> John Potter wrote:
> > As I see it most player's haven't really dug into the Aslan history enough to have informed opinions and simply use a generalized label like "Klingon Like" to infer that they are aggressive warrior like and tend to not get along with other species since they have a hard enough time just getting along with others of their own kind (differing clans).
>
> You are confusing two points. In my view, the Aslan had two huge
> problems. One was the History and one was the Culture. I have
> already gone over the Culture problem in another post, so, since
> you brought it up, I will hit on that. :-)
>
> The problem with the history is that it doesn't match their culture.
> We are told over and over that the Aslan do not have a racial
> identity. Instead, they have a clan identity. So, they are just as
> likely to make war with another clan as they are to make war with
> the empire of another race. That is just the way they are. But, within
> the history, they are always attacking as a race. They move as a
> race to battle with the Imperium, until they strike a treaty with the
> Aslan race. (Yeah, they try to cover it with being a treaty with the
> 'clan of clans', but really, it is a treaty between the humans and the
> Aslan, as all Aslan obey it.) They have skirmishes with the Solomani
> as a race. They invade the Domain of Deneb as a race. And finally,
> they take over most of the Domain's holdings in the Trojan Reach
> as a race. That doesn't fit and, really, doesn't make any sense.
>
> They tried to cover it by saying that it was really the ihatei that was
> doing the invasion. But that doesn't fly either. In fact, the Regency
> Sourcebook spends a lot of word count describing how pathetic
> ihatei fleets actually are, how expensive they are to create, and how
> rare they are. There just simply aren't enough ihatei fleets to do the
> damage they are accused of. And there pretty much isn't any way that
> they could take over the Tobin Duchy (much less Tobin itself).
>
> So, really, the whole story of the Aslan through the Rebellion and the
> Collapse makes no real sense the way it is portrayed. It just doesn't
> fit.
>
> What I did to deal with it is to say that the story that "everyone
> knows" was a cover. What happened is that some anti-Imperial clans
> made war with the Domain while they could, knowing it would have
> to be quick and decisive before they lost all of their home holdings
> to clans that would decide their unguarded homes were juicier targets
> than the Regency. Tobin didn't fall; rather the duke decided that
> Norris wasn't paying enough attention in that direction, so he cut a
> deal with the Aslan clans. His duchy then realigned under the Aslan
> banner. The whole "everyone knows" cover story is the nonsense that
> Norris put out to save face over the idea that a Domain Duke deserted.
> (And he paid for that choice with his life when Norris could finally
> refocus his forces.)
>
> (And note that even my explanation doesn't hold together that well,
> as the other clans wouldn't wait like I made them. They would have
> struck immediately after the war fleets left for the Domain of Deneb.
> The war clans would have had nothing to come back to. I just hand-
> waved the delay to make it all work.)
>
> Mike West
> mjwest@...
>
This makes so much sense and clarifies some of the things I have been struggling with the Aslan myself. I looked at the history and culture and think 'how can the Heirate be so big?' I have looked at Japanese history, even looked at the Klingons for inspiration but it doesn't make sense. I read your Aslan write-up last night and thought 'plausible'.
In reality I think the Heirate should be portrayed much more like the Extents, not one coherent whole like it is. Thanks so much for your reply Mike. Makes me want to dig deeper to try and explain thinks in MTU better.
Cheers.
Brett.