And I Thought I'd Studied HISTORY. Feh.
Fella over on CotI made reference to Commodore Perry's forceful and surprising visit to Japan, and so I (recognizing a gap in my knowledge) hopped over to Wikipedia to freshen up. I'd remembered the import of the visit, the effects and all. What I hadn't known, or if I had known, what I hadn't recalled, was what the Japanese called foreign vessels arriving at its ports.
Kurofune. The Black Ships.
Embarrassing, what?
All separate from that, this is what I'd been naming the great, slow, and imposing official Festrian trade ships, slowly moving out into the frontier and back again, bringing wealth to the capital and swaying markets in every world they visit.
But I'm certainly keeping it. It's perfect.
The Black Ships are, along with the Navy itself, the spearhead for Festrian growth and influence in the frontier. The arrival of the Black Ships is a challenge:
Trick or Treat!
Trade favorably with us, now. Right now. Or face the consequences. The Navy is right behind us, and how they treat with you is dependent on how you treat with us.
It's all chrome, but it's good chrome.
Kurofune. The Black Ships.
Embarrassing, what?
All separate from that, this is what I'd been naming the great, slow, and imposing official Festrian trade ships, slowly moving out into the frontier and back again, bringing wealth to the capital and swaying markets in every world they visit.
But I'm certainly keeping it. It's perfect.
The Black Ships are, along with the Navy itself, the spearhead for Festrian growth and influence in the frontier. The arrival of the Black Ships is a challenge:
Trick or Treat!
Trade favorably with us, now. Right now. Or face the consequences. The Navy is right behind us, and how they treat with you is dependent on how you treat with us.
It's all chrome, but it's good chrome.
posted by Jwarrrlry at 11:48 AM
2 Comments:
IIRC "Black Ships" was also the term referring to the largest, most treasure-laden trading ships of the Spanish and Portuguese empires in the Age of Sail - lucrative targets for pirates if they could defeat them, but they were big, well-armed, and with the best sailors available, so the pirates had quite a difficult time robbing them.
Good fun all around, then, if I combine the two historical references into one biggie.
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