Beyond the Fourth Wall

[Masterweaver]

*Sets up Daktaklakpak speech center*

Assertion 1: Race identity of entity "Felicity" is unknown.
Assertion 1A: Race identity of entity "Ferdinand Montoya Jimenez De Guadalupe" is unknown.
Observation: Many works place all anthropomorphic entities as being the same race or subraces of the same species.
Subconclusion 1: All anthropomorphic entities are members of the same race.
Assertion 2: Guardians are an unknown ancient race.
Assertion 3: All ancient races are present in Dreamland.
Subconclusion 2: Guardians are present in dreamland without memory of their heritage.
Conclusion: Anthropomorphic entities in Dreamland are Guardians.

[TFBW]

Those aren't conclusions. They are theories.

Personally, I doubt them.

[Masterweaver]

*sigh*

I was mimicking an infamous character, okay? There was a joke in that.

Okay, WHY do you doubt that anthropomorphic creatures are guardians? Because if you just say 'You're wrong so there" this degenerates into a completely random food fight. I have pastrami and I'm not afraid to use it.

PASTRAMIIIII!

[TFBW]

I'm not familiar with Daktaklakpak, and I couldn't be bothered with the necessary research at the time. My point still stands. And please, put the pastrami down: there's no need to bring out the big guns yet.

First, let's be sure that we're on the same page with the jargon. When you say "anthropomorphic creatures", you mean that category of beings in Dreamland who can be described as animal-people, like Felicity who is a cat-person. You're first suggesting that all these animal-people are members of the same race ("subconclusion 1"), and that the race in question is known as "Guardians" ("conclusion"). That's my understanding of your argument. Please correct it if I've misunderstood.

Both these conclusions seem hasty. Firstly, what's wrong with the idea that each kind of animal-person is a distinct race? Your evidence to the contrary is your observation that "many works place all anthropomorphic entities as being the same race or subraces of the same species." Maybe I'm just under-educated in anthro-fiction, but this is news to me. And even if it's true, it does not negate the contrary statement, that many works do not place all anthropomorphic entities in the same race.

Secondly, the argument linking this "anthro-race" to the title "Guardian" is equally tenuous. Granted, guardians are not known as a race to any of the characters who have seen the term so far, but it's quite possible that the Guardians are simply reclusive, and not widely known outside their home realm. An alternative to your "subconclusion 2" is thus, "Guardians are present in Dreamland, but there is little or no memory of their existence outside their own culture".

I'd give you my theory of the Guardians, but I'm a little pressed for time. The matter has been discussed a little in other posts if you care to search.

[Masterweaver]

Suffice it to say the Daks are robots who think they are the pinnacle of evolution and are sufficiently arrogant to annoy every race they come across.

ANYway...

I'll grant that my theory is a bit of a faith leap. But mayhap I should clarify: When I say "race," it does NOT mean the same as "species." Usually a race is contained within a species, such as the Race of Elves, or is a subsect of a species, such as Race of Caucasian. However, I am also capable of defining race as a set of species that people just lump together because of some similarity (in this case, being anthropomorphic).

Also, and this is just speculation, the Guardians were probably the first race to surrender to/join with good ol' Nicky.

Why do I say this? The people of Dreamland are not imaginatively named (no offense meant to them). We have Dwarfs (who are really short), Merpeople (Mer coming from the old english word Mere, meaning sea), Rock Giants (self explanatory), Fairies (a word with a long and complicated history that ultimately leads to the definition "enchantment")... You get the picture.

Now, we also have a race called the Guardians. What did they guard? Most likely Dreamland. What did they guard against? Most likely the Nightmare realm, and I don't know about you, but those nightmare beasts seem suspiciously like really ugly dragons....

So in swoops that red scaly guy, with his army, and he demands dreamland be his. Or something. The Guardians are first in line, and, despite their name, have a good number of civilians (because their economy simply wouldn't function without them!). Now, they do the whole Ancient Tablet thing, but really? They can't exactly stand against Nick and his band of flying flamethrowers. So what do they do? They surrender.

Cut to a few centuries later, and we see a rat, a walrus, a few crocs, and a panther, all in palace guard armor. Not only that, but there are some animal civvies wandering the capital streets, including (but not limited to) our favorite cat burglar, some cheetah girl peasant, said cheetah girl's mother (also a peasant), a vendor or two... Oh, and Spotty's real name is long and prestigious, suggesting his family has a history they are proud of and give their kids big names. And nobody except Nicky quite remembers who those ol' Guardians were, or what did they look like, I heard they were strong and brave, not like that rat there...

[Caldazar]

Personally I'd say that the Guardians is a more seclusive race. One of the popular theories I think is that Nic actually used to be one of the Guardians. As you say the Guardians most likely guarded dreamland (or at least the king of dreamland) so when Nic overthrew the current government he most likely incapacitated the guardians in some way...either by shutting them out or by simply overpowering them. My thought is therefore that the Guardians have retreated to a sanctum of sort or have been sealed away by Nic and that they're patiently awaiting the arrival of a time when things can be set right again.

Now all these might seem like pure speculation but they make alot more sense from a dramturgic point of view for several reasons:
A) They might be a very long lived race that can still remember what exactly happened
B) None of the races encountered so far will be sufficient to battle both Nic's armies and whatever creatures he brings in from the nightmare realm. Given the name the Guardians would most likely be deftly suited for the latter task.
C) To have a race known as the guardians simply bending to Nic's will like that doesn't feel right. And I'd have a hard time believing that a creature as cunning as Nic wouldn't have seen through their charades if they were yust abiding their time and plotting against him.

So yah perhaps no hard evidence here but the general feel of the story talks against these anthropomorphics being the Guardians...at least to me

[ssava]

A hint at what the guardians will look like would be in the name of their city.
For that...check the map.
_________________
Scott Christian Sava
www.thedreamlandchronicles.com

[Masterweaver]

That would be nice if I actually had a map...

And before you ask, no, I cannot go and buy the book. The B&N nearby doesn't carry it, yet anyway.

[TFBW]

For those of you without the luxury of the printed material, have a squint at this.



See if you can figure out which part might be related to the Guardians.

[Masterweaver]

Seraphopolis... Please, please, please tell me we aren't going to have winged humans. The elder texts describe angels as being very frightening.... Four faces, loads of wings, fire everywhere..

Although, the modern concept of Elves has more descended from norse myths, as the modern concept of dwarves have. So I could understand name change. Maybe these guys were originally demons (in the greek sense of the word, not the christian sense) and changed their name after a while.

And if there are only SEVEN ancient races, then what is up with everybody else in Dreamland? Are the Nightmare Realm Refugees--?

Actually, no, that makes a lot of sense. Although that raises the question of where eastern mythcreatures are. Are they on the other side of the Nightmare realm?

[ANTIcarrot]