Diplomacy, Relationships & Tactics: the Art of War [Tuesday, Period 3]

[atreideslioness]

Another semester, another batch of bright and shining students. Ghanima sat on her desk, hiding her smile behind her tea as they filed in; mentally cataloging the new and familiar faces. As students arrived, they would find that her classroom was set-up a bit differently than most...desks (minus hers) were gone in favor of Ghanima's preferred set-up of rugs, cushions, some divans, and large pillows, the classroom having been redone in Fremen-style for the rest of the semester.

The moment the bell rang, her eyes snapped from the door to the children seated around the room. "Good afternoon and welcome," she said in a clear voice that carried effortlessly. "This is the Art of War, and I am Lady Ghanima Atreides. You may address me as Miss Atreides, Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or some variation thereof. If you are in the wrong class, please feel free to leave at this time. For those of you whom I have had in class before," she smiled suddenly, looking far less severe. "Welcome back."

"The Art of War." Scooping up her two piles of handouts off her desk, Ghanima began wandering up and down the piles of pillows as she talked, handing them out. "A Chinese military treatise that was written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time. It is divided into 13 chapters, or P'ien, and the collection is referred to as being one Ch'üan, or chronicle."

"The book is not only popular among military theorists, but also among political leaders and those in business management. The book addresses strategy in a broad fashion, despite the title, touching upon public administration and planning. The text outlines theories of battle but also advocates diplomacy and cultivating relationships with other nations as essential to the health of the state."

"Sun Tzu himself is a bit of a mystery, and historians debate whether or not he was a real historical figure. Which, really, is par for the course with anyone truly interesting." Ghanima smiled at the class brilliantly. "If you're larger than life, they'll never believe you were real."

"For our first lesson," Ghanima moved to the front of the room, picking up her chalk to write quickly;

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

"Know thy enemy, know thyself. We'll cover it more in-depth later, but for today I would like you to go around the room and introduce yourselves. Give us your name, class, and some random fact about yourself. Pay attention to what your classmates have to say, you never know when such information could come in handy."

Comments

Sign-In #1

[atreideslioness]

Tactically

Re: Sign-In #1

[grayskollar]

Adora

Re: Sign-In #1

[legionqueen]

Juillenne Milone (and Camden)

During the Lecture

[atreideslioness]

Take notes, pass notes, chatter, today's one day Ghanima might be inclined to be lax about discipline.

Re: During the Lecture

[nicedragonsfinishlast]

Julius spotted Jules and Camden and headed over to them, sitting on a close-by cushion. It took a bit of schooling to keep his face straight when Lady Ghanima started talking about the debate around Sun Tzu's existence - ask any dragon and they could tell you that he'd been real and also a menace.

Well, they wouldn't mention the latter part, because he'd nearly wiped out an entire dragon clan and that wasn't a conversation for humans but...

When Lady Ghanima finished speaking, Julius raised his hand with a question.

Re: During the Lecture

[atreideslioness]

A question already? Interesting.

"Yes," Ghanima said, giving him a nod. "Go ahead."

Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[atreideslioness]

Name, rank, and fact, if you please! Feel free to tag to each other's threads, and let chaos reign. YAY NEW STUDENTS!!!

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[grayskollar]

Adora was sitting cross-legged on the floor, back ram-rod straight, and trying to figure out which of her various conflicting intincts to follow. "Adora, and my rank is, uh..." She wasn't going to give her old Horde one, and she'd never actually been given a rank in the Rebellion. "...She-Ra?"

Close enough!

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[atreideslioness]

"Do not forget a fact, Adora of She-Ra," Ghanima reminded her, smiling.

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[legionqueen]

"Juillenne Milone, and my rank is- well. Back home, they call me the Legion Queen," which was no longer accompanied by an eyeroll on Jules' part, so progress there! "This here," she indicated Camden. "Is Camden. My familiar. And a fact about me? My favorite food is deep fried scallops."

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[atreideslioness]

"Juillenne. Camden," Ghanima greeted. "Deep fried scallops are delightful. A rarity, on my homeworld, but my father's planet makes delightful ones."

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[nicedragonsfinishlast]

"I'm Julius, uh, Quetz." Why he was still trying to use that when his brothers had shown up was a mystery, especially since he was still really bad at passing it off as real. "Junior? I don't really have any other rank or title."

He was no Fang of Bethesda, that was damn sure.

Oh god. What was a random fact he could share about himself that no one could use to figure out anything important? "My mother named us in alphabetical order - A, B, C, all the way down to J. I'm uh, the youngest."

The other clans didn't call her 'Bethesda the Broodmare' for nothing.

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[atreideslioness]

"Goodness. Does your world's alphabet have the same letters as English?" Ghanima asked, curious. "If I did that in Fremen or Chakobsa, it could get quite interesting with the names."

She'd get to the equivilent of 'J' too, afterall.

"My father named me Ghanima, a spoil of war, as one of his last acts. I wonder sometimes if his precognition forsaw me teaching this class."

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[legionqueen]

Oooh, but you were getting so much side-eye right now, Julius. Because Juillenne was aware of the names of several of your siblings, three of which were also J-names. And okay, quadruplets in humans wasn’t entirely unheard of (there was literally a whole Procedure in her world for what happened when a Queen gave birth to quadruplets instead of the usual triplets), but being one of a set of quadruplets and having nine other siblings?

Didn’t add up. Or did add up, but to far too many children.

(Juillenne had never heard of the quiverfull movement, or that’s where her mind might have gone.)

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[unusual_sith]

"Lana Beniko," Lana said, smiling at Lady Ghanima. "I'm Sith." She thought for a moment to come up with a random fact. "I grew up on a jungle world where it nearly always rains, and a desert world where it never does, so Fandom is a pleasant medium."

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[atreideslioness]

"My parents had opposing worlds, ocean and desert. Understanding duality will assist you in understanding the texts we'll be reading," Ghanima said. "Welcome back, Miss Beniko."

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[scoffs_at_tradition]

"I am Shuri of Wakanda," Shuri said, inclining her head, "sister of the king, but my more important title is the leader of the Wakandan Design Group." She smiled brightly. "We create technology, which is my very favorite thing."

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[atreideslioness]

"What type of technologies do you create?" Ghanima asked conversationally, privately hoping it was not Thinking Machines. "Do you have a specialty?"

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[white_oleander]

"Astrid Magnussen." When her turn came around, she just gave a soft, sheepish smile, despite how comfortable she was in the fact that she was clearly pretty 'out-ranked' by most of her other classmates. It sort of suited her well, that they would probably be the more interesting ones in the class and she could just...be there. "I'm a junior. And I don't really like milk."

Mundane enough to be unremarkable, but with just enough quirk to not be entirely boring.

And also very true. Though probably not for reasons anyone would guess.

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[atreideslioness]

"I shall be sure not to bring any milk-based beverages, then, or at least label them accordingly," Ghanima said, giving Astird a smile.

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[canlendanear]

“I’m Alara Kitan,” Alara said when it was her turn, “I’m a freshman and I come from a high gravity planet called Xeyala,”

Re: Know Thy Enemy/Ally (Introductions)

[thebeastofhouston]

"Arabella Baylor," Arabella said. "I'm a junior, and my rank is Prime." If anybody had been paying attention in any of the other classes Arabella had talked about magic in her world in, she'd just dropped a pretty major fact about herself already. "And a fact about me is...my family lives in the warehouse we also run our business out of." There. Interesting, but innocuous.

Talk to Ghanima

[atreideslioness]

Before or after class.

Re: Talk to Ghanima

[unusual_sith]

"Lady Ghanima." Lana bowed politely, smiling. "It's good to see you again."

OOC

[atreideslioness]

To keep the OCD from falling out.