Warhammer Fantasy Fluff: The Incident: Imrik, Miao-Ying, and Mistranslation

As alluded in the update on Dragon Princes, Prince Imrik caused The Incident with Cathay during a diplomatic visit to the great city at Nan Gau. The elves were discussing potential assistance to the Great Bastion’s defenses, possibly sharing some of their knowledge in enchantment and magical construction in return for better deals on tea and other Cathayan goods, and so the Prince, being a general, went to observe the defenses and their commander, Miao-Ying the Storm Dragon. The Prince was taken by her attention to the defenses and her dignity (most would say arrogance, but given he’s Caledoran, game recognizes game and a Caledoran would certainly say a dragon has the right to consider themselves impressive), and as a result, made an unfortunate mistake that his translator probably should have stopped. What he told her did not translate well from Eltharin, and has become the subject of ridicule throughout Cathay (and non-Caledoran lands in Ulthuan). He wanted to convey to her that he considered her an equal to a High Prince of Caledor, which was intended as the highest of compliments considering Caledor, and said it as ‘You would be worthy to be one of my House’. Again, in Eltharin this would have been a confusing, culturally bound, but well-intentioned statement of the highest esteem.

                Translated into Cathayan, though, it came out as ‘You would be worthy to wed me’. The implications of the idiom he used were not thought through by his translator, nor did he consider that perhaps a Cathayan Dragon would not take his initial statement as intended even if it had been brought across with complete accuracy. While the idea of taking mortal wives and husbands is hardly uncommon among the Celestial Dragons (See all those Dragon Blooded among the nobility of Cathay), it is specifically an honor offered by the Dragon to another. To ask a Dragon to marry you is a massive breach of etiquette. The Prince was shocked when she turned bright red and then told him to get out. Worse, she did it using her own imperfect grasp of Eltharin, rather than a translator, herself. So what she told him was considerably harsher than she intended. She meant to say ‘What you suggest is improper, please leave my presence and think about what you said’. What she instead said was that he was unworthy of her presence and she would have nothing further to do with him until he considered his shame. That did not help matters, as now both parties were insulted.

                Negotiations broke down shortly after and the embassy returned home empty-handed. The Prince’s improper marriage proposal (which he hadn’t even realized he’d been making!) has become the subject of widespread jokes and stories about his lust for dragons, and Miao-Ying has declared (rather than admit she made any mistakes, herself) that she will see no further embassies from ‘that bizarre part of the elf-lands’, leading to Caledorans no longer being considered for positions as Cathayan ambassadors out of an abundance of caution by the Ulthuani diplomatic corps. Something they find a great insult (like they find many things). Luckily, it didn’t get any further out of hand, but the entire incident is a black mark for both powers that strained relations for no reason.

                A common joke among Ulthuani is that in becoming so upset about the matter, the Storm Dragon proved she was in fact every bit the equal of Prince Imrik, and that the world is lucky they did not wed, as their egos likely wouldn’t fit in any palace in all the world when combined.