The effects of attempting to breed magical soldiers was well understood by the signatories of the various treaties. If one utilized the Second Spectrum and bound through alchemical processes those forces into a static object - the results would normally go a certain way. LIVING objects were a bit different, there were all sorts of interference patterns and shifting variables that could take those results and run away with it. In the vast majority of cases that would result in disaster. Often for the experimentee and frequently for the experimentOR. Even to the sensibilities of that time - the results of this sort of thing was abhorrent. The most frequent result was some malformed creature, while the occasional 'success' was hardly useful to those who conducted the experiment.
Dragons had proven that there were ways of magically influencing things slowly, over generations, and developing techniques for infusing simple forms and making them more complex.
Still, the idea of using it on humans was hardly something that anyone wanted to think about. Those 'successful' results had been monsters, both in appearance and personality, who had not been the sort of soldier one could simply order into the field and expect them not to turn on their creators.
So when the refugee Koreans and Japanese and Thai and Vietnamese and so on spread stories of invading horrors, they'd sparked uneasiness. The dragons were a wonderful development, but surely they were enough of a military edge and the refugees were hardly seasoned military observers - were they now?
Subaru Miyazaki WAS a seasoned military observer, an ace pilot, and had a reputation particularly among the British of a stoic and dignified warrior. His team consisted of himself, a French dragonrider named Phillippe Gouraud and his dragon (of course) Chevalier, a German transport specialist named Krause Von Werner, and a handful of lesser known international sorts. They ran the blockades, entered occupied Japan, and returned with photographs and evidence.
Subaru being Japanese, the terms he used became the widely utilized ones. Yokai were those empowered and altered who were powerful and arrogant and bloodthirsty - but still retained a semblence of humanity. Vampiric creatures that actually sucked blood or life from their victims were dubbed 'yoma.' As for those who more resembled something with existing terms - those were used. 'Zombies' and 'vampires' and one more type, one of which had been brought back.
The term that was used for these most widely all meant the same thing in whatever language - 'victims'. These were the results of captured individuals being experimented on against their will, whose flesh had been shifted but their core humanity remained more or less intact. Being set free in order to provide a form of hunting sport for the soldiers and nobility of the occupiers.
Some nations tried to squash the news rather than let it be known that such a valuable ally was doing anything of the sort. Others, like Russia, understood that agents of this regime were already in their country and that China might without warning sink its teeth into their own throats.
There were also fears because of the web of negotiations and treaties and alliances, where if one party declared war on another then still more nations would be swept along. Many were reluctant to risk war even if they themselves felt some threat, particularly if they felt as if the sword was poised at their own necks.
These revelations occurred in 1890. The Germans had just developed a new type of rocket shell, and Wilhelm II had fired Otto Von Bismarck. The British had just bred the Longwing dragon, a dragon that had the best altitude and long distance speed of any dragon yet. The French had developed the Ader, a nimble dragon that excelled at aerial combat. The Greek had developed griffins the previous year, and were hard at work at developing hippogriffs. There were clan wars in Africa, unrest in the Middle East, two states added in the United States (Idaho and Wyoming if you must know), and a Dark Sorcerer had come to power in Argentina.
The Great War began, pushing more mundane concerns aside, in
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sat, 08 Apr 2006 09:32)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.