beckyh2112: (Avatar: Bedrock AU)
Rebecca Hb. ([personal profile] beckyh2112) wrote2010-03-29 07:31 am
Entry tags:

AU Meme

Give me an AU prompt, and I'll write you something of at least a hundred words. All AUs I've done before, except LaS, Assimilation, Flint, and DotM, can be requested. I might deny some prompts if they involve something plot-centric to the last part of "Bedrock".

Give a character name, then AU prompt. More details make me happy, though I can't promise I'll touch on everything in the prompt.

Three slots for everybody, five slots for [livejournal.com profile] dark_puck, [livejournal.com profile] spyridona, [livejournal.com profile] suzukiblu, and [livejournal.com profile] neldluva. Bonus slots are available if you request Zhao, Pakku, or Jeong Jeong.

I promise to answer at least one request.

MEME IS CLOSED.

Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com 2010-04-26 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Me and my brothers against my cousins, me and my cousins against the world.


Aang grins, listening to Uncle Gyatso talk to the men in red. He's watching the pony-goats right now, but the pony-goats are pretty well sacked out in this heat. So it's all right if he saunters close enough to snatch the breeze of their conversation.

"Our caliph claims kinship to the Prophet," the leader of the red men says. "He is a pious, righteous man. Why does your tribe deny his rule?"

"Kin through an uncle who never converted," Gyatso says. "There's descendants of the Prophet's son still out in the world - we fought to put them on the caliph's seat."

Heat rises from the red man's shoulders. He is ifrit-kin, like many of the people who rose to enthrone Caliph Sozin. He is not a wind-son, not like Aang and Gyatso's tribe or any of the other tribes of the desert.

But at least an ifrit-kin is better than being a child of the dust, like those men from far, far away who follow the White Christ and deny the Prophet.

Gyatso slants a look at him. "Aang! Tend the herd, boy."

Aang grins and waves, turning back to the pony-goats. The red men of the caliphate are pressing the tribes for allegiance, but the tribes won't swear to this Sozin. He knows it. He knows, too, that if the red men keep pressing, the tribes will get annoyed.

He swings his slingshot idly. He and his cousins have raided Uncle Gyatso's cousins before, but last night, Uncle Gyatso's cousin Vachir came to talk about a raid on the red men's town.

Uncle Gyatso had said no this time, but Aang didn't think he'd say no again if the red men kept harassing him.

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com 2010-04-26 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
I liked it, Aang as secretly the profit descendent? Earth kingdom as Europe, tribes as air, I’m a bit curious about what the water tribes are.

At the same time, I’m not certain how I feel about the Europe stuff. Avatar didn’t have a big western civ hanging around, it was all eastern. And while the water tribe were inuit, they still felt like part of the world (lot of the names were Japanese/Chinese). So I dunnoh, that doesn’t feel as true to the more general tone of Avatar, but that could be me.

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com 2010-04-26 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Dude, the Byzantine Empire.

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com 2010-04-27 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, right, and the invasion aspect works nicely.

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] suzukiblu.livejournal.com 2010-04-27 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
There are no Japanese or Chinese names in the Water Tribes--Yue's is the only one. The rest are from Inuit or Native American tribes.

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

(Anonymous) 2010-04-27 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
Not true.

# Sokka's name is derived from the Japanese phrase (here presented in Romaji) Sou ka, meaning "I Understand", which is a reference to his abilities as technologist and scientist, the use of understanding.

Hahn was likely derived from Han.

# Hama's name was derived from the Japanese word for beach (浜).
# Hama (蛤蟆, háma) is also the Mandarin Chinese word for "toad".
# Hama is also a Korean word which means "hippopotamus".
The name "Hama" may be derived from the Greek word "Haima", meaning blood. This is probable as Hama's character has much to do with Bloodbending.

There are also a few ambiguous ones.

# Hakoda's name may have been derived from the Japanese city of Hakodate.

# In some Avatar comics, her name is misspelled "Takara" instead of "Katara". Coincidentally, "takara" is a Japanese word meaning "treasure".

# Kanna's name may be derived from the Japanese word Kan, meaning cold.
# "Kana" is also Inuit for "down there", "the one below", "downriver" or "in the direction of the sea", possibly referring to her traveling from the Northern to Southern Water Tribe.





Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com 2010-04-27 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
That was me, forgot to log on

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] suzukiblu.livejournal.com 2010-04-27 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
I am way more inclined to believe in an overlap in language than in "may be derived", honestly. I really don't see any Asian influence in the names--if you look up Native American and Inuit names, they're a lot closer to those.

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

(Anonymous) 2010-04-27 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I disagree. First, we already know that one (yue) is defiantly derived from Asian words, so precedent is there.

http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/eskimonames.htm

Most of characters names don't appear in there. While some of the syllables are similar, I can't find any that in in the "da" sound of Hakoda, and only one that has the "ra" ending of Katara. And I can't find a name that even begin's to resemble Hama.

Some of the names are defiantly Inuit inspired, (Kya, Arnook, Kuruk) but I don't believe nearly all are.

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] beckyh2112.livejournal.com 2010-04-27 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Take this discussion off of my meme.

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] neldluva.livejournal.com 2010-04-27 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
*flails incoherently*

I really, really like this. I mean, wow. It works better than I would have thought, actually ... with the Air Nomads as nomadic herders, and the Fire Caliphate spreading the Word, and the EK as the Byzantines ... awesome. :D (And yeah, Fire guys, don't push the Air Tribes. I bet they're badass raiders.)

Favorite culture bits? Inclusion of the Prophet. Pony-goats. Ifrit-kin. <3 I LOVE this AU.

Re: Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[identity profile] shadowsofapen.livejournal.com 2010-05-14 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
Oh. My. Stars.

-claps like a seal-

The history nerd in me is rejoicing. REJOICING. Byzantine Empire and caliphates and nomads and yay! Thank you for writing this.