Author Topic: A Prince and The Atreides  (Read 2680 times)

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Offline Wadden

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A Prince and The Atreides
« on: April 23, 2020, 08:12:18 PM »

Dear Ambassador Verspasian Atreides

It has been brought to my attention that as the Bene Gesserit's highest ranking individual in this region of Mundus you may be able to help me with a project. Our nation has a single University and is at present seeking to extend its provision. The strange nature of Waddanite society means our schooling system faces significant challenges. As such it is my understanding the faith that you represent has a long tradition of constructing educational systems in difficult circumstances. We would be interested with speaking with some of your educationalists in order to try and learn from their experience. If possible I would like to invite you, or a representative of the Bene Gesserit educational system to our nation. It is my understanding you have had some prescence in Tamora for some time so we feel that you may have gained some affinity for the region which may make the meeting smoother. We look forward to your response.

Best Regards

Prince Adnan
Head of the Foreign Engagement Council.

Offline Libby

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2020, 08:18:59 PM »

To:- Prince Adnan

My people are honoured that you would see us as a group capable of supporting your comendable project to improve education. While I would like to say I could make a positive contribution for you I'm afraid that would be a stretch. Our faith utilises a group of professional scholars known as the Missionara Protectiva who have established themselves as a highly organised, dedicated and skill educational provider. With this in mind I have arranged for myself to visit you along with my sister-in-law Karin Atreides and Lidia Ericsson both of whom are highly respected members of our Missionara Protectiva. It is my hope that these two members of the Missionara will be able to support your ambitions and offer the advice that you seek.

Best Regards

Verspassian Atreides

Offline Wadden

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2020, 10:57:53 PM »
"Are you fucking insane." Prince Adnan slapped the military officer around the head. "These are nobles, Dukes and Ladies and that kind of thing. Would you dare welcome a Chieftan of Waddan into your home with such a mess." The officer was preparing the area for the arrival of Bene Gesserit, it was the nations only military airfield. To many nations it would be classed as just a bumpy piece of tarmac in the middle of a desert about 20km North of Sabhā, a series of shelters hid the nations aircraft from view from the air but several small stone brick buildings made up the accomodation and various offices. This officer however had failed to ensure that the welcoming area was set up, there was supposed to have been a red fabric walkway so that the guests would not need to walk on the dusty ground, they was supposed to be none of the bases vehicles, generally scrappy looking and dust covered aging mechanical beasts visible. What Adnan had hoped for was a clean and crisp welcome that would impress.

"Sorry Your Highness." the man picked his cap back up wedged it on his head and barked orders at some waiting men including a pilot stood smoking a small cigarette while on standby. There was a rush of activity as brooms appeared and the red fabric walkway was beaten free from the dust. It was then carefully placed down and brushed once more. It took 15 minutes of frantic activity to get things up to the standard that the Prince expected. He was now just praying that the SUV's they had looked up to scratch. They were rare vehicles in Waddan and used more for the Sultan travelling rapidly between tribal lands and the capital.

"That is better. Thank you" the Prince said patting the officer congratatorily on the shoulder. "So much better." The Prince added as he looked around. He had looked at pictures of the homeland of the Atreides in Achkaerin and was sure that the guests would be used to so much more impressive welcomes in terms of the beauty of the place. What he knew would be more impressive though was the way the guests would be treated while here. He was also a little unsure of how to deal with these women as it was something of an unknown in Waddan for women to have authority. He knew from his time in Ipsus having spoke to people who had travelled extensively that in these nations outside the bubble of Midaranye that women could be rather more prominent in leadership roles, even running whole nations. He'd remembered the old King of Royal Seleucid marrying a Lodjain and that had turned out terribly, he suspected that coming from a Queendom it corrupted the way the Lodjain bride had acted. He hoped that his research about the Bene Gesserit didn't lead him to have too high a set of expectations about them. To some extent that didn't matter though as he only wanted knowledge about their education systems and beside they did not represent any nation if you believed many.

Soon their aircraft would land and he would greet them, pleased to be welcoming them as the first official foreign guests of the government of Waddan for as long as anyone could remember.

Offline Libby

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2020, 11:59:45 PM »
The private jet that Verspasian had hired for the visit had been checked over by members of the Truthsayers before setting off. It wouldn't be that long a flight compared to many that Verspasian had taken and he was rather intrigued about what would be waiting for him when he landed. He had done some research and would be rather surprised that this was a nation with no real capital city of note or with no functioning airport. As they circled the military base he was rather amazed that this was even operational, it seemed rather quickly put together and rather basic compared to the ones he'd seen in Achakerin or Ui Cenneslaig in his youth.

Karin and Lidia were of course well prepared. Karin had been spending several hours a day reading everything that she could get her hands on regarding Waddan, their culture and their various faiths. Lidia watched the airfield with interest. There wasn't much to see in terms of aircraft or even people and the buildings seemed rather basic. Once upon a time the Missionara had, according to folklore, spread across Mundus planting the seeds of connections between religions. It was something the Missionara talked about often, the fact Islam and Christianity shared key characters in their holy stories. The fact that even the Odinists and stories of Christianity shared common themes, as did many religions regarding the Messiah type figure that the Bene Gesserit knew as the Kwizach Hadrach. This for Karin was a chance to be like the Missionara of those stories, helping establish a foothold in a land that it could be said time had forgotten.

The aircraft touched down on the runway and taxied to a halt at the point where it was clear the Prince and his colleagues were waiting for them. Verspasian normally would have allowed the two women to go first as they were members of the Sisterhood however he was aware of the differences between gender roles in Waddan and so descended from the aircraft first before waiting for the two uniformed members of the Sisterhood. Karin was wearing plain blue trousers and a tunic jacket with her emblemn of scholarly rank in gold on the neck. Lidia as the Missionara's highest rank also had gold lacing on the sleeves of her jacket. They waited a pace behind the ambassador who headed towards the Prince. "Your Highness." he extended a hand, "It's a great honour to meet you. We thank you for a chance to see your country. I feel already having flown over your desert we are a people who while very different in many ways can find common ground. The Bene Gesserit grew out of the desert and we long to return there. It's my pleasure to introduce Karin Atreides and one of our Sisterhood's leading scholars Lidia Ericsson, she helps guide our school systems."

Lidia didn't offer a hand, despite all she'd read she wasn't sure about contact between male and female. Instead she bowed respectfully. "Prince Adnan we're thrilled to be here." She handed Karin the briefcase and she held it flat while the senior Missionara flicked it open. She removed a wooden box about the size of a cigar box. "Please on behalf of our Sisterhood accept this as a gift of goodwill between us." She opened the lid, a small silver topped glass tube inside of which was a fine red powder. There was an identical one underneath with water. "The top one is a spice called Melange. It is only made in one city in the world, Seitch. Its used by our faith in some rituals, it is also used to help flavour cakes, teas, various other items. The bottom one is water taken from the wells inside the Red Palace in Seitch. Water from our desert to your own desert." She hoped the symbolism would not be lost on the Prince. "We are looking forward to helping you with your mission."

Offline Wadden

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2020, 08:56:25 PM »
The Prince was struggling to not find it difficult that is seemed what he needed was being run by a woman in Waddan women had authority only over a handful of areas of life and that involved essentially children and the house. He knew though that this wasn't an attitude shared by some of the nations across Mundus and that if he was to make progress at times he must simply accept he may have to speak to women that some fool had allowed into a position of great authority.  He was surprised by the gift, it was rather thoughful and a little unexepcted. "Forgive me for we have gifts for our guests,  however as you will see we did not think that an airport would be the best to exchange them. Please come with me." he escorted them away from the dusty tarmac and towards the waiting SUV's that belonged to his father. They were not the luxurious vehicles you would associated with a head of state and probably cared for a lot less than the average man in the streets vehicles but the would do. "We have a short journey to a small Oasis town called Tmisan, its is probably a village by the standards of where you are from. For much of the year it is home to the Talafha tribes eldery during the year." Soon they left what had been a small single carriageway road and seemed to head off towards the desert cross country. It was perhaps a little bit more bouncy than he would have liked his guests to experience but it was a neccessity of life in Waddan. After around 15 minutes a plume of palm trees on the horizon came into view and then the odd scruff of grass a small trickle of water headed towards the trees and then between them five or so sandstone buildings could be seen with a smattering of tents. A group of small children appeared and ran towards the SUV's as they drew to a halt between the buildings.

"Get back, get back" Prince Adnan ushered the children away from the SUV doors as ten children gathered around.

"Are these Princesses?" one of the children asked as they stood on tip toes to try and get a view inside.

"No" Adnan pushed them back as he opened the door. "These ladies are hopefully going to help us make it so that you can read." He headed towards the nearest stone building and rather than going inside he walked up some steps that lead to the roof where a variety of flatbreads and dips where laid out. There were no chairs rather large cushions on the foor. "Please make yourself comfortable." He motioned before turning back to the steps where children were peering over the top kneeling on the steps below so just their eyes were peeking above the steps. "Excuse me" he headed towards the steps and the sound of paniced giggles could be heard as children hurried away. Adnan barked at them a little telling them to keep away. He understood their interest, it was probably the first time they'd seen outsiders in their life and naturally they were interested. An old man appeared in the village below and seeing the Prince and children he greeted the Prince and told him to return to the roof. The old man seated himself on the bottom step and began to smoke a pipe acting as a kind of bodyguard for the meeting on the roof.

"Now please help yourself to food, to drink. If I may get you anything please ask. Now if I may ask could you tell me much about these schools of yours. As you may have noticed our nation lacks many things you may take for granted." 

Offline Libby

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2020, 09:42:52 PM »
Karin and Lidia couldn't help but smile to each other at the children's behaviour. The pair had read about countless diplomatic meetings in their scholarly career but they had never read about one in danger of being interupted by rowdy children. Karin found a spot to sit down and audible laughed as Adnan had to once more chase the children away, Lidia was meanwhile inspecting the flatbreads and dips. Spotting an interesting combination she took a piece of each and ate while waiting for the Prince to take a seat. Once he had "secured" the area talk turned to schooling and Lidia began to explain. "What Chapterhouse is today is not what it was designed to be. The Chapterhouse school sits in semi ruins on an island in Kaitaine. When it became clear our faith was to be eradicated in our homeland we fled across Mundus in groups we called Lifeboats each headed by a noble family with the plan of ensuring the faith survived. Thankfully it did and we ended up with four schools dotted around Mundus, Ui Cenneslaig, Cantabria, Achkaerin and Aosta. These schools formed a network that to the outside world were referred to as the Lifeboat Schools and to the outside were simply selective boarding schools for girls. This allowed us to keep the schools teaching the way we needed to keep our Sisterhood in tact, but also to promote academic excellence. It served us well until the Communist government of our homeland attacked some of the schools having found out their true nature. Since then we're thankfully protected by the governments where we're based and this has allowed our academic network to step into the light and flourish even more." Lidia said proudly.

Karin had been sampling some of the food while Lidia spoke and now took over, "I graduated from the Canatbrian Chapterhouse Lifeboat about 17 years ago. I was in classes with a wide range of girls. Some like myself were fourtunate enough to have come from wealthy families, others like some of my classmates came from families in poverty. We even had a few girls join throughout my younger years at the school come having escaped Kaitaine. Each of us reagrdless of what we graduated as went on the have a bright future thanks to the edcuation we got. We see it now as a mission to ensure knowledge is spread across all of Mundus. Education is important to us and I hope that we can make some connection with you to help you get the same benefits I've been fortunate enought to have. What is a typical Waddanite education like?" she askd.

Offline Wadden

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2020, 10:28:43 PM »
The Prince had listened dilligently as the two women spoke. In Waddan the women may never have had the chance to lead but he had read enough to know these schools that had educated these women had a track record of producing excellent scholars and he was wise enough to be open to their advice. He had even scrawled a few notes in a small pocket book for himself as they spoke. When Karin asked about a typical Waddanite education he couldn't help but laugh. "You must forgive me ladies but there are perhaps a handful of schools in the country and if I am honest most people do not see the point of what you call an education. Don't let that fool you though. Our nation does value knowledge, I suspect there is no one on Mundus who knows more about the care of goats and sheep than a Waddanite. I suspect there are no others on Mundus who are as skilled at finding water in the desert as a Waddanite and I think these lifeskills are just as important an education as books on history, literature or science. Our concern is that if we are to begin making our way in the world we need more people to have knowledge of the things that Mundus see as important. It is my hope that we can begin with what I would consider perhaps the elite. I would like to establish a school in our capital somewhere that would ensure every son of a Chieftan can at least read and write Parthian, be able to do mathematics to a good level, have scientific knowledge to be able to manage our nations resources and environment effectively and I would like them to also gain knowledge of legal matters. I understand you have a curriculum tailored to ensuring you have people in place to lead your Sisterhood into the future. That is what I want for our tribes. One problem we have however is that we have no qualified teachers. What would it take for us to be able to recruit some of your graduates to help kick start the process. I would hope in perhaps 10, maybe 15 years time we can sustain such a thing ourselves, the problem is no tree grows overnight, especially the tree of knowledge. Naturally we could find compensation for the help we are given."

Offline Libby

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #7 on: July 02, 2020, 10:51:08 PM »
Karin and Lidia sat with their hands fidgetting with various bits of bread and dips, little did the Prince know they were in fact sharing a conversation through the art of "Doublespeak" a version of discreet sign language practiced by the Sisterhood, even among the vast number of books in the Chapterhouses this unspoken language wasn't written down. "We could teach them a thing or two about the deserts." Karin signed to Lidia and the pair wanted to grin but years of stoic training meant to the Prince they seemed fully focused on his words.

As the Prince finished it would be Lidia who would begin after all she was the higher ranking scholar. "I think you would find us more than capable of doing this and it makes sense to take the approach that you suggest. We have some Missionara who speak Parthian so we could teach in that medium. I would however make a suggestion that you prepare for a three school system. The first to open would be for Chieftan sons, try and start them at the age of 5 or 6 and then take them through until the age of 18. For the start I would look at doing exams from awarding bodies in perhaps Royal Seleucid or Tamora until we can establish your own bodies to oversee the quality of your students progress. That will come once you have groups of academics. The second school would maybe come in five years time, that is a place to train teachers and naturally that is something we can help with. Finally you speak of compensation, that brings me to the topic of the third school. You have spoken of education for the boys of your nation but nothing of the girls. Our Chapterhouse Lifeboat Schools are all girls schools. They have a tradition of taking in those with a need for a new home and new family. We would ask for no compensation if we were given permission to establish a Chapterhouse Lifeboat in Waddan. We would naturally comply with your laws surrounding education and would offer places to girls in situations such as becoming orphans or similar scenarios. Is this something you think you could do?"

In truth Karin understood the request. Waddan's desert home was similar to Kaitaine and if they could begin educating girls other than those who had been fortunate enough to grow up in Seitch, where an unofficial Truthsayer school had been running, experience of life in the desert after all the Bene Gesserit among their many liternies had one that stated very simply "I am a desert creature"


Offline Wadden

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2020, 09:57:30 PM »
The Prince knew that the Bene Gesserit schools had a reputation not many liked, he had heard words such as "Child soldiers" being used to describe some of them, that was a concept that was foreign to him, if you could fire a rifle you could be a soldier and so he suspected most tribes of Waddan had many child soldiers. He also liked the idea of the girls school taking in those with no family or no tribe anymore. There were several reasons a young girl could find herself in difficultly as they could be the child of someone exiled from the tribe, they could be an orphan or just the unfortunate girl in need of being cast aside because of problems in the tribe such as food or water shortages. Often these girls, and there were not many, found themselves left for dead in the desert however he suspected the tribes may see this as a chance to jettison some of their young girls, at least for a while, in order to give the tribe more food and water.

"Hmm" the Prince mused, "The first two ideas I like and I think we should go ahead. I in many ways like the third idea too but I have read of these Chapterhouses and some problems connected to them. I therefore wish to impose three conditions. The first is that the girls there must be taught about the religion their tribe holds sacred that way should they wish to ever return to them they would be able. The second condition is that no girl may be used as one of the Honored Matres I have read of without approval of a member of our royal family. I will not have Waddan girls used without our say so. Finally the school must be able to be visited by our nations administration regularly. If those measures are meet then we have an agreement."

Offline Libby

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2020, 09:30:02 PM »
The two Missionara had expected to have some conditions put on the school setting and to be fair the three conditions still have them a large amount of wiggle room. The idea of teaching everyone about their tribes religions was not a problem for the Missionara, naturally they may have to first learn about it themselves but the Missionara believed all faiths had elements of truth in them. As a result they encouraged each student to learn about as many religions as possible and adding one more to that was not a problem. The second condition wasn't a problem either. The girls could still be streamed into the four branches of the Sisterhood but the Honored Matres wouldn't be paired with potential mates, instead they could wait until the girls had graduated and anyone with genetic potential could be offered a place at a Chapterhouse overseas and thus from there be paired up, in the short term they would just come up with a new name for that group. As for being visited since the faith had gone public there had been regular visits of the Chapterhouses and thus this would not be a problem.

"Those conditions are not going to be a problem." Lidia said happily. "Perhaps we can start looking at venues for these schools?"

Offline Wadden

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #10 on: August 22, 2020, 10:50:07 AM »
"Excellent" The Prince was pleased but not because he had potentially just secured the improvement of schools in Waddan. What he was pleased about was the fact that he would have carried out his fathers wishes meaning that good things would follow. To be in his father's good graces meant that the future was going to be positive for you. "I would assume that you'd like the schools close to each other?" He asked his first question. He hadn't actually expected things to go so smoothly. "I had a quick look at your schools in places like Achkaerin and from what I can understand they are isolated away from cities and the like." He was basing that on just pictures he had seen as his knowledge of cities like Claith and Valtheim were very limited. "If that is the case our capital of Sabhā is actually ideal. Compared to cities across Mundus it is more like a very small town and there is a lot of empty space around the edges where schools could be constructed. Alternatively we have two buildings that you could convert, I hope very easily. The first is the old Sultan's Palace. My grandfather  and father didn't like it and so it has been sat empty for a good 50 years. The second was actually an attempt at building a prison in the 1800's, its was closed in the early 1900's as we simply do not have a population needing prisons." He paused and chuckled a little to himself. "I am not saying Waddanites are perfectly behaved and we have no crime, just that we have tribal courts that are capable of dealing with matters in such a way as to ensure incarciration isn't really on a scale requiring a purpose built prison. It sits on a hillside overlooking the capital but is reasonably out the way. If you like we can go visit them?" The Prince offered.

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Re: A Prince and The Atreides
« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2020, 10:32:41 PM »
"I'd very much like to see them." Lidia responded. They were confident that no matter what the site was like they could convert it into a school but having an idea would help speed to process along. It was also a chance to see more of this unique country. "I'm sure some of my students have felt that some of my lessons have been like being in a prison." Lidia joked at the idea of converting a prison into a school. "How do you deal with major crimes like say murder if you don't mind me asking?"