we Humans serve as soldiers to pay that off.

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Artura: Which no one believes. That so-called debt will never be completed. We would have been the Ascendancy’s slave soldiers forever.

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Both: Until we rebelled.

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Legend: We do so enjoy a rebellion. Let’s a have a quick-fire round of This or That. Try to just answer and not think too hard about it.

 

Glynn and Artura or both:  

• Tea or Coffee

  • Tea Coffee But either would be good. We’re short on both.​

• Sweet or savoury

  • Savoury Sweet

• Music or sports

  • Sports

• Paperback or ebook

  • What’s a paperback?

• Paint or pencil

  • Pencil

• Countryside or city

  • Country City

• Fight or negotiate

  • Negotiate Fight

• Sword or gun

  • Swords were outdated before Contact, Artillery is against… Ze means hand to hand or ranged. Oh, gun then. Yeah, gun, saves on scraping them off your boots.

• Vampire or Werewolf

  • Vampire

• Film or TV series

  • Holo serial. Got any new ones?

• Morals or laws

  • Aren't those the same thing?

• Kids or puppies

  • Kids

• Museum or Beach Museum

  • Exchalal’s oceans are alkaline.

• World peace or end famine

  • The Invar did both, at the maw of a mass driver.

• Winter or summer

  • Summer Winter

• Dance or Football

  • Football

• Olives or sardines

  • Both, please.

• Rainbows or monochrome

  • Rainbow

• Brain or gut

  • Brain Gut

• Tradition or new

  • New

• Revenge or Justice

  • Revenge Justice

• Fast or slow zombies

  • The Cinakra are pretty fast. Too fast.

• Afterlife or ghost

  • Like an AI sim? Sounds creepy. No, like the Brilomar. Oh, no, we’re Humans thank you.

• Friendship or the law

  • Friendship? Friendship.

• Fantasy or reality

  • Reality​​

 

Legend: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

 

Glynn: We have revolted against the Ascendancy, who have more operational fleets than we have ships.

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Artura: I have sided against the movement I have been part of since I was little because Glynn at least knows that he doesn’t know what he is doing.

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Legend: More than most military leaders are aware of. Well done, Glynn. On to the personal stuff. Who or what is the love of your life?

 

Both: They are. Despite being an arranged marriage by the Invar we do love one another and complement each other well. Something our former masters may not be so happy about now.

 

Legend: Good for you both. Please be madly in love and try not to die. What’s the most intriguing story you know about one of your fellow characters?

 

Both: Not sure if know is the right word. Nalini, our Dashio, that's sort of our overall military commander. She's some first-sector princess or high family scion. Why she's stuck with us is a mystery. There's some sort of thing going on there.

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Legend: That's more of a story you don't know. Also, how are you speaking at the same time like that? That's some next-level Wife-fi. Impressed. Here's a tough. If you could go back and do one thing differently, what would it be?

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Artura: Go back to Contact. Kill the damn Invar, work out how their stuff worked so that we could meet them on our own terms.

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Glynn: Would that work? Wouldn’t the Concordat have absorbed the Ascendancy by then?

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Artura: We would beat them. Like we did fighting for the Invar. This section of the Lesser Arm could be under a Human-led polity.

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Glynn: Would that be a good thing?

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Artura: Of course it would! We can't just sit on our butts waiting for some other polity to come scoop us up. We need to be able to stand up for ourselves so we can never be enslaved again.

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Legend: An extremely admirable goal. So, if you were self-governing and you were in charge, what's the first thing you would do?

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Both: We made sure we had real food. A Human can eat stuff from Exchalal but you would rather not do it twice.

 

Legend: I'm curious to try it now. If you’re not the main character, tell us what you think of them. If you are, pick a supporting character.

 

Glynn: I'm worried about Danielle. Everyone who went on the expedition really. That last battle really changed her. She's fallen in with the anti aliens crowd.

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Artura: Our enemies are aliens.

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Glynn: So are our allies. Also, assuming we are successful we will take control of several Ascendancy worlds to retake K, Earth. What do we do with the Invar, Tolan, Brilomar and others?

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Artura: I don't know.

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Glynn: I don't know either, but I feel calling them xenos is a bad start.

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Legend: Considering you're the only two humans in here, I'd say it's a very bad start. *There's a dangerous gleam in zir eyes.* We don't kick people out for bigotry. The pieces that are left of them aren't big enough for that. *Then ze smiles brightly, if a little sharply.* So back to our irregularly scheduled nonsense. If you had the time and money, what new hobby/skill would you like to learn?

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​Both: If we could quit we would both like to be builders. Making our new homes felt good.

 

Legend: Also a worthy cause. Let's lighten the mood with something silly. If you were filling out an online dating profile, how would you describe yourself? What would you be looking for in your potential match?

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Glynn: As a civilian? Voluntarily?
Artura: Like a symp? Look, we were married by the Invar. One of their suggestions you are not allowed to refuse. 
Glynn: You can use the Prefered Match system, if you want. So I guess I would do what those who use it do. Fill out the forms, answer the profiler and submit a gene sample.
Artura: I wouldn't. Like I said, I'm not a symp.
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Legend: Well, I'm glad you found love in the end. Let's go to the other side of the scales. Tell us about the antagonist in your life.

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Both: Iskrai? He's an Invar Senator of Oristal, the local sector capital. Putting down our revolution and succession would advance his position, allowing him to go from the sector senate to the central one. Recently, he has been campaigning on an anti-Humans platform.

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Legend: Sounds unpleasant. If you were in charge instead, what kind of government would you have, e.g. democracy, meritocracy, dictatorship, monarchy, etc…

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Glynn: That's something that keeps me up at night. Currently, the Coalition is democratic. However, the native Pacherri outnumber us Humans ten thousand to one. Right now, they’re happy with me as Coordinator but three or five thousand from now? We’re a minority in our revolution. A democracy also runs the risk of populists, who pre Contact often became Genocidalists. We also don't want to use the Ascendancy model in which only Invar, or in our case Humans vote. That's not right. So what can we do?

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Legend: Is it really so awful if the person in charge is a different species so long as they are doing right by the country-slash-planet not just serving their own ends? Might the majority species not vote for a minority species if they are going to try and do right by everyone? Seems less a problem of type of government and more an issue of who is in it. But I guess that's meritocracy idealism crowbarring democracy into shape. Whether certain things will ever happen remains to be seen. Let's have a different philosophical question. What's your answer to the trolley problem?

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Arturo: Let the one person die. 
Glynn: Yeah. Artura’s right. You have to make the least bad decision at times. Feels like we've been doing that a lot recently.
Arturo: They are the right decisions.
Glynn: I hope so.

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Legend: Tough call. Wonder if you'd stick to it if it were each other's lives on the line. Guess people will have to read your book and see if they find out. Last question as we're over time. 1.    What are the rules of magic in your world?

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Both: Psionics? Oh, that. It's nothing much. Some species can do it but most psi is eclipsed by regular Galactic technology. I'm told psi adepts can perform larger feats if a lot of them work together, but since you can achieve the same results with normal tools and machines I don't see why you would do so. Maybe if you were resource-poor, but that's not a factor in Galactic polities.

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Legend: Interesting. Psionics isn't purely a magic ability here. Sometimes it can be but often it's evolutionary. We find when magic or tech gets too powerful, bad stuff happens. Well, that concludes our interview this morning. Guests, please enjoy some snacks and tea, try not to eat the humans.

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