Critias what's the relationship of the Tir to the Irish republic (tir nan og?)?
thanks
Ever heard "Me against my brother, my brother and I against my uncle, my family against the world?" That's basically how I categorize it. They grouch at each other a lot. The Irish bitch about the Oregonians liking too much tech, the Oregonians bitch about the Irish being backwards mystical tree-huggers who rely too much on weird magic that doesn't work anywhere else. The royalty of both sides have -- or rather had -- interesting relationships and expectations, that naturally colored the vibe between the two nations. Similarly, the two nations were natural rivals, not only for potential recruits, but for being the most magical and special elven kingdom evar, and that sweet tourist money or whatnot, right?
In reality, for all that the two kvetch at one another, they've got too much in common to really be too different. Elven majority, metahumans okay, humans suck? Check. Interesting blend of magic and technology? Check. Magical shit no one else has (The Veil, Crater Lake)? Check. Both are the token elven country for the two main settings of the game (North America v. Europe)? Check. Unique social strata that bring extra 'fantasy' to the fantasy-cyberpunk game? Check. Both have hotter Matrices with colder ICe than makes any fucking sense? Checkity-check. Both are, at heart, special snowflake countries with in-universe budgets and importance, out-of-universe page counts and art budgets and rumors, way above their actual weight class given their size (fucking seriously, it's OREGON and IRELAND, for pete's sake)? Check.
End of the day, I've always liked them being...wary allies. They know that sooner or later the world's got to figure out they're so much flash and bullshit. They know they can play a longer game than the round-ears if they just keep their shit together and their peasants in line. They know they need to work together, maximize what they can maximize, in the meantime. They have foreign exchange stuff going on so they can look all nicey-nicey, they probably do some military training together, they both play spy games against each other if they're not busy sharing secrets about the other countries they're spying on -- they're in bed together, but only to hate-fuck -- they share some magical secrets and spell formula and junk...but at the end of the day, the elves calling the shots know they can't trust each other, even while they know they'll have each others' backs before some dirty trog or tusker, anyways.
Most importantly, this all adds up to in-game background potential. What a character from one Tir or the other, even in the opposite game? Knock yourself out. Say they've got relaxed immigration laws, use that elven racism to make sure your character got favorable immigration status, ham it up with an accent if you want, mix and match zany magical traditions with a bit of chrome, whatever. Have a good time. Play with Tir fashion (I'm a big kilt advocate, myself), make up Tir bands and tv shows, just have fun with it. If the GM wants them to meaningfully pool resources, they can. If the GM wants them to have Ghost and TRC kill-squads hunting one another behind elf-perfect fake smiles, they can do that, too.
