Ask Barry: What species is Barry? EX: Austailian and Pred Pride Parties

 

WT: To answer your supplementary question, the Austailian Marsupial Party is essentially what it says it is. A political party largely for marsupial mammals and Austailian immigrants and descendants of those immigrants. The party was founded shortly after the Great Marsupial Migration, or Great Austailian Migration in the 1920's, in response to the rapidly rising population of Austailian marsupials in Zootopia during that period, and have persisted since then. Basically the party largely concerns itself with political issues regarding marsupials and Austailian immigration, as well as helping fund civil projects and medical research pertaining to bettering the lives of Marsupial mammals in Zootopia.

As for the predator pride party, it's another 'does what it says on the tin' style party. It's a political party that largely focuses on predator interests and predator rights. Unlike the Austailian Party, it got it's start significant'y earlier in Zootopia's history, during the late 1800s, and it's primary focuse then was essential advocating for civil rights for the lesser predator mammals of the city in general. By lesser I mean the predators that didn't hold distinct high prominence positions like the Lionhearts. Basically your every day predators that saw themselves largely shunned by prey communities. The purpose of the party first and foremost was to act as a moral boost for said disenfranchised preds, telling them it was okay to take pride in your diet, sort of like a form of therapy as statistics would later show that suicides among predator mammals dropped dramatically after the party was formed.

These days, the party is still advocating for predators on a political level, (and mam' did they have their work cut out for them during the night howler scare), but they also fund civic projects and predator mental health programs.

Ask Vernon; Who's Moira?

 

Ask Dawn and Vern: Lionheart Family, Power and Leodore's Living Relatives

 

Dawn: Well, when it comes to the Lionheart Family, they've stayed very wealthy due to having a paw in... basically every industry in Zootopia at one time or another. From mining to alternative energy, to biological research and consumer goods. Needless to say, when there wasn't a Lionheart in political office, there were several working for fortune five hundred companies that work exclusively for Zootopia or North Mammalia.

Vernon: I imagine the fact that there is still a royal Lionheart family in Great Kitten also helps with clout.

Dawn: Well, the Bellwethers also have direct royal lineage in the living members of the Blackwool family. But, I think with Richard the Lionheart helping well...found Zootopia proper, and relatives of the King and subsequent kings essentially running Zootopia until its political system was fleshed out properly, I mean...it certainly holds a greater degree of clout than just...the sheep that helped run the Meadowlands. The Bellwether name may have opened a door from time to time, but the Lionheart mantle blew any door off its hinges. It also didn't help that most of my family members who held a public position didn't...really leave a favorable legacy behind, whereas a Lionheart almost always led a good, if not at minimum an uneventful term in office. Leodore would be...the first to really mess that streak up.

Vernon: Spectacularly I might add.

Dawn: In his defense, there was a Bellwether involved...so the curse continues to hold strong. *Giggles*

Vernon: He does have livin' relatives though right?

Dawn: Yes, aside from his distant relatives in Kingland, he has a mother, father, and sister. Ford Lionheart, Miriam Lionheart, and Catalina Lionheart. Leodore's father is retired now, but he was the CEO of the company that helped design the Climate Control systems for the Rainforest, Sahara and Tundratown Districts respectively. Miriam married in, but also came from a wealthy pride, in that her family still has a paw in the elevator and escalator industry. And Catalina, at least last I heard, was a high-powered government Lawyer in Woolshington D.C. From what I've heard, Ford and Miriam have more or less disowned Leodore for what happened with the Night Howler Scandal, and I'm not sure exactly if Catalina has also given him the cold shoulder as well, but she more than likely has.

Vernon: Yeesh, that sounds purty rough...I mean...I know he messed up big...but disownin' him seems a little much.

Dawn: Well...I think his parents are....well they are the type to be very concerned with their social standing and how the public views the family at large. So much so that they'd value it more than having a relationship with their son.  But I imagine it doesn't help that Leodore hasn't really...learned anything...and he certainly hasn't grown more humble from the experience...

Ask Special; Dawn and Vern Reverse Species Costumes!

 

WT: Yeah, this really doesn't have anything to do with an ask, but I drew this for fun on a stream and thought it would make some good blog content. Dawn seems to be having a great time, but Vern, for fairly obvious reasons, isn't too pleased with the arrangement. If Yuri hadn't been present, he would have been more than fine with it.

I've got more drawn ask content this week, it's just all short stuff though. Expect it soon.

Ask Dawn and Vern: Vera and Leodore

 

Dawn: Oh, Leodore and Vera? Well, I can't exactly say why the two ended up together, as I don't really know. While Vera was kind to me, we didn't talk all that much. Our conversations were limited to rather casual topics such as the weather, or current legislation and proposals, so I always felt it was....far to personal to ask something like that. I can tell you that they did meet through Leodore's and my political rallies, and other political engagements that Leodore attended to hob-nob with Zootopia's elite political and corporate classes. But why they got together in the first place? I really don't know.

Vernon: I'd guess they were fixin' to be a power couple. Probably lookin' to boost each other's careers by hitchin' up their wagons together.

Dawn: I mean, its not entirely out of the question. But, she never gave me the impression it was as hollow as that...and I got to see them behind closed doors a number of times.

Vernon: But I mean, y'all were there with 'em right?

Dawn: Yes, but...as far as Leodore was concerned, I barely existed when we were in private, and the same went for Vera's secretary, or so I was told...at least to Leodore.

Vernon: Y'all mean he gave Barry the cold shoulder?

Dawn: I mean, he didn't treat him like a personal servant like he did me, but he was Vera's secretary, not Leodore's. I'm just saying he didn't really notice him either, which I think was one of the many reasons Vera eventually broke up with him. Still, I think she genuinely liked Leodore once...I mean, he was a charming mammal. The bulk of his campaign revolved around his charisma. So it's not out of the question that Vera was legitimately taken with Leodore. But once she got exposed to the real him...well, she had her limits it seemed.

Vernon: Y'all say limits, but how long did they actually last?

Dawn: About a year, maybe a little less? I think she tried to brush off some of his more negative behaviors and character traits in the beginning, and Leodore did try to keep his PR face on for most of the early relationship. But as he started to let it slip more and more, and it became harder for Vera to simply brush off, she had to end it.

Vernon: Was there a final straw moment there? And we're y'all around to see it?

Dawn: Actually I was. So was Barry for that matter. Vera had set up a lunch date at Leodore's office. She had brought Barry along for...actually I'm not sure why if I'm being honest. In hindsight, I feel like she might have been trying to play matchmaker with me and Barry. Regardless, at the time I still had an actual office, as this was very early on in Leodore's first term, so Barry and I were sharing lunch in there while Vera and Leodore were eating in his office. In the middle of lunch, Barry got an important call from one of Vera's clients, and so he went to enter Leodore's office to get her, only to bump into and trip Leodore right as he was coming out from the other room, apparently to demand I do something for him. Naturally, Leodore didn't take tripping and spilling his scotch well and started dressing down Barry with the same sort of contempt he usually reserved for me.

Veron: Oof...

Dawn: He had only gotten about twenty seconds into his rant, which included some very choice selections from the speciest handbook, caprid edition, such as 'clumsy damn grazer', and a 'muttonhead', when Vera got in between him and the cowering ram. That little incident seemed to be the catalyst for a lot of concerns Vera had been holding onto about Ledore's behavior all spilling out at once. She called him a selfish, arrogant egotist, which is true, and said she's sick of seeing him treat those mammals he sees as less important than he is like dirt.

Vernon: I wonder who she was talkin' about there...*Chuckles*

Dawn: Well, Leodore treated a lot of mammals he saw as beneath him like that, but Vera did glance over at me when she said that...so...

Vernon: Well ya'd have to be blind not to see how he treated y'all....er' be Leodore himself...

Dawn: I remember before she stormed out of his office, with Barry in tow, she warned Leodore that if he didn't change his ways, and started actually walking the walk instead of just talking all that talk he did on the campaign trail, it would come back to bite him in the rump. And I guess...she was right in a way...Although she probably didn't expect that I would be responsible for that bite, or that I was capable of doing...well what I did. But...I mean, a lot of mammals didn't expect that of me either.

Vernon: I'm sure a mammal-like Vera would fergive y'all based on what y'all told me about her. She seems purty...on the level.

Dawn: Well still, Vera, if you're listening to this. I'm sorry if what I did affected you. And that goes double for Barry considering the fallout the Night Howler scandal had for Sheepfolk. While I was never attracted to him, he was a sweet, respectable ram.

Vernon: I'm sure they'd both be willin' to accept that apology...hopefully that should be enough..mostly cause I don't wanna meet Barry anytime soon.

Dawn: Wait? why Puppy?

Vernon: Cause..I er...*mumbling* Don't like that Vera was tryin' to fix y'all up...

Dawn: What?

Vernon: I don't need that ram makin' any moves on my ewe.

Dawn: *Giggling* Oh Puppy, stop...We're tithed remember? And as I said earlier, Barry was not my type. And on top of all that, I'm pretty sure him and Vera are an item now.

Vernon: *Grumbles*....Still though...

Dawn: *Giggling* Oh Puppy...*Pats Vernon's head.*

Ask Wasty; Animalian Genocides

 

WT: While it is kind of a darker...topic, so much so that while this question may or may not be directed to characters, it seems like a real downer to have anyone but me do a lore dump answer instead.

Obviously, a world like Animalia has had its fair share of attempted and successful genocides. I mean, if our own world is anything to go by, where there is only one dominant species with very little variation, has suffered its fair share, then a world filled with multiple, highly diverse sentient species is just going to be rife with that sort of carnage throughout its history. That said, I'll try to minimize my scope with some...I guess more significant or recent examples or else I'd be prattling on about an entire global history which neither of us has time for.

One of the more significant empires, or perhaps the most, to have its paws in multiple attempted and successful genocides was the original "Pridelands Empire", which had territories stretching from South Afrikat to Roarope at its peak. Having been as big as it was, as aggressively expansionist as it was, and having been an established empire for near one thousand years before its collapse, it's sort of a given. Also, while being to the origin point of 'Simbology' as an organized religion, the whole 'Circle of Life' philosophy was more so utilized to build a caste system which only would further such strifes between species until the empire eventually broke up, the caste system being one of the leading factors to its demise.

As the Pridelands expanded out, taking territory, most nations they encroached on were given basically two options. Serve under us, or die. Naturally, with many ancient nations, their populations were primarily comprised of a single species or multiple species in the same family. There are countless micronations that were lost during the expansionist period of the Pridelands, with some known about, and others totally lost to time. Some close calls include the Pagolins, the Roan, Bushpigs, and the Civet, whose nations were crushed under the paws of the Pridelands, but thankfully their species had already expanded to pocket tribes well outside of Afrikat before the Pridelands advanced, and have generally recovered. But there are a few species that are believed to have been fully stamped out by the Old Pridelands such as the Cape Clawless Otter, The Oribi, The Afrikat Giant Rat, and the Banana Bat. 

Hyena's also had an extremely rough time despite agreeing to be subjugated and absorbed by the Pridelands Empire. Due to the role of hyenas as Scars minions in Simbology, they found themselves on the lowest part of the cast system. Hyenas weren't allowed to leave their designated region of the Pridelands Empire without special permission from the royal class (I.E. Lions). That land would become 'East and West Hyenya' today, but it was formally known as the gates to the underworld, or Scar's Kingdom. They were seen as something beyond second-class citizens, and completely disposable. The one thing they were largely spared of was indentured servitude, as no Simba fearing lion would dare have a Spotted Hyena for a servant. That duty fell primarily to various species of antelope and lesser predators. They were also the first to be manually enlisted in the King's armies, and always on the front line to act as fodder. Sadly, this was still marginally better than Hyenian society before the intervention of the Pridelands, as the matriarchal system put in place before the Pridelands and currently in West Hyena is essentially a dictatorship in which male hyena sacrifice is still a prevalent fixture in their society.

It's also worth mentioning that Lions also ostracized, and essentially tried to eliminate black mane lions by way of excluding them from breeding, as they were seen as direct descendants of Scar the betrayer. However, I think that falls more in line with eugenics rather than genocide.

For something more modern related to genocides in Animalia, I will again visit the Great Roaropean Rodent Exile, and the exterminators used in Germamy and other nations. The list of rodent species that disappeared entirely during this time, are the Pawvarian Pine Vole, the Alpine Marmot, and the Hazel Doormouse. Although one can easily lay the blame on the exterminators for having something to do with the outright extinction of said species, it is possible that they still exist in Roarope as many species of rodents went completely underground during the exile, creating societies completely detached from the surface mammals to protect themselves. It is very possible that underground societies of these species still exist to this day that simply hasn't returned to the surface, and have yet to be rediscovered. 

Hope that's a satisfying answer, and thanks for the ask!