Currently Playing At Folsom Prison By Johnny Cash see related

It has been said that the roots of the Successor States stretch back far into time.  House Liao for instance often claims that their ancestors were behind the most important events of ancient China.  It would be of no suprise that the ancestors of the Great Houses once lived in caves.  As it was the stone age, the illustrious ancestors of the Successor Lords were not concerned with ruling vast empires, but the simple tasks of securing food.  Searching their enviroment for inspiration, each found a unique method for feeding his clan.

The ancestor of House Stiener was out hunting in the hills and spotted his prey below up.  Seizing a rock, he hurled it at the beast, but failed to harm it.  He tried a bigger rock and only managed to make it angry.  Now with his life in danger, Steiner hurls the biggest rock he can find at the beast and kills it.  "Big Rock Good," Steiner thought.  From then on, he vowed that he would always use only the biggest rock no matter what.

The caveman forefather of House Marik observed a group of children squabilling over a fallen carcass.  They continued to fight over the meal, until an older child took charge and brought order to the squabling youths, who then cooked and properly divided the meat; the larger share going to the child who took charge..  This, thought Marik, was the proper way to run things.  He would preside over the unruly children and he would be rewarded with the lion's share.  Unfortunately for Marik, the squabling youths occasionally set aside their differences for the sole purpose of bringing down those who attempt to boss them around.

The ancestor of House Liao always fared poorly on the field and was often on the verge of starvation.  Unable to compete with the other cavemen, Liao was forced to use trickery and deciet to secure his share of the game.  At night when the others slept, Liao would steal the remains of their meals.  Those that went on hunting alone with him often suffered strange accidents or never came back at all.  The others, however, became suspicious of Liao and would beat the snot out of him (which was great fun), but the discord that Liao spread amongst the others would prevent them from finishing him off.  The other cavemen knew for sure that they could not trust him, but they knew he was weak.  If the feeble Liao could bring them harm, then what could their stronger neighbors do if Liao was not their to serve as a focus for their anger and strength.

Kurita was a great hunter, willing to hunt down the fiercest beast and slay them in honorable combat.  One day the Kurita hunted a fearsome beast known as the lemming.  Kurita was unable to capture the animal, but it was unable to escape the hunter.  Eventually the lemming came across a cliff and being a lemming, ran right off of it.  Kurita, however, interpretted this as means of preserving honor, where the lemming threw itself off of the cliff for its failure to avoid the hunter.  Kurita did not realize that lemmings were stupid and jumped off cliffs simply because they don't know any better.  Realizing that he too had failed in his hunt, Kurita proceeded to slit his belly with his hunting dagger rather than face the other caveman in a shamed state.

The ancestor of Davion, being far wiser than his peers, constructed a variety of tools and weapons.  These simplified the tasks of hunting and beating the snot out of Liao, so that he was able to persue other ventures such as inventing civilization.

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Life is good. Had a good visit with my mother.  Bought my wife a car.  Got about 4 inches of new snow tonight.