Note: The content of this chapter was previously written in chapter 2. This new version is much better, at least according to me.
I want to give thousands upon thousands of thanks to all of those who reviewed the old chapter 5, especially those who reviewed and/or favourited and/or alerted this story after I had put up the hiatus notice - it was thanks to all of you (and a couple of stubborn friends - you know who you are, and I extend my thanks to you, too) that I had the energy to keep on writing this, despite how bleak everything looked during my writer's block.
So thanks, cookies and hugs go to: dartya, HikariNoTenshi-san, chicaalterego, krad09, ThorongilAnime, bokpricken, Meatbun Attack, Serositannia, KuroHi91, Vendelareader, Exile Wrath, Kine X, Anonymous (guest), Guest (no. 1), Krystal (guest), Guest (no. 2) and Guest (no. 3).
I'm really sorry I kept you all waiting for so long.
I had two guest reviewers who asked relevant questions, so I will be answering them here.
Q: Are they going to enter the Adventurer's tournament and meet Odd Squad?
A: This is after the 1/2 Prince storyline, so the Adventurer's tournament is already gone and passed, and I don't have the energy to think up all the characters needed for an original tournament, so there won't be one of those. The original 1/2 Prince Characters will show up, however. I won't say when and how, though :P.
Q: Will the entire story be from Pan's point of view?
A: Yes, I will try to have all of Beast Queen from Tigris' POV. I might make a one-shot/omake or two from others' POV, though, if the demand is high enough or if I want to illuminate something that simply would never have come to light through Tigris' eyes. She can be selectively blind, sometimes -_-"
WARNING: MONSTROUSLY LONG A/N AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER, explaining my thoughts about different stats.
Disclaimer: WHY!? What do they have against my fishies and dragons? This time they didn't even throw them away, they just ripped them apart! That's so mean! I spent much effort and love on that! That's it, I give up... I can't convince anyone... ½ Prince will never be mine... *starts crying and goes to sit in the emo corner*
Chapter 6:
What Do You Want To Be?
After having composed myself, I looked over the line of beings in front of me, trying to take it all in, but it was just too much. Scratching my neck, I made a quick decision, trying to bring down the numbers.
"Could you remove all characters without a human-like body type?" It would feel strange, and take a long time getting adjusted to the beings that were too different.
"Sure." She said simply, and with a smile she manipulated the screen in front of her with quick movements, making about a fourth of the numbers disappeared. Well, at least it's something, I thought and started walking along the line. It didn't take long before I realized the next group of beings I would like to remove.
Still, I hesitated in telling her. But if I left them, this would take way too long, and since I wouldn't choose any of them in the end, anyway, I turned to Mira again. With a light blush dusting my cheeks, I asked: "Could you remove the uglier ones, too, please?"
I didn't want to come off as vain – after all, that was not a good trait to have – but... I did not want to be ugly. To my relief, she just gave me a mischievous grin.
"Right there with you, sister." I felt my body freeze at that. Sister? Why would she call me sister? "They're hurting my eyes, too. And besides, I'd never let one of the Queens to play as an orch or something like it, especially not if she is as pretty as you, so there is no point in letting the ugly bitches stay. Honestly, I'll never understand the players choosing those kinds of characters, despite the stat bonuses." And like that, another portion of the beings were gone. Things started getting a little more manageable, now. Recovering from my shock and deciding that it must just have been a figure of speech, I started walking along the line again, but soon realized that I couldn't make a choice. There were just so many.
The silence stretched on, and Mira seemed to notice my plight, because she said: "Know what, let's do like this." And in an instant, all apart from seven of the beings vanished. "These are, from left to right; a mountain demon, a guardian angel, a Westfell human, a cat beastman, a stellar elf and a dark elf. They are all fairly popular characters and sub-species with good specs. There are a lot more than this, of course, if I only use those criteria, so I also filtered away those that didn't fit your crown or looks. This way, we can only keep removing the one you like the least until you find the one you want. Unless you already have a favourite?"
Slightly dazed, I shook my head and took a good look at the characters standing silently before me. Before, when they had been so many, I hadn't realized this, but now that they were down to seven, I could clearly see that they were all based off my basic data, creating a starting point from which to start customizing. It felt slightly odd, to have seven different versions of myself silently staring at me.
One, the human, was almost my mirror image, apart from being longer, having round pupils and having slightly darker skin. I looked at this one first, most likely because it was the least unnerving of them all. Noticing my look, Mira commented: "Humans can be considered an allround specie. They are well balanced, and will most likely fit whatever class you choose. This sub-species, Westfell, is slightly inclined towards agility and strength, with a low physique, but that is compensated by an affinity for animals represented in an ability called Tamer, which gives bonuses such as that pets will get friendly and stronger quicker." I frowned. That all sounded good, but somehow, I didn't feel like playing as a human. For all my life, I had been something other than human; better or worse, I do not know, but different. Playing as a human now and giving up that difference felt like I would be giving up a part of who I was.
It might be slightly ridiculous, but that is how I felt. I shook my head. "You can remove that one."
Mira lifted an eyebrow. "You sure? Don't you want to hear about the others first, before you decide?"
I shook my head again, and said: "No, remove it."
"Well then, if you're sure." She answered, and made the human, who had quite unnervingly been glaring at me ever since I told her to remove it, vanish.
Turning my gaze upon the others, I felt drawn to the black-speckled white plumage of the angel. To be able to fly... That would be truly wonderful. Looking into the amber eyes giving off the aura of a proud bird of pray, despite the fact that they seemed like a cat's in my own face, I tried to imagine what it would be like to play as an angel. To have feathers instead of hair brushing my face, and collars of fluffy plumage sitting around my neck and wrists, feathers instead of pants covering my legs and most of all, having those great wings growing on my back. As if it knew that I was admiring them, the angel spread her magnificent wings to their full length, giving them a few experimental beats to let me see the feathers ruffle in the great draft created by the action.
Getting a whole new set of limbs... It would take a while to get adjusted, but it was worth it, if the payoff was the ability of flight. I imagined myself soaring through the air, getting a bird's eye view of the world. I dived, plummeting towards the ground, unfolding my wings at the last moment. Slowing down, I started preparing myself for the landing. Lightly setting down my feet on the green field, I steadied myself and folded the wings against my back. They pulled me back, like a very heavy backpack. Catching my balance, I sat down to get rid of the problem, but the wings were so long that they got in the way. I had to unfold them to be able to sit. I frowned as I realized that laying down would bring the same kind of problems with the wings.
I resurfaced from my daydream to Mira's voice. "Angels are one of the most diverse races; depending on which sub-species you choose, you get entirely different kinds of stats. The only thing they really have in common, stat-wise, is that none of them have downright bad physique, even if there are a couple only reaching average. Guardian angels are only fit for the physical classes – their intelligence and wisdom stats just about non-existent, and the willpower stat only ever gets up to average, if you're lucky. To compensate for this, however, their strength, physique and agility are amongst the best amongst the best you can find. So if you don't have anything against being very slow to gain skills due to the low wisdom stat, this is one of the best warrior characters you can find. All guardians are also 'born' with the twin abilities Dogfight and Air Siege. Dogfight gives all kinds of bonuses in air battles, as long as both parties fly. Air Siege does the same, but in air-to-ground battles, if you are the party in the air."
I bit my lip and scratched my neck again. It was really tempting, but still... Those wings would be troublesome. As soon as I touched the ground, I would almost become handicapped. The wings of the angel in front of me had their joints a good bit above her head, and the tips almost touched the ground by her feet. If I didn't have enough room to take off, I would almost become a sitting duck, as I would not be able to move properly, especially with the weight they must represent.
I opened my mouth, but hesitated. It was probably quite ridiculous, considering that helping new players were Mira's job, but I felt like I was troubling her. Feeling my cheeks heating up again, I said: "Could you remove that one, too?" Before Mira could ask, or even lift an eyebrow, I hastily added: "I feel like the wings would get in the way all the time. Flying would be very nice, but I just don't think that it's worth it."
She nodded with a smile, and the angel was gone. Looking down the line again, now down to five characters, I frowned again and asked: "What is the difference between the elves?" To me, they looked entirely identical, save for the fact that their colours were reversed. The stellar elf had white skin with black markings, with the reverse true for the hair, and black clothes, while the dark elf had black skin with white markings, white hair with black markings and white clothes. The only thing the same between them, colour-wise, was the eyes. They were still the same amber as always. They probably had some stat-differences, though.
"Other than the coloration, you mean?" She asked with a smirk before she went on. "All elves are agility-oriented with a low physique, so if you plan to be a tank, they aren't your species, but otherwise, they tend to be a good choice no matter your choice of class, because depending on the sub-species, you can get whatever stats you want. The stellar and dark elves differ in that they, apart from the good agility, average willpower and bad physique, are opposites of each other. The stellar elves are a magic-oriented sub-species, with high intelligence and wisdom, while the dark elves are more physical, with an extremely high strength stat. The stellar elf comes with an ability called Scrying, which improves the accuracy of their moves, and the dark elf with an ability called Smokescreen, which decreases their opponents' accuracy. Again, complete opposites of each other."
"Then you can remove the stellar elf. I think that I'll take a physical class." I had been fighting with my body all my life. Starting to stand in the back now, mumbling long sentences and taking cover behind others would just feel wrong. I would never be able to stand it.
Now there were only three beings left in line; the demon, the beastman (-woman?) and the dark elf. Swallowing down my reluctance about troubling Mira again, I asked: "Can you give me the specs for the remaining two?"
"Yes, ma'am." She saluted jokingly. I felt my face heating up again, and turned away so that she wouldn't see it. Why was she behaving like that toward me? Why was she so friendly toward a complete stranger? "Which one do you want to hear about first, ma'am?" I think my face just got even hotter.
"Either one, it doesn't really matter..."
"Aww- Hrm. Then I'll start with the beastman." Did she just... "Woman, in this case." ...coo? "Beastpeople are a very physical species, and it is very rare to see a player playing as both a beastman and in a magic-oriented class." At me? "There is a very famous exception in Ugly Wolf of Odd Squad, of course, but he's more of 'the exception which proves the rule'." Yeah... "All beastpeople have abysmal intelligence stats, low wisdom stats, and usually only average willpower, at most, but good physical stats." I am pretty sure she... "Which one is dominant depends on the sub-species; cat beastpeople are dominant in agility and born with an ability called Acrobatics, improving balance, flexibility, jump- and fall height." Cooed... "Just in case you are curious, all cat beastpeople are classified as the same sub-species, and the only reason I chose to display the white tiger variety is because of your appearance, so if you want to be some other type of cat, we can change that in an iffy." ...at me. "By the way, I love those stripes of yours. They look so cute!" Why? I mean, she... I... Wait, stripes? Cute? Nononono! My face felt like it was burning up by now.
"They aren't stripes... more like splotches..." I mumbled. Then, quickly looking to diverting her attention – I was not comfortable with the subject – I asked: "What about the demon?" I mean, it was bad enough when Theron got on my case about the blotches, calling them cool and beautiful, but this... stranger? Is she a stranger? She seems like a friend, but... we just met. Can one become friends so quickly? I don't think so. But she is not a stranger either. I mean, I've talked to her. And I know her name. That means she can't be a stranger, right? But if she is not a friend, and not a stranger, not a business partner and certainly not a family member, what is she? Acquaintance? Was that the word? Yes. Yes! She is an acquaintance! Not friend yet, but soon, maybe?
I got brutally yanked out of my train of thought as I was attacked and started to fall towards the floor. Reflexively, I manoeuvred out from the clutches of my enemy, grabbing an arm as I went. Slamming my opponent into the ground, stomach first, I twisted the arm I had grabbed around and entwined it with mine so that even the slightest movement from either of us would bring pain; bigger movements would be capable of dislocating the shoulder. Just as I registered my enemy as effectively immobilized, I was brought out of my daze by a voice.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch... Sorry, sorry. Rough day, I know. Shouldn't have done that. Ouch. Let me go, please?"
Blinking, I looked down at my foe. A great tangle of incredibly curly turquoise hair covered by a high-tech bronze circlet met my sight from where I lay pressed against the woman's back. Mira? I questioned in my head. Why would she...? Startled, I let go and sat up.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to... I mean, I... you..." Not finding the right words, I apologized again. "I'm sorry! Are you ok?" Maybe she wouldn't like me after this...
"Don't worry 'bout it, don't worry 'bout it. It's my fault, really. Shouldn't have jumped on you like that." She was sitting up, using her right hand to massage her bruised left shoulder. "It's just that..." She turned her head towards where I was sitting attentively to make sure that she was really all right, and not just saying that to make me feel better for attacking her. Somewhere in the back of my head, a voice protested against this behaviour, both because it wasn't dignified and because the woman I was worried about had just attacked me, but I brushed it aside and ignored it. "Oh, blast it." She said, before jumping at me again, just as suddenly as last time. This time, though, I realized that it was a hug, and since I had already registered her as a "non-hostile" in my brain, nothing worse than that I went stiff happened. My entire body was screaming at me, however; I was not used to this kind of physical contact. And her armour war cold and hard. But I held myself back from pushing her away; I didn't want to offend her any further. "You are so sweet! And when you blush, I just want to hug you and never let go! You're like an adorable little kitten!" I hadn't moved in the slightest, but I felt my face – and ears – growing hot again. "You have your cute little stripes, and eyes, and your hair! It's so amazingly fluffy! Can I pet you?"
Hesitantly, I nodded. Maybe friends did things like this? Anyway, it was good in a way, because it made her let go of me and back off a bit. I looked to the side, not feeling like meeting those pink eyes of hers at the moment. But maybe looking away wasn't much better, because that made my eyes meet those of the beastwoman. She looked like a great white tiger which had grown human breasts, gotten slightly longer toes on the forefeet, and started walking on two legs. She wasn't wearing anything but her fur, but that covered her entire body, so it didn't pose a problem. I think that one could safely say that she was leaning heavily towards the "beast" part of "beastwoman". She was looking at me with a big grin on her face, showing off her sharp teeth.
I glared at the thing as Mira reached forth and petted my hair. And what is so funny, ugly? The grin just grew wider, and as Mira exclaimed; "Wow! This is just as soft as it looks! And this is what your real hair is like? I am so jealous... my real hair is the most boring ever," and rubbed a strand of it against her cheek, I swear that I even saw the thing chuckle. I felt a growl starting to build up throat, but held it in. If I growled, maybe Mira would think I was growling at her, and I didn't want that. Grumbling silently in my thoughts, I wondered; Now that I think about it, why is this big cat still in the room? I don't think that it can become pretty, even if we apply that 30% beautification option on it... It should have been sorted out with the other ugly ones. Pondering that for a while, I then came to the conclusion that it most likely had to do with Mira's personal preferences, considering her reaction to my cat-like traits. Then I smirked. Don't think you've won, furball. I still have the ultimate weapon!
I glanced back at Mira for a second before the awkwardness of the entire situation, with her fawning over my hair, got to me and my cheeks heated up again. I turned away, saying: "On second thought, could you remove the beastwoman at once?"
The smile on Mira's face grew even wider, and with a short: "Sure! Anything for my sweet little kitten!" she sat back opposite of me and called up a system window by mumbling "Control Window." Then, with a few quick swipes of her fingers, only the demon and the elf remained. For some reason, though, the cat had still been grinning as she disappeared. "The demon, then. Hmm..." Closing her eyes for a few moments, she then started reciting: "Demons are much like angels..." She cut herself off at a withering glare and dark growl from said horned demon. "Gaah, these AIs will be the death of me. Why we even have them in the character creation process is a mystery to me..." Sticking her tongue out at the creature, she then continued as if nothing had happened. "Anyway, demons are much like angels in that the species is a very diverse one – the only thing they have in common is their high or excellent willpower stat. Mountain demons have a common nickname amongst players; 'Tricksters'. This is due to the fact that while having abysmal intelligence and low strength and physique, their agility, wisdom and willpower stats are truly excellent. Players choosing this sub-specie are usually strategists, employing hit-and-run tactics, laying traps for their enemy, hitting vital spots; fighting smart. This, however, is also why they are unpopular, as it can be hard mental work playing as one unless you want to die regularly, and as most people just come into Second Life to relax and have fun, they avoid the sub-specie. They do, however, come with a pair of very useful abilities; Scouting and Trapper. Scouting lets the user detect presences earlier, and in its more powerful stages, gives you quite a lot of information about your opponents. It also helps the user to track down both players and NPCs. Trapper enables the user to construct and disable traps."
"I want this one." I said quickly, avidly staring at the demon. Her splotches were a bloody red, and the hair thus became a red-white mix. The eyes, whose colour had been the only common point between all the characters, were slitted, just like mine and the beastwoman's, and situated beneath a pair of snowy white eyebrows. Black horns, matching the claw-like nails on her hands and bare feet, were growing from her temples and from behind her pointed ears, three on each side, ridged. The ones stretching from the temples were the longest, about the same length as her forearms, and curved up- and backwards, with the tip pointing up. The middle pair were much shorter, only reaching to the back of the head from where they grew backwards, tips pointed out. The third pair, with their bases situated at the bottom of her ears, followed the same design, only a little shorter and with a more downward angle. She was smiling triumphantly at being chosen, revealing pointed canines. The elf was glaring at her, but she just lifted her left eyebrow and made a shooing motion just as her rival disappeared.
"Demon it is, then! Let's start the modifying." The bubbly woman said, ignoring the glare my character sent her way.
I'll be breaking it there, since the chapter has reached its proper length. Well, if one doesn't count this LOOOOOOOOONG explanatory note I warned about in the beginning. If I did, it would have been much longer than it should. I am sorry about this; I know it can get dreary. You can skip it if you want, but if you want to know what I think about the different stats (something which may be useful for fully understanding all that Mira was talking about in this chapter, and for the rest of the story, too), you may want to read this. Think of it as a peek behind the scenes, so to speak.
An avatar's stat window will look like this (pets' are slightly different):
Name: XXX | Gender: ?
Level: ? | Specie: ? (?) | Class: ? (?) | Reputation: ? | Health: ? | Mana: ? | Unspent skill points: 0
Strength: ? | Physique: ? | Agility: ? | Intelligence: ? | Willpower: ? | Wisdom: ? | Charisma: ?
Luck: ? | Abilities: ?
I'm going to be very orderly and start from the top, so let's begin with some obvious stuff.
Name: The name of your character.
Gender: The gender of the character. This states "Male", "Female" or "Unknown", if the gender isn't specified. An example of this can be if you play as a rock.
Level: The level the character is on.
Specie: What kind of character you have; sub-species are put in parenthesis. Example: Elf (Dark).
Class: States the class you belong to, such as priest, mage, warrior, archer and so on. Specifications listed in parenthesis. Example: Warrior (Two-handed Sword) or Mage (Air, Fire).
Reputation: Skill points cannot be distributed here. Your reputation, sometimes referred to as fame, can only rise if you make certain actions. Two common ways of increasing reputation is to compete in tournaments or complete quests. The reputation stat can also sink if you do things the game recognize as "wrong", such as attacking friendly NPCs or fellow players. Your reputation helps you by making the NPCs give you better deals in transactions, giving you more information and quests and such.
Health: Health is measured in numbers, and is determined by how good of a physique your character has and what level it is on. It can also be boosted by various items, equipment or skills, but your basic health is determined by taking the level minus 1 and the physique together and multiplying it by ten. In other words: ((Level - 1) + Physique) x 10 = Health. I figured this out by looking at the early stat windows in the novels, and found a pattern, until later stat windows threw it all off. I'm going to use this model, though, to make things easier for myself, even if that prevents my stat windows from matching up with the canon's later on. You'll have to forgive me for that, but that is the only pattern I can find, and I really don't want to be pulling these numbers out of thin air if I am going to keep reporting on Tigris' character's stat window regularly through the story. If there is anyone who knows the correct model, please PM me about it, alternately tell me in a review.
Mana: How much magic power you have, measured in numbers. This stat was even more confusing than the health, so I just made up a model similar to the one I will be using for the health stat to use for this by utilizing the willpower stat, which I have never really understood the use for other than that magic-oriented types should be using it (Prince once comments that Ugly Wolf should put his skill points in willpower and intelligence, not strength). Again, if someone out there knows the real model, PM me or leave a review. The same goes for if you know the use for the willpower stat, because if it has one, then maybe I shouldn't be using it for this. Anyway; mana in this story will be determined like so: ((Level - 1) + Willpower) x 10 = Mana.
Unspent skill points: You get 3 skill points every time you level up, to be distributed as you please amongst the strength, physique, agility, intelligence, willpower and wisdom stats.
Strength: How strong your character is. This stat determines how hard your attacks will hit your opponent and what kind of equipment you can wear without it giving you an agility penalty. Bonuses can be added to this stat by abilities and equipment, and will be listed after a + for each different bonus.
Physique: A determining factor in how much health your character will have, as well as an indicator of defence. High physique = high defence, as well as resistance to status effects such as paralysation and poisoning. Bonuses can be added to this stat by abilities and equipment, and will be listed after a + for each different bonus.
Agility: Maximum movement speed as well as flexibility and balance. A high agility both lets you run fast and makes it easier for you to balance and make flips and other acrobatic movements. Bonuses can be added to this stat by abilities and equipment, and will be listed after a + for each different bonus.
Intelligence: A stat which lets your character skip or shorten incantations of spells if high enough. It also lets you experiment and invent new spells. The higher your intelligence, the stronger spells it works on. Bonuses can be added to this stat by abilities and equipment, and will be listed after a + for each different bonus.
Willpower: A determining factor in how much mana your character will have, as well as an intimidation and stubbornness factor. If you have a high willpower, you will have much mana, as well as that some monsters will get slight debuff when fighting against you. What I call "the stubbornness factor" means that the likelihood of something happening will increase every time you try to do it. For example; the first time you try to learn a spell, the likelihood of you succeeding is 5%. The second time, if you have a low willpower stat, the chance would still be 5%. If you have a high willpower stat, on the other hand, the percentage will increase to maybe 7% or something. Then it will just keep increasing until you get it right. Bonuses can be added to this stat by abilities and equipment, and will be listed after a + for each different bonus.
Wisdom: Determines how quickly your character learns stuff. In ½ Prince, we can hear Prince comment that Meatbun learning so many weird techniques is only partly due to the weird stuff they put him through, but also because of his high wisdom stat. If we make a repeat of the earlier example; if your character has a low wisdom stat, and tries to learn a new spell, the chance of it succeeding might be 5%. If your character has a high wisdom stat, however, the chance goes up to, for example, 15%. Bonuses can be added to this stat by abilities and equipment, and will be listed after a + for each different bonus.
Charisma: A completely randomized stat, which always stays the same. You get a charisma value from 0-10 when your character is created. There is a theory that it has something to do with the looks of your character, but it hasn't been proven, as even mountain trolls have received charisma stats of 10 and some unlucky elves have landed at 0. Charisma helps in dealings with NPCs in much the same manner as reputation, but in a more subtle way. You got a bad reputation, and NPCs might refuse to serve you, but you got bad charisma and the service will only be bad, often in spite of the fact that you have a good reputation. It will also be hard to gain reputation, and easy to lose it, if you have bad charisma. Of course, the opposite is also true. Also, some abilities will be easier or harder to learn depending on what your charisma value is. This is true for both sides of the spectra.
Luck: This stat starts by stating "Unknown". Then, depending on what happens in the game, it will start to fluctuate between "Extremely unlucky" and "Extremely lucky". It is, however, very hard to switch between being lucky and unlucky, as as soon as you get classified as "Lucky", the chances of something unlucky, which can decrease your luck stat, happening, decreases. Sadly, the same is true for those who get "Unlucky". The luck stat determines, to a small degree, all the "random" things happening in the game, such as what drops you get and similar things. It has been confirmed that if many "Unlucky" persons gather together, the weather has a greater chance of being bad.
Abilities: Here the abilities the user has learnt are listed. I'm changing the format from the novels, in which the majority of the following is listed at once: the ability name, then the ability level (abilities level up with use, skill points cannot be distributed here), information about the ability, then if it's an offensive/defensive/neutral ability, then mana use, duration and range. An example from the first novel is one of Meatbun's abilities, Aroma Release. "Aroma Release – Ability Level 1, can attract mobs, will use up 30 mana, lasts 20 minutes, range is 10 meters" I, however, will only list the categories of the abilities under "Abilities" in the stat window, with a number within a parenthesis to indicate how many abilities there are in that category, and then have pop-up windows with the names of the abilities, which then have further pop-up windows, where the specifics for each ability is written. It doesn't get as cluttery and confusing this way. One ability can be listed under several categories.
That's it! ^^ Was it helpful?
...but my god, was that long. How many of you actually read it? Just because I'm curious; if you have time, could you say if you did or not in a review?
You'll get a virtual cookie and hug for it ^^ And for anything else you might like to write in there too, for that matter. Constructive criticism is still appreciated. Oh, and I would really like it if you told me what you thought about Mira's explanation about the species and sub-species. I pretty much just winged all that, since I had very little to go on from the novels. Did it seem good and believable and all that?