BOOK VI, CHAPTER 6 (Part 1)
19 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in 2nd Volume: Night and Day, Book VI: The Voice of the Dawn Tags: adventure, animal, anthro, exile, fantasy, fiction, forest, furry, hanami, kemono, mammals, outcast, Tasakeru, the voice of the dawn, web fiction, web serial novel, zero
CHAPTER 6, PART 1
Listen closely now
Can you hear her whispering?
The voice of the dawn
UPDATES: New Year, Nil, and SOPA.
13 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Misc. Tags: censorship on the internet, cosmic horror, horror story, sopa
Happy belated New Year, everyone! 2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Tasakeru. This year will see the completion of Book VI: The Voice of the Dawn, and with it the second volume of the series… the first part of Chapter 6 will be posted within the week if all goes well, knock on wood. I’m also planning something very big for the near future… keep watching for more details.
On the shameless plugging front, I’d like to call attention to an original story by my good friend and collaborator Ben Stratton. His novel Nil is the story of two siblings caught up in a cosmic horror story and a growing multiversal apocalypse courtesy of an unstoppable race of eldritch monsters. It’s an emotional, gripping, and terrifying work that deserves your praise and support, so I encourage all my readers to take a look.
And finally, Tasakeru.com will be going dark on January 18th, joining such giants as Mozilla.org and Reddit in the Strike against SOPA. The SOPA Strike is part of the ongoing effort to protect free speech and oppose censorship on the Internet, and Tasakeru is proud to be a part of it. If you’d like to see more details about the strike, or join up yourself, please visit sopastrike.com
That’s all for now. More updates coming soon!
- BHS
SUPPLEMENTALS #2: Daily Life, Part 2
20 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in Supplementals Tags: daily life, fox, supplementals, wolf
WOLVES
The daily life of a wolf almost always involves travel. Wolves have a natural instinct to wander the outdoors with their packs; for this reason, barely a fifth of their population elects to live in their territory in Shinboku. Too many walls and ceilings make them uncomfortable, so even those that do choose city life tend to live in very large, open group homes, a form of communal housing.
Most of the wolves live in traveling groups among the Raikaa mountain range that makes up Sankami’s northern border. For a wolf to focus on one single occupation (such as farming or goat-breeding) is uncommon; wolves specialize in learning as many skills as possible and being at least competent in every possible field, to better support their pack.
Needless to say, a wolf’s pack is the center of his or her existence. One week after birth, a wolf pup will be given their first tattoos in a sacred ritual. The tattoos, based on the night sky on their birth week and applied with enchanted ink, will serve to identify their pack for the rest of their lives. Therefore, being stripped of one’s markings is a punishment only reserved for the most heinous of crimes.
The wolves have no formal schooling system. From birth to maturity, a wolf will be raised and educated not only by his or her parents but by the rest of the pack as well, with each individual taking part in the pup’s development. Once the pup is matured and is ready to start a family, he or she will be given their second set of tattoos, marking them as full-grown and ready to start their own pack. The new markings will be comprised of a mixture of the old and the new, thus it is possible to tell a wolf’s entire history if one knows how to read their markings correctly.
Due to their unique needs and lifestyles, wolves consume far more meat than the other sentient species. In fact, almost every pack travels with at least a few domestic animals used purely for food purposes. This largely-carnivorous diet is one of the reasons wolves are still seen as “savages” by many… an echo of the fears of the distant, pre-sentient past, perhaps.
One final note: the outbreak of the Frothing Blight one hundred thirty years ago hit the wolves the hardest, leading to the loss of at least one-third of their population. After the Blight was controlled, a gradual shift became apparent in wolf culture… the packs began to slowly drift, living farther and farther apart with each passing generation. This development is understandable, given that the Blight spread fastest through the packs living closest together. It is only in recent years (circa 1430) that the spaces between pack territories have started to shrink again. What this means for their future is unknown.
FOXES
Foxes live bohemian, hedonistic lives that strike some as envy-inducing and others as wildly irresponsible. Nearly every facet of fox life is based around self-expression and creativity. They leave logistics and concrete thinking to the rabbits and badgers; to a fox, living isn’t living if you’re not doing what you love.
To that end, the fox society is filled with artists, writers, dancers, musicians, architects, poets, philosophers, and dreamers. “Grunt work”, such as physical labor, is delegated to whoever is willing to put up with it… this tends to be the poorest and lowest on the social ladder.
A fox’s upbringing is seen as a means to an end: parents teach their children to read and write so that they may better appreciate the works their culture produces, and hopefully someday contribute works of their own. This system shows considerable bias towards the rich and well-to-do, again leading to the lowest classes being stuck with the least desirable jobs. Young foxes are expected to start helping with chores at a very young age in order to facilitate their parents’ lifestyles. A fox pup is given very little leeway in terms of making mistakes; if one should fall on hard times, life tends to move on around them, with little sympathy expended upon them.
All this ties into the common perception of foxes as self-centered and lacking in empathy, but it’s really a question of perspective. Foxes believe in either solving problems for themselves or passing them on for someone else to deal with. If neither approach works, the problem will simply be ignored, in hopes that it will resolve itself. Such a way of living may be short-sighted, but somehow, incredibly, it works for the species as a whole. This practice was called into question concerning wolfoxes, especially after the Wolfox Rebellion. The vulpine response to these criticisms has yet to be delivered.
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SUPPLEMENTALS #2: Daily Life, Part 1
24 Nov 2011 2 Comments
in Supplementals Tags: daily life, samurai, skunk, squirrel, supplementals
We’ve seen much of what the Outcasts’ daily lives are like in Tasakeru, but what about the lives of ordinary citizens?
IN GENERAL
Sankami is perpetually in a pre-industrial state due to the development of magic over technology, so all travel is by foot, wagon, boltpath stones, or kago, the latter two mostly reserved for the very rich. Families that raise boars can sometimes train them to pull small carts, but this is the closest thing Sankamians have to a work animal, so most tend to stay close to home… the exception being the wolf packs, who feel uncomfortable staying in one place for too long and lead nomadic lives. The average family has two or three children (or five in the case of the rabbits). Education is primarily the responsibility of the parents, unless they wish to pay for one of the acclaimed badger tutors. Children tend to follow their parents’ professions more often than not; all cultures place an extremely high value on maintaining their own unique traditions.
An accurate measurement of the island’s population would be nearly impossible to obtain (considering that one-eighths of the population prefers not to be seen at all, let alone counted), but by extremely rough estimate there are approximately 50-70,000 of each species save the rabbits, which number at about 150,000 as of the story’s setting.
SQUIRRELS
Almost every squirrel buck you see is likely to be either a samurai or some sort of farmer/food-gatherer. The squirrels are so enamored of their beloved Militia that every male that possibly can sign up as a recruit generally does so. Squirrels who live outside of Sankami are generally farmers, inhabiting the grasslands of central and western Sankami. The coastal villages are home to fishers, who make their living selling their wares to buyers from Shinboku… squirrels can eat meat, but generally stick to grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Squirrel does are expected to cook, clean, and raise families… an expectation that strikes the entire skunk population as repugnant, naturally. A select few are village teachers, generally chosen by consensus. Within Tachi-cho, the squirrels’ section of Shinboku, more options are open for does: some become artists, painters, musicians, or writers if the times and talent permit, though they have significant difficulties being noticed compared to the foxes’ volume of creative output. Very high-class does can be recruited as geisha at a young age, learning the arts of conversation, dancing, tea ceremony, and calligraphy in order to entertain clients. This entire practice is shrouded in secrecy, so not many outside the geisha houses know the details.
SKUNKS
If you are a male skunk (or florin), your path in life is a simple one: learn a specialized talent that will attract mates, and keep at practicing it until you are noticed by a floris… after which you are generally set for a quiet life of relative comfort, provided you keep your mate’s interest, of course. In the matriarchal skunk society, florins are exempt from most of life’s duties. Their primary function is to look handsome, keep the females’ interests, maintain the house, and participate in breeding. For some males of other species, this sounds like paradise; for others, it smacks of legal slavery. Florins are expected to wear concealing robes when outside of the household, but some families are more strict about this custom than others. Still, most mated florins are happy with their lives, despite the restrictions upon them.
Florises, or female skunks, have busier lives than most sentients would ever imagine. With one-half of the skunk population kept strictly for breeding purposes, the full brunt of employment and family care rests on the shoulders of the floris. It is little wonder that florises make such fierce warriors; they are used to defending their families from all manner of difficulties just by living their day-to-day lives. Aside from taking a position within the Silver Order, the most popular professions for florises are gardening and food preparation. With such a species-wide focus on protecting and maintaining life, many skunks are adept at growing, harvesting, and preparing food… a skunk’s garden is a sight to behold, and those who sample skunk cooking claim that the taste is unequaled. Healers are also very common among florises, with some of the more superstitious types swearing that “healing hands” are a subtle family trait passed down from mother to daughter.
- BHS
BOOK VI, CHAPTER 5 (Part 2)
13 Nov 2011 3 Comments
in 2nd Volume: Night and Day, Book VI: The Voice of the Dawn Tags: adventure, animal, anthro, drake, drama, exile, fantasy, fiction, forest, furry, hanami, japanese culture, kemono, mammals, naole, outcast, Tasakeru, the voice of the dawn, web fiction, web serial novel, zero
CHAPTER 5
Part 2
BOOK VI, CHAPTER 5 (Part 1)
31 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in 2nd Volume: Night and Day, Book VI: The Voice of the Dawn Tags: adventure, animal, anthro, fiction, forest, furry, kemono, mammals, naole, outcast, samurai, Tasakeru, the voice of the dawn, web fiction, web serial novel, zero
CHAPTER 5, Part 1
Duty and feelings
Those who do what must be done
Old and broken bones
BOOK VI, CHAPTER 4
26 Sep 2011 3 Comments
in 2nd Volume: Night and Day, Book VI: The Voice of the Dawn Tags: adventure, animal, anthro, exile, fantasy, fiction, forest, furry, japanese culture, kemono, mammals, outcast, samurai, Tasakeru, the voice of the dawn, web fiction, web serial novel, zero
CHAPTER 4
A buried feeling
Rises when the sister meets
Strangers at her door
***Author’s Note: This chapter has given me more trouble than any other in the series so far. It was originally going to be around twice as long, but since it’s already over a month late I’ve decided to cut it off at the best point I can and shunt the rest into Chapter 5. I’d be lying if I said I was totally satisfied with it, but I hope my readers will enjoy it anyway. More exciting things are in store for next time, so please be patient for a little while longer…***
- BHS
SUPPLEMENTALS #1: Dimensional Bleed
12 Aug 2011 3 Comments
in Supplementals Tags: dimensional bleed, japanese culture, supplementals
***Still working on the next chapter of The Voice of the Dawn, but meanwhile, here’s the first in what will be a series of short posts explaining various aspects of the Tasakeru universe. This information will generally be stuff that won’t fit on any of the About pages, so think of them as bonuses to reward your patience.***
- BHS
Dimensional bleed is name for a concept used to explain the similarities between our reality and the alternate reality in which Tasakeru takes place. Many people have asked, “If humans never existed on the other Earth, why do the sentients use Earth languages and names from human cultures?” This is a very good question, and one that goes frustratingly unanswered in a lot of talking animal stories.
It’s been stated from the start that Tasakeru takes place on another Earth, in a parallel reality to our own. In the context of the series, alternate realities occupy the same physical space, but on different dimensional planes. The human Earth and “other Earth” happen to be very close, dimension-wise… so close that ideas and elements of human culture can “leak” from one plane to the other. This effect is never directly recognized by the sentients of “other Earth”; all human influence would be unconscious at best. So, the in-universe reason the squirrel culture modeled itself after feudal-era Japan is because they’ve unintentionally tuned into our memories and knowledge of the place, like a radio picking up a weak frequency. That’s dimensional bleed in a nutshell.
Dimensional bleed also serves as an in-universe explanation for the use of Japanese and Latin as Old and New Standard, respectively (bravo to my readers who figured out the latter!) There’s a certain amount of translation convection involved, of course, but generally the languages are close enough to each other so as to make little difference.
So, to put it simply: human ideas have an effect on Tasakeru, but the characters aren’t aware of it.
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