Posted by Xavier McShane on 15:01 2/27/02
In reply to: (none)
You mention several times throughout your site that the nation of Flora's advancement is comparable to that of a state such as Verduria, Kebri, etc. Yet in the Atlas there is little mentioned about the flaids' political or material history, or their relations with the humans and ilii (or ktuvoki?). Do you know how they achieved this degree of development?
Flaids are full of contradictions. They are peaceable, yet fiercely repel antagonists; conservative by nature, yet inquisitive and ready to adopt other people's good ideas; overall staid and intensely domestic, and yet playful in their humor, and rambunctious as youths. They think humans are mercurial and obsessed with sex and meaningless rituals; yet they love nothing more than deep, abstract studies-- alchemy, trigonmetry, and morality are favorite subjects-- though they are also always in the mood for stories, or large meals.
To answer your question more directly, the flaids are great copiers, and often improve things as they copy. And they are virtually next door to the Verdurians and the Kebreni, the great innovators of the North.
An earthly analogy might be Taiwan: a country which has never exactly been at center stage in history, and has no great resources, but which rather quietly succeeded in raising itself from poverty to First World status in half a century.