Tazendra (Honor)

So, since half (or more!) of Lyvus has no clue what I just did with Tazendra and Mirror, allow me to explain!

Short version. Tazendra's brand of humanity has genetically-set castes. Mirror just took her from one of the pretty damn noble ones down to peasant. Moreover, there's fair evidence that caste influences personality -- and Honor remembers enough of Tazendra's life to care either way.

So, you'll notice some slight changes in her facial features -- a slightly more rounded jaw, eye shape and ears. Most obvious is that normally Honor has a widow's peak, and she doesn't any more. There's also the cultural and personality aspects...

( Longer Version is Long )

Something I worry about when I play Tazendra is that she's prone to picking fights. And right now Honor does not feel like she over-matches any given Blank enough to avoid a fight*. So she should be taking insult to things, and I am bad at remembering to have her actually challenge people (and probably get her ass kicked by any blank that actually remembers combat, or has been practicing for weeks/months -- she's got a natural talent and muscle memory, but no memories of fighting, and scant practice).

Currently, though, she doesn't get modern slang (which means it takes her a bit to grasp slangy insults, unless they are delivered in the right tone), and most of the criticisms that have been leveled against her are things she doesn't consider flaws. For example, in the game, Lucky called her 'Donna Quixote', presumably meaning 'that idiot who wants to run into danger instead of away for some stupid noble reason'. And right now, Trixie tells Honor that Hydracula is the 'coolest', which Honor interprets as 'unemotional under pressure', which doesn't describe her at all. (Though may describe other Lyvus -- the only one she's seen in a stressful situation so far is Selendis. And doesn't describe Lucky, in Honor's opinion, though she might grant Trixie Molotov.)

There's a nice quote from Sethra Lavode in the canon that pretty much notes the problems with such things -- they're meant to be insults, but from people who are not worth challenging, and they also are rooted in truth because the insult is not 'You are X' but 'You are X, and that is bad'. So, it's kind of a fine line as to what Honor parses as an insult and what is merely an observation.

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* Yes, Tazendra/Honor is weird. She'd happily pick a fight with King, or the Old Man or the Old Woman, even realizing that this is likely to end with her as a smear on the cave floor/in the Pillar/reduced to her component atoms and ionized. But, she wouldn't bother with someone like... oh, let's say Badger... because beating up on someone who is weaker than her is no challenge. (Now, if he wanted to bring Lepus with him, or his patron**, or the rest of Monoceros, well, that's a party! ^_^)

** Oh, that wouldn't end well for Tazendra. Fighting type blank is weak vs. mongoling.