Part 1 – the plot will shape the characters technique

As the Scandinavian peoples have trolls, the Irish have Leprechans, the French have their own version of little people. They are the Lashmors. Their society is rooted in a mountain village on the French speaking side of the Alps. They believe deeply that a society is no better than its cooking. They travelled to the Alps, along with a mass migration of little people from the Fertile Crescent around the time of the Great Migration in the human world. By 400 AD they stopped in the green foot hills of the Alps and decided this was the perfect place to set up bakeries, and other establishments soon to be know around the world for their dedication to sauces and creams.

Before long the foothills filled in with people, and the Lashmors moved into the higher elevations of the mountain valley closest to them. They send scouting parties into the low land regions to gather herbs, steal poultry, and catch up on the latest news.

After one scouting party, the news was bleak. The Dwarves (which you can read about in any Grimms Brother fairy tale book), were beginning to expand their empire. Lashmors are not warlike in general, but are very proud. If it comes to trading insults with a dwarf, and the Lashmor’s cooking is not appreciated, which it seldom is by dwarves, then a fight will likely ensue.

The guild of bakers is all for baking a year supply of bread and setting off in search of a new land. But, the cream specialists and chocolate makers feel it is best to hunker down and defend the rich pastureland it is so convenient to plunder. The other guild members are more concerned with how this coming war will affect food fashion. Will army rations become all the rage? And if so, what really can one do with a tin of spam?

The German dwarves will initially get a foot hold in the mountain valley, through promises of better ingredient suppliers and cheaper goods. They promise large factoies for producing the Lashmor specialties. But soon, after their vulgar table manners are noticed, along with their shoddy German produce, the Lashmors will seek out alliances with their Northern neighbours (leprechauns and trolls included). They will band together to drive back the intrusive dwarves. This will engender good will between the NATO alliance (Northerners Against Tasteless Onions) and many potlucks and picnics are seen in the future as they live happily ever after, with sentries constantly posted, watching the dwarves mining along the boundary line.










Part 2 – The characters will shape the plot technique


1. Jess was always piping up in Anthropolgy class. Whether the topic was Western conspicuous consumerism or which cultures use yams as a form of monetary exchange, he was right in the thick of the discussion. His passion was digging to the root of various cultures rituals.

2. Jan (Short for Jadwiga Janikowski) is the daughter of a Polish immagrant family. Also interested in cultures she becamse friends with Jess when he recognized she was Jewish and had a wealth of knowledge when it came to Eastern European religious history.

3. River, son of a hippie couple, gives of an air of “whateverness” to most people. But after flunking the first test in Intro to Anthropolgy, he made it a point to introduce himself to Jess, who seemed to be the emerging brains of the class.



These three spend the semester discussing various forms of society, and what could be done to improve the general state of the mess they all agree the world is in. A Peace Corps volunteer gives a moving presentation towards the end of the semester.

River is finished with his degree in “General” studies. He never got around to deciding a real major. Now he decides to sign up with the Peace Corps and do some good. It will also get his parents off his back about what his plans are.

Jan also decided to sign up, feeling that she owes it to others, since she was saved from a life of Eastern European poverty. She feels that in each slide the volunteer shows, that could’ve been her family in a refugee camp. That could’ve been her grandmother sitting toothless and starving at a roadside.

Everyone expects Jess to sign up for the Peace Corp as well. When he doesn’t fill out a white enrolment form, a fight breaks out in the hallway outside the classroom after. His two friends accuse him of being false, and shallow. He tells them he intends to go to law school and get rich. All society is based on money, so history and study proves that he should get as much of it as quickly as possible or face the Darwinian selection that many cultures in the Amazon were facing. Money is power. Then later he would find a way to wield his power for the good of others - when he had enough.

And what is enough? This discussion outside the classroom is left up in the air, but the plot would follow it’s threads while tracing the paths chosen.