On Native Ovinex
My visit to the populated demesnes of the pseudo-nation known as the Ovinex Island Tribes was comparatively brief, though not for the usual reasons. While my reputation preceeds me in Rostran circles, the Tribes nominally lie beyond the governing authority or media apparatus under which their Civil Ovinex cousins live and, thus, are less connected to the goings on of the wider Manifold Sky. Moreover, the particular nature of my fame (or, as some would say, infamy) is lost on a non-humanoid species for whom neither physiology nor mutual proclivity will permit such explorations as I am best known for. Nevertheless, I found life among the short, brusque sheep-people agreeable despite the lack of feminine company - for all of the week or so that it lasted... ...Some in my profession have disregarded the ovinex - Native or otherwise - as subjects of legitimate anthropological study on account of their comparatively low status on the ladder of sentience. I, for one, do not share this distaste. While it is true that, save for the Baxbr, there are few of what we would call 'thought-leaders' among the ovinex, I found the the wonder, sense of community, and bluntness of both phrase and action exhibited by these people refreshing. For them, there are no politics except those defined by ancient and well-worn tradition, no strife with unknowable motives or unreachable endpoints, no privation beyond what the environment imposes. Family and flock are central to the life of the Native Ovinex. It is an entirely different and, dare I say, wholesome way of living than one might find on the fronts of the War of Reunification where everything stems from thousands of years of interminable grudges played out with increasingly elaborate killing machines for gains that no living soul can expect to realize... ...Alas, almost as soon as my base of operations was established in the village, the village elder asked us politely, but firmly, to leave. It was not that I had erred in digging into the past of these people - indeed, their mystics are more than eager to share the lost lore of the The Curved Time - but the perhaps overly zealous line of questioning I had initatited in the presence of my Low Rostran translator and research assistants. Not only are the Native Ovinex possessed of one of the longest oral traditions under the Manifold Sky of any sentient civilization, but this long memory entails a sense of regret for previous understandings. Though the Rostrans and ovinex now share a entente borne of understandings developed in the aftermath of the Rostran-Ovinex War, the wounds are still present in the Native Ovinex culture; in hindsight, it was apparent that both parties felt some discomfort at my prodding about at those old wounds. Nevertheless, I feel that we left on amicable terms and, perhaps when my knowledge of Ba'a has improved, I should like to revisit my gracious hosts one day...
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