Twenty-Sixth floor: Nice folk on the move, Hide!

Quote:

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Originally posted by citizen:
I know Oriental Dragons all come from China, and the further they travel away from China the more claws they lose, which is why Korean dragons have four claws and Japanese dragons have three.

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Actually, most Chinese dragons have four claws. It's only the Imperial Dragon that's allowed to have five.

The Dragon Genesis
In the beginning, there was the Egg.

The Egg hatched, sending forth torrents of shell and fluid, and from the Egg was born the Great Mother, Tiamat.

The shell and fluid of the egg scattered throughout the empty universe. The shells collapsed into dust, burning with the flames of Tiamat's Birth. Aeons passed, and the dust congealed, the flame within it igniting into stars. As the stars grew in mass, more of the Egg dust was pulled into them, forming whirlpools of dust and flame. Tiamat, still young in those days, saw these disks, and reached out to touch them with her claws. Where her claws touched them, the disks clung, forming planets, which orbited the stars, were nurtured by them, and were finally consumed by them.

When she saw that all of these planets were mere Rock and Fire, Tiamat was saddened, and wept. Her tears fell to the planets, and became Water, and her sobs became the Wind.

Rock gathered Water in a basin within itself, imbuing it with substance from Rock's own body. Fire burned in the stellar furnace, sending out heat to stir the Wind, and Wind's furious motion eventually drew a spark. This lightning, born of the First Elements, but not one of them, touched the Water, and the Water gave forth Life.

Time passed, and Life grew strong on many worlds. The living things grew and were changed by the Fire, and the Wind, and the Rock, and the Water, each family of life finding its place. The Fire destroyed the weak, and tempered the strong, teaching the lesson of determination in the face of terror. The Wind caressed the gentle, and carried Life to new homes, and teaching it to share in the wonder of beauty. The Rock provided the strong foundation, challenging Life to hold tenaciously to even its smallest foothold. The Water brought forth sustenance, but held it within itself, forcing Life to adapt and change like a flowing river.

In time, on one of these worlds, great creatures arose, mighty and powerful. Because these creatures were beautiful in form to Tiamat, the world that birthed them became especially loved by Her. But still she was unsatisfied, for the creatures on this world could not know her. They had blood, and life, and spirit, but they had no souls. Without souls, these creatures could not know fear, or hatred, but nor could they know hope.

And so, Tiamat created an Egg out of herself, and sent it to her favoured world. Where the Egg landed, it unleashed dragon-flame, searing away the beautiful creatures. The creatures that remained were strange in form, but they were born of Earth; stubborn and enduring. They refused to perish, and Tiamat loved them as much as she had loved the beautiful ones.

When the Egg hatched, four Daughters emerged. The Wyrm, the Lung, the Quetzal, and the Sphinx. Like all children, these daughters soon quarrelled. Knowing that they could not remain where they were, the sisters spread out over the world, each finding their place and birthing a great race of dragons.

The Wyrm travelled north, bringing fire to warm the cold lands. The Lung travelled east, finding the balance between water and land. The Sphinx went south, to where sand and rock stood bare before the heavens. The Quetzal was carried to the west on great winds, finding a fertile continent across the seas.

Each of the sisters had brought with them one of the four fragments of Tiamat's Egg, and wherever these shells passed, Tiamat's own power flowed from them and into the living world. When this magic flowed out, it swirled and eddied, and these ripples, in time, became the Fay, beings of pure magic.

The other creatures, who had survived the Egg's arrival, continued to grow, being shaped by the elements as thei

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Cybersnark:
My side! Your side!
My side! Your side!
My side! Your side!

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You should stop sitting in that chair, it's giving you an aura...

Have you ever seen a dragon or a lion dance, we do them as part of Nam Yang, we have all the traditional eye dotting ceremonies and that as well, really fun.

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More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

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Hey all, I've moved.
I'm back on line now. Yay!
see more of you all soon, still catching up.
But...not too much more... all this naked talk while I was gone makes me wonder about D*C.
and

"I have been here many times before In a life I used to live
But I have never seen these streets so fresh Washed with morning rain
I have seen this face a thousand times Every morning of my life
But I never saw these eyes so clear Free of doubt and pain
Like the whole world has been made again."
Made Again (Brave)-Marillion
visit WWW.Marillion.com for a better way of life.

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Eye dotting?

That sounds painful.

Serenity,
First Officer of Destiny
President of The Juggled Gosling Chatroom
Bride8

http://callmeserenity.livejournal.com/

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For the Chinese New Year we had Lion Dances in the Atrium of the museum like that - two dragons, one other dancer, and i forget what he was called, and a full set of drums, absolutely fascinating. Only problem was that hey did it right infront of the desk, so on one hand, great, no-one could get to the desk through the crowd to pester me while i was watching them, on the other hand, I was almost deaf ten minutes in, and the other dancer (not the lions) jumped onto the desk and made me kiss him on the cheek before he'd go away, and this with all the attendants and one of my managers watching.

Grrrrrrr....


Are you going to go crazy then, dress like crap and start glowing at people?

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You can tell the difference between a Dragon and a Lion dance, dragons are several people and they hold the Dragon on a pole, a Lion is two people, one head one tail and they wear the Lion costume a bit like one of those pantomime horses.

The other guy I have no idea. I had to do my demonstration next to some of those drums, so I know what you mean about the noise.

The eye dotting is a ceremony; it's supposed to imbue the Dragon/Lion with its spirit.

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More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

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Ooh! Those sounds like fun. I've never seen a Chinese New Year celebration.

I like those bun things they eat, though. What are they called? With the red bean paste inside. My vietnamese friend made them for us.

I hate living in the south, there's no culture here. Everything's (very literally) black and white. Soooo boring.

Serenity,
First Officer of Destiny
President of The Juggled Gosling Chatroom
Bride8

http://callmeserenity.livejournal.com/

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Quote:

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Originally posted by CallMeSerenity:
Ooh! Those sounds like fun. I've never seen a Chinese New Year celebration.

I like those bun things they eat, though. What are they called? With the red bean paste inside. My vietnamese friend made them for us.

I hate living in the south, there's no culture here. Everything's (very literally) black and white. Soooo boring.

Serenity,
First Officer of Destiny
President of The Juggled Gosling Chatroom
Bride8

http://callmeserenity.livejournal.com/

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Bao, pronounced bow as in bow wow. It's what YoSafBrig made for Mal in our Mrs. Reynolds.

Scorpion Regent

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No, not bao. Something else.

I looked it up. I was thinking of mooncakes. Duh.



Serenity,
First Officer of Destiny
President of The Juggled Gosling Chatroom
Bride8

http://callmeserenity.livejournal.com/

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