"Children of the Stone" FAQ Guide

From: DJ CLAWSON <XXRJ13C_at_prodigy.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 1996 22:41:21 EST

A Guide to FAQ to the "Children of the Stone" series
  (or DJ's attempt to keep you guys from getting
   COMPLETELY confused):

1. What is Lopine? What's a Lopinenean?

   Lopine is a culture that spreads over thousands of
species and generations, and just about every story
I write (SWAT Kats or seaQuest).

A Lopinenean is one who believes in Lopine.

QUESTIONS ON 996 C.E.

1. What happened to Ramis's wife? Why wasn't she
mentioned? Did she exist?

   Yup. Of course she did. She wasn't, however, a critical
character. There wasn't a need to have her in any scenes,
as long as she's mentioned to possibly be pregnant when
Ramis is put under the spell.

2. What's going on with Dathena?

Dathena's Demona without PMS. Kind of.

3. What happened to her over the 1000 yrs?

   No, she didn't have a bunch of experiences like Demona.
Dathena didn't trust Thoran when he didn't allow her to
go and fight Selena and Frakes, so she secretly followed
in the woods behind them. She didn't make it in time, and
was not put under the spell, but was also not smashed
because she didn't make it back to the castle by morning.
Afterwards she was so upset she found a sorcerer to put her
under the same spell. 999 yrs later, Selena found her on
a dig and awoke her, possessing her.

4. How does Kehor know Thoran?

   Is it important?

5. What's with the Isatari and Sauraman the Pastmaster?

   The Isatari is a band of immortal wizards and sorcerers
from all over the universe. Sauraman is one of them, and
when he came to the kat planet he took kat form (legend is,
he was not originally kat) and became the head of the council,
a formation of weak, mortal sorcerers in the kat world, who
in his opinion could barely handle magic. Shortly before
Thoran became leader (date unsure) the council was disbanded
over a fight between Selena and Sauraman, and the councilmen
were hunted by armies from San-Adlus and Megallith. Only
Frakes, Selena, and of course Sauraman survived.

   In "The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice" the Pastmaster is
looking for his book and he says, "Curse the Council!" He
says this (according to me) because it was Frakes the
Councilman who took away his true Isatari powers until the
spell on the gargoyles would be released.

6. What's the connection with the "Bride of the Pastmaster"
episode?

   After the gargoyles and the two mages were turned to stone,
Megallith Castle was conquered by the king of San-Aldus. His
son went and started a heritage there. Meanwhile, Kehor was
so impressed by Ramis's sword of Ecuador (which was not frozen
with the statue because of it's magic but was caught with his
hands frozen around it) that he built a duplicate, which had
the same protective spells as the original but not quite the
same magic. Before he died, Kehor struck it into the stone so
only a son of Ecuador could remove it.

   In about 1192 BCE, after two hundred yrs of Dark Ages,
Sauraman is buried. His future self in Megakat City 1994 (or
maybe 1993) goes back and does that episode, along with the
SWAT Kats. The Queen of Megallith Castle is the descendant of
the King who conquered it almost 200 yrs. before. Razor, the
descandant of Ramis and a Son of Ecuador, pulls the sword
because of his heritage and defeats the dragon. The sword is
lost, and found later by Dr. Abi Sinian in 1990.

Confused yet?

7. How can Jake be a descandent of Ramis?

   When Ramis was put under the spell, his wife had just become
pregnant. The child, without a father, became a spokey poet
and philosopher. He sailed to Europe after the death of his
mother and married a young Jewish girl in his travels in Poland.
According to Jewish law, the child is the religion of the mom,
so the child is Jewish. That's how the Clawson line is founded.

8. So Jake's Jewish? Why?

   Because it works out nicely later on.


QUESTIONS ON 1996 AND BEYOND:

1. I still don't understand anything. How is Felina a gargoyle?
Are Felina and Chance related?

   No. The Feral and Furlong line are not really connected.
The eggs from the rookery, as Thoran explained, had three
survivers. Each founded their own line. One line was definitely
Furlong. Another might have been Feral, or it could have come
from Felina's mom. Another line was lost.

2. Is making Hackle Jake's father being inconsistent with
the show?

   Yeah. So? They look too much alike. And Hackle's too Jewish.

3. If they're Jewish, why don't they wear yamalkas? (kipas,
skullcaps)

   Like I said, it was never on the show. Besides, how often do
you see Jake's head uncovered on the show? Think about it.

4. Is Dr. Abi Sinian a Jew?

   She is in my stories. Abigail is a very Jewish name. Then again,
so is Jacob.

5. Why does Hackle call Jake "Yaakov?"

   This was supposed to be in the original version of
"Children of the Stone" but it wasn't. In the scene where
Selena steals Hackle's strength, he says, " . . . Jake . . ."
That's supposed to be " . . . Yaakov . . ." In the sequel
he makes that clear. Yaacov is Jake's Hebrew name.

6. What's with the Abi/Jake thing? Will we see more?

   Sure. That's all I'm telling.

7. Is there a sequel? What's it called?

   There is a sequel in the works. It's called "vurturil" and
for the moment I can't explain why. Read Watership Down REALLY
carefully.

8. HEY! Lopine sounds like Lapine on Watership Down!

   Should. Lopine is a culture that sprouted form Lapine. All
the rabbit stories in Watership Down are folklore for Lopineneans.

9. So Frith (or Frith-rah) is the sun, right?

   Uh-huh.

10. Are there any other surviving gargoyles? Other than the ones
named?

   Yes. There were 9 (the lucky gargoyle number) chosen by Thoran
for the outing to find the Koldran on that fateful evening in 996.
Dathena (explained earlier) also survived to the future. That
makes 10 (yes, I can count!). Here's a list:
          Thoran Sevian ("servian" in the original version)
          Charon Sevian's unnamed lover
          Dathena a beast-like one
          Jumicus an unnamed female
          Chip an unnamed female

    Why are there 4 unnamed? Because I didn't feel like naming
them! You'll probably meet most of them by the end of the sequel,
but until then they kind of fade into the woodwork.

11. Are you an almighty being in disguise?

   Glad you noticed.


A TIMELINE IF YOU'RE STILL CONFUSED:

unknown date - Sauraman comes to kat dimension

CE
932 - Break up of the Council
955 - Thoran becomes leader when Old Thrain dies.
956 - Thoran becomes a virthuril (explained in sequel)

996 - Koldran used by Frakes and Selena to put gargoyles, Ramis
and Maric to sleep. Megallith Castle conquered by San-Aldus.
997 - Jenisis, son of Ramis, is born.


996-1192 - Dark Ages, Sauraman The Pastmaster plagues Megallith
with his weak magic after losing powers to Frakes.
1002 - Kehor builds memorial cave for gargoyles. He builds a
copy of the sword of Ecuador and thrusts it into a rock.
1014 - Jenisis travels to Europe and converts to Judiasm,
founds Clawson line.
1025 - A gargoyle who escaped from the rookery and was only
an egg when Frakes spell was cast finds a sorcerer to turn him
into a kat. Founds Furlong line.

1192 - The Pastmaster defeated and buried. Dark Ages end.
1193 - The Pastmaster returns from the future and is defeated
by the SWAT Kats ("Bride of the Pastmaster"). The sword Razor
pulled from the rock is lost.

 - 800 years go by -

1990 - On a dig, Dr. Abi Sinian discovers the copy of the sword
of Ecuador Razor lost back in 1193.
1993 - Pastmaster is awakened.
1995 - Selena finds Dathena and wakes her up.
1996 - Dr. Sinian finds the gargoyles' cave.

Other dates to be included after "Virthuril is finished and
submitted.
Hope this helps! If you have anymore questions, e-mail me at
XXRJ13C_at_prodigy.com I'll add it to the list.

                           Dr. Jake




Received on Sat Mar 30 1996 - 22:56:35 PST